HOWARD STANSBURY - AUTOGRAPH ENDORSEMENT SIGNED 12/31/1840 - HFSID 202656

HOWARD STANSBURY
Howard Stansbury signs an endorsement stating that $200.00 was given to him.
Autograph Endorsement signed: "Howard Stansbury/Capt. T. E.", 1p, 14½x9¼ manuscript document, a ledger sheet of the Office of General Superintendent of Public Works on Lake Erie, in Account Current with H. Stansbury Capt. Top. Engineers, 1840 Dec. 31. Listing of disbursement of $200 to Capt. W. G. Williams, Gen. Supt., "in compliance with my requisition of Sept 28, 1840." Docketing on verso. Endorsement in full: "I certify that the above amount of two hundred dollars was remitted from the office Genl. Supdt. For defraying the expenses incidental to the Superintendency of the Western Division of Lake Erie." Stansbury (1806-1863) entered the U.S. government service as a civil engineer in 1828. Ten years later, he joined the newly formed Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, carrying out projects in the Great Lakes Region, in New Hampshire, and in Mexico during the war with that nation. In 1849 he led an expedition to survey and map the Great Salt Lake valley and to determine the capacity of the Mormon community there to provide food and supplies to overland travelers. During a conference with Brigham Young, he allayed unease about his work. He and his second in command, Lt. J. W. Gunnison, provided widely read reports on the flora and fauna of Utah, and on the early L.D.S. settlers in the region. In the 1850s, he conducted surveys of Minnesota military roads and the Great Lakes. The lasting effects of his surveys were considerable. Years after his death, the Union Pacific Railroad followed the course he laid out. Light stains in the center portion not affecting legibility.