The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 94, July 1990 - April, 1991 Page: 539
692 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Surveying the Rzo Grande, 1850- 853
W. Whipple of the U.S. Corps of Topographical Engineers had estab-
lished a permanent astronomical observatory at Frontera about eight
miles above El Paso del Norte in February 1851, and Bartlett had di-
rected First Assistant Surveyor J. Hamilton Prioleau to survey the river
from thence to the initial point of the southern boundary of New Mexico
on the Rio Grande. Prioleau declared that the task was impossible with
the instruments at hand since United States Surveyor Gray, stranded in
California for want of funds, had not yet arrived with the principal sur-
veying instruments of the commission. Bartlett then directed Assistant
Surveyor Thomas Thompson to undertake the task, but Colonel
Graham of the Topographical Corps found Prioleau and Thompson's
survey useless and ordered the distance to be surveyed again.' In the
meantime the secretary of the interior had removed Graham, naming
Maj. William H. Emory of the Topographical Engineers chief astro-
nomer in his stead. Emory, whom the secretary had also appointed
United States surveyor in Gray's place, arrived at El Paso del Norte on
November 25, 1851. Emory found Graham's survey of the Rio Grande
from Frontera to the initial point of the southern boundary of New
Mexico inaccurate and ordered yet another resurvey. Assistant Sur-
veyor Charles Radziminski now at last made an accurate survey of that
portion of the Rio Grande.8
In a meeting with Salazar Ylarrequi, Emory agreed to divide the
work on the Rio Grande into six sections: from the initial point of the
southern boundary of New Mexico on the river to San Ignacio; from
thence to Presidio del Norte; from the Presidio to the military colony of
Agua Verde; from that post to Laredo; from Laredo to Matamoros;
and from that town to the mouth of the Rio Grande. In order to save
time and avoid difficulties, the first and last portions of the river were
to be surveyed in detail by both parties, the second and fourth sections
by the United States boundary commission, and the third and fifth by
the Mexican commission. The two engineers further agreed to estab-
lish astronomical stations at Agua Verde or the mouth of the Rio Pecos,
Eagle Pass, Laredo, Matamoros, and the mouth of the river. Other
points were to be determined astronomically as the work demanded.9
7Bartlett, Personal Narrative, I, 176-177, II, 545-546; Whipple to Prioleau, Feb. 14, 1851,
Correspondence, III, Bartlett Papers; Moritz von Hippel to Graham, Aug. 2o, 1851, Graham
Papers, Lieutenant Colonel J. D. Graham's Report .... ,June 18, 1852, Report of the Secretary of
War, 19-20.
8Alexander H. H. Stuart to W. H. Emory, Sept. 13, 1851, Report of the Secretary of the Interior,
S. Exec. Doc. 119, 32nd Cong., 1st Sess., 1852 (Serial 626), 115; Stuart to A. B. Gray, Nov. 4,
1851, ibid., i21; Emory to Bartlett, Feb 14, 1853, Report of the Secretary of the Interior ..
S. Exec. Doc. 6, 33rd Cong., Special Sess., 1853 (Serial 688), 3; Radziminskl to Emory, June 6,
1852, Folder 5, William H. Emory Papers (Beineke Library, Yale University).
9File 396/RG 76, I, 115-116.539
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 94, July 1990 - April, 1991, periodical, 1991; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101214/m1/617/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.