Technology in Surveys and Milestones

Over the years, many accounts of the “Benjamin Franklin Milestones” suggest that Franklin used a measuring device (perhaps his own invention!) attached to his carriage’s wheel as the method for accurately placing the milestones. (see resource list  below). My own measurements (with my car’s odometer) affirmed that praise of colonial precision. All found milestones (with the exception of IX) were each one mile apart.

However, I have not seen any evidence that Franklin himself did the measuring, marking, chiseling, or laying of the milestones. Given his responsibility for the entire colonial and early federal postal system, it would seem to be beyond the abilities of even a great man such as Franklin to personally conduct the installation of milestones along the post roads; the route from Woodbury to the county courthouse in Litchfield was not among the official post roads of early America, so Franklin’s participation in milestoning these roads is even more remote.

An appropriate vehicle to haul the milestones, stonecutting and stone-setting tools, and the worker(s) to lay the stones likely was more a working wagon than a gentleman’s carriage, perhaps akin to this 1906 photo of a U.S. Geological Survey horse-drawn wagon:

Horse-drawn wagon northwest of Sacramento, California, ca. 1906. Note the U.S.G.S. initials on the seat.

This reality check shouldn’t take away from our admiration and fascination with the technology used in surveying and laying out roads and boundaries  more than 200 years before GPS, GoogleEarth, and laser distance measurements. You’ve probably seen sports officials measuring distances using a wheel rolled along a path; Roman legions allegedly used a similar method to size up their conquered lands. (Gillingham; Wright and Insley). When artisans perfected the gearing mechanisms used in clocks and worked in brass, these tools, known as odometers, became quite precise. Incorporated in a wheelbarrow or single-handled tool, this was known as a “waywiser” (or in German, “wegweiser”) (OED Online). Below are traditional measuring units for land surveys which can be seen in the unit counters of some waywisers:  

• 1 Pole (a/k/a Rod) = 25 links = 16.5 ft.
• 1 Chain = 100 links = 4 Poles = 66 ft
• 1 Furlong = 40 Rods = 10 Chains = 1/8 of a mile = 660 ft.
• 1 Mile = 8 Furlongs = 320 Rods = 80 chains

 

 At the map point linked to this post, you can view images of several early American waywisers in the collection of the Smithsonian National American History Museum. The accompanying curator’s text is online at http://amhistory.si.edu/surveying/type.cfm?typeid=22

Waywiser (ca. 1880), Smithsonian NMAH Cat. No. PH*319204

Curiously, one of the waywisers (identified as an odometer) at the is marked "S. BEERS' PATENT. Naugutuc, Ct" [sic.] and is patented by Smith Beers, who is listed in the patent as “of Waterbury, CT”. Another in the collection was made by James Morris Beers of New Haven, thought to be related to Smith Beers. The name Beers is also associated with comprehensive maps of the towns of Connecticut and many other states published in the 1800’s, raising the question of the relationship between the waywiser manufacturers and the mapmakers.

Woodbury Milestones

                                                     Sources and Further Research                                                          

Colonial Surveying and Transportation Technology

Bedini, Sylvio A. With Compass and Chain: Early American Surveyors and Their Instruments. Frederick, MD: Professional Surveyors Pub. Co., 2001.

Beers, Smith. Odometer or Machine for Recording the Distance Traveled by Wheel-Carriages. US Patent 1325, issued September 14, 1839. https://www.google.com/patents/US1325?dq=patent:1325&hl=en&sa=X&ei=fDGnUqiDEILTrQGDx4Ag&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAA

“From Indian Trail to Toll Gate Road: Lewis Stanton Tells of Connecticut Highways.” The Hartford Courant, October 8, 1913, p. 7.

Gillingham, Harrold E. “A Surveyor's Measuring Wheel or Way-wiser: An Instrument for Measuring Short Distances on the Road or Other Land Surfaces; The Ancestor of the Cyclometer and Taximeter.” Journal of the Franklin Institute 211, no. 5 (May 1931): 671-673.

Grant, Will. “All the Jittery Horses: Racing the Mongol Derby.” Taft Bulletin 84, no. 1 (Fall 2013): 16-21. Accessed 27 November 2013. http://www.taftschool.org/alumni/bulletin/fall13/TaftFall13.pdf

McNeil, Ian. Encyclopedia of the History of Technology. London: Routledge, 1990 (p. 461).

National Musem of American History, Smithsonian Institute. “Waywiser, Physical Sciences Collection – Surveying and Geodesy,” accessed 27 November 2013, last modified 27 November 2013. http://amhistory.si.edu/surveying/type.cfm?typeid=22.

OED Online. September 2013. Oxford University Press. s.v. “way-wiser”. http://0-www.oed.com.enterprise.sacredheart.edu/view/Entry/226530?redirectedFrom=way-wiser  (accessed November 27, 2013).

Trinder, Barrie. “William Reynolds: Polymath – A Biographical Strand Through the Industrial Revolution.” Industrial Archeology Review, 30, no.1 (2008): 17-32.

U.S. Geological Survey. Horse-drawn wagon northwest of Sacramento, California. ca. 1906. Historical Mapping Photographs Collection. Accessed 27 Nov. 2013. http://online.wr.usgs.gov/outreach/historicPhotos/enlarged/wagon.html

Wright, Norman E., and Jane Insley. “Odometer.” In Instruments of Science: An Historical Encyclopedia, edited by Robert Bud, and Deborah Jean Warner, 423-424. New York: Science Museum, London, and National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, in association with Garland, 1998.

GIS and Woodbury's Colonial Milestones

If you've been traveling recently for holiday gatherings, school or work commitments, or just recreation, perhaps you've been grateful for GPS navigation; perhaps you've been frustrated with poorly marked and poorly maintained roads. Can you envision traveling between the scattered settlements of colonial America in the 1700's? Take a look at what Sarah Kemble Knight wrote of her journey from Boston to New York, published as The Journal of Madam Knight (copies available in many digital archives, including ColonialSense - http://www.colonialsense.com/Regional_History/Journals/Journal_of_Madam_Knight.php)

Sarah Kemble Knight later moved to New London, Connecticut, where she died in 1727 and is buried at Ye Antientist Burial Place. According to the Dictionary of American Biography (1936), in Boston, she opened "a writing-school that Benjamin Franklin is said to have attended, although he does not mention her in his Autobiography."  Biography in Context database, Gale-Cengage. Later, Benjamin Franklin served as Postmaster for the British colonies, then as Postmaster for the newly formed United States.  

Moll's Map (1729) describes looping mail routes from New York and Boston meeting in Seabrook [Saybrook] to exchange the Western and Eastern mail bags, and mentions stops in New London and Stonington. In Franklin's "Tables of Port", Connecticut's Post-Offices were: New London, Guilford, New Haven, Stratford, Norwalk, and Stanford [sic.], with a spur route from New Haven to Hartford via Middletown. Postal rates were based on mileage between Post-Offices. To calculate postal rates more accurately, he urged states to erect milestones along the postal routes. He made inspection tours of the postal routes and used the system to extend the circulation of his Poor Richard's Almanack, his brother's New England Courant, and other publications. Personal correspondence and the social network formed by the routes became a channel for organizing the colonists frustrated by oppressive policies of the English government.


Along roads in Woodbury, Connecticut, leading to Litchfield (the county seat), some ancient milestones are marked with plaques denoting these as "Benjamin Franklin Milestones." Papers of the Old Woodbury Historical Society, photographs, and periodical clippings about the milestones are on file at the Woodbury Public Library.

Benjamin Franklin Milestones 1976

The milestones are rough-cut stone, chiseled with the letter "L" (representing Litchfield), Roman numerals (representing the distance from Litchfield) and the letter "M" (miles). Some are broken, some submerged in the surrounding earth, and some made illegible by weathering. Two in the series are in town of Bethlehem.

Henry F. Sage, "Map Showing Old Road" Bethlehem - North Woodbury (1932)

With the help of those records, together with archival materials at the Connecticut Historical Society, an interview with Charles Bartlett (author and former Woodbury Selectman) and a tip from another knowledgeable local, I found nearly all of the milestones, from VIII to XVII, accessible along the public roads.

Ye Myle Stones of Connecticut, by Henry F. Sage (1922-1932)

Although I've been using GoogleMaps and GoogleEarth for years, I've just begun to delve into the world of GIS (Geographical Information Systems): a powerful blend of GPS, online mapping tools, internet resources, and a world (literally) of data. The map then becomes a way to tell a story, to explore connections between us, our history, our environment, and our evolution as a culture. Please join me in these blogposts, linked to GoogleEarth map pins, as I explore the history, technology, and preservation of these stones. Below are some resources on Franklin, Knight, and the early postal system.

Woodbury Milestones

Sources and Further Research

Benjamin Franklin and the Postal System

Adelman, Joseph. “A Constitutional Conveyance of Intelligence, Public and Private”: The Post Office, the Business of Printing, and the American Revolution. Business History Conference, 2010.

Franklin, B[enjamin], and J. Foxcroft. Tables of the Port of All Single Letters Carried by Post in the Northern District of North America, as Established by Act of Parliament, Passed in the Fifth Year of the Reign of His Majesty King George the Third, Entitled, An Act to Alter Certain Rates of Postage, and to Amend, Explain, and Enlarge Several Provisions in An Act Made in the Ninth Year of the Reign of Queen Anne, and in Other Acts Relating to the Revenue of the Post-Office. Printed by James Parker, [1765?]

Isaacson, Walter. Benjamin Franklin: An American Life. New York : Simon & Schuster, 2004.

John, Richard R. Spreading the News: The American Postal System from Franklin to Morse. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995

Knight, Sarah Kemble. The Journal of Madam Knight. Boston: D.R. Godine, 1971

Moll, H[erman]. New England, New York, New Jersey and Pensilvania [sic], 1729? Accessed 27 November 2013. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1729_Moll_Map_of_New_York,_New_England,_and_Pennsylvania_%28First_Postal_Map_of_New_England%29_-_Geographicus_-_NewEnglandNewYork-moll-1729.jpg

Morgan, Edmund S. Benjamin Franklin. New Haven: Yale University Pr., 2002.

Parker, James. Letters 20 Dec. 1765, 11 Jan. 1766, 24 Dec. 1767. In Labaree, Leonard W., and Whitfield J. Bell, Jr., eds. The Papers of Benjamin Franklin. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1969.