Manuscripts Collection
Harley R. Schneider was born in New Ulm in 1909 and graduated from the civil engineering program at the University of Minnesota. Schneider worked as an engineering supervisor for the Work Projects Administration in Brown County from 1935 to 1942. Between 1943 and 1945 Schneider worked on the modification of B-24 airplanes for Northwest Airlines at the St. Paul Modification Center where he was promoted to materials control supervisor. Following the shut down of war work Schneider returned to New Ulm and became the city engineer, a post he held until he retired in 1975. During his long tenure as New Ulm city engineer Schneider became an active member of the Minnesota Society of Professional Engineers, the Minnesota Society of Professional Surveyors, the City and Village Engineers Association of Minnesota, and the Minnesota Association of County Engineers. He was particularly active in the local chapters of both the state surveyors and engineers societies.
After he retired as New Ulm city engineer, Schneider worked as a surveyor for Brown County and also as a consultant for the engineering firm of Bolton & Menk in Mankato, Minnesota. He also volunteered as the historian for both the Minnesota Society of Professional Engineers and the Minnesota Society of Professional Surveyors. Schneider started researching archival documents originating from the public land survey of Minnesota prior to his retirement and continued that work well into the latter part of the 1990s. He intended to compile the instructions issued to Minnesota public lands surveyors in an effort to provide the historical background necessary for later surveys. Progress on his research was often noted in his reports as historian of the Minnesota Society of Professional Surveyors.
Correspondence (1975-1994), conference papers (1974-1974, 1995), copies of U.S. General Land Office documents (1841-1862), and related material compiled by a civil engineer pertaining to his research about the 1852 survey of the Iowa-Minnesota boundary line, the public lands survey of Minnesota, and the location of one of the latitude observation stations established during the Iowa-Minnesota boundary survey.
Included are photocopies from the National Archives of field notes pertaining to the survey of Minnesota's western boundary; copies from the State Historical Society of Iowa of instructions, reports, field notes, astronomical observations, letters, plat maps, and contracts kept by the U.S. Surveyor General of Wisconsin and Iowa pertaining to the Iowa-Minnesota boundary survey and the Minnesota public lands survey; and a photocopy from the Huntington Library of the "Instructions to the Surveyor General of Oregon" issued by the commissioner of the General Land Office in 1851.
Other manifestations of records and plat maps pertaining to the Iowa-Minnesota boundary survey are also available in the Minnesota Historical Society manuscript collections.
Personal papers pertaining to Schneider's professional career, as well as organizational records of the Minnesota Society of Professional Surveyors and the Minnesota Society of Professional Engineers, are also available in the Minnesota Historical Society manuscript collections.
Accession numbers: 3,799; 14,995; 15,472.
Processed by: Monica Manny Ralston, February 2002.
Catalog ID number: 09-00038843
Includes Schneider's outoing and incoming correspondence pertaining to his research on Minnesota surveys. Correspondents include Mark J. Barnes, acting archivist for the State Archives of Iowa; editors of the Minnesota Society of Professional Surveyors newlsetter; C. Allen Ringquist, a civil engineer and land surveyor from Jackson, Minnesota; Larry G. Bartleman, Iowa Department of Natural Resources; and Neil K. Brown, a retired land surveyor from Estherville, Iowa. Much of the correspondence between Schneider, Brown, and Bartleman concerns the location of Astronomical Station Madison, one of the latitude observation stations used in the 1852 survey of the Iowa-Minnesota boundary line. Brown's letters include reminiscences from his survey of the boundary line in 1938-1939 and his rediscovery of the station's remains in 1971.
Includes typed transcripts of documents referenced in the book,
Three maps of Minnesota compiled by Ronald Olson and Robert D. Sales that show the names of deputy surveyors responsible for surveying the North-South township lines, the East-West township lines, and the township subdivisions.
Includes papers presented by Schneider and one presented by Ron Murphy. The presentation that Schneider made in 1978 consisted of an inventory of General Land Office records concerning Minnesota that were in the custody of the Iowa Secretary of State. Those records were since transferred to the State Historical Society of Iowa and Schneider annotated his paper to indicate the location of materials at the Iowa State Historical Society.
Includes an original article that appeared in the January 1929 issue of
Copied from an original held by the Huntington Library.
Copied from the originals held by the National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 49, Records of the General Land Office.
Copied from the originals held by the State Historical Society of Iowa, Land Office records of the Secretary of State.
This group of materials includes sets of letters received by the Surveyor General of Wisconsin and Iowa from the commissioner of the U.S. General Land Office, from deputy surveyors contracted to survey the boundary line and the platting and subdivision of Minnesota townships, and from the Surveyor General of Minnesota whose office was established on May 23, 1857.
The letters concern instructions issued to the surveyor general and the deputy surveyors; the appointment of a chief astronomer and principal surveyor; the appointment of assistants and interpreters; congressional appropriations; estimates of survey costs; the specification, transportation, use, and disposal of field equipment and instruments; reports on the progress of surveys; allegations of inaccurate or incomplete surveys, reports of resurvey examinations; the survey of Indian reserves, military reserves, and islands; payment vouchers and the payment of contracts; the establishment of district land offices and the office of the Surveyor General of Minnesota; and the transmittal, receipt, and examination of reports, field notes, diagrams, and plats.
Reports from Andrew Talcott, chief astronomer and principal surveyor, and William J. Neely, examining deputy, are included within the letters from deputy surveyors. Letters from the general public inquiring about the availability of land, preemption rights, and the survey of particular parcels are also included.
Of particular interest to Schneider were the commissioner's letter of May 16,
1853 directing the use of the
A photographic copy of the diagram showing the tract of land selected by Chief Buffalo and transmitted by Thomas A. Hendricks, Commissioner, General Land Office, in his letter to Warner Lewis, Surveyor General for Wisconsin and Iowa, dated March 23d, 1857.
Filmed by the State of Iowa, Department of General Services, Records Management Division, Micrographics Section, 1981.
Resurvey of Iowa and Minnesota Boundary Line, commenced August 18th, completed August 23d, 1858 by William J. Neely.