Heritage, 2007, Volume 3 Page: 24
31 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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VA mm *mVIII
A.R. Roessler and the First Geological
and Agricultural Survey of Texas
By Katherine Goodwin
A. R. Roessler's Latest Map of the State of Texas Exhibiting Mineral and Agricultural Districts, Post
Offices & Mailroutes, Railroads Projected and Finished, Timber, Prairie, Swamp Lands, etc. etc. etc.
Compiled and drawn by M.V. Mittendorfer. (New York: Ed. W. Welke & Bro., 1874)..... : !g, .
In 1874, the Texas legislature, seeking to bring order and
civilization to frontier law enforcement, authorized two
unique military groups within the Texas Rangers. One was
the Special Force under the leadership of Captain Leander H.
McNelly, and the other, designated the Frontier Battalion,
under the command of Major John B. Jones. That same year,
Anton R. Roessler, a civil and mining engineer, cartographer,
and promoter, sought to bring another type of order to Texas
with the publication of his unique large format map, A.R.
Roesslers Latest Map of the State of Texas Exhibiting Mineral
andAgricultural Districts, Post Offices & Mailroutes, Railroads
Projected and Finished, Timber, Prairie, Swamp Lands, etc.
etc. etc. Roessler, one of the best cartographers in Texas, created
with this publication, the first printed map revealing the
state's geological and agricultural treasures.
Anton R. Roessler (1826-1893), topographer, draftsman,
geologist, and land promoter, was born in Hungary in 1826.
He trained in Vienna and immigrated to Texas in 1860.
There, he was hired as a draftsman by Benjamin FranklinShumard as part of a five-man team conducting the first
comprehensive Texas Geological and Agricultural Survey.
Shumard was a physician and paleontologist who had headed
section surveys in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota in 184849.
He had also accompanied the geological survey in Oregon
in 1849 and was an assistant geologist of the Missouri Geological
Survey in 1853. Shumard was appointed in 1858 by
Texas Governor H.R. Runnels to organize the first official
Texas surveys. The work was encumbered by the politics of
the period and at one point in 1860, Shumard was removed
from office by Governor Sam Houston and temporarily reinstated
by the Legislature.
The Civil War intervened, and in 1862 the survey work
was suspended. While other members of the team left the
region, Roessler stayed in Texas and served as chief draftsman
for the Confederacy at the Austin arsenal, the military depot
for war materials and services. He is credited with preserving
the results of the 1858 Shumard Survey, which otherwise
would have been lost or destroyed when the geological survey
rooms were converted to a percussion cap facility during the
war. Roessler was later accused of stealing the results of the
Shumard Survey and using the information for his personal
use as the secretary of the Texas Land and Immigration Company
and through his association with the Texas Land and
Copper Association. These were accusations that Roessler
vigorously denied.
By the late 1860s Roessler had become one of the best cartographers
in Texas, and after the war, he was employed as a
geologist for the United States Land Office in Washington,
D.C. By the 1870s Roessler had completed 16 Texas county
maps, as well as the large format map of the state featured
here that incorporated the Shumard Survey data.
This map, which contains a remarkable amount of detail,
is large, measuring 38" x 42" at the neatline boundaries, the
outermost drawn outline framing the map. It was compiled
and drawn by M.V. Mittendorfer, a civil engineer, and published
by Ed. W. Weicke & Bro. in New York. The mapHERITAGE / Volume 3 2007
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Texas Historical Foundation. Heritage, 2007, Volume 3, periodical, 2007; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth45361/m1/24/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Historical Foundation.