Sample Chapter – July 15, 1805 – Buffalo Trace Surveyed – Mossy Feet Books

Sample Chapter
Indiana’s Timeless Tales – 1805 – 1811
Chapter title – July 15, 1805 – Buffalo Trace Surveyed

July 15, 1805 – Buffalo Trace Surveyed
The 1804 Treaty of Vincennes had included a clause in which the tribes ceded a tract of land that extended from a point on the eastern edge of the Vincennes Tract and extended on a southeasterly direction towards the Falls of the Ohio. The northern boundary would parallel the course of the Buffalo Trace as a straight line that would be no further than 1/2 mile north of the Buffalo Trace. To locate the course of this boundary line, someone would have to survey the Buffalo Trace. Surveyor William Rector began the task of surveying the Buffalo Trace on July 15, 1805.
William Rector (1773-1826)
The son of Frederick and Elizabeth Connor Rector, William was native to Rectortown, Fauquier, Virginia. A noted frontiersman and surveyor, in 1805 Rector received appointment to survey the Buffalo Trace. The survey work Rector completed in Indiana provided the foundation for later surveys in the state. After completing this survey, William settled in Perry County, becoming the first recorded settler in the region. He encouraged his five brothers to settle in the area and join his surveying business, which they did. They continued doing survey work in Indiana and in Illinois.
William and Constance Lee married in 1821. The couple had eight children. Rector later moved to Illinois and received the appointment as a brigadier general in the Illinois militia, during the War of 1812. He continued his survey work in Illinois and later in Missouri and Arkansas. Considered one of the best surveyors in the West, he received appointment as the Surveyor General of the Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas Territories in 1816, after moving to St. Louis. He also gained election to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis in 1817 and served as a delegate to the State’s constitutional convention in 1820. In 1824 a conflict between Joshua Barton and William led to Rector’s challenging Barton to a duel. Rector killed Barton in the duel, after which his surveying license was revoked. He passed away in 1826.

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