Kaaterskill Books

Noted Surveyor on New Road for Fall River Merchant

Borden, Simeon.

[Autograph Letter Signed] Road Survey Taken By Simeon Borden for Fall River, Massachusetts, Forwarded to Andrew Robeson.

Fall River, [MA]: 1825. [3] pp. Bifolium. 8 x 9.5 inches. Very good, folded, minor tearing, moderate ink bleed through, light soiling. Item #45146

September 19th, 1825, with integral address to Andrew Roberson, a whaling merchant from New Bedford, who was expanding his textile empire into Fall River, Borden writes about his survey of several possible roads throughout the area. The actual plot, he notes, he will bring when they meet.

"I have since I last saw you explored and surveyed the route that we talked of when I last saw you, that is to say I measured from the line that was run from the narrows to Smith's Mills, to the northern extremities of the easterly swamps, and find them to terminate not much different form what we talked of. The west swamp or the swamp that we first enter as we proceed eastward from the Woodle Corner towards the northern extremities of the easterly swamps, I did not find to be as feasible as I anticipated the swamp being...

"I have also surveyed the route by you suggested from Mingo's Corner to the corner that has been uniformly talked of. its name if it has any I do not now recollect of ever having heard - I can say that I now think that it is the best possible route for a road from the narrows to fallriver..."

Simeon Borden (1798-1856) was a surveyor, who later invented equipment considered to have the most accurate measuring capabilities, which allowed him to undertake major surveying projects throughout his career. His most high-profile endeavors include the Massachusetts base line (now known as the Borden Base Line); and the boundary line between Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

Andrew Roberson (1787-1842) ."amassed a fortune in many different interests. He owned an oil refinery that was listed on “Ray Street” or what is now known as Acushnet Avenue, a cotton mill in Fall River named the Andrew Robeson Mills, built a wharf in Fall River and owned a massive whaling ship called The Pacific 2....he is considered to be the pioneer of cloth printing in the city of Fall River where he came in 1824. His son carried on the business in the city, and on the land given to him by his father, built the Andrew Robeson House, which now houses the Fall River Historical Society.

Price: $200.00