Surveyor’s Journal Entry Eighteen

The County Surveyor Works to Stabilize Local Economy

The Franklin County Surveyor played an integral role in helping to strengthen the local economy of the 1800s. The clarification of land titles and property boundaries ensured the continuing development and sale of land, helped to resolve real estate cases that reached the courts, and provided the basic parameters for construction.

Modern-day right-of-way acquisition procedures evolved from the surveys and appraisals that enabled land-use for the construction of the region’s first transportation infrastructure. These projects “for the public good” involved the Ohio & Erie Canal, including the 11-mile long Columbus feeder canal to Lockbourne, completed in 1832; the Columbus & Sandusky Turnpike, following modern-day U.S. Rt. 23 (North High Street) and S.R. 4 to Sandusky, completed in 1834; and the Franklin County portion of the National Road, following modern day U.S. Rt. 40 (East Main Street, High Street, and Broad Street), completed in 1836.

Along the bustling highways and canals came a great wave of westward migration. Between 1830 and 1840, Franklin County’s population grew by nearly 70 percent from 14,741 to 25,049.