Sesquicentennial programs continue at Meehan Memorial Lansing Public Library
Don Borcherding as Capt. Andrew Talcott ...
June 15 program will feature presentation on Captain Andrew Talcott and surveying of the Iowa-Minnesota border in 1852
Don Borcherding of Rochester, MN will be reenacting surveyor Captain Andrew Talcott (1797-1883) at the June 15 session of the Sesquicentennial programming being held at Meehan Memorial Lansing Public Library throughout this year. Captain Talcott surveyed the Iowa-Minnesota boarder in 1852.
In his reenactment as Captain Talcott, Borcherding will be answering the following questions:
• What role did Lansing play in the survey of the Iowa Minnesota border? The monument was made by a local blacksmith, etc.
• Back in 1852, how did they travel with a 40-man crew on a 365-mile survey trip across the unexplored frontier? Who was on this crew and what role did some of these distinguished men play in America's future? How could their survey come out in almost a straight line - what tools were used?
• Technical Questions about Boundaries and Townships: What President created the Township System of developing the frontier and why? How were Iowa's boundaries determined when it became a state?
This program will be held at the Meehan Memorial Lansing Public Library Thursday, June 15. The event will begin at 5:30 p.m. with a soup supper, where a donation jar will be placed, and the program will begin at 6:30 p.m.
Don Borcherding conducts research, analysis and presentations on Original Public Land Survey History of Minnesota and Iowa, as well as presentations on early Military Expeditions beginning with Lewis & Clark, Zebulon Pike, Stephen H. Long, Lewis Cass and others. He also does presentations as Captain Andrew Talcott (1797-1883) on the Survey of the Iowa Minnesota Border in 1852 and the 1820 Military Road Survey from Council Bluff to Fort Snelling as part of the Yellowstone Expedition.
The July program at Meehan Memorial Lansing Public Library will take place Thursday, July 13 at 6:30 p.m. The subject will be "High Points of Lansing History" and will feature discussion on city government, railroads, courthouse, Mt. Hosmer, the first half of 1967 Lansing Centennial History - which wasn't printed for the 1967 Centennial History book, and Black Hawk Bridge history by Bill Burke, local historian/writer and community planner.
