James Thompson was an American surveyor who created the first plat of Chicago. He was hired to plat settlements at the ends of the proposed Illinois and Michigan Canal in northern Illinois. Thompson’s plat fixed the location associated with the word ‘Chicago’, which had previously been used for various places around the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. Chicago incorporated as a town in 1833 and as a city in 1837 as growth continued, and by 1890 had more than a million inhabitants.
About James Thompson (surveyor) in brief
James Thompson was an American surveyor who created the first plat of Chicago. Born in South Carolina, Thompson moved to Kaskaskia in southern Illinois as a young man and lived in the area for the rest of his life. He was hired to plat settlements at the ends of the proposed Illinois and Michigan Canal in northern Illinois. Thompson’s plat fixed the location associated with the word ‘Chicago’, which had previously been used for various places around the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. Chicago incorporated as a town in 1833 and as a city in 1837 as growth continued, and by 1890 had more than a million inhabitants and was the second-most-populous city in the United States. Thompson has been commemorated several times in Chicago’s history; his grave, which was originally unmarked, was given a monument by the city of Chicago in 1917. He also served in various positions such as probate judge, county commissioner, and officer in the Illinois militia during the Black Hawk War.
He died in 1852 and was buried in Kaskasksia, Illinois, where he lived with his wife and 12 children until his death in 1881. He is buried in the same cemetery as his cousin Margaret Thompson, who was also a U.S. surveyor and lived there for over 20 years. He had 12 children, including two sons and two daughters. Thompson was a member of the Illinois State Senate and served as its chairman from 1819 to 1821. He served as a county commissioner during 1820 and 1821 alongside David Anderson and Niles Hotchkiss, and implemented the 1820 United States Census and a contemporaneous state census in Randolph County. In 1821 he was appointed as a United States surveyor. He undertook other surveying projects in and around Randolph County, including a road linking Kaskasia to the then-state capital of Vandalia in 1824 and the boundary of Randolph and Monroe counties in February 1830.
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This page is based on the article James Thompson (surveyor) published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 23, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
