The Prime Meridian Marker

The Prime Meridian Marker. Cascades Park. , The Prime Meridian Marker is the beginning point of all private property descriptions in the State of Florida and is located here in Cascades Park. The marker is the point at which the meridian parallel and the baseline parallel intersect. This created the starting point for Florida's survey system, which began under the direction of President Thomas Jefferson. This point, set in 1824 by acting Governor George Walton, is also the southwest corner of the Lafayette Land Grant, given to the Marquis de Lafayette in recognition of his contribution to the American Revolution, and the southeast corner of the original City of Tallahassee, state capital., Surveyor General , Surveyor Generals were charged with the responsibility of managing the surveying of a state's public lands., U.S. Deputy Surveyor , True pioneers, U.S. Deputy Surveyors ventured into unmapped Florida to make the original surveys that established legal property boundaries for land in the State of Florida., What are meridians and baselines? , In the United States Public Land Survey System, a Meridian is the north-south line upon which rectangular surveys are based., A Baseline is the east-west line in the surveys., The men listed here served in the capacity of Surveyor General of Florida from 1824 until 1906: , Robert A. Butler . Valentine Y. Conway . Benjamin A. Putnam . John Westcott . Francis L. Dancy . Marcellus L. Sterns . Joshua W. Gilbert . Leroy D. Ball . Malachi Martin . William H. Hicks . James F. McClellan . William D. Bloxham . John C. Slocum . William H. Milton, Jr. . Richard L. Scarlett and bull; Edmund C. Weeks . Charles H. Parkin, These Deputy Surveyors made the original cadastral surveys of the State of Florida., R.C. Allen . A.P. Apthorp . William Apthorp . Joel B. Barber . R.F. Bettie . John Blocker . John Boyd . John Boyd . John Brown . A. Buford . George A. Bunker . R.B. Burchfield . David H. Burr . George O. Butler . Good T. Butler . John E. Cailey . E.B. Camp . Ramon Y. Canola . J.W. Childs . M.H. Clay . Benjamin Clements . Hosea B. Clements . James B. Clements . Joshua A. Coffee and bull; J.M. Cook . James A. Daniel . Henry Danielson . James R. Donelson . John Donelson . J.W. Drake . W.B. Drake . H.S. Duval . R.F. Ensey . James W. Exam . Davis Floyd . Henry H. Floyd . J.S.Frederick . J.O. Fries . James D. Galbraith . J. Garrison . Michael Garrison . Albert W. Gilchrist . Charles H. Goldsborough . James M. Gould . J.H. Gray . Walter Gywnn . Samuel Hamblen . James T. Hancock, Jr. . John E. Hanna . Robert D. Harris . William S. Harris . R. Frank Hartford . T.T. Hays . R. Hodgson . Samuel Hope . Charles F. Hopkins . George Houston . Allen G. Johnson . G.H. Johnson . J. Irwin . John Jackson and bull; A.H. Jones . Robert B. Ker . John B. Kilgore . G.H. Killingen . Louis Lanier . Robert B. Leek . J.F. Lebanon . J.F. Leslie . J.F. Lewis . Romeo Lewis . William E. Loper . F.R. Loring . James P. Love . Alexander Mackay . George Mackay . William H. Macey . Leroy May . Robert May . A.H. McCormick . Paul McCormick . J.A. McDonald . D.F. McNeil . William Mickler . G.H. Mill man . F.L. Ming . W.A. Moorehead . G.W. Merrill . W.G. Mosley . R.W. Norris . W.H. Parker . J.P. Perkins . Samuel J. Perry . J.M. Phipps . George W. Potter . Lewis M. Prevost . A.M. Randolph . Sam Reid . William J. Reyes . J.R. Richard’s . David D. Rogers . R.H. Shaffer . Joseph F. Shane’s . J.M. Sloan . C.F. Smith . E.L. Snowden . William C. Solle . D.A. Spaulding . J.D. Stanbury . Josiah H. Stearns . Timothy S. Stearns . W.J. Stephens . Asa A. Stewart . Charles C. Stone . James D. Tannehill . Alexander Taylor . R.W. Temple an . David Thomas . Edward L. Thomas . Charles C. Tracy . Henry Washington . George C. Watson, Jr. . T.H. Weightman . Henry Wells . John Westcott and bull; E.L. White . James White . Thomas K. White . William A. Whitehead . Marcellus A. Williams . R.M. Williams . George Willis . Alexander Worrall . Joseph Wright, (captions) , United States Department of the Interior map indicating this location as the intersection of the principal meridian and baseline. The year shown, 1824, is the date this point was established., Original Prime Meridian Marker Monument formally at Cascades Park. The marker pictured here was erected in 1925. Photographer, Hampton Dunn, State Archives of Florida.