Turning Points
in Wisconsin History
The 1857 diary of railroad surveyor Andrew M. Davis.
Survey account, 1857.
Andrew McFarland Davis kept this diary of his experiences as a member of an 1857 surveying crew for a projected line of the La Crosse and Milwaukee Railroad. In it, he describes the changing terrain, working conditions, and mishaps encountered over four months in the field. A shorter, edited version published in 1911 is also presented on the Turning Points site, and by comparing the two readers can see how memory, desire, and the publishing process influence historical sources.
| Related Topics: |
Immigration and Settlement Development of the Railroads |
| Creator: | Davis, Andrew McFarland, 1833-1920 |
| Pub Data: | Manuscript in the Wisconsin Historical Society Archives (SC 2228); also excerpted in Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin at its Fifty-Eighth Annual Meeting: 1910 (Madison, 1911): 164-169. |
| Citation: | Davis, Andrew McFarland. "Survey account, 1857." Manuscript in the Wisconsin Historical Society Archives (SC 2228). Online facsimile at: http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/search.asp?id=61; Visited on: 5/14/2024 |
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