A New Discovery - An 1800s Pope County, Illinois Survey Book and Maps

One of the purposes of this blog is to highlight specific resources in the region which are available to genealogists, particularly those which are not as well known. In December 2021, I discovered that the Illinois History and Lincoln Collection at the University of Illinois housed a book which is very significant to the history of Pope County. Being from the county myself and having a large number of ancestors there, I determined to examine and access this material at the earliest opportunity. 

In the collection are original survey maps of each section of each township in Pope County. The dates in the book range from the 1830s to the 1890s. They seem to be the records of J. E. Y. Hanna (1821 – 1909) as well as some entries surveyed by his father Rev. George Hamilton Hanna (1787 – 1868). The father surveyed the original line between Pope and Massac Counties at the time Massac was formed in 1843. The University of Illinois acquired this valuable material in 1971 from a bookstore.

It is a tremendous find! I recently traveled to Urbana and have made digital copies of each page. I am in the process of preparing an index to the material and will make it as well as physical copies of the maps available to local libraries free of charge when completed.

Please be advised the material does not contain every landowner in the county but appears to be only those for whom the Hannas were hired to conduct survey work.  Most entries plot the name of each landowner, the location on the map, as well as detailed physical locations used as survey markers such as trees or stones. Most entries also have the date of the survey.  Note that some sections do not contain any names because the Hannas may not have surveyed in that particular section. The records are helpful in reconstructing neighborhoods and determining where ancestors resided within the county.

The index I am preparing will include the landowners, the exact location of the land, the date of the survey, and any other notes present.

The archivists at the University of Illinois indicated they may soon digitize this publication and make it available online for free access on their website. That would certainly make this material more widely available and I will be sure to post the news here if that occurs.

In addition to these maps, the J.E.Y. Hanna papers also contain original plat maps of the villages of Bay City, Glendale, Eddyville, Hamletsburg, and some maps of Golconda which I also captured and will make available.  The Map Library at U of I also has original Sanborn maps of the City of Golconda. Some of these are online already at the Library of Congress – 1894, 1902, and 1907 – see https://www.loc.gov/collections/sanborn-maps/?q=golconda

I was able to make a digital copy of the 1928 Golconda Sanborn map which is still under copyright. If you are not familiar with Sanborn maps, they can be wonderful to locate landmarks and other items within cities in an historical setting. They were originally created for fire insurance purposes but can provide a lot of great detail to us as historians and genealogists.

As a courtesy until the index and images are available, Backstory Bloodhound, LLC will be happy to do a lookup in the J.E.Y. Hanna survey records if you can provide me with a specific section, township, and range within Pope County. For example, Section 21, Township 12S, Range 6E. Send an e-mail containing the specific section, township, and range you are interested in to rick@backstorybloodhound.com and I will provide you with a copy of that map. (See image here for a sample of what the survey maps look like). Once the index is completed, I will also be happy to look up specific names. If you want to send me names at this time, I will be happy to look for those in the records as I am indexing and will send you a copy of the page if I do encounter it. 

Please be patient as I do have several research projects I am working on but I promise I will get back to you as soon as possible.