He carried his own compass

George Washington began surveying when he was fifteen years old.  This may have been his first survey in the field, a plan of a turnip field belonging to his half-brother, Lawrence Washington:

From the George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress.

He was surveying on the day he died.  Consider the recollection of his adopted son, George Washington Parke Custis:

 

"As was usual with him, he carried his own compass, noted his observations, and marked out the ground." -- A fitting epitaph for the first surveyor-president.


(An excellent overview of Washington's life as a surveyor with many links to materials within the collections of the Library of Congress can be found here.)

Washington's Surveying Notebook, 1799

In April 1799, eight months before his sudden death, George Washington joined some of his neighbors in a survey of one of his many properties. He had met them at the recent election -- an election that saw Democratic-Republicans win many state and congressional offices in Virginia and elsewhere -- and had asked them to join him in a circuit around "Four Mile Run." I'm sure it didn't take much to convince these men to join the former president on this walkabout. One wonders if they talked politics or kept to less controversial subjects.

April 29.
                  Having seen at the Election on the 24th Inst., most of the persons whose lands adjoin mine on four mile run, I fixed with them (acquainting Mr. Ludwell Lee who was also concerned, by letter, therewith) to meet at 9 'o clock this day on the Land, at the Beginning Corner of Adam[ ] Patent, and went thither myself accordingly;  -- where I was soon joined by Mr.. Will.m Adam Capt.n. Jerrett, Mr. Summers, Mr. Whiting, Mr. Luke, Mr. [  ] & Mr. Ball -- Mr. Lee being [the?] only interested person a[bsent?].
      Col.o. Little, and Mr. Geor[ge] Minor were also present. Mr. Abner Rawlins carried Compass and _____ Ball & Rawlins the Chain.

 

The notebook is part of the wonderful and eclectic collections of the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia.  (And they have a few more pages from the notebook online, too, if you're interested.)  They have James Joyce's manuscript of Ulysses, Marianne Moore's papers, a first edition of Don Quixote, and lots more.