John Mullett
American surveyor in Detroit, Michigan
John Mullett (1786–1862) was a prominent surveyor based in Detroit, Michigan in the early 19th century.
Under the Public Land Survey System, he was surveyor-general for the Northwest Territories and as such, assisted or led "in many of the government's original surveys of Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana," and especially in Michigan.
Early life
Mullett was born to a large family in Halifax, Vermont on July 11, 1786. In 1807, the family moved to Genesee County, New York and dabbled in farming and the craft of tailoring. Mullett served as an officer in the War of 1812, but only saw action in the Battle of Buffalo. Mullett came to Detroit from Buffalo, New York in 1818, and moved from tailoring to mathematics and surveying.
Notable accomplishments
In 1821, Lewis Cass appointed him surveyor of Michigan.
In 1822, he surveyed the route from Pontiac, Michigan to Saginaw, Michigan.
In 1822, Edward Tiffin appointed him United States Deputy Surveyor, and he was engaged in surveying public lands until 1849.
In 1824/25 surveys of lower Michigan, the survey team he was leading had a small incident with Native Americans over the marking of trees the natives were using for making maple syrup.
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This entry incorporates text from “John Mullett” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.