Kensington, Conn Jan 9th 1856.

Dear Sir,

     As I have nearly completed my map of Berlin so far as I am able without the assistance of some one better acquainted with the physical features of the town than I am & as life is short & art is long, it would gratify me much if you could give me a sketch of them, especially of the streams, if only the work of 2 or 3 hours, & if you could do so, I would forward you a reduced copy of the principal points of roads & the boundaries of the Town if you desired, as I have spent much time on it since the completion of the County Map, which Messrs. Smith allow me to use freely, & it is my intention to complete it in my leisure of the present winter & spring & I should be glad of the benefit of your accurate knowledge & be happy to acknowledge it in a suitable way on the map whether published or not. I am putting on the School District lines & mean to make it worthy of the Town it represents. Please reply to this at your earliest convenience and oblige. 

Yours very respectfully,

S. Moore

This letter was written to James G. Percival from his childhood friend, Sheldon Moore. The letter was written in January, 1856 when Percival was the State Geologist  in Wisconsin. Since 1854, Percival had been living at the home of Dr. John L. Jenckes in Hazel Green. Unbeknownst to Sheldon Moore, Dr. Jenckes had also been caring for Percival since December, 1855 when he became ill after doing some surveying in his new State. Jenckes later said that he believed Percival had been suffering from Chronic Dyspepsia. The illness, whatever it may have been, turned out to be fatal and Percival died on May 2, 1856 at Jenckes’ home.

Sheldon Moore had been doing some surveying of his own in his new role as a County Surveyor. When this letter was written, Sheldon was trying to finish a map of his hometown of Berlin. He hoped to get the map published even though a map of Hartford County had just been published in 1855 by H. and C. T. Smith. Sheldon’s map was to be different from the Smiths’ Map because it included School Districts that the 1855 map did not.

Who better to ask for help from on this project than Connecticut’s former State Geologist and Kensington native, James Gates Percival? Percival, who was said to have walked every square mile of Connecticut, and had certainly had walked every inch of Berlin. No doubt he could recall every feature of the town, even from across the country. Percival’s earlier map of Connecticut, which was part of his geology report, is stunning in it’s accuracy and detail.

Despite being too sick to finish his geology report for Wisconsin, Percival apparently did manage to help out his old friend. Sheldon Moore’s Map of Berlin with School Districts was completed in 1857 and appropriate credit was given to James G. Percival. The map, however was never published.

Sources:

James Gates Percival Collection. Yale Collection of American Literature. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. (YCAL MSS, Box 12, Folder 348, S. Moore 1856).  (Letter transcribed from a PDF copy of the original by spellmanjr).

The Life and Letters of James Gates Percival by Julius H. Ward (1866).