Louis Gentilcore, one of Canada’s earliest historical geographers between 1787 and 1795, once wrote, “No other surveyor in Upper Canada surveyed and subdivided so much territory.” He was referring to Augusta Jones, who originally planned our city. Jones was a farmer, a member of the militia and perhaps one of the best surveyors in Upper Canada.  His personal life is a complicated one for many reasons. He became close friends with Joseph Brant, and used his expertise as a surveyor along the Grand River on several occasions. Brant also hired Jones as a land agent for some land purchases. He became one of the Native chief’s many executors. The government of Upper Canada did not always look favourably upon this arrangement, and some historians believe this may have ended his career as a government surveyor.

Jones married the daughter of Mohawk Chief Tekarihogen, and they had eight children. Jones had two boys with Sarah Henry, the daughter of Mississauga Chief Wahbanosay, with whom he was also romantically involved at the time.

Surveying is one of the world’s oldest occupations on the planet, dating back to Stonehenge, a presumed burial site created in England’s Salisbury Plain between 3000 and 1520 BC. Ancient Egyptian surveyors plotted the positions of their pyramids long before the first of those gigantic stones were put into place. Napoleon Bonaparte depended largely on surveys to achieve both his wealth and power. Surveys are critical records that are used in court to settle all types of property disputes because they establish property lines, elevations, terrains, and features such as buildings, trees, hills, or ponds. Surveys are used by homebuilders and banks to get construction permits, mortgages and renovation loans. They are commonly employed by mapmakers worldwide and often used by municipal authorities to design roadways, sewers and water systems, housing blocks, and other civic buildings. Apart from mapping their fields, farmers use this data, together with their GPS, to programme a range of automated agricultural equipment, such as seed drills and fertilizer machinery, to grow crops.

Augustus Jones’s ancestors were of Welsh descent. His grandfather, Ebenezer, arrived in America in the 1670s. Historians have dated Augustus Jones’ birthdate to the year 1763 in New York City, where he later obtained his surveyor’s credentials. Augustus retired from surveying in 1880 and began farming a 2428-hectare (6000 acre) on the Grand River called Coldwater, near Paris, Ontario, where he had lived for many years. After he retired from surveying he became a teacher, instructing the local farm kids in the three R’s and farming. Jones was buried on the family farm. However, after the death of his son Peter, his remains were transferred to Greenwood Cemetery in Brantford, and the property was seized by creditors for outstanding obligations. Augustus Jones’ grave is not marked at Greenwood Cemetery, and his precise location within the cemetery may still be unknown today.

While there are no official personality descriptions of Jones, historians have pieced together some facts about him from his survey logs and personal letters. He is described as being a tough-as-nails man who was just as comfortable crossing the wilderness on snowshoes carrying a large heavy backpack filled with his surveying equipment as he was rowing a heavy birchbark canoe through the streams, rivers, and lakes of Upper Canada. Surveying today is still a difficult job, but it was much more difficult in the late 1700s when Jones caught malaria regularly and he and his crew killed over 700 rattlesnakes around Hamilton Bay, which was then called Head-of-the-Lake, in one summer.

Jones was sworn in as a crown surveyor on June 11th, 1787, and started surveying in Hamilton on November 5th and continued until January 8th, 1788, beginning at the border of several building lots previously created by Hamilton’s founder, George Hamilton, in the region now known as the Gore. From the courthouse, he laid out what became Barton Township, (Barton Street by the way is the only physical reminder we have from the former Barton Township.) which eventually became the city of Hamilton; it was bounded on the north by the Head-of-the-Lake and on the south by Haldimand County. To the east, it ran up to Ancaster Township, while to the west, it fringed Saltfleet Township. Jones originally divided Hamilton into 41-hectare
(100-acre lots). Augustus Jones’ concession roads became Hamilton’s East (Main Street) and West (King Street) arteries, while his side roads became the city’s main north and south arteries, John Street and Mary Street. He also studied the Hamilton Beach strip, which he dubbed Long Island, and Saltfleet Township in Stoney Creek, from August 24th to October 25th, 1788.

Some of Augustus Jones other accomplishments include his very first survey as a chain bearer, working for several teams as they surveyed the Niagara Peninsula. A short time later, he was given command of his first survey team and began surveying Stamford Twsp, which began with Newark, and over time, evolved into the town of Niagara-on-the-Lake. Additionally, he surveyed Dundas Street from Lake Ontario to the Thames River in London. Jones and thirty Queen’s Rangers troops planned York, now Toronto, and Younge Street from Lake Ontario to Lake Simcoe. He also surveyed Beverly Twp, Binbrook Twp, and Haldimand County, as well as the original borders of the Six Nations tract along the Grand River. Jones did not personally inspect many of the area’s other cities and villages in subsequent years; rather, he directed several crews to do the task, which he authorized. A few of these were Pickering, Burford Twp., Whitby, Flamborough Twp., and Newcastle.

In Stoney Creek, along King Street and New Mountain Road, there is a memorial and fountain honouring Augusta Jones. The house he lived in while surveying Hamilton and Stoney Creek is still preserved as a historical landmark at 1 Jones Street.