- Elias Pym Fordham
Elias Pym Fordham (1787-unknown). Original surveyor of
Indianapolis . English immigrant to the US. Author of American Travel Memoir.Elias Pym Fordham was born in eastern England, one of two sons and seven children to Elias and Mary Clapton Fordham.Sheryl D. Vanderstel. "Elias Pym Fordham", in "The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis", 1994. ISBN: 0253312221] He studied civil engineering under
George Stephenson (inventor of thesteam locomotive ).Fordham came to the US in 1817 with his sister Maria and traveled to Illinois where he purchased a tract of land known as "the English Prairie".
In April 1821 he along with
Alexander Ralston received joint appointments as surveyors of Indianapolis.Little else is known of Fordham. He was well educated and articulate as evidenced by his "Personal narrative of travels in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky : and of a residence in the Illinois Territory: 1817-1818" which was not published until 1906 (now out of print). He eventually returned to England and continued working on projects with George Stephenson.
Notes
External links
*Ogg, Frederic Austin (editor). [http://www.archive.org/details/personalnarrativ00fordrich "Personal narrative of travels.."] , Cleveland: A.H. Clark Co. 1906.
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