Albert Miller Lea

Albert Miller Lea (July 23, 1808 – January 16, 1891) was an American engineer, soldier, and topographer with the United States Dragoons who surveyed southern Minnesota and northern Iowa in 1835.cite web
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title = The Early Settlement of Albert Lea
work = Sequicentennial History
publisher = City of Albert Lea
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url = http://www.city.albertlea.org/sesquihistory.htm
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accessdate = 2008-08-27]

Lea was born in Richland, Tennessee, a small village not far from Knoxville. He attended the United States Military Academy. He graduated fifth of 33 cadets in the Class of 1831. Due to his high class ranking, he was assigned to the engineers and assigned to Fort Des Moines in the Iowa Territory. In 1836, despite his youth, he became the Chief Engineer for the state of Tennessee. He then worked for the Federal government determining the boundary between Iowa and Missouri. In the 1840s, he was an engineer on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. He later was as a general in the Iowa state militia and then the chief clerk for the U.S. War Department.

In 1844, he earned his master's degree in engineering from East Tennessee University in Knoxville and joined the faculty as an instructor. From 1849 to 1854, was the city engineer for Knoxville, as well as managing a local glass manufacturing company. He moved to East Texas in 1855. [ [http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=L016 The Tennessee Encyclopedia] ]

During the American Civil War, Lea was an engineering officer in the Confederate States Army with the rank of major. His 25-year-old son, Lieut. Commander Edward Lea of the Union Navy, was killed in battle on January 1, 1863, near Galveston, Texas.

After the war, Lea lived in Galveston for several years. He moved in 1874 to Corsicana, Texas, where he purchased a farm. He died of heart failure in 1891 and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Corsicana.

The city of Albert Lea, Minnesota, is named in his honor.

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References

* Block, W. T., "A Towering East Texas Pioneer: A Biographical Sketch of Colonel Albert Miller Lea." "East Texas Historical Journal", Volume XXXII, Number 2 (1993), pp. 23-33.