Jared Mansfield Jared Mansfield ( 1759 – February 3 , 1830 ) was an American mathematician and surveyor . His career was shaped by two interventions by President Thomas Jefferson . In 1801 Jefferson appointed Mansfield as Professor at the newly founded United States Military Academy at West Point . Again at Jefferson ' s appointment , Mansfield served as the Surveyor General of the United States from 1803 to 1812 , charged with extending the survey of United States land in the Northwest Territory . Mansfield was born in New Haven , Connecticut , son of a sea captain , Stephen Mansfield . He graduated from Yale in 1777 , and taught in New Haven and Philadelphia . In 1800 he married Elizabeth Phipps , daughter of an American Naval Officer . In 1801 he had printed some scientific papers titled " Essays Mathematical and Physical " , which were brought to Jefferson ' s attention by Senator Abraham Baldwin . Jefferson appointed Mansfield captain of engineers , so he might become a professor at West Point . After moving to West Point , Mansfield was appointed Surveyor General in Summer of 1803 . Jefferson was dissatisfied with the performance of Rufus Putnam , whose surveys in the Congress Lands of Ohio were poorly executed . Putnam was also a Federalist . In 1801 , the position had been offered to Andrew Ellicott by Jefferson , but he refused , because he was upset at slow pay for work he had done for the Federal Government . Mansfield ' s " Essays " included sections on determining longitude and latitude , which would be useful in improving precision in surveying . Jefferson made a recess appointment , which was confirmed by the Senate November 15 , 1803 . He was told to " survey Ohio and lands north of the Ohio River " , with later extensions to Indiana Territory and Illinois Territory . Mansfield and his family moved to Marietta , Ohio ( 1803 - 1805 ) , Ludlow Station ( 1805 - 1809 ) and near Cincinnati ( 1809 - 1812 ) . Under Mansfield ' s direction the survey was continued down the Ohio River , with grids laid out northward from the river , thus dividing the territory into rectangular townships . Mansfield is credited with " considerable scientific ability and high standards of workmanship . " He laid out baselines and Meridians astronomically , adapting principles of celestial navigation to surveying , which Ellicott and others had used to extend the Mason - Dixon Line decades earlier . Among his deputies were Thomas Worthington , Lewis Cass , and Ethan Allen Brown . Jonathan Williams , Superintendent of the U . S . Military Academy sent Mansfield a letter March 20 , 1809 , " . . . your rank in the Corps doubtless settled , and I wish you were here to take direction of the Academy . " The War of 1812 in the West made surveying difficult . Mansfield returned to West Point in 1814 as Professor of Mathematics and Natural and Experimental Philosophy , continuing in this position until his retirement in 1828 . He never was to direct the Academy . He and his wife moved back to Cincinnati , and he died February 3 , 1830 while visiting New Haven . He arranged for Thomas Jefferson to sit at Monticello for the painter Thomas Sully , and the resulting full - length portrait now hangs in the USMA Museum . The city of Mansfield , Ohio is named for Jared Mansfield . He was father of author Edward Deering Mansfield .