I found this one very interesting.
The Portland Commercial, Thur., Sept. 9, 1886
County Surveyor - John C. M. Shanks, better known as Charley Shanks, the Republican
candidate for Surveyor, is one of the most competent and suitable men for the place that
could be selected anywhere. He is thirty years old, of much travel and observation; a
well informed and practical man, strictly temperate and honest. He has had large
experience and travel, and as an engineer and Surveyor, in the United States service, and
in the silver mines in the Rocky mountains, and on the western plains, as well as in this
and adjoining counties in locating and platting the Lake Erie & Western Railway, and
lands of the state of Florida, and leveling ditches. He is a ready draftsman and
competent surveyor. He, from his government explorations and service, thoroughly
understands the leveling surveys and system of the United States. At sixteen years of
age, he had charge of and made explorations, measurements and plattings in the government
service, of the Rocky mountains, at the s!
ource of the Arkansas, Grand, and Colorado rivers, determining the altitude, latitude, and
longitude of material points, and in leading and perpetuating points for a system of land
surveys for the United States, and platting Pikes Peak, Garden of the Gods, South Park,
Main Range, Long Peak, and Elk Mountains, giving the formation and location of gulches,
valleys, parks, and streams, and general as well as local character of these wild
countries, and of such parts as were of value to the settlement of these wild regions. It
was in the Elk Mountains, when from exposure on the tops of these snow covered peaks, that
he fell a victim to his own energy and zeal in his labors, and when at an altitude of near
two miles above the sea level and perpetual snow, he came so near dying that his comrades
dug his grave and prepared his funeral service, when he revived, and from which his
mother, in an effort that has become one of the historic events of these mountains in one
of the most e!
fforts made by any woman, saved him at the great risk of her own life. He will make a
thorough canvass of the county and the people can in that way become well acquainted with
him.
Rex Bertram
PO Box 651
Redkey, IN 47373
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