A history book of the Michigan Society of Registered Land Surveyors, later the Michigan Society of Professional Surveyors is available by contacting the MSPS office at (517) 484-2413 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
This book was written by Herbert G. Avey, P.S. Following is an excerpt from the preface book which gives an idea of the history contained within its pages, followed by an excerpt from the book. Watch for updates to this page!
.Preface.
Herbert G. Avey, PS
In March, 1992, I volunteered to join a committee to research, evaluate and record the history of the Michigan Society of Registered Land Surveyors. I inherited several aged and tired cardboard boxes of old dog-cared folders. Many of the pages were faded with time, others brittle from age, but all were a part of the story of the trials and tribulations of starting a professional organization. Not only starting, but nurturing in into a very viable organization fifty-plus years later.
It didn't take long to find out there was no committee, I was the committee. I could enlist whatever help I wanted or could recruit. I am not a good recruiter and the invitations for help went unheeded. So I decided to go it alone. That may have been an unwise decision. I may have failed the Society by not finishing the job more diligently. Perhaps my evaluation and presentation of the material is different than a committee may have chosen.
I found one of our distinguished fore-fathers (George Henning) had written a history of the first fifteen years of the Society. He was well-versed in the development of the Society, being one of the founding members and the Secretary for the first nine years of the Society.
As I read through the available correspondence, minutes and other records, I found subjects of interest that George had passed over, that I wanted to include. This history starts out with George Henning's writing and is followed by my added observations through those years.
This history then is a narration of the birth, development and the maturity of the Society for fifty-some years without dwelling on the minute details.
History of MSPS
Compiled by George D. Henning
Founding Member and Past President of the Michigan Society of Registered Land Surveyors
Likely unknown to a large number or our present members is the fact that our present Society is the third organization in Michigan which has been started by Land Surveyors to deal with the practical and professional aspects of land surveying. Prior to 1900, it clearly appears that land surveying was a major part of the practice of the Civil Engineers involving the laying out of land locations directly dependent on the U.S. land survey locations and involving railroad and town site locations and layout, the conversions of wild lands to agricultural uses and the lumbering operations and mining industries. It was not until 1919 that a registration law came into being. Land surveying and engineering surveying were being done, more or less, by a separate group of individuals, and Land Surveying was separated from Engineering by statute.
In a history which was compiled by the Michigan Engineering Society about 1925, it was noted that in August, 1868, the "Surveyors and Civil Engineers Association of Michigan" was formed in Lansing.
A second meeting of this group was held as the "Second Annual Convention of The Michigan Surveyors and Civil Engineers Association" at Grand Rapids on May 5-6, 1869. An account of that meeting was found in a newspaper clipping.
Editor's Note: It is very interesting to note they were then pointing out the inadequacy of the laws pertaining to land surveying and land surveyors, yet the same laws exist today with very little improvement except licensing.
Likely this organization did not get very far. It is further found that in 1880 a call was sent out in February for a meeting of civil engineers and surveyors.