PEASE, SETH (9 Jan. 1764-12 Sept. 1819), early surveyor in the WESTERN RESERVE, was born in Suffield, Conn. to Joseph and Mindwell Pease. He first came to the Western Reserve as an astronomer and surveyor for MOSES CLEAVELAND's 1796 expedition for the CONNECTICUT LAND CO. Under the direction of Augustus Porter and with fellow surveyor AMOS SPAFFORD, he began surveying the area around Cleveland in Sept. 1796. Both Pease and Spafford produced maps of the town. Although the cabin the surveyors lived in was known as "Pease's Hotel," Pease was a resident of the area only long enough to complete his work, then returned to his Connecticut home. In the spring of 1797, he again returned to the Western Reserve as an employee of the Connecticut Land Co., principal surveyor in a 9-member party that laid out all the townships east of the CUYAHOGA RIVER. In 1797, Pease produced the first published map of the Western Reserve. His field notes, journals, and letters provide a detailed description of his experiences in the Reserve. Pease also carried out surveys of a township in present-day Maine in 1795 and of the Holland Purchase in New York in 1798-99. In 1806-07 he was U.S. surveyor general in the Mississippi & Orleans Territory and ran the government survey of the southern boundary of Western Reserve lands west of the Cuyahoga River. He was named assistant postmaster general in 1814. He married Bathsheba Kent in 1785; they had no children. Pease died in Philadelphia, Pa.
Seth Pease Papers, WRHS.