Johann Ludwig Tiarks
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Johann Ludwig Tiarks (10 May 1789 – 1 May 1837) was a German mathematician and astronomer who was involved in determining the boundary between the United States and British North America.[1]
He was born in Waddewarden, Wangerland, Friesland, Lower Saxony on 10 May 1789.[1] His father was Reverend Johann Gerhard Tiarks and his mother was Christine Dorothea Ehrentraut.[1]
Education
He received a doctorate in mathematics from the University of Göttingen in 1808.[1] He took a position as a private tutor.[1]
Flight to England
He fled to England in 1810 to avoid conscription by Napoleon.[1] He became assistant librarian and factotum to Joseph Banks at the Royal Society.[1]
First visit to North America
In 1817, on Banks’ recommendation, he was appointed an astronomer to one of the commissions established under the Treaty of Ghent.[1] He acted for Joseph Bouchette who fell ill that year.[1] He remained with the commission after Bouchette was replaced with William Franklin Odell.[1]
In September 1817 he arrived in Akwesasne to make astronomical observations.[1]
He befriended many of the local Mohawk people and their priest, Father Joseph Marcoux.[1]
At the end of July 1818 Tiarks and his group left Akwesasne and with the American surveying team headed to Lake Champlain.[1] Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler headed the American team.[1]
At the lake both teams independently discovered that John Collins and others had incorrectly located the 45th parallel north, placing the fort at Rouses Point, New York in British territory.[1] The American members of the boundary commission refused to accept the findings.[1] Hassler had been replaced as astronomer by Andrew Ellicott, who was far less cooperative.[1] Ellicott was reported as saying to Tiarks "we should not do our work so exactingly and forget about completing most of it".[1] Tiarks refused to go along with the suggestion, as he felt it put his reputation on the line.[1] He was strongly supported in this by British Commissioner Thomas Henry Barclay.[1]
In 1819 he was working in the upper Connecticut River basin where part of the boundary was to run.[1] During summer 1820 he was working in what became northwestern New Brunswick and nearby areas of Quebec, returning to the upper Connecticut that fall.[1]
Disputes between British and American commissioners brought his work to a halt and he returned to Europe in 1821.[1]