Jesse Lukens (318)

Jesse Lukens (8 August 1748–December 25 1775) was a surveyor, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1772. Son of John Lukens, Surveyor-General of Pennsylvania, Jesse Lukens followed in his father’s footsteps, serving as a deputy surveyor up until his early death. In 1769, he worked alongside his father and David Rittenhouse at the request of the Astronomer Royal to take measurements of Philadelphia and Norristown. In 1774, the land office sent Lukens to survey the northeast branch of the Susquehanna. The following year Lukens joined an expedition up the Susquehanna to evict what they saw as an illegal settlement by Connecticut in the Wyoming Valley, going, in his words “for the fun of the thing.” In an attempt to take the Connecticut fortifications by boat, the brave Lukens came under heavy fire and ultimately died of a gunshot wound three days later, at only twenty-seven years of age.