Roeser, Charles 'Karl' Richard
Charles 'Karl' Richard Roeser, Jr. (December 15, 1842 - June 23, 1893) was a Prussian-American surveyor and draftsman working with the U.S. General Land Office in the second half of the 19th century. Roeser was born in Merseburg, Saalekreis, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, but emigrated to the United States as a child with his family, settling in Wisconsin. In 1857-61 he took a degree in engineering from Lawrence University, Wisconsin, then went on to take a degree in law from Columbia. Shortly after the American Civil War (1861 - 1865) he entered public service as the Chief Draftsman of the General Land Office. He issued an 1875 map of the United States and an 1876 Centennial atlas of the United States, the Geographical and political atlas of the states and territories of the United States of America. He transferred to the Topographer's Office under Postmaster General Howe in 1882 with the mission to fully reorganize and modernize that department's mapping resources. His tenure was brief, as political infighting around civil service reform caused him to be sacked and replaced by his predecessor, Walter Nicholson. Roeser nevertheless instituted several important reforms that helped professionalize the Topographer's office and improve its efficiency, keeping with his civil service reform beliefs.
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