Edward Mohun was born on September 3, 1838 in Chigwell England to Mr. and Mrs John Mohun. He arrived in Victoria in June of 1862. He was married to Emmeline Jane Newton (widow of W.H. Newton) in New Westminster in 1878. From 1863-1871 he worked as a surveyor throughout Vancouver Island, the Okanagan, Fraser Valley and Haida Gwaii. In 1871 and 1872 he was a the Canadia Pacific Railway Divisional Engineer of the “H Party” in charge of surveying the Yellowhead and Eagle Pass.
Mohun was appointed as a surveyor to the Joint Indian Reserve Commission in 1876. He surveyed reserve allotments throughout Vancouver Island and the coastal areas. In 1884, with the direction of the Honourable W. Smithe, Chief Commissioner of Lands and works, Mohun created a map of the Province of British Columbia. In 1885 he was involved in the large dyke and drainage projects in the Fraser Valley and from there he went on to designing the sewer systems in Vancouver and Victoria. In 1886 his research on BC wood products for bridge building resulted in the basis for future bridge calculations. In 1890 he was awarded the contract to be the chief engineer for the design of Victoria’s sewage system. In 1897 he received the “Gzowski Silver Medal” for his paper titled “The Sewage System of Victoria” presented before the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers”. The Victoria sewage system that he designed was considered state of the art at the time but is currently under scrutiny as a result of the sewage being deposited into the Strait of Jaun de Fuca.
Later in his career he was involved in sanitation and drainage projects in Victoria and the Vancouver - Pitt Meadows areas, a sanitation inspector, provincial railway inspector, and a public works engineer. He also held the position of Justice of the Peace for a period of fifteen years. In 1890 he was involved in the creation of the Professional Association of Land Surveyors in British Columbia along with fellow JIRC surveyor W.S. Jemmet and others, which resulted in Mohun’s unanimous election as its first president. The establishment of the association led to the establishment of the “Act Respecting Land Surveyors” which became law in APril of 1891 and placed authority for land surveying under the Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works. In 1898, he reported on the sanitation conditions in a number of town in the interior of the province and Vancouver Island.
Mohun passed away in October 1912 at his home at 618 Blanshard St., Victoria at 74 years of age. His name is remembered in Mohun Lake and Mohun Creek in the Sayward region and the Mohun Shoal on the mid-coast.
References
- Allen, Robert W. “Edward Mohun, CE, LS: Surveyor of Railways, Indian Reserves, and the First President of the Association of Provincial Land Surveyors, British Columbia” The Link Vol. 23 no. 4, (October 2000): pp 14, 16.
- Gordon, Katherine. Made to Measure: A History of Land Surveying in British Columbia. Vancouver: Sono Nis Press, 2006.
