Augustine Herman

It was the year 1618 when 13-year-old Herman and his family left Bohemia and crossed Europe to Amsterdam. Herman became a trainee as a surveyor for the Dutch West India Company. Later in 1633, his employers offered him the chance to travel to North America, where along the way, he became a fur trader, tobacco merchant, mapmaker, and surveyor. Herman became the first Czech immigrant to rise to prominence in colonial America. He enjoyed being in America that Herman offered to make a complete map of the Atlantic Coastline in exchange for land. He then spent ten years surveying and charting the mid-Atlantic coastline and eventually produced a map of “Virginia and Maryland.” In doing so, Herman earned 13,000 acres of land for his cartographic skills. Herman then built a house and named it “Bohemia Manor” on what is now known as the Bohemia River. Today, Bohemia Manor is known as Chesapeake City, a town in Cecil County, Maryland, United States.