Interesting little map I made showing the areas surveyed by quadrants in the 6th PM. The entire shaded area represents all surveys under the 6PM with each color separating it by townships North- South and ranges East-West.
NE = 4%
SE = 8%
SW = 32%
NW = 56%
very cool, really shows the limits of the 6th PM.
Way back in high school the principal called a special all-school assembly to condemn the actions of a specific minority of students who were causing many problems for the faculty and staff. He referred to them as being the "ten percenters". They were only ten percent of the student population but represented over ninety percent of the discipline issues.
Ever since then, one of my goals in life is to become one of those "ten percenters". I was one of the ninety percent at the time of the school assembly.
It makes me so proud to know that I have exceeded by goal and am, in fact, an "eight percenter".
Your HS principal would have been happy with his lot in life had he known what was going on in the rest of the world.
We had an Assistant Principal whose particular duties included "disciplinarian". He was suppose to "ride herd" on all us wayward yahoos..what your principal called the 10%ers. We tormented that fella so bad he eventually quit the education scene and became a successful painting contractor...
During one of his special "all school assembies" a bunch of us picked up his VW Beetle and set it bumper to bumper between two large elm trees. He drafted the track team to help move it after school and I understand one of the bumpers got bent.
Another time there were three of us that had after-school detention under his watchful eye. We had been busted for hanging out in the parking lot when we should have been to class. Under the guise of keeping car break-ins to a minimum, hanging out in the parking lot was a grievous offense. We were so particularly offended that he would imply we were breaking into cars we removed his prized 8-track tape player from his VW right before detention. We placed it in a drawer in his desk while he was out in the hall strutting around. He was furious, but had all three of sitting there the whole time...no better alibi!!
Same guy drove down to "Perry's Pool Hall" that was a block away from school during the day to try and bust some of us that were skipping class. We had a look-out and all us delinquent students were able to escape to the alley while he was coming in the front door. It just so happened it was "trash day" and the two or three businesses that occupied the building with the pool hall had their trash cans all lined up along the side of the building. To keep people honest, all five or six trash cans were usually locked together with a steel cable and lock. But being trash day, they were all unlocked and the cable was neatly coiled up on the ground.
This was before our "disciplinarian" had bought his new VW and he was driving an older model pickup. While he was inside shaking down the pool hall and checking the bathrooms for us kids, we were beside the building tying six full trash cans to his pickup with the steel cable....AND the padlock that was with it.
When he pulled out he not only had six trash cans in tow behind him, he banged up the shiny Cadillac that belonged to Don, the barber next door.
He didn't last long...we made short work of him.;-)
As Jeff Foxworthy would say: That's what I call my Senior year.................
We had a wishy-washy music instructor-turned-principal arrive on the scene from somewhere in Texas. Little guy. Wanted to teach us via negotiation. Educate us on the difference between rights and privileges and that sort of thing. The very first day at a school assembly he asked if we all had our skid-jewels in a voice not common north of the Red River. A laugh arose from the crowd. He couldn't figure out what was funny, so he went on as if it hadn't happened. At least 10,000 times that year I heard students saying to other students, "Y'all gotcher skid-jewel?"
We had endured two years of the BIG BAD MONSTER FROM HELL immediately prior. We caught a glimpse of daylight and we seized it, you might say. Kids who had meekly watched their P's & Q's religiously in the past suddenly joined ranks with the 10 percenters. Including me.
The school board relieved him of his duties at their April meeting. A calm facility focused on education had turned into a house of chaos.
The 12% of the 6PM surveys east of the Principal Meridian are probably, as a whole, the best surveys in the 6PM. John Calhoun was the surveyor general (a true surveyor) and after he left office in 1859 it was just one corrupt surveyor general after another put there in office as political favors.
Most of the county north of me was surveyed in the mid-1850's. Everything else from there to Oklahoma and further west was mid-1860's and later. I understand the statement about corrupt surveyor generals. That probably explains why I am so distrusting of anything in the Field Notes and Plats. You will recall that I always scoff about east-west lines having been established on a latitudinal curve. Hah!