So, having located the original Northwest and Southwest corners of a 160-acre Homestead grant surveyed in 1875, the next step was to search for the Northeast corner of an adjoining 160-acre grant surveyed in 1882 described in its field notes as falling on the West line of the 1875 grant. In the field notes for the 1882 grant, the Northeast corner of the 160 acres was described as follows:
"Beginning at a pile of rock lying South 200 vs. from [NW corner of 1875 grant] from which a L[ive] O[ak] 10" dia. brs North 4 vs. marked X."
Looking South
Looking Easterly
The photos above show a fence corner in the reputed vicinity of the Northeast corner of the 1882 grant. The white PVC pipes represent the post holes of an older cedar post and wire fence that the present pipe and tee-post fence replaced. The 3/8-in. Iron Rod near the fence corner has been described by one surveyor as the Northeast corner of the 1882 land grant. Another recent survey has placed the corner about 57 ft. North of the 3/8-in. Rod.
After locating that stuff and finding that none of it agreed particularly well with the 1882 surveyor's calls for the corner to be South 200 vrs from the rock mound at the Northwest corner of the 1875 grant (that remains in place to this day, both the original rock mound and the remains of its bearing tree) and to be South 4 vrs. from what in 1882 was a 10-in. Live Oak, I looked around a bit more.
What the Live Oak that was 10-inches in 1882 had become was a stump of a dead Live Oak that had been larger than 10-inches at one time, and had produced some scion growth from the bole before it finally died. I set a Spike and Washer in the center of what had apparently been the 10-inch tree and located it.
From NW Corner of 1875 land grant (Rock Mound No. 122 previously described)
[pre]
Object Grid Azimuth H. Dist
(varas)
SW Corner of 1875 grant 178°19'15" 936.960
Live Oak No. 124 176°35'56" 194.39
3/8-in. Iron Rod 176°46'46" 196.800
Live Oak Stump No. 132 178°05'11" 195.190
[/pre]
So, restoring the Northeast corner of the 1882 grant 4 varas Southerly from Live Oak Stump would place it at a distance of 195.190 vrs. + 4 vrs. = 199.190 vrs. from the Northwest corner of the 1875 grant vs. 200 vrs. called for in the field notes.
For the purposes of comparison of chaining, the Southeast corner of the 1882 grant that was reported as lying South 200 varas from the Southwest corner of the 1875 grant is actually 198.80 varas Southerly from it.
What about the pile of rocks 4 varas from the bearing tree? Some reason for it to be missing?
> What about the pile of rocks 4 varas from the bearing tree? Some reason for it to be missing?
The position falls about 5.5 ft. South of the present fence and possibly in an old cedar road. There are rocks that have been used to chink the present fence that look as if they would have made a decent mound. The area has been fairly well disturbed by various activities, so not finding a mound intact is not contradictory evidence in the same way that not having found the 1875 mound in the basically undisturbed cedar forest would have been.
It's one of the questions I ask myself when looking for PLSS corners. Is there a reason why this corner might not be here? A few times I can't come up with a reason but still can't locate the corner. I think many surveyors give up way to soon.
> ...dead Live Oak...
Located in the vicinity of a "found set rebar", no doubt!
😀
"So, restoring the Northeast corner of the 1882 grant 4 varas Southerly from Live Oak Stump would place it at a distance of 195.190 vrs. + 4 vrs. = 199.190 vrs. from the Northwest corner of the 1875 grant vs. 200 vrs. called for in the field notes."
So, restoring the Northeast corner of the 1882 grant, 4 varas Southerly from Live Oak Stump, would place it at a distance of 199.190 vrs.
195.190 vrs. + 4 vrs. = 199.190 vrs. from the Northwest corner of the 1875 grant vs. 200 vrs. called for in the field notes.
Never scrimp on the commas. 😉
> Never scrimp on the commas. 😉
I found those commas in a bottle dump downhill from a tavern on an adjacent property that had been in business since the 1930's. I'm always willing to share, but you're on your own with the semicolons.
That one bit of the description threw me. I wasn't sure how (the way it seemed to be worded) you could pass that Live Oak, 4 vrs in a southerly direction, and be at a station of 195.19'.
Reminds me of the classic [msg=138436]thread on punctuation[/msg] a couple years ago. Funniest discussion of such I've ever seen.
> That one bit of the description threw me. I wasn't sure how (the way it seemed to be worded) you could pass that Live Oak, 4 vrs in a southerly direction, and be at a station of 195.19'.
Well, what I posted was:
>So, restoring the Northeast corner of the 1882 grant 4 varas Southerly from Live Oak Stump would place it at a distance of 195.190 vrs. + 4 vrs. = 199.190 vrs. from the Northwest corner of the 1875 grant vs. 200 vrs. called for in the field notes.
If the real problem was an unclear antecedent of "it" in the phrase "would place it", here's a different version:
>So, restoring [meaning replacing] the Northeast corner of the 1882 grant in a position 4 varas Southerly from the stump of the Live Oak bearing tree would place the corner a distance of 195.190 vrs. + 4 vrs. = 199.190 vrs. from the Northwest corner of the 1875 grant as compared to the distance of 200 vrs. called for between the two corners in the field notes of the 1882 grant.
5 month old Jameson Karoly says, "Good Job McMillan!"
(No he's not named after the fine Irish Whiskey. Kent would probably suggest Lagavulin or Laphroig Karoly)