I was working on a new project today and in the course of research found a set of field notes with the following chain carriers listed for a survey in the Texas Hill Country near Wimberley in Hays County, Texas. Which chain carrier is the better known would you say?
BTW that is also the first time I believe I've seen the surveyor responsible for the work listed as a chain carrier. I wouldn't have had it any other way, myself, but it was uncommon.
My first guess would be R. A. “Herman” Muenster (which was anglicized to “Munster” in 1962 when the family emigrated from Texas to the United States and settled in the tony neighborhood of Mockingbird Heights).
R. A. “Herman” Muenster
At second blush, could J. F. Dobie be Joaquin Frankincense Dobie (which he changed to “Doobie” on that fateful night in 1948 when he wandered into the Victory Grill during an impromptu jazz session) who, in the early 1970s, started a rock ‘n roll band with his (much) younger siblings?
J.F. Dobie (5th row, 8th from left) and his brothers:
A dark horse candidate for the Dobie personage would be this guy, but the smart money is riding on Joaquin Frankincense Dobie/Doobie
Maybe it's a Texas thing, but the initials for JF make me think of J. Frank Dobie. But what do I know, I'm just a surveyor of trailer parks in West Odessa. And cemeteries. And large acreage surveys. And oil wells. And CVS pharmacies. And hospital tower vertical expansions. And mortgage surveys. And Rosa's Cafes. And fence disputes. And right-of-ways. And subdivisions from two lots to a thousand. And cetera.
Absolutely J. Frank Dobie. Author of Apache Gold and Yaqui Silver, Coronado's Children, two books who call to me like Sirens.
Who is J. Frank Dobie?
Tom
Click on the link in Andy Nold's post and it will direct you to a Wikipedia page with all kinds of information.
Almost certainly J. Frank Dobie
Yes, that J.F. Dobie is almost certainly J. Frank Dobie the noted Texas writer. Other members of the Dobie familly lived in the Wimberley area (and still do.) The surveyor, R.A. Muenster, was a fellow who after graduation from the University of Texas began his career as an assistant city engineer working for the City of Austin. That was approximately between 1911 and 1916. Muenster was a very capable surveyor, or so I would say based upon such work of his as I've followed.
Dobie was a collector of Texana and folklore. It's only natural that he'd have hired on for a few days work carrying chain on a survey party trying to figure out where a scrap of unsurveyed land was so some claimant might buy it from the State, as was the case there.
> But what do I know, I'm just a surveyor of trailer parks in West Odessa.
Andy, don't sell a specialty like that short. There isn't a long list of surveyors who would even return a phone call from a client wanting some of that trailer park action surveyed, so you might consider charging a premium and making it a specialty. :>
Tom
Despite my Saint Louis, Missouri address...I am a native born Texan from Williamson County....
Tom
Oh...I now get your response to my "who is J. Frank Dobie" question...which was not a question as to who he was, which I know...
It was a response in the correct fashion to Kent's Jeporady post...
"who is J. Frank Dobie?" is how you phrase your answer on that quiz show...
Who is Roland A. Muenster, CE, Los Angeles, CA, Alex?
Interestingly, the R.A. Muenster who signed those field notes in 1920 as a Licensed State Land Surveyor appears to have been the same Roland A. Muenster who in 1930 was employed by Los Angeles County, California as a Civil Engineer. He was born about 1890. I have to think that he probably also did land surveying in Cali, bringing his Texas expertise to help straighten things out. :>
Who is Roland A. Muenster, CE, Los Angeles, CA, Alex?
The census of 1900 gives the information that Roland A. Muenster was born in November, 1889 and was at the time of the censuse living in Luling, Texas where his father, Henry, was a saloon keeper.
