Handwriting Interpretation Challenge

The middle letter in the word in question looks like a "u" to me and like other same letters "u" in the notes. It may be the word "cut" and the "t" was never crossed. Cut rock makes sense the way I read it. My .02 cents.

Boy that's tough. The middle letter looks a lot like a "u" but it looks a lot like some of his "n"s as well. The last letter doesn't look like either of the other "d"s I see in other parts of the notes. His other "d"s seems to have a long tail going up from the round part.

Where's Kent. He's good at some of those note decipherings. I've seen a few others on this board nail old handwritings down as well.

Andy Nold, post: 453682, member: 7 wrote: I'm trying to figure out some field notes and I keep getting stuck. Sometimes it helps to crowdsource it.

The original document is the May 12, 1889 field notes created by D.L. Reavis for Section 2 as seen on Page 8 of the following PDF file:

http://www.glo.texas.gov/ncu/SCANDOCS/archives_webfiles/arcmaps/webfiles/landgrants/PDFs/8/4/3/843454.pdf

Here is the zoom in:

The third call is "Thence East at 1385 and 1780 cross ca?ñons 1900 vrs a stone on N. side of Painted Mountain ___ rock mrkd NE1 (the NE corner #2)" The word I am looking for starts the 4th sentence from the bottom. I suppose it could be "and", but I thought I would throw it out for a third opinion.

Interestingly the abbreviation "cwt in creek" at the end of the fourth sentence from the top is Reavis's abbreviation for Cottonwood tree as he spells it out in the field notes for section 1. The Texas General Land Office recommends "Cwd."

I lean towards "are"

I don't see it as "and". The other instances of "and" show the word slanting sharply down.

..'Thence 1900 vrs to a slum, and the NE corner of Survey #1'

"I don't see it as "and". The other instances of "and" show the word slanting sharply down."

I agree with you. I see the first letter as "o" [compared to (over Painted Mtn)], "n" is everywhere and the "e" as almost all in the line "NE corner of Survey #1 and the NW corner of this survey"

"was"?: "Thence East at 1385 and 1780 cross ca?ñons 1900 vrs a stone on N. side of Painted Mountain was rock mrkd NE1..."
I don't know. Trying to make it fit the context of the sentence.

Tom Adams, post: 453701, member: 7285 wrote: "was"?: "Thence East at 1385 and 1780 cross ca?ñons 1900 vrs a stone on N. side of Painted Mountain was rock mrkd NE1..."
I don't know. Trying to make it fit the context of the sentence.

Now that is an interesting thought. I am certainly wondering why a rock marked NE1 is at the NE corner of 2. It is also a common northwest corner for Section 1 in the block to the east. The only thing I can figure is that they miss cut the rock or they renumbered the sections after they finished the field work.

And, fwiw, you can zoom in a lot more on the link to the PDF but it does start to pixelate.

mountain "ore" rock

I've got it. I think it says "one" as in one of the rocks in the mound is marked NE1 (which is still weird). He neglected to say stone mound at the start of the sentence, but that was what he is typically setting was a rock mound.

I say "one". Look at "stone". Looks identical.

Andy,

You mention recommended abbreviations by the Texas GLO. Is that list available? This is an area of volcanic intrusives, so it may be an abbr. of a rock type. I see "ane" or "anc" as possibilities.

Edit to add: As for "one" the other occurrences seem to have the connector between the "o" and "n" at the top instead of at the bottom, which to me indicates an "a".

[USER=9850]@Gene Kooper[/USER] It's in your inbox, but I don't recall seeing geological terms.

Looks like "one" to me.

is that "stone m_d" possibly an abbreviation for mound on the top line? I was thinking some abbreviation for marked. If so, then maybe the "one" stone theory is that it's a single stone marked "NE1" instead of a mound of several stones.

I agree, it looks like "one"

Shawn Billings, post: 453711, member: 6521 wrote: I say "one". Look at "stone". Looks identical.

Yes! it is almost identical, especially if you look at the first "Stone" in the image. (And I like the "one rock" as opposed to a mound of stones to bring it into context a little more.)

What we've all learned from this is that cursive writing is dumb.