Scott Ellis, post: 445585, member: 7154 wrote: I didn't know the PLSS manual also included how when and where to write the field notes. Does it also say what kind of pen to use and what color ink?
Yup! Clueless... as I suspected.
Loyal, post: 445622, member: 228 wrote: Yup! Clueless... as I suspected.
Yes Loyal, I am not a PLSS Surveyor. I do not work in the cookie cutter system where I can asked a Surveyor a question from 5 States away and get the answer I need.
In Texas, Field Notes use to be written in the field, and some still are written in the field.
Hack, post: 445517, member: 708 wrote: Thought it be interesting for PLSS guys and even someone from the great State of Texas. This is a 1752 deed I am using for a current project. Notice the payment is in pounds and shillings. It is of the "Sawyer Lot" in the "Common pasture" which is a description that has carried through to today.
Starts at bottom of first page.
Sometimes it is easier to read if you tip the page away from you and read on the angle of the words.
Cheers,
Derek
That's a very readable deed. The scrivener's handwriting is excellent.
Don't you wish they were all that easy.
Scott Ellis, post: 445624, member: 7154 wrote:
In Texas, Field Notes use to be written in the field, and some still are written in the field.
In Texas, when some notes are now written in the office, you still call them field notes? I would think they'd be called office notes. Just trying to understand the complexities of your system.
In your avatar picture, that must be you taking a breather from writing field notes at your desk?
roger_LS, post: 445680, member: 11550 wrote: In Texas, when some notes are now written in the office, you still call them field notes? I would think they'd be called office notes. Just trying to understand the complexities of your system.
In your avatar picture, that must be you taking a breather from writing field notes at your desk?
Roger,
Yes Field Notes written in the office are still called Field Notes. Back when you could not go out to the field perform a survey and be back in the office the same day the Survey Crew would have to camp out. This would have been large tracts of land was being Surveyed and a horse was the transportation. So the Surveyor would check his traverse and make his notes every night. Thus we have Field Notes. Today they are mostly called the Legal Description, or the Metes and Bounds however it is not uncommon for them to be still called Field Notes. I know one older Surveyor if you came back to the office with field notes he would make you go back out on your dime and write the notes it the field.
Office notes would be the missed phone message.
Yes I probably was taking a quick break when the photo was taken.
Jon Collins, post: 445550, member: 11135 wrote: That handwriting is much easier to read than the GLO notes of the late 1800s in my PLSS world. I wonder why?
We had skools here in New England :p
Hack, post: 445517, member: 708 wrote: Thought it be interesting for PLSS guys and even someone from the great State of Texas. This is a 1752 deed I am using for a current project. Notice the payment is in pounds and shillings. It is of the "Sawyer Lot" in the "Common pasture" which is a description that has carried through to today.
Starts at bottom of first page.
I like my Avatar more gooder.
Careful. I'll sic my in-house English teacher on yer sorry tail.
That was done by a "low writer".
flyin solo, post: 445560, member: 8089 wrote: here's my favorite one to date. from 1886. i guess they had teenaged girls working in the county clerk's office around here in 1886.
btw- it's a party wall agreement in downtown austin. about 8 different lawyers wanted it removed as an exception to title. none of them had even tried to decipher it (you'd think at lawyer bill rates it'd be a golden goose.)
took me about 30 minutes to get through the two+ pages. i then took what i'd transcribed and compared it against known ownership at the time to try and attain a level of confidence. turns out lot numbers and owners matched up perfectly, and this party wall agreement falls smack dab in middle of the subject tract (though there's no party wall there any more).
I believe that's the handwriting of Frank Brown, the County Clerk himself.
Aside from a few ideosyncratic spellings, that Ipswich deed looks familiar enough from metes and bounds Texas:
"A Certain Parcell of salt marsh and upland lying and being in the North Common field in said Ipswich containing three Acres and an half bounded as followeth
Beginning at the North Est Corner and running Northwesterly upon a straight line by land now in the possession of Francisco Sawyer to a stake their fixed
Then upon a straight line about Southerly by land sett of the to the widows hay grds to the Creek to a State there fixed
and by sd. Creek to Capt. Tobyah Perkin's land & by sd. Perkin's land to the bounds first mentioned with a conveneant high-way to the same."
Kent McMillan, post: 445712, member: 3 wrote: I believe that's the handwriting of Frank Brown, the County Clerk himself.
Are you sure that it wasn't Emmett Brown?
flyin solo, post: 445560, member: 8089 wrote: here's my favorite one to date. from 1886. i guess they had teenaged girls working in the county clerk's office around here in 1886.
btw- it's a party wall agreement in downtown austin. about 8 different lawyers wanted it removed as an exception to title. none of them had even tried to decipher it (you'd think at lawyer bill rates it'd be a golden goose.)
took me about 30 minutes to get through the two+ pages. i then took what i'd transcribed and compared it against known ownership at the time to try and attain a level of confidence. turns out lot numbers and owners matched up perfectly, and this party wall agreement falls smack dab in middle of the subject tract (though there's no party wall there any more).
Can't make out the surname of the party fo the first part, but the rest begins:
Jos. G. B___ To Agreement Sophie Kreisle
The State of Texas
County of Travis
Article of agreement between Jos. G. B___ and Sophie Kreisle both citizens of said County & State
Witnesseth:
That said Joseph G. B___ for and in consideration of four hundred dollars to him in hand paid by said Sophie Kreisle the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged, for one half half of the cost of the party wall of the building erected by said B___ on Lot no. 4 in Block No. Forty two (42) in said City of Austin Travis County Texas said building fronts on Congress Ave in said City - said South wall of said building being built upon the dividing line between said lot No. forty .....
Loyal, post: 445714, member: 228 wrote: Are you sure that it wasn't Emmett Brown?
Frank Brown had very distinctive handwriting and was County Clerk in that period. I think it's a safe bet that the handwriting is his.
Kent McMillan, post: 445720, member: 3 wrote: Frank Brown had very distinctive handwriting and was County Clerk in that period. I think it's a safe bet that the handwriting is his.
Ah come on Kent, don't be such a stick in the mud!
I've been working 18 hours a day, 7 days a week for the last couple of months, and needling you a little bit is my only respite.
🙂
Loyal, post: 445722, member: 228 wrote: I've been working 18 hours a day, 7 days a week for the last couple of months, and needling you a little bit is my only respite.
Well, I've noticed that there was a change in handwriting in the late 1880s. It assumed what I'd call a more "modern" quality with letterforms varying from the standard copybook examples. Mr. Brown was a bit ahead of his time. It could also be that he saw job security in how he copied conveyances into the public records if his version required him to translate it.
He did make a career out of it in Travis County, Texas where Austin is.
[PRE]Brown Frank District Clerk - 1854-1864, 1866-1868, 1873-1876
County Clerk - 1865, 1876-1893
Acting County Clerk - 1873-1876[/PRE]
Peter Lothian - MA ME, post: 445535, member: 4512 wrote: What I find interesting is that the deed recites "...Thomas Gaines of Ipswich in the County of Essex in New England..." In 1755 it should more properly have referred to "...Essex in Massachusetts Province..." as there was no New England government at that time. Rather odd.
Peter you are correct 1752 would have been the Mass Bay Province. I do have to say I've seen "New England" referenced in many old deeds. My guess is that it was being used in a general sense.
Kent McMillan, post: 445718, member: 3 wrote: Can't make out the surname of the party fo the first part,...
Booth.
applied to the line between 411 and 413 (the tailor and the grocery) as seen on this sanborn map from the year previous. apparently nothing became of it, as the 1889 shows virtually no change (except for some landings off the back of the grocery and mill). the line in question now runs approximately through the north end of the lobby of the building from which i'm typing this right now (15 floors up).
