More footsteps from 1882 and 1890 (Texas)

Just like working a jigsaw puzzle, in retracing old, obscured boundaries, as you fit just a few pieces into place, the rest usually get quite a bit easier.

NW Corner of Tract Surveyed in 1882 (marked by my Rod and Cap) :

From the corner that appears in the photo above, in 1882 a surveyor's metes and bounds description made a part of a conveyance runs:

"Thence East 762 varas to bed of dry branch, a stone from which a post oak marked X bears S69°W, 39 varas" and then calls to run down the dry branch with its meanders.

On the ground, I set a rod and cap marker in a posthole I found at N88°43'58"E, 763.345 varas. From that point, a rod and cap marker (seen in the photos below) that I set at the position that I estimated once was the center of a post oak that is now dead and down bears S67°47'37"W, 39.195 varas.

Rod and Cap at Estimated Center of BT when formerly standing:

Remains of 1882 BT (Dead and Down):

That fit pretty well, except for the fact that the corner that was called to fall in the bed of a dry branch actually falls about 7.8 varas West of the center of the branch which is really more of a V-section swale. The photo below is looking West along the line. The white PVC lath is beside the rod and cap set in the post hole described above.

Interesting, in 1890, the conveyance of the remainder of the tract adjacent to the above line run in 1882 was described somewhat differently. Beginning at the same corner, the metes and bounds description runs:

"East 776 varas with the North line of the [1881 tract] to its Northeast corner a stake in a gully from which a post oak marked H bears N83-1/2°W, 40 varas."

The difference in distance calls, 762 varas vs. 776 varas along supposedly the same line and the different bearing trees called for at the supposed eastern common corner suggested that the 1890 surveyor might have not really been on the same line as had been run in 1882.

However, running N88°43'58"E, 771.160 varas I hit a point on the centerline of the swale from which a spike that I set in an old stumphole (species not determined, but mostly post oaks grow in the vicinity) bears N85°06'25"W, 40.000 varas.

So, I'd say that the 1890 surveyor just extended the line through the witness corner made by the 1882 suveyor to reach the actual "branch" or swale and also marked a bearing tree that was growing on the tract he was surveying, not the tract that had previously been conveyed to others. Whew! He had me going there for a while.