I just completed a survey of 217.41 acres in Upshur County, Texas. The land has been in the Edwards family for quite some time. The land I was surveying was three tracts: part of a 281 acre tract, part all of a 141-3/4 acre tract and all of a 70-7/8 acre tract (which is the south half of the 141-3/4 acre tract. The 281 acre tract is cut about in half by a county road and the owners found a buyer to purchase all of their property South of the county road. The West line of the three tracts is an original grant line, the common line between the D. Ferguson Survey and the A. T. McGee Survey. We call these original grants "surveys".
Here is a very good and very short article from American Surveyor Magazine that discusses vacancies in Texas and why they exist:
http://www.amerisurv.com/content/view/4050/153/
In the late 20's and early 30's there were a lot of claims of vacancies as mineral interests became very valuable after the oil boom. Some vacancies proved out and some did not. Some land owners near the A. T. McGee Survey were claiming that such a vacancy existed and the Commissioner of the Texas General Land Office commissioned Arthur Stiles to go out and determine if the vacancy existed.
His report can be accessed from my dropbox account:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rxwo011jd28qp6a/45639 AT McGee Survey Notes by Arthur Stiles.pdf?dl=0
I had no idea that Arthur Stiles had done any work in this part of Texas and it was a lot of fun to retrace his retracement. For those unfamiliar with Col. Stiles, he was developed the gradient boundary method for determining the boundary along the Red River between Texas and Oklahoma as a commissioner of the survey appointed by the US Supreme Court. His report is excellent and very detailed. His survey was made in December of 1933 and January of 1934. I did not attempt to find the Western corners of the A. T. McGee Survey, but I did find both the Southeast corner and the Northeast corner of the survey as recognized by Stiles. At the Southeast corner he found a railroad iron. He noted in his report that this corner was recognized by the Upshur County Surveyor (Elms) in 1911 as the survey corner, but I couldn't be for sure from the report if the location was what Elms recognized or the railroad iron itself. The iron was cracked, which I've never seen, so I'm guessing it was from a time of poorer metallurgy, but that's only a guess. Next to this iron is a Warren City, city limits monument, a brass cap in concrete. There is also a large sandstone next to the railroad iron (likely the original corner or perhaps a very early attempt at re-monumenting it. At the Northeast corner, I found a railroad iron that Stiles set. His report explains that they went to the approximate location of the corner and roughly figured the location of two witness trees, long gone. They began to dig, 2 feet deep to clay. There in the clay sub-soil they found the remains of the witness trees. He set an axle at each of the two witnesses and buried them a couple of feet deep. I found these axles as well.
By the time I tied the corners in, I wasn't really concerned with the direction and distance to be honest, which is somewhat of a revelation to me. These two monuments are in excess of 5800 feet apart. Stiles surveyed the lines with a transit and chain, I used RTK. My measuring technology is clearly superior, but the measurement was much less significant to me than the work he put into retracing the original grant and in monumenting his work. I found both monuments and held them to establish the West line of my survey. The direction and distance, while of interest, just seemed almost trivial.
Stiles called for the line to be N 00å¡45'02" E, 2101.3 varas (which equals 5837 US Survey Feet).
I measured N 00å¡20'12" E (Geodetic) 5832.06 feet (Ground).
His survey plat depicts the magnetic variation from True North and makes no mention to bearing relation. As detailed as his report was, I suspect that his survey would have mentioned celestial observations had they been done. I suspect he worked from a corrected magnetic bearing relation. The distance missed about 5 feet. My results were verified by second observation, so I know my work is good. Ultimately I was at the monuments and the direction and distance were useful bits of information to get me to those monuments. His survey also misclosed by a couple of varas as I recall.
Northeast Corner of A. T. McGee Survey, set by Arthur Stiles in 1934
One of the stump remains monumented by Stiles with an axle, 18" deep.
The Southeast Corner of the A. T. McGee Survey, recovered by Stiles in 1933, recognized by Elms in 1911 (crack visible). Also note city limits monument.
Now that is what I call real surveying. Well done, and thank you for the photos.
I love finding old axels as monuments. I found a old cam shaft a few months back. As soon as I figure out a way to stamp the hardened steal I'm gonna use that to monument a corner!
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Very cool!
Anyone familiar with Upshur County history know of the relationship between R. E. McClelland and W. H. McClelland? Stiles mentions meeting with W. H. McClelland, surveyor from Gilmer, on the ground. W. H. McClelland was advocating the existence of a vacancy. Stiles evaluated the reasons for McClelland's position and found them to be lacking.
R. E. McClelland was the prominent surveyor in Upshur County for many years and acted as county surveyor for a good number of them. I don't know if W. H. was perhaps his father.
Second-Generation, post: 405201, member: 1477 wrote: I love finding old axels as monuments. I found a old cam shaft a few months back. As soon as I figure out a way to stamp the hardened steal I'm gonna use that to monument a corner!
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It shouldn't be so, but when I find an axle, I am biased automatically to weight it higher than other most other monuments. In this case, that could have been bad, if I had happened upon one of these axles and not been aware of their history or the existence of the railroad iron I would have been led to believe that the axle was the grant corner. One of the axles is 20 feet from the railroad iron and the other is 28 feet. It would be easy to confuse one of the axles for the actual grant corner without any documentation. It was wise of Stiles to plant them so deeply so that the likelihood of finding them instead of the railroad iron would be reduced.
A tract nearby has 5/8in iron rods for monuments and at 20ft from each monument is another 5/8in iron rod along a boundary line.
With all of em sticking out of the ground at least half a foot, it gets kinda confusing to the land owners.
Bury the reference deeper than the actual monument seems appropriate.
I tend to give RR irons priority because many were set in this area and all are at least 4 to 5 ft in length and some longer. At 80lbs per foot they are a monster to handle. Many different places on the end have been used for measurement from the "T", bottom and center of bead and actual center of the end. I was taught to use the bottom of the bead.
When it comes to axles, I like to bury the hub and leave the spline end up.
A tract nearby has 5/8in iron rods for monuments and at 20ft down each boundary from each monument is another 5/8in iron rod for reference.
With all of em sticking out of the ground at least half a foot, it gets kinda confusing to the land owners.
Bury the reference deeper than the actual monument seems appropriate.
I tend to give RR irons priority because many were set in this area and all are at least 4 to 5 ft in length and some longer. At 80lbs per foot they are a monster to handle. Many different places on the end have been used for measurement from the "T", bottom and center of bead and actual center of the end. I was taught to use the bottom of the bead.
When it comes to axles, I like to bury the hub and leave the spline end up.
Shawn Billings, post: 405210, member: 6521 wrote: Anyone familiar with Upshur County history know of the relationship between R. E. McClelland and W. H. McClelland? Stiles mentions meeting with W. H. McClelland, surveyor from Gilmer, on the ground. W. H. McClelland was advocating the existence of a vacancy. Stiles evaluated the reasons for McClelland's position and found them to be lacking.
R. E. McClelland was the prominent surveyor in Upshur County for many years and acted as county surveyor for a good number of them. I don't know if W. H. was perhaps his father.
He is the son to my understanding.
W. H. McClelland became a County Judge.
R. E. McClelland's grandson Andy did work for him until R.E.'s passing.
His brother Jimmy McClelland was a sidearmed pitcher and threw a wicked curve ball circa 1967+.
I definitely agree, Mr. Harris. Those railroad irons trump axles in terms of perceived weighting. I was thinking about those guys toting those railroad irons to the corner back in '34. I don't know how many of them it took to get it there. Did they drag it or each grab a side? I don't know, but it took some work getting it there. Then digging the hole and getting it to drop in place. I'm tired just typing about it.
One of the axles that he set was the spline end up. I'm guessing the hub is down at the bottom. I don't know. Hellacious monuments.
Second-Generation, post: 405201, member: 1477 wrote: I found a old cam shaft a few months back. As soon as I figure out a way to stamp the hardened steal
I think camshafts, like crankshafts, are typically made of cast iron.
Jim Frame, post: 405255, member: 10 wrote: I think camshafts, like crankshafts, are typically made of cast iron.
You might be right. It was pretty rusty when I found it so I ground it down to bare metal. I have a punch set but it's a cheap Chinese set so I'm reluctant to try it on the camshaft.
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Shawn Billings, post: 405156, member: 6521 wrote: I measured N 00å¡20'12" E (Geodetic) 5832.06 feet (Ground).
It's worth noting that the line in question was surveyed at the end of 1844 at a variation of 9å¡10'E, and that the variation estimated by the NGDC US Historical Declination models for the same l0cality is 9å¡22'E.
So:
9å¡22' Estimated True Azimuth of Magnetic North
9å¡10' Survey Variation
-------
0å¡12' Estimated True Azimuth of Survey North
In other words, the direction of the line run NORTH in 1844 in that locality that one can sit in the office and calculate using the US Historical Declination model is within 0å¡08' of what you found on the ground.
Kent McMillan, post: 405263, member: 3 wrote: In other words, the direction of the line run NORTH in 1844 in that locality that one can sit in the office and calculate using the US Historical Declination model is within 0å¡08' of what you found on the ground.
Shawn Billings, post: 405156, member: 6521 wrote: ...I used RTK.
sorry, Kent, i couldn't resist.
flyin solo, post: 405275, member: 8089 wrote: sorry, Kent, i couldn't resist.
I read that in the OP.
I was waiting with bated breath for impending seismic activity.
flyin solo, post: 405275, member: 8089 wrote: sorry, Kent, i couldn't resist.
Well, the property in question is in East Texas, so the question of standards really doesn't apply.
For the folks with network rovers, you'd just subtract 1å¡58' from the True Azimuth of +0å¡12' that was the estimated direction of "North" as used by the 1844 surveyor to get the corresponding Grid Azimuth in the Texas Coordinate System of 1983 (North Central Zone).
Jesus what a jackass.
Nicely done!
Interesting story Shawn. Glad you posted this
