Side by side is the way to go but if you do get a four wheeler have some racks wiht sides built for it so you don't have to strap stuff down.
Arthur A. Stiles gave the name of his other chainman as Wilson E. Allen. This is almost certainly the same Wilson E. Allen, born August 18, 1909, who the 1930 census found living with his parents in Mineola in Wood County and giving his occupation as "Surveying Helper". At the time of his death in Tyler on October 15, 1974, Allen was the owner-operator of a retail sales store according to his death certificate.
By the way, as a bit of information about Arthur A. Stiles: his father, William Stiles, was an Austin dentist who earlier in his career was a travelling dentist in Mexico. This is the envelope of a letter that his former partner, in 1881 firmly established as a "dentista Americano" in Mexico wrote to him. The penciled notaion is in Arthur Stiles's hand (much later).
Kent McMillan, post: 405517, member: 3 wrote: Yes, that would have been Aden Edmund Stiles, Arthur Alvord Stiles's son, born on October 5, 1906. He studied geology at UT and, according to the 1932 Cacus yearbook, was a member of Sigma Gamma Epsilon, an academic fraternity of geology students.
The younger Stiles died at age 61 in Austin, his occupation listed as "Retired Geologist" on his death certificate.
Here's his photo that appeared in the 1929 UT yearbook looking so clean cut that one would never suspect his association with geology.
Geologist?
That must've been heartbreaking for his family.
Dave Karoly, post: 405546, member: 94 wrote: Geologist?
That must've been heartbreaking for his family.
In the oil boom it probably was an easier sell when he announced his major.
Dave Karoly, post: 405546, member: 94 wrote: Geologist?
That must've been heartbreaking for his family.
The records of UT indicate that he took his BA in 1929 and MA in 1931, presumably back when geology was considered an art. It looks as if his specialty was PETROLEUM GEOLOGY, so he may actually have been instrumental in rounding up his engineer father as an expert witness in the lawsuits regarding the existence of the classic Texas vacancies in Upshur County, Texas that his survey investigated.
The classic Texas vacancy is, of course both (a) anything that the Commisisoner of the GLO says is a vacancy and (b) a narrow strip of land of uncertain history surrounded by oil wells.
Shawn Billings, post: 405547, member: 6521 wrote: In the oil boom it probably was an easier sell when he announced his major.
My coworker Jeff has a Bachelors degree in Geology from one of the Texas schools but I don't remember which one. He said it was pretty bad in the early 1980s. A job, when one could be found, would consist of living in a remote shack for a couple of weeks, then off a couple of weeks, etc. pretty brutal. he grew up in Houston but surveyed in NM and CA. The irony is he was born in Whittier (Richard M. Nixon's hometown) but only lived there a few months before Dad's oil company job moved the family to MD then Texas.
By 1947, Aden Edmund Stiles had evidently fallen into Okieland. At any rate, the roster in the International Petroleum Register shows him as:
STILES, ADEN EDMUND. Carter Oil Co.. Box 801. Tulsa. Okla.
And here's Arthur A. Stiles's bio sketch as it appears in the 1922 edition of "Who's Who in Engineering". Note the general absence of boundary surveying experience aside from the lawsuit between Texas and Oklahoma that required mapping the floodplain of the Red River in the vicinity of some oil wells. Note also that once upon a time it was apparently important for Engineers to let their colleagues know, as Stiles did in his bio, that that they were Presbyterian (rather than Pastafarian, presumably).
Shawn Billings, post: 405518, member: 6521 wrote: I was leaning toward side by side. I don't want a crew cab. I don't want it really big either. I don't carry a lot as it is and if I keep it solo, I certainly don't need a lot of people space. But being able to carry and extra person comfortably would be nice. I also thought about one of those ACE ATV's from Polaris, but they don't have much bed space it seems. I was leaning toward a Polaris Ranger 570, but for starters I may just go with a 4-wheeler. I don't need one a lot right now, but it would have been nice on about half of my jobs the past six months.
Actually, on craigslist in East Texas, there is a street legal jeep for about 5k. It's got a 4 banger in it but you can take it anywhere the side by side will go. 🙂 I actually toy with that notion from time to time for a swamp buggy.
Here's one last little tidbit about Arther Stiles's survey party in 1933/1934. The Charles Rado Ward that Stiles listed as a chainman on the field notes of his 1933/1934 survey was probably the same Rado C. Ward who the 1930 census found living in a boarding house in Mineola, Texas, giving his occupation as "Civil Engineer". Mineola was also where Wilson E. Allen, the other chainman, lived in 1930.
Here's a photo of Rado Ward from the 1925 yearbook of Mexia High School and the accompanying description of him.
