Following is a portion of an old deed. If I am reading the writing correctly, it uses a term I have not seen before.
The deed is from an area several hours east of me and concerns some genealogy work that my mother is doing in that area.
It appears to state "...crossing Knob Lick Creek twice in the fourth out and once in the fifth out one hundred and eighty poles..."
Using some of the other deed calls, I can place the property on the west branch of knob lick creek as is called for earlier in the deed pretty well. When I do that, the call shown above crosses the creek twice at a distance of 1740' and 2005' and again at 2610'.
I have never seen the term "out" as it is used in this case in a deed description.
Does anyone have specific knowledge of this term that they could share?
Can the adjoining deeds shed any light?
as i recall, an out is one unit of the full length of a 66' chain.
i.e. they crossed the creek on the fourth and fifth pulls of the full length of the chain.
edit: now that i look at your dimensions, an out may be 10 chains, which would match up fairly well w/ your distances
Out - An 'out' was ten chains. When counting out long lines, the chain carriers would put a stake at the end of a chain, move the chain and put a stake at the end, and so on until they ran "out" of ten stakes
The terms describe the direction the creek bends in relation to the property and the number is counted beginning at a boundary of the property.
A helpful part left out was the passing call distances to the creek.
orrect, unless they were pulling a half-chain as prescribed by the instructions in some areas,in which case it would be 10 half-chains or 5 chains.
The old surveyors' compasses often had an "out counter" built in, which was a little pointer that could be moved by hand to the next number when the chainmen called "out".
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> The old surveyors' compasses often had an "out counter" built in, which was a little pointer that could be moved by hand to the next number when the chainmen called "out".
Yes, I have seen that.
> Following is a portion of an old deed. If I am reading the writing correctly, it uses a term I have not seen before.
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> The deed is from an area several hours east of me and concerns some genealogy work that my mother is doing in that area.
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>
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> It appears to state "...crossing Knob Lick Creek twice in the fourth out and once in the fifth out one hundred and eighty poles..."
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> Using some of the other deed calls, I can place the property on the west branch of knob lick creek as is called for earlier in the deed pretty well. When I do that, the call shown above crosses the creek twice at a distance of 1740' and 2005' and again at 2610'.
Well, if the surveyor was using a two pole chain, then the fourth out would be the interval between 40 and 50 two-pole chains, or 1320 ft. to 1650 ft.. The fifth out would be the interval between 50 and 60 two-pole chains (1650 ft. to 1980 ft.)
Thanks for all of the replies.
I had divided the middle creek crossing by four and thought that out might refer to some unit of measure around 500'+/-.
The deed is from 1804 and in an area I am not familiar with. So, I have no idea of how precisely the measurements may have been made.
Very helpful replies. I have learned something new for the day - that always makes for a good day.
Thanks for all of the replies.
I agree that an OUT is the end of 10 chain or tape lengths, when the head chainman is out of chaining pins. There are 11 pins in a set and the head chainman starts with 10 and the rear chainman with one.
