Texas Surveying in 1847
In a thread below, I posted some bits of letters written from Texas in 1847 by a surveyor named J.J. Giddings who had come here from the Northeast corner of Pennsylvania seeking opportunites.
[msg=2838]Surveying in the Field of Fortune, 1847-Style[/msg]
Looking over an account from the same time period written by Dr. Ferdinand von Roemer, a German visitor to Texas, I found a description of what were quite likely members of Giddings surveying parties on their way to the frontier where Giddings had contracted with the German Emigration Company to survey thousands of sections of land in the territory of the Comanche Indians.
"After a day’s journey of twenty-four miles we camped near several springs which were designated by the simple appellation “The Hole,” and which formed a regular station for the German teamsters going to Fredericksburg. We met unexpected company here. In the bushes surrounding the springs, a number of American surveyors were encamped, who were employed by von Meusebach to survey the grant and who were now on their way to Fredericksburg. All were wild looking fellows, dressed almost entirely in deerskin and armed with a long American rifle and the bowie knife in their belts.
"Surveying in the uninhabited highlands of Texas is not the peaceful, dangerless occupation as in Germany, but always connected with danger and great hardships and privations. Camping under the blue sky for months, often many days’ journey removed from the homes of civilized people, the Texas surveyor finds his rifle just as necessary as his compass, on the one hand to supply meat for his needs, on the other to ward off attacks by hostile Indians. The latter, who regard the compass as the instrument or “thing which steals the land,” know full well that the surveyor is only the forerunner of the white intruder who will drive them off the hunting grounds of their fathers. Therefore they pursue him with particular hatred. Although surveyors venture into such a country only in companies of not less than six to twelve men, it nevertheless happens every year that such companies are attacked by Indians and all or some of the men are killed. I recall such a case during my stay in Texas, where three of a company of eleven men were murdered at the springs of the Rio Blanco."
Dr. Ferdinand Roemer, "Roemer's Texas, 1845 to 1847", Oswald Mueller, Translator, Standard Printing Co., San Antonio, 1935
Just another day in Paradise. Substitute drug dealers for Indians.
So, they were actually earning their $25k (hazard pay) that summer.
Good stuff.
> So, they were actually earning their $25k (hazard pay) that summer.
Well, they didn't know in January, 1847 that von Meusebach, acting on behalf of the German Emigration Company, would be able to conclude a peace treaty with the Comanches that would enable them to conduct their surveys without great opposition from the Comanches.
The rate at which J.J. Giddings wrote that he had contracted to make the survey was $20.00 per section. Most of those sections had to have field notes written for half sections or quarter sections, thus multiplying the paper work. He did take a few shortcuts in the field work. For example, it looks as if very few of the E-W lines were actually run in the course of his work, that mainly the N-S lines were.
Considering the standard rate for a Deputy Surveyor was $3.00 a mile, or $12.00 per section, Giddings was only collecting a 67% premium for his work.
> Considering the standard rate for a Deputy Surveyor was $3.00 a mile, or $12.00 per section, Giddings was only collecting a 67% premium for his work.
$12 if running four miles around the section. They would only be really running about 2 miles for each section. The township lines having been previously run, they would start at the SW of 36 and go N a mile thence E a mile to complete section 36 and so on. Once they came to the N & W township lines, they only needed to survey one mile to complete those sections.
> $12 if running four miles around the section. They would only be really running about 2 miles for each section. The township lines having been previously run, they would start at the SW of 36 and go N a mile thence E a mile to complete section 36 and so on. Once they came to the N & W township lines, they only needed to survey one mile to complete those sections.
No, this was in Texas. There were no townships or ranges in District 3 of Fisher & Miller's Colony. The Federal rectangular survey system wasn't followed here. For example, the tract numbering is in the thousands.
Apologies. I thought you were comparing to PLSS states. I know TX was different.
Kent, didn't Meusebach's name come up in our discussion of the Centralia Station's SA&MG survey? Or perhaps it was his son who held the land cert?
Meuseback
> Kent, didn't Meusebach's name come up in our discussion of the Centralia Station's SA&MG survey?
The only Meusebach who shows up as patentee in the GLO land grant data base is John O. Meusebach (formerly known as Baron Otfried Hans Freiherr von Meusebach)
Meuseback
Yeah, but I seem to recall he had some interest in the stagecoach line that went through Centralia post war of northern agression.
