REMINISCENCES OF A SURVEYOR1 By JAMES T. WEED In November, 1888, I was elected county surveyor of Gallia County, Ohio, and on the first Monday of January, 1889, I assumed the duties of the office. In the forty-five years since then I have done a great deal |
of surveying of land and city lots and highways, and a little in mines. Most of this work has been in Gal- lia County, though I have practiced a little in the ad- joining counties of Jack- son and Vinton, in nearby West Virginia and in Franklin County, Ohio, and in the West. I served as Gallia County surveyor for nearly ten years, until 1898, and again for six years from 1911 until nearly 1918. Services as deputy surveyor and in private practice make up the re- maining time. There are plenty of hills in Gallia County, and quan- tities of brush and weeds |
|
along the line fences. I have climbed up and down hundreds of hills and hacked my way through miles of the brush. I have had 1 A talk given at the Ohio State Museum, Sunday, November 20, 1933. (151) |
152 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
several falls as I carried my transit on
snow-covered ice, and
I have pulled briars and poison ivy out
of many a fence
corner.
I have been asked if I have had any
experiences with snakes.
To tell the truth, I never gave them a
thought as I waded through
thickets or searched for lost corners.
Perhaps I have been for-
tunate. Poison ivy and jiggers never
seemed to annoy me.
Before the country roads were improved,
transportation was
almost unbelievably difficult. I used to
do a great deal of driving
with a two-horse rig. When the roads
were too bad for a four-
wheeled vehicle, I did some traveling in
a cart, and sometimes I
went on horseback. I well remember the
difficulty I had in get-
ting to a remote place in the Guyan
Hills back of Crown City.
From Gallipolis to Crown City I went by
river on the old Carrie
Brown. My client met me with horses. I mounted, put the
transit
on my shoulder, and we started out. The
road was so bad that
the horses would have to leave the
beaten track and pick their
way along the fence.
My predecessor as county surveyor was
William R. White,
father of Judge Ross White of the Gallia
County bench. Mr.
White had quite a reputation for ability
in finding old corners.
At that time many of the original
bearing trees were still stand-
ing. Locating the tree or its stump with
the original marks gave
one a feeling of assurance about a
corner. Now, of course, those
old marks are not nearly so numerous.
Mr. White used a Randolph compass. I
purchased a Gurley
transit, probably the first to be used
in Gallia County. Most of
the bearings at that time were from the
magnetic needle, with an
attempt to allow the proper variation
from true north. Now most
of the bearings are determined by
sighting back along the line
just run and turning the angle, a
practice that Mr. White called
"backlashing."
Use of the needle is not much in
practice now, except as a
check, but I should like to say that
forty years ago I had some
excellent results with magnetic
bearings. With careful chainmen
I have been able to run the exterior
lines of a "forty" through
timber and strike my initial point in
the final run.
REMINISCENCES OF A COUNTY SURVEYOR 153
The "field notes," records
made by the old surveyors, are of
great assistance in retracing old lines.
Written laboriously, after
the work was done, they form a part of
the indispensable records
of the county.
The first surveyor who had entered
extensive notes in the
books was Reuben Rothgeb. Mr. White told
me that he had
great confidence in Rothgeb's surveys,
and I also found evidence
of their accuracy as I retraced some of
the lines.
Rothgeb was considered an agnostic. In
his will he directed
that a monument setting forth his
beliefs be erected to his
memory. There was great objection to the
inscription, and the
matter was fought out in the
courts. It was decided that the
monument should be erected, but the inscription
omitted, and the
large bare stone is still standing near
Addison.
Following Rothgeb the surveyors were
Henry Grayum, Ed
Shepard, James Gardner, and William R.
White.
Mr. White told me how he happened to
study surveying.
He lived at Rodney and followed the
blacksmithing craft and
taught country school. Once when Mr.
Gardner was surveying
at Rodney he was asked to sight along
the section line that
formed one boundary of the White farm.
It was a small job,
Mr. White averred, but the fee was five
dollars. Seeing that
money might be so easily made as that,
Mr. White straightway
took up surveying himself. It was better, he thought, than
blacksmithing or teaching.
Five dollars was the fee for a day's
work for the county,
and in the 'nineties it seemed to be
good pay. But there was no
regularity about it. And a day was often
long and fatiguing.
Moreover, I have done a number of days'
work for which I re-
ceived very little, and sometimes no pay
at all.
Until 1915 the county surveyor received
no salary, but was
paid by the day for work performed.
During my first term
there was little official work. I did serve as a member of the
board of review in the land appraisement
of 1890. The other
members were County Auditor Wayne Kerns,
and Commissioners
Frank Coughenour, W. H. Clark, and Dan
J. Davis.
Besides the land appraisement work, I
would occasionally
154 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
survey a road, or run a farm line. The total pay from public
and private work was small, so I
resorted to my old occupation
of teaching. When official duty called I
would hire a substitute
for my school.
During my second term, agitation became
intensive for the
building of turnpikes. The people
traveled dusty roads in sum-
mer, and in winter drove their horses
through such slush and
mud that cleaning the plaster off the
animals was a great chore
after a trip was over. Everyone wanted
better roads, but there
was a difference of opinion as to the
wisdom of the investment.
The papers were full of letters, pro and
con. Many were afraid
that road building would make the taxes
too heavy.
The demand for turnpikes became so
vociferous that the
county commissioners had to take some
action. In 1890 I made
a preliminary estimate of cost. Finally the commissioners de-
cided to put the question to a vote, and
in 1892, with three men
appointed as turnpike commissioners, I
surveyed about a hundred
miles of the main roads and prepared an
estimate as a guide to
intelligent voting. The election came in
the fall of 1893. The
vote was very close, but turnpikes won
by a majority of about
fifty. In February, 1894, I received a
telegram ordering me to
begin work on the turnpikes, so I had to
resign my school and
make the plans for eight or ten miles of
road.
In that road-building program the first
consideration was
keeping the cost low. Roadbeds were to
be twenty feet wide and
the pavement ten feet. The surfacing was
to be gravel, or stone
and gravel, or sandstone base with
crushed limestone top. By
present-day standards, my estimates were
very modest,
averaging about $3,000 or less per mile,
some of them for gravel
construction being only about $1,800.
But a great many people
thought the estimates of cost were
shockingly high.
Nowadays standards are much higher, and
roadbeds and
pavements much wider. Costs vary widely,
running from $5,ooo
to $50,000 per mile.
Lawrence County had had experience
building turnpikes, so
Jim Edgerton of Ironton came up for a
few days to help me get
the plans started. Later I had other
assistants. Mr. White did
REMINISCENCES OF A COUNTY SURVEYOR 155
some of the work. In all, in the decade
of the 'nineties, Gallia
County built about one hundred fifty
miles of graded and sur-
faced roads. The result, financially,
was that the county, whose
tax duplicate was small, became heavily
bonded.
The people were ignorant of the
necessity of maintaining
the roads after they were built. The idea prevailed that once
constructed a stone-surfaced road would
be permanent. The
people said, "Let our children pay
for the roads as they will have
the benefit of them."
When the road-building was in full
swing, I was very busy,
surveying during the day, drawing plans
at night. Some people
didn't understand why a survey was
necessary. Many who
thought I needed to go over the road
once were mystified when
they saw me working on it again to get
the levels. They would
ask "Why are you surveying the road
again?"
My aim was always to give as good work
as possible for
the taxpayers' money. I didn't loaf on
the job, and I couldn't
endure to see others on the payroll
slighting their work or idling
their time. Often I would spend all day
on a survey, and then
work at my office on the plat, or grade,
until late at night. My
light was a flickering, artificial gas
jet high overhead. For these
really double days I never asked, nor
received, extra compensa-
tion.
But though I exasperated my family
because I could never
be depended on to show up at a regular
meal time, neither my
digestion nor my eyes appeared to
suffer. Perhaps it was because
I was interested in what I was doing and
got a great deal of
exercise. Often I would put my transit on my shoulder and
walk to my work. A transit is not a
light instrument. Once, I
remember, I was preparing plans for a
section of road about
nine miles from Gallipolis. Starting early in the morning I
shouldered my transit and walked to the
site. Arriving at the
scene of work, I walked two miles
farther to get a helper, there
being no telephone. We worked hard until nearly dark (I
have often had to use matches or a
lantern to finish up a job.)
and then I walked a mile and a half to
the place where I was to
stay all night. Next morning it was
snowing, but I was on the
156 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
road early. We didn't stop for lunch.
Finishing up about three
o'clock, I put the transit on my
shoulder and trudged those nine
miles back to Gallipolis.
You may ask why I didn't hire a rig. The
county wasn't
paying my expenses. Besides the road was almost impassable
for a buggy and I was a good walker.
The county commissioners were my
superior officers. The
members then were Dan Miller, Joe
Thompson, and James Hunt.
Jenkin W. Jones was county auditor.
The commissioners were not technically
trained, of course,
but they were reasonable men, and I got
along with them pretty
well, though we sometimes
disagreed. I always tried as tact-
fully as possible to persuade them to
accept my views.
The construction was performed by
contractors, most of
them local men who had decided that they
were qualified to
direct men in the use of tools and the
moving of materials. Natu-
rally some of them were and some were
not. There seems to be
an inherent knack or "eye,"
the possession of which will enable
a man to build in a neat and workmanlike
manner, the lack of
which will make his best efforts seem
amateurish. Contractors
are generally honest, but supervision is
always necessary. One of
the greatest difficulties is in making a
grade smooth and even.
There is always the temptation to leave
cuts high and fills low.
The excuses were varied. Once I called a contractor's atten-
tion to certain places where his roadbed
was less than twenty
feet wide. His answer was, "But
some places are wider, so it
will average twenty."
That was long before prohibition, and
the drinking of some
of the contractors caused me annoyance.
They would lose their
customary good nature and become
over-friendly, or quarrelsome.
One of them, a very intelligent man when
sober, always became
foolish when he had been drinking. He took the "cure" and
seemed to be reformed. One day he came out on the road,
acting queerly, and I feared that he had
broken over. When I
asked how he was, he replied, "Not
very well. I've been
drinking."
"I'm sorry," said I.
REMINISCENCES OF A
COUNTY SURVEYOR 157
"The very birds
in the air are sorry," he answered.
In 1898 I planned and
supervised the first brick pavement
in Gallipolis. The
condition of the streets was deplorable. Every
fall the city council
would dump river gravel on the streets. Dur-
ing the winter this
material would become thoroughly soaked,
and after the spring
thaw and the rains, it would become a deep
slush that would have
to be hauled away. Finally
it was seen
that something would
have to be done. The
city and county
agreed to cooperate
in laying a brick pavement on Fourth Avenue
and Pine Street, a
distance of about a mile and a quarter.
This type of surface
was different from that with which I had
been working. I took particular pains, and personally
inspected
the brick. That pavement gave very good service during
more
than thirty years,
and my connection with it has always been a
matter of
satisfaction to me. Pine Street was rebuilt a few years
ago. Fourth Avenue has recently received some
repairs, using
the original brick.
The law of 1915 gave
the county surveyor a salary and the
responsibility of
being resident engineer for the State Highway
Department.
Consequently I had the pleasure of being connected
with the new
construction period that was just beginning.
The
new high-grade roads
were, for the most part, on the line of the
old turnpikes that
had been built under my supervision.
Com-
paratively few
changes were made in grades and alignment.
More recently, for
high-speed traffic, the alterations have been
much more extensive.
A great deal of my
surveying has been for private individuals.
I have run new lines,
retraced old lines, measured city lots, laid
out subdivisions
which the proprietors hoped would become cities,
surveyed cemeteries,
and done a little work in coal mines, some-
times in veins so
thin that I had to take my transit off the tripod
and mount it on a
box.
It is remarkable how
limited are the ideas of the ordinary
person in regard to
surveying or to the surveyor's transit. I have
been asked if I were
taking a picture of the line. Intelligent
people have inquired
if my transit recorded the acreage of a tract
as I sighted along
the exterior lines.
158
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
"What will it cost to have my farm
surveyed?" is the usual
question.
"That depends on how long it will
take," I reply.
"Oh, you'll have no trouble; it's a
north and south line."
I can never rely on the client's
estimate of the difficulty of the
job. Often the north and south lines,
run in the old days by the
magnetic needle without allowance for
the proper variation, are
hardest to retrace.
Gallia County has fifteen townships. The
eastern ten, though
only about three-fifths of the area, are
in the Ohio Company's
Purchase, and have a bewildering variety
of subdivisions, sections,
"fractions" of 262 acres, and
"lots" of various sizes. Some
of
the 100-acre and 160-acre lots are a mile
to two miles long, and
only five or six hundred feet wide. The intent was to divide
the river bottom so that each member of
the Company would
have his share of the good as well as
the hill land.
The five western townships are called
"Congress Lands."
Their subdivision into sections, each
one mile square, and quarter
sections, is simple. A section is 640
acres, and a "quarter," of
course, 160 acres.
In this one county, therefore, are
examples of two stages in
the evolution of the method of dividing
the public lands. The
simple system of division into
townships, sections and quarter sec-
tions proved so admirable that it was
adopted for all the vast
domain of the West. Ohio served as the
laboratory, as Professor
C. E. Sherman points out in his Original
Ohio Land Subdivisions.
The life of a land surveyor has its
pleasures, its hardships,
its vexations, and even its temptations.
Once I measured a farm
which had been deeded as 200 acres, but I
found that the previous
surveyor had measured off only 157
acres. That was rather a
large mistake.
Early in my surveying career I was
retained by a man who
had bought a certain number of acres of
timber from an estate.
He had me run a winding line, in and
out, to take in the best
trees. When I had enclosed the tract I
had more than seventy
sides from which to compute the area by
the double meridian dis-
tance method. The computation was
laborious. I worked on the
REMINISCENCES OF A COUNTY SURVEYOR 159
problem about half a day, only to find
that I had not taken in the
full number of acres. We had to run some
more lines to enclose
the best of the remaining timber.
A legal survey is one made by the county
surveyor or his
deputy, with due notice to owners of
adjacent property. One
spring a woman insisted that I make a
legal survey of her 40-acre
tract. I was very busy, but finally set
the day so that the notices
could be delivered. Then my client made
the startling suggestion
that if a certain house should
"happen" to fall on her side of the
line she would not only pay me for the
work but would also make
me a present of twenty-five dollars. I
informed her emphatically
that I would locate the line to the best
of my ability, but that I
was not "throwing" surveys for
presents. I went to Crown City
by boat, drove over the hills in a hired
rig until the harness gave
out, walked a mile or two carrying my
instruments, found a
lodging place, engaged helpers, and put
in, all told, about three
days' hard work. The house, while near
the line, proved not to
be on the land of my client. She was in a fury, and ordered
me to return to the job and do the work
over. I told her if she
wanted the line run again to get someone
else to do it. She never
paid me for my time and expense.
In a boundary dispute feeling often runs
high. The losing
party may think the surveyor has been
bribed. At times I have
had hesitancy in going to the house of
either party for a meal
or lodging, lest the other might think I
had been unduly influenced.
I have noticed friendliness turn to
coldness and suspicion.
The importance of proper legal steps in
a transfer of land is
understood, but the need for a clear and
accurate description of
the property, a matter that is fully as
important as the other, is
not generally appreciated. The
descriptions of land in deeds are
sometimes fearful. I remember one deed
whose inadequacy must
have been realized by the writer,
because, after the uncertain
boundary had been described, this
sentence was added: "This
piece of land is in the shape of a
smoothing iron."
A deed is sometimes viewed with awe and
guarded jealously.
Once when I was surveying a 400-acre
farm, I came to a contigu-
ous tract of an acre or two. I sent one
of the helpers to the house
160
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
on the small property to borrow the deed
so that I might check the
description. Word came back that I
couldn't see the deed, but I
might buy the place for three hundred
dollars.
If a surveyor has surveyed a farm or lot
to the satisfaction
of the owner the verdict will be,
"He's a good surveyor." A per-
son who is not pleased over the location
of the line will hold the
opposite opinion.
Sometimes luck enters into the making of
a favorable im-
pression. In the land appraisement of 1890, one of the ap-
praisers got me to survey the lot of
school section no. 16 in Mor-
gan township. We ran a whole mile along
that section, and when I
told the flagman where to place his rod
in the last sight he put it
squarely on the stone that had been set
at the corner forty years
or more earlier. "A good job,"
said the appraiser. As a matter
of fact, the survey would have been just
as good if I had missed
the stone a rod, for I could have moved
all the marks over in
proportion.
A great deal of surveying has to be done
in cold weather
when the leaves do not interfere. Many
times I have been so cold
that I could scarcely steady myself to
look through the telescope.
Once on a road survey, as I bent over
the transit to read the
vernier my breath froze my mustache to
the instrument and I had
to call on one of the commissioners to
release me.
All in all, in spite of its vexations,
surveying is interesting
and healthful. It is important, as it is
the foundation of all con-
struction and, in its determination of
boundaries, the arbiter of
property ownership.
REMINISCENCES OF A SURVEYOR1 By JAMES T. WEED In November, 1888, I was elected county surveyor of Gallia County, Ohio, and on the first Monday of January, 1889, I assumed the duties of the office. In the forty-five years since then I have done a great deal |
of surveying of land and city lots and highways, and a little in mines. Most of this work has been in Gal- lia County, though I have practiced a little in the ad- joining counties of Jack- son and Vinton, in nearby West Virginia and in Franklin County, Ohio, and in the West. I served as Gallia County surveyor for nearly ten years, until 1898, and again for six years from 1911 until nearly 1918. Services as deputy surveyor and in private practice make up the re- maining time. There are plenty of hills in Gallia County, and quan- tities of brush and weeds |
|
along the line fences. I have climbed up and down hundreds of hills and hacked my way through miles of the brush. I have had 1 A talk given at the Ohio State Museum, Sunday, November 20, 1933. (151) |