A wee bit of Surveyor’s Saturday Serendipity with a few pictures of an 1850’s survey plat I found this week. Of note about this survey plat are three things:
- The survey plat’s title, with interesting wording stating survey scope limitations (see photo to left).
- The nicely drawn and colored trees (see photos below).
- Large colored compass rose north arrow (photo not included, read below).
Many recorded surveys of the same time period as this 1850 survey plat are very rudimentary and plain. In contrast, this survey plat shows a great amount of survey detail and survey notes. This surveyor, Asa Winsor, prepared survey plans far above his peers, and with color, too!
Part of the title, however, is what caught my eye:
“…except the south line of said Hawkins Lot wherein the survey of said line was not completed for want of time or some other cause.”
The emphasis at the end of that sentence is mine. I completely understand want of time, but this leads me to wonder what could have been the some other cause? Lack of payment, maybe?
The use of color in preparing the survey plat adds a really nice visual focus, particularly when adding emphasis to the wonderfully hand drawn pine trees. The colored ink used for the trees, in the border, and for the north arrow held up much better over the last 162 years than did the black ink, but still, overall, the hand-drafting of this survey plat held up very well, all things considered.
I was not able to get a full-sized photo of the entire survey plat, nor the wonderfully (and large) drawn and colored compass rose north arrow, because of the manner in which the plat was placed in it’s hanging slide (the north arrow was either folded in half or cut off). I’ll look for another one of Asa Winsor’s surveys that I can get a full picture of, and a detailed photo of his typical north arrow. That’ll be for another Saturday – Have a fantastic weekend!