Wacky Deeds
During any given week of land surveying there are numerous hours devoted to the reading of land deeds. This process is an absolute necessity to the profession of surveying. It is in the reading and interpretation of deeds that we surveyors glean the “intent” of what the original deed-writers wanted to convey. However, after several decades of reading thousands of deeds, I can safely say that not all deeds are created equal.
Most deeds are rather mundane, without anything of note to distinguish them from any other. But on occasion, we come across land descriptions that range from incomprehensible, to hilarious! A normal deed will have a description of a corner and then follow that with a bearing and distance to the next corner. However, what do you do when a deed description reads: “thence in a generally northwest direction the length of a cigar smoked while riding a slow horse”? (Yes, that was an actual description :) Or….you could encounter a description that says, “thence around the hill as row of corn grows”. (Farmers understand that to mean the boundary follows the same elevation around the side of the hill).
Sometimes the monumentation itself provides some entertaining descriptions. Normally iron rods of different variations are mentioned. On occasion a car axle, drill steel, or roofbolt are thrown in since those were items the landowners had on hand. One deed corner was a “buried canon”. Another deed began “at the tree where Lampkins was killed”. (Fortunately that event happened long before a survey was done!) The most common corner call in old mountain surveys are trees of various species. Speckled Oaks, Box Elders, Pawpaws, Pignut Hickories…….the list is endless! But the hardest trees to find are the ones listed in the deed as being “now gone” :)
As you can see, deed reading (and subsequent interpretation) is not always a “cut and dry” part of the survey. What made perfect sense to the original deed writers 100 years ago can sometimes provide challenges for those that follow after them!