Atlas of Early Surveys Lying within the Bounds of Modern Amherst County VA TTBannister Jan 2003 Land Office records have been searched for tracts mostly larger than 50 acres, mostly granted prior to 1820, and lying within the boundaries of modern Amherst County. Modern Amherst lay in Goochland Co until 1749, and in Albemarle until 1761 when old Amherst Co was formed. In 1807 old Amherst was divided into modern Amherst and Nelson Counties. Altogether, 996 surveys (or fragments of surveys) have been transcribed and platted, and of these 864 have been located and mapped. Between 1738 and 1753, very large tracts were granted to Rev Robert Rose, "late Secy" John Carter, and to Geo Braxton, Peter Rucker, and Geo Carrington. These tracts cut a broad swathe across what it is now modern Amherst Co (see AmhAll.gif). For convenience in mapping, the remainder of the County is divided into three districts. Amherst East lies SE of the swathe. Amherst West and Amherst North lie west of the swathe, the west and north districts being divided by an east-west line centered on Buffalo River and Enchanted Creek of Pedlar River. Besides this text file, the Atlas consists of .DB, .MBL, and .gif files, for each of the three districts. .gif files provide maps showing the approximate locations of survey lines). .DB files contain data for each patent or grant (including grantee, year, acreage, brief description, citation, etc). .MBL files contain bearings and distances of each line of each survey, and are in the format usable by the program DeedMapper. Locating Surveys The purpose of the Atlas is to help locate surveys lying in Amherst. There are two ways to proceed. (1) DeedMapper users can use the .MBL files and plat the individual surveys. Possibly, DM users can solve problems of scaling and longitude-latitude indexing, so that selected surveys can be drawn upon a background of a gif file map. 2) Alternatively, .DB files may be used to locate a survey. The letter "W", "A", "T", or "U" in column 8 of a .DB file indicates whether a survey has been well, approximately, or tentatively located or else remains unlocated. If located, columns 9 & 10 give the longitude and latitude (in thousandths of degrees) at the center point of a rectangle just enclosing the survey lines. Using the longitude-latitude grid of the gif file maps, the center point can be located. (For those surveys consisting of two or more fragments, the longitude and latitude of the center point is listed for each fragment.) Survey Maps - Generalities Located surveys are drawn with green boundary lines and tinted with colors to make clear the size and shape of the individual tracts. Some later surveys overlapped earlier surveys; some of these later tracts are drawn with red or purple boundary lines superimposed on the earlier surveys. In the gif file maps, a few surveys are labelled. Each survey (or fragment of a survey) has a unique 8-character label which is composed as follows: chr 1 is the initial of the grantees first name, chrs 2-5 are the first four characters of the family name, and characters 6-8 are the year of issuance of patent or grant. If a survey consists of two or more fragments of lines, chr 5 of each label is a number. If the same grantee received two or more patents in the same year, chr 4 will be a different number for each grant. In .DB files, the first five characters of a label are listed in column 4, and the year in column 3. In the maps, a "?" in character 5 of the label indicates the survey consists of two or more fragments. In the maps, white space sometime indicates mapping errors which leave a gap or an overlap between adjacent surveys sharing common lines. Or white space may delineate an area where that no survey has as yet been located. Tagged Stations - Watercourses The survey records sometimes identify stations as being on or near a named watercourse or road. In transcribing the surveys, these stations are tagged in a way that permits plotting. Stations on named watercourses have primary use in mapping surveys. The file HYDRO.gif shows that the mapping of surveys has indeed correctly placed stations on Fluvanna River and Buffalo Rivers, and Porridge Creek, waters which today still retain the same names as in colonial times. In addition, other tagged stations show the locations of watercourses whose old names no longer appear on modern maps. Examples are Juniper, Stovalls, and Limekiln Creeks and Mine Branch where a copper mine once existed. Tagged Stations - Old Roads File OldRoads.gif shows survey stations on named roads superimposed on a map of modern roads in southeast Amherst Co: From Lynchburg, old Lynches Road ran due north more or less coincident with modern US 29, then veered off northeasterly on or near modern Coolwell Road (VA 604). Old Megginsons Road seems to coincide with an eastern stretch of US 60. Study of surveys in Nelson and Buckingham Counties shows that Megginson owned extensive lands on both side of James River in the vicinities of the modern hamlets of Eldridge Corner and Five Forks. Some stations of surveys in Buckingham Co identify "Megginsons Ferry Road" and point to a ferry near Eldridge Corner. From the ferry, Megginsons Road ran westerly, on the course now followed by US 60, perhaps extending to the modern town of Amherst. A line of stations on old Higginbotham Road suggest that this road began near James River near Five Forks and ran northwesterly. From a point on US 60 about 2/3 of way from Five Forks to Amherst Town, old Dillards Road and Colemans Road seem to have run southeasterly to James River at or near the modern hamlet of Walkers Ford. Stations of some old surveys in Appomattox County also mention Colemans Road and show Colemans Road trending toward Walkers Ford. In Amherst Co, a few stations of old surveys mention Stovals Road (or Stovals old Road). It apparently ran northeasterly-southwesterly about half way between James River and modern US29.