"One last question - TePaul says he has the metes and bounds. So, what is the date of that survey? Is it tied to the land purchase in November-December 1910? Or to the final configuration in April 1911? Is there more than one survey?
Jeffrey:
Basically both. I do have the metes and bounds or could get the last item I need easily enough. I think I finally figured this whole thing out and in a way I never expected to. I think the key to this whole puzzle is going to be the Johnson Farm and we can check the metes and bounds and dimensions of any boundary on it through 2-4/5 owners (2 being the Johnsons and H.Gates Lloyd, and 5 being the Johnsons, Fecht, Philadephia and Ardmore Land Co. HDC/Lloyd. The point is through all those transfers the boundaries apparently never changed---eg it was always 140.137 acres (so the metes and bounds and boundary dimensions of the old farm through all all those deeds should match. Add a couple of other items from minutes and reports and provable timeline items like the actual metes and bound of Club House Road after it got built and compare that to the western border of the old Johnson Farm at the top of the "L" should explain all this.
I still want to check all the incrementals and totals but when you start analyzing what went on here acreage-wise with MCC planning from Nov, 1910 with MCC agreeing to buy 117 acres from HDC through Lloyd buying the land (161 acres, that total is the 140 acre Johnson Farm and the 21 acre Dallas Estate) to him passing it back to the MCC Golf Association Corporation (which he was the president of, by the way) at 120 acres they all seem to match up perfectly.
What I never considered that seriously is there always was a section of the old Johnson Farm that clearly was never considered for any golf course (when you see where it was you'll see why). That section can certainly easily be measured by the metes and bounds of that particular section of the farm from the old deeds metes and bounds through multiple owners (which again should all match).
I think that section was 23 acres. Take the 117 (amount of land MCC agreed to buy from HDC for $85,000) from the 140 Johnson Farm total and you have 23 acres.
117 (MCC agreed to buy)
+21 (Dallas Estate)
=138
-120 Lloyd turned over to MCCGA
=18
I think when Wilson and Committee began working on laying out courses there were 21 acres between the delineation of Club House Road on their survey maps and the boundary of the old Johnson Farm to the west between College and Ardmore Aves. I think that was squeezing them up in that existing triangle on their topo survey maps.
We may never be able to check that number with their old topo survey maps they used to design the course (because we don't have them) but we actually can check it the other way today (from existing Club House Road to the old Johnson Farm boundary on the west between College and Ardmore) I would bet a small amount at the moment that if a surveyor were to measure the present configuration of Club House Road (which we do have metes and bounds for) with the border of the old Johnson Farm to the west between College and Ardmore the would come up with 18.
And THAT is where they got the additional three acres they agree to pay $7,500 for at that 4/19/1911 board meeting via the Thompson resolution.
Of course there were no metes and bounds on that “Approximate Road Location” because there didn’t have to be, particularly since Lloyd had put himself in position to move boundary lines around between the proposed 117 acres agreed to and the land of HDC to the west. So there is no point measuring that entire road on the Nov. 15, 1910 plan today. All that’s important is what the dimensions of it were when that road location went on the Wilson Committee’s working topos. We know they had them because Wilson mentioned it to Russell Oakley on Feb, 1, 1911 and it certainly wasn’t that November 15, 1910 land plan. Actually their working topo (countour) surveys had letter sections on them because Wilson mentioned that to Oakley too.
I’m still trying to work this all out but if we did measure today, and we can easily with a surveryor, the metes and bounds of Club House Road and the dimensions of the old Johnson Farm to the west from College to Ardmore Ave, I think we will come up with 18 acres!
This was all a bit confusing for me to do backwards and forward using the events of the timeline from Nov, 1910 to July 1911 so let me check it all through again and get back to you Mr. Jeffrey Brauer, Esq, Sir!