Welcome to the Old Maps Oddities Blog

Posted here are oddities we found from our old map collection.

 

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Fort Dummer Survey 1749 Brattleboro

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Brattleboro's Fort Dummer, built in 1724, was the first English settlement in Vermont, and was an important military fort and  trading post before there was a Vermont.  This was Massachusetts at the time. An accurate survey of the fort as it stood 25 years later was made by surveyor Matthew Patten from New Hanpshire*.  This surveyor's 1749 notebook sketch shown above is likely not proportional , a normal practice when a surveyor is making his raw measurements.  (see the Jones drawing following), There may not be a final drafted version of this survey, as this image was used as the basis for published drawings of the fort, such as this 1896 rendering (BELOW) by PVMA (Deerfield, MA) ****** Volunteers needed to transcribe  more old docs. ****** If you would like a nifty winter project to help flesh out this 300 year old bit of history. contact dave allen:    daven@sover.net .  I have original documents (copies) that need transcribing and analysis....
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Margaret Mercer on Loudoun County 1854 wall map (Virginia)

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We were working on the 1854 map of Loudoun County , Virginia and noticed something very unusual: One of the five images included on the map was of a memorial monument to a woman. Who was Miss Mercer and why was this monument on the map? 1850s County wall maps showed all roads and homeowner names, and often had pictures decorating the margins. There are 5 pictures on this map, three of which are "public" properties - a Leesburg street view , a courthouse and old  house of former President Monroe . The other two relate to Margaret Mercer.   Margaret Mercer was an active  abolitionist and advocate for women's education. Her father was John Francis Mercer, governor of Maryland. He gave her a rigorous education equal to her brothers', and a solid Christian upbringing. After his death in 1821 Miss Mercer came to believe that the keeping of people as slaves did not square with her profound Christian faith. She freed the slaves she had inherited from her father.  ...
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Did Vermont connect with Lake Erie??

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  Whoever heard of West Vermont State - extending all the way to Lake Erie?   A huge Vermont, divided into 3 sections, appears on an old manuscript map in the British Public Records Office. "Middle Verdmont" on the old map went from the Green Mountains to Lake Champlain. "West Verdmont" went fron Lake Champlain to Lake Erie.       Residents of Rochester and Syracuse may be surprised to learn that they might have been part of Vermont.  The heavy band "Verdmont State or everlasting Hills"  depicts the Green Mountains. "East Verdmont" is shown with lots of settlements along the Connecticut River.  The "270,000 souls" could be a population count for the entire area of Verdmont. (By the way "Verd" was archaic French for Green.)  The map needs more study to nail down the year it was drawn but it  may be ca 1780 as it refers to the United States of America. I have annotated my scan with bold type and the yellow shading to make it ...
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