All,
I was contacted by member "Oriental" asking me if I was interested in looking for stones on state property that are incised with initials of the Mathis family who owned massive amount of land in Bass River. I was very intrigued by this and after receiving the information Oriental acquired I starting investigating where I felt the GPS coordinates might be. Rich knew the general area but we needed to get closer. To do this I had invaluable help from Boyd who made me specific files to help us in this endeavor. His help was instrumental in my opinion in making this much easier than it would have been.
It was determined there were two stones with the letters EM on one side and G.W.T on the other. I am quite certain the EW stood for Elihu Mathis who died on December 11, 1856.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/f...Sst=33&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=13525667&df=all&
So this morning before sunrise I was heading down Chew Road and took this blurry photo.
After meeting up with Rich we headed into the woods and surprisingly found a large stone inscribed with the letter M (Mathis) on it with a concrete Bass River Forest monument nearby.
Our next stop was to find one of the incised stones. Arriving at the location we walked around and around with no luck. I had pretty much given up and was ready to head on but Rich was persistent. He pointed a few things out to me and I then continued to poke in the ground with my walking stick. Sure enough the sound of stone rang out.
Completely hidden.
Clearing away years of vegetation and dirt.
And pay-dirt! If only we knew who this was? Research is needed.
The EM was on the bottom and the water has taken it's toll on it. The letters that were up look much better.
From there we looked for two stones on the way to the other incised stone. Both of them were not to be found on our way there. We eventually made it to the final location and in a few minutes of searching we found it. Unfortunately, as remote as it was the stone still somehow had been broken into three pieces.
Again, the G.W.T was in good shape.
On the other side the M could be distinguished somewhat.
We then looked for a few more less than 200 feet away and came up empty. So on the route back we again looked for the two stones we could not find before. Again, with his determination to find it we were able to add another stone to our list of found stones. This one on old deeds is called an "Old Stone."
I want to again thank Boyd for his help and I hope to have in the near future a few more stones to find with our very own "Oriental."
Guy
I was contacted by member "Oriental" asking me if I was interested in looking for stones on state property that are incised with initials of the Mathis family who owned massive amount of land in Bass River. I was very intrigued by this and after receiving the information Oriental acquired I starting investigating where I felt the GPS coordinates might be. Rich knew the general area but we needed to get closer. To do this I had invaluable help from Boyd who made me specific files to help us in this endeavor. His help was instrumental in my opinion in making this much easier than it would have been.
It was determined there were two stones with the letters EM on one side and G.W.T on the other. I am quite certain the EW stood for Elihu Mathis who died on December 11, 1856.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/f...Sst=33&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=13525667&df=all&
So this morning before sunrise I was heading down Chew Road and took this blurry photo.
After meeting up with Rich we headed into the woods and surprisingly found a large stone inscribed with the letter M (Mathis) on it with a concrete Bass River Forest monument nearby.
Our next stop was to find one of the incised stones. Arriving at the location we walked around and around with no luck. I had pretty much given up and was ready to head on but Rich was persistent. He pointed a few things out to me and I then continued to poke in the ground with my walking stick. Sure enough the sound of stone rang out.
Completely hidden.
Clearing away years of vegetation and dirt.
And pay-dirt! If only we knew who this was? Research is needed.
The EM was on the bottom and the water has taken it's toll on it. The letters that were up look much better.
From there we looked for two stones on the way to the other incised stone. Both of them were not to be found on our way there. We eventually made it to the final location and in a few minutes of searching we found it. Unfortunately, as remote as it was the stone still somehow had been broken into three pieces.
Again, the G.W.T was in good shape.
On the other side the M could be distinguished somewhat.
We then looked for a few more less than 200 feet away and came up empty. So on the route back we again looked for the two stones we could not find before. Again, with his determination to find it we were able to add another stone to our list of found stones. This one on old deeds is called an "Old Stone."
I want to again thank Boyd for his help and I hope to have in the near future a few more stones to find with our very own "Oriental."
Guy
