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Certificate for Land Patent, 22 June 1836–B
Source Note
Source Note
Register’s Office, Certificate, to JS, Lexington, Lafayette Co., MO, 22 June 1836; printed form with manuscript additions in unidentified handwriting; signature of Finis Ewing; Land Entry Case File 7874, Record Group 49, Records of the Bureau of Land Management, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington DC. Includes docket.
One leaf, measuring 6½ × 8 inches (17 × 20 cm). The document appears to have been cut out of an unknown ledger, with the left and bottom sides of the recto unevenly cut. The document is folded in half. Two diagonal cuts in the shape of an “X” were made through the signature of Finis Ewing. The docket on the verso is in the handwriting of E. M. Ryland and reads, “7874 | Lexington | Pat[ent] dat[e] 7th Nov. 1837 | 7th Sept 1838 | Rec[orde]d Vol. 18 | Page 448”.
This document and a receiver’s office receipt were sent together to the General Land Office in for approval, then returned to the Land Office in , Missouri, and filed there. Records from the Lexington Land Office were relocated to the Bureau of Land Management when the Lexington Land Office closed in 1922. By 1953 the land records held by the Bureau of Land Management had been transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington DC.
Historical Introduction
Historical Introduction
In early summer 1836, agents acting on behalf of JS purchased land in what became , Missouri. Many in had been exiled from their homes twice in the last three years. In 1833, Saints living in fled to neighboring seeking refuge, and from 1834 to 1836 additional church members immigrated there at the encouragement of church leaders, who were hoping for an eventual return to Jackson County. In 1834, Saints began acquiring land for church settlements in the southern and eastern areas of Clay County. By the summer of 1836, church members owned nearly one thousand acres in the county. Facing their neighbors’ growing unrest over the continuing influx of Mormons and fears that the church was making Clay County a more permanent gathering place, in May 1836 church leaders began scouting new locations north and east of Clay County where the Saints could settle.
After returning to from , Ohio, in early May 1836, Missouri and led the effort to locate new settlements. Phelps wrote to on 2 June that he had been “constantly engaged in viewing the country” since his return; Phelps had completed two tours of northern Missouri with Partridge by the time he wrote to Cowdery. The two men first traveled through northern into and northern , eventually locating a desirable “mill seat on ” approximately thirty-five miles northeast of , Missouri. On their second tour, Partridge and Phelps—accompanied by and —scouted available land north of Ray County. Corrill then purchased seven eighty-acre lots in what became and an additional thirteen lots in the same area shortly thereafter. The Missouri church “made preperations to begin a settlement upon the new purchase” and hoped to move to these new areas before July 1836, but they were delayed by increasing tension in Clay County and by impending lawsuits.
Although JS did not travel to in 1836 or make land purchases there himself, he appears to have appointed agents, including , to purchase land in his name. On 22 June 1836, Corrill purchased land for himself and appears to have submitted applications for and JS. Two applications were made in JS’s name for around 478 acres of land in what would become . In order to purchase the land, which was owned by the federal government, Corrill traveled to the land office in , Missouri, to apply for the patents. Individuals interested in obtaining land could satisfy the legal requirements in one of three ways: making a cash payment, presenting a bounty warrant given for military service, or claiming preemption rights through proof of residency and improvements on the land the individual wanted to purchase. The applications submitted by Corrill were completed by cash payment.
Records exist for both land applications made for JS on 22 June 1836, but only the records for the second of the two land purchases (the purchase represented here) contain the federally approved patent, granting title to the land, that was sent with the application. The certificate and receipt featured here represent JS’s application for the second purchase. The first receipt indicates that the land claim was recorded by the register’s office, and the second verifies that payment for the land was received by the receiver’s office. The application forms completed by the register and receiver were each assigned a number, and together they formed a land entry case file, which was sent by the , Missouri, land office to the General Land Office in . Applications were then reviewed in Washington; if a case was found valid, with no conflicting claims to the land, the patent was approved and returned to the local land office to be given to the applicant as a deed of title. JS’s patent for this land was processed by the federal land office in September 1838.
Footnotes
- [1]
- [2]
Some church members rented land from original settlers in Clay County. Other church members purchased land from settlers or from the government through land patents or preemption claims that allowed them to live on the land before paying for it. (See Parkin, “History of the Latter-day Saints in Clay County,” 200–208.)
Parkin, Max H. “A History of the Latter-day Saints in Clay County, Missouri, from 1833 to 1837.” PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1976.
- [3]
Parkin, “History of the Latter-day Saints in Clay County,” 207.
Parkin, Max H. “A History of the Latter-day Saints in Clay County, Missouri, from 1833 to 1837.” PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1976.
- [4]
For more on the tensions in Clay County, see Historical Introduction to Letter to John Thornton and Others, 25 July 1836; and William W. Phelps et al., Liberty, MO, to Daniel Dunklin, 7 July 1836, copy, William W. Phelps, Collection of Missouri Documents, CHL.
Phelps, William W. Collection of Missouri Documents, 1833–1837. CHL. MS 657.
- [5]
Partridge, Phelps, and other Missouri church leaders had traveled to Kirtland in early 1835 and remained there until the dedication of the House of the Lord and the solemn assembly held in spring 1836. (Partridge, Journal, 27 Mar.–6 May 1836; William W. Phelps, Liberty, MO, to Oliver Cowdery, 2 June 1836, in LDS Messenger and Advocate, July 1836, 2:341.)
Partridge, Edward. Journal, Jan. 1835–July 1836. Edward Partridge, Papers, 1818–1839. CHL. MS 892, box 1, fd. 2.
Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. Kirtland, OH. Oct. 1834–Sept. 1837.
- [6]
Partridge, Journal, 6 May–29 June 1836; William W. Phelps, Liberty, MO, to Oliver Cowdery, 2 June 1836, in LDS Messenger and Advocate, July 1836, 2:340–341.
Partridge, Edward. Journal, Jan. 1835–July 1836. Edward Partridge, Papers, 1818–1839. CHL. MS 892, box 1, fd. 2.
Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. Kirtland, OH. Oct. 1834–Sept. 1837.
- [7]
Partridge, Journal, 6 May–29 June 1836. Partridge wrote that a “mob began to appear, and our suits were coming on, at Richmond on the 6th July, which both together made us delay moving to the North.” On 26 May 1835, Judge John F. Ryland granted a change of venue from Jackson County, Missouri, to Ray County, Missouri, for two lawsuits growing out of the violent expulsion of Mormons from Jackson County in 1833; Phelps and Partridge were involved in both lawsuits. (Partridge, Journal, 6 May–29 June 1836; for more on the Saints’ move from Clay County, see Historical Introduction to Letter to John Thornton and Others, 25 July 1836; and Historical Introduction to Letter to William W. Phelps and Others, 25 July 1836.)
Partridge, Edward. Journal, Jan. 1835–July 1836. Edward Partridge, Papers, 1818–1839. CHL. MS 892, box 1, fd. 2.
- [8]
It is likely that JS appointed Corrill and provided him with a power of attorney, though no documents giving power of attorney to Corrill or another agent are extant for the Missouri land transactions. A power of attorney was necessary for an agent to purchase land and conduct business for another individual. In his 1839 redress petition, Corrill stated, “Your petitioner further testifies that he acted as Agent, and entered some 2000 acres of land lying in Caldwell county for, and took Duplicates in the names of Joseph Smith Jun, Hirum [Hyrum] Smith & Oliver Cowdery.” Corrill may have acted as the agent who purchased land for Hyrum Smith in May and early June 1836. These land purchases were the earliest made by a church member in what would become Caldwell and Daviess counties. (John Corrill, Affidavit, Quincy, IL, 9 Jan. 1840, photocopy, Material Relating to Mormon Expulsion from Missouri, CHL; Johnson and Romig, Index to Early Caldwell County, 202; Land Patents for Hyrum Smith, Caldwell Co., MO, nos. 7548, 7549, 7550, 7551, 7552, General Land Office Records, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior; for more on the appointment of an agent through a power of attorney, see Power of Attorney to Hyrum Smith, 5 Sept. 1837.)
Material Relating to Mormon Expulsion from Missouri, 1839–1843. Photocopy. CHL. MS 2145.
Johnson, Clark V., and Ronald E. Romig. An Index to Early Caldwell County, Missouri, Land Records. Rev. ed. Independence, MO: Missouri Mormon Frontier Foundation, 2002.
General Land Office Records. Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior. Digital images of the land patents cited herein are available at http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/.
- [9]
The first application for JS, assigned the land entry case file number 7873, involved a patent for four hundred acres of land in Rockford Township, in what would become Caldwell County. (Land Entry Case File no. 7873, in Record Group 49, Records of the Bureau of Land Management, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington DC.)
- [10]
Hawkins, Research in the Land Entry Files of the General Land Office, 2.
Hawkins, Kenneth. Research in the Land Entry Files of the General Land Office: Record Group 49. Reference Information Paper 114, rev. ed. Washington DC: National Archives and Records Administration, 2009.
- [11]
Hawkins, Research in the Land Entry Files of the General Land Office, 2–3.
Hawkins, Kenneth. Research in the Land Entry Files of the General Land Office: Record Group 49. Reference Information Paper 114, rev. ed. Washington DC: National Archives and Records Administration, 2009.
- [12]
Land Patents for JS, Caldwell Co., MO, nos. 7873 and 7874, General Land Office Records, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior. For more on the process and potential delays in obtaining land patents, see Rohrbough, Land Office Business, 221–249.
General Land Office Records. Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior. Digital images of the land patents cited herein are available at http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/.
Rohrbough, Malcolm J. The Land Office Business: The Settlement and Administration of American Public Lands, 1789–1837. New York: Ocford University Press, 1968.
No 7874
LAND OFFICE, At Missouri.
REGISTER’S OFFICE, June 22nd 1836.
IT IS HEREBY CERTIFIED, that in pursuance of law, Joseph Smith Jr [blank] of county [blank] has this day purchased of the Register of this office, the West half of Southeast Quarter of section No. 22 of township No. Fifty six north of the base line, ([blank] of the [blank] river) of range No. Twenty nine west of the fifth principal meridian, containing Seventy eight acres and 56 hundredths, at the rate of $ 1.25 per acre, amounting in the whole to $ 98.20 for which the said Joseph Smith Jr has made payment in full agreeably to law.
NOW THEREFORE, BE IT KNOWN, that on presentation of this certificate to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, the said Joseph Smith Jr shall be entitled to receive a patent for the land above described.
Finis Ewing Register. [p. [1]]
Document Information
Document Information
Footnotes
Footnotes
Manuscript additions in unidentified handwriting.
- [1]
Although each quarter should have been eighty acres, it appears that the lot Corrill purchased for JS was slightly smaller than the intended acreage.
- [2]
The Land Act of 1820 set a standard price for government-owned land at $1.25 per acre. (See An Act Making Further Provision for the Sale of Public Lands [24 Apr. 1820], Public Statutes at Large, 16th Cong., 1st Sess., chap. 51, p. 566, sec. 3.)
The Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America, from the Organization of the Government in 1789, to March 3, 1845. . . . Edited by Richard Peters. 8 vols. Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1846–1867.
Signature of Finis Ewing.