What's Under the Ribbon?

I'm transcribing and analyzing several of the documents in the surrendered Bounty Land Warrant file for James Kile of Mercer County, Illinois (based on his War of 1812 military service from Ohio) for an upcoming issue of Casefile Clues.

The lovely ribbon covers up a few words of this court document that appears in his file.

I think I know what some of it says based upon what I can see through the ribbon and the context.

Can you read the words under the ribbon?

Did the Lawyer Use the Facts to Seize the Moment--And the Land?

Without the surrendered bounty land warrant file for James Kile, I never would have located this interesting little item.

James Kile received a bounty land warrant for 40 acres based upon his service in the War of 1812. The resident of Mercer County, Illinois, died after the warrant was issued but before any specific land could be patented.

As a result his heirs surrendered the warrant in order to patent 40 acres in Mercer County, Illinois. They appointed Cyrus Aldrich as their "attorney-in-fact" to complete the process at the Dixon, Illinois, land office.

This image below shows part of the entry for the completed Kile patent in the tract books of the Bureau of Land Management. These books effectively serve as a geographic index to who patented property were.

Aldrich completed the patent process for the Kile heirs as evidenced by the green entry above-all the properties shown in this clip are for parcels in section 35 in Township No. 13 of Range No. 5 West of the 4th Principal Meridian in Mercer County, Illinois). It's rather difficult to read the names of who received the property, but it appears to be Enoch Kile and others (based upon the information in the surrendered bounty land warrant file).

But...

There was another piece of property in the same section that was "located by" Cyrus Aldrich in August of 1853. A review of the dates that property in section 35 was all located by August of 1853, except for the Kile parcel and the Aldrich parcel.

The Kiles were Mercer County, Illinois, residents and would have known that no one was farming the property. Aldrich does not appear to have been a Mercer County, Illinois, resident and appears to have been living near the Dixon Land Office at the time.

Did he discover that there was an "unclaimed" 40 when he did the paperwork for the Kiles?

Interesting.

We might have to get that paperwork and see if more about how Aldrich obtained the property can be located.

Links to the BLM Tract Books on FamilySearch and the guide to the books can be found here. My webinar on using these tract books can be ordered here for only $6.

Stay tuned!

Estate Pays Fees for Locating Land Warrant

The estate record of James Kile in Mercer County, Illinois, provided a few more clues that the land warrant mentioned in the inventory of his estate was actually patented.

Estate of James Kile, Mercer County, Illinois, Probate case files, file 172, box 200, 
Account Current in the Estate of James Kile, filed 9 August 1854, 
Circuit Clerk's Office, Aledo; digital image, FamilySearch (http//www.familysearch.org), accessed 26 October 2014.

This accounting from August of 1854 indicated that fees were paid by the estate for "Locating Land Warrant" and for "proof of Heirship to Locate Land warrant." These references strongly suggest that the heirs of James Kile used the warrant to patent property after his death. That's a good thing for the researcher as there should be mention of his heirs.

The estate of James strongly suggests who his children are but does not explicitly state the relationship. It also does not mention were they living at the time the estate was settled. Hopefully the file where the warrant was submitted to "prove up" things for the patent contains some of those specifics.

Stay tuned.

Selling A Land Warrant for $47.00

Estate inventories and sale lists tend to be household and items that a relative used in the course of his daily life. At times these listings can provide a glimpse into our ancestor's life and clues as to his occupation.

Sometimes they can give us more.

On 8 May 1852 near Keithsburg, Mercer County, Illinois, there was a sale to settle up the affairs of James Kile. One of the items sold was a land warrant.

That's as specific as the description gets: land warrant.

There's no mention of how James obtained the warrant, but there are likely two ways:

• he had military service and the warrant was based upon his eligibility for a land warrant based upon his documentation of that service
• he had purchased the land warrant from someone else.

A land warrant entitles the holder to a specific amount of acreage within the federal lands available at that point in time. Federal land warrants usually don't mention a specific piece of property. The patent, which actually transfers real property title from the federal government to a private individual does that. The warrant indicates the holder is entitled to so much land but the patent specifies where that land is located.

How did James come to get the warrant?

We're working on that...stay tuned.

And you thought estate inventories were just about livestock, plows, and butter churns.