This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Levi, Leroy, Aaron, Samuel and John Bartholomew Classification: Deed Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/ok.2ADE/1522 Message Board Post: Karen: Those pioneers desiring to buy land from the United States government were first served by a Federal Land Office located in eastern Iowa at Fairfield. Unfortunately, the statement that the first such office was in Missouri has been repeated and repeated 'ad nauseam' until it has been accepted as the truth--BUT--it was not. I spent time in the National Archives in Washington, D.C., looking for such records, only to discover that the land office there had drawn a line "by projection" westward from the old northwest corner of Missouri (one hundred miles north of the mouth of the Kansas River) to the Missouri river and had come to the belief that the northern line of the Platte Purchase had been drawn about two townships too far north. AND the government surveyors by 1845 had surveyed the 'townships north' far enough northward so that they had almost reached the one-hundred-mile-corner by the time the south line of Township 67 North was reached. Missouri was claiming up to the north line of Township 68 North! From that time, on, the government refused to accept entries for land that might in the future fall into the State of Iowa. NO. There are no land records for Fremont county in Missouri records. The Fairfield Land Office began accepting entries from Fremont county in 1849. This continued until 1853 when the Kanesville Land Office opened for business in March at present Council Bluffs, Iowa. At that time, Kanesville, named after a friend of the Mormons, accepted "Declaratory Satements" from settlers who were "squatting" on government land, but who wanted to buy that piece of land at sometime in the future. This had been provided for by the Pre-Emption Act of Sept. 4, 1841. Such situations were usually referred to as "staking a claim". Before the Land Office could allow the purchase of any land, the office had to have the location OF THAT LAND shown on a map which had been drawn from the government surveys which were being done at the same time. The official deciding when all of this could take place was the "registrar" of the land office. In Kanesville, "Declaratory Statements" showing intentions of buying government land, were all given numbers, which continued from where the Fairfield Land Office left off. One of your Bartholomew's--John--had an interesting situation arise: John D. Woodward on March 24, 1853 entered Declaratory Statement No. 688 for the southeast quarter of section 35 township 69 range 42. On April 28, 1853, your John appeared at the Land Office and entered a Declaratory Statement for the same land! The Land Office must have been on the ball, for they told your John about the conflict of entries. When John Bartholomew made a "Cash Entry" for this land on May 25, 1853, he brought along with him to the Land Office Aaron Bartholomew who made a DECLARATION saying that the John Woodward who had made Declaratory Statement No. 688 had told him, the witness, that he "did not intend to prove up and enter said land and about the tenth day of this month (May) started for California"....Well, your John Bartholomew was permitted to make a "Cash Entry", given Certificate of Entry, No. 131, for the southeast quarter of section 25 township 69 range 42. There were other Bartholomew's at the Land Office at the very same time. Samuel Bartholomew made a Cash Entry, No. 129, on May 25, 1853, as did Aaron Bartholomew with Cash Entry No. 128. (Although the numbering for Declaratory Statements at Kanesville continued from where Fairfield had left off, the numbering for Cash Entries was started anew, from #1.) Samuel Bartholomew bought the west fractional half of the northwest quarter of section 30 township 69 range 41, and, the east half of the northeast quarter of section 25 township 69 range 41. This totalled out to be 166.97 acres, but I don't know why the one was a fractional half. Aaron Bartholomew bought the southeast quarter of section 35 township 69 range 42. He had filed his declaratory statement on April 20, 1853. (One Leroy Bartholomew made a declaratory statement on April 21, 1853, No. 820, for the southeast quarter of section 14 township 68 range 42, but if he ever bought it, I must have failed to find his Cash Entry.) Levi Bartholomew made a Cash Entry #3797, on October 7, 1854 for the north half of the southeast quarter of section 11 township 67 range 43.