From: Sandi Gorin <sgorin@glasgow-ky.com> To: KYRESEARCH-L@rootsweb.com Subject: TIP #434 - EARLY LAND CLAIM HEADACHES Date: Thu, 03 Apr 2003 05:58:50 -0600 To take a week's break from the World War II casualities, I wanted to revisit the complications that arose in the early settlement of Kentucky when it came to land claims. If you become confused, you are not the only one and we can blame it on Virginia! Now Virginia was a good state; no complaint there. But when Kentucky reached statehood in 1792, the new Legislature chose to follow the same land laws as Virginia and it surely caused a lot of confusion. Four steps had to be followed to obtain land in Kentucky. (1) Obtain a warrant; (2) make an entry; (3) have the land surveyed, and (4) return the survey and the entry to the land office. Then the land office would issue a patent which was supposed to be totally binding, known as "absolute verity." However, the oft laid plans of mice and men often go astray they say, and with each of the four above steps came chaos, law suits and a lot of headaches. The state issued warrants with such abandon that if one counted up all the acreage allotted, Kentucky would be many times the size it truly is. Acreage flew from the pens of the powers that be with such speed that more acres were awarded that were ever contained within the state boundaries. Some people were allowed free warrants of course. Veterans of the Virginia and Continental Armies could apply for military warrants ranging from 100 to 5,000 acres depending on rank. Settlers who convinced immigrants to come to the "western frontier" could apply for free land by "importation rights". Settlers who came to Kentucky and erected a building or cleared off land for settlement were awarded "preemption" warrants. Poor settlers could obtain their land warrants on credit. And, finally, other settlers could purchase treasury warrants that cost 40 pounds for 100 acres. Imagine the bookkeeping - imagine the errors! Once a settler obtained a warrant, he took the warrant and filed with the county surveyor. He gave the surveyor information such as the acreage and the location. It was the latter that caused so many headaches since, again following Virginia tradition, land was marked off by nearby streams, trees, rocks, neighbors and buildings. The streams stayed pretty well where they were, but trees were cut down or died, rocks were moved when clearing the land, neighbors moved and buildings fell down! Thousands upon thousands of lawsuits were brought over boundary disputes. Original neighbors were tracked down to verify that he always knew a certain tree to be a boundary line ... it was a true nightmare. Once the surveyor had the information, he was required to go out and find the land (not an easy task!) and survey it according to the true meridian rather than the magnetic meridian. Another problem. The only surveying tools available at this time were magnetic measuring tools. So, unless the surveyor was gifted in astronomy or higher mathematics; he often got the measurements wrong. Plus, Kentucky at this time did not require much of their surveyors in the way of education (Virginia did). According to an old unknown quote found in the Kentucky Encyclopedia, "Kentucky surveyors were never correct, except by accident." The next step for the surveyor was to mark the lines "upon the ground". Can you imagine the poor surveyor with his chain carriers, neighbors and assistants, plodding through the undergrowth trying to find the land the settler had described? Fighting the elements, animals, Indians and fatigue, this was not an easy task. But, by law, he had to complete all the maps and any notes he had taken in one year or less. There were exceptions here too - if the warrant holder was an infant, a captive, a married woman or insane, the time limit was altered. If all went well, the land office would issue a patent and the survey was entered on a map. Next problem. There were no accurate maps of the area and accidentally, the land office would issue multiple patents to the same tract of land to more than one person. It was a heart-breaking time when a settler found that, after going through all the steps, being issued a patent, clearing the land, chopping down trees, building a cabin and out buildings, bringing the family there to their home in paradise to later find another family pulling in with a wagon, screaming children, chickens and cows holding a patent to the same acreage. More law suits. What could the settler do? Of course, sue the state. The State of Virginia General Assembly had created the first land court of Kentucky in 1779. Their function was to "bring about adjudication of the woefully confused situation of land claims in Virginia's Fincastle County [Kentucky]. Commissioners had been appointed including William Fleming, James Barbour, Samuel Lyne and James Steptoe. They held their first meeting at Logan's Station in October of 1779. It met until April 1780 and settled 1,328 claims for 1,354,050 acres of land. This is just a brief look at why it was so difficult to even get settled in Kentucky; there were many other difficulties of course. Some involved settlers being allowed land in restricted districts - the land set apart for the soldiers of Virginia and the Continental Army. If it was found that the land they had worked so hard on was in the military district, they were allowed to move to another area of like size that had not been claimed - a wonderful offer - but think of all the work they had done to be left behind and start all over again. It was a hard time. Sources: Kentucky Encyclopedia "Land Claims Early", p. 535 The Proceedings of the land Court," Kentucky Register 21, Jan, May and Sept 1923. Old surveyor books of Edmund Rogers Reading a lot of deeds and law suits (c) Copyright 3 April 2003, Sandra K. Gorin, All Rights Reserved, sgorin@glasgow-ky.com Col. Sandi Gorin, 205 Clements Ave., Glasgow, KY 42141 (270) 651-9114 Publishing: http://ggpublishing.tripod.com/ GORIN worldconnect website: http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/~sgorin SCKY resource links: http://www.public.asu.edu/~moore/Gorin.html ==== KYRESEARCH Mailing List ==== _________________________________________________________________ Tired of spam? 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