LITTLE BUFFALO ROOTS: JESSE E. CASEY'S LAND PATENT

The Buffalo River area in northwestern Arkansas drew settler Jesse E. Casey to the region in the 1840s. (Photo: Wikipedia)

I am participating in 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, a writing challenge encouraging genealogy researchers to write about their ancestors, hosted by podcaster Amy Johnson Crow.

This week's prompt: Land

By Nancy Gilbride Casey


"In 1842 grandfather and father settled on Little Buffalo river 8-1/2 miles above the present town of Jasper." 

These words, uttered by Jasper Casey, referred to Jesse E. Casey (husband Jim's 4x great grandfather).¹ Jesse lived in Newton County, Arkansas where he farmed and served northwest Arkansas communities as a Primitive Baptist preacher. He also owned land in Newton County, well documented in records available today.

On 11 November 1851, Jesse E. Casey walked into the Fayetteville, Arkansas land office, and paid $50 in cash for 40 acres in Newton County. He was benefiting from the Land Act of 1820, which "authorized land to be sold for a minimum of $1.25 per acre and tracts as small as 80 acres."² Later legislation lowered the minimum acreage permitted to be sold to 40—the amount Jesse purchased. His transaction was known as a cash entry sale. The land office retained a receipt as well as a certificate which documented his purchase.

Receipt for Jesse's 1851 purchase of 40 acres of Newton County land.³

The parcel had a complicated description:

The Southwest quarter of the Southwest quarter of Section Fourteen in Township Fifteen North of Range Twenty-Two West.

This description was typical of the Rectangular Survey System,⁴ which divided up vast tracts of land into a grid system. Each parcel was described using the terms below:

• Township - a major subdivision of the public lands, measuring approximately 6 miles on each side and contain approximately 23,040 acres. A Township is identified by its relationship to a base line and a principal meridian.
• Range - identifies a row or tier of townships lying east or west of the principal meridian and numbered successively to the east or west from the principal meridian.
• Section - identifies a tract of land, usually 1 mile square, within a township.
• Aliquot - description which accurately identifies the parcel of land.

J.E. Casey's fields are noted on this 1847 survey of public lands. The Little Buffalo River runs just north of his fields.⁵

Jesse's fields are noted on this April 1847 survey. This is curious considering the timing of his land purchase, which did not occur until 1851. How can this be?

It is possible that Jesse settled in the area before the U.S. government had begun or completed their survey of the land. "As the nation grew and the population steadily increased, the settlement of land not yet "open" for homesteading became increasingly common....a major cause of squatting was that land surveys were not able to keep up with impatient settlers."⁶

In the Boston Mountains of northwest Arkansas, the surveys began during the latter years of the 1820s, but were not completed immediately.  Initially begun between 1829 to 1834, surveys measured and marked only the eastern and southern boundary lines of each township. The interior surveys—a tedious and long-lasting task—was not completed until almost 1850. Notes on the survey of Township 15 North, Range 22 West state it was begun in April 1838, but not completed until January 1847. Many of the initial settlers of the Buffalo region—like Jesse—consequently were squatters by reason of their premature entrance into the watershed.⁷

Many Buffalo River settlers cleared the rugged land and erected dwellings, yet failed to obtain legal title to the land. Congress was petitioned to allow "squatter's rights" so that land would not be sold out from under the settlers. An initial act of "pre-emption" laws passed in 1830 forgave squatters and allowed them to purchase their land without risking competitive bidding. The practice of residing upon land without statutory possession was therefore well-established by the time the Buffalo River country was settled by men like Jesse.⁸

At the time of his purchase, the transaction was recorded in this certificate, noting his land patent "No. 5500."

Certificate which entitled Jesse to the official land patent No. 5500.⁹

Once payment was made, records from the land office were forwarded to Washington, where the official patent was issued. Below, Jesse's official patent No. 5500 is shown, signed by President Franklin Pierce, and dated 15 November 1854.¹⁰

A keen eye will note the three-year difference between when Jesse handed over his $50 to the land office (1851), and when his patent was finally signed (1854). The reason is one we would recognize today: government backlog! There was a tremendous amount of land sold in the 1800's, which led to a huge paperwork logjam in the mid-1800s. Apparently it was not unusual for several years to pass between the time an individual purchased land from the local land office and the time a patent for that tract was finally signed in Washington, D.C.¹¹

A later plat map of Newton County shows the growth in the area: more fields, more neighbors, a "road from Jasper to Clarksville," and named branches of the Buffalo River.¹²

This modern map, available on the Bureau of Land Management website, shows Jesse's 1854 land patent overlaid onto a topographical map of Arkansas today.¹³

The smallest square above represents Jesse E. Casey's land patent.

Land records provide a fascinating glimpse into the lives of pioneer ancestors, who settled in untried territories, and wrote their names on the pages of U.S. history.

Until next time...

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NOTES

¹ S. C. Turnbo, Fireside Stories of the Early Days in the Ozarks, Part One (No place: No publisher, No date.); digital images, FamilySearch.org (http://bit.ly/3d8gCk1 : accessed 19 March 2020), p. 50-51, digital images 315-316.
² Wikipedia, (https://bit.ly/2Y6TKw5 : accessed 26 April 2020),"Land Act of 1820,"  Revised 19:40 (UTC), 16 December 2017^.
3 Records of the Bureau of Land Management, Land Entry Files, Arkansas, (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Service, 1990), Fayetteville, 1833-60 & Huntsville 1860-61, Cash Entries 4887-5696," Box 740, Jesse E. Casey file, cash receipt issued 18 Nov. 1851^. 
4 Bureau of Land Management (https://bit.ly/35kDGIQ : accessed 26 April 2020), "Glossary."
⁵ J.E. Casey, section 15; Duplicate Survey, ca. 1847, Township 15N, Range 22W, Newton County, Arkansas; Bureau of Land Management, "Survey Search," images, General Land Office Records (https://bit.ly/2W56YqB : accessed 28 April 2020). 
⁶ Dwight T. Pitcaithley, Let the River Be: A History of the Ozark's Buffalo River, online edition, chapter 2 (Santa Fe, New Mexico: National Park Service, 1989); digital version, National Park Service (https://bit.ly/3aGTJ4D : accessed 27 April 2020).
⁷ Ibid.
⁸ Ibid.
⁹ Records of the Bureau of Land Management, Land Entry Files, Arkansas, (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Service, 1990), Fayetteville, 1833-60 & Huntsville 1860-61, Cash Entries 4887-5696," Box 740, Jesse E. Casey file, certificate #5500, issued 18 Nov. 1851.    
¹⁰ Bureau of Land Management, "Land Patent Search," database, General Land Office Records (http://bit.ly/339tSAh : accessed 11 March 2020), Jesse E. Casey (Newton, Arkansas), Land Patent certificate no. 5500, issued 15 November 1854.  
¹¹ Bureau of Land Management (https://bit.ly/3eX81l2 : accessed 27 April 2020), "Frequently Asked Questions."  
¹² Newton County, Arkansas, Township plats property of Newton county, "Township 15N, Range 22W," undated (not numbered); digital image FamilySearch (https://go.aws/3eSWOlv : accessed 26 April 2020), citing Newton County Courthouse, Jasper.    
¹³ Bureau of Land Management, "Land Patent Search," database, General Land Office Records (https://bit.ly/2y9Uoyd : accessed 28 April 2020), Jesse E. Casey (Newton, Arkansas), Land Description.