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Deed to John Smith, 10 February 1844

Source Note

JS, Deed for property in , Iowa Territory, to , 10 Feb. 1844. Featured version copied [ca. 10 Feb. 1844]; handwriting of ; one page; JS Collection, CHL. Includes redaction and archival notation.
Single leaf measuring 11⅛ × 7⅛ inches (28 × 18 cm). The leaf is ruled with thirty-two horizontal lines printed in blue ink. The left and bottom edges of the recto are hand cut. The verso is blank.
The document, apparently a retained version, may have been kept among JS’s papers. By 1973 the document had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL). The document’s likely provenance and inclusion in the JS Collection suggest continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    See the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection, 1827–1844, in the CHL catalog.

Historical Introduction

On 10 February 1844, JS’s private clerk, , drafted a deed for JS to transfer all the property he owned in to his uncle . The property included all the land JS had acquired in , Iowa Territory, from in 1842, along with any other interests JS held in any Iowa properties. The sale price was to be one dollar, an amount commonly specified when one party was effectively gifting property to another.
JS’s land in was part of the “,” a 119,000-acre area in the southeastern part of the territory that the Congress set aside for the mixed-race children of white soldiers and Sauk and Meskwaki women in 1824. A subsequent act in 1834 removed the federal government’s interest and allowed the owners of the land to sell it directly. In 1836 the Land Company purchased much of the area through its trustee . Through , leaders purchased nearly 18,000 acres of land in Iowa Territory from Galland in 1839, but it is unclear in what portion of that land JS had an interest in February 1844. Despite plans to develop the area around , Iowa Territory, as a twin city to , Illinois, questions about title and negative experiences with led JS in April 1843 to instruct the Latter-day Saints to abandon their interests in and settle on the side of the .
It is unclear whether the transaction between JS and occurred, as no signed or witnessed copy of the deed exists. Although JS would have given the original to John Smith, typically even retained versions bore original or at least copied signatures of the parties involved. The deed was also never recorded in the deed books. Recording deeds with the county was not legally required but was in the interest of the grantee—particularly in cases where title was as notoriously contested as the lands in the federally designated were—and was therefore common.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Treaty with the Sac and Fox Indians [4 Aug. 1824], Public Statutes at Large, vol. 7, p. 229, art. 1.

    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.

  2. [2]

    An Act to Relinquish the Reversionary Interest of the United States in a Certain Indian Reservation Lying between the Rivers Mississippi and Desmoins [30 June 1834], Public Statutes at Large, 23rd Cong., 1st Sess., chap. 167, p. 740.

    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.

  3. [3]

    Cook, “Isaac Galland,” 264–265.

    Cook, Lyndon W. “Isaac Galland—Mormon Benefactor.” BYU Studies 19 (Spring 1979): 261–284.

  4. [4]

    Deeds, Isaac and Elizabeth Wilcox Galland to Oliver Granger, 29 May 1839–A and –B, Lee Co., IA, Land Records, 1836–1961, Deeds [South, Keokuk], vol. 1, pp. 507–509, microfilm 959,238, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; Deeds, Isaac and Elizabeth Wilcox Galland to Vinson Knight, 26 June 1839–A, –B, –C, –D, and –E, Lee Co., IA, Land Records, 1836–1961, Deeds [South, Keokuk], vol. 2, pp. 3–6, 13–16, microfilm 959,239, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; see also Cook, “Isaac Galland,” 270–275.

    Cook, Lyndon W. “Isaac Galland—Mormon Benefactor.” BYU Studies 19 (Spring 1979): 261–284.

  5. [5]

    Revelation, ca. Early Mar. 1841 [D&C 125]; JS, Journal, 6 Apr. 1843.

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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Deed to John Smith, 10 February 1844
ID #
1943
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
Handwriting on This Page

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