Fred Hamm, maybe in a desperate attempt to get away from his ex (my great grandmother Carrie Amundson), ended up settling in Koochiching County, Minnesota for a while.
According to his second marriage certificate he married Emma Steinbach March 22, 1912 at Fort Francis, Ontario, which is just over the border north of International Falls.
International Falls press and border budget. Pub. Date January 22, 1914: Fred Hamm moved his family and stock to his claim on the upper Black River last week. [Emma, Margaret, himself]
1920 Federal census, Rapid River Township, Koochiching County, Minnesota.
And the 1920 census above shows Fred and a different family there, because by 1918 he had divorced Emma Steinbach and was now living with his brother’s wife Emma Paugel and his brother’s children, along with his and Emma’s son Raymond.
As far as I can tell Fred’s only purchase of property, ever, was a homestead purchase from the United States Government in 1918. So I do not know if he actually owned a different property that the family was moving to in 1914, or if it was the same property, and he just hadn’t purchased yet.
Plat of his property; provided by register of deeds office.Fred’s full 160 acres, ignore the blue pin.
Even today you can see that there are no real roads out in this area. Here’s another view a bit further away in airspace:
The pink box in the image above is a close approximation of his property. The closest road appears to be Hwy 101/Black River Road and Fiero Truck Trail. Just the name of the latter road brings forth visions of rough travel. When you get up close using satellite images, it almost looks like this was pretty much swamp land, but according to various online histories about the area there was plenty of good farming.
There was a US agricultural census made in 1920, and Fred was on it, but unfortunately it was destroyed by the US Government, who saw no reason to keep it. Only a few states survived the destruction, Minnesota was not one of them. So that means we have no idea what Fred and Emma were growing and farming on their property during the 8-10 years that they lived there.
In 1924 he quit claimed the property to Asa Kelsey. (According to current maps on the county’s register of deeds site, it is all now owned by the State of Minnesota.) It might be at this time that the family moved to Shawano, Wisconsin, where he finally saw fit to marry Emma Paugel in 1931.
This is the only evidence I have found of Fred settling down anywhere for any length of time. After this bout of farming fever, he never owned property again, although he did work as a farm hand of some sort until he died.
Here’s a fun tidbit: As of the 2000 census, there were 23 people, 11 households, and 6 families residing in Rapid River township.[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_River_Township,_Lake_of_the_Woods_County,_Minnesota]
My mother and I took a trip out to Jacksonburg, West Virginia…lets see…well quite a few years ago now. The main reason for the visit was to attend a Hays family reunion, the secondary reason was to see what details we could find out about the Hays and related families. It was also nice to actually see where these ancestors had lived, worked and spent their lives.
No one at the reunion was really much help in filling out blank spots in my research, but we did meet up with one of our Stackpole cousins who gladly showed us around to a few of the cemeteries we would have been hard pressed to find on our own. (It is very hilly and hidden country out there.)
One of the places we were able to visit was the cemetery where my 5x great grandparents, Alexander and Margret (Minor) Lantz, are resting in peace. This quiet, restful, cemetery is at the top of a hill with lots of open space, and looks onto the Stackpole land that is on the next hill over. The view of the surrounding country was excellent.
Margret Minor Lantz
Alexander Lantz
I know very little about these grandparents, except that Alexander and Margret were always buying property. Many of these purchases were for land in the 100s of acres. Sometimes this property was purchased through auctions, the current owners not being able to pay their mortgages, so they were able to get incredible deals. This penchant for owning property has paid off in a great way for everyone, for it has made it possible for a lasting legacy of great value to be created.
I have come to learn that in 2006 the Lantz family farm, which consisted of 555 acres, was “gift deeded” to the Wheeling Jesuit University by Lantz family descendants, so that the land and farm would be preserved, and the area could be enjoyed by the public. The DNR has joined in a cooperative agreement with the WJU to co-manage the property:
…for its wildlife resources and to maximize public outdoor recreational opportunites including hunting, fishing, and hiking on the interpretive natural trails.1
The Field Trip article (below) gives a short history of the property, what you can see when you visit, and also talks about projects in the works. But first, here is the ‘Wyatt patent’ deed as mentioned in the article:
1826 Sep 30 Tyler County, West Virginia — Jasper A Wyatt and wife and Augustus B. Wyatt, Tyler County
to
Alexander Lantz, of Wayne Township, Greene County, Pennsylvania
… in consideration of $600 of lawful money of the Commonwealth …land containing 177 acres situate in the county of Tyler on the South Fork of Fishing Creek and bounded as follows to wit:
beginning at a white walnut & two sugar trees on the bank of the creek thence S E 46 poles to a white walnut at the mouth of Buffalo Run thence S 15 W 70 poles to sugartree thence S 27 W120 poles to a red oak thence N 70 W 32 poles to chestnut oak and ironwood thence N 20 W 60 poles to two beeches on a hill side thence N 62 W 92 poles to an ash and sugar tree on the creek bank thence N 20 E 44 poles to a white oak thence N 40 E 20 poles to a small white walnut thence S 75 E 60 poles to two hickories on the top of the hill and thence S 86 E 165 poles to the beginning
…together with all the singular houses, barns, buildings, stables, yards, gardens, orchards, lands, tenements, meadows, pastures, feeding commons, woods, underwoods, ways, waters, watercourses, fishing privileges…
Jasper Wyatt
Catherine [herXmark] Wyatt
Augustus [hisXmark] B. Wyatt2
While the property was certainly there, the preserve was barely a glimmer in the eye at the time we were visiting, and now I want to go back and see this wonderful place. Knowing that this property was a part of our family history kinda makes it feel even more special. If Alex and Margret did nothing else with their lives, they made it possible for a little part of world to be preserved.
Source: 1. [picture and quote pulled from the following article: http://www.wvdnr.gov/wildlife/magazine/Archive/07Fall/Providing%20a%20Better%20Tomorrow.pdf]
2. Land Deed [v2p190 image 1336-1337]; Deeds, 1815-1902; Tyler County (West Virginia) County Clerk; Deeds, v. 1-3 1815-1829 – FHL film #855954
I have in my family tree an ancestor by the name of Alexander Clegg. He was possibly born around the 1750s, (using his first child’s birth), and was married to Margaret Farmer or Palmer (online trees are not really in agreement regarding her surname). Their daughter Susannah married Samuel Minor, whose daughter Margret married Alexander Lantz (the Lance mentioned below). This Lantz family is found on the Hays side of the family with Susannah Lantz marrying Edmund Hays. So now you have the background tree.
The Clegg and Lantz families lived on the border of Pennsylvania and West Virginia at this time, so owned land in both states. Sometimes the same piece of property was also in both states.
Last year’s research at the Family History Library included the goal of finding land records for the Lantz and Clegg families in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Which I did. And recently I began transcribing them.
Here was an interesting entry:
Know all men by these presents that IAlexander Clegg[<–my 7x great grandparent] of Monongalia County, [Virginia at the time, later West Virginia], for and in consideration of the sum of money that I am due and owing Alexander Lance and Margaret his wife [<–my 5x great grandparents] and for the further consideration of one Dollar lawful money of Virginia to me in hand paid the Receipt whereof I do hereby acknowledge, I have freely given, granted, bargained, sold and Delivered unto them the said Alexander Lance and Margaret his wife, all the following property to wit:
one negro woman named (Susanna) and her two Daughters Ann and Malin[d]a them and their after increase
upwards of two hundred acres of Land in Monongalia County on Dunkard Creek being the whole tract of Land whereon I now live called Stradlers Town [now known as Pentress], four head of horses,
eight head of cattle,
and six feather beds and beding said furniture to the said Beds belonging
all the aforesaid property to the said Alexander Lance and his wife Margaret for and during their natural lives or the life of the survivor of them, and at the decease of both of them then to go to the children of the said Margaret that she now has or may hereafter have. To have and to Hold all the aforesaid property forever. In witness whereof the said Alexander Clegg doth hereunto set his hand and seal this 29th day of May in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Eight hundred and Twenty Six.
Signed, Sealed, and Delivered in the presence of us
Wm ThomasJacob LantzPeter [hisXmark] Yager
Alexander Clegg [SEAL]1
It appears that Alexander Clegg was in debt to his granddaughter Margret and her husband, and figured the best way to pay it off was to give them property, which included three slaves. He must have owed them a lot of money. Or a dowry? Or, maybe he was just giving away part of the estate they would inherit anyway.
Two of the above mentioned African American ladies are later found mentioned in the estate inventory of Alexander Clegg from 1829:
Than is in the said bill charged two Negro girls [Anne & Malinda] amt $230 – not sold at the public vand..[??] but has been since sold by said Lantz to John Brookover for $280 as I have been informed…
So, here is clear evidence that the Shepard side of the family was owning slaves as late as the 1820s. I have to say this was a surprising find.
But, here is something else interesting — in the 1830 federal census for Greene County, Pennsylvania we find Alex and Margaret Lantz living with one FREE female African American child who was less than 10 years old. Was she the daughter of one of the two girls they earlier sold to John Brookover? Or a daughter of the older woman Susanna? I haven’t found out what happened to Susanna, maybe she had died.
Looking further into the land records regarding the Lantz family, in 1812 Alexander Lantz’s brother*, George Lantz, freed three slaves: Esther, who was 26, Jacob, a mulatto child of 11, and Nancy (also called Ann), a mulatto child of 8. Did he free them because they were his children?
Well George’s probate2 clears that up, I think:
Jacob is listed in his will as “my yellow boy” which seems to mean his son, who had a half sister Nancy. Jacob was 17 or 18 when he inherited George’s estate. Jacob’s mother is not named, but the probate states she was living with a George Ridge; who we find was a freed slave according to the 1820 federal census for Greene County, Pennsylvania. And, in 1840 an Esther Ridge was living single, with one young child, (George having died/left), both freed slaves. Esther herself probably died about 1844 as there is an estate entry for her in Pennsylvania probate, but no details regarding a will.
George Lantz doesn’t appear to have married or had any legitimate children so was leaving all his property to Jacob whom he appears to accept as his son, or at least his heir. Nancy isn’t acknowledged to be his daughter, which possibly means she wasn’t. There is no reason to believe that he would acknowledge one and not the other. Either way, he must have had some affection for her, because she was to receive some money from the estate when she reached 18.
See the interesting things you can learn from land records.
*George is believed to be Alexander Lantz’s brother because he is the only George Lantz found online who died at the same time as the one in my post, so it is speculation at this time, but, there are a few sources that give it some credibility. Alex’s Uncle George died at a later date and was married, with lots of kids.
Sources: 1. Land deeds, 1826 Monongalia County, West Virginia, FHL Film #840576; Digital: 8219285: vOS10 p350.
2. George Lantz probate, 1818; Will Books, 1796-1918, Green County, Pennsylvania. Online digital images 129-130 – Ancestry.com.
3. Ancestry.com 1820 and 1840 Federal Census records Greene County, Pennsylvania.
This is the second time that land records have helped me finesse my family tree.
Sometime last year as I was transcribing GEORGE family land records into my database, I ran across a very interesting one:
Catharine Booker
Int in 78 acres – Sancho to
William C. Ash
This Indenture made this 23rd day of June in the year 1868 between Catharine Booker of the County of Wetzel in the State of West Virginia of the first part and William C. Ash of the County of Tyler & State aforesaid of the Second part. Witnesseth that for and in consideration of the sum of fifteen dollars the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, the said party of the first part, as an heir at Law of William George deceased in and to a tract of land lying and being in the County of Tyler aforesaid, situated on the waters of Sancho creek and being principally in the occupancy of the said party of the second part and being the same land heretofore charged to the estate of the said William George deceased on the commissioners land books of said county of Tyler as 78 acres the interest of said party of the first part which is intended to be hereby conveyed being the undivided one twenty eight part of said tract of seventy acres which said party of the first part derived as one of the children and heirs of Elizabeth Booker deceased, who was one of the children and heirs of the said William George died, and the Said party of the first part doth hereby covenant that she will warrant generally the property hereby conveyed. Witness the following signature and seal
Catharine [herXmark] Booker [seal]
So in June of 1868, Catherine Booker, a child/heir of Elizabeth Booker, is selling land she inherited from Elizabeth, deceased, who was a child/heir of William George, deceased.
All of the online trees I have seen in my GEORGE family research have no mention of a daughter Elizabeth. Which tells me that these folks have not done their research properly. And because they hadn’t done their land record research, look what they missed!
So, Catherine is a previously unknown grandchild of William and Margaret George. It is doubtful that when William died he was giving land to nieces and nephews, he had at least 4 children and 4 times as many grandchildren that were around to inherit.
Elizabeth, the child of William and Margaret, appears to have married a man named Booker, (possibly a Henry) and she died sometime before her father, William George. Because of the date of birth of Catherine, which is speculated to be about 1820, from a Wetzel County, 1870 census record (although, admittedly, it is not confirmed that this census record is the correct Catherine; it seems likely as she is the only one living in Wetzel County close to the place and time of the land deed record, dated 1868) the date of birth of Elizabeth has to be 1805 or earlier. As the birth years for the children of William and Margaret are all in the very latter part of the 1700s, Elizabeth’s probable birth estimation would fit the time period.
So far the only record I have of the existence of Elizabeth is this land record. A sad state of affairs for many of my female relatives of old.
Source: Land deed filed in Tyler County, West Virginia, V2P371 [FHL film 855,954].
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