wetzel – jen's ancestors

I found this article doing a newspaper search recently on Alexander Lantz in West Virginia papers. I have to admit I have had very little luck finding newspapers with any of my West Virginia ancestors in them, so imagine my surprise when I hit pay dirt.

When Alexander and Margret Lantz were first married they spent about 15 or so years living in Greene County, Pennsylvania near their parents. Possibly because their own children were old enough to marry and move on, the two left for Tyler County, West Virginia, for a short time, before they eventually settled in Wetzel County, West Virginia, about 1841. They are both buried in the Jacksonburg area.

I believe that the article below is about my Alex because he would have been ‘an old man’ at the time of this incident, and from what I can surmise he was also the only Alexander Lantz living in the area, at least according to census records.

newspaper_lantzalex_1875 copy

This incident. which looks like it happened in 1871, was being reported in the newspaper in 1875 (Alex was dead in January of 1873), which does make me leery in claiming that this is my 5x great grandfather in regards to this case. However, possibly because the case was criminal in nature, even if the intended victim had died after the fact, they would still continue to try the perpetrators of the crime. This one appears to have gone on for several years before the men were finally acquited.

I have to say this article is a little confusing regarding why they let the men off. They were caught in the act, by multiple people. But at least no one was hurt.

Source:
1. The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, newspaper, Ohio County, West Virginia, Sat morning, April 24, 1875, page 3 column 2.

On my several trips to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City in the last few years, the collections that I seem to spend a lot of time going through are the land records. Most deeds are pretty run of the mill, but sometimes you find a few gems.

I have posted a few examples of great land records from various surname searches in previous posts, and today I thought I would share another one.

This particular deed regards Thomas Stockpole’s estate. When Thomas died in 1886 in Wetzel County, West Virginia he left a wife and at least 13 adult children to divide his property. Because of the nature of metes and bounds, boundary lines are usually all crazy-wonky, this very wonkiness made it necessary, in this case, for the land agents to redraw the property so everyone could have a better idea of the layout, and to better define Lydia’s dower property (property given by law by a deceased husband to his widow, for her lifetime).

What makes this deed particularly interesting for me, is that this is the only one I have found where the property is drawn out. I still don’t know its exact location on a map, but at least I have a better idea of what the property looked like. What is also cool is that the stables and homestead are marked on the deed.

Boundaries drawn out on deed to determine Lydia's dower property location. — Boundaries drawn out on deed to determine Lydia’s dower property location.

jen's ancestors

Tag: wetzel

Burglars Thwarted!

More fun with land records…