Details

Have you used county histories in your genealogy research? When I first started researching my tree, those county histories were a goldmine. Since my ancestors often moved into a county in the early days, I would check to see if they were named as an early settler. Sometimes the information on the early churches would provide a clue to my families. And the true gold was the biographies.

While these biographies may have been exaggerated, I’ve found most of them to provide information that I’ve been able to validate thru other sources. As I’ve been reviewing the data I’ve collected for Nelson G. Crawford, I re-read his entry in the 1877 Atlas of Warren County Indiana and realized there are a couple of important details about Nelson’s estate.

Nelson G. Crawford, deceased, of Washington
Township, was born in Preble County, Ohio, October 17, 1808;
settled in Warren County, Indiana, in 1829, and commenced the
business of Farming. On September 3, 1833, Mr. Crawford and
Miss Martha Smith were joined in marriage, the fruits of which
union were the following named children: James H., William C.,
Washington M., Mary E., Sarah A. and Corlia C. Crawford.
Mr. Crawford located and improved a farm in Section 8, com-
mencing in 1832, and lived upon the same until his death, which
occured March 21, 1864. He held positions of trust in his town-
ship; was a thorough business man, never having trouble of any
kind with his neighbors. He gave each child one thousand dollars
at their marriage and accumulated enough to own, at his death, 750
acres of land. He enjoyed the respect and confidence of his neigh-
bors and died regretted by all who knew him. A view of he home-
stead will be seen in the Atlas.

Warren County Historical Society (Warren County Ind.), Combined Atlas of Warren County, Indiana: illustrated 1877 (Mt. Vernon, IN: Windmill Publishers, 2001), Nelson G. Crawford.

When I first read this biography, I concentrated on the dates and the relationships. Even those are important details, I overlooked another set of important details. Those details are a clue to Nelson Crawford’s estate.

He gave each child one thousand dollars at their marriage and accumulated enough to own, at his death, 750 acres of land.

That $1000 in 1860 money would be about $33,000 today. Nelson’s giving his six children $6,000 in his day would be over $175,000 in todays money.

In addition to the cash, Nelson owned 750 acres of land. That’s over 1 square mile of land.

WHERE ARE THESE 750 acres

• 80 acres – W1/2 NW 1/4 S8T21NR8W – 1830
• 40 acres – SE1/4 NE1/4 S35T22NR9W – 1837 – sold 1836 to Henry Hall
• 160 acres – SE1/4S19T23NR92 – 1851
• 40 acres – SW1/4NE1/4S7T21NR8W – 1844
• 40 acres – NE1/4S7T21NR8W – 1848

So far, I’ve only found 320 acres of Warren County land in Nelson’s possession at his death. However, there are still Warren County deeds that I need to try and obtain. Hopefully, those deeds will account for the rest of the 750 acres. Otherwise, the search will need to broaden outside of Warren County, Indiana.

Thus, I’m thankful for this short biography and the clue that I need to look for more land purchases!