Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Finding Henry Carringer's Land Patents, and Location, in Cheyenne County, Kansas

I attended Blythe Stokes presentation last Saturday at the CGSSD program meeting on "Land Ho!! Using Google Earth, BLM/General Land Records, and EarthPoint."  Blythe described how to use the General Land Office BLM records to find land patents (http://glorecords.blm.gov), then input the township, range and section information into the EarthPoint site (www.earthpoint.us) and activate Google Earth (http://www.google.com/earth/download/ge/agree.html) to "fly" to the land and view the section in a satellite view.  She went further, but I won't do that here.

I had done this previously with Ranslow Smith in Dodge County, Wisconsin, but had not looked for my ancestors in other states, or for my wife's ancestors.

At the meeting, I had my laptop, had downloaded Google Earth previously, so I was ready to work along with Blythe on my own search and find (hopefully).  Here was my process, and what I found:

1)  On the BLM/General Land Records website (http://glorecords.blm.gov), I clicked on the "Search documents" button and searched for my great-grandfather, Carringer in Cheyenne County, Kansas:


I clicked on the "Search Persons" button and saw the list of Carringers:


There were two listed, both Henry A. Carringer, as shown above.

The descriptions of the land patents were:

*  Cheyenne County, Kansas, Meridian 6th PM, Township 003S, Range 040W, Section 3, Aliquots NE1/4.  This is 160 acres - the northeast quarter of Section 3 of Township 003W, Range 40W in Cheyenne County, Kansas.

*  Cheyenne County, Kansas, Meridian 6th PM, Township 003S, Range 040W, Section 11, Aliquots W1/2 SE1/4 and E1/2 NW1/4.  This is 160 acres - the west half of the southeast quarter, and the east half of the northwest quarter of Section 11 of Township 003W, Range 40W in Cheyenne County, Kansas.

I clicked on one of them, and was able to see the Patent Image (in the "Patent Image" tab):


I saved a PDF of both patents to my computer.

I clicked on the "Related Documents" tab on the screen above, and saw:


The others who received patents for this Section 3 were David Oglesbee and Della A. Smith.  Della a. smith is my great-grandmother, who married Henry A. Carringer in 1885!  I noted the land description and copied her patent also.  Her patent was for:

*  Cheyenne County, Kansas, Meridian 6th PM, Township 003S, Range 040W, Section 3, Aliquots SE1/4.  This is 160 acres - the southeast quarter of Section 3 of Township 003W, Range 40W in Cheyenne County, Kansas.  This land is just to the south of Henry A. Carringer's patent in Section 3.

2)  The second step is to go to the EarthPoint website (www.earthpoint.us), which is free to use for certain tasks, including this one.  I clicked on the "Search by Description" under the "Township & Range" section in the left-hand frame, and entered the Township, Range and Section information into the search fields (page at http://earthpoint.us/TownshipsSearchByDescription.aspx):



I clicked on the "Fly to Google Earth" button below the search fields.  This created an EarthPointFlyTo.kml file that downloaded to my computer.

3)  I had previously loaded the free Google Earth program to my computer (http://www.google.com/earth/download/ge/agree.html).  I did not subscribe, or take a 30-day trial subscription.

I clicked on the downloaded EarthPointFlyTo.kml file and Google Earth opened and the program flew to the township (outlined in orange below, with Section 3 outlined in purple):


I can zoom in to see the satellite view of Section 3 and because the aliquot parts are rectangular, I can figure out which areas were owned by Henry A. Carringer and Della A. Smith.

I also did the "Fly to Google Earth" for Section 11, and saw:


Google Earth put Section 11 on the same map as Section 3.  That's cool.

I did not use any of the more advanced features of Google Earth for this - everything I've done above is FREE.

While on the Section 11 patent in EarthPoint, I checked the "Related Documents" tab and found Devier J. Smith's (another ancestor) land patent in:

*  Cheyenne County, Kansas, Meridian 6th PM, Township 003S, Range 040W, Section 11, Aliquots W1/2 SW1/4 and W1/2 NW1/4.  This is 160 acres - the west half of the southwest quarter, and the west half of the northwest quarter of Section 11 of Township 003W, Range 40W in Cheyenne County, Kansas.

I clicked on the "View in Google Maps" button in order to get a "flat view," easily saw the distinctive land pattern, saved the image, and drew boxes around all of the land patents (as best I can using OpenOffice graphic tools).  Here are the different areas owned by:

*  Henry A. Carringer outlined in red
*  Della A. Smith outlined in blue
*  Devier J. Smith outlined in green.
*  Sections 3 and 11 outlined in purple.


All of this was new information for me.  I've had some great genealogy fun working on this today.

Readers may have some questions:

*  Is Della A. Smith related to Devier J. Smith?  Yes, she is his oldest daughter, born in 1862 so she was of age in 1884.

*  Why does Della A. Smith have a patent in her maiden name?  I think it's because she received the land as an unmarried woman in 1884 before her marriage in September 1885 to Henry Carringer.

*  Was it happenstance that Henry A. Carringer and Devier J. Smith owned land next to each other in Section 11?  I don't know, but it may have been.  About a year after filing in 1884 for the patent, Henry and Della were married in Wano, Kansas.  Is this how they met?

*  Did they ever build on this land?  I think that both Henry and Devier built on their land - Della's scrapbook has articles that mention a "ranch" as does Devier's Bible.  His ranch was called "Spring Ranch."  I believe that they used the "ranch" as a spring and summer getaway.  Devier had a livery and horse business in McCook, Nebraska, which is down the Republican River from Cheyenne County, Kansas.

*  What happened to the land?  I don't know - I need to go to Cheyenne County to find the land records.  They are not on Family History Library microfilms.  I'm fairly sure that Henry and Della sold their land at some time after their marriage.  Devier's land may have been part of his estate, which I have not found yet in Cheyenne County, Kansas or Red Willow County, Nebraska.

I've always wondered where exactly in Cheyenne County they had land and built the ranch.  Now I know, I think!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/07/finding-henry-carringers-land-patents.html

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Interesting. You may have figured all this out by now, but I thought I'd add some observations anyway.

Both of Henry A Carringer's patents are Cash Entry - I'm pretty sure that means he paid cash for them on the dates listed, and could dispose of them at will. They were definitely not Homestead patents (no 5 year occupancy, no "proving up").

There are other Carringtons, too, in Lane and Decatur Counties.

There are two Cheyenne County patents for Della A Smith - one in Section 3 and one in Section 2 - and another in Scott County for a Della S Smith. All of them are Cash Entry.

Devier Smith patents in Section 11 and Section 10 are both Cash Entry.

I don't know why the patents are in Della's birth name unless she's a different Della - how likely is that??? Maybe she and Henry were trying to disguise the extent of their holdings!

Anyway, all of these parcels could have been sold at any time.

If you go to the Reference Center tab on the BLM site and then down to the Document Requests section, Land Entry Case Files, you'll find even more possibilities for delicious burrowing. Land research is utterly fascinating.

Now let's see if I can prove I'm not a robot. - Gerry Sell