Old deed
A Very Old Deed
"A deed nearly forty-six years old was filed for record in the recorder’s office a few days ago. It is a warranty deed by which Bledsoe Holder and Elizabeth Holder, his wife, convey to Martin A. Holder, their son, eighty acres of land, the west half of the southwest quarter of section 1, township 31, range 25, the consideration being $100. It was given on the 15th day of March, 1853, and acknowledged, curiously enough, before Tully C. Kirby, father of our present recorder with whom the deed was filed for record, and who was then a justice of the peace of Morgan Township.
"The land lies in Polk Township [now Dade County] and is now a portion of a very valuable farm. Through carelessness, perhaps, the deed was never filed for record and only recently, when its owner was having an abstract made, was it discovered that it was missing. A search among old papers brought the document to light and it is now transferred to the recorder’s books.
"The deed is written on an excellent quality or linen parchment paper and has borne its years very well, with the exception of the fold, where it has become slightly worn, and where the recorder was obliged to use a microscope to correctly transcribe the words. It is the oldest document very probably that has ever been filed with the recorder."
From the Springfield Republican, January 3, 1896, republished from the Greenfield Vedette.
The image above is courtesy of the Bureau of Land Management General Land Office Records and shows the original land entry that Bledsoe Holder received for service in the War of 1812.
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