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Archiver > ILHAMILT > 1998-11 > 0912184600


From: Sheila Cadwalader <>
Subject: [ILHAMILT-L] Peer & IL Land Sales
Date: Fri, 27 Nov 1998 11:36:40 -0500


Lori,
"IL Land Sales" does not contain all land purchases in Illinois. "IL
Land Sales" is a listing of the "original"/"first time" the land was
sold by the State of Illinois. e.i. the land listed in IL Land Sales
had no previous owner other than the Indians and then the State of
Illinois.

Your Peer ancestors did buy a few pieces of land from the state, but
they may also have purchased land from a private individual (someone who
had previously purchased the land from the State of IL.) The records of
individuals buying from individuals would be in the county deeds.

There was a line drawn thru the middle of IL , north to south, known as
the "3rd Principal Meridian". Then there was a "Baseline" drawn east to
west. This baseline is a little north of Jefferson County and runs thru
Wayne County. Where the 3rd Principal Meridian and the Baseline cross
is the spot where they began laying out the Townships and Ranges.
Townships run north and south; Ranges run east and west. Locating land
by legal description is similar to using an atlas (maps use "letters"
and "numbers" (D-4) while pinpointing a town; land descriptions in IL
use (T-R) "townships" and "ranges". (Hint: these townships laid out by
surveyors have no correlation with the "townships" laid out later by
residents of a county and do not follow the same boundaries. They are
two different uses of the word.)

These townships that were laid out by the surveyors each contained
23040 acres of land, and were further divided into 36 sections. Each
section contained 640 acres. Each section was further divided into
quarters, each containing 160 acres....hence the NW quarter contained
160 acres, NE 160 acres, SW 160 acres, SE 160 acres. It was common for
people to purchase 40 acres of land, so these "quarter sections" were
further divided into quarters containing 40 acres and then you get the
NW SW descriptions.

Abram Peer purchased NWSE - Sec 22 - T3S - R6E - 40
What he actually purchased was land in Township 3 south (3 townships
south of the baseline) Range 6 east (6 ranges east of the 3rd Meridian)
and the NorthWest one-quarter (40 acres) of the SouthEast quarter of
Section 22.

Hope I haven't confused you out of all reason....I said it was hard to
explain by e-mail, plus it helps to have an Illinois map.

Abram Peer owned land along the northern border of Hamilton County. He
probably lived in a close proximity to his relatives in Wayne County.

Shawneetown Land District was established to sell IL land to new
settlers to IL. The Shawneetown District book that I have only covers
the earliest land purchases from 1814-1820. I don't think it would be
of any value to you since the Peers were not in Illinois that early. I
would be happy to send you the explanation of what I tried to relate to
you above.

I'll also be glad to help you determine the exact land the Peers
purchased. I can get the info from the IL Land Sales, do you have other
land descriptions from wills or probate papers ?

Sheila

> I would very much appreciate the obits for PEER in Legacy of Kin but
> I don't want you to have to sit and type up dozens of them! Can I pay
> you for photocopies and postage instead so that you don't have as
> much work?
>
> The Shawneetown Land Sales Map sounds like it would be a good
> investment and I would be happy to purchase a copy if you can tell me
> how.
>
> I'm really keen on getting these IL Peers straightened around and I
> am very grateful for the kindness of folks like you, Howard, David
> and others, who take the time to do lookups or simply point one in
> the right direction!
>
> I love living on Lake Huron in Ontario except when it comes time for
> genealogy --- then it's a bummer :-((
>
> IL is still new to me and I've learned a a lot going to various
> online sites - but nothing beats getting the original sources and
> doing that old fashioned digging <g>. Being unable to find any
> sources here to dig through, I'm pleased to find such a wealth of
> helpful information available through volunteers and websites like
> Michael's IL ones.
>
> Thanks and I hope your Thanksgiving was a good one! As you no doubt
> know, we celebrated ours last month so the mess was cleaned up long
> ago...just in time for the Christmas turkey mess <g>
>
> Lorine

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