Page content last modified: February 20, 2008, added John Day's property.
March 19, 2007, added James E. Roberts' property.

HANCOCK COUNTY, ILLINOIS
SITES & VINTAGE PHOTOS

 

Fountain Green Township Sections
Township Six North of the Beardstown Baseline,
and Five West of the 4th Principal Meridian.

Where did they live?  What land did they own?

 

Fountain Green Township is comprised of 36 sections, each 1 mile square, indicated by the darker lines within the grids below.  Sections are numbered starting in the northeast corner, moving west and then to the east, and so forth, through 36.  Each small, green-bordered square on this diagram represents 40 acres, a quarter of a quarter section.

Some of the purchases plotted here were more or less than 40 acre increments, so this diagram should not be interpreted as a precise representation.  Instead, it offers a general idea of where people were located in relationship to each other.

In the government offices where land purchases were recorded and patents (certificates of ownership) were issued, patents were often issued many months after the purchaser had already taken possession of the land, due to the volume of purchases the besieged land offices had to process.  Researcher Helen Vargas shared the information that in some cases the delayed transference of ownership was because the purchaser bought the land in installments.

A third scenario was the circumstance of preemption: the purchaser had settled on the land prior to the time when the government offered it for sale, and was given the first option to buy it - a form of squatter's rights, so to speak.

The grids on the left are identical.  Scroll to the name of the purchaser, for the most part displayed in the order of the certificate dates.  Place your mouse indicator over the mini-buttons associated with the names to view a detailed description of the purchase.

NOTE: Your browser must be able to execute Javascript to view the descriptions and the page must be completely loaded - including the Rootsweb ads - before the descriptions will appear.  If you follow one of the links to other pages and then return, there may be another delay of a few seconds before the displays will execute.

F marks the location of the village of Fountain Green.  W marks the location of the village of Webster.

 


PUT YOUR MOUSE INDICATOR OVER
THE MINI BUTTONS BELOW TO VIEW ADDITIONAL DETAILS ABOUT EACH PURCHASE.

ca. 1830 Jabez Beebe, 320 acres

1840 William Duff, 80 acres

1840 John Day, 80 acres

1840 Ivo Hardy, 120 acres total

1840 Jared Prentiss

1840 John Roberts, 80 acres

1840 Jary White, 200 acres

1840 Jesse Hadley, 40 acres

1840 David Allton, 160 acres

1840 John M. Roberts, 40 acres

1840 Elisha H. Beckwith, 40 acres

1840 Jesse Hadley, 40 acres

1840 John Roberts, 40 acres

1840 Jabez Beebe, 280 acres

1840 James E. Roberts, 40 acres

1852 Nathan Allton, 40 acres

1854 Thomas Callihan, abt. 40 acres

You may view, print copies and/or order certified copies of the certificates from
The Bureau of Land Management

 

Hancock Sites
& Vintage Photos
Return To
Home Page