Arthur Bronson land grant 1834

Archive

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Saugatuck Douglas Historical Society

2014.44 (1)

2014.44 (1)

Name/Title

Arthur Bronson land grant 1834

Entry/Object ID

2014.44.01

Scope and Content

There are two documents which are bound together with a red ribbon and stamped with the seal for the United States General Land Office. The largest of the two documents is a land grant for Arthur Bronson for 75 acres of land in the White Pigeon Prarie Michigan Territory in 1834. It is marked as certificate No 2941 and was recorded by Michigan in Volume 56 on page 28. White Pigeon Prarie Territory included land along the Lake Michigan coast, which also includes Saugatuck. It appears that this portion of land covered the northeast quarter of the town which would be from the northeast side of Butler St at the public square center between Main and Mary, the southwest corner up to North St and N Maple Rd, and the northeast corner.The second document is a "cover" for the land grant and is from the General Land Office of the Department of the Interior, dated 1905. This document is a confirmation of the land grant and was signed and sealed by W.A Richards, who was Commisioner of the General Land Office in 1905. The confirmation suggests that the land grant is an official copy of the orginal, but the reason for the copy is unknown. It is possible there was some sort of land dispute over Bronson's property in the White Pigeon region, but this is unknown. There is also a number written in the top left corner of this document which reads, 139533 and has the initials R.W. The paper documents are forms that have been filled in with the necessary information. Portions of each document have printed sentences with blank, dotted lines. The dotted lines are filled in by handwriting, with the required information such as the description of Bronson's land claim and the signatures. The land grant also has red ink which was used to fill in the unused lines of the documents. It is possible that this grant is among the first of a series that were related to the Saugatuck area. Arthur Bronson was a land speculator from New York who speculated lands in Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan.

Cataloged By

Stevens, Meghann

Acquisition

Accession

2014.44

Source or Donor

Found in the SDHS/SDHC collection

Acquisition Method

Found in Collection

Lexicon

Search Terms

Land Grant, White Pigeon, Arthur Bronson, Department of the Interior, White Pigeon Territory

Archive Details

Creator

Department of the Interior

Date(s) of Creation

1834 - 1905

Archive Size/Extent

1-document

Primary Language

English

Archive Notes

Date(s) Created: 1834, 1905 Archivist's Notes: It's unknown when or who we received this document from, but it was discovered in the collection by Mary Voss in 2014. Afterwards, she and Chris Yoder contacted James Faasen who was able to do some research on Arthur Bronson, which he then sent to the archives. The email has been printed out and is included in the accession folder. There was also a note attached with mailing address and phone number for the Village of White Pigeon. It's unknown what this note was for, but it will be kept with the accession file for the time being. (The image quality for pastperfect is low, but there is a link in the image management section for the high quality images) Finding Aids: Land Grant Arthur Bronson Department of Interior White Pigeon

Location

Drawer

Flat Files drawer 10 misc. odd-shaped items

Condition

Overall Condition

Good

Notes

The document is in good condition, considering its age. There is a minor amount of deterioration that is common with older documents. The ink has faded slightly, but not enough to be illegible. The seal shows the most deterioration as it has thinned and faded enough to make the seal difficult to see. There are also multiple creases on the document from repeated folding and unfolding. As a result, several of the creases have begun to tear. It would be best to lay the document flat from now on the prevent further tearing.

Relationships

Related Person or Organization

Person or Organization

Bronson, Arthur 1801-1844

Person or Organization

Richards, W.A.

Person or Organization

Jackson, Andrew

General Notes

Note

Status: OK Status By: Meghann Stevens Status Date: 2018-10-05

Create Date

October 5, 2018

Update Date

February 4, 2022