Tallapoosa County Alabama - Land - Pre-emption claim of Henry Jackson Pickard 1843 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/alfiles.htm ************************************************ This file contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Jo Pickard Weaver Sep 2002 Summary of pre-emption claim of Henry Jackson PICKARD dated 01 Oct 1843. Frac B, Sec 6, T21N, R22E. The earliest record (1833) of Henry J. PICKARD was found through the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) records. Land Patent # AL4350__.001, Doc 225, 226, 227, 228, dated 01 Oct 1843. Frac B, Sec 6, T21N, R22E. Interrogatories in support of the pre-emption claim from Daniel WILLIAMS & Francis POWERS, (page 11 & 12) state that they have both known Henry J. PICKARD and they have resided in his immediate neighborhood for upwards of 12 months. They knew he had cultivated the land in 1833. Asked if any other persons cultivated any portion of said ¼ section, they responded that Henry J. PICKARD, Joseph BRYAN & Edwin WILEY also had possession and cultivated on said ¼ section in 1833. But Joseph BRYAN & H. J. PICKARD were the first actual settlers. Benjamin YOUNG and Irvin (Irwin) LAWSON (page 6) state they are well acquainted with Henry J. PICKARD and that he had removed to Alabama in April or September of 1833 and has remained ever since. He took possession of a part of the SE/4 (later corrected to be the NE/4) of Sec 6, T21, R22 in the Tallapoosa land district. He sowed turnips on a part of the land in 1833 and had a crop of corn theron in 1834. He settled on the W/2 of Sec 4 in the same Township and Range and as near to the ¼ sec above described as we considered it safe to settle on account of health as the said ¼ sec was almost entirely low ground on the Tallapoosa River and cut up with ponds and branches. YOUNG and LAWSON further state: PICKARD has an interest in the cultivations of the land entirely distinct from the cultivations of Joseph BRYAN, though he did attend to said BRYAN's turnips in his absence. YOUNG & LAWSON said that from their knowledge of the County at that time, PICKARD's main dependence for support was on the additional cultivations of the ¼ section above described and that this was the only land which he could safely cultivate to make crop as all the other good land in the neighborhood was Indian Reservations and they were exceedingly Hostile to the settlement of the white and generally refused to let them occupy their reservations.