HOWARD COUNTY 1824 LAND CLAIM ************************************************************************ File contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Carolyn Fairall USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor, OR the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ************************************************************************ "Territory of Missouri, Howard County, to wit: Be it known that on the 18th day of January, 1819, at the office of David Todd, attorney at law, in the town of Franklin, personally appeared before me, Augustus Storrs, a justice of the peace in said county and Territory, the following witnesses, and their depositions were then and there taken as followeth, before me, agreeably to a dedimus potestatem hereto annexed; and also a notice to be read as evidence in favor of Shadrach Barnes, Amos Barnes, William Taylor, and William Ridgway, in a suit of ejectment pending and undetermined in the superior court for the northern circuit, held at St. Louis, in said Territory, wherein William V. Rector and others are plaintiffs, and the said parties first above-named and John Welch and James Welch are defendants. William Clark, being produced, sworn, and examined on the part of the defendants, deposeth and saith that on the 22nd day of July, 1804, this deponent set out from Richard Chetwood's, about 4 miles below the mouth of the Missouri river, in company with Ira Nash, William Nash, James Whiteside, and Daniel Hubbard, for the purpose of ascending the Missouri and seeing the country. On the way said Daniel Hubbard obtained a canoe and returned back. This deponent landed a little above the mouth of Lamine creek and went with said Ira Nash, William Nash, and James H. Whiteside to Barclay's lick, and from thence to Boon's lick, in company with said two Nashes, and then returned again to Barclay's lick; from thence the party again, being joined by said Whiteside, returned to a place called Prewitt's trading-house, a small distance above where the town of Franklin is now situated. Ira Nash then said that, being up here sometime before, in February, he had left a compass in a hollow tree, and, with the others, went to hunt it, while this deponent went to a place called Sulphur lick to kill deer, agreeing to meet said party the next day at Barclay's lick, where we met accordingly, said party bringing said compass. Said Ira Nash, together with this deponent, and William Nash, then met to run a line from one survey at the bluff to another on the river, for the purpose,as Ira Nash said, of enabling him to make a correct plot of the same, or of what he had once done before. We run the said line about five outs, and coming to a wet--a grassy place, we were obliged to relinquish out design. We then again parted--this witness by land, to hunt, and the others by water--to meet again the next day at Prewitt's trading-house, which we then did. Something less than a mile below said trading-house said Ira Nash marked a corner on three percon trees; from which corner we commenced running a line down the river Missouri, and ran not exceeding five outs, when said Ira Nash mentioned to the company that he was not getting the land which he wanted, and stopped running. Said Ira Nash then went back, as he said, to make a new corner, while all the rest of the company came down the river to the mouth of a slough, a little above Franklin. William Nash then told this deponent that he had an 800 arpent claim, and would locate it below the mouth of this discharge or slough above mentioned. Ira Nash then went from the company, but he set his compass, or ran a line with it, this deponent does not recollect; but sometime afterwards he returned, and mentioned that he, William, had got the plum orchard, making the observation to his brother William. All the company then went down the river to a large spring between the Rocher Perce' and the Grand Moniton, and William Nash observed that he had an 800 arpent claim that he would lay there; but this deponent does not know whether any corner was made, but knows that no lines were run. The company then went on down the river until they came in sight of the place where Cote Sans Dessein now is, and then landed. William Nash then said that he would lay one of his 800 arpent claims in that place. Ira Nash then set the compass, intending to locate it in an oblong form running up the river. The whole of the company then again descended the river, and reached the place from which they set off about the 17th of August, in the same year." Source: AMERICAN STATE PAPERS, PUBLIC LANDS, Volume IV, pp. 818/9.