Hi everyone! I know you have had to wait longer than usual for this new post, but there is actually a very good reason for that. I was about halfway finished with the post I was intending to publish, which started out like this:
Okay. Today we are going to finally finish up with W. C. Cheatham. Probably. Of course, new documents are being digitized and put online all the time now, so it's quite likely that I will run into some new stuff sooner or later that I will want to share with you, but for now, I think this is going to be it!That post was going to include a final timeline of W. C.'s life, so I was skimming through my earlier posts to make sure I had everything for the timeline when I noticed the newspaper article from 1888 that said W. C. was running for the office of district and county clerk, which was a position he had held once before. So I thought, if I could narrow down what year he held that office, I could slip it neatly into the timeline. Well, wouldn't you know, but I couldn't find a record of the clerks of Taylor County anywhere online. I did, however, end up on the Taylor County court records on the FamilySearch website, and I figured that if I looked through some of those documents to see who the clerk was in the various years, that would give me my answer.
This started me on another round of RESEARCH.
As it happens, I didn't find W. C. as the county clerk in any of the years prior to 1888, but apparently, for several years up through 1881, the district and county clerks were two separate offices. The district clerks handled more important things, like felony trials, adoptions, and some other stuff, and I didn't come across any records like that online, so maybe he held the position of district clerk for one or two years after coming to Buffalo Gap. (Of course, it is always possible that he held that position while living in Lampasas County, but of course I couldn't find those records online either!)
Anyway, there I was, scanning through the records on FamilySearch, not finding what I was actually looking for, and I came across this:
(dates unknown)
| W C Cheatham Taylor County, Texas Mortgage Deed, 1883 - pg1 |
W C Cheatham Taylor County, Texas Mortgage Deed, 1883 - pg2 |
See? What did I tell you? New documents are being put online all the time! In the same book (I think? I can't find it again!) I also found this (Look at the section in the middle of the page.):
and this:
Which reminded me that W. C. had been a notary, which I had forgotten to insert into the timeline. I also came across some transcribed indexes. And that's where things really got fun.
We knew from the tax rolls and newspaper articles (and miscellaneous publications) that W. C. had bought and sold multiple pieces of property, and that he was in a business partnership with Sheriff J. V. Cunningham, and also that he was a real estate agent both in Buffalo Gap and later in Abilene. The indexes do a much better job of illustrating the extent of his transactions:
| Taylor County, Texas Index to Deeds (01) |
Taylor County, Texas Index to Deeds (02) |
Taylor County, Texas Index to Deeds (03) |
| Index to Deeds (04) |
Taylor County, Texas Index to Deeds (05) |
Index to Deeds (06) |
| Taylor County, Texas Index to Deeds (09) |
Taylor County, Texas Index to Deeds (10) |
Taylor County, Texas Index to Deeds (11) |
| Taylor County, Texas Index to Deeds (12) |
Taylor County, Texas Index to Deeds (13) |
Taylor County, Texas Index to Deeds (14) |
(If you click on the caption, you will find a pdf with a compilation of only the history pages. Clicking on the picture will take you to the Portal to Texas History website page where you can look through the entire book - it has a lot of fun stuff in the back, like recipes, home remedies, etc.)
It begins with a little history of Taylor County written by one of the early settlers. Look at this part of what he had to say:
Aha, see? It sounds like a whole lot of those early settlers were just "free-ranging" their livestock!
Okay. Sorry about getting sidetracked. Back to the index pages. They show several different types of deeds. Some are Warranty Deeds and Quit-Claim Deeds, which we talked about a few weeks ago. Then there are Tax Deeds and Sheriff Deeds - I'm not sure what the difference there is, because I thought that the sheriff's sale was always for non-payment of taxes. (Well, I had to go look that up because, you know, me, so ... I looked at two websites, one talking about sheriff deeds and one talking about tax deeds, and they both said the same thing - you can read an explanation here - so I don't know what the distinction was back in 1881!) The indexes also show patents and powers of attorney, as well as title bonds, mortgages, and releases, so I have no idea what it means when it just says "Deed." Maybe, if we read one of the actual deeds, we will figure it out.
So, here's a rundown of the transactions shown on the indexes (The indexes are ordered by filing date, not transaction date, so the transactions do not appear chronologically. In addition, there are direct and indirect listings, which means some transactions appear twice, but sometimes it gives a name and sometimes just says et al for the same transaction - I did my best sorting through these by looking at page numbers and filing times, so hopefully I don't list any of the transactions twice!):
1881
Feb 25 - Cunningham & Cheatham made a purchase (deed)
Apr 9 - W. C. made two purchases (sheriff deeds)
Jun 13 - Cheatham & Cunningham made a purchase (warranty deed)
Jun 20 - Cheatham & Cunningham made a purchase (deed)
Sept 14 - W. C. made a purchase (deed)
Dec 26 - W. C. made a purchase (deed)
It looks like 1881 was a year for collecting property; he must have realized the potential for profit as more and more people moved into the area.
1882
Apr 15 - Cheatham & Cunningham made a purchase (deed)
May 2 - W. C. made a purchase (from Cunningham) (tax deed)
Sept 5 - (This one is weird. It actually says: "Cheatham, W. Co.Clk" - could that stand for "county clerk?" and if so, why in the world would it be written that way in the deed book? And also if so, why did I not find his signature as clerk in the one record book I found covering this year?) Anyway, it was a purchase (deed)
Oct 4 - Cheatham & Cunningham made a sale (quitclaim)
Oct 14 - Cheatham & Cunningham made a sale (quitclaim)
Oct 14 - Cunningham & Cheatham made a sale (quitclaim)
Oct 21 - W. C. made a sale (quitclaim)
Oct 21 - Cheatham & Cunningham made a sale (quitclaim)
Oct 27 - W. C. & J. V. Cunningham made a sale (quitclaim)
Nov 28 - W. C. et al made a purchase (deed)
Dec 3 - Cheatham & Lemmons made a purchase (deed)
I found it interesting the different ways that W. C. and J. V. Cunningham were listed on the deeds. Maybe when it said "Cheatham & Cunningham" (or the reverse) that it referred to their business partnership, but if it listed their initials with their last names they were just joint owners. (Does that make sense?) I don't know who the "et al" on the November purchase was - I'm really curious, so hopefully I can find the actual deed!
So, the first half of 1882 was still devoted to purchasing property. All of those October sales were to the same person. They were all quitclaims - I wonder why. And after those sales, W. C. started purchasing more property.
1883
Jan 1 - W. C. made a purchase (deed)
Jan 1 - W. C. made another purchase (deed)
Jan 4 - W. C. made a purchase (deed)
Jan 27 - W. C. & J. V. Cunningham made two purchases (deeds)
Feb 20 - W. C. & J. V. Cunningham made a sale
Mar 3 - W. C. et al made a sale (deed)
Mar 12 - W. C. made a purchase ( deed) (This one wasn't filed until 1889.)
Mar 19 - W. C. made a sale (mortgage deed, or deed of trust - this is the deed I showed you up above; Oddly enough, this record does not appear in the typed (transcribed) indexes, so there's no telling how many other deeds are missing as well!)
Apr 17 - W. C. et al granted power of attorney to Alpha Young (who just so happens to be the minister who married W. C. and Mary later on)
Apr 18 - W. C. made a purchase (deed)
May 17 - W. C. & Simmons made a purchase (title bond) (I looked this up, and today it mostly refers to vehicle titles, but apparently it is also know as a "surety bond," which means that a professional requirement or terms of a contract must be fulfilled - I'd love to see this deed!)
Jun 5 - W. C. & Simmons made a purchase (deed)
Jun 5 - W. C. et al granted a release (to the same person they purchased from on the same day!)
Jun 11 - W. C. et al made a purchase (deed)
Jun 13 - W. c. et al made a sale (deed)
Jun 19 - W. C. et al made a sale (deed)
Jun 20 - W. C. et al made a sale (title bond)
Jun 26 - W. C. made a purchase (deed)
Jun 26 - W. C. made a sale (deed)
Jul 9 - W. C. et al made a sale (deed)
Jul 23 - W. C. et al made a sale (deed)
Jul 31 - W. C. received a certified copy of a deed (from his wife's brother, S. M. Blackshear)
Aug 3 - W. C. made a sale (deed)
Aug 3 - W. C. made another sale (deed) (This sale was to the same person as above, but wasn't filed until seven years later.)
Aug 11 - W. C. et al made a sale (deed)
Aug 11 - W. C. et al made another sale (deed)
Aug 15 - W. C. et al made a sale (deed)
Sep 1 - W. C. made a sale to J. V. Cunningham (deed)
Sep 10 - W. C. made a sale to J. V. Cunningham (deed)
Sep 14 - W. C. made a sale (deed)
Sep 14 - W. C. & wife made a sale (deed) (Both transactions on this day were to the same person.)
Sep 15 - W. C. made a sale (deed)
Sep 27 - W. C. granted a release (This was to a person he had made a sale to back at the end of June.)
Dec 1 - W. C. et al made a sale (deed)
Dec 1 - W. C. et al made another sale (deed)
In 1883, W. C. had (at least) a total of 33 deed transactions, for who knows how many different parcels of land. Of course, I'm calling these sales and purchases, but some of them may have been transfers of property without money changing hands. We won't know until we look at the actual documents. This was the year that lots in Abilene were first sold, so I'm sure that's what some of these were. We can also see that there were twice as many sales as purchases, which tells me that some of the lots/land purchased was sold in smaller parcels than the original transaction.
Believe it or not, there's more. (Of course there is - this is only through 1883!)
| Taylor County, Texas Index to Deeds (15) |
Taylor County, Texas Index to Deeds (16) |
Taylor County, Texas Index to Deeds (17) |
| Taylor County, Texas Index to Deeds (18) |
Taylor County, Texas Index to Deeds (19) |
Taylor County, Texas Index to Deeds (20) |
| Taylor County, Texas Index to Deeds (21) |
Taylor County, Texas Index to Deeds (22) |
Taylor County, Texas Index to Deeds (23) |
| Taylor County, Texas Index to Deeds (24) |
Taylor County, Texas Index to Deeds (25) |
Taylor County, Texas Index to Deeds (26) |
1884
Feb 4 - W. C. made a sale (deed) (This was sold to the high school.)
Apr 10 - W. C. made a sale (deed)
May 27 - W. C. made a sale (deed)
May 27 - W. C. & A. V. (wife) made a sale (deed)
Jun 4 - W. C. made a sale (deed)
Sept 26 - W. C. made a sale (deed)
1885
Feb 7 - W. C. et al made a sale (sheriff deed) (Since this was a sherrif deed, it's more like a loss than an actual sale!)
Mar 4 - W. C. & wife made a sale (deed)
And that was all I found for 1885. It looks like things were slowing down for W. C. in the real estate business. There were actually no transactions recorded for 1886, and only one for 1887 (which is kind of weird, because he was listed in the 1886-87 directory as being a real estate agent!)
1887
Sept 27 - W. C. made a purchase (deed)
1889
Sept 2 - W. C. was granted a release.
Oct 31 - W. C. & wife made a sale (deed)
From this year on, whenever it says "& wife" it is referring to W. C.'s second wife, Mary.
1890
Jan 20 - M. M. (W. C.'s wife) et al made a purchase(deed)
Mar 18 - W. C. made a purchase (deed)
Mar 20 - Mary made a purchase (deed)
Dec 1 - W. C. Cheatham was granted a release.
Dec 2 - W. C. and wife made a sale (deed)
Dec 2 - M. M. & W. C. made a sale (deed)
If you remember, 1890 was the year when W. C. opened a commission and real estate business in Abilene, so it makes sense that the transactions were picking up again.
1891
Jan 15 - M. M. et al was granted a release.
Feb 13 - M. M. and W. C. made a sale (deed)
Feb 24 - W. C. & wife made a sale to J. V. Cunningham (deed)
Feb 24 - W. C. & M. M. made another sale (deed)
Apr 10 - W. C. made a purchase (deed)
Jul 24 - M. M. made a purchase (deed)
Dec 10 - W. C. filed an Affidavit as to Homestead.
When I saw that last one there, I was like, Oooh, maybe he did homestead a farm like I was thinking. Luckily, I was able to find the actual document:
So, this is actually about lots in the City of Abilene - the same three lots that we kept seeing trading hands in the newspaper articles. This says that W. C. and his wife and family "claimed, occupied, and used" all three lots as their homestead, and that they had no other homestead at the time. It also says, however, that those three lots had been conveyed to J. V. Cunningham on Feb 24 of the same year. I don't know what this was all about, but those same exact lots would be in W. C.'s possession and up for a tax sale in 1894!
And here are the rest of the index pages:
| Taylor County, Texas Index to Deeds (27) |
Taylor County, Texas Index to Deeds (28) |
Taylor County, Texas Index to Deeds (29) |
| Taylor County, Texas Index to Deeds (30) |
Taylor County, Texas Index to Deeds (31) |
Taylor County, Texas Index to Deeds (32) |
| Taylor County, Texas Index to Deeds (33) |
1892
Jun 28 - M. M. made a purchase (deed)
Aug 15 - W. C. et al made a sale (deed)
Sept 13 - W. C. made a sale (deed)
Nov. 26 - M. M. and husband made a sale (deed)
That was all for 1892, and there were no transactions in the index for 1893.
1894
Jun 13 - W. C. et al was granted power of attorney.
And that was it for 1894. Notice that there is no sheriff deed showing that W. C. actually lost the lots mentioned above. W. C. moved back to Buffalo Gap near the end of that year.
1895
Dec 30 - J. V. Cunningham and W. C. were granted a release. (from F. Brookreson, which was Mary's father.)
Dec. 30 - W. C. & J. V. Cunningham were granted another release. (also from F. Brookreson.)
1897
Apr 2 - W. C. lost more property in a tax sale. (sheriff deed)
1899
May 20 - W. C. made a sale (deed)
Jun 7 - W. C. made a sale (deed)
And that is the last entry I found on the index, which is reasonable seeing as how this was the last year that W. C. lived in Texas. Using the clues available to us so far, I had previously speculated that W. C. moved to New Mexico by the end of 1899. And then, I found this article, which supported my assumption:
The Abilene Reporter
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
24 Nov 1899
This is a section of the newspaper about the town of Norene, which was about eight miles south of Buffalo Gap. Look all the way down, almost to the bottom. It says that Mrs. Brookreson and the others had gone to New Mexico. Mrs. Brookreson would have had to have been a sister-in-law to W. C.'s wife, Mary (or maybe the wife of one of her nephews). Perhaps one of Mary's brothers/nephews and his family moved to New Mexico with W. C. and his family. It's possible that the men went on ahead, and then came back to get the women and children, or it's possible that W. C. and his family moved first, with Mary's brother following by himself, and then his family coming later. This is the idea I'm leaning toward, because. . .
The last sale of property shown on the indexes was in June, and that might have been where W. C. and his family had actually been living. If they sold the land in June, maybe they left Texas months earlier than I had originally guessed. Looking at the actual deed could tell us if it was land in Buffalo Gap, which would support that idea.
Okay. So after going through the index pages, I was ready to look up the actual deeds, and find out just what kinds of property W. C. was buying and selling, and wouldn't you know, that's when things stopped being fun.
At this time, after hours of searching, I have still not been able to find any of the actual deeds listed in this index, other than that homestead affidavit, which took looking at more than 900 double-page images to find. I know, can you believe that?
Do you know why I haven't been able to find any of them? It's because the records on FamilySearch are an absolute mess. Every time I get on there, I'm like, what is the deal with the people who put these things on microfilm?!?! And for that matter, what is the deal with the person sticking these things online?!?!
First of all, at least half the time the titles don't accurately describe what is on the film. It will say "index," but will also include actual records. It will say "1876 - 1880," but will actually contain documents from 1890 - 1902. Starting from 1902 and working backward, mind you. Then, you have an index on microfilm that says the record is in book F, but the film sets are all labeled as volume 1, 2 3, etc. And then there is this one I came across yesterday . . . It was in the collection of "Texas, Taylor County Land Records, 1875-1921."
What is this? It is supposed to be a film showing Taylor County deeds of trust from 1884-1886. Not only is it not the right place or the right dates, it's not even in English!
Oh, and add to that the fact that I've found more than two different collections of court records for Taylor county, but can't for the life of me figure out how to get to a page that shows all of them at once!
And to top it all off, the one handwritten book was the only one I found that was from before 1890 (which is more than half the deeds I'm looking for), so its possible I'll never find copies of most of those deeds.
(Thank you for letting me vent!) Just a couple of comments I'd like to make about the indexes:
Did you notice the filing times? Some were filed as early as 7:00 a.m. and some were as late as 7:00 p.m. That means the clerk's office was open for twelve hours a day!
Also, this seems like a lot of property changing hands, but when you read through that mortgage deed I shared at the beginning of this post, you can see that it is actually for three separate plots, which means each deed might contain multiple pieces of property!
Well, it is going to take me hours and hours of scanning through the microfilm to see if I can find the deeds listed on the indexes, which will keep me from putting up this post for who knows how many days. So, I guess I am going to leave things here, with just the index listings and the incomplete information they give us, and if and when I manage to find the actual deeds I will put them up for you to view/download later. Sound like a plan?
And next time, we'll finally wrap things up with W. C.!
- Therese
