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Archiver > ARIZARD > 2011-05 > 1306619071


From: Ellen Reesh <>
Subject: Re: [ARIZARD] Question - AR Donation Land
Date: Sat, 28 May 2011 14:44:31 -0700
References: <E16CDA67CCA244A99879729FD2377C0D@jreed47PC><206407.20368.qm@web161401.mail.bf1.yahoo.com>
In-Reply-To: <206407.20368.qm@web161401.mail.bf1.yahoo.com>


Marsha,
The explaintion of Arkansas Donation Lands in Desmon Allen's book is several
pages long, but the long and short of it is that all land in AR was part of
the public domain and owned by the Fed Gov't. The Fed's began transferring
the land to the states and individuals as soon as the Indian and Spanish
land claims were settled and a survey was complete. Land was cheap, some
times the first settler found better land and moved on, the land reverted to
the county for the payment of taxes. First it had to go through a sheriffs
sale , if still unclaimed the land reverted to the state. Then there were
various laws passed that allowed the state to get the land back into the
hands of taxpayers (1840).

Much like Fed Homesteads there were certain things the State required a
settler to do with in a certain time frame. And sometimes that land might
pass through several settlers before a deed actually was recorded from the
state to the settler. But the records created by these donation lands can
help overcome some road blocks in Southern research court house fires.

Ellen

On Sat, May 28, 2011 at 9:53 AM, Marsha Boles <> wrote:

> Found reference to book "AR Donation Lands" by Desmon Allen.List of names
> (none of mine leaped on page) but no reference to land (like location) -
> just names. Question: what does "Donation" mean? Is this folks that
> homestead? Have seen another list that include "Swamp Land" - it did have
> names I knew and maybe location of land by names. Could it be folks that
> "donated" land for churches or cemeteries or land that went back to the
> state when taxes were NOT paid?Just curious. Marsha
>
>
>
>
>
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