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Introduction to Iowa Land Transactions

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After being forced to leave in winter 1838–1839, many Latter-day Saints settled temporarily in and . In April 1839, church leaders began to take steps to purchase land for the Saints to settle on permanently. In Iowa Territory, designated land agents for the church—including , , and —surveyed land and approached land speculator to make arrangements for purchasing it. Galland was an agent and trustee for the New York Land Company, a group of speculators in the eastern , that had purchased land in Iowa Territory in 1836. Galland had also acquired land privately and arranged to sell it to the Latter-day Saints. Much of the land Galland offered the Saints was located in southeastern Iowa Territory in an area known at the time as the “Half-Breed Tract” because the United States Congress had set aside the land for the children of American Indian mothers and white fathers.
In May and June 1839, and purchased thousands of acres of land from on behalf of the . Knight transferred some of the land he had purchased to Granger in November of that year. In contrast, Granger retained the land he had purchased on behalf of the church and used it in the business he conducted as an agent for JS and the church.
Over time, Latter-day Saints gathered on the land that had been purchased by church agents and built communities in , primarily in , situated across the from , Illinois. These communities included , , and . Occasionally, church members sold land in Iowa Territory to JS, which resulted in JS holding land in various areas of Iowa Territory.
Legal complications developed regarding conflicting claims over land ownership in . Unfortunately, most of the land the Saints had purchased from did not have a clear title, and questions of ownership became a pressing concern. Laws in Iowa Territory favored squatters, granting them the right to land they had farmed as well as credit for any improvements they had made, such as building homes or barns. But these rights conflicted with claims held by distant land speculators. In 1841, the United States District Court for the Territory of Iowa made a decision regarding conflicting property titles in the Half-Breed Tract in . The court decreed that the entire tract should be divided into 101 parcels of equal value and then distributed to legitimate claimants. As the judgment was carried into effect, the commissioners appointed to divide the land argued that the many in the Mississippi and rivers could not be divided equally. Instead, they recommended the islands be sold at a public auction held in April 1842. Latter-day Saints were enmeshed in these conflicting ownership claims, including claims to the islands, and some of the conflicts over land turned personal and escalated to the point where they were tried by JS and the Nauvoo .
In April 1843, JS advised the Saints not to settle in . The unclear title to land purchased from , the challenges created by dividing and redistributing that land, and the mounting contention over the issue created too much conflict without hope for a resolution. JS further encouraged those Saints currently living there to relocate to . He went so far as to say that he “would’nt b[u]y property in the Iowa” and “considerd it stooping to accept it as a gift.”
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Editorial Title
Introduction to Iowa Land Transactions
ID #
21238
Total Pages
1
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    Footnotes

    1. [1]

      “Joseph Smith Documents from February 1838 through August 1839”; Cook, “Isaac Galland,” 264–276; Mason, “Decree in Partition of the Half Breed Tract,” 437; Flanders, Nauvoo, 29.

      Cook, Lyndon W. “Isaac Galland—Mormon Benefactor.” BYU Studies 19 (Spring 1979): 261–284.

      Mason, Charles. “Decree in Partition of the Half Breed Tract in Lee County, Iowa, 1840.” Annals of Iowa 14, no. 6 (Fall 1924): 424–460.

      Flanders, Robert Bruce. Nauvoo: Kingdom on the Mississippi. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1965.

    2. [2]

      In 1834, Congress passed an act allowing the children to sell the land they held. (Flanders, Nauvoo, 28; Roberts and Moorhead, Story of Lee County, Iowa, 1:55–56.)

      Flanders, Robert Bruce. Nauvoo: Kingdom on the Mississippi. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1965.

      Roberts, Nelson C., and S. W. Moorhead, eds. Story of Lee County, Iowa. 2 vols. Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing, 1914.

    3. [3]

      Cook, “Isaac Galland,” 271–274; Deed, Vinson Knight to Oliver Granger, 15 Nov. 1839–A; see also Lands Deeded, after 26 June 1839.

      Cook, Lyndon W. “Isaac Galland—Mormon Benefactor.” BYU Studies 19 (Spring 1979): 261–284.

    4. [4]

      Introduction to Ohio Agent Papers.

    5. [5]

      See, for example, Deed from Jacob Remick, 1 Sept. 1842–A.

    6. [6]

      Flanders, Nauvoo, 28–29; Wick, “Struggle for the Half-Breed Tract,” 16–29; An Act to Provide for the Collection of Demands Growing Out of Contracts for Sales of Improvements on Public Lands [15 Jan. 1839], Statute Laws of the Territory of Iowa, p. 388, sec. 1; An Act to Prevent Trespass and Other Injuries Being Done to the Possession of Settlers on the Public Domain [25 Jan. 1839], Statute Laws of the Territory of Iowa, p. 389; Mason, “Decree in Partition of the Half Breed Tract,” 442–443.

      Flanders, Robert Bruce. Nauvoo: Kingdom on the Mississippi. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1965.

      Wick, B. L. “The Struggle for the Half-Breed Tract.” Annals of Iowa 7, no. 1 (Apr. 1905): 16–29.

      The Statute Laws of the Territory of Iowa, Enacted at the First Session of the Legislative Assembly of Said Territory, Held at Burlington, A. D. 1838–’39. Dubuque, Iowa Territory: Russell and Reeves, 1839. Reprint, Des Moines: Historical Department of Iowa, 1900.

      Mason, Charles. “Decree in Partition of the Half Breed Tract in Lee County, Iowa, 1840.” Annals of Iowa 14, no. 6 (Fall 1924): 424–460.

    7. [7]

      Mason, “Decree in Partition of the Half Breed Tract,” 449–455.

      Mason, Charles. “Decree in Partition of the Half Breed Tract in Lee County, Iowa, 1840.” Annals of Iowa 14, no. 6 (Fall 1924): 424–460.

    8. [8]

      Minutes and Discourse, 19 Feb. 1843.

    9. [9]

      Discourse, 6 Apr. 1843–B, as Reported by Willard Richards.

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