Land of their own: The Jackson Land Office

Between 1820 and 1861, Jackson was more than just the county seat of Cape Girardeau County to many settlers in the southeast quarter of Missouri. Residents of outlying counties knew it mainly as the site where they purchased U.S. government land at the land office.

After the Louisiana Purchase, land-hungry settlers moved into Missouri. Before these settlers could get title to those lands, claims by French or Spanish grant needed confirmation. Confirmation proved to be a slow process -- in some cases not finalized until 1836.

After settlement of these claims, the U.S. General Land Office began selling land in the public domain. Because land sales provided substantial revenue, Congress pressured local land offices to sell lands quickly. Initially, sales occurred through an office in St. Louis, but once the volume of sales increased, officials realized they needed more offices.

The Jackson Land Office began by an Act of Congress on Feb. 17, 1818. The western boundary of the district ran from the present-day central Ozark County to eastern Laclede County and the northern from the southern boundary of Perry County west to eastern Laclede County. However, because the first step in getting land from the public domain to private hands was to survey the land, the office could issue no patents initially. As the survey progressed, the General Land Office advertised availability of townships in local newspapers. Surveyors completed the last survey, in the Missouri Bootheel, in 1860.

The General Land Office copied the surveyors' maps to tract books. Purchasers came to the local land office to bid on parcels, and winning bidders entered their parcels in the tract book. Later, purchasers just entered their name on the tract in the book rather than having an auction. Then, purchasers paid for the land. The General Land Office finalized title by issuing a patent. This process might take up to two years, considering the volume of paperwork. So, even though the Jackson Land Office opened in 1820, issuance of the first land patents occurred May 29, 1821.

The case of William Fulbright shows the trouble some had to endure to purchase land. Fulbright came from Haywood County, North Carolina, in 1815 and settled on Huzzah Creek in present-day Crawford County. He purchased the rights to 80 acres from Reuben and Charles Devenport in 1818.

Fulbright had to await the opening of the land office to complete purchase. He then had to journey to Jackson, enter the land in the tract book, and arrange for payment. The land office finally issued the patent on May 31, 1824.

In the course of its 41 years, the land office in Jackson brought thousands of buyers to town to complete the steps to get clear title to hundreds of thousands of acres. With the transfer of most land in the district to private hands, the office closed and operations moved to Ironton, Missouri, on July 8, 1861. Records of the land offices are at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.