Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Calvin Caston & The Courthouse





Calvin Caston homestead took many years to establish a title to the land. It was not totally clear to me what  impediments  prevented him obtaining his land.  When I searched his homestead documents, one of reasons became clear why there was a delay.  The  Pike County courthouse burned down in 1882. The following is documentation:

Transcription:

The State of Mississippi
Pike County

I A. P. Sparkman Clerk of the Circuit Court in and for said County and State hereby that the cause for not forwarding the Final Proof of Calvin Caston was my inability to secure blanks #369 and that said proof was forwarded as soon as I received said blanks. I further certify that Calvin Caston Homestead Prcht #4260 was destroyed by fire in the Courthouse in 1882 and that he has never obtained a duplicate.

Gurr under my hand and official
 seal this 24th day of May A.D. 1889

The documents that were destroyed in the 1882 fire where important over a hundred years ago as they are in genealogical research today.

----- The Tree Gardener

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