Deed to Caroline Grant Smith, 11 December 1836
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Source Note
JS and , Deed for property in , Geauga Co., OH, to Caroline Grant Smith, 11 Dec. 1836; signed by JS and ; witnessed by William Tenney Jr. and ; certified by . Featured version copied 18 Mar. 1837 in Geauga County Deed Record, vol. 24, p. 25; handwriting of ; Geauga County Archives and Records Center, Chardon, OH. Transcription from a digital color image made of original in 2011..Volume measuring 16½ x 11 x 2¾ inches (42 x 28 x 7 cm) and including 620 pages, plus 16 pages of an index of grantors and grantees. At an unknown time, the original cover and binding were replaced with a grey canvas cover and metal-hinged spine. The leaves measure 16 x 10 inches (40½ x 25½ cm). After 1996, the map tipped in to page 99 was removed and filed separately because of preservation concerns. Page 99 is completely loose from the volume.This volume was in the possession of the Geauga County Recorder from its creation until 1996, when it was transferred to the newly organized Geauga County Archives and Records Center. Includes tipped-in documents, redactions, use marks, and archival marking.
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Historical Introduction
On 11 December 1836, JS and sold land to Caroline Grant Smith, the wife of JS’s brother . In this transaction Caroline Smith purchased nearly one acre of land, 142 of 160 rods, for fifty dollars. This land was located in a growing area of , Ohio, near the recently completed , and was part of land that had been deeded to JS by in 1834.JS was closely involved in purchasing land and developing in fall and winter 1836. In order to aid growth in Kirtland and provide land for the Saints, church leaders divided the large tracts of land they had purchased or received by deed and then distributed or sold the smaller allotments to members of the . On the Kirtland plat created by church leaders in summer 1833, the area around the in Kirtland was primarily divided into half-acre lots.Caroline Smith alone is identified as holding the title to this land. While is mentioned in the deed as her husband, he was not a party in the transaction, nor was he named as a holder of the title. The reasons for her individually purchasing this land are not clear. In nineteenth-century , when a woman married, her legal identity was subsumed into that of her husband, and she could not act on her own in legal matters. This legal principle, called coverture or unity of persons, also meant that a woman’s property and earnings were transferred to her husband upon marriage and no longer belonged to her. Given these restrictions, Caroline may have purchased this land as an agent for her husband. Wives often engaged in financial transactions for their husbands, especially if their husbands traveled or engaged in other business that involved frequent absences. However, William Smith may have been in in December 1836 and able to purchase the land himself. Thus, there remains a possibility that Caroline was buying the land for her own use. The western frontier of the provided opportunities for a relaxation of gendered norms, and some local government officials may have been willing to allow married women to be involved in legal or financial matters. Over the next several years many states began to pass laws granting women the right to own property and have their own legal and financial identities independent of their husbands.Contemporary deed records in , Ohio, demonstrate instances of other married women—at least eighteen—buying and selling land in their name alone, with no apparent involvement by their husbands. One of these women was , who purchased just over a half an acre of land near the from JS on 8 December 1836. Parrish, like other women in Kirtland, had purchased land as a single woman, and her independent land transactions continued after her December 1835 marriage to , despite coverture restrictions. As with Caroline Smith, it is unclear if Martha Parrish completed this December 1836 land transaction as an agent for her husband, who was likely in Kirtland at the time, or in her own stead.later sold or transferred the title of the land Caroline Smith had purchased to on 15 February 1838. It is not known if William Smith’s ownership of the land was implied through laws of female coverture or if Caroline Smith had deeded the land to her husband or amended the original deed to include him.
Footnotes
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1
Geauga Co., OH, Deed Records, 1795–1921, vol. 18, pp. 477–478, 5 May 1834, microfilm 20,237, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.
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2
See Historical Introduction to Mortgage to Peter French, 5 Oct. 1836.
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3
The division of larger tracts into smaller lots for the use of church members may have followed a pattern set forth by the 4 June 1833 revelation, which commanded Newel K. Whitney to divide lots for inheritances for church members. However, in 1836 lots were sold to church members rather than given to them as an inheritance. (Revelation, 4 June 1833 [D&C 96:2–3].)
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5
American coverture laws originated with English common law. (Bouvier, Law Dictionary [1843], 1:392; Salmon, Women and the Law of Property, 14–18; Kerber, “Constitutional Right to Be Treated like American Ladies,” 20–22.)
Bouvier, John. A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States of America, and of the Several States of the American Union; With References to the Civil and Other Systems of Foreign Law. 2nd ed. 2 vols. Philadelphia: T. and J. W. Johnson, 1843.
Salmon, Marylynn. Women and the Law of Property in Early America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986.
Kerber, Linda K. “A Constitutional Right to Be Treated Like American Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship.” In U.S. History as Women’s History: New Feminist Essays, edited by Linda K. Kerber, Alice Kessler-Harris, and Kathryn Kish Sklar, 17–35. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995.
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6
Salmon, Women and the Law of Property, 53–55.
Salmon, Marylynn. Women and the Law of Property in Early America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986.
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7
See, for example, Harris, “Homesteading in Northeastern Colorado,” 165–178. One way for married women to be involved in financial or business matters was to file a petition with a county court to be recognized as a “feme sole trader.” This status was often given to married women who faced long absences from or desertion by their husbands. In other instances a woman might become a “sole trader” with her husband’s consent. (Salmon, Women and the Law of Property, 44–49.)
Harris, Katherine. “Homesteading in Northeastern Colorado, 1873–1920: Sex Roles and Women’s Experience.” In The Women’s West, edited by Susan Armitage and Elizabeth Jameson, 167–178. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1987.
Salmon, Marylynn. Women and the Law of Property in Early America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986.
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8
Laws granting married women property rights were enacted in the United States beginning in 1839. Married women could own property in Ohio starting in the mid-1840s. (Speth, “Married Women’s Property Acts,” 74.)
Speth, Linda E. “The Married Women’s Property Acts, 1839–1965.” In Women and the Law: A Social Historical Perspective, edited by D. Kelly Weisberg, 69–91. Vol. 2. Cambridge, MA: Schenkman Publishing Company, 1982.
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9
Examples of married women executing land transactions in the deed records for Geauga County for 1835–1837 include Mary Beebee, Marinda N. Hyde, Martha H. Parrish, Sophia Coe, Sarah A. Lowell, Sally Brown, Sophia Robinson, Caroline Kingsbury, Miranda Todd, Susannah Boynton, Hannah Pratt, and Hannah Ward.a One notable female land holder in the Kirtland area was Abigail Champion Deming, who was involved with land transactions from 1826 to 1839.b
(aGeauga Co., OH, Deed Records, 1795–1921, vol. 23, pp. 72–73, 30 Apr. 1836; pp. 451–452, 16 Jan. 1837; vol. 24, p. 95, 8 Dec. 1836; pp. 113–114, 28 Feb. 1837; pp. 259–260, 29 May 1837; pp. 381–382, 24 Oct. 1836; pp. 521–522, 17 Oct. 1837, microfilm 20,240; vol. 25, pp. 143–144, 22 May 1837; p. 351, 8 Apr. 1837; pp. 379–380, 25 Sept. 1837; p. 420, 30 May 1837; p. 421, 9 Feb. 1837, microfilm 20,241, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL. bSee Geauga Co., OH, Deed Records, 1795–1921, vol. 21, pp. 364–365, 4 Feb. 1836, microfilm 20,239; vol. 23, pp. 578–579, 21 Apr. 1837; vol. 24, p. 51, 4 Feb. 1836, microfilm 20,240, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.)
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
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10
Geauga Co., OH, Deed Records, 1795–1921, vol. 24, p. 95, 8 Dec. 1836, microfilm 20,240, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.
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11
Geauga Co., OH, Deed Records, 1795–1921, vol. 23, p. 492, 31 Aug. 1835, microfilm 20,240, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
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12
Warren Parrish was acting as a clerk for the Kirtland Safety Society at this time, and his handwriting is found in the society’s stock ledger for entries dated December 1836. (Kirtland Safety Society, Stock Ledger, Dec. 1836.)
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13
William Smith sold this land to Marks along with an adjacent half-acre lot. (Geauga Co., OH, Deed.)
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