Legal documents: Wills: Josiah Blanchard, 1792

The legal documents series is primarily related to land. These documents include deeds to property in Mississippi and Texas from the 1840s to the 1940s, and they show how the family acquired their plantations and how these were later divided with the passing of the generations. Of particular interest are the land grant to a member of the Chickasaw tribe, Ki-am-ma, in 1840 by President Martin Van Buren and two centesimal or hundredth deeds in the names of William A. Blanchard and William T. Lenoir from 1848 relating to 27 acres of the land sold by Richard W. Anderson in Monroe County which were set aside for public buildings such as churches and schools to be used by the settlers. Folder 79 comprises an abstract of the land inherited by Whitman H. Lenoir drawn up in 1924 which gives a detailed history of the ownership of the properties. The series has a number of plats, one of which shows the purchasers of Richard Anderson’s land including the Blanchard and Lenoir families. In addition there are documents related to two law suits, a holograph copy of the 1773 will of Absalom Blanchard’s father Josiah, in which he bequeaths slaves Nancy and Jack and other property to his wife and son, and correspondence and documents concerning the family’s investments in railroad and mining stocks, and a Confederate States of America bond for $500.Also included in this series are four blueprints showing plans for cotton gins and a cotton house from around 1900.