May 3, 1869 - Township plat certification

Backtracking a year, the Surveyor Generals Office of the United States certified the plats of Milan township on May 3, 1869 at the St Louis Office of the U.S. Recorder of Land Titles.    Included were the notes providing descriptors and other identifying factors as well as plat maps for each township.

Below shows the 18 townships in existence in 1869 for DeKalb county, Illinois.   Milan township can be found by locating R3E on the top and T39N on the right.    Section 1, the location of the Browne school can be found by locating the furthest north and furthest east square of R3E and T39N.

Below is the plat map for Milan township.   The upper right corner is Section 1.  The Browne School occupies a quarter acre in the southwest portion of Section 1.

Below is a list of details relating to each township.    Details relating to Section 1 can be found in the 5th entry of column 2.   Additional details are found in column 1 and the letters F, G, g and H and their corresponding letters in columns 3 and 4.

Below is a list of objects relating to each township.    Milan township is found in column 3 at the top,  T39 NR3 E of the 3rd p Mn.   No details for Section 1 are listed.

Below is the certification dated May 3, 1869.    I do not know why the certification occurred 26 years after the original survey.

February 2, 1869 - Indenture

On February 2, 1869, the location (but not the building or the name) of the Browne school was mentioned in an indenture document. Richard and Mary Pearse sold 223 6/10 acres to James Lock for $7,826.00 which excluded the school grounds with the following language:  "(excepting one half acre in southwest corner of the southwest quarter of the Section Township and range above mentioned)".

February 2, 1869 Indenture

This is the first document I have located since the purchase of the lot by the School Trustees of the town of Milan that specifically mentions the property allocated for the Browne school though it does not name the school.    Unfortunately this document does not indicate whether the school structure existed at the time of this transaction.

Property transferred to James Lock

The two portions of land purchased by James Lock are shown above using the 1868 plat map.