History recorded

CELINA - Once life returns to normal, history buffs can get a glimpse of Mercer County's growth and development by sifting through the scores of records housed in the county recorder's office in the courthouse.

"All the land records, mortgages and liens are recorded here and organized in a searchable manner. It's all public information," county recorder Angie King told the newspaper.

King and her staff serve as custodians of vital records pertaining to ownership of real estate and all encumbrances and/or liens upon properties, she said.

"It provides a chain of title for the properties and our records go back to the early 1800s, and we have some documents from the U.S. government," she pointed out. "Soon as you step up to the counter, you record a mortgage, it's (online), instantaneously."

During down times, staff work to digitize the hundreds of thousands of documents, which King describes as a long-term project.

"Right now, they can do a search back to the 1950s for deeds. We are starting on the older mortgages now," she said. "It makes it nice. It's more accessible. Attorneys and searchers can theoretically search from home, but a lot of them still like to come in. We also have the abstract books, so they search that way too."

Among the interesting finds in the vast repository of records is documentation of an 1888 transfer of land in Dublin Township from the U.S. government to the chief of the Miami Tribe. The chief was given the land in exchange for ceding territory to the government, she said.

"When they sent the Native Americans out west, the chiefs got land up north in Rockford and it's actually in their name," she explained.

Another historical curiosity is an 1828 record of a land lease to Johnny Appleseed in exchange for planting 40 apple trees, confirming that America's earliest forester and environmentalist sowed his apple seeds in Mercer County.

Other details were scant, but in September 2009, officials from American Forests, the Johnny Appleseed Foundation, the Museum at Urbana University, the village of Rockford, students from Parkway High School and Mercer County commissioners celebrated Appleseed's 235th birthday.

Two genetically authentic Johnny Appleseed Rambo trees were placed in the ground at the site of a former apple tree nursery. One thousand apple trees planted by Appleseed once sprouted on the property at 109 W. Bridge St. owned by Michael and Debra Schumm.

Original landowner Col. William Hedges signed a contract with Johnny "Appleseed" Chapman on April 29, 1828, to plant 100 trees on the property each year for a decade, Schumm had said at the time.

Moving on, King said her office in recent years has been visited by a University of Alabama professor researching the Randolph slaves, who were denied land set aside for them in Mercer County upon their emancipation.

Citing her own research from numerous sources, King said John Randolph was a U.S. statesman and tobacco plantation owner from Virginia who died in 1833. His will provided for his slaves' freedom. It also allocated $30,000 for supplies, travel and land for the freed slaves to live in Mercer County.

The freed slaves were supposed to have claim to 2,000 to 3,000 acres of land in Mercer County, which was to be purchased by William Leigh on behalf of Randolph.

The 383 men, women and children upon their arrival were met by armed farmers and were not permitted to take possession of the land, she said.

County records pertaining to the land purchase are scattered and wholly incomplete.

"How much land was actually purchased in Mercer County and where did that land go?" King wondered aloud. "There was a suit filed in Mercer County to recover that land."

The lawsuit, she said, was thrown out due to the statute of limitations, meaning it was not filed within the legally set time limit.

"But we do have that case digitized, and we can view that in the clerk's office," she said.