Map of 1858 property owners in St Joseph, Michigan

The Three Rivers Genealogical Society published an Index to Map of St. Joseph County, Michigan 1858. This record is available at the Family History Library, book 977.4 A1 no. 139. This index is an alphabetical listing of all property owners, businesses, villages, churches, cemeteries, etc., which appeared on the original 1858 wall map for St. Joseph County. By this time our Curtis family was already gone and back in New York. The Curtis families that remained in St. Joseph might be relatives they left behind:

• A. Curtis - Mottville 13
• D. Curtis - Flowerfield 17
• N. Curtis - Constantine 6
• S. Curtis - Constantine 10
• T. M. Curtis - Constantine 8
• T. M. Curtis - constantine 9

Cyrus Jerome Curtis Land Patent

Cyrus J. Curtis received a land patent for a homestead. The information about this land patent, including the original certificate can be found on the BLM website. A transcription of the certificate is as follows:

Homestead Certificate No. 3032
Application 4396

Whereas, There as been deposited in the General Land Office of the United States a Certificate of the Register of the Land Office at Bozeman, Montana, whereby it appears that, pursuant to the Act of Congress approved 20th May 1862, "To secure Homesteads to Actual Settlers on the Public Domain," and the acts supplemental thereto, the claim of

Cyrus J. Curtis

has been established and duly consummated, in conformity to law, for the north half of the southeast quarter and the south half of the northeast quarter of Section thirty-one in Township one north of Range fifteen east of the Montana Meridian, Montana, containing one hundred sixty acres, according to the Official Plat of the Survey of the said Land, returned to the General Land Office by the Surveyor General:

Now Know Ye, That there is, therefore, granted by the United States unto the said

Cyrus J. Curtis

the tract of Land above described: To have and to hold the said tract of Land, with the appurtenances thereof, unto the said Cyrus J. Curtis and to his heirs and assigns forever; subject to any vested and accrued water rights for mining, agricultural, manufacturing, or other purposes, and rights to ditches and reservoirs used in connection with such water rights, as may be recognized and acknowledged by the local customs, laws, and decisions of courts, and also subject to the right of the proprietor of a vein or lode to extract and remove his ore therefrom, should the same be found to penetrate or intersect the premises hereby granted, as provided by law. And there is reserved from the lands thereby granted, a right of way thereon for ditches or canals constructed by the authority of the United States.

In testimony whereof, I, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, have caused these letters to be made Patent, and the seal of the General Land Office to be hereunto affixed. Given under my hand, at the City of Washington, the twenty-first day of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and seven, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and thirty-second. By the President: signature Theodore Roosevelt By F. M. M. Kean, Secretary.

Two other records are listed for Cyrus J. Curtis on the BLM index and are in the process of being digitized and added to the website: 30 March 1900, for 80 acres; and 21 Aug 1907 for 160 acres.