Today I am beginning a series of posts concerning land records that have been located for the Kanistanaux family in Stockton and nearby.
I would like to thank Cheryl Keisling for performing a tedious search through un-indexed county records to locate these useful documents.
Unfortunately, the images for these documents are huge so I will not be following my usual pattern of providing copies of the documents here with the post. The images are all found on the free familysearch website, so I will provide links directly to their images for anyone interested in seeing the actual documents.
Documents
February 28, 1874 purchase of 100 acres in Stockton by I. J. & Leonette Kiness for $5500.00
Index Page <– click here
Deed <– click here
Key Data
Deed Index
- Grantees 1872-1880, page 426 for the letter “K”
- Index of Deeds, Chautauqua County, N.Y.
- I. J. & Leonette, grantees
- Andrew Munger, grantor
- Liber. #151, Page #216, Lot #34 & 35, Town #4, Range #12
Warranty Deed
- 28-Feb-1874
- Andrew Munger & Mary, his wife of Stockton of the first part
- “Leonetto Kiness and I. J. Kiness” of Rathbone, Steuben Co., NY of the second part
- $5500.00
- Land in Stockton, Chautauqua Co., NY
- part of Lot 34 & 35, 4th Township, 12th Range of the Holland Land Company Survey
- approximately 43 chains by 23 chains square
- 2888 ft. on the long side along the Old Plank Road [County Rd 70/Rt. 380]
- 1526 ft. on the short side along the highway [Munger Road]
- abutting land of Polly Paddee
-
- 100 acres more or less
- recorded 24-Mar-1874
Discussion
This deed shows the beginning of the Kanistanaux occupation of Stockton, New York. It is a good example of why deed research is worthwhile. The deed tells me Isaac and Nettie are residents of Rathbone, NY at the time they purchased the land. I have already located the Kanistanaux family in Rathbone in the 1870 Census. Both Isaac & Nettie are in the household of Laton & Mary Kanistanaux for this census, but they are both single. So, the information contained in this deed informs me the family is likely still living in Rathbone in February of 1874.
This deed does not actually identify Isaac and Nettie as husband and wife, which is odd since it does clearly identify Mary Munger as the “wife” of Andrew Munger. The news-clipping I found related to this purchase refers to Isaac & Nettie as a married couple at this time but this deed leaves me wondering if this is accurate.
Another anomaly I noticed is the fact Leonette is listed first and Isaac is second on the deed. This is quite odd for this time period when women generally “belonged” to their husbands and seldom made legal transactions of this nature on their own. Yet, here she is, appearing as the head of the household with her name first on the deed.
On the other hand, the fact she is using the surname Kiness rather than Kanistanaux suggests she is married to Isaac. In the 1870 Census, Isaac uses Kiness for his surname but the rest of the family has switched to the Kanistanaux surname.
So, are Isaac and Nettie really married or are the news people just assuming they are since they are traveling together. If they are married, it occurred between the 1870 census and this 1874 deed and most likely took place in Steuben County where they were residents during this same time period.
This is a pretty good size piece of property. One chain is 66 feet in length, making the lot they purchased roughly 3,000 feet by 1,500 feet. I wonder if they originally intended to farm it on a large scale? I also wonder where they came up with the funds to buy the land and build the house. It seems they must have received a loan of some sort, but I find it hard to believe non-Natives would loan such a large amount of money to Native People. The local Seneca People get a really bad rape in local papers and Indian troubles out west are frequently in the news. The newspapers suggest the region is seriously bigoted against Native Peoples.
Oh well, why should I think anything will change. For every answer I find, one or more new questions always seems to pop up. ;-)
See the Kanistanaux Home Page for more.
See the Kanistanaux Map at Google.
Do you have any information to add or questions?
Please leave a comment.
The Ne-Do-Ba Research Journal 