Today’s post is an unexpected discovery. I did not expect to find the sale of the Stockton property less than a year after it’s purchase.
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
November 1874 Sale of 100 acres in Stockton by Leonetta & I. J. Kiness to Andrew Munger for $5500.00
Index Page <– click here
Deed <– click here
Key Data
Deed Index
- Index of Deeds, Chautauqua County, N.Y. – Grantors
- page 426 for the letter “K”
- I. J. Kiness and Leonetta Kiness. grantors
- Andrew Munger, grantees
- Liber. #152, Page #184, Lot #34 & #35, Town #4, Range #12
Deed
- 10-Nov-1874
- Leonetta Kiness and I. J. Kiness of Stockton
- sold 100 acres more or less
- land in Stockton, parts of lots #34 & #35, 4th Township, 12th Range of the Holland Land Company Survey
- sold for $5,500.00
- Leonetta specifically referred to as “Mrs.” and “wife of”
- the bounds are the same as those of the previous deed
- she signed “Mrs. Leonetta Kiness” and he signed “I. J. Kiness”
Discussion
I can’t help but feel sad to think the family could not hold on to their land.
They sold the property for the same amount they paid for it. The deed does not specifically mention any house, but they built a house on it according to local newspaper reports. I wonder what occurred to cause this turn around?
On this deed Leonetta and Isaac are clearly acting as a married couple. Yet, Leonetta is still mentioned first. I think the lady was the business manager side of this marriage union.
Despite the fact the land is sold, the family clearly remains in Stockton where they are caught in the 1875 NY State census and they continue there for decades. The location of the Kanistanaux homestead on the 1881 Map of Stockton is the exact location specified on this and the previous deed, but is clearly smaller then the original 100 acres. Perhaps they worked out an agreement to rent part of the property.
I think I should go back to the newspaper archives to see if I can dig up more news clippings with local gossip that may shed more light on this event. I have already searched the local papers for names but with a narrow time period of interest I may be able to turn up more news using general terms.
I would like to thank Cheryl Keisling for performing a tedious search through un-indexed country records to locate these deeds.
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 