6
Mortgages and Bounties
The last and least important part of the Whitley Point Record Book consists of the
few mortgages* and bounties it records. The question is not why there are so few,
but why there are any at all.
Borrowers in Illinois in
the middle of the nineteenth century could borrow money or
obtain credit by granting security interests in property. However, under Illinois
law such mortgages were required to be recorded in the office of the Recorder in
each co
unty. (201) There was no provision in the law for recording mortgages in the docket book
maintained by a Justice of the Peace. Thus, any mortgage recorded with a justice
but not with the Recorder would be ineffective as again
st any third-party good faith
purchaser of the property not having notice of the mortgage.
Nevertheless, the Whitley Point record does contain a few summaries of mortgages.
These are not set out in any one place in the book, but are scattered
throughout
the latter sections, reflecting their unofficial character. The earliest mortgage
was by Amos Waggoner, the justice himself, to Andrew Scott, and is the only mortgage recorded
by Justice Waggoner. All the others were recorded by Justice Davi
s, and most of these
are from the late 1850's--with four from 1861. Indeed, these are the last entries
in the book--the very last being a mortgage granted by R.B. Wheeler to Robert Montgomery
on November 13, 1861.
* A mortgage
is a lien on property, real or personal, to secure collection of a debt. Today a buyer of a house who must borrow part of the purchase price grants a mortgage interest to the lender, who looks not only to the enforceability of the promise by the borrower
to pay off the loan, but also to the value of the property secured by the mortgage. If the borrower is unable or otherwise fails to pay the loan when due, the lender may--bu following procedures established by law--take or sell the property to satisfy th
e borrower's obligation.
(Page 65)
One can only speculate as to why these unofficial--and legally ineffective as to third
parties--mortgages were recorded in the justices' records. Perhaps lacking any other
place to make or file loan or mortgage agreements, the parties intended the
record
in the justice docket book to be the contract itself, without concern for making the
mortgage effective as against a third party who might purchase the mortgaged property.
Whatever the reasons, the mortgage records show what kinds of pr
operty were used by
borrowers to obtain loans. Taking them chronologically, the two mortgages granted
in the 1840's--by Amos Waggoner to Andrew Scott--show Waggoner first granting Scott
a security interest in his two-horse wagon, four horses, his stock
hogs and cows. This mortgage
was granted at about the same time that Waggoner ceased to operate his store. Two
years later, Waggoner again granted Scott a security interest, this time in four
additional horses and his oxen. (202)
In 1855, James Ervin mortgaged four steers to "Katy" Langford for an unidentified
sum. In 1855, Edward Lemmons and "Catharine" Langford mortgaged to James C. Martin
a gray horse, 12 head of shotes, and a sow and s
even pigs, all for $150. (203)
In 1858, Justice Davis recorded five separate mortgages: (1) from Andrew A. Gammill
to Andrew Gammill (son to father?), his interest in horses, a cow, hogs, a wago
n,
and 25 acres of wheat; (2) from Charles Cromwell to Joel Monson, five yoke of oxen;
(3) from William Collins to Daniel Cites, 10 acres of corn--the crop, not the land; (4) from
John Johnson to Cornelius Huget, two "horse mules"; and (5) from Henry F
ourkner to
Gambrel Adams, two black mules. (204)
In 1859, David Welch mortgaged "one gray mair blind in both eyes about 9 years old"
for $40, another "mair" worth $60, and a colt valued at $12.
Shortly after, Moses
McClain mortgaged a yoke of work cattle and a wagon. (205) And Thomas Dobbins granted
interests in his two horses and his "two horse waggon." (206)
Then after a two year hiatus, in August 1861 James L. Martin (probably 31-year old
James Lewis, son of John, the first-listed Waggoner store customer) entered into
two mortgages--first, his hogs and 35 acres of corn to Wm. Davis (207) and, later in
the same month, his "one yoke of work oxen, one Bay mail and sucklin Rone colt,
(Page 66)
three milk cows,
and three sucklin calves, one log Waggon, one two horse waggon, and twenty five stalk hogs." (208) If the lenders took physical possession of these articles of property,
this must
have essentially put James out of the farming business. I.J. Martin, in his
Notes on Martin family history, explained what had happened:
Uncle Jimmy Lewis (everyone called him that) was a farmer, but more o
f a trader. About
the time of the Civil War, he had started a business, and appeared to be prospering,
when a trading partner absconded with most of his partnership property, leaving the
partnership debts unpaid. These debts worried my Uncle for many <
A HREF="endnotes.htm">years. (209)
However, three months later, in November 1861, James L. Martin was the beneficiary
of a security interest granted by Francis H. Simmons in "one mill with Steam Engine
Boiler and all the Burr Bitts two Saws and all the tools pertaining to said mill
and
all the building & Shed not connected with said mill." (210)
The last mortgage noted in the Whitley record--indeed, the last entry of any kind--is
dated November 13, 1861, from R.B. Wheeler
to Robert Montgomery, granting security
interests in his three horses, his "two horse waggon and harness for the same, one
chest of carpenters tools, one work bench, one red cow and red calf, three bedsteds and
beding for the same, [three] stoves, one
bureau, one cupbord, one set of winsor chears,
one grindston, [and] thirty acres of corn..." (211)
Finally, there are two entries recording the award of bounties, and a few other miscellaneous
notations. The wolves in Illinois were of two varieties--gray and black--and both were
hazardous to the health of unprotected farm animals:
In the Great Prairie, as in all the others, there are numbers of small, gray-coloured
wolves, called "prairie wolves," which are not taller than a pointer dog. They are
exceedingly troublesome; killing sheep, pigs and fowls. The common black wolves are
also very numerous in the Illinois; and this obliges the settlers to shut up every night
the few sheep they have. (212)
The bounty awards noted in 1845 in the Whitley record book for the killing of wolves
were $1 per wolf scalp. (213)
(Page 67)
The few remaining notations record receipts, (214) or sales (or credits) for corn or
meal delivered to a store prior to the Waggoner store, (215)
or negotiation of a commercial
bill.(216) The notation on the last page cryptically refers to a transaction in which
someone received of W.G. Haydon $1000, apparently for "value," but with no further
explanation.(217)
(Page 68)
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