Stories of the Old Land Office
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Bexar Scrip 2692 (Legal Document)
Copy of a land Grant file for land issued to the Houston & Texas Central Railway Company in the Bexar Land District. Includes a folder jacket with table of contents and notes about the land grant (filed July 12, 1928); field notes by M.J. Doyle, Deputy Surveyor, Bexar Land District for Section 21 Block 20 (January 13, 1873); the affidavit of ownership of S.N. Allen (July 12, 1928); and a note by Land Commissioner J.H. Walker indicating that the file has no relation to the O. Henry story of the same name (December 4, 1933). O. Henry’s story tells the tale of a Railroad baron taking a poor homesteader’s land by stealing this file. Walker notes that although the file was missing for a period, due to office procedures the land fraud could not have occurred.
Bexar Scrip 2692, Bex S 002692, ark:/67531/metapth154587
Patent 87, Volume 40-A (Legal Document)
This document was issued to the Houston & Texas Central Railroad Company as the final instrument in the land grant process, assigning ownership to the railroad company for 640 acres in Tom Green County, section 21, block 20, as described in the patent. O. Henry wrote a fictional account of illegal proceedings concerning a land certificate, Bexar Scrip 2692, in the short story "Bexar Scrip 2692.” This is the patent that ultimately gave land ownership to the railroad via that certificate.
Patent 87, Volume 40-A, ark:/67531/metapth139470
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Stories of the Old Land Office, pamphlet, 2001~; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth139473/: accessed May 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas General Land Office.