GOOD NEWS for Maple Hill history nuts—-managing this Facebook page and contributing pictures and information has caused me to “dig” into boxes I haven’t opened for 20 or 30 years 🙂 When I saw the old photos and post cards of Maple Hill’s main street, etc. I began to recollect spending lots of hours at the Wabasunee County Court House where I copied the ownership records of every lot in town. The poor Registrar, Mrs. Say, must have gotten very tired of seeing me coming in and disturbing her otherwise quiet day.

Anyway, I have the thick yellow legal pad in hand now and I’m starting to transcribe the information, which covers the period 1887 through 1970. Most of the lots begin with Maple Hill Town Site Company, then transfer to either George A. Fowler, William A. Pierce or Alwayne B. Smith—all town site officers and stock holders. In some cases, they begin with people who bought lots the day of the big Maple Hill Town Site Land Auction held in 1888.

Since land/lot records are not kept in the form of abstracts (handwritten or copied pages of ownership, mortgage and probate records) it is difficult to establish a chronological listing of entries. You either have to go to the Registrar of Deeds office at the County Courthouse or hope that your abstractor or land title agent kept a copy.

I remember actually crying the day I saw them cleaning out abstracts at Stockgrowers State Bank and hauling them away. So much historical information was lost that day. I also understand that 100 years of thick abstracts took up a lot of storage space. I actually asked for the abstract for the property I owned west of Maple Hill and was lucky to get it. It begins with the Potawatomie Indians transferring title to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, then to the U. S. Land Office and next to Dura and Meletiah Warren in 1874. There was only one stone post at the corner where four sections of land met, so other descriptors like “16 rods from the forked walnut tree on the south bank of Mill Creek” were used.

Anyway, if you have lot numbers and would like to know who has owned your property, send a message and I’ll provide what I have. I did not copy any of the mortgage or probate information (some were 100 to 150 pages long) just the ownership. It will also help identify who built certain houses in town.’

Shown below are George A. Fowler and Edith Mary Isabel Fowler. Georgee Anderson Fowler owned the Fowler Ranch on which the town of Maple Hill developed.

Okay—the Maple Hill History Nut is signing out!!!