Jacob Shelton's Land in Winn Parish, Louisiana - 1860

Today (the last Saturday in June) is the annual Shelton Family Reunion in Louisiana.  My great-great-great-grandfather, Jacob Shelton (ABT 1822 - AFT 28 Feb 1874), settled in Winn Parish sometime between March 10, 1859 (when a son was born in Copiah County, Mississippi) and July 2, 1860 (when he filed a patent for 317.92 acres).  Recently I decided to try to find out just where that land was.

A search at the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM), General Land Office (GLO) Records Automation web site for Shelton in Winn Parish, Louisiana, brought up three results:  Jacob Shelton, his oldest son Joseph L. Shelton (1847-1869), and his youngest son (my great-great-grandfather) Levi M. Shelton (1863-1941).  I'll get to them in a bit.  

When I selected Jacob, I got a page that provided details about the patent, with tabs to view the actual patent document image, as well as other documents (other patentees within the same land sections as Jacob had).  On the patent details page, you could scroll down and use a mapping tool (checking the boxes in the Map column) to see just where Jacob's land was located (click on the image to view it larger):

I wasn't too crazy about this map image, however.  I didn't like all the extra orange shading (which marked the entire township/range, the section, as well as Jacob's aliquots).  I also wanted a bit more detail in the base map.  So I looked for some other tools.

I found the State of Louisiana's Division of Administration  Office of State Lands GIS & Data web page, and used the SONRIS Interactive Map linked there.  I chose "Maps Historic 62.5k" as my background Imagery, and used the Draw tool in the AOI Toolbox to draw lines on the map to roughly outline Jacob Shelton's patent, the lighter green area on the map.  The result is below (click on the image to view it larger):

I was curious about the date of the background map, but there was nothing in the application to indicate what that was.  I thought it was likely to be a United States Geological Survey topographic map, so I went to their website and found the Historical Topographic Map Collection.  These can be explored using a tool called topoView.

I searched for Sardis, Winn Parish, Louisiana (because of the Sardis Church and Sardis Lookout Tower near Jacob's land on the historic map in SONRIS), and got 17 results.  The first of these was also the oldest map, and matched the one above.  It is the 1950 Winnfield, Louisiana topo map (Winnfield, the parish seat of Winn Parish, is just a bit to the north on my map snip above), with a scale of 1:62500.

I looked at the other 16 results for the newest map, and found the 2020 Atlanta, Louisiana map, with a scale of 1:24000.  (Atlanta is a town just south on the road on my map snip above.)  This meant I could get a sharper image when I zoomed in, and also showed roads and features as they appear in more modern time.  I downloaded a copy of this map as a .JPG, and used Microsoft Paint to zoom in and mark Jacob Shelton's holdings (outlined in orange), as well as add some other notes to the map.  The result is below (click on the image to view it larger):

It should be noted that what shows up as the "Swindelly Cem[etery]" on this map is not actually known by this name.  Today it is called the Brown Cemetery (established 1857), although it has also been known in the past as the Brown-Swindle Cemetery.  A large number of my relatives, including Jacob Shelton, are buried or have markers here.

The oldest map I was able to find (so far) is the United States Department of Agriculture Bureau of Soils 1907 Winn Parish Soil Map, digitized by the University of Alabama.  I zoomed in to the appropriate sections, grabbed a screenshot and used Microsoft Paint to outline Jacob's land.  The result is below (click on the image to view it larger):

The small black squares mark buildings (houses?)  - the ones with crosses on top mark churches.  On Jacob's land, in 1907 (a good 30 years after his death), it appears there were structures in section 9, near Sulphur Creek and the border with section 10, and in section 17.  This 1907 map indicates some old roads that don't exist any more, and some that still do (the one called Lovell Road today, on the east side of section 9).

Finally, I grabbed a screenshot of the satellite image of this area from Google Maps, and once again used Microsoft Paint to outline Jacob's land.  The result is below (click on the image to view it larger):

I thought it was interesting that, even today, you can see rough outlines of the old aliquots, forming a patchwork design on the land as viewed from space.  If I had to make a guess, I would bet that Jacob settled in that area that appears bright green in the satellite view.  It seems as though it might have been settled the longest.

Finally, I expanded the 2020 map a bit and outlined the land patents of Jacob's sons Joseph and Levi, as well as for other neighbors.  The result is below (click on the image to view it larger):

The lands of Joseph and Levi were patented in 1904 and 1903, respectively.  Joseph died in 1869 without any sons, so I will have to research just how his widow or only daughter was able to patent that land.  William J. Martin patented his land in 1889.  His daughter Martha Jane Martin married Joseph Shelton, and another daughter, Alice Virginia Martin, married Jacob's son James William Shelton (1859-1939).

Erby B. Barton (1877-1949), who patented his land in 1907, was a grandson of Leah Pickering Parton Spikes (1835-1903), my great-great-great-grandmother (more on Spikes land in a future post).  Erby's mother, Parlee Porter Barton, was the sister of James A. Porter, who patented his land in 1906.

And finally, we have James P. Swindall, who patented his land the same year as Jacob Shelton, 1860.  His name may be the source of the various names the Brown Cemetery has had over the years, Swindelly and Brown-Swindle.

© Amanda Pape - 2022 - e-mail me!