Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Landholder


Great-grandpa, father of my grandfather,  owned several farms and almost all of town. He wanted to have a farm to leave each of his sons. It turned out that he also left each of them a business in town.

You might think he was wealthy. Not so. My great-grandfather got his holdings in an unscrupulous way. He traded whiskey to the Native Americans for their land. It was not ethical but at that time it was legal.

My grandfather inherited a farm and I believe the assay office. He eventually sold the assay office because it was not his area of expertise. He lived on the farm and raised his family there until he decided the grass was greener in Oklahoma.

The only great-uncle that I knew still had his farm and house when i was a child. I would not know how to find the farm now but If the house is still there I'm sure that it now has indoor plumbing and electricity.

His house in town is still there and looks exactly the same as it did then. I saw it a couple of years ago.

Another great-uncle is listed on a monument in front of the City Hall. He died of illness during World War I and was listed with the war dead.

Great-grandpa did not feel the need to supply the same inheritance to his daughters. I guess he felt that when they married their husbands would provide for their needs.

None of the land or businesses are owned by family any more. I can only imagine what all that land would be worth today. I could be independently wealthy, for goodness sake.

6 comments:

  1. Did you ever see the TV movie "Band Of Brothers"? The land in Toccoa that the army camp was built upon was ACQUIRED by the government from my great grandfather on my mother's side. He was forced to sell it to them, he had no choice, thousands and thousands of acres at a very low cost. The good thing, a great portion of the land is under the control of the US Forestry and cannot be built upon, so at least no subdivisions or gas stations are on it! It must have been quite an upsetting thing for my great grandfather having to give up that land which had been in the family since 1800.
    We could have been wealthy women together! :-)

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    1. That is fascinating. The laws of eminent domain have been around for so long. If the government deems that your land is of more value to them than it is to you they can take it. Of course they have to give you compensation for it but they get to decide what is "fair market value". So instead of being the nouveau riche we are the never rich. These are the kinds of stories that should be passed down to the generations of a family. I would love to know more about it. I will definitely watch for the movie the next time they show it.

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  2. I live on my little acre of land as you know. I have been offered vast sums of money by developers. I could be rich. But no way will it be sold in my lifetime and I doubt if EHS George will sell it either. Some things are worth more than money I know you will agree.

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    1. Yes I do agree. My mother-in-law actually successfully petitioned to have her farm listed as a historic site. Even though the family no longer owns it, it cannot be divided in any way. That keeps the developers out. And they really wanted it bad.

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  3. The laws of eminent domain are very scary when they take a family's land.

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    1. Yes they are. Once a family has put everything into it the government can take it away and often with little reason.

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