Ole Anthon Christopherson's Land Record Plus a Map of His Property

In a previous post I wondered if I could find land records for my paternal 2nd great-grandfather, Ole Anthon Christopherson. I think I found a land patent record for him. I did a search in the Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office Records website and found a land record for Anthon Christopherson in Swift County, Minnesota.¹

Here's a screenshot of the Patent Details.

Information gleaned from this record:

Accession Nr: MN0180__.195

Document Type: State Volume Patent

State: Minnesota

Issue Date: 3/30/1880

Cancelled: No

Names On Document: Christopherson, Anthon

Land Office: Benson

US Reservations: No

Mineral Reservations: No

Authority: May 20, 1862: Homestead Entry

Document Nr: 3766 Original (12 Stat. 392)

Misc. Doc. Nr: 5678

BLM Serial Nr: MN No S/N

Total Acres: 80

Metes/Bounds: No

Land Descriptions:

State: MN

Meridian: 5th PM

Twp - Rng: 121N - 039W

Aliquots: S½SW

Section: 20

County: Swift

It is so great that a map is included with this land patent. Within the large square is a smaller square. That is Section 20. And within Section 20 is a rectangle containing the 80 acres that Ole Anthon Christopherson acquired. The Issue Date was 30 March 1880. This matches known information for Ole and his family. He and his family were enumerated in the 1880 U.S. federal census living in Torning, Swift, Minnesota.² In that census he was listed as Anthon Christopherson and not Ole Christopherson and his occupation was a farmer.

Here's a map of Torning in Swift County, Minnesota. Comparing Ole Anthon's land record map to this one, it seems to match the 1880 census locality for Ole Athon and his family in Torning.

Here's a closeup view of Ole's 80 acres of land that he acquired in Swift County, Minnesota according to this land record. It's the rectangle in the southwest corner of Section 20.

This map shows that Ole Anthon Christopherson's property was at the corner of 10th Ave S (state highway 29) and 40th St SE. 

And here's a zoomed in view of that same intersection in Torning, Minnesota using GoogleMaps. Isn't this so cool!?

More evidence that the Anthon Christopherson who acquired land in this land record is my 2nd great-grandfather, Ole Anthon Christopherson, is that a Michael C. Christopherson and a Peter Christopherson also acquired land in this same area. Ole Anthon's land was in Section 20 and so was Michael's and Peter's land. Anthon's father was named Michael Christian Christopherson and Ole Anthon had a brother named Peter. It is very likely that the family members would have wanted to live close to each other.

Here is Michael C. Christopherson's land in Section 20.

And here is Peter's land in Section 20.

As you can see, Michael and Peter's land were right next to each other. And Ole Anthon's land was in the southwest corner of Section 20.

The way I found out about Michael's and Peter's land was by clicking on the "Related Documents" tab right next to the Patent Image tab. Michael C, Anthon, and Peter are at the top of the list. This list also shows who else owned land in Section 20.

Land records are so amazing and helpful. It's really wonderful that Ole Anthon Christopherson, an immigrant from Norway, was able to acquire land in his new country, the United States of America.

This post is getting pretty long already and I haven't shared Ole Anthon Christopherson's Patent Image yet, so I'll do that in a future post.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jana

© 2021 Copyright by Jana Iverson Last, All Rights Reserved

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1 Bureau of Land Management, “Land Patent Search,” digital images, General Land Office Records (http://glorecords.blm.gov/PatentSearch : accessed 17 December 2020), Anthon Christopherson, Swift County, Minnesota, Homestead Certificate No. 3766.

2 1880 U.S. census, Swift County, Minnesota, population schedule, Torning, p. 6, dwelling 56, family 56, Anthon Christofferson, image, FamilySearch.org (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GYB8-R88 : accessed 6 May 2012); citing NARA microfilm publication T9.^↩