Digging Up Old Records

DIGGING UP OLD RECORDS

Government Requires Perfect Title to Land

FOR POSTOFFICE SITE

And Large Amount of Work Is Being Done to Get Them Out

The government, or rather the officials of the treasury department, evidently are very particular in regard to the title of any property that it may wish to purchase and any cloud upon a piece of real estate that it is desired to sell to the government, no matter how small, must be removed before the transfer can be made. In connection with the transfer of the Polhemus site to the government for postoffice purposes, the officials have made a good many inquiries and J. E. Beal is now having copies made of records that date back previous to the organization of the county and when not only this county but the whole of the lower peninsula of Michigan and a portion of Wisconsin and Illinois comprised the county of Wayne. One of the inquiries made was regarding the transfer of one description of property from the estate of George W. Noyes, whose estate was the first one probated after the organization of the county. The order for the sale is on the record, but the only record of the actual sale is the deed as recorded in the register' s office, which also shows the affidavit of the administrator showing his authority.

Mr. Beal is also having made, at the request of the government, a copy of the first plat of the village of Ann Arbor, made by John Allen, who owned a large portion of the village plat and after whom Allen's creek was named.