With the signing of the Treaty of October 19, 1818, the Chickasaw Indian Nation relinquished all lands east of the Mississippi River and north of the Mississippi state line. The treaty, ratified by the United States Senate and confirmed by President James Monroe on January 7, 1819, expanded Kentucky's western territory by approximately 2000 square miles and Tennessee's western territory by approximately 6000 square miles. (Ref: "The Kentucky Encyclopedia") The newly-acquired area in Kentucky became known as the Jackson Purchase.
On February 14, 1820, the Kentucky General Assembly passed legislation that provided for the mapping of the lands west of the Tennessee River into ranges, townships, and sections. On December 21, 1821, the legislature provided for the sale of vacant fractional or complete quarter-sections (160 acres) in the Purchase area. On January 3, 1825, by legislative act, the Kentucky General Assembly mandated the appointment of a Receiver of Public Moneys to oversee the land sales. The Receiver's office was to be located in Waidsborough in Calloway County.
This website includes a searchable database that lists the names of persons who bought receipts at public land sales, their assignees, witnesses to assignments, grantees (the persons who took title to the property), cost of the tract, and total acreage. The database links to colorscanned images for over 8500 patent files. The database also links to the "Jackson Purchase Locator" which allows researchers to determine the location of the patented tract.
By entering Township, Range, and East/West coordinates, researchers can search for patents by township or sections. With the grid-view option, information can be sorted by clicking selected headers.
By using the "Jackson Purchase Locator" then entering information regarding Township, Range, and East/West coordinates on this database, researchers may determine patent receipts for any location included on the 1885 Loughridge map of the Jackson Purchase.
Click here to start the search.