Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Power of Attorney Appointment of Abraham Lincoln to John P. Davies, 15 July 18541

State Know all men by these presents that I Abraham Lincolnd of the County of Sangamon in the state of Illinois reposing special trust &confidence in the skill and ability of John P Davies2 in the County of Dubuque state of Iowa do appoint him my true & lawful attorney in fact for me &in my name to Locate the Land warrant nos 52076 for 40 acres issued to me on the North West ¼ of South West3 of section no 20 in Township 84 north in range no 15 west of the Land subject to private Entry at the Land office at Dubuque Iowa &for me &in my name to Execute all instruments in writing that may be necessary or legal in order fully to Execute the power herein granted &for your so doing this shall be your sufficient warrant.4
Given under my hand &Seal this 15^th5 day of July A D 1854A. Lincoln–
seal

[ certification ]
07/15/1854
Elkin, William F.

State of Illinois }

ss [scilicet]

County of Sangamon

This day personally appeared before me the undersigned an acting Justice of the peace in said county Abraham Lincolnd to me known to be the Identical person who execu[ted]6 the above Letter of attorney &who then acknowledged that he executed the same freely and voluntarily for the uses therein set forth
Witness my hand Seal this 15^th7 day of July 1854W^m F. Elkin8 J P [Justice of the Peace]
seal

[ docketing ]
over9

[ endorsement ]
Moore, Clifton H.

There is but one forty vacant in the section
C H Moore 10

<Page 2>

[ certification ]
07/15/1854
Matheny, Noah W.

State of Illinois }

ss

County of Sangamon

I Noah W Matheny Clerk of the County Court of said County which said Court is a Court of record having aseal do hereby certify that W^m F Elkin11 Esqr[Esquire] whose name appears to the fore going acknowledgment & also to the affidavit on the Land warrant hereto attached as a Jus[ti]ce of the peace is now &was on the day of the date thereof an acting Justice of the peace duly Elected & ^qualified^ &commissioned as such that his signatures [on?] said certificate of acknowledgment &affidavit are genuin[e] and that full faith and credit is &of right should be given to all his official acts
Witness my hand &official seal this 1512 day of July A D 1854N W Matheny Clk [Clerk]13

1An unidentified person wrote this document, with blanks filled in by Abraham Lincoln and others as described below. Lincoln signed his own name.

2John P. Davies wrote his name in this blank.

3Davies wrote the description of the location of Lincoln’s bounty lands in this blank. This description omits to add “¼” or “quarter” following “South West”, as is included in other official descriptions of this same parcel.
Certification of Land Warrant for Abraham Lincoln’s Black Hawk War Service; Land Patent of the United States to Abraham Lincoln.

4At the outbreak of the Black Hawk War, Lincoln volunteered for the Illinois State Militia. On April 21, 1832, Lincoln and other men from the New Salem area were mustered into a company in the Fourth Regiment of Illinois Mounted Volunteers, and the members of the company elected Lincoln as their captain. When his month of service ended, Lincoln re-enlisted twice, for twenty and thirty days respectively, serving as a private both times. He was finally discharged on July 10, 1832.
On September 28, 1850, the U.S. Congress passed an act granting certain groups who had served in the United States military during the War of 1812, any of “the Indian wars” since 1790, or the Mexican War parcels of public land. Per this act, the amount of land that veterans (or their legal heirs) were entitled to depended upon the length of their engagement and actual time served. Under this act, Lincoln was entitled to forty acres of public land for the time he served as captain of the Fourth Regiment of Illinois Mounted Volunteers. Davies acted as Lincoln’s attorney at the land office in Dubuque, and on July 21, 1854, he oversaw the certification of Lincoln’s land warrant and applied to locate Lincoln’s bounty lands as described here. The warrant was then filed with the U.S. General Land Office in Washington, DC, and a patent for these forty acres in Tama County, Iowa was issued to Lincoln on June 1, 1855.

Lincoln eventually received another 120 acres of land for his service during the Black Hawk War after a federal law passed in 1855 declared that all who had served in any U.S. war since 1790 were entitled to 160 acres of land in total. The additional 120-acre parcel of bounty land that Lincoln patented on September 10, 1860 was located in Crawford County, Iowa, 144 miles west of his Tama County land. There is no evidence that Lincoln ever received any revenue from any of these bounty lands. After his assassination, since he did not leave a will, the forty acres of Tama County land passed in one-third equal divisions to Mary Lincoln, Robert T. Lincoln, and Thomas “Tad” Lincoln. The Crawford County land also passed to the remaining Lincoln family.
Muster Roll of Abraham Lincoln’s Company of Mounted Volunteers; Muster Roll of Abraham Lincoln’s Company of Mounted Volunteers; Muster Roll of Captain Elijah Iles’ Company of Mounted Volunteers; Muster Roll of Captain Jacob M. Early’s Company of Mounted Volunteers; Ellen M. Whitney, comp., The Black Hawk War, 1831-1832: Illinois Volunteers, vol. 35 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1970), 1:176-78, 227-30, 544-46; “An Act Granting Bounty Land to Certain Officers and Soldiers Who Have Been Engaged in the Military Service of the United States,” 28 September 1850, Statutes at Large of the United States 9 (1862):520-21; Land Warrant for Abraham Lincoln’s Black Hawk War Service; Certification of Land Warrant for Abraham Lincoln’s Black Hawk War Service; Land Patent of the United States to Abraham Lincoln; “An Act in Addition to Certain Acts Granting Bounty Land to Certain Officers and Soldiers Who Have Been Engaged in the Military Service of the United States,” 3 March 1855, Statutes at Large of the United States 10 (1855):701-2; Land Warrant to Abraham Lincoln; Certification of Land Warrant to Abraham Lincoln; Certification of Location of Land Warrant for Abraham Lincoln’s Black Hawk War Service; Land Patent of the United States to Abraham Lincoln; Harry E. Pratt, The Personal Finances of Abraham Lincoln (Springfield, IL: Abraham Lincoln Association, 1943), 67-70.

5Lincoln wrote the day in this blank.

6The source manuscript has been trimmed along the right hand margin and has holes, making the text illegible. Here and below, the missing text has been supplied by the editors.

7Lincoln wrote the day in this blank.

8William F. Elkin signed his own name here.

9An unknown person added this note in pencil at the foot of the first page.

10Clifton H. Moore wrote and signed this note in pencil, perpendicular to the body of the document in the left hand margin of the first page.

11Noah W. Matheny wrote Elkin’s name in this blank.

12An unknown person wrote the day in this blank.

13Matheny signed his own name here.