Certification of Land Warrant for Abraham Lincoln's Black Hawk War Service, 21 July 18541
MILITARY BOUNTY LAND ACT OF 28 SEPTEMBER, 1850.
LAND WARRANT,Register and Receiver’s
No.52076No.11988.
We HEREBY CERTIFY, That the attached Military Bounty Land Warrant, No. 52076was on this day received at this office, fromAbraham Lincoln ofSangamoncounty, State ofIllinois2
Geo McHenry3 Register.P. Quigley 4Receiver.
I,Abraham LincolnofSangamoncounty, State of Illinoishereby apply to locate and do locate theNorth West ¼ of South West quarter of Section No.20in Township No.84 North of Range No.15 Westin the District of Lands subject to sale at the Land Office atDubuquecontaining40acres, in satisfaction of the attached Warrant numbered52076 issued under the act of 28 September, 1850.5
Witness my hand this21day ofJuly A.D. 1854.
Attest:
Geo McHenry6Register.
P. Quigley7Receiver.
Abraham Lincoln
by John P Davies
his atty[attorney]
I request the Patent to be sent to
We HEREBY CERTIFY, That the above location is correct, being in accordance with law and instructions.
P. Quigley8Receiver.Geo McHenry9 Register.

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52076 Dubuque
40 July 21, 185410

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No.52,07640 acres.
ACT OF SEPT.[September] 28, 1850.
Issued toAbraham Lincoln
Capt.[Captain] 4th Ill. Vols
Black Hawk War of 18
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1901
151029
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Located atDubuque,
40 Iowa
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Located by Same
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See Warrant 68,645, 120 55
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A Lincoln [Warrant?]
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PatentedJune 1, ^1855^18
Recorded Vol.[Volume]280
Page21
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3/13/7 Mt to Jamestown [E?] [CGM?]
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3/25/09 See to James C Boykin [by?] P. (R)11
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Transmitted to To Pension Office [by?] P.
"""
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624546
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Reg12 Oct[October] 24/55[1855] 1[8]
1John P. Davies wrote most of the script in the blanks of the form shown in the first image, with the exceptions noted below. He also signed Abraham Lincoln’s name in the sheet shown in the first image.
2Lincoln sent the attached land warrant referenced to the U.S. General Land Office in Dubuque, Iowa on July 15, 1854.
3George McHenry signed his own name.
4Patrick Quigley signed his own name.
5At 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 4th 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 Revolutionary War, any of “the Indian wars” since 1790, and 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 engagement and actual time served. As his land warrant and this certification demonstrate, Lincoln was entitled to forty acres of public land for the time he served as captain of the Fourth Regiment of Illinois Mounted Volunteers. After his land warrant was certified by the land office in Iowa and filed with the U.S. General Land Office in Washington, DC, a patent for land in Tama County, Iowa was issued to him.
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. This 120 acres of additional land Lincoln received was located in Crawford County, Iowa, 144 miles west of the forty acres he held in Tama County. 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 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; Land Patent of the United States to Abraham Lincoln; Land Warrant to Abraham Lincoln; Certification of Land Warrant to Abraham Lincoln; Land Warrant to Abraham Lincoln; 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; Harry E. Pratt, The Personal Finances of Abraham Lincoln (Springfield, IL: Abraham Lincoln Association, 1943), 67-70.
6McHenry also signed his own name here.
7Quigley also signed his own name here.
8Quigley again signed his own name here.
9McHenry again signed his own name here.
10Davies wrote this docketing.
11Some of this docketing was added after Lincoln’s death, which is why Boykin is not identified.
12This may be an abbreviation for “registered.”

Partially Printed Document Signed with a Representation, 3 page(s), Vault, RG 49, Entry Unknown: Records of the Bureau of Land Management, NAB.