We're pleased to welcome a new contributor to 1898 Revenues. Reader Charley Kemp has answered our census call by reporting another on-document usage of R183, the $3 Lake Commerce issue of 1900.
As noted in our
prior blog about usages of R183, I had been looking for one on document for more than 35 years. Now our census count for R183 is up to three!
Notarized Signature Certification Page from a
Property Conveyance in Mobile County, Alabama
December 8, 1900
Charley Kemp scan
Regrettably, the conveyance itself is gone so we don't know exactly what property was conveyed, although it presumably was located in Mobile County, Alabama. It is interesting to note that there were two separate notarized certifications for this conveyance. First the standard affirmation by the sellers, in this case Frank P. and Mary Alice Andrews, that they understand the contents of the then attached conveyance and had voluntarily signed it.
Then, below the stamps, there is what I take to be a separate notarized renunciation of dower statement by Mary Alice that reads,
"I Clara M. Stokes, a Notary Public in and for said State and County, do hereby certify that on the 8th day of December, 1900, came before me the within named Mary Alice Andrews, known to me to be the wife of the within named Frank P. Andrews, who, being examined separate and apart from from the husband touching her signature to the within deed, acknowledged that she signed the same of her own free will and accord, and without fear, constraints or threats on the part of the husband."
"In witness thereof , I hereto set my hand this 8th day of December, 1900."
Signed Clara M. Stokes
Notary Public, Mobile County, Ala.
detail of stamps and pencancel:
Dec 8 / 1900
F P & M A A
Charley Kemp scan
That four dollars in tax are attached, an R184 $1 gray overprint Commerce Issue in additon to the $3 Lake Commerce stamp, suggests a property value of more than $3,500 up to $4,000.
Frank P(aul) Andrews, was born in St. Augustine Florida January 26, 1841. The 1860 census shows him living in a boarding house in Paducah, Kentucky, occupation, day laborer with an "estate" valued at $200. From that rather humble start he progressed through a number of jobs and by 1884 was listed as a grain dealer, F. P. Andrews & Company in Mobile, Alabama. He must have become rather substantial because the 1912 directory shows him as the Commissioner of Revenue and Roads for Mobile County. Andrews also was a Confederate veteran. The Alabama census of Confederate soldiers lists him as enlisting as a private into Company B of the 1st Kentucky Infantry Battalion around May 1861. He spent four years in the service being discharged May 10, 1865 in Columbus, Mississippi. He moved to Mobile in 1869 and died there in 1913.
Thanks, Charley, for submitting this nice usage. Charley also sent along a list of some other interesting 1898 era taxed documents, so we can look forward to seeing more from his collection in future blogs.
