Fenton Family Land Records, Wexford County, Michigan Liber 6 page 404

I am posting information gleaned from land records in the areas where our family’s ancestors resided. You can read more about this project in the overview. You may also check my deed record listing, which I will update frequently, but probably not every day. This group pertain to Papa’s Fenton ancestors who resided in Wexford County, Michigan.

John Fenton, who family tradition indicates was a native of Greenbrier County, VA/WV, arrived in Wexford County in June 1868, according to records in his homestead entry file. I have found records for John Fenton in Ohio, where he married both of his wives, and in Elkhart and Noble Counties, Indiana. He and first wife Lydia Jones raised a large family in Indiana, before Lydia died and he married Eliza John. Eliza and John had five children, two of whom died young and are buried in Wolf Lake Cemetery, Noble County, Indiana near Lydia Jones Fenton and other members of her family.

When he claimed his homestead in Wexford County, Michigan in 1868, John Fenton was 66 years of age, and his wife Eliza 43. Their children who accompanied them were: John P., age 17; Salina “Lina” 13; and George Lane, 11.

I was surprised to find all the land grant deeds locally. If your family appears in the Bureau of Land Management Patent search, you may want to check the local deed records for information on their grants. There were separate books in Wexford County, since the printed form for the deeds is quite different.

You can see a copy of the actual patent on the Bureau of Land Management site. The land is the same as described in the payment deed recorded in Liber 3 Page 219 of Wexford County Deeds. It lies on 37 Mile Road, which is the line between Colfax and Cedar Creek Townships.