Fenton Family Land Records, Wexford County, Michigan Liber 7 Page 497

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.

I first noticed the practice of individuals loaning money to other individuals and securing the loan with a mortgage while researching the land records for my Huron County, Ontario, Canada ancestors. I have not researched the mortgage records in Wexford County, and I do not know whether John Fenton, 1802-1872, or his son John P. Fenton loaned the money to Mary Higgins.

But John P. Fenton was the purchaser of the lot at mortgage sale, he was the only one living. It may be that the proceeds from the mortgage sale benefited his widowed (and remarried) mother, Eliza (John) Fenton Thurston, or perhaps he purchased the lot to avoid losing his investment. Research in the mortgage records is required to know more.

This lot is in the plat of Seamons & Maquestons Addition to Cedar Creek, which is now called Manton. You can see the original plat on the Michigan Subdivision website. For whatever reason, when you look at the subdivision plat on that site with the text so it is right side up, the map is oriented with south at the top. I found this confusing until I saw the section lines, and realized what I was seeing.

Here is the location of the lot from the old 1889¹ Atlas, which was printed long after this transaction.  In this map, north us at the top of the page, as you would expect.

Viewing the all of Manton, the lot is in this location:

1. E.L. Hayes & Co., Atlas of Wexford County, Michigan / compiled by Eli L. Hayes from government surveys, county and township records, and personal investigations and observations , Eli L. Hayes, (Chicago, Ill.: E.L. Hayes & Co., 1889), page 21; digital images, The University of Michigan. Michigan County Histories and Atlases. http://name.umdl.umich.edu/3928170.0001.001 : accessed 2 November 2009.