The Land Grant of William M'Intosh

 

I'm teaching Johnson v. M'Intosh tomorrow, so I thought it would be fun to find the original land grant to William McIntosh.  My favorite part is how they crossed out James Madison's name at the top and handwrote in "Monroe." 

A few years ago, you had to visit the National Archives to get copies of original land grants.  Today, many are digitized and available online at the Bureau of Land Management's General Land Office website. 

You can click on the image to the right to get a larger version of the grant.  Feel free to e-mail me if you want a high resolution, full-size version.  I also have a map of Illinois from 1818, which shows that most of the state covered by the Johnson grant was not yet surveyed and open for settlement.

Tanya Marsh