Part 2 of 6

Anna Eliza Blount Kline

And Her Swamp Land Patent

By her great-granddaughter, Margaret Cline Harmon

Anna Blount’s mother Elizabeth C Tickell-Jones-Moore-Blount married Daniel Mosier on 4 Aug 1849, in Obion County, Tennessee.  This marriage was her fourth, being widowed three times before.  It was this last husband who raised Anna like a daughter.  Anna Eliza was a few months shy of being three years old when her mother married Daniel Mosier, and twenty-nine when he died.  The 1850 Federal Census of Obion County, Tennessee, lists her as age 2, her mother Elizabeth as 39, step-father Daniel Mosier 45, and a step-brother Charles Mosier age 12.  It also listed two half-brothers by her mother’s previous marriages, Edward Jones 17, and George Moore 7.  Four key things happened between the recording of the 1850 and 1860 federal census.

• Elizabeth C. Tickell’s father, William J. Tickell died in Fulton County, Kentucky around 1855.
• The Daniel Mosier family moved from Obion County to Cheatham County, Tennessee between 1850 and 1860, where they are listed in Cheatham County on the 1860 Federal Census of Tennessee.   We do not know the year they moved.
• Daniel and Elizabeth Mosier had a son, W. Mosier, born in 1851.
• Elizabeth’s mother, Lavina Stallcup-Tickell, at some point after her father’s death went to live with the Mosier family as she is on 1860 Cheatham County Federal Census living in their household.  It is possible that the family decided to move upon the death of William J. Tickell too.

In the early period that the Mosier family lived in Cheatham County, Tennessee, was the first and only time that Elizabeth and her children had lived apart from extended members of her Tickell family.  Adding stress to the family, Cheatham County was near Nashville, and they experienced the Civil War firsthand.  My father told me his grandmother Anna used to tell of the awful memories she had of both the Union and Confederate soldiers coming to their farm and taking what little food and livestock they managed to raise between soldier raids.  She said that on one such raid they even took their canned goods from the summer storage shed and some of their cooking utensils.  Sometime between 1860 and 1867, the Mosier family moved to New Madrid County, Missouri, to be near two of Elizabeth’s siblings.  Her brother Madison J. Tickell was a successful businessman and landowner by 1867, and her sister Martha Tickell-Montgomery-Pierce was a widow and a seamstress.  Elizabeth would have been fifty-six years old, her husband Daniel Mosier would have been sixty-two, and Anna Eliza Blount would have been twenty-one in 1867 when they made the trip from middle Tennessee to New Madrid.  It must have been very hard for Anna’s parents to move at that advanced age, back when moving meant using horses and wagons.  For them, it also meant floating on a flatboat down the Mississippi River from Kentucky to New Madrid with all their worldly possessions.

To add perspective, I am adding a segment from the biographical profile of Madison J. Tickell, as published in the 1888 Goodspeed’s History of Southeast Missouri, pages 912-913.  It reads: “Madison J. Tickell, a prominent citizen of New Madrid County, was born in White County, Tenn., on July 16, 1826.  He is the sixth of eleven children born to William and Lavinia (Stallcup) Tickell, natives of Rockingham County, N. C., and of Scotch-Irish and German Linage, respectively.[1]  Probably soon after their marriage, they removed to White County, Tenn., and in 1836 to Obion County, that State, where they remained several years,[2] and went to Hickman County, Kentucky and resided there until their deaths.[3]   Of their eleven children, nine lived to be grown and four are living at this writing: Madison Jackson, Elizabeth C. (widow of Daniel Mosier, deceased), Sallie Louisa (who is married and resides in Arkansas), Martha Caroline (widow of Mr. Pierce, deceased).” 

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[1] The Stallcup family immigrated from Sweden and were founders of the state of Delaware.  This information is published in books and several websites, including www.

[2] We know that they moved to Hickman County by 1840, as recorded on the 1840 Federal Census of Hickman County, Kentucky.  Sometime before 1850, they moved to adjoining county of Fulton, per 1850 Federal Census of Fulton County, Kentucky, and remained there until William J. Tickell died.

[3] The mother, Lavinia, moved in with her daughter Elizabeth after the death of William, as listed in the 1860 Federal Census of Cheatham County, Tennessee.

Part 3 of 6 will be published tomorrow.

Anna Eliza Blount Kline

                           Anna Eliza Blount Kline                      And Her Swamp Land Patent

The great New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-1812 created a big swamp in southeast Missouri.  Small streams including the Little River that runs through Morehouse, Missouri, fed the swamp.  A two-million-acre region called the “Missouri Glades” was the largest wetland in America prior to 1928.  The swamp was nearly impenetrable and considered almost useless by most everyone.  The exception was at the edges and on the ridges.  The swamp's dense forests contained millions of feet of marketable timber.  Some of the ancient oak trees reached 27 feet circumference, and some of the Cyprus trees circumferences reached 10 to 12 feet.  In the early to mid-1800's, lumbermen recognized the value of abundant timber and bought up most of the land. But after the lumbermen cleared the land of its oak, cypress, hickory, and gum trees, they found that they had to pay taxes on unproductive land.  The Swamp Land Act of 1850 was enacted to solve this problem by finding individuals willing to pay taxes on the swamp land.

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The land in the district initially was owned by the United States government and granted to the state through the Swamp Land Act of 1850. Not knowing what to do with it, the state conveyed the land to the counties.  The land remained vested in the counties for most of the last half of the 19th century because the counties were unable to find anyone willing to assume the burden of taxes on swamp land after the timber was removed.  The counties eventually sold the land to private owners and companies at low cost, with the stipulation that it had to be developed and drained.[1]

My great-grandmother Anna Eliza Blount Kline applied for a Swamp Land Patent from the General Land Office of the United States at Ironton, Missouri.  She received Swamp Land Patent Number 496, on August 6, 1883, located in Section 4, Township 25, and Range 13, consisting of 640 acres.  The land was two miles southeast from Morehouse, Missouri, and down the dirt road from her Uncle Madison J. Tickell, her mother’s brother. 

[1] Missouri Secretary of State website.

Anna Kline (Census records show the last name as Cline) was the daughter of Thomas P.  and Elizabeth Cornelius (Tickell) Blount, born 24 Nov 1846 in Obion County, Tennessee, or Fulton County, Kentucky.  Obion County is in the northwest corner of Tennessee.  Anna’s mother’s parents, William J. and Lavinia (Stallcup) Tickell, lived in Fulton County, Kentucky at the time of her birth, which is adjacent to Obion County, Tennessee.  My Aunt Grace (Cline) Dye told me Anna’s father was said to be related to the prominent political Blount family.  However, I have yet to find a published connection, or a Will, relating him to Tennessee Governors William or Willie Blount.   Elizabeth Tickell was married to Thomas Blount a month less than two-and-a-half years when he died on 29 Mar 1848.    Family tradition tells that her father provided well for Anna and her mother financially, but as of February 2017, I have not located Thomas P. Blount’s Will in either Obion County, Tennessee or Fulton County, Kentucky.  Anna Eliza was only 16 months old when her father died, and was forty-five when her mother died in New Madrid on 9 Mar 1892.  Her mother left her property in New Madrid, and all her personal belonging in a will recorded in the New Madrid County Courthouse.  I believe, but can’t prove, that Elizabeth Tickell’s wealth, and then Anna’s wealth came from the Thomas Blount marriage.

Part 2 of 6 will be published tomorrow, and one part a day thereafter until all six are published.