The weekly herald. [volume] (Amarillo, Tex.) 1906-19??, 1907-06-27
PAID 1OC
AN ACRE
Col. MunSOn Tells Of Early
Purchase Of Amarillo and
Frontier Times
l(From Saturdays Dally.N

aAAfAAAf NAAN NAAAh ~ e'tAA HhA
bought tho land that Amarillo Is nov
on and bought It for 10 cents al
acre, was a visitor this week in tn
city that has been built on the acre
OF the big grant which he located
Colonel w. b, Munson, Of Denison
is the man, and the land that ANA
rillo now occupies, was only an IN
significant part Of the millions o
acres that passed through the hands
OF Mr.. Munson and his partner, Jo
Gunter, in the decade between 1871
and 1885.
Was the First Survey.
"Tho first survey in the Panhan
die" said Colonel Munson, the Other
er evening, in the course OF a CONVEX
sation, over the beginnings OF the
Panhandle, THAT is after perhaps a
few lines run by Spaniards and some
government lines, was in 1878. f.
NJ Maddox, OF Austin, the deputy
state surveyor, Nwas in charge Of the
party and I was one of the members
We made up our outfit somewhere
down in Grayson county and came
through the country. There were no
settlements here anywhere and few
landmarks Of any kind We had
regular scouts hired to go along with
us to keep a lookout for Indians, and
to find places for wood and water.
The scouts generally kept us sup
piled with meat too. At that time
there we're many antelope here and
simply worlds of buffalo. Sometimes
the party would strike quite a herd
of them and we would kill few, but
usually we didn't bother with that
and left It for the scouts to DO.
Carving Out Land. .1.o.
THE land office system OF the
state of Texas came down from the
old Spanish system and was extreme
~ loose. There was no orderly sys-
item OF surveys but each surveyor
simply tackled his work onto the
lines Of other surveyors and left 1t
at that. OF course It led to a great
deal OF confusion when we came
out here, we got our bearings from
landmarks on Red River and then
took our course to the land we want
ed and surveyed 1t. You see when
man bought land out here then
he didn't buy a deed to certain def
mite pieces of property. He simply
bought the right to hunt up some
land somewhere and to measure out
as much as his certificate called for.
"The state OF Texas and Republic
of Texas both had paid for many
services with these certificates and
handed them out to many people.
Some of them were for services back
in the Revolution, some Spanish
grants went further back than that
but most of them were bonuses given
Inv the state to various railroads and
improvement companies which had
secured subsidies from the state for
doing certain work, These certifi-
Gates we're usually left with the name
of the grantee blank. In this way
The certificates often changed hands
several times before the land was
ever located. When a man who
wished to locate finally bought the
he had the certificate
filled out to him. Then the surveyor
went out somewhere in the unoccu-
pied public domain wherever the
buyer chose and measured off as
much land as the certificate called
for The man could then have the
land patented and secure a deed.
30 Cents Acre Profit.
colonel Jot Gunter and 1 formed
a partnership in 1873 and in the
ten or fifteen years after that we
bought and sold and handled more
land, / am sure, than passed through
the hands of any other men of that
time or since. | could hardly es-
Innate how much we did handle but
II must have been many millions OF
acres. In many cases we simply
handled the certificates and our
names never appeared on the pat
ents we made business of buy
inr and selling certificates. We be-
gan on a small scale, gradually in
rreasing our operations and about
1870 we formed pool that bought
-, 1000 certificates that is 64O,-
400 acres at $50 a section. certificate
or loss than 10 cents an acre. You
nnst understand that that did not
,,ec!fy any land shat the purchasers
had to discover and tho purchasers
NIGH. settle upon blocks anywhere