The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1927-12-29


James II was soon to be driven from
the throne. A Lord Proprietary was
justified in feeling rather nervous
about matters of allegiance.
But without waiting for the Land
Offices formal creation its functions
had been cared for methodically. An
napolis bears witness in "Series l to
%, Patents, Certificates, Warrants,
Assignments, Petitions and Court
Proceedings, 1634-1695." 1t is this
grouping of manuscripts with which
Chief Clerk Trader first amazes the
curious student. What a wealth of
material is here for antiquarians and
genealogists.
And what study in paper making
and ink making, too. These ancient
pages are still deciphered, the parch-
ment-like fabric stout, the ink unfad-
ing.
"They made admirable paper back
in the 160O's," ramarks Mr.. Trader.
"In later days people worked shoddy
paper off on the record offices. Here's
an index of later day that is falling
to pieces because the paper itself was
poor quality"
You look at it alphabetically, ex-
pecting here some example of twenti-
eth century duplicity on the part of
the paper trust. You find that the
'later day" is 1925 and realize that in
Mr.. Traders sight day is as hun
dred years more or less. Paper makers
seem to have begun making shoddy
long before the Progressive party felt
called upon to set about making all
folks good.
The chief cl. rk has put in glass
frame one of the ancient tones, of
| 1879, which a bookworm (iteral, not
fgurative) had entered by a slender
hole and which he had proceeded to
hollow out by years of gnawing. When
the damage, unseen from outside, took
place, no one can estimate, but 1T was
to eliminate chances of a repetition by
other bookworms that Mr.. Trader per-
suaded the commissioner to install a
photostat device, party for the re-
cording of other threatened pages and
also to provide accurate copies which
could be used in routine work rather
than allow injury to the priceless
pages by frequent turning.
| These antiquarian tastes of Mr..
Traders, to which the State owes so
much in the preservation and classifi-
cation of the old records, are the inev-
liable outgrowth of his activities. The
Land Office, from its early days on
ward, has been concerned with land
titles and transfers, with the identifi-
cation of vacant land" and its dispo-
sition to new buyers. Cautious buy
ers want no doubt of the title, and,
after exhausting the facilities of the
registers office in one of the counties,
pursue the title back through the CEN
tucies to the original grant by Charles
1, almost three hundred years ago.
Can there be any great quantity of
"vacant land' in Maryland? Well,
since Mr.. Trader has been in office he
has discovered 100000 acres of it. A
good deal is along the tidewater
shores, land which no one thought of
any value until a few years ago when
the Ladies' discovered the merits of
muskrat fur and gay huntsmen dis
covered the value of piece of swamp
where a ducking shore could be
thrown up.
Still more is in the mountain coun-
try which was given away to Revolu-
tionary soldiers-the military Lots
of which historians write. Surveying
methods then were crude. Some of
the lots overlapped. Others failed to
touch and all through Garrett and Al
legany counties there have been I'M
covered narrow strips of land with no
owner until the Land Office could is
sue a fresh warrant to would-be
purchaser.
A good deal of that vacant land
sold at the conventional price of sc
cents an acre. One such tract half a
mile long but only sixteen feet wide
figured not SO long ago in a moment
Gus lawsuit which went through the
State courts and then the Fedora.
courts. 1t happened that this strip
was over some admirable coal veins
and was worth thousands. 1t had
cost half dollar.
The coal companies in the western
mountains have been the chief buyers
in fact. One of them become so hope
lessly entangled in claims and coun-
terclaims that it bought out all the
claimants, merged all the strips and
took out title to one single consolidat-
ed tract over which there will be no
more dispute.
There are delightful cases that
come to the Land Office. One was the