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A rare surviving trio of documents illustrating the post–Civil War mechanics of land transfer and development in central Missouri, comprising a township plat by the prominent St. Louis lithographer Julius Hutawa, a sales agreement for cultivated acreage near Rolla, and a federal Homestead Act receipt.
The township map shows T37N R10W of the Fifth Principal Meridian, in Phelps County, Missouri, southwest of Rolla. It features the "Rolla and Springfield Road," creeks, and light blue manuscript "N" symbols likely land sales. The land of “John C. Barto” is marked in Section 35. Lithographed by Juls. Hutawa, Lith. 65 Chestnut St., St. Louis, Mo., and signed in ink below by Santee Clark & Co., Surveyors & Land Agents, Rolla Mo.
Included is a printed and manuscript-annotated land description form from the same firm, filled out for 140 acres in adjoining T36 R6, listing 30 acres cultivated, 30 fenced, and 100 in timber. It describes a spring-fed branch, a small log dwelling (18 × 20 feet), and other outbuildings, with a purchase price of $450. Notably, the property was rented for the season under a crop-share arrangement: “⅓ of produce to go to purchaser.” Nearby infrastructure includes a schoolhouse, a mill, and iron works, with references to Salem and Rolla.
The third item is a federal homestead receipt from Ironton, Missouri, dated June 11, 1866, issued to John C. Barto for the E½ of the NW¼ of Section 35, Township 37 North, Range 10 West - matching the map's manuscript marking - with payment of the standard $14.00 fee under the 1862 Homestead Act.
Together, these three documents trace the layered system of federal land allocation, private marketing, and speculative development that shaped westward settlement after the Civil War. While many homesteads were claimed directly under federal law, others, like the Roach parcel, were cultivated, improved, and sold through private agents working alongside official mechanisms.
Santee & Clark, active in Rolla immediately after the war, were headed by Milton Santee (1835–1901), a former Union officer who would later become a key land promoter in Southern California (and namesake of Santee, California), and James E. Clark, then County Surveyor for Phelps County.
![History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, to the Sources of the Missouri Thence across the Rocky Mountains and Down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean, Performed During the Years 1804-5-6 [with map:] Map of Lewis and Clark's Track, Across the Western Portion of North America from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/92506.jpg)
