Samuel David Axsom's Land Holdings in Monroe Co, Indiana

by Larry Axsom
June/Dec 2005 Axsom Newsletter

In the 1830s Samuel David Axsom migrated from Surry Co, NC to south central Indiana. There he acquired property. In fact he acquired several pieces of property over the next few years. A search of land records for Monroe Co, Indiana showed that Samuel David Axsom purchased 7 tracts of land.
To understand where these tracts were located requires information on the layout of counties, sections, quadrants and sub-quadrants in Indiana. Indiana counties are made up of townships. Townships are nominally 6 miles on each side-comprising 36 square miles. The townships are divided into sections-each of which is one mile square and numbered according to the scheme shown below.
(a graph)
each section has four quadrants, each 1/2 mile square, labeled NE, NW, SE, SW
each quadrant contains four parcels of 40 acres each, each parcel is 1/4 mile square. the 40acre parcels are labeled to indicate their position relative to the center of the quadrant: NE, NW, SE, & SW
Monroe Co is located in south central Indiana.
Most of Sam's holdings were in Polk Twp, in the SE corner of the county. Twps themselves are # relative to which survey range they are located in. Polk Twp is not square in shape-the lower right hand portion (SE) extends eastward under the SW Corner of Brown County. some of its sections lie west of Jackson co. & south of Brown Co.
Sam Axsom and son Hezekiah purchased land in SE Polk Twp. their purchases:
location of section SE of NE section#26 buyer Samuel Axsom purchased 5/13/1837
location of section SE of SW section#23 buyer Hezekiah Axsom purchased 7/5/1844
location of section NW of SW section#25 purchased by Sam. Axsom 1/10/1846
location of section SW of NW section#25 purchased by SAm. Axsom 6/4/1850
location of section NE of SE section#14 purchased by SAm. Axsom 1/21/1853
location of section NE of NE section#26 purchased by Sam. Axsom 1/25/1853
location of section SE of SE section#23 purchased by Sam. Axsom 11/8/1853
location of section NE of SW section#25 purchased by Sam. Axsom 11/8/1853
all were in Township 791, all were in Range 1East, all were 40 acres

Thet entries in the column labeled "Location within Section" should be interpreted as follows: "SE of NE" means the southeast parcel of the northeast quadrant of the section.
Sam. Axsom owned at least 280 acres more or less in Polk Twp in the period 1837-1853. It is obvious that he tried to acquire contiguous parcesls of land-and wtih the exception of the land in section 14, he was successful.
According to a document produced by William Neil Axsom entitled "The Homestead of William David Axsom", Samuel David purchased property in Brown county. This was the eastern half (80 acres) of the SE quadrant of the section just north of section 18. This property was sold to William David Axsom (William Neil's grandfather) in 1871 for $350. This property was the home place to Leverett Axsom, Leona Clark Axsom, Thelma Axsom Jacobs, Ruth Axsom Hillenburg, William Neil Axsom and Mary Lou Axsom Gardner-all siblings.

June/Dec 2005 Axsom Newsletter