Following the Land

A Timeline of Richard Foster’s Warren County Property

Have you ever looked at an abstract of title and wondered how you were ever going to make sense of it?

The abstract I've been working with traces land in Warren County, Indiana, back to my ancestor Richard Foster, who purchased it from the federal government in 1828. But the abstract is much more than a record of that original purchase. It follows the property through more than a century of wills, heirs, deeds, mortgages, court proceedings, and other transactions.

And I probably wouldn't have this record at all if someone hadn't found me through my online genealogy research.

A Genealogy Gift from a Stranger

Some time ago, I was contacted by a woman who had discovered either my online family tree or my Heartland Genealogy blog and recognized my connection to the Foster family.

She had an abstract of title for land that had once belonged to Richard Foster.

As I recall, she wasn't researching the Foster family as her own ancestors. Instead, I believe her connection may have been to more recent owners of the property. Whatever the connection, she realized that this old abstract would be of interest to someone researching Richard Foster and generously shared it with me.

That is one of the things I love about putting my genealogy online. We never know who will find it—or what might be sitting in someone else's files that connects to our family.

From an Abstract to a Video—and Then a Timeline

In my previous post, I shared another way I've been exploring this record.

After transcribing the abstract, I uploaded the transcription to Google NotebookLM. I used NotebookLM to create an infographic and an audio overview, then combined the infographic and audio in Canva to create a video that I uploaded to YouTube.

That video provides a nice overview, but the abstract contains far more information than can be covered in a short audio presentation.

So I tried something else.

I asked ChatGPT to take my transcription and put the events into chronological order.

Suddenly, the abstract wasn't simply a collection of legal documents. I could more easily see the story of the land.

1828 — Richard Foster Purchases the Land

The story begins on July 12, 1828, when Richard Foster entered land from the United States in Warren County, Indiana:

• Northeast quarter of Section 10 — 160 acres

• West half of the southeast quarter of Section 10 — 80 acres

• Township 21 North, Range 9 West

Together, Richard acquired 240 acres.

The federal patents were dated April 10, 1829. Curiously, copies of those patents were not recorded in Warren County until June 14, 1913—more than 80 years later.

1831 — Richard Leaves the Land to Zebulon Foster

On June 7, 1831, Richard Foster, then living in Pike County, Ohio, wrote his will.

Instead of providing legal descriptions for his Indiana property, Richard wrote:

"all the lands I have in the State of Indiana, on the waters of the Wabash River"

He left those lands to his third son, Zebulon Foster.

Richard's will was probated in Pike County on June 20, 1831, but wasn't recorded in Warren County, Indiana, until November 23, 1850.

That rather vague description of the land would become important many years later.

Zebulon Foster and the Land

The abstract's later court proceedings indicate that Zebulon occupied and treated Richard's Warren County land as his own for decades.

One transaction during that period involved a mortgage. On February 27, 1879, Zebulon Foster mortgaged the west half of the southeast quarter of Section 10, along with other lands, to William C. Smith for $3,000.

That mortgage was eventually paid, although it wasn't formally released in the county records until 1904.

Zebulon died in 1889, and that's when the chain of title becomes particularly interesting from a genealogical standpoint.

1889–1891 — Zebulon's Heirs and a Title Problem

After Zebulon's death, his widow, Julietta Foster, quitclaimed her interest in the Section 10 property to six of Zebulon's children:

Edward Foster, William Foster, Rachel Crider, Harriet Fleming, Mary Crawford and Eliza W. Bell.

But there was apparently a problem with their title.

Remember Richard Foster's will? He had left Zebulon his Indiana lands "on the waters of the Wabash River" instead of identifying them by their legal descriptions.

In 1890, Zebulon's children brought a suit to quiet title. The proceedings specifically identified the Section 10 property as part of the Warren County land Richard had owned when he wrote his will.

For me, this is one of the most valuable portions of the entire abstract. A legal problem involving the title created a record connecting Richard Foster → Zebulon Foster → Zebulon's children.

That's exactly the kind of evidence genealogists love to find.

1890–1891 — The Foster Heirs Sell Their Interests

The next series of transactions shows Zebulon's children disposing of their interests.

One of those children was Mary Crawford, whose surname immediately makes this portion of the abstract especially interesting to my research.

On December 26, 1890, Mary, described as unmarried, conveyed her undivided one-sixth interest in the property to James Goodwine for $1,900.

And there's another interesting detail: Mary acknowledged that deed before a probate judge in Ford County, Kansas.

Other Foster heirs also transferred their interests to James Goodwine during 1890 and 1891.

Thus, within a couple of years of Zebulon's death, the property was moving out of the Foster family.

1892 — Another Estate and Another Set of Heirs

James Goodwine died in January 1892.

That meant the abstract now had to document another family in order to establish who inherited interests in the property.

The abstract identifies Goodwine's children and even accounts for deceased children through their descendants. In other words, a land record that began with Richard Foster in 1828 had become a source for reconstructing portions of two different families more than 60 years later.

The property eventually came into the hands of Indiana Fleming and her husband, T. Cor Fleming.

1901 — Fremont Goodwine Acquires the Property

On February 14, 1901, Indiana and T. Cor Fleming conveyed the property to Fremont Goodwine for $20,000.

By this time, the description had changed slightly. The deed covered the northeast quarter plus that portion of the west half of the southeast quarter lying north of the Illinois Central Railroad—a total of about 217 acres.

The railroad had literally changed the way Richard Foster's original 240 acres were being described.

1906 — Fremont Goodwine to John W. Lee

On June 6, 1906, Fremont Goodwine and his wife, Mary J., sold the 217 acres to John W. Lee for $29,000.

Lee also assumed an existing $11,000 mortgage to Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company.

Two days later, John and Carrie Lee mortgaged the property back to Fremont Goodwine for $10,000—the unpaid portion of the purchase price.

That mortgage was paid and released in February 1910.

1910 — George H. Astell Becomes the Owner

On February 15, 1910, John W. Lee and his wife Carrie sold the 217-acre property to George H. Astell.

The consideration was $32,550, with Astell assuming the $11,000 Northwestern Mutual mortgage as part of the purchase.

The abstract follows Astell's ownership for more than two decades.

Among the later transactions was a 1920 oil and gas lease covering the property.

In 1922, George and Louana Astell mortgaged part of the property to Northwestern Mutual for $7,000.

And in July 1932, the Astells executed another mortgage for $7,350.

The abstract was certified through July 27, 1932, more than a century after Richard Foster first entered the land.

Seeing the Story in the Timeline

When I first looked at the abstract, I saw pages and pages of legal transactions.

Creating the timeline helped me see something different:

1828 — Richard Foster
↓
1831 — Zebulon Foster
↓
1889 — Zebulon's heirs
↓
1890–1891 — James Goodwine
↓
Goodwine heirs / Indiana Fleming
↓
1901 — Fremont Goodwine
↓
1906 — John W. Lee
↓
1910–1932 — George H. Astell

That's a much easier story for me to follow.

It also helped me recognize how the property itself changed on paper. Richard acquired 240 acres. After the Illinois Central Railroad crossed the property, later deeds commonly described approximately 217 acres north of the railroad. The abstract eventually treats the principal 200-acre tract and an additional 17-acre tract separately.

More Than a Land Record

For genealogical purposes, this abstract is much more than a record of who owned a particular piece of Indiana farmland.

It connects generations.

It documents inheritance.

It identifies spouses, children and grandchildren.

It explains a court case needed to establish title.

It follows family members who had moved away from Indiana—including Mary Crawford in Kansas.

And it provides a paper trail stretching from a federal land purchase in 1828 to a mortgage in 1932.

Even the story of how this abstract came to me demonstrates why I continue putting my genealogy research online. Someone encountered my research, recognized a connection between my Foster family and an old abstract in her possession, and reached out to share it.

Nearly two centuries after Richard Foster acquired that Indiana land, the property created one more connection—this time between two researchers trying to preserve its history.

And once I put all of those transactions on a timeline, I could finally see just how much of that history was hiding in the abstract.