Lot 517: Slave Record and Land Grant, Osmond Jones Family of Alabama

1st item: 1 letter from Osmond Jones (1809-1865) to his niece, Mary Tabb, daughter of his sister, Mary Jones Tabb (1811-1898). The letter, dated May 29, 1863, contains Civil War related subject matter. Osmond Tabb does not appear to have fought in the war himself but rather continued working his farm. 2nd item: a pocket sized leather-bound notebook/ledger of T.D. Jones (Thaddeus D. Jones, 1815-1882) that includes a handwritten inventory of 37 enslaved persons. Three are aged 21-22, the rest range in age from 17 to infant. Note: Thomas Anderson Jones was born in Mecklenburg County, VA in 1772, and migrated to the rich cotton-farming area of Perry County, Alabama. He and his wife, Mary Crenshaw Jones had six children, including sons Osmond and Thaddeus Jones, and daughter Mary Jones, who married the Rev. Thomas Tabb of Oktibbeha, Mississippi. Several additional archive lots related to Mary Jones Tabb and Thomas Tabb and their children, including Mary (“Mollie”) and sons Thomas and William, both of whom died in the Civil War, are also for sale in this auction. 3rd item: President Martin Van Buren secretarial signed land deed on vellum dated 1841 to Osmond Jones for 160 and 44/100 acres of land in Dallas County, Alabama. 10 in. x 16 in.

PROVENANCE: The Estates of Thomas Maxfield and Sara McIntyre Bahner, by descent in the family of Mollie Tabb Moore, daughter of Mary Jones Tabb. 

CONDITION: Notebook worn, but pages inside are in fairly good condition with toning and a few possible missing pages. Land grant with folds, including across President Van Buren’s (secretarial) signature.