The road to getting federal land into private hands through purchase was often complicated in the early 1800s. This was especially true in the swampy portions of Southeast Missouri. Before land could be purchased at the land office in Jackson, any claim by indigenous people had to be extinguished by treaty or seizure, then the land surveyed so it could be legally described. Survey proved to be difficult in swampy terrain, with natural obstacles, heat and humidity in summer, and vector-borne diseases such as malaria interfering.
Settlers often did not wait for the necessary steps to play out. They cleared and began farming without clear title to their land. To provide settlers a route to clear title, Congress passed laws in 1814 and 1832 allowing them “preemption rights” if they settled by specified deadline dates.
Most of those claiming preemption rights were men. Their wives or female relatives had no land rights as long as a man was head of the household. Rarely, though, women claimed preemption successfully, either because they were single or were widowed. In those cases, they were under the legal coverture of no man.
Hannah Williams was one such woman. A widow with two daughters under age 10 in 1830, she moved onto land just southwest of Wolf Island in present-day Mississippi County sometime prior to that. A well-known member of the Wolf Island community, Hannah established residency on the land, and with the passage of the law in 1832, intended to claim it through preemption. A neighbor, Drakeford Gray, lost his wife just prior to this time, and the two agreed to marry. Hannah perished within a year.
Drakeford Gray filed for preemption on the land October 27, 1834, in Hannah’s Williams’ name, but as her widower. This resulted in bureaucratic problems requiring documentation of their relationship. Gray deposed he had married Hannah, and was her legal representative, and further, “Hannah Williams was settled on and cultivated the … land in … 1832 at which time he was married to her and that he has continued to possess and cultivate the same … to the present time.” A neighbor, James R. Powel, provided testimony to document fulfillment of preemption requirements.
Two men provided depositions to document Hannah’s death: a neighbor, Benjamin S. Hacker, and a man who often stayed at Wolf Island while working on the river, Job Loyd. Loyd stated that “…Drakeford Gray …married… Hannah sometime in the forepart of the year 1832 and that she died sometime in March 1833. [I] … was well acquainted with … Hannah before her death. …in March 1833 [Loyd] went down the Mississippi river, that previous to his going down the river he had boarded at … Drakeford Gray’s house eight or ten days during which time he saw… Hannah every day. [Loyd] returned from down the river the latter part of March or first of April of 1833 and was informed that she… was dead – He has frequently been at the house of Mr. Gray since and he has never seen … Hannah since and believes she is dead.”
The entire process played out over six years, and eventually Hannah’s preemption required cancellation, and Gray received it under preemption in his own name.
Hannah Williams was one of the few women to attempt to acquire land in her own right under preemption. Later, other women would qualify for their own land under the provisions of later federal land laws, notably the Homestead Act of 1862.
