Research

Scope and Content Note

This series consists of deeds, mortgages, bonds, assignments and traced maps of lots in Buffalo. The land was conveyed to the Commissioners of the Canal Fund as collateral for two judgments against Thadeus W. Patchin, bankrupt, in 1874. In 1881 the Commissioners of the Canal Fund empowered the State Treasurer to settle or cancel back taxes on the Buffalo lots, and this series also contains taxes searches and related documents from this. Also contained are copies of the resolutions of the Commissioners of the Canal Fund relating to this issue.

The few maps in the series are primarily larger tracings done in color inks, with one or two smaller hand drawn plot drawings. They show lot boundaries (and sometimes lot numbers), adjacent lots, streets, railroad lines or bodies of water, lot dimensions, and sometimes owner's name and/or annotations as to ownership (i.e., "given to Dayton") and assessed valuation. Most have information on scale (given as a relation of numbers of feet to one inch) and a directional symbol. They range in size from 17 x 33 cm to 46 x 67 cm.