Jun 05, 2008 - Sale 2148

Sale 2148 - Lot 253

Price Realized: $ 8,400
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
WET PRAIRIE IN DETROIT (MICHIGAN.) Hubbard, Thomas Hill. Register of land in Michigan and elsewhere. With numerous manuscript plat maps, some outlined in color. 179 pages. 4to, original 1/2 calf, minor wear at extremities. Np, 1835-1841
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Thomas Hill Hubbard (1781-1857) was a resident of Utica, NY, and was twice elected to the U.S. Congress, in 1817 and 1821. This account book tracks his extensive investments in western lands, most of them as part of various partnerships. Parts of the volume are copied from the registers of land agents who invested on Hubbard's behalf. About half the volume is dedicated to Michigan land, with shorter sections describing land in Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Illinois. Entries generally include the number and location of each parcel, how it was acquired, its cost, acreage, notes on partnership arrangements, and sometimes more descriptive notes, such as "Timbered land lying near junction of Cold Water & St. Joseph rivers. Is near a very flourishing town. Timber whitewood, maple, butternut, basswood &c." One page lists the 17 investors in the Western Land Company, with Hubbard owning the largest share.
Most striking is a detailed full-page map of Hubbard's land near Detroit, outlined in color, titled "Marsh lands owned by T.H.H., D.H., & H.G.H." It depicts Detroit as a small urban center, with Hubbard's large tract of "Wet Prairie" to the northwest, straddling the Wayne County line. Much of this marshland is now within the Detroit city limits, bisected by Eight Mile Road. with--3 Chicago and Detroit newspapers, 1838-1842, annotated by Hubbard.