UNITED STATES LAND GRANTS: "CERTIFICATE NO. 43160, WHEREAS, PLEASANT J.G. LEA OF JACKSON COUNTY MISSOURI HAS DEPOSITED IN THE GENERAL LAND OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES, A CERTIFICATE OF THE REGISTER OF THE LAND OFFICE AT CLINTON WHEREBY IT APPEARS THAT FULL PAYMENT HAS BEEN MADE BY THE SAID PLEASANT J.G. LEA ACCORDING TO THE PROVISIONS OF THE ACT OF CONGRESS OF THE 24TH OF APRIL, 1820. . . THE LOT NUMBERED FOURTEEN AT SECTION THREE IN TOWNSHIP THIRTY NINE OF RANGE THIRTY TWO IN THE DISTRICT OF LANDS FORMERLY SUBJECT TO SALE AT CLINTON, NOW WARSAW MISSOURI CONTAINING THIRTY SEVEN ACRES AND EIGHTEEN HUNDREDTHS OF AN ACRE. . . GIVEN UNDER MY HAND, AT THE CITY OF WASHINGTON, THE FIFTEENTH DAY OF JANUARY [1856].. . BY THE PRESIDENT: FRANKLIN PIERCE BY H.E. BALDWIN ASST. SEC'Y., J.N. GRANGER, RECORDER OF THE GENERAL LAND OFFICE.

Washington DC, 1856. Oblong folio, 10" x 15-1/2". Printed in several different fonts, completed in ink manuscript. Paper seal affixed with wax at bottom left corner. Old folds, minor toning. Signed in ink by H.E. Baldwin as Asst. Secretary and J.N. Granger as Recorder of the General Land Office. Very Good.

The Land Act of 1820, enacted April 24, 1820,ended the ability to purchase the United States' public domain lands on credit over four years. The new law became effective July 1, 1820, and required full payment at the time of purchase and registration. But to encourage more sales and make them more affordable, Congress also reduced both the minimum price from $2.00 to $1.25 per acre, and the minimum size of a standard tract from 160 to 80 acres. The minimum full payment now amounted to $100, rather than $320. At the time, these lands were located on the frontier within the Congress Lands of Ohio and elsewhere in the Northwest Territory and Missouri Territory. [3 Stat. 566 , (Chapter 51), accessed at uslaw.link July, 2025.]
Dr. Pleasant John Graves Lea [1807-1862], of Tennessee, became one of the founders of Cleveland, Tennessee, and one of its first commissioners. He graduated from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia in 1847 and moved to Big Cedar, Missouri, around 1849 where he became a physician and U.S. Postmaster. He was murdered in 1862 by anti-slavery guerrillas from Kansas. He is the namesake of Lee's Summit, Missouri. ["Here a Lea, There a Lea - Everywhere a Lea, a Lea!" by John Arthur Horner, 2013, KC History Missouri Valley Special Collections, Digital Collections of the Kansas City Public Library, accessed July, 2025.]
Henry E. Baldwin [1815-1857], was Assistant Secretary to President Franklin Pierce from 1853 until his death in 1857; Clerk of the New Hampshire Senate; Register of Deeds and Register of Probate of Sullivan County, New Hampshire; Boston Custom House officer; editor and proprietor of the Argus and Spectator newspaper from 1838-1840; and editor and proprietor of the Lowell, Massachusetts Advertiser in the 1840s. ["Baldwin, Henry E." Papers of Abraham Lincoln Digital Library, Accessed July, 2025.]
Julius N. Granger [1810-1884] was Recorder and Register of the General Land Office in Washington, D.C. , appointed by president James Buchanan; married to sister of U.S. Statesman and President Lincoln's political opponent, Stephen a. Douglas; and U. S. Postmaster in Manchester, New York, from 1847-1849. ["Granger, Julius N.", Papers of Abraham Lincoln Digital Library, Accessed July, 2025.]. (Inventory #: 41128)