Cattaraugus County Real Estate Contract Between Moses and Emma R. Beecher and Isaac Curry

Cattaraugus County, NY, 1842. General wear. Letter folds.. A real estate agreement between the couple Moses and Emma Beecher and Isaac Curry which sells a total of approximately 2,956 acres of land from different portions of about 40 different plots of land within Cattaraugus County, NY. Due to the complexities of the amount of land being sold a surveyor was brought in, and the resulting agreement is extremely detailed, sometimes listing out each acre within each plot of land out down to the hundredth of acre. The contract includes small diagrams of the 40 plots and the sections of them being sold to Curry. At the end of the agreement is a section which verifies that Emma Beecher was "privately examined, separate and a part from her husband, acknowledges that she executes said instrument without any fear or compulsion of her said husband." While this does acknowledge that Emma must have owned a portion of this land with her husband, it is unclear how Emma original came to own the land being sold. Measures 7 1/4" x 3 3/4" (folded), 27 1/4" x 20 1/4" (unfolded). Moses Beecher was born on May 4, 1791, to Capt. Moses Beecher (1766-1852) and Dorcas Lord (1769-1855) in New Haven, CT. He had nine siblings: Harry Beecher (1789-1862), Dorcus Beecher (1792-1807), Mariner Beecher (1795-1884), Marcena Beecher Leek(1797-1881), Esther Beecher (1799-1799, stillborn), Wilmot Beecher (1800-1884), Sophia Beecher (1804-1808), Alexander Henry Beecher (1807-1885), and Sophia Beecher (1813-1813). He married Lydia Dawson (1791-1835) on January 4, 1813, in New Hartford, CT, and had ten children: Sophia Mersena Beecher Colman (1813-1867), Harriet Winston Sill (1816-1871), Emily Frances Beecher Colman (1818-1910), Juliette Beecher Skinner (1820-1903), William Henry Beecher (1821-1879), Mary Jane Beecher (1824-?), Moses Beecher (1827-1894), Charles Mortimer Beecher (1829-?), Lydia Beecher (1831-1832), and Lucia A. Beecher Cary (1833-1866). Moses and his family moved to Batavia, NY in 1814, and where he worked as a merchant. Eventually he became engaged as an accountant for the Land Office of the Old Holland Land Company, later transferring within the company to a similar position in Ellicottville, NY. His wife, Lydia died on June 29, 1835. Moses remarried on May 26, 1841 to Emma Ransa Newcomb (1808-1893) in Ellicottville, NY, and had three additional children: Asher George Beecher (1841-1937), Arthur Herbert Beecher (1844-1925), and Walter Henry Beecher (1848-1925). He retained his position with the Land Office of the Old Holland Land Company for twenty years before switching to the manufacturing business. Moses died shortly thereafter on February 14, 1867 in Dunkirk, NY at the age of 76.

Isaac Curry was born on March 31, 1779 to John Curry (1730-1826) and Cornelia Post (1746-1827) in Ballston, NY. He had six siblings: Mary Cornelia Curry (1770-1842), Rachel Curry Wiser (1773-1846), Elias Curry (1776-1860), Catalina Curry (1782-1823), Elizabeth Curry (1784-1869), and Campbell Curry (1787-1828). He married Sarah Swasey (1787-1880) and had five children: William B. Curry (1809-1833), George C. Curry (1812-1833), Orrin Curry (1816-1915), Harriet Maria Curry Rowley (1818-1889) and Daniel S. Curry (1820-1890). He died on July 7, 1854.