Blanton Real Estate: 1842-1900
Armed Occupation Act of 1842
Under the terms of the Florida Armed Occupation Act, approved 4 August 1842, men able to   bear arms were entitled to apply for 160 acres of land in certain unsettled areas of East Florida, and given patents to the land upon fulfillment of the conditions of 5 years settlement. A permit to settle shows the name of the applicant, his marital status, the month and year he became a resident of Florida, and a description of the land.

AARON M GEIGER, WILLIAM T BROWN, JAMES GIBBONS, BERRYAN HARVILL, and WILLIAM S SPENCER were issued Armed Occupation Permits  in Township 24S Range 21E.  

Follow the link to see the AOPs of  2 other area settlers:
William Staten Jackson
Matthew E. Jones    (Does anyone have information to confirm this AOP in Levy County?)
SQUATTERS : Some of our bravest and best and earliest!   Many of our earliest settlers were too late for  Armed Occupation Permits.  The Civil War interrupted land purchases for a spell.  There are many here for the 1870 Fort Dade census who are not listed below.  Gentlemen All .

Link to : Original Survey of Township 24 South Range 21 East
Florida became a state in 1845.   This survey was made in the first quarter of 1845 by surveyor, B.F. Whitman, and chainmen, B. Ware and W. Whidden.  You will see 3 parcels occupied by the Armed Occupation permits of William T. Brown (#282 in section 23), W. S. Spenser (#637 in section 34) and James Gibbons (#82 in sections 22&27).  Hammocks and old roads/trails are also visible. Lakes were not sketched in.              (To read the full Plat, click in the lower right hand corner of  the image.)

Land Patents: Pasco County Township 24S Range 21E 
(Patentee-Year of Patent)
Source: Bureau of Land Management - General Land Office Records  

    In 1820, public land sales boomed. The Act of April 20, 1820, authorized land to be sold for a minimum of $1.25 per acre and tracts as small as 80 acres. Public lands initially offered for sale by District Land Offices were sold at pre-announced, scheduled public auction. If any land remained unsold, the parcels would be available for purchase at the minimum price on a first-come-first-served basis. This replaced the credit system. 
In 1852, William Staten Jackson and J. W. Platt bought parcels in Section Sections 31 and 32.  (Jackson was the grandfather-in-law of J. M. O'Berry.  J. W. Platt was a brother-in-law of Matthew E. Jones.)   

    The Homestead Act of 1862 allowed settlement of public lands and required only residence and improvement and cultivation of the land. Any person, a citizen or person intending to become a citizen, 21 years of age or older, and the head of a household could make application. With five years residence and improvements/ cultivation, only a $15.00 fee was required to get 160 acres. The Homestead Act was repealed in 1976.     Most of the property below became available from the Homestead Act.  Others were purchased in Cash Sales.  

Click on the underlined names below to see Land Patents.  When the new page appears, click in the lower right corner of the image to enlarge it to readable size.  You must go to the Bureau of Land Management site above to see all Patents.  Copies of much higher quality are available at BLM.
Sec 6 BLANTON (includes most of Dowling Lake)
DOWLING, JAMES J  11/20/1888 
DOWLING, WILLIAM N  11/22/1888 
MAYO, JAMES M  4/30/1883 
Sec 5 BLANTON
None
Sec 7 BLANTON
 
BLANTON, JESSE G  8/1/1883 
OBERRY, JOHN M  8/13/1883 

 

 Sec 8 BLANTON
 
BLANTON, JAMES M  12/27/1890 
BLANTON, JESSE G  8/1/1883 
BLOCKER, FRANCIS E  12/30/1885 
BOLINGER, G J  3/10/1883 
GOODE, WILLIAM E  6/30/1884 
JOHNSON, ROBERT  3/10/1883 
Sec 18 (Includes Blanton Lake)
 
BLANTON, JESSE G  10/1/1885 
DIAL, W H  6/20/1883 
JONES, WILLIAM A  1/20/1882 
OBERRY, JAMES R  10/30/1882 
OBERRY, DANIEL M  11/22/1888 
OBERRY, MARY F  1/25/1882 
ROBERTS, BENJAMIN H  10/20/1883 
WINN, JAMES O  10/15/1887 
Sec 17
 
OBERRY, JAMES R  6/30/1883 
WINN, JAMES O  10/15/1887 
Sec 19 (Includes S. half of O'Berry Lake)

None

 Sec 20
 
OBERRY, JAMES R  6/30/1883 
RAVESIES, AUGUSTINE H  11/22/1888 
SUMNER, JAMES A  6/21/1889 
WILDER, E G  6/30/1884 
WILDER, THOMAS W  6/30/1884 
Sec 30 Ft. Dade Church
 
EILAND, LEVI  2/10/1883 
EILAND, LEVI  8/13/1883 
JONES, HENRY L  6/3/1885 
JONES, WILLIAM A  5/9/1885 
JONES, WILLIAM A  1/20/1882 
SMITH, JOHN T  2/28/1885 
STEWART, ROBERT B  3/10/1883 
SUMNER, ALEXANDER C  3/10/1883 
Sec 29  Mt. Zion Cemetery
 
MURPHY, BETTIE  6/20/1884 
WILDER, E G  6/30/1884 
WILDER, THOMAS W  6/30/1884 
Sec 31
 
EILAND, LEVI  8/13/1883 
JACKSON, WILLIAM  5/15/1852 
PLATT, JOHN  5/1/1855 
SUMNER, JAMES  11/15/1888 
Sec 32
 
CARTER, NEWTON A  3/10/1883 
DUTTON, H F  3/10/1883 
MOSELEY, B F  2/10/1883 
PLATT, J W  4/30/1883 
SOAR, STEPHEN  2/25/1885 
SUMNER, WILLIAM  5/25/1885 
TAYLOR, JOHN M  12/20/1882 
The STATE OF FLORIDA TRACT BOOKS contain many pre-1900 land transactions for the Blanton area (Township 24 South - Range 21 East).  Following are some examples for prominent residents of Blanton.

Sections 1-4             Sections 5-9               Sections 10-13             Sections 14-17 

Sections 18-21         Sections 22-24           Sections 25-28             Sections 29-32

Sections 33-36

James O'Berry bought land from the Florida Board of Education

John G. Howell obtained land from the "Internal Improvement Fund"

You will see the name of Hamilton Disston in several of these documents. In 1881, Hamilton Diston purchased 4 million acres of land in Florida for 25 cents per acre. His goal was "to drain this worthless swamp you people call Everglades."   This real estate baron sold land to the railroad barons.

Mapping Blanton Settlement

We are trying to find methods to map early Blanton settlement. One of the methods can be found below.  Sections 7, 8, 18, 19, 30 of Florida T24S R21E are done.  (This is work in progress. Sarah Cope is working on the maps for us.  She is expecting her first baby in September, so baby first, more maps later!  Also, the maps may take awhile to load. Please be patient. The web editor will work on speed when she recovers from foot surgery!!!   )

First, double-click to enlarge the map.  Then, move your mouse cursor over a shaded area. A settler's name will pop up. Double-click on the mouse here to drill in to the section. For an even closer view of the section, click on the "expand" button in the lower right.