(Ed's Note:  one of my favorite movies is 'O Brother, Where art Thou?'.   Delmar, though depicted to be slow of mind, is dreaming about his share of the loot the trio is out to recover, and how he's going to recover the family farm from foreclosure, says 'You ain't no kind of man, if you ain't got land'.)

Joseph Rash deed Muskingum County
(transcription from FHL film)

Entered for the Record Sept 30th 1833. Recorded Oct 2nd 1833 Isaac Barton to Joseph Rush

Know all men by these presents. That we, Isaac Barton and Elizabeth Barton, Mother of the said Isaac of the County of Muskingum in the State of Ohio for and in consideration of the sum of four hundred dollars lawful money of the United States to them paid in hand by Joseph Rush the receipt whereof we do hereby acknowledge and therewith contented and satisfied have given granted, bargained, sold, aliened and conveyed and by these presents do freely fully and absolutely give, grant, bargain, sell, aliened and convey and confirm unto the said Joseph Rush, his heirs and assigns forever. To certain pieces or parcels of land situate in said County of Muskingum and being a parts of the twelfth and thirteenth sections in the twelfth Township and thirteenth Range, and bounded as follows, to wit, first tract beginning on the southeast corner of the southwest quarter of section Number Twelve, thence north with the East boundary twenty three chains and ninety links to a post and stone, thence West forty chains and fifty links to a post and stone on the west boundary, then south with the same twenty three chains and ninety links to the SW corner of the said quarter, thence East forty chains and thirty links to the beginning estimated to contain Ninety six and a half acres. The other Tract beginning at the southeast corner of section Number Thirteen, thence North three chains and ninety one links to a post and stone, thence West eight chains and ninety seven links, thence south three chains and ninety one links, thence East eight chains and ninety seven links to the beginning, estimated in the tracts to contain one hundred acres more or less. To have and to hold the said granted and bargained premises with all of the appurtenances and privileges and commodities to the same belonging or anywise appertaining to him the said Joseph Rush, his heirs and assigns forever to his there own proper use , benefit and behoof as a good perfect and absolute estate in fee simple and we the said Isaac and Elizabeth Barton, for ourselves, heirs, executors and administrators do covenant with the said Joseph Rush, his heirs and assigns that before and until the sealing and delivery of these presents we were lawfully seized in fee of the above granted premises and appurtenances that we have good right, full power and lawful authority in them to sell and convey the same to the said Joseph Rush and that the said premises are free from all former gifts, grants and other encumbrance whatever and that we do and will warrant, secure and defend the same to him and his heir and assigns? forever against the lawful claims and demands of all and every person or person whomsoever.

In witness whereof we hereunto set our hands and seals the 16th day of September A. D. eighteen hundred and thirty three, and the 58th year of the independence of the United States of America

Overhead satellite photography of Joseph Resch Farm, ~ 103 acres.  GPS coordinates for the lane into the farm are N39 54 .22  and W081 56 .68.

• This deed details Joseph Rash purchasing land in Muskingum County, in particular, 100 acres in the Wayne Township, Sections 12 and 13, as depicted on the graphic, for the sum of $400 on the 16th of September, 1833. This land is about 4 miles to the east, southeast of Zanesville on Wayne Ridge Road.
• Barbary Rash also purchased 53 acres of land in 1848 in the far northeast corner of the northeast quarter of section 9 in Salt Creek Township for $530. I doubt if the family worked this land, the quality and distance from the original purchase plus the sale six years later for a $20 profit lead me to believe this.  On a plat map, the land is northeast of the river and is probably unusable lowland.
• A third purchase by Barbary in November of 1850 dovetailed along the northeast corner of the original purchase paralleling the road to the northeast up toward the section line.  The land was 3.25 acres and Barbary paid $150.  This must have been an important purchase because the price is quite high.
• Of note, is the use of the name Rush, instead of Rash on this first purchase. I cannot determine the obvious misspelling other than the name might have been spelled as it sounded, or, as might also be an equally possible answer, the small script a was left open at the top, looking like the letter u (very common).
• I've reviewed the deed of land purchases in Brown County, Illinois in the 1850s, a remarkable note is the use of chains and links for measures of length in this deed. For visualization purposes, 40 chains equals 1/2 mile, or the length of one side of a quarter section. Owning a quarter section (1/2 mile by 1/2 mile) is 160 acres, half of a quarter is 80 acres. Joseph owned a little more that half of a quarter section.
• Concerning the land, very hilly would be a good description.  Whether it was cleared and ready for farming is still under review. I have not determined the initial patentee, but for sure, this land was sold before 1820, being so close to Zanesville and the National Road.  As can be see from the topographical profile, this land has rolling hills, farming would be a difficult task.
• Joseph purchased 100 acres for $400, or $4/acre.  Of note, Leborius purchased 35 acres at $10/acre 6 years later in 1839. Apparently, the Panic of 1837 had very little impact on farmland value here.  Joseph's land in 1839, after 6 years, would have a book value of $1000.

This if a current topographic chart detailing the Joseph Rash farm (1833 - 1854) and also the Leborius Resch farm (1839 - 1867).  This land east of Zanesville was hilly as seen with the closeness of the contour lines.  Joseph's land is 96 acres in the SW quarter of section 12 and about 3.5 acres in the SE corner of section 13 of Wayne Township, totaling about 100 acres, more or less.  Access to his farm was from the road (known today as Wayne Ridge Road) touching the center of the northern boundary.     Leborius owns 35 acres in the NE corner of the SW quarter of Section 2.  The 1854 plat map does not detail roads.     John Weigand owned  74 acres one mile due east of Joseph.  The Jacob Hagel farm is one mile to the NE of Joseph's land.

  This deed may be found in Volume O, page 168 of the Muskingum Deed Books. Below is a photocopy.  I copied mine from FHL film 0900186.

Above is a copy of the deed page in Volume "O" made October, 2002.  The page is well preserved and legible for a document 170 years old.  The script I translated was more crisp, though, the sides were curved from the photography.