Beschreibung:

Ca 25 items. Nicholas Clopper was born in New Jersey. In the early 1800s he was actively buying land in Pennsylvania. Nineteen of these items relate to these land purchases. Most seem to be related to the purchase of Daniel Duncan's land. Duncan died intestate and his land was divided among 10 heirs. One document seems to be a proposal by Clopper to buy the whole, but several of the heirs would not go along with it, so many of these are Clopper purchasing one piece at a time, as well as the interest (1/10th) in the unoccupied stone house from one of the heirs. A couple of these deeds relate to Daniel Duncan's original purchase, presumably they were in Clopper's hands to establish ownership and boundaries. Duncan's original document date from 1771 and 1786; most of the other Duncan documents date 1802-1809. This venture seems to have failed, but there is a gap in the papers in this archive. During the 1810s, Clopper seems to have been buying and selling land in Maryland (Frederick Co. Equity Court Abstracts). The early 1820s found Clopper in Texas. He purchased several pieces of land in the Brazos, Galveston and San Jacinta areas, and organized the Texas Trading Association in 1827. He also had associates in the Cincinnati, Ohio area, and operated between there and Texas for two decades. In 1835 he presided over a meeting in Cincinnati that resulted in the purchase of the Twin Sisters, the famous pair of cannon used by the Texas revolutionaries. His son, Andrew M. was a courier for President David Burnet and often acted as Nicholas' agent in Texas. Among the remaining documents is a letter dated 1837 naming Andrew as the agent in Texas for William Langdon of Paducah, Kentucky with a sketch map of the property of interest to Langdon, ...such part of a league of land that was granted by the Mexican Govt. to Francis W. Dempsey as a settler in Austins Colony Texas. Nicholas Clopper already had interest in Lot No. 7; Langdon was looking at No. 9. Two other documents are agreements between Nicholas and Andrew. One of the more interesting pieces here is a letter to Mr. C.C. Lyon, written from Cincinnati, August 1841, and shows his talent as a salesman. I send you copys of the Portland City constitution, and plats of the lands & routs to Palacios &c....I shewed you on board the boat coming up the river, and you will doubtless remember the wide & spacious streets &c. avenues, broadway extending from front street to the College grounds &c. and remember that we consider this as a nucleus, around which it is expected will be gathered such a mass of sober, and industrious merchants and farmers whose conduct and deportment will be such as to extend a moral influence for many miles around....hope you will not only be much engaged yourself before you return but also interest many of your friends to become investors in this undertaking. If viewed only as a pecuniary point of view the inducements are even then very great being only one thousand dollars per share.... It is actually less than the intrinsic value of the land for farming purposes, but when we look at it in a moral point of view, the inducements are more than double. It is not clear whether Clopper got all of his investors. Toward the end of the letter he notes that he would stay in Cincinnati until late October, then return to Texas. Apparently, he did, and died less than two months later, on 2 Dec. 1841. [see The Handbook of Texas Online for biography of Clopper, www.tshaonline.org] Condition: Conditions range from poor to good. As expected the later items are a bit better. Some of the early deeds are in pieces.