Van Landschoot

Eight Centuries of Family History

The Fairlawn Cemetery Deed of 1896

A factual reconstruction of the deed recorded on 9 December 1896, by which the Fairlawn Cemetery Association conveyed part of its land in Oklahoma County to D. J. Lanslots.

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Deed record from Fairlawn Cemetery Association to D. J. Lanslots, dated 9 December 1896
Deed record filed in Oklahoma County on 9 December 1896, recording the conveyance of part of Fairlawn Cemetery to D. J. Lanslots.
On the ninth day of December in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-six, a formal deed was executed in Oklahoma County, Territory of Oklahoma, between the Fairlawn Cemetery Association and D. J. Lanslots. Though the wording is strictly legal, the document preserves a clear and concrete fact: Lanslots acquired a measured part of Fairlawn Cemetery, and the transfer was recorded with full legal precision in the public register.

The deed identifies the parties explicitly. The Fairlawn Cemetery Association of Oklahoma County, in the Territory of Oklahoma, acted as party of the first part, while D. J. Lanslots, of Oklahoma County, in the Territory of Oklahoma, was named as party of the second part. In return for the sum of one hundred and twenty-five dollars, acknowledged as received, the association granted, bargained, sold, and conveyed the property to Lanslots, together with his heirs and assigns.

The Land Described

The property conveyed was described as part of Fairlawn Cemetery. The legal description begins at the north west corner of the cemetery, then runs due south three hundred and ninety-six feet, due east two hundred and seventy-five feet, due north three hundred and ninety-six feet, and finally due west two hundred and seventy-five feet to the point of beginning. The total surface is given as two acres and a half, more or less.

This was therefore no vague reference to burial ground or association property in general. The deed set out a precise rectangular tract, measured and bounded in legal language, sufficient to identify exactly what portion of land passed into the hands of D. J. Lanslots.

Payment and Release of Lien

The document also contains a separate statement dated Oklahoma City, O.T., December 9, 1896. In that statement, it was acknowledged that D. J. Lanslots had paid the full pro rata amount for which a lien had previously been retained on the parcel described in the deed. The wording makes clear that this land had been sold by the Fairlawn Cemetery Association to Lanslots and that the payment now operated as a full release of that lien.

The release was subscribed by F. K. Unholtz and Jennie M. Unholtz. Their names appear in direct connection with the lien, and elsewhere in the deed it is stated that a lien had been retained by them, subject to the payment by the association of a certain part of the proceeds arising from the sale of lands previously conveyed by them to the association.

Warranty and Condition

As in many deeds of the period, the instrument goes on to declare that the Fairlawn Cemetery Association was lawfully seized of the premises in fee simple and had full right to convey them. It further warranted that the land was free, clear, and unencumbered from former grants, titles, judgments, taxes, assessments, and other charges of whatever kind.

Yet the deed also records an important qualification. It expressly states that a lien had been retained by F. K. Unholtz and Jennie M. Unholtz, conditioned upon payment by the association of part of the proceeds arising from sales of lands conveyed by them to that association. In other words, the deed preserves both the claim of clean title and the memory of the financial condition attached to the wider tract.

Execution and Acknowledgment

The deed was executed on behalf of the Fairlawn Cemetery Association by O. A. Mitscher, President, and attested by F. K. Unholtz, Secretary. The corporate seal was affixed, and the act was formally acknowledged before W. L. Blackwelder, Notary Public.

Blackwelder certified that on the ninth day of December 1896, O. A. Mitscher personally appeared before him and acknowledged that he had executed the conveyance as president of the association for the uses and purposes set forth therein. The notarial clause closes by noting that Blackwelder’s commission was to expire on June 10, 1900.

Recorded in Oklahoma County

The deed bears the certification that it was filed for record in the office of the Register of Deeds at 3½ o’clock P.M. on December 9th, 1896. The register named was G. A. Beidler. The transaction was therefore not merely a private arrangement, but one entered into the official documentary record of Oklahoma County.

For that reason, the deed offers a small yet firm historical trace of D. J. Lanslots in territorial Oklahoma. It places his name in a land transaction, identifies the acreage involved, records the purchase price, and preserves the surrounding legal and financial conditions exactly as they stood on that December day in 1896.

This document is modest in appearance, but it is historically valuable. It shows D. J. Lanslots as an active participant in a recorded land transfer in Oklahoma County, and it preserves in formal legal language the acquisition of a defined portion of Fairlawn Cemetery at a time when Oklahoma was still a territory rather than a state.