Recently, Michael John Neill posted a ‘Genealogy Tip of the Day’ to Account for Every Acre. With my Zebulon Foster research in Warren County, Indiana this is proving to be difficult. First, I’m not exactly sure what land he owned.
Zebulon Foster was not an original land owner in Warren County, Indiana. He is listed as a grantee in the deed indexes. That reference is for a Will in a Deed Book. The will indicates that Zebulon inherits all of his father’s Land on the Wabash. Thus, I started looking for Richard Foster and found him as an original land owner.
Assuming that Zebulon inherited at least some of the land patented by his father, Richard Foster, I started looking for Zebulon as a grantor. I found several deeds where Zebulon and his wife Caroline sold off portions of the land in the NW 1/4 of section 14 and one deed for railroad right of way in section 15.
Zebulon sold to John Stufflebeam land being part of W 1/2 NW 1/4 Section 14 Township 21 N Range 9 West on 8 Jan 1853 in Warren County, Indiana.
Indiana, Warren. Deed Records, 1827-1901. Film #1977056 DGS 8071881. Zebulon Foster, 8 Jan 1853 Vol. 14: page 260 (image 163); digitized images, Family Search http://www.familysearch.org : viewed online 4 April 2022.
He sold land to the Lake Erie Wabash and St. Louis Railroad company being a part of the NE 1/4 of Section Number (15) in township in Jan 1854 in Warren County, Indiana.
Indiana, Warren. Deed Records, 1827-1901. Film #1977056 DGS 8071881. Zebulon Foster, January 1854 Vol. 14: page 347 (image 207); digitized images, Family Search http://www.familysearch.org : viewed online 4 April 2022.
Zebulon sold to James Howard land being 9 1/2 acres in the SW 1/4 of the NW 1/4 of section 14 township 21 North range 9 west on 24 Jan 1854 in Warren County, Indiana.
Indiana, Warren. Deed Records, 1827-1901. Film #1977056 DGS 8071881. Zebulon Foster, 24 Jan 1854 15: 36-37; digitized images, Family Search http://www.familysearch.org : viewed online 4 April 2022.
He sold land to George Pence land being part of lot 1 in the West half of the NW 1/4 of Section 14 Township 21 Range 9 on 7 Feb 1854 in Warren County, Indiana.
Indiana, Warren. Deed Records, 1827-1901. Film #1977056 DGS 8071881. Zebulon Foster, 7 Feb 1854 Vol. 14: page 227; digitized images, Family Search http://www.familysearch.org : viewed online 4 April 2022.
He sold land to Francis Wheeler being lot 4 in the NW division to the town of Lebanon on 23 May 1854 in Warren County, Indiana.
Indiana, Warren. Deed Records, 1827-1901. Film #1977056 DGS 8071881. Zebulon Foster, 23 May 1854 Vol. 14: page 368 (image 218); digitized images, Family Search http://www.familysearch.org : viewed online 4 April 2022.
Zebulon sold to David Evans land being part of the W 1/2 of the NW 1/4 of section 14 township 21 north of range 9 on 4 Aug 1854 in Warren County, Indiana.
Indiana, Warren. Deed Records, 1827-1901. Film #1977056 DGS 8071881. Zebulon Foster, 4 Aug 1854 Vol. 15: pages 119-120; digitized images, Family Search http://www.familysearch.org : viewed online 4 April 2022.
However, these deeds only account for a small portion of the land Richard Foster patented. As I continued searching Warren County Indiana deed records, I found some additional deeds involving his second wife and his children. These deeds are for some of the parcels of Richard Foster land.
- Widow’s Deed
- Division of Land – where children sell their shares of some of the land
Even though I found quite a few deeds they do not account for all of the land originally patented by Richard Foster. That’s when I thought of Range Indexes. In Kansas, most counties not only maintain grantee and grantor indexes to the deeds but also what are called RANGE INDEXES. These Range Indexes make it easy to track the ownership of a parcel of land from the original patent thru time. Since I don’t believe Indiana maintains range indexes, I decided to try and create my own in a spreadsheet.

Since there are deeds by Zebulon Foster or his children for each of the parcels of land that Richard Foster patented, I believe that I have verified that Zebulon inherited all four parcels. Unfortunately, I do not have deeds showing the transfer of all of this land by Zebulon Foster to others or to his children. Thus, I need to do the following:
- Continue searching Warren County Indiana deed indexes for deeds by Zebulon Foster, his widow Juliet or his children: William Foster, Edward Foster, Eliza Bell, Hattie Fleming, Rachel Crider and Mary Crawford
- Locate the foreclosure court case dated 22 Dec 1885
- Research the name changes for the railroads to determine whether I need to locate more deeds for railroad right of way
- Search deed records for the counties where the children lived to see if a Warren County deed was recorded in their locality.
- Search Probate records for clues to the distribution of this land
- Identify the grandchildren and search deeds for their names to see if they inherited any of this land.
By creating my own ‘range index’ I have a better view of what I have been able to verify about the ownership of this land as well as where I’m missing information.