Amanuensis Monday~Deed of Gift: Mark Rivers to Katharine Rivers, 1878.

Amanuensis Monday is a genealogy blogging theme. It was started by John Newmark who writes the TransylvanianDutch blog.
His definition of Amanuensis is:

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

Today’s subject is a Deed of Gift: Mark Rivers to Katharine Rivers, 1878.

Mark Rivers}
To} Deed of Gift
Catharine Rivers} Files August 14^th 1878
The State of Alabama}
Choctaw County} Know all men by these present that I Mark Rivers of the county & State aforesaid do this day, Bequeath to my wife Katharine Rivers the following Property to wit: four cows, calves and one work horse (her choice of my horses) and the following Lot or parcel of land to wit: Known and described as the W ½ of NW ¼ & east ½ of SW ¼ & SE ¼ of NW ¼ in Sec 14 T. 10 R. 5 West containing 198 acres more or lefs. To have and to hold unto her the said Katharine Rivers as long as she lives or during her natural life for her own special use & benefit. I hereby give and bequeath said property to my wife Katherine Rivers free from all my Debts as I have other Property to settle said debts&c. In Testimony whereof I hereunto Sign and fix my Seal this the 22^nd day of March 1878.
Witness: J. J. Repshur                   Mark X his mark Rivers {Seal}
J. B. Repshur
J. C. Moody

The above land given to Catharine Rivers by her husband Mark is shown as allotted to Charles J. Ivey on the BLM Government  Land Record site - https://glorecords.blm.gov/search/.

Mark Rivers, b. 1808 is the son of Mark Rivers and Annie Parker. Mark along with his sisters, Milly Rivers Holifield and Elizabeth Rivers Dryman  migrated to Simpson-Hinds County, Mississippi. After 1850, their brother Luke and his family joined them in Mississippi.

Mark Rivers married Irena Katherine Hancock in February 1840 before leaving Chesterfield County, South Carolina.



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[1] Source: Special THANKS to Jean Larson for the Land Deed and transcription. (Mark Rivers to Katharine Rivers, Choctaw County, Alabama, Deed Records Volume “N”, pages 381-382; LDS FHL Film #1788067).