New Madrid certificates
From FranaWiki
New Madrid Certificates providing public lands to settlers were granted by the federal government following the devastating New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-1812. Certificate holders were given surveyed lands in various parts of the Missouri Territory, including Arkansas. Many victims settled near Little Rock under the earthquake relief bill passed in 1815. Speculator William O'Hara, purchased 1,120 acres worth of New Madrid certificates in the vicinity in 1819.
References
- Ira Don Richards, Story of a Rivertown: Little Rock in the Nineteenth Century (1969), 6.
