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Abraham Lincoln
lost his home twice because of title defects
Losing a home is a cruel thing, but life can be cruel -- even to
those destined for greatness.
Abraham Lincoln was born in a meager, one-room cabin on the Big
South Fork of Nolin's Creek near Hodgenville, Kentucky. It had a dirt floor, one window
and a stick-clay chimney. Lincoln's father, Tom, had paid $200 for the cabin and 300 acres
of discouraging land. It wasn't much, but it was home and the young family's only chance
for a decent life. |
After four years of fighting mosquitoes, heat and hardscrabble land, the Lincolns had to
pack up and leave. There was a defect in the title. They didn't have the right sort of
papers and somebody else had a better claim to the land. With three-year-old Abe in his
mother's arms, the family moved eight miles away to Knob Creek.In less than four years, tom Lincoln had to go to court to prove his
ownership rights to this second farm. Another claimant to the land sued him as a
"trespasser." tom Lincoln won the suit, but was haunted by the fear that he
might someday lose another property. There was enough talk of land-titles, landowners,
landlords, land-laws, land-lawyers and land-sharks to make him unsure of his title. After
all, Daniel Boone, the first pioneer of the Kentucky wilderness, had lost every inch of
his once vast landholdings because he had "the wrong kind of papers." tom
decided to move his family to Indiana where there was rich, black land -- government land
with clear title and the right kind of papers. Thus, Abraham Lincoln lost a second home to
title problems.
It was the anxiety and outright losses of the Lincolns and other
hard-working Americans that gave rise to today's title insurance industry. The first land
title insurance company was founded in Philadelphia in 1876. Just a few years later, in
1889, the firm that was to become First American Title Insurance Company was established to protect
buyers against the hidden hazards of real estate ownership: forgeries; faulty surveys;
hidden liens; conveyances by a minor or mentally incompetent person as being single; and
many other title defects. Even the most complete search of records may not reveal them
all.
Today, title insurance is just as important as ever. The same
potential flaws in the title exist. A home is still the largest purchase most of us make
in our lifetime. And, with escalating land values, the loss of property can still bring a
family to ruin. Consequently, both buyer and seller should insist on the stability and
reliability they receive through coverage by First American Title
Insurance Company.
The unfortunate loss of the Lincoln family would have been covered
by insurance had Thomas Lincoln owned a title policy. Let First American help you
avoid title problems.
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Londonderry, NH 03053