People and communities
Knight-Pepper House: the debt written on the document
Documented history · Sources compared
A deed and an extensively annotated mortgage reveal transactions behind a familiar house name, including a local fraternal council’s role as lender.
A purchase and a separate acknowledgment
The deed dated January 21, 1861 names George and Ellen Wisham as sellers and Gilbert Knight as buyer of two acres for $300. Its acknowledgment is dated January 22; the cover records receipt the following month. Those dates describe different documentary steps. The printed clauses about houses and other improvements do not date construction of the surviving house. 1861 deed, terms and boundaries; 1861 acknowledgment.
The council supplied credit
On March 21, 1907, Samuel and Carrie Scott mortgaged the property to trustees of Tabernacle Council No. 49, Junior Order of United American Mechanics. The document specifies $500 payable in one year with five-percent annual interest. Its $1,000 obligation should not be mistaken for the principal loan. 1907 mortgage.
The back became an account book
Handwritten endorsements record years of interest and principal payments. The document bears a 1938 cancellation stamp. Its long paper trail shows that the original one-year term and the eventual discharge were different dates; it does not, by itself, explain each extension or arrangement. payment endorsements and cancellation.
Sources and research limits
Four deed pages and the mortgage’s opening and endorsement pages were inspected. THS’s auto-tour collection supplies the house association. No illness, family conflict or exact building date is inferred from these financial records.