1870 George & Elizabeth Custer Signed Deed
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GUEST:
I brought in a deed that was from Monroe, Michigan, and it was signed by General Custer and his wife Elizabeth.
APPRAISER:
And where did you find this?
GUEST:
I found it through a dealer in western Ohio… about 15 years ago.
APPRAISER:
Okay. It's such an interesting piece to me as a books and manuscript specialist, because it really captures what we love about manuscripts. And actually it's a real estate document. It's a document recording the sale of a piece of property. The Custers are selling a piece of property to somebody else, which seems very prosaic. But actually, beneath this document is a really rich love story. They met in 1862, and they immediately fell in love, but her father did not approve of him and would not let them get married until after he had proved himself at the Battle of Gettysburg. Finally the father relented, they were married, and she spent the rest of his life traveling with him at most of his military posts. And then after he died, she really dedicated the rest of her life to preserving his legacy and his memory. The reason we know who he is, the reason why he is such a memorable character in American history, is because of his wife and the books that she wrote and the lecture tours that she did to spread the news about him. So this document is executed in 1870.
GUEST:
Mm.
APPRAISER:
And George and Elizabeth Custer are selling four plots of land. And these are basically her… inheritance. Her father has died about four years before this time, left her some land in her home town, and they are selling this property in early 1870 for about $300.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
And one of the reasons they might be doing this at this particular time is that a few years earlier he had been court-martialed and put on suspension for a year. Do you know the reason he was court-martialed?
GUEST:
He made a wild ride across Kansas to see Elizabeth.
APPRAISER:
Yes. He went AWOL to see his wife. The year he spent on suspension probably did mess up their finances a bit, and so they're at this point where they are selling some of the land that she has inherited to help them along…
GUEST:
That's what I felt, yeah.
APPRAISER:
…in their debt. What I really like about this document-- and this is the only document I've ever seen like this in my career-- is that not only is it signed by George, "G.A. Custer," right here, Elizabeth also signs. Now, I have never seen the two signatures on the same document. In the pantheon of Custer documents, the military ones are the most valuable…
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
…and generally the domestic ones would be less interesting, but I think that the combination of these two signatures really places this above its peers. Have you ever had this appraised?
GUEST:
I have never. Never.
APPRAISER:
What did you pay for it when you bought it?
GUEST:
I'm pretty sure it was around $1,500.
APPRAISER:
And how long ago was that?
GUEST:
Probably about 15 years ago. And I chased a guy seven years to obtain this document.
APPRAISER:
Why didn't he want to sell it to you?
GUEST:
I'm not sure, but finally one day I called and he said, "Yeah, Mom and I would like to sell it."
APPRAISER:
Well, at auction, conservatively… I would estimate this document at $3,000 to $5,000. Given the romance of the story behind the document…
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
…and the fact that this is a critical moment in their marriage, I would expect it to do as well or better than that.
GUEST:
Yep. I love the way he signed it with his flamboyant signature.
APPRAISER:
Well, that guy was a character.
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