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Pastimes : Book Nook -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JF Quinnelly who wrote (181)	4/5/2001 9:47:24 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 443

I thought Friedman and Schwartz argued that the failure of the Bank of the United States did something-or-other bad but since I can't find the book I don't know what it was. I need to borrow it via interlibrary loan. I hate to buy a pig in a poke. I am very frustrated by the quality of the work. It's all books citing books citing books citing books. It's like reading one of those Will and Ariel Durant things. My husband loves to read that type of book, the kind with the magisterial overview. I feel like I'm reading fluff. So I took the first step yesterday, and started looking at old land records. As a lawyer, I've got a natural advantage in reading land records and case files - I know what all the words mean and I know the relevance. Took me a long time to learn, too. I used to do collections when I was first starting out. That and divorces taught me a lot about property. Plus my office landlord is a real estate attorney. And his former partner is the Clerk of the Court. The way to learn about bank failures is to read about foreclosures. Back then, people didn't take out 30 year mortgages on their houses, it was like a balloon - one to three year term, and when they came due, you paid the full amount or tried to refinance. If the bank tightened its lending standards then it refused to refinance and you lost the property. Foreclosure sales are fire sales so you lost everything, but the bank didn't get the full value of the loan, either. They could come after you for the deficiency but good luck. You can't get blood from a turnip. So the first thing that came to hand was the book where Federal Farm Credit liens were filed. One of Roosevelt's programs, looks like, the first ones were filed in 1936. Page after page of carefully typed documents listing who pledged what for how much. The name of the farmer, and his assets. The number of cows - each cow got a description but not a name, e.g., 3 holstein, 1 brown cow with crumpled horn. Equipment - 1 McCormick reaper, extra wheel. One entry was for a flower farm - 14 acres peonies, 14 acres daffodils, 10,000 pots. Most of the liens were released, too. Which means they were paid off. Eventually. Then I poked through some of the will books. The administrator of an estate will file an inventory, which lists assets and debts, so that's a good measure of what things cost. How much it cost to dig a grave. How much a room full of furniture was worth. Now that's history. To me, anyway. You would like the Civil War records, down in the archives. I am quoting from the archive brochure - civil war pensions, secession vote, poor lists, voting lists (1854-1879), Southern claims records for Fairfax County residents loyal to the Union during the Civil Wary. Muster Roll 1861-1865. Revolutionary War pensions. War of 1812 Pensions. Will Books, 1742-1924. George Washington's will.