The Deeds: Hannah's Land, Parcel by Parcel
Where the Freedmen's Savings Bank turned Black savings into paper that vanished in 1874, Hannah Guion turned wages into titled ground — and held it. These are the instruments of her strategy: the Lincolnton lot of 1869 (filed with Lincolnton & Freedman Town), the Charlotte half-acre of 1876, the Owen strip of 1886 that completed her 119 feet of Boundary Street frontage, the Salisbury purchases of 1894 beside Livingstone College, and the conveyances that carried her parcels to her granddaughters and beyond.
William Johnston to Hannah Guion, 1876 — Page One
25 February 1876: William Johnston deeds Hannah a half-acre (“No. 9 on Plot A”) behind Mr. Murphy's lot in Charlotte for $225 — the seed of her Boundary Street estate. Johnston had sat with Haywood Guion on the 1861 Military Board.
Hannah Guion to Tench Lander, 1885
The substitute deed of 31 March 1885, executed “Hannah X (her mark) Guion” before the Mecklenburg clerk, perfecting Tench Lander's title to Lot No. 3 — replacing a lost deed of c. 1869–70. Where the 1869 deed named her race twice, this one carries no racial designation at all.
The 1885 Lander Deed — Transcription
Full transcription with the exact metes and bounds, the acknowledgment before Jno. R. Erwin, and registration at Lincolnton (Deed Book 56, p. 366).
