Demarest French Patent Map

The original land purchase from Indians covered what were known but, today, can hardly to be identified exactly as Sections 17, 18, 19, and 20, which totaled apparoximately 5,000 acres.  David's arrangements with the proprietors called for a settlement within a given time of 45 families, a stipulation he failed to meet.

Earlier patents, of which David may not have been aware, were to James Bollen and John Berry.  Both men laid claim to their patents and, as a result, David and his children were forced to re-purchase their lands for a second and third time.  Subsequently, purchases from the Indians of adjoining land resulted in additional litigation.  These were necessary, in part, to provide room for the explanding families.

 In the end, David and his children and their associated families finally had good title to something over 2,000 acres of land.