Rockingham Co. Deed Bk 14:29-30

This Deed made this 14^th day of February 1877, witnesseth that I John G. Cootes of the County of Rockingham and State of Virginia, being a householder and head of a family, do hereby declare my intention in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 183 of the Code of Virginia edition of 1873, to claim a homestead in the real and personal property owned by me as herein after described and to claim to hold the same exempt from levy, seizure, garnishing, or sale under any execution, order or other process. The said homestead, or the greater part thereof, being situated in Said County of Rockingham. I describe the property which I claim as such homestead, as follows to wit.

1. An equity of redemption in a tract of 87 ½ acres of land lying on the Shenandoah River in Plains district in said county, known as the Cootes Store property, conveyed to H.M. Newman Trustee in trust to secure a debt due to William H. Bailey, upon which there is still a balance of about twenty five hundred dollars. The value of this equity of redemption is about five hundred dollars and certainly does not exceed that.
2. A tract of two hundred and twenty one acres on the North Mountain in the same district and county valued upon the assessors book at twenty two dollars and ten cents.
3. A tract of three hundred and eighty six and one half acres on Church Mountain in same district and county, valued upon the assessors books at seventy seven dollars and thirty cents.

In all of these tracts of land, Benjamin F. Cootes, is a joint owner with myself of any and all minerals upon them and any of them.

4 The following personal property of the value annexed to each article respectively, to wit: 1 set of chairs $3.00, 1 piano $75.00, 2 rocking chairs $3.00, 1 table $4.00, 2 beds and bedding $20.00, 2 bureau $20, 1 secretary $8.00, 1 wardrobe $10, 1 stand $1.00, 1 mare $30, 2 old carriages $30, 1 spring wagon $25.00, 1 cow $15, 3 hogs $10, 1 lot of harness $15, 1 cupboard $3.00, 1 lot of carpeting $10.00 and sundry claims due to me by note or upon open account from sundry persons as follows, to wit: Henry Showalter $16.96, Major Harper $50.00, Samuel Miller $40.00, Abraham Hoover $41, Isaac Riddle $12.79, Isaac Fulk $25.00, Berryman Custer $50, Jacob Fawley $15, William H. Fitz $30, David Hulva $15, Hiram Hoover $25, S.B. Hulva $50, Noah Hoover $25, Jacob May $25, John P. Pence $50.00, Stephen Roadcap $75, Christian Runion $20, Jackson Shoemaker $30, Nathan Turner $23.87, John J. Branner $100, James Hoover $24.65, Henry Emswiller $25, George W. Miller $40, Jonathan Crist $5.62, George Fulk of C. $31.67, Adam H. Fulk $20, Hiram Hoover $40, Lizzie Kratzer $82.75, Isaac Turner $6.18. Witness my hand and seal this day and year aforesaid.

John G. Cootes