Thoreau’s father pays off the mortgage on the Texas House:
Know all men by these presents, That I Augustus Tuttle within named, in consideration of the full payment of the debt secured by the within mortgage by the within named John Thoreau the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged do hereby release & quit-claim unto the said Thoreau the lands herein described and hold said Thoreau free & acquit from all & every claim that I may have upon him by virtue of the within deed of Mortgagery the note secured thereby. Executed in presence of Geo. M. Brooks Middlesex ss Sept., 1855. Then personally appeared Augustus Tuttle and acknowledged the foregoing instrument to be his free act and deed. Before me Geo. M. Brooks, Jus. of Peace Cambridge, Feb. 11, 1856. Rec’d & Recorded by Cabel Hayden, Reg.
(Thoreau Society Bulletin, no. 191 (Spring 1990):5-6)
