These are petitions for dower, orders of the court appointing commissioners to lay out the dower from the estate of the widow's husband, reports to the court by the commissioners so appointed and sometimes plats showing the meets and bounds of the land laid out. In some cases there also are copies of notices, required by law, to other owners of the land by the widow announcing her intention to petition for dower. In some instances the petition was contested and in these instances there are various papers filed in the ensuing court case.