Declaration of Intent — Patrick Murphy, native of Ireland, b. 1858, arr. NY March 1882; filed Jamestown ND 4 Nov 1884

--- newspaper: Declaration of intentionGovernment & wartimeDeclaration of intention ("first papers")The first step to citizenship: a sworn statement of intent to become a citizen. The petition and oath — "second papers" — followed after the required years of residence, with two witnesses to vouch for them.More in Key terms → to become a citizen ("first papers"), District Court of Stutsman County, Territory of Dakota, bound court register, page 110 (not a newspaper; a printed form with handwritten entries). The image is a screenshot from the Ancestry.com viewer, "North Dakota, U.S., Naturalizations, 1873-1952", image 310 of 853. date: 1884-11-04 page: 110 transcribed_by: claude-sonnet-5-5 (Claude Code subagent), 2026-10-04 proofed_by: claude-opus-5-5, 2026-10-04 method: 780 x 692 px JPEG (96 dpi screenshot) opened in full; the page cut into six full-width tiles upscaled 3x with LANCZOS, then every handwritten word, the clerk's signature, the year and the blotted-out "the" re-read at 9x to 30x (autocontrast); metadata.yaml was read first, as instructed, then every entry was read from this image; the clerk's final letter and the blotted-out "the" were then settled against the clearer microfilm scan of the same register page 110 (page 5 of the census composite PDF in archive/documents/census/1885-06-01_us-state-census-stutsman-jamestown_composite-with-patrick-murphy-naturalization/source.pdf, 1112 x 1662 px) --- [Layout: printed form text is plain; handwritten entries are in **bold**. The Ancestry.com viewer banner above the image reads: "North Dakota, U.S., Naturalizations, 1873-1952 for Patrick Murphy" and, below it, "Stutsman > 1874-1915". A viewer control bar at the bottom edge of the image reads "310 of 853".] 110 *United States of America,* } ss. TERRITORY OF DAKOTA, COUNTY OF STUTSMAN. **Patrick Murphy** [handwritten, followed by a long flourish] personally appeared before the subscriber, the Clerk of the District Court of Stutsman County, Dakota Territory, being a Court of Record, and made oath that he was born in **Ireland** [followed by a long flourish] on or about the year eighteen hundred and **fifty eight**; that he emigrated to the United States and landed at the port of **New York** on or about the month of **March** in the year eighteen hundred and **Eighty two**; that it is bona fide his intention to become a citizen of the United States, and to renounce forever all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign Prince, Potentate, State or Sovereignty whatever, and particularly to ~~the~~ **Queen Victoria and Great Britain and Ireland** whereof he is a subject, and he will support the Constitution and Government of the United States. [Editor's note: the printed word "the" before "Queen Victoria" is blotted out by heavy pen strokes (a dark scribble on both this screenshot and the microfilm scan of the same page).] [signature, in darker ink, above the "Subscribed" line:] **Patrick Murphy** Subscribed and sworn to this **4th** day of **Nov,** 188**4** [clerk's signature:] **Chas. T. Hills** Clerk. By ........................ ~~Deputy.~~ [the "By" line is blank; a pen line runs through the printed word "Deputy"] [The tops of the letters of the next declaration on the page show along the bottom edge of the image, cut off. A sliver of the facing page (the same printed form, beginning "Unit…", "subscribe…", "that he w…", "hundred", "…") shows at the right edge; not transcribed. To the right of "ss." faint grey speckle, apparently show-through from the reverse of the leaf, is not legible.]