According to documents in the Sheboygan County Register of Deeds office, the land that became Amsterdam was originally acquired from the U.S. Government by Charles and Carlton Wheelock of Brown County, Wisconsin Territory, in the late 1830s. 

While Town of Holland Abstracts indicate that the transaction took place in 1836, the official U.S. Government document describing the land transfer was not signed until 1839, and the transaction was not recorded in the Sheboygan County Register of Deeds office until November of 1850. 

The reason for the lengthy delay between transaction and recording dates may have something to do with the fact that the document describing the transaction had to be signed in Washington, D.C. It is also possible that the signed document was then filed with Wisconsin's Territorial Headquarters in Green Bay rather than with the newly organized Sheboygan County. Apparently it was a common practice to file such documents at territorial headquarters prior to Wisconsin becoming a state in 1848.

In 1847 Charles Wheelock, whose residence was then listed more specifically as Green Bay, sold the land to Elisha Morrow of Brown County. The document describing this transaction was signed in Brown County, Wisconsin Territory, on October 21, 1847, and was recorded in the Sheboygan County Register of Deeds office on August 12, 1848.

Gilbert H. Smith purchased the land from Elisha Morrow (at the time the receiver for U.S. Land Office from 1947-1849, based in Green Bay) and his wife Maria in October of 1850. The document relating to this transaction was signed in Brown County, Wisconsin, on October 5, 1850, and was recorded in the Sheboygan County Register of Deeds office on November 14, 1850.