It May Have Been Free But They Paid a Price

I am on the road again.  If you have been following my blog, you might remember that my husband is working in Nebraska for about 3 months on an assignment that takes him into a lot of smaller towns.  I have a history of following him on his verious assingments but tend to show a real “enthusiam” for his job when it lands him in Manhatten, NY or San Francisco, CA. I have been known to selflessly keep him company for weeks at a time in West Palm Beach, Fl.  Currently, I am visiting Nebraska for the Memorial Day weekend.

It’s not that I don’t appreciate this part of the country.  In fact, I do.  The people here are so nice. I am going to charge them the cost of Weight Watchers when my husband returns to Kansas City in 6 weeks, though. They seem insistent on feeding him.  Some of the locals are baking pies and cookies for him to take to his hotel.  As neither of those items appear on the menu at our house, he better make the best of it while he can.

So…as far as this trip, I did go to the  National Homestead Monument  outside of Beatrice, Nebraska for the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Homestead Act.  Abraham Lincoln signed the act into law on May 20th 1862. 

The key points to this act:

The law required three steps: file an application, improve the land, and file for deed of title. Anyone who had never taken up arms against the U.S. government, including freed slaves,  could file an application to claim a federal land grant. The occupant had to be 21 or older or the head of a family, live on the land for five years and show evidence of having made improvements. (BTW…this included women that were head of their households)

Here on the site of the National Homestead Monument is part of the first homestead claim in America. Daniel Freeman, a physician from Ottawa, Illinois claimed his 160 acres and fullfilled the requirements to get title to the land.  He lived 45 years on the property before his death. His grave is on the site of the monument.

A few of the facts concerning the Homestead Act:

1.  More than 270 Million acres were claimed under the Homestead Act.
2. 1.6 Million people filed claims
3. 93 Million Americans are decendants of a Homesteader
4. 40 percent of the people that filed claims couldn’t make a go of it and weren’t able to meet the requirements to gain title to their property.
5. The Homestead Act was in effect from 1863-1986.  Alaska was the last state to allow people to claim land under the Act. The last man to file a claim was Kenneth Deardorff, a Viet Nam vet from California that filed a claim for 80 acres on the Snake River in Alaska. 

Here in Beatrice, NE, the actual Homestead Museum isn’t what I would have thought a museum about the Homestead Act would look like.  I guess, it wouldn’t of made sense to build a huge log hut but this felt uber modern compared to the subject matter being about America’s pioneers.  It wasn’t until after I visited the museum that I learned that the building is an artistic representation of a plow…well actually a plow shear.














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