Kelli Green

1776 – September 16, 1776: The Congressional Act offered those who enlisted in the Continental Army to fight in the Revolutionary War for American independence, a parcel of land ranging from 100 to 500 acres, depending on the rank achieved. This began the principle of offering free land, termed “bounty land,” as payment for military service.

 

1785 – May 20, 1785: Congress, acting under the Article of Confederation before adoption of the Constitution, enacted the first law to manage the newly established Public Lands that resulted from the newly independent 13 states agreeing to relinquish their western land claims and allow the land to become Public Lands, the joint property of all citizens of the new nation. The 1785 ordinance established principles of federal land policy with the next significant change resulting from the passage of the Homestead Act in 1862.

 

1861 – December 2, 1861: Galusha A. Grow (1822-1907) of Pennsylvania, serving as Speaker of the House of Representatives, introduced homestead legislation that would be signed into law as the 1862 Homestead Act. Grow is called the “Father of the Homestead Law” for his long advocacy of this type of legislation since the 1850s and his primary authorship of the 1862 Act.

 

1862 – May 20: Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act, fulfilling a Republican Party campaign pledge.

 

1863 – January 1: The first homestead claims were filed at land offices just after midnight on January 1, 1863. Daniel Freeman of Beatrice, Nebraska is often acknowledged as the first person to file a homestead although several others also filed quickly after it became possible.

 

1873 – March 3: Passage of the Timber Culture Act enabled homesteaders to gain patent of up to another 160 acres of public land, if a percentage was planted in trees. This was the first legislation to try to address problems faced by homesteaders moving onto the Great Plains with less rainfall and limited or no timber availability.

 

1874 – June 18: Passage of the Relief Act for homesteaders in Minnesota and Iowa due to grasshopper destruction of crops was the first of many later homestead laws passed to aid homesteaders encountering natural disasters and adverse weather conditions preventing or delaying their ability to prove up their claims.

 

1875 – March 3, 1875: A section within an appropriation act for the first time extended to all Indians the possibility of getting a homestead if they would “abandon” their “tribal relations” and thus become acculturated into non-Native society.

 

1877 – March 3: Passage of the “Desert Land Act” allowed settlers in some arid regions to acquire up to 640 acres of public lands by purchase if they irrigated the land. It was legislation that had some of the same purposes of homestead laws in encouraging settlement and development of western lands.

 

1904 – April 28, 1904: The “Kincaid” Act for the sand hills of western Nebraska allowed up to 640-acre homesteads.

 

1909 – February 19, 1909: The Enlarged Homestead Act allowed homesteads of up to 320 acres in most western states and territories.

 

1916 – December 29, 1916: The Stock Raising Homestead Act allowed homesteads not based on farming land but instead on raising cattle, with the subsurface mineral estate reserved for the federal government.

 

1986 – October 21, 1986: The last possible day for homesteading in Alaska, with the last claims made that same month under the special 1927 Homestead Law for Alaska allowing 5-acre “homesites.”

 

2000 and beyond – Infrequent use of the 1862 Homestead Act as a legal authority for conveying lands continues, but now only to clear up title to older land transactions. Also, final patents being issued for the last claims made in Alaska under its special 1927 Homestead Law allowing 5-acre “homesites.”