Homestead Act
The origins of the homestead act came out of the social movements of the 1830s and 1840s. Advocates hoped it would do two things:
ease overcrowding and unemployment which were causing a large spike in riots and crime in the east.
stop the wealthy from forming monopolies that would buy up the west. Leaders saw this as a threat to democracy and were concerned that America would become the societies Americans had escaped - where the rich owned everything and common people had few chances.
They had tried to enact legislation stopping these larges sales of land but the South had always intervened. The south's tradition of plantation/large land monopolies was not only acceptable to them but they believed if it was transplanted to the west the west would also need slavery.
1862 Abraham Lincoln enters office. The south secedes and 20 May 1862 the Homestead act is enacted.
It covered 30 states. Those states it did not cover were the original thirteen colonies (whose land had first been granted by the crown but then passed to the state) and several early state-land states:
WHO COULD APPLY:
ANY citizen above the age of 21 or any immigrant who intends to become a citizen, who has never taken up arms against the U.S. and who is willing to improve the land for five year will qualify for price of $18.00
Union Veterans - even if they were not 21 years and the length of their service was deducted from the demands of their homestead residency. If he got sent home for some reason they would still count the length of term that he had signed up for.
Women may apply if they are heads of household at the time. This was the first time that a woman could apply for land patent completely on her own. Earlier patents given to women had to do with claims or military service of their fathers, husbands or sons.
after 1868 African American's can apply because of the 14th Amendment
Native Americans cannot apply and will be removed from any lands the government sells with few exceptions.
In June 1866 the 1866 Southern Homestead Act allowed ex-confederates and other citizens to homestead in those states with public lands that had formerly been in the Confederacy: Florida, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana & Mississippi
What is in the actual homestead papers?
Claimants had to file proof papers which asked for:
birthplace
proof of citizenship or declaration of intent if foreign born
a description of improvements
dates of residency
information about military service
the crops you raised and how many acres were in production
costs and profits (which you can translate to a rough estimate of modern dollars using the inflation calendar here)
newspaper notices
signatures and testimony of witnesses
After applying for the grant the person could convert his claim to a preemption claim if he wanted to pay the $1.25 per acre, get title and homestead again.
after everything had been submitted and the occupancy requirements were met the settler could file for a deed of title.
some examples of Homestead Packets found at Fold3
Locating your homesteading family:
If your family member successfully completed a homestead:
Start with the BLM GLO record (Bureau of Land Management) search to search for family members who successfully settled their homestead and received their patent. This will give you a content of the patent and a legal description of the land.
If you suspect your family member started a homestead and did not finish (60% of all applicants were not finished) and you did NOT find them in the BLM GLO records the National Archives still has the applications that they filed. For this you need the TRACT BOOKS which ARE online for most states but the problem is that they were arranged by the land description not the name of the applicant.
How to figure out what part of these indexes you need to search
Sometimes there are state indexes:
NEBRASKA 1869-1954 TRACT BOOKS INDEX
Other possibilities that might tell you an approx. location of the land
BLM GLO - if Grandpa isn't there did you look for other family members or neighbors from the census? Their legal land description will help you know what township to search.
state atlas - see if one exists by Googling state atals Iowa etc.
plat maps - google plat maps of Wisconsin or Plat maps of "Clark County" Wisconsin etc.
FamilySearch has a Tract Books Coverage Table that tells you which volumes cover the township you are searching. FamilySearch has theTRACT BOOKS themselves
Getting the Record from the National Archives