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Show 406 HISTORY OF PUBLIC LAND LAW DEVELOPMENT promptly taken by homesteaders, except for some scattered fragments. Out of the large speculative holdings there emerged, either through resale to substantial capitalists or through development by the original purchasers, one nonresident landlord estate of 22,288 acres and a number of one to two thousand-acre estates.39 One may conclude from the study of Gage County that settlers had done fairly well both in the selection of land in the early years and in the breakup and resale of some of the large speculative estates, at least in comparison with some other areas, notably Pierce County. Yet a local historian and former register of the Beatrice Land Office in Gage County deplored the great Scully estate which he blamed on the Scrip Act of 1862.40 A moment's reflection will show the striking contrast between the beneficent influence of the free- 39 The location of the Scully lands in Gage and Nuckolls County may be seen in Addison E. Sheldon, Land Systems and Land Policies in Nebraska ("Publications of the Nebraska State Historical Society," Vol. XXII, Lincoln, Nebr., 1936), pp. 320-23. For the purchases of Scully see Gates, Frontier Landlords and Pioneer Tenants (Ithaca, N.Y., 1945), p. 40. *" One of the most useful studies of the operation of the public land system within a limited area, particularly with reference to the homestead law is the manuscript "Public Land Disposal, Land Tenure, and Rural Economy in Gage County, Nebraska," by Yasuo Okada, from which I have borrowed heavily. Sheldon, Land Systems and Land Policies in Nebraska, pp. 88-90. Extensive acquisitions of land by nonresidents and nondevelopers aroused indignation among public officials of Nebraska who felt that if the Homestead Act were to be meaningful the lands should be reserved for actual settlers. Governor Alvin Saunders expressed this view in 1866 in urging the Nebraska Legislature to petition Congress to prohibit sales for any other purpose than actual settlement. His successor went even farther, urging the legislature to request of Congress that it authorize no more warrants or land scrip for any purpose, no matter how worthy, and that all public lands be reserved for homestead save such as. were given the states in which they were located. Efforts to halt public sales and to reserve all remaining public lands for actual settlers are dealt with in the Chapter XVI. homestead law and the effects of the agricultural-college act, not only in the early settlement and development of our county but in existing and future conditions. The one operated as a gift from heaven, descending upon an independent, self-respecting and industrious population; the other forms the basis of nearly every large landed fortune in the county. Without it, there would have been no such individual domain as the Scully estate, and the problem of landlordism in Gage county would be scarcely worth considering. We have further information concerning settlers and the homestead law in Gage County. Of 616 homesteads that were carried to title 440 were for 160 acres, 33 for 120 acres, 136 for 80 acres and 7 for 40 acres. Most of the 80-acre homesteads were located within the primary grant area of the Burlington Railroad where one could only file for a half-quarter. In the six townships specially studied, 286 original homesteads were entered of which 82 or 28.7 percent were cancelled, 11.2 percent were commuted, and 60.1 percent were carried to the final entry and patent. By townships the cancelled homesteads ranged from 15.9 percent to 41.2 percent, the commuted homesteads from 4.7 to 17.4 percent, and the final homesteads from 47 to 69.8 percent. Since Gage County homesteaders who commuted did not mortgage their property after acquiring title, it is assumed that they paid for their land instead of waiting until they could acquire it free in order to sell, perhaps to buy a preemption claim or to gain ownership of a timber culture claim. Similarly, the cancellations were in effect relinquishments for which the original entryman could get a number of hundred dollars in the more excited periods of the demand for land. Settlers delayed in proving up on their homesteads and taking title in order to postpone the day when they would have to pay taxes. Of all homesteaders gaining title in three townships 37 occurred in 5 years, 44 in 6 years, and 59 in 7 years. In Blakely Township, in which there were 41 final homesteads, 13 families either acquired additional homesteads in |