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Show HOMESTEADING, 1862-1882 389 ¦ wm&mBmm A Kansas Sod Home 1889 Photograph by William H. Griffin, Topographer, U.S. Geological Survey. out any promise of a land bounty, crossed the plains and mountains to settle in Oregon and also to encourage others to do the same. American white setttlers and half-breed Indians on public lands in Oregon, and persons of other nationalities who indicated their intention of becoming American citizens, who were 18 years of age, and who had resided on and cultivated land for 4 years, were to be granted 320 acres if single, 640 acres if married. White American citizens or other nationals who intended to become American citizens and who arrived in Oregon between December 1, 1850, and December 1, 1853, were promised 160 acres if single, 320 acres if married.6 The Oregon Donation Act and other 6 9 Stat. 496. A bill to grant 1,000 acres to each white male inhabitant who had lived in Oregon and on the land 5 years was introduced into Congress by Senator Lewis Linn of Missouri in 1841. Later proposals would have granted 640 acres to each head of a applicable measures were extended to Washington Territory by the Organic Act of March 2, 1853.7 A less generous measure was enacted for the benefit of persons settled in New Mexico before 1858 who were, or stated their intention of becoming, American citizens. They were only allowed 160 acres.8 The Mormon colony of Utah was under a dark cloud and its residents were offered no bounty for past or future settlement and, indeed, were not to have the benefit of the public land system with its surveys until 1869. Unlike Oregon, Washington, Florida, and New Mexico, California needed no land bounty to draw population. An added family and 160 acres for each child. Charles H. Carey, A General History of Oregon to 1861 (Portland, Oreg.), pp. 391, 447. 7 10 Stat. 177. 8 10 Stat. 238. |