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Show HOMESTEADING, 1862-1882 407 the name of children, brothers, or fathers, or gained title through preemption or cash purchase, thus providing them with land they could either mortgage or sell for additional capital improvements. The 13 families acquired an average of 327 acres beyond their 160-acre homestead. Interestingly, the Freeman family secured title to 840 acres through purchase with scrip, warrants, and cash, making their total acquisitions 1,000 acres, which, may be thought of as scarcely typical of the good fortune of homesteaders.41 Harrison Township in Hall County-90 miles west of Gage, 42 west of Pierce, and only 16 miles east of the 99th meridian-offers other evidence of the working of the settlement laws in the 1870's. There was no offered land in the county and like Pierce and Gage it had numerous railroad selections. The first settlement in the township was made in 1871 but it was not until the following year that any homestead and preemption claims were entered. Seventy entries of 10,241 acres were filed in 1872 covering all the public lands the railroads had not selected. Of these 70 entries 14 were preemptions and 56 were homesteads. A student of the township's history says that a number of homesteaders were "well-to-do speculators"-apparently cattle ranchers-while a number of preemptors who would have to pay for their land at the end of a year were without funds. Three men relinquished their preemptions to take homesteads on the same tracts, four relinquished their preemptions to take timber culture claims on the same land, and four relinquished probably for a consideration. It is startling to note the number of relin-quishments that were made on the same tracts; on one quarter-section 10 successful entries and nine relinquishments were filed. The turnover of claims was high in the early years as shown by the fact that of 86 entries of public land 60 by 1892 were 41 Okada, "Public Land Disposal," pp. 62 ff. either relinquished or sold. Given as causes of the high turnover are the ravages of grasshoppers, the frequency of droughts and other unfavorable crop conditions (14), the desire to sell when offered a good price for claims or titles (19), the wish of people who had made good to move to better farms (16), and the need to start anew elsewhere aided by the income derived from the sale of claims (7). A number of points stand out in this analysis of Harrison Township. A combination of homestead with preemption or timber culture claim or purchase of a 40- or 80-acre tract from the Union Pacific Railroad would provide a farm of adequate size as settlers approached the area of less than 20 inches of rainfall. The rate of failure to get title to homestead and preemption entries was high but not the rate of failure to profit from the sale of relinquishments or of land. Grasshopper plagues and droughts speeded up the turnover of land and contributed to halting immigration and stimulating the movement of population outward. Ownership was attained by many, though in numerous cases with the aid of mortgages, first chattel and then land. Tenancy appeared early.42 Needing more study by writers on railroad land policies is the challenging data concerning the correlation within this single township between settlers owning farms established on government land having few mortgages, low per-acre mortgage debt, and generally favorable economic status, and two other classes: the first bought from the Union Pacific and the second bought from other parties, but both 42 One hundred and six persons who had claims or owned land in Harrison at one time had sold and removed by 1902, 10 had retained their holdings but were nonresident, 74 were resident and owners. Arthur F. Bentley, "The Condition of the Western Farmer as Illustrated by the Economic History of a Nebraska Township," (Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, Eleventh Series, Nos. VII-VIII, Baltimore, 1893), passim. |