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Show HOMESTEADING, 1862-1882 415 Final Homestead Entries in Southern States Year Alabama Arkansas Florida Louisiana Mississippi 1871 11 1872 20 72 23 9 9 1873 62 211 32 5 162 1874 150 828 443 38 162 1875 442 1,344 336 177 162 1876 906 1,963 273 256 211 1877 610 1,735 171 352 192 1878 584 1,808 216 406 386 1879 544 987 214 334 309 1880 399 986 271 197 95 1881 626 862 564 227 227 1882 884 755 762 187 179 1883 1,066 1,118 767 185 288 1884 1,217 1,281 593 178 278 1885 1,416 1,350 505 240 350 1886 1,575 1,572 471 162 428 1887 1,562 1,941 382 252 559 1888 1,548 1,841 821 249 603 1889 1,496 1,604 626 638 800 1890 1,665 1,606 971 719 300 Compiled from Donaldson, Public Domain, and "Report of the Public Lands Commission." The Lure of Land Contemporary critics of western development on what Turner called "the cutting edge of the frontier" rarely failed to comment on the alluring prospects of profit making in land, which both drew people to the area of cheap or free land and drove them to try to engross two, three, or more quarter-sections. Their object might be quick sale to later comers, holding it for other members of their family, or even developing the land, though few could expect to make enough out of farming to enable them to break, fence, seed, and stock so much acreage.52 Without seriously 62 John Ise maintained that "very many" people filing on preemption and homestead claims "did not go west with the purpose of farming, but merely wished to get title to a piece of land." A homesteader in Kansas in 1877 wrote home of the three choices he had for gaining title: "We took out homesteads directly. We might have 'filed' on the land, and that filing preemption would have been good for 30 months, at the end of which time (or before) we compromising themselves they could get ownership of a preemption quarter in a year, could commute a homestead entry in 6 additional months, and could make a timber culture entry for which they could easily sell a relinquishment if they needed the capital to develop their first two quarters. If their first 160-acre tract proved all they could manage they could easily find a purchaser for their other quarter, or if they had a member of their family coming along who would shortly need a farm it could be saved for him. The number of land entries could have bought the land or put a homestead on it. As it is, we must live on it five years. The first two years we live 'off and on'-that is, we must sleep on it once in a while and make some improvements on it within 6 months, or it will be forfeited. It is to be our home, but we can hire out by the day or month as we like." The three choices were, of course, preemption, homestead, and timber culture. John Ise, Sod-House Days Letters from a Kansas Homesteader, 1877-1878 (New York, 1937), pp. 19, 40 f. |
