Creation of Homestead National Monument of America

Homestead National Monument of America recently celebrated its 75th anniversary this past March. This milestone, and the program I gave in recognition of the anniversary, led me to the learn more about the creation of the Monument. So often, we take for granted that things are the way they are because that is the way they are, but that attitude prevents us from appreciating and understanding why things are the way they are. I have been at the Monument for a little of a year now and this was the first time I was able to examine in depth the creation of Homestead National Monument of America.

Many people believe March 19, 1936 was the beginning of the Monument. That was the day President Franklin Roosevelt signed the legislation that officially provided authority to establish a “memorial emblematical of the hardships of pioneer life through which the early settlers passed in the settlement, cultivation and civilization of the Great West." However, prior to Congress passing and the President signing this legislation, efforts had been actively trying to establish a permanent site recognizing the homesteading era.

Early stories claim that Daniel Freeman, who is recognized as the first homesteader ever, promoted the idea as early as the 1880’s to have his homestead recognized as a national site and protected in order to serve as an symbol of the homesteading era. Other accounts claim Dan Freeman was approached by other interests wanting to ensure his site was recognized, but that he declined. While that history is a bit muddled, we do know that in 1909, just weeks after Daniel Freeman’s death, a coalition of citizens in Beatrice, Nebraska began to advocate for recognition of Freeman’s homestead.

The early movement was hindered by the lack of political support at the national level. Nebraska representative Edward H. Hinshaw introduced legislation as early as 1909 seeking the establishment of a park, but these efforts failed at various points in the process. Support within the community of Beatrice remained strong but were often confronted with the reality that national recognition may not come. One advocacy group, the Daughters of the American Revolution, was determined to see the site obtain some type of recognition. The initiated a movement to have a stone statue be placed on Freeman’s homestead. They were successful in their efforts and in 1925 they placed a stone from the old capitol building on the site with a plaque that reads:

This stone from the old state capitol at Lincoln, Nebraska marks the site of the first registered homestead of the United States. Erected by Elizabeth Montague Chapter: Daughters of the American Revolution Beatrice, Nebraska

The DAR Monument, as it has come to be known, is still standing in the tall grass prairie to this day as the first physical memorial to the homesteading era.

Coincidentally, it was 1925 that a U.S. Senator from Nebraska named George Norris became involved with the effort. He advocated for the establishment of a national park at the site of Daniel Freeman’s homestead for nearly ten more years before Homestead National Park Association was formed by prominent leaders in Beatrice, Ne to assist the Senator in his fight. After a renewed local commitment coupled with the political backing of Senator Norris and Representative Henry Luckey, the formal legislation was finally passed by Congress and signed by the President in 1936. But, Congress failed to appropriate any funds to purchase the land designated to be the site of Homestead National Monument of America.

For two years Homestead National Monument of America existed only on paper. It was not until 1938 that the funds were provided to buy the land from the Freeman family. The process was long and at times bleak, but ultimately successful because of the commitment and passion of the local citizenry of Beatrice. When President Roosevelt signed Public Law 480 of the 74th Congress it officially “established” Homestead National Monument of America, but to many the site was already emblematic of the homesteading era that forever changed our country.

by Blake Bell
Homestead Historian

Brownville-Fort Kearney Trail goes through Homestead

The Colorado Gold Rush of 1859 lead Brownville, Nebraska merchants to begin shipping goods to Denver and Central City areas of Colorado. They had much competition from merchants in the Nebraska towns of Omaha, Plattsmouth, Nebraska City, Peru, and St. Deroin and the Kansas and Missouri towns of St. Joseph, Atchison, Leavenworth, Independence, and Westport. The Brownville merchants established a “feeder trail” that ran from Brownville to Tecumseh to Beatrice before joining the main line of the Oregon Trail near the crossing of Big Sandy Creek in what is now Jefferson County, Nebraska. This feeder trail became known as the Brownville-Fort Kearney Trail.

by Gene Finke

In some sources, the Brownville-Fort Kearney Trail is referred to as a “military road.” If that is true it means some of the Brownville Merchants were contracted to supply Fort Kearney, Fort Laramie, and other military facilities. It also means the U. S. Army probably sent out a group of infantrymen to make improvements along the Trail. These improvements may have involved lessening some grades, but primarily would have been improving stream crossings. The largest crossings would have been at the Little Nemaha, Big Nemaha, and Big Blue Rivers; these streams usually had large wild spring floods so building bridges over them would have been an exercise in futility. But the Army may have built some bridges on the lesser streams. At the very least they made the banks less steep so the large freight wagons pulled by many yoke of oxen could cross the streams easier. At least once, and probably more than once, the Brownville Merchants financed improvements along the Trail. It is also possible that the merchants of Tecumseh and Beatrice made improvements at the stream crossings in their areas.

Hugh Jackson Dobbs writes in the History of Gage County that the Trail crossed the Big Blue River at the Market Street ford in Beatrice, swung northward along the river, and then traveled northwesterly crossing Cub Creek before starting its route along a high prairie ridge for 22 miles before crossing Little Sandy Creek and joining the main line of the Oregon Trail at the crossing of Big Sandy Creek.

Today, beginning at the Highway 4 curve on the northwest edge of Beatrice you can drive almost the exact route the Trail took from that point to another point just short of the junction of Highways 4 and 15 nine miles west of Plymouth, Nebraska. The one exception would be through Homestead National Monument of America. There the Trail crossed through the center of Daniel Freeman’s property and not around the north edge like today. This wayside on the walking trail just west of the Heritage Center at Homestead shows where the Trail went and gives an explanation of the activity on the Trail.

Sources:

Dobbs, Hugh Jackson. 1918. The History of Gage County. Lincoln, Nebraska: Western Publishing and Engraving Company.

Lass, William E. 1972. From the Missouri to the Great Salt Lake: An Account of Overland Freighting. Lincoln, Nebraska: Nebraska State Historical Society.

Mattes, Merrill J. 1969. The Great Platte River Road. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press.

Lavender, David Sievert. The Overland Migrations: Settlers to Oregon, California, and Utah. Washington D.C.: National Park Service, The Department of Interior.

Homestead's Artist-in-Residence: This land, not some other

Mel Mann pictures shows how Cub Creek is a high bank creek, approximately 35 miles long, traversing Gage and Jefferson counties, NE, and meandering through the original Freeman land patent, now Homestead National Monument. In keeping with the mission to educate the public, Beatrice Middle School students assist the park rangers with monitoring water quality.

Mel Mann captured the harmony of the whispering water and over-head blind of burr oaks in this photo while shooting at the park as an artist-in-resident. While not the same scene the Freeman's witnessed over a hundred and forty years ago the scene does offer the same moment of dappled quietness.

Mel Mann's next photo is of the south boundary of the park, Freeman's Osage-orange hedgerow. The tree native to Texas was used to contain live stock. Vigorous pruning was needed to shape the trees into a living fence. Both an exotic plant and an important cultural artifact, the Osage-orange covers about five acres of the park.

White-tailed deer can be found year around on the prairie. The park conducts an montly deer count with 12 being counted in September. Last February there were over 100 counted.

Read more about Mel Mann's artist-in-residence experience by opening the link.

Homestead's Artist-in-Residence: Why this land and not some other?

An artist residency at Homestead National Monument offers so many opportunities for a photographer. What am I expecting to see? Obviously the land as it is today after efforts to return it to the original tall grass prairie Daniel Freeman would have seen. Around it, though, is other, similar land exhibiting the 150 years of agricultural efforts started by homesteaders. The contrast is very appealing to me as a way to tell a story through pictures.

by Mel Mann

Artist-in-Residence

My photography passion is the outdoors. After years in a corporate life my ability to be outdoors with my camera is very appealing. As many visitors have discovered, the land of the Monument is filled with visual opportunities. Here I am able to find compositions ranging from expansive views to tiny flowers hiding in the grass, from winding creek muddied with the silt of the ground to streaming clouds flying across the sun or moon. Deer and birds roam the prairie constantly, some shy and some gregarious. There is a rhythm to the changing land felt in the wind blowing the grasses into a waving surf and the light playing across the ground as clouds race under the sun.

What intrigues me the most about a residency at Homestead National Monument is the accessibility of the park. You can see the whole of the park in an afternoon stroll. Unlike other locations in the national park system, Homestead is defined by its history - 160 acres of land served as a home and business - not by the grand landscape. The Monument represents history along with being a place in history, a proxy for all the other homesteads across the country. It is a lens that focuses on the efforts of a grand experiment to return public lands to the country’s citizens.

I’ve roamed around the woods and prairie for two weeks during all times of day and night, observing the weather changing the light. Light is critical to photographers beyond simply illumination. It is the medium we use to sculpt an image, the way we draw the viewer’s eye to what we believe are the important parts of the picture. The variable spring weather has given me ample options for lighting from clear sky to racing clouds to overcast. Combined with patience afforded by my residency - wait a bit and the light will change - I’ve found compositions a casual glance might miss. Simply paying attention to what is going on around me and what I am seeing through my viewfinder. That’s a significant advantage to a residency. Not rushed into taking snapshots but given time to make photographs.

Through all this part of the wonder is whether I’m seeing the land like Daniel Freeman saw it. Not only the lay of the land, the wildlife and vegetation, but rather the possibilities held by the land. Why this land and not some other? Why these boundaries and not some other shape? How did he see the future of this 160 acres for his family?

To get benefit from his homestead, Daniel Freeman had to change it to agricultural uses. Crops meant food for family and market, trees meant logs for cabins and fences, clay turned into bricks for a more solid and weather-tight house. All these changes took a toll on the prairie, some that are evident in pictures from the late 1800s and early 1900s but not evident in the Monument today. Continued practices virtually eliminated the original shape and look of the land around it, though, as any traveler through the Great Plains will note. Terraced furrows of corn, soybeans, sunflowers and wheat now stand where prairie once reigned.

We are still learning the value of prairie as it was originally. Knowledge of the benefits from environmental diversity were unavailable as the homesteaders fanned out across this part of the country. The land as they saw it was presumed useless until the hand of man created value from it. Over the intervening time we’ve learned there is value in seemingly empty prairie, more than the crops that can be grown on it. There are physical and emotional benefits of being at a place like Homestead Monument, seeing the land as it was. Part of my photography is intended to capture the essence of those benefits and preserve them for reflection.

Mel Mann Photography, LLC

15418 Weir St. #334
Omaha, NE 68137
http://www.melmannphoto.com/

Homestead Claim: The First in Line on the First Day

The Homestead Act became law on May 26, 1862, but it didn’t become effective until January 1, 1863. Therefore, January 1, 1863 was the first day anyone could apply for a Homestead and a total of 418 persons filed on that first day at 30 different land offices in 11 different states or territories. Listed below are those who were recorded as Entryman No. 1 at the United States Land Offices on January 1, 1863. That is, they were first in line at their land office.

 

Daniel Freeman long after he became one of the first to apply for a Homestead

To learn about the several who claimed to be the VERY FIRST visit Homestead National Monument of America and ask for the “First Homestead” handout or go here to learn how to contact them by phone, fax, or mail. Follow the links to learn about Daniel Freeman and how his Homestead became the site of Homestead National Monument of America.

FIRST ENTRYMEN

The entries below all bore No. 1 in each of the Land Offices names. There were no time stamps or notations on any entry. Hours of operation were not given by the offices. On January 1, 1863, Nebraska was a territory and what is now North and South Dakota were simply “Dakota Territory.” The other states listed had been granted statehood prior to January 1, 1863.

State    Land Office	Name
California         Stockton Visalia	Henry Ketterman Wm. B. Hector
Iowa Council Bluffs Des Moines Fort Dodge	Henry Stump Orin Holdbrook Henry H. Patterson
Kansas Humboldt Junction City	Melkes J. Martin  Robert L. Titua
Michigan East Saginaw Ionia                Traverse City	Paul W. Williams Wm. B. Smith John W. VanNostrand
Minnesota Minneapolis     Winnebago City Taylor’s Falls   Henderson       St. Cloud          Duluth	Samuel Taylor Samuel A. Poll  Stillman Gee Frederick Teubert James Tanner Seargale Wakelin
Nebraska Brownville       Nebraska City  Omaha             Dakota City	Daniel Freeman William Young Adam Smith John Smith
Ohio           Chillicothe	Samuel Harger
Oregon             Oregon City Roseburg	Everand Sharrock James Appleton
South Dakota   Vermillion	Mahlon Gore
Washington    Olympia	Michael Houliken
Wisconsin        Eau Claire        Falls St. Croix La Crosse Menosha Stevens Point	Edward Torsgaad James Logan John Henry Uringer Richard L. Degroff Dennis Manning

Department of Interior

On March 3, 1849, Abraham Lincoln on the last day of his one and only term as a U. S. Congressman voted with the majority to create the Department of Interior. A little over thirteen years later on May 20, 1862 President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act of 1862. The General Land Office which had been selling public land since 1812 was transferred from the Department of Treasury to the Department of Interior when the latter was created in 1849. The General Land Office would continue to sell public land, but was also set up to transfer land to homesteaders beginning the first day the Homestead Act went into effect. Daniel Freeman was one of the first to file for a homestead on that first day, January 1, 1863.

On March 19, 1936 President Franklin Roosevelt signed Public Law No. 480 which created Homestead National Monument of America on Daniel Freeman’s homestead. Homestead National Monument is administered by the National Park Service an agency in the Department of the Interior.

The Department of Interior has often been called the “department of everything-else.” The Department of the Interior (DOI) is the nation's principal conservation agency. It’s mission is to protect America's treasures for future generations, provide access to the nation's natural and cultural heritage, offer recreation opportunities, honor trust responsibilities to American Indians, Alaska Natives, and island communities, conduct scientific research, provide wise stewardship of energy and mineral resources, foster sound use of land and water resources, and conserve and protect fish and wildlife. The work that DOI does affects the lives of millions of people; from the family taking a vacation in national parks to the children studying in Indian schools.

The Department of Interior has over 67,000 employees and 280,000 volunteers located at approximately 2,400 operating locations across the United States, Puerto Rico, U.S. territories, and freely associated states. DOI has a $16.8 billion total annual budget. DOI raises more than $18.2 billion in revenues collected from energy, mineral, grazing, timber, recreation, land sales, and other revenue producing activities.

DOI manages 500 million acres of surface land, or about one-fifth of the land in the United States, including:

-256 million acres managed by the Bureau of Land Management

-96.2 million acres managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service
-84.6 million acres managed by the National Park Service
-8.7 million acres managed by the Bureau of Reclamation associated with reclamation projects
-66 million acres managed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs
-Over 200,000 acres of abandoned coal mine sites have been reclaimed through the Office of Surface Mining's Abandoned Mine Land Program
-Other agencies in the Department of Interior are the Minerals Management Service and the U. S. Geological Survey.

How much is that doggy on the homestead?

Sixty-three percent of U.S. households own at least one dog according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association (APPMA) 2009-2010 National Pet Owners Survey. Daniel Freeman, one of the first homesteaders, was also one of the first homesteaders to own a dog. He had a dog for the same reasons people have dogs today, for protection and for company.

Freeman’s great granddaughter, Beverly S. Kaplan, in her book, Daniel and Agnes Freeman, Homesteaders (1971) talks about the first dog Daniel brought home to Agnes.

When Dan walked in, there was a merry twinkle in his eyes. He carried a sad-faced hound under his arm and handed it to Agnes. She set it on the floor promptly. It was neither proper nor sanitary to hold a dog.

file photo

I got that dog for your protection, Aggie. A man has no damn business living on the prairie without a dog.

At first Agnes was reluctant to keep the young pup but Daniel insisted

She’s just a pup yet,” Dan said in way of defending the long eared hound’s behavior. He loved dogs of any kind, any number or nature.

As time went on Agnes came to appreciate the sad-faced hound named Tanny.

Once the clearing was plowed, Agnes was less apprehensive about her surroundings. She could look out across twenty or thirty acres of open ground and see what might be coming, and she grew more dependent upon Tanny’s alert bay as the dog grew older, so she fell to her work more peacefully.

The Freemans kept dogs on their homestead throughout their lives.

The Daniel Freeman family exhibit at Homestead National Monument

From the first to the last: Famous Homesteaders

Did you know that you could put the following people in the same category, Virgil Earp, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Daniel Freeman, and Kenneth Deardorff?

You might be asking how these people could be grouped together and the answer is that they are all homesteaders. Without the conveniences we have today could you see yourself building your own home while planting crops and taking care of your livestock just so you could have a roof over your head and food on your table?

by Stacy Kristek
Southeast Community College

I would like to share with you some very interesting information that I have learned about some of the United States homesteaders ranging from the first to the last and even some famous ones. I will talk to you today about some homesteaders including the very first homesteader, Daniel Freeman and the very last homesteader Kenneth Deardorff. I will also talk about some famous homesteaders, Laura Ingalls Wilder and Virgil Earp.

First I would like to talk about the very first and the very last of the homesteaders. Even with a span of 123 years the hardships faced by both Daniel and Kenneth are things that we could never imagine living without. No running water, extreme weather without the benefit of heaters and air conditioners, and dealing with the wildlife roaming freely in their front yard.

Daniel Freeman was the very first homesteader to file a claim. According to the National Park Service Website, Daniel Freeman was the first to file a claim for land just ten minutes after the Homestead Law went into effect on January 1, 1863. He filed his claim 10 minutes after midnight at the Brownville, Nebraska land office (National, 2009b).

Daniel came from Illinois alone and later got engaged through the mail to his deceased brother’s fiancé. The first home was a small log cabin with the traditional outbuildings for farming. Then as their finances became better a two-story brick home was built (National, 2009b).

The brick home burned down in 1916 and now the site is the Homestead National Monument of America. Daniel was known as a farmer, soldier, doctor, coroner, sheriff, and the very first homesteader. Daniel and his wife raised 8 children and some of them even built their own homes on the homesteaded land. Daniel passed away in 1908 (National, 2009b).

The very last person to file a homesteader claim was Kenneth Deardorff. In 1974 Kenneth filed a claim for 80 acres in southwestern Alaska. Kenneth left California to go to Alaska to look for work as he had recently graduated with a degree in geography (National, 2009c).

Kenneth and his family lived and worked on the claim for the next ten years. They built all of the buildings from the white spruce trees that grew on the land. While homesteading, Kenneth opened a general store for people traveling through Stony River and he also hunted and trapped furs (National, 2009c).

Deardorff exhibit at Homestead National Monument

Kenneth fulfilled all of the requirements of the Homestead Act in 1979 but for some reason the title to his land didn’t get to him until May 1988. Kenneth was known as a farmer, business owner, carpenter, fur trapper, Vietnam veteran, and the last homesteader. Kenneth no longer lives on the land that he homesteaded but the home still stands today (National, 2009c).

Land Patent: All right, title, and interst in the above land is relinquished by the United States to Kenneth Deardorff

Now I would like to talk about someone that just about everyone knows. I would like to talk about a very well known homesteader, Laura Ingalls Wilder. No matter your age everyone has heard of Laura Ingalls Wilder and even seen some of the Little House on the Prairie episodes on television.

In Gwenda Blair’s 1981 book titled Laura Ingalls Wilder, Blair describes Laura grew up as a pioneer girl and her family was generally the first to move into a new area (pg. 11). Laura’s family moved many times. They lived in Wisconsin, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota. They homesteaded in De Smet, South Dakota on 160 acres of land. During their homesteading days in De Smet they spent one winter cut off from the rest of the area by continuous blizzards (National, 2009a). As Laura grew older she met and married Almanzo Wilder. They had two children but only one survived, a daughter named Rose (Laura, n.d.).

Like her family while she was growing up, Laura and Almanzo moved a lot and lived in South Dakota, Minnesota, Florida, and then finally Missouri (National, 2009a). Rose went on to become an author and she is the one who got Laura to write her stories as a way to preserve her way of life as a pioneer. Laura was 65 years old before she wrote her first book. Laura’s books were about the pioneer days and were based on her life. The titles to her books were about places and periods of her life. Laura was known as a school teacher, an editor, an author and the daughter of homesteaders (Laura, n.d.).

Now I would like to talk to you about another famous person, Virgil Earp. Virgil Earp may be better known for his part in the shootout at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona but he is also known as one of the homesteaders. You may not remember Virgil but he is the older brother of Wyatt Earp and if you have ever seen the movie, Tombstone, he was played by the actor Sam Elliott.

After his escapades in Tombstone, Arizona, Virgil decided to try his hand at homesteading. Even with the loss of use of his right arm from the ambush in Tombstone; Virgil went to homestead near Prescott, Arizona. In 1898, Virgil claimed 160 acres of land (National, 2009d).

Due to the fact that Virgil served in the Union Army during the civil war he only had to spend two years to earn the title to his land. Virgil earned the title to his land in 1900 only to pass away in 1905. Virgil was known as a soldier, peace officer, and a homesteader (National, 2009d). So even though Virgil’s little brother Wyatt was more well know, Virgil left his mark on history too.

So, that is what I had to share with you about these amazing homesteaders from the very first to the very last with a couple of well known homesteaders too. After hearing about these homesteaders do you think that you could endure what they did to have a roof over their heads and food on their tables?

References:

Laura Ingalls Wilder. (n.d.). Current Biography. Retrieved February 15, 2009, from Biographies Plus Illustrated database.

National Park Service. (2009a). Laura Ingalls Wilder. Retrieved February 15, 2009, fromhttp://www.nps.gov/home/historyculture/upload/MW,pdf,WilderBio,b.pdf

National Park Service. (2009b). The first homesteader. Retrieved February 15, 2009, fromhttp://www.nps.gov/home/historyculture/firsthomesteader.htm

National Park Service. (2009c). The last homesteader. Retrieved February 15, 2009, fromhttp://www.nps.gov/home/historyculture/lasthomesteader.htm

National Park Service. (2009d). Virgil Earp. Retrieved February 15, 2009, fromhttp://www.nps.gov/home/historyculture/upload/MW,pdf,EarpBio,b.pdf

Did you know.Homestead Facts

The Homestead Act was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln and was in effect for 123 years, from 1863 to 1986.

Thirty of the 50 states contained public lands available for settlement under the Homestead Act.

The Homestead Act was responsible for the settlement and distribution of 270 million acres of land in the United States.

Women, African Americans, and immigrants from nearly anywhere could claim land under the Homestead Act.

It is estimated that as many as 93 million homesteader descendants may inhabit the world today.

The Homestead Act affected many different aspects of U.S. life, including agriculture, industrialization, American Indians, immigration, and the natural environment.

Homestead National Monument of America is the only site in the country dedicated to exploring the national and international impacts of the Homestead Act.

Congress passed the Homestead Act and created the Department of Agriculture, the transcontinental railroad, and the land grant college system all within two months of each other (May-July 1862).

The Homestead Act became effective on the same day as the Emancipation Proclamation: January 1, 1863.

Homestead National Monument of America is located on the Daniel Freeman homestead, one of the very first homesteads claimed anywhere in America.