Ch. 3.3. Primary Source: The Homestead Act, 1862

The Homestead Act of May 20, 1862, accelerated the settlement of the western territory by granting adult heads of families 160 acres of surveyed public land for a minimal filing fee and 5 years of continuous residence on that land.

Claimants were required to “improve” the plot by building a dwelling and cultivating the land. After 5 years on the land, the original filer was entitled to the property, free and clear, except for a small registration fee. Title could also be acquired after only a 6-month residency and trivial improvements, provided the claimant paid the government $1.25 per acre. After the Civil War, Union soldiers could deduct the time they had served from the residency requirements. Although this policy was included in the Republican party platform of 1860, support for the idea began decades earlier, for example among the members of the short-lived Free Soil Party (1848-52).

The Homestead Act also demonstrates that the federal government did not make gender one of the criteria for homestead ownership, and this concept was adopted by several western states as well.

[1] …Any person who is the head of a family, or who has arrived at the age of 21 years, and is a citizen of the United States, . . . shall, from and after January 1st, 1863, be entitled to enter one quarter section [160 acres] or a less quantity of unappropriated public lands, upon which said person may have filed a preemption claim, or which may, at the time the application is made, be subject to preemption at one dollar and twenty-five cents, or less, per acre; . . . .

Sec. 2: And be it further enacted. . . . upon application to the register of the land office in which he or she is about to make such entry, make affidavit before the said register or receiver that he or she is the head of a family. . .

Sources: the National Archives site “Our Documents,” under Homestead Act (from which the introductory comments are adapted); and the Library of Congress, under American Women, State Law Resources: Married Women’s Property Laws (with additional information and sources).