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Although there were areas of European-American settlement prior to the advent of the railroad, most occurred after the Northern Pacific Railroad crossed the Red River in 1871. North Dakota had two "boom" periods of rapid settlement: the first occurring from 1878 to 1890, and the second from 1898 to approximately 1915. While the Homestead Act made it possible for settlers to obtain free land, approximately one-fourth of the state was granted to the railroad for building through the territory. Other land was eventually granted to the state for public purposes. Therefore, settlers might have obtained land through homesteading or purchase.
Surveys and Surveying
The first settlers in America measured out their lands for individual or public holdings on the basis of "metes and bounds," the shape of a tract being determined by natural features.
The present rectangular survey was adopted under the Land Ordinance of 1785 , which provided for the survey of all public land into townships six miles square. Townships run from base lines and principal meridians . Each township has a range number which identifies the number of rows either east or west of the principal meridian and a township number which identifies the number of rows north or south of the baseline. Every description of land should show the section, township and range in which it is located.
A township is divided into thirty-six sections, each a mile square. The sections are numbered beginning from the northeastern corner, and moving west, then east along the second row, then west again along the third row, and so forth until finally ending at number thirty-six in the southeast corner. Sections 16 and 36 were usually set aside as school lands. Under this survey system it is possible to provide the legal description of a tract using terms such as N 1/2 (north half), SE 1/4 (southeast quarter), etc. Thus it is relatively easy to determine the precise location of a tract of land from a description if it is read from largest to smallest unit of land measure. If your land description reads: SW1/4, Sec 8, R77 W, T151n, your land is township 151 north, range 77 west, the southwest quarter of section 8.
The County Register of Deeds Offices in North Dakota create and maintain a tract index and should be able to provide the correct legal description for the land you are searching. They will also be able to supply the Homestead Application Number and the Final Certificate Number which the National Archives will need to provide copies of paperwork generated in securing a Homestead. To obtain copies of these records, write to: Office of the National Archives, Land Records Division, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington DC 20408.
Land acquisition
Under the Pre-emption Act 1841, settlers could claim the right to purchase up to 160 acres of public land at an established minimum price per acre, usually $1.25. A settler complying with the terms of this act could pre-empt any subsequent claims. The act remained in effect until 1891.
Homestead Law
The Free Soil Party declared in favor of free land to actual settlers in 1848 contending that "the public lands of the United States belong to the people and should not be sold to individuals nor granted to corporations, but should be held as a sacred trust for the benefit of the people, and should be granted in limited quantities, free of cost, to landless settlers."
The Homestead Law was a series of enactments beginning with the Act of May 20, 1862 which provided for the disposition of the public lands to settlers without requiring any compensation except the acts of residence, cultivation and improvement. A person who was the head of a family or who had reached the age of 21 and was a citizen of the United States or had declared his intention to become a citizen and was not the owner of more than 160 acres of land in the United States, could apply for up to 160 acres and upon residing thereon, cultivating and improving it for five years in compliance with the law, obtain a patent. Under the Homestead Law, the applicant was limited to 160 acres and had to reside upon the land and make it his home to the exclusion of any other residence for five years. At the end of this time he had to make final proof of his residence and of the cultivation and improvement of the land. If this was satisfactory he received a patent from the United States which conveyed full title and unrestricted ownership. If a homesteader died without filing an application for entry or if having entered he had not submitted final proof, his rights passed to his widow or, if there be none, to his heirs. Only one homestead entry was allowed but where the original homestead entry was less than 160 acres an additional entry bringing the total up to 160 acres was allowed. Beginning with an Act on Feb 19, 1909 several laws were passed to provide for larger homesteads, up to 320 acres, in states where 160 acres was not thought adequate to support a family, North Dakota among them.
Land scrip
Land scrip and land warrants formed a type of land-office money acceptable for entry on public lands. Between 1820 and 1890 there were forty-nine statutes that authorized issues of script. They were used primarily to reward veterans, to give allotments to mixed blood Indians, to make possible exchanges of private land for public land, to indemnify people who had lost valid claims through errors of the General Land Office and to subsidize agricultural colleges. A major scrip issue was the Soldiers' and Sailor's Additional Homestead Act of 1872, which allowed veterans of the Civil War to count their military service toward the five years required to gain titles to a free homestead and authorized those who had homesteaded on less than 160 acres to make an additional entry to bring their total acreage to 160 acres. Assignable scrip was issued for the additional acreage allowed. Other measures were enacted to indemnify holders of public-land claims that were confirmed long after the land had been taken up and patented to settlers; the claimants were provided with scrip equivalent to the loss they had sustained.
Speculators and land companies role in westward expansion
Speculators bought western lands in large quantities and land companies organized and entered great tracts embracing entire townships. At the same time, land grants given the railroad companies to encourage the building of transcontinental lines attracted a great deal of speculative purchase. The Northern Pacific line, which was granted 10,700,000 acres along its route in North Dakota, and the Great Northern Railroad were responsible for the placement and settlement of many towns along their lines in the states they traversed. They created station sites every 10 to 15 miles along their routes and offered a number of advantages to persons and institutions for locating in the vicinity. Their transportation services not only enticed and moved the settler but sustained their commercial endeavors as well. The recent demise of many railroad lines as well as towns and surrounding communities attests to their mutual dependance.
The Homestead Act of 1862 did not end land speculation. The speculators, railroads and land companies were important factors in the development of the West. Their efforts to attract settlers to their lands through the distribution of pamphlets and other advertising literature describing the western country lured thousands from their homes in the eastern states, from developed sections of the West, and from Europe. The SHSND collections hold many examples of these pamphlets.
Significant events in homestead legislation:
Land Certificates carry the name of the President of the United States, but these are not presidential signatures. Prior to 1878, a secretary was designated to sign these documents. After that time the executive clerk of the land office signed the certificate.
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