Skip to main content

The Homestead Act of 1862

By

On January 1, 1863, Daniel Freeman, a Union Army scout, was scheduled to leave Gage County, Nebraska Territory, to report for duty in St. Louis. At a New Year's Eve party the night before, Freeman met some local Land Office officials and convinced a clerk to open the office shortly after midnight in order to file a land claim. In doing so, Freeman became one of the first to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the Homestead Act, a law signed by President Abraham Lincoln on May 20, 1862. At the time of the signing, 11 states had left the Union, and this piece of legislation would continue to have regional and political overtones.

Comments

  1. avrdsMay 20, 2009 at 3:22 PM

    Gintaras, thanks very much. Interesting context that I hadn't given much if any thought to.

    ReplyDelete
  2. avrdsMay 20, 2009 at 3:23 PM

    Oh, and it's our day in history, too. Good timing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. James FergusonMay 20, 2009 at 3:55 PM

    The Day in History piqued my interest.

    ReplyDelete
  4. avrdsMay 20, 2009 at 5:45 PM

    That's an interesting photo they chose to illustrate the Homestead Act:

    http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bison_skull_pile,_ca1870.png

    ReplyDelete
  5. avrdsMay 21, 2009 at 3:36 PM

    Gintaras:

    Thank you for the recent comments list. That's fantastic!

    It has disappeared as I type this, but will surely help me keep track of multiple conversations.

    I feel otherwise like I'm wandering through a long-winding library peeking into rooms.

    ReplyDelete
  6. James FergusonMay 21, 2009 at 5:56 PM

    It is inconsistent, as I had to import it, but I think it will get more durable with time.

    These blogs are not really set up to handle a large number of comments. As NYT noted, it would be nice if they were in inverse order.

    ReplyDelete
  7. avrdsMay 21, 2009 at 6:17 PM

    Yes, it does seem to come and go, but I think it will a great addition to keeping track of multiple conversations.

    We'll never be able to entirely replicate the discussion format at the Times, but this works just fine for me. I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to get together with everyone again.

    ReplyDelete
  8. avrdsMay 21, 2009 at 6:35 PM

    Willkommen Untermensch.

    ReplyDelete
  9. RickMay 21, 2009 at 8:15 PM

    Not sure about anyone else, but whenever I click on Comments I get an operation aborted message.

    ReplyDelete
  10. RickMay 21, 2009 at 8:21 PM

    And with that post, my problem has stopped. Weird.

    ReplyDelete
  11. James FergusonMay 21, 2009 at 8:28 PM

    It is a bit wierd, rick. I think it just takes time for the "recent comments" widget to adjust to your computer, since it was an imported device and not one that came with the blog template.

    ReplyDelete
  12. avrdsMay 25, 2009 at 8:29 PM

    Thanks Ranger Doris.

    As a life-long fan of and visitor to the national parks, this is one that had escaped my attention.

    You might be interested in chiming in on why "this day in history" chose a pile of buffalo skulls to illustrate the signing of the bill, and what may have motivated the timing of the bill to coincide with the Civil War. We're all history buffs and interested in questions like these.

    And you never know, we may some day explore the history of the national parks themselves. You should check back from time to time.

    ReplyDelete
  13. James FergusonMay 26, 2009 at 10:45 AM

    Thanks for the information, Doris! Let me know if you would like to be a contributor. You can reach me at Dzimas61@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  14. avrdsMay 26, 2009 at 3:34 PM

    I think Doris was stopping by to promote her park -- I love the national parks and the people who work there! In fact, I actually have an application in to work for the park service at the moment. I have no chance because people think of me as an academic (which is very weird) but I'm trying!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

By
  Welcome to this month's reading group selection.  David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908.  At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades.  Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society.  I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran.  Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, noting the gro
228 comments
Read more

Dylan in America

By
Whoever it was in 1969 who named the very first Bob Dylan bootleg album “Great White Wonder” may have had a mischievous streak. There are any number of ways you can interpret the title — most boringly, the cover was blank, like the Beatles’ “White Album” — but I like to see a sly allusion to “Moby-Dick.” In the seven years since the release of his first commercial record, Dylan had become the white whale of 20th-century popular song, a wild, unconquerable and often baffling force of musical nature who drove fans and critics Ahab-mad in their efforts to spear him, lash him to the hull and render him merely comprehensible. --- Bruce Handy, NYTimes ____________________________________________ I figured we can start fresh with Bob Dylan.  Couldn't resist this photo of him striking a Woody Guthrie pose.  Looks like only yesterday.  Here is a link to the comments building up to this reading group.
182 comments
Read more

Team of Rivals Reading Group

By
''Team of Rivals" is also an America ''coming-of-age" saga. Lincoln, Seward, Chase et al. are sketched as being part of a ''restless generation," born when Founding Fathers occupied the White House and the Louisiana Purchase netted nearly 530 million new acres to be explored. The Western Expansion motto of this burgeoning generation, in fact, was cleverly captured in two lines of Stephen Vincent Benet's verse: ''The stream uncrossed, the promise still untried / The metal sleeping in the mountainside." None of the protagonists in ''Team of Rivals" hailed from the Deep South or Great Plains. _______________________________ From a review by Douglas Brinkley, 2005
293 comments
Read more