We recently drove from Rapid City, South Dakota to Bismarck, North Dakota and I was struck by how many old homestead sites we saw. Some were still intact with the weathered wood still standing to tell its stories, but some were now just a heap of wood. It made me wonder about the people who at one point uprooted their whole live, everything they knew, and moved likely many hundreds of miles in the hope of making a new life and having something of their own.
I have referenced “the homestead site” or the "homestead" several times in the course of real estate transactions and many times received the question back of “what do you mean by that?”. It seems like ancient history but for many of us it’s only a generation or two that separates us from them in the modern society we live in today. When looking at old properties, especially those out west, there may be an original, old, and very small home that may have been a result of the Homestead Act.
In 1862 the United States government passed the Homestead Act to incentivize the settlement of the western territory. Abraham Lincoln’s signature to the Act granted American’s, including freed slaves, women and immigrants, 160-acre plots of public land for the price of a filing fee. Lincoln’s view of the American government was to “elevate the condition of men, to lift artificial burdens from all shoulder and to give everyone an unfettered start and a fair chance in the race of life.” There are varying arguments as to the actual purpose of the Homestead Act and if it was for the taking of land from the Native American’s or to genuinely help many who needed a fresh start and purpose following the Civil War. In any case, the results were 4 million homestead claims and 1.6 million deeds obtained. That discrepancy is likely because the process was much easier and less expensive than obtaining the tools and materials needed to build a home and start a farm.
The process was simple; pay an $18 filing fee ($10 for the claim, $2 in commission to the land agent, and $6 for the official land patent). Land titles could be purchased for $1.25/acre after you had lived on the plot for six months. Some of the other requirements were five years of continuous residence, building a home, farming the land and making improvements but many never made it to the five-year mark. The Act lasted until 1976, or 1986 in Alaska and in 1988, after filing a claim and meeting the requirements, the last patent was received by an Alaskan resident in 1988.
Depending on location, it may be common that these properties are still standing and still habitable. When researching older properties, there are some telltale signs that the property is an old homestead with the main one being a land patent in the chain of title. Most standard title searches won't find these types of documents so an extra layer of research may be needed, but well worth it if you enjoy history like me! NorthStar Realty specializes in these types of unique properties so if you have any questions, reach out and let us help you!
*Most information taken from https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/homestead-act
