Tuesday, September 15, 2026
Daniel Mennenoh, ITP, NTP steps in today as a guest blogger, continuing our Land, Title and Ownership in America at 250 Series. Mary will be back next week.
Land ownership in the United States has always been a significant part of our country’s success. Many countries from which immigrants came to America did not have systems of land ownership by any ordinary citizen. Land ownership was often a birthright, so the concept of the common man being able to acquire land and enjoy the benefits of ownership for those who came from the “old country” was very different. To them, even the concept seemed miraculous. The story of common folks settling on land that they could ultimately own is a fascinating one, and the Homestead Acts played a large part in that story.
The Homestead Acts, (the Preemption Act of 1841, the Donation Land Claim Act of 1850, and many acts subsequent to the Homestead Act of 1862), were laws in the United States by which an applicant could acquire ownership of public lands. These Acts were derived from the Free Soil policy of Northerners who wanted individual farmers to own and operate their own farms, as opposed to vast amounts of those lands being acquired by wealthy Southern plantation owners and being farmed with slave labor.
There were similar laws to the Homestead Acts proposed prior to the Civil War by Northern Republicans, such as the Homestead Act of 1860. That Act was vetoed by President James Buchanan, a Democrat. After the Southern states seceded from the Union in 1861, and the Representatives from those states left Congress, the Homestead Act of 1862 was passed and signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln.
Daniel Freeman was the very first person to file a claim under this new act. Originally from Ohio, Mr. Freeman graduated from a medical institute in Cincinnati, Ohio, practiced medicine in Ottawa, Illinois, and served in the 17th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. He eventually settled in the Nebraska Territory where he again practiced medicine as well as serving as the county coroner and the county sheriff.
The Act provided that any adult citizen, or intended citizen, who had never borne arms against the U.S. government could claim 160 acres of surveyed government land. Claimants were required to live on and improve their plot by cultivating the land. After five years on the land, the original claimant was entitled to the property, free and clear, except for a small registration fee. If the claimant was willing to pay $1.25 per acre, or if he had been a Union soldier in the Civil War, the five-year requirement could be shortened. From 1862 to 1866, former Confederate soldiers were banned from making claims under the Act. In 1866, five Southern states were opened to allow former Confederate soldiers to make claims within those states, then in 1867, Congress amended the 1862 Act eliminating the ban and restrictions, so long as those former soldiers swore an oath to the U.S. government.
Between 1862 and 1934 the federal government granted 1.6 million homesteads and distributed 270 million acres of federal land for private ownership, which represents a total of 10% of all land in the United States. Most of that land was West of the Mississippi River and most of the homesteading occurred during the period of 1900 – 1930. As of 2017, about 93 million Americans were descendants of people who received land through the Homestead Acts. The regular author of Tuesdays With Mary, and her family, are part of that group.
The process of obtaining land through the Homestead Act of 1862 began with an application filed with the Register of the Land Office of the federal government for the jurisdiction within which the desired land was located. The Register would verify that the application was for “Surveyed Lands of the class which the applicant is legally entitled to under Section 2289, Revised Statutes of the United States, and that there is no prior valid adverse right to the same.” Mary’s Great-Great Grandfather, Thomas Lamb, submitted his application for a quarter section of land in Scott County, Kansas on March 24, 1888. The Register provided a Receiver’s Receipt to Mr. Lamb as proof of his application. As a side note, Thomas Lamb had previously served in the U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry under General George Custer. Thankfully, he was honorably discharged prior to the fateful event at Little Big Horn.
On January 17, 1895, Thomas Lamb submitted his written notice of intent to “. . . make final proof to establish my claim to the land above described, and that I expect to prove my residence and cultivation before Clerk of the District Court of Scott County, Kansas . . .” He was also required to provide the names of witnesses who would testify on his behalf. Mr. Lamb had built a house, barn, windmill pump and granary on the land and was cultivating 152 acres. The testimony of his witnesses confirmed all he had done, and the Register was required to publish a notice of the settler’s claim in the local newspaper.
On March 1, 1895, Thomas Lamb submitted his Final Affidavit to perfect his claim, stating that he was the head of a family and a naturalized citizen, that he had made actual settlement upon and cultivated the land since March 24, 1888, that no part of the land had been alienated, that he was the sole bona fide owner and actual settler, that he would bear true allegiance to the Government of the United States, and that he had not made any previous claims under the Act.
On March 8, 1895, Thomas Lamb was presented with a final certificate for the land that he had settled and which stated he was entitled to a Patent for the Tract of Land he had settled. On June 8, 1895, Homestead Certificate No. 7944, signed by President Grover Cleveland, was issued to Thomas Lamb. He now held title, free and clear, to the quarter section of land he and his family had been living on and working for seven years since March of 1888. That must have been a day to celebrate for he and his family.
But that’s not the end of the story. In October of 1900, Mary’s Great Grandfather, William E. Lamb began the same process in order to acquire a quarter section of land contiguous to his father’s. William E. Lamb completed his required commitment to the Act and received his Homestead Certificate No. 6021, signed by President T. Roosevelt, on November 2, 1906. Mary’s Great Uncle, Charles Shutts, was issued a final certificate for a quarter section of land in Scott County, Kansas in 1910 and William Lamb’s brother, Charles Lamb, was issued a final certificate for a quarter section of land in Scott County, Kansas in 1911. A family tradition, one might say.
Since Mary and I are land title nerds, and students of history, we proudly display the framed, original Homestead Certificates of both Thomas Lamb and William E. Lamb on a wall in our house. They are daily reminders of not only family history, but of U.S. history, and the importance of land ownership to our country. Thomas Lamb was an Irish immigrant who came to this country, with very little to his name, for an opportunity to have a better life. Through his hard work and perseverance, and a federal statute that created a legal path, he found it, as so many have in this country.
Until Next Time,
Daniel Mennenoh, ITP, NTP
And the October Research Team