Homesteaders

N

NancyNGA

Well-known Member
Location
Georgia
The Homestead Act

"Signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on May 20, 1862, The Homestead Act encouraged Western migration by providing settlers 160 acres of public land. In exchange, homesteaders paid a small filing fee and were required to complete five years of continuous residence before receiving ownership of the land. ... The Homestead Act led to the distribution of 80 million acres of public land by 1900."

Sod Houses

"Sod houses were the successors to the log cabin during frontier settlement of the U.S. (and Canada).The prairie lacked standard building materials such as wood or stone; however, sod from thickly-rooted prairie grass was abundant. Prairie grass had a much thicker, tougher root structure than modern landscaping grass..."

Sylvester Rawding house, Kansas, 1886

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The Chrisman sisters, Nebraska, 1886

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Unknown, Kansas

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Blacksmith shop, West Union, Nebraska ( Larger Picture )

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Fascinating scenes Nancy. I had to stop and consider why these people wanted to live like that.

Pioneering spirit- something I surely don't have They were truly looking toward the future and generations ahead, weren't they?

80 million acres in only 38 years!
 

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"Daniel Freeman may have been the first homesteader to file a claim under the new Homestead Act. For many years, that was what he claimed."

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"... Freeman was a soldier in the Union Army on secret duty at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. He may have been a spy. We know that for some time he had had his eye on a piece of land near a stream, Cub Creek, in southeastern Nebraska near Beatrice. Water was important to a homesteader. Freeman knew that the Act was going to go into effect on January 1, 1863. According to the stories his family passed down, Freeman had to be back in Fort Leavenworth on January 2nd. So, the story has it, he persuaded the registrar of the land office in Brownville, NE, to open up shortly after midnight on Jan. 1, making Freeman the first homesteader in the entire nation."

Beatrice, Nebraska

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"At the end of his military service in 1865, Freeman returned to Nebraska and built a log cabin on his homestead. He "proved up" his claim, and later acquired a considerable amount of land around the original homestead. He was a highly respected member of his community. He lived on his homestead until his death in 1908. In the 1930s, the National Parks Service bought Freeman’s homestead and preserved it as a national monument."

http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0500...braskastudies.org/0500/stories/0501_0201.html
 
Bea, nothing like getting away from the crowded city life. LOL

Seriously though, that probably made sense back then. For one thing you could hang your laundry between the houses and not have to put up poles.
 
Falcon said:
Whatever works best and is fairly available is what one should use. Some folks stack hay bales for exterior walls. Light weight and relatively
cheap.
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It is usually straw bales that are used for walls on houses or barns. Hay is much heavier, is greener, and will mold easily and then catch on fire as the hay overheats.
Hay is a lot more expensive and often sells for around $150 per ton, while straw will go for around $40 per ton. Since the straw bales are so lightweight, you get many more bales of straw per ton than you do with heavy alfalfa hay.
Straw, on the other hand , is a by-product of harvesting grain, and the stalks are not any good for much besides mulch or bedding, making it a very cheap material to use for building a straw house.
It is also great for insulation.
When I lived in Idaho in my trailer, I used straw bales around the base of the trailer as skirting, and it really helped to keep the underneath of the trailer from being as cold. The same bales worked for several years, even though they had deteriorated by the end of that time.
After that, I used them in my garden as mulch around the tomato plants; so the straw was well worth the small price that I paid for it.

When straw is used to build a straw-walled building, it works best when it is in an area that is fairly dry and not a place that gets a lot of rain.
However, I have seen straw barns in western Washington, which is known for being rainy.
The straw is put up during the heat of summer so it stays dry, and then the outside of the building would be coated with something like stucco, or even concrete, to seal out the moisture.
 
HappyflowerLady, I tried searching for a picture of an old straw bale house and couldn't find one, only new ones.:confused: It seems to be popular now. Maybe because they covered the straw with stucco or concrete. I'll keep my eye out for an old photo. Thanks for the information. That was interesting.
 
I read in the Homestead Act that you could be away from the land no more than 6 months at a time. I wonder if any left for the winter months and returned? Also remember discussing the Homestead Act briefly in public school. It sure seemed boring when you were a kid. Maybe we needed more pictures back then.

Tar paper shack, partially covered with sod, South Dakota homesteader.

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RE:Claim shacks from Aunt Bea's post...
Gary O' said:
.... seems
had to truck wagon it in from a ways, looks
but tidily built...like from a kit
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That's just what I was thinking! Even checked the Sear Catalog. ;) I'll bet there were individuals, "entrepreneurs," at the edges of the homestead lands, who made such kits.
 
The government had certain "proving up" requirements and one that I read was for an 8'x10' cabin, I'm not sure if the government provided specs for the cabins.

"The Rev. Vogt had a man take out lumber for the group and build our shacks, which were to be 9x12, but the builder evidently wasn't too good at measuring so they were 8x10. The lumber, hauling, and building cost me $12.50. I still have the bill. I had an oil heater, gasoline stove, dishes, store-bought chair, a box for a table, and cot. When I started living there, there weren't any single women on claims near there, but single men and women came fast that spring, also married couples." - Martha Stoecker Norby

https://www.sdhspress.com/journal/s...tha-stoecker-norby/vol-16-no-1-proving-up.pdf
 
NancyNGA said:
HappyflowerLady, I tried searching for a picture of an old straw bale house and couldn't find one, only new ones.:confused: It seems to be popular now. Maybe because they covered the straw with stucco or concrete. I'll keep my eye out for an old photo. Thanks for the information. That was interesting.
Click to expand...

Didn't one of the Three Little Pigs have a house of straw?
 
Aunt Bea said:
The government had certain "proving up" requirements and one that I read was for an 8'x10' cabin, I'm not sure if the government provided specs for the cabins.

"The Rev. Vogt had a man take out lumber for the group and build our shacks, which were to be 9x12, but the builder evidently wasn't too good at measuring so they were 8x10. The lumber, hauling, and building cost me $12.50. I still have the bill. I had an oil heater, gasoline stove, dishes, store-bought chair, a box for a table, and cot. When I started living there, there weren't any single women on claims near there, but single men and women came fast that spring, also married couples." - Martha Stoecker Norby

https://www.sdhspress.com/journal/s...tha-stoecker-norby/vol-16-no-1-proving-up.pdf
Click to expand...

Very interesting Aunt Bea. I read quite a bit of her diary, saving the rest for later.
 
RadishRose said:
Didn't one of the Three Little Pigs have a house of straw?
Click to expand...
Temporarily interrupting this thread for Breaking News! (2015 :rolleyes:)

The Ohio Department of Transportation removed three miniature houses a day after they were placed along U.S. 35 in the area where a semi hauling more than 2,000 piglets crashed on June 9, because they were a distraction for drivers, and officials feared they’d cause an accident.

Xenia residents discovered the houses Monday morning. They’d been placed there by an unknown person, and they were modeled after the houses from the Three Little Pigs folktale. One of the homes was made of straw, another was made of sticks and the last house was made of bricks.

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Back to normal programming.... :whome:
 
NancyNGA said:
HappyflowerLady, I tried searching for a picture of an old straw bale house and couldn't find one, only new ones.:confused: It seems to be popular now. Maybe because they covered the straw with stucco or concrete. I'll keep my eye out for an old photo. Thanks for the information. That was interesting.
Click to expand...

My estranged younger brother (68) built this home in 1999, shown in a real estate listing I found. It was all straw bale construction. He was a mason by trade, specialized in Finish construction methods. He also worked in Texas with a general contractor building straw bale homes across the border with a Mexican crew constructing homes for the workers at the waste treatment facility that was a joint venture with Mexico & the US. It's been 16 years since I talked to or had any contact with him or my younger sister, bad blood.

Him & his wife had a rather unique outlook on life. After it was finished, he gave an interview with one of the larger local papers. Pictures & all, the article was all about how it was constructed & pointed out the many ecological advantages of the construction methods. Me being a little sarcastic as my nature pointed out that it would have been more pertinent in those days if he hadn't stood in front of his massive fireplace that probably required a forest to keep burning.

He has tried several times to sell but anyone wanting to buy at those prices wants one of those newer tract homes of the same color & style as their neighbors. As my wife found with her crafts, nobody wants to buy just want to find out how it was created so they can do it. Yes, it looks like a firetrap but according to him they don't burn because of the tight packing & stucco covering. Can't say.

https://www.movoto.com/tremonton-ut/630-n-2300-w-tremonton-ut-84337/pid_yxlqb55boh/for-sale/
 
Today, May 20th, is the 156th anniversary of the signing of the Homestead Act by President Lincoln.

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:birthday:
 


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