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WAYS OF ACQUIRING LAND
BY EARLY SETTLERS



The homestead act of 1862 gave, for the first time, the citizens of this country the right to acquire land by paying a small entry fee and living on the land five years and making improvements on the land.
This act gave each settler in the public domain 160 acres of land on condition that he make his home and improve it for five years.
Another method of acquiring land was by taking a tree claim, as it was called.
The first timber culture act became a law on March 3, 1873, and under this act a person could acquire a quarter section of land by planting at least 40 acres of trees on the quarter section and cultivating them for eight years, and upon proof thereof a patent would be issued by the
government. It also permitted homesteaders who had in cultivation, for a period of two years, at least, on acre of artificial forest for each 16 acres of their homestead to make final proof of three instead of five years. The next year this act was amended so that only 10 acres of trees had to be cultivated on 160 acres of land.
Another method by which land could be acquired was by the Preemption act of 1841.
This act allowed every person over the age of 21 years who was the head of a family, or widow, or single man, a citizen of the United States and who did not own 320 acres of land in the United States to secure 160 acres upon the public domain, by improving it, making his home upon it and paying the government $1.25 per acre. He was allowed one year to make his payment on the land.
1886 1936

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