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Down the Research Rabbit Hole

Homesteading is as American as apple pie. While the idea of homesteading may not be as widely understood as this tasty dessert, it’s deeply connected to our heritage as a country. This realization didn’t come to me until I was researching this article, even though I consider myself a modern homesteader.

Though we might not always be aware of it, much of what we do now (and how we do it) is rooted in history. Perhaps it just seems like it should be more obvious with homesteading, since so much of this lifestyle is about going back to our roots. This dawning realization got me thinking about a couple of big questions. How did this whole homesteading thing start? How has it evolved over time?  If you’ve ever wondered about these things, this post is for you!

I went far down the rabbit hole of research for this article. I’ve spent weeks taking a deep dive into these questions and I’m going to share some of what I’ve learned here. I’m not claiming I have all the answers, but what I can tell you is that what I discovered is more fascinating and complex than I had anticipated. To keep it simple, I’m going to stick to the highlights. If you are interested in taking your own dive, I’ll include some good information sources at the end. If you’ve already become a homesteading historian, please feel free to share your insights with all of our neighbors in the comments section or on our social media pages. I think there is plenty of room for fruitful discussion on this topic.

Let’s dig in. 

Global Events, Domestic Activities

On a broad level, homesteading can be tied to many of the most important global events that have happened in our history. This includes the American Civil War, the Irish Potato Famine, and even the Coronavirus pandemic.

In a way, the original homesteaders of this country could be considered the colonists who came from England in the 1580s. But for the sake of sticking with the highlights, I’m going to start our story nearly 300 years later, in the mid 1800s.

Here’s a little context to what was happening at that time. The United States was going through massive growth. In 1840 there were 26 states and the Census Bureau reported there were 17,069,453 people living here. Just 10 years later, in 1850, there were 31 states and 23,191,876 residents. Most people lived in urban areas, with New York City being nearly 5 times bigger than any other city at the time with a population of 515,547 people.

Not everyone wanted to live in a city. In addition, there were challenges associated with urban living such as overcrowding, poor water quality and disease. Evidence of the desire to leave the city could be seen in the Oregon Trail migration, which was going strong after the Pacific Northwest (then known as Oregon territory) had become part of the United States in 1848.

In Europe, ongoing wars and food insecurity, including the Irish Potato Famine, were making homelands inhospitable. The promise of riches in a new land beckoned - either through the California Gold Rush, industrialization, or land ownership.

Homesteading Becomes Official

In the 1840s and 1850s the U.S. started to formulate ways to distribute federal or public land to people. The government had many motivations for participating in these land rushes, and we’ll get into some of them later. There was a lot of debate within the government about how to distribute the land and who should benefit. In 1862 all of that discussion turned into action.

That’s the year the Homestead Act was signed into law. Over the next 100 years there were at least six other major pieces of legislation that expanded and modified this act. It has become one of the most influential pieces of legislation ever passed in our country. The legacy can still be seen across the country today.

The Homestead Act itself was in effect well into the 20th century. By some accounts millions of people and millions of acres of land were involved. In the end, about 10% of the United States was claimed through the Homestead Act. 

The Homestead Act held great promise. People could realize the dream of owning land through their own grit and determination for relatively low fees. The person applying could claim one quarter section (160 acres) or less of unclaimed public lands.

To actually become the owner of the land was a 3-step process:

1. File an application (claim), usually $8 - $10

2. Live on and farm the land continuously (prove up) for 6 months to 5 years

3. File a patent (deed) at a cost of $1.25 - $2.50 per acre

There were regulations about who was eligible to apply. The person had to meet these criteria:

• Be the head of a family or 21 years old

• Be a U.S. citizen or plan to become one

• Never fought against the U.S.

• Never supported others who had fought against the U.S.

This was the most inclusive legislation to date. For example, this legislation allowed immigrants, women and Black people to become homesteaders and legally own land. Earlier legislation only allowed white men this opportunity. When you read between the lines, it becomes clear that some people were intentionally excluded. For instance, native or Indigenous people couldn’t become citizens at that time and later neither could people immigrating from China. Since people unable to become citizens were excluded, none of them could participate.

The requirements about fighting against the U.S. were very pragmatic. This legislation became law in the middle of the Civil War. In the fine print, it also said that anyone who had served in the military for at least 14 days, regardless of their age, could make a homestead claim. In a way, the Homestead Act was an incentive to fight for the north or at least not to join the South in the Civil War.

The Hidden Costs of Homesteading

While the filing fees were relatively low, there were many other costs associated with homesteading. The immediate costs included travel to the claim along with equipment and supplies to build a dwelling and begin farming. These start-up costs really depended upon the location of the homestead. Claims for land in places like Iowa and Nebraska - with good soil and nearby towns - went quickly. Places farther away, like Wyoming or Idaho - which were not as well suited to agriculture and had limited supply sources - went later and were far more expensive to homestead. 

The Myth of Vacant Land

Before I get into the fortitude homesteaders, I want to address a very pervasive myth. That is the myth that the unclaimed lands the government was advertising were empty, vacant, or uninhabited. Prior to the Homesteading Act and during it’s heyday, a parallel set of policies was moving forward. These started with the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which has also come to be known as the Trail of Tears. They continued on with treaties such as the Point Elliott Treaty of 1855, which covers the lands on which my homestead is built. The Dawe’s Act of 1887, which is also known as the Allotment Act, played a significant role in fragmenting tribal lands and trying to assimilate native people into becoming homesteaders, a significant shift from past policies.

Even though most traditional native cultures had a different concept of land ownership than westerners, the government realized that because they were here first, native people could lay claim to the land. All of the parallel legislation was designed with the intention of dehumanizing and removing native people from the homelands. The romantic idea of pioneer living that Laura Ingalls Wilder captured in her Little House on the Prairie books was only one perspective in a time that also included tremendous loss for others.

I am not sharing this information to make anyone feel shame or guilt. I’m sharing the darker side of history because it’s often left out. Yet these are important historic facts that are part of the bigger story of homesteading in the United States. I think part of the reason we tend to skip over these parts of our history is because it’s really uncomfortable. Most of us don’t want other people to be treated badly and we don’t want to be part of treating people badly. But by making space for all of history, in all of it’s complexity, we can gain greater insight into how we got to where we are now and hopefully make better choices in the future. Despite the horrific challenges that native people have faced, they are still here and thriving. We can all learn a great deal about resilience from their example.

Pioneering Spirit: Early Homesteaders

Now back to the 1800s. Who were the people that took up homesteading? A wide variety of independently-minded characters, including…

People like my great-great grandfather, Hiram Ellsworth Pearsall. On February 5, 1885 he filed a claim on his 21st birthday. He filled out that paperwork in his hometown in Iowa for land far away in the Great Pacific Northwest, a place he’d never seen. The land was located in the Woods Creek Valley of Snohomish County in Washington State. Several years earlier, his wife came to the same valley by covered wagon with her family. They eventually sold their homestead and moved to a nearby community, where they helped found the town of Monroe, WA. Our modern homestead is just a 30 minute drive away.

People like Charles Williams, a Black man who was born to a Cherokee mother and an enslaved African man. He homesteaded in Kansas where he helped found the town of Nicodemus, an all Black community dedicated to the ideals of self-determination. For those who endured slavery, the challenges of homesteading must have been far more manageable.

People like Maggie Walz, who came to America from Finland in 1861. She began life in this country in the upper peninsula of Michigian working jobs from domestic servant to door-to-door sales before making her claim on a remote island in Lake Huron. Her homestead ended up attracting others and eventually became a beacon for other Finnish immigrants who formed an entire community.

These are just a few of the millions of stories that unfolded as part of the homesteading movement around the turn of the 20th century. While each of these individuals was very different and settled in very different places, they all shared a common dream.

When Dreams meet Reality

Homesteading was often hard, lonely work, and a costly endeavor. Many people took jobs off-homestead in order to “prove up” on their claims. My great-great grandfather picked hops in the Snoqualmie Valley and helped make bricks for the new streets and buildings of the nearby city of Seattle, Washington. 

In the end, successfully homesteading was much easier said than done. Only about 40% of the claims filed were fully realized and resulted in land ownership deeds. There were many reasons. At its core, homesteading was focused on traditional agriculture and familiar crops, but that approach wasn’t practical for all the diverse landscapes across the continent. Often advertisements wildly exaggerated the quality of the land and resources available. In some areas, such as the great plains, there was no timber with which to build houses, so people began constructing “soddies” or dwellings made of prairie grass clumps. In other areas there were so many giant trees that it was nearly impossible to grow crops.

The End of an Era

The Homestead Act was repealed in 1976 with the Federal Policy Land Management Act. The new legislation directed the remaining public federal lands be retained by the U.S. government. The exception was Alaska, where the Act continued to be valid for another decade. While the Homesteading Act ended, the activities associated with homesteading have seen ebbs and flows throughout American history.

Homesteading as a National War Effort

In times of war and economic distress, there has been a rise in self-sufficient activities such as growing and preserving one’s own food. The Victory Garden is a great example. During WWI and WWII the national food supply chain was strained. Many agricultural workers became soldiers and headed off to war, causing a labor shortage. At the same time there was a higher demand for food to feed the troops overseas. To help reduce panic over these shortages, government campaigns were introduced to promote vegetable gardening. In WWI these campaigns were so successful that homestead gardens helped completely avoid food rationing and in WWII it was greatly reduced.

Hope in the Great Depression

During the Great Depression a variety of initiatives were popularized to help alleviate the suffering of the American public. One of them was the Subsistence Homestead Division which was part of the New Deal program of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR). The idea was to develop communities where people could thrive without specializing, or depending upon, one industry. The aim was to create low-cost homesteads near smaller towns. The hope was to provide opportunities away from crowded urban centers for people to have part-time employment while also having the time and space for subsistence farming. FDR hoped people could once again experience home ownership and self-sufficiency as was intended during the heyday of the Homestead Act. This never really took off, but 34 communities were developed and some continue to this day.

Even for those who remained in more densely populated places during the Great Depression, homesteading activities increased. Community food gardens, often called Thrift Gardens or Frugal Gardens, became popular. These flourished in vacant lots and parks.

People like Helen and Scott Nearing started homesteading during the Great Depression. In the 1930s they left what they called the “rat race” of New York City to live the “good life” on homesteads in New England. They tried to live their daily lives by their ethical, political, and ideological values. Often considered the grandparents of later homesteading movements, their books are still in publication today.  

While the country rebounded from the crisis of the Great Depression and World Wars, there were still very real challenges to be faced at home. During the 1950s and 1960s there was a growing concern about the conservation of natural resources. Unfortunately some homesteading and farming activities had done severe damage to the environment.

Back-to-the-Land Movement

From these hard-learned lessons grew a greater understanding of soil health and a new way of homesteading. It started to become known as going back to the land. Instead of a trend toward dominion over the land, the idea of living in a partnership with nature began to take hold. This new way of homesteading was happening at the same time as the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement. Once again a flood of people left urban areas for rural areas. But this time there was no free land. Instead there was a desire to live more simply and be directly involved with producing what was needed for survival while being more connected to the natural world.

The Rise of Supermarkets and Industrial Agriculture

There was another parallel experience happening from the 1950s to 1970s. This is sometimes called the Golden Age of Capitalism. After WWII the supermarket or grocery store (which seems so familiar now) really took off. Small independent specialty markets began to fade and being able to buy your food became a status symbol. While many in the “counter culture” were interested in moving back to the land, there was also a strong move by the government to consolidate and industrialize farming. 

Homesteaders from this time included people like Wendell Berry. He is a sixth generation homestead farmer in Kentucky and a prolific writer. His book “The Unsettling of America,” which was published in 1977, is still a relevant criticism on industrial agriculture and society.

The Cousin of Homesteading: Preparedness

Another branch of self-sufficiency is the preparedness movement. It was promoted nationally as early as WWI, but blossomed during the Cold War. Even people living in urban areas realized they might need to be more self-sufficient in the event of nuclear winter or other major disaster. People who practice these activities in current times are often referred to as “preppers.”

Homesteading Expands Beyond the Country

Homesteading activities became more mainstream in the 1990s when they became woven together with green or eco-friendly consumerism. This was a time of extreme technological developments and a growing awareness of how dependent people had become on non-renewable resources. Consumers started paying more attention to the sources of their food and the environmental impacts of their purchases. While Farmer’s Markets have been around since ancient Egyptian times, they really gained traction in America during the 1990s. In this way, even those living in more urban environments could participate in their food supply more intimately. 

Homesteading in the 21st Century

There has been a revival in homesteading at the turn of the 21st century. Like the historical spikes in these activities, a good portion of this revival has been a response to the challenges we are facing right now. We are less than one quarter of the way into the 2000s and so far we’ve experienced a massive terrorist attack on our own soil, a slew of natural disasters, a major recession, a social reckoning, and a global pandemic.

Out of necessity, some homesteading activities, like making bread, have been widely adopted. Others, like homeschooling, have been mandated. These days the government is strongly advocating that everyone build a kit and be prepared to shelter in place for a minimum of 3 days, but suggest that being ready for 3 weeks of self-sufficiency would be better.

Homesteading as an Antidote to Fear

Living in these uncertain times can feel overwhelming and scary. Yet history shows us that living through difficult times is nothing new. Homesteading activities have always been something people return to during hard times. On the other hand, there’s some criticism that the allure of homesteading smacks of romantic idealism and regression.

While I am happy to let everyone have their own opinion, I disagree with this criticism. I think that during hard times we get really clear about what’s important. That’s how I went from cancer to country living. And you can too, no life-threatening diagnosis required.

In my humble opinion, homesteading offers an antidote to the fear, despair, and disconnection that so many of us are experiencing. In modern times we can combine the best of the past and present towards a better future. When we use our own hands to create some of what we need to survive, we begin to thrive. And when we extend that way of living to include our neighbors, both human and wild, we are building hope for the future of our planet.

Further Reading

A brief history of Indian Country land legislation and policy, by Indian Land Tenure Foundation

Homesteading by the Numbers, by the National Park Service

The History and Culture of Homesteading in America, by the National Park Service

The Homestead Act of 1862, by the National Archives

Homesteading the Plains: Toward a New History, by University of Nebraska

The Dust Bowl, by Library of Congress

Back to the Land Movement Seeks Self-Sufficiency, by the New York Times

Going Home with Wendell Berry, by The New Yorker

Who Were Helen and Scott Nearing?, by the Good Life Center