On this day in U.S. History: Nebraskan and Civil War soldier Daniel Freeman became the first person to file a claim under the Homestead Act on January 1, 1863, when he claimed 160 acres of land near Beatrice, Nebraska. Freeman’s filing marked the beginning of a new era of American settlement and opportunity on the Great Plains and throughout the West.
Daniel Freeman was born in Preble County, Ohio, in 1826. He spent his early life living throughout the Midwest, including in Indiana and Illinois, where he worked as a farmer before settling in the Nebraska Territory in the 1850s. As a young adult, he attended and graduated from the medical institute in Cincinnati, Ohio, and practiced medicine in Ottawa, Illinois. When the Civil War broke out, Freeman joined the 17th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment, where he served as a scout and hospital steward.
On May 20, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act into law, opening up millions of acres of public land in the American West to individual settlers. The Act provided that any head of household or person over twenty one years of age who was a citizen, or intended to become one, could claim up to 160 acres of surveyed public land. To secure ownership, the homesteader had to live on the land, build a dwelling, and cultivate the soil for a period of five years. At the end of that period, if the requirements were met and verified, the settler could receive a patent, or title, to the land. The law was designed to encourage small family farms and to promote the settlement and development of the western territories.
Just before the Act went into effect on January 1, 1863, Freeman, who was in St. Louis at the time, took a furlough from the Union Army and traveled by train back to Nebraska. When he arrived in Brownville, Nebraska, he convinced a local land agent to open the office just after midnight on the first so he could file his claim at the very first opportunity.
