The Plains of Nebraska (The Courageous Settlers) By Cora Leland

Last year, The Nebraska History Museum had a detailed exhibit about the cattle drives from Texas to Nebraska (and further north). Every aspect of this topic fascinated me then, and it still does.  Today's  blog post is based on some of the research I did for Springtime at the Ranch (Mail Order Bride Bk. 2). 

The US Census showed that in 1870, when settlements had reached the fringes of the eastern part of Nebraska, that 25% of the 123,000 persons in the state were born in foreign countries. With their children as settlers, these people accounted for 54% of Nebraska's population. The settlement rate was 33% German, 14% Czech, 13% Swedish, 8% Danish, 7% Russian, 5% Irish, % English, 4% Canadian, 2% Italian, 2% Greek, 7% Other.

One study shows evidence that German-speaking women suffered badly as immigrants, largely because so few of the people around them spoke German or their particular dialect. One woman, from Switzerland, spoke a dialect that no one knew except her husband. Her children grew up without learning it, instead learning High German in school. She understood this, but she was lonely because of it. 

The study also states that German-speaking women settlers often did not write in journals or speak to people about adapting.  One woman among many did ‘speak’, though most often she used gestures. Still, she persevered in communicating and she was thought, by the study, to have a happy life.

The Swedish immigrants came in waves, as internal emigrants from the settlements in and around Minnesota.  Sources said that Swedes were socially responsible and eager to help in the communities, but that they had a very firm private life that was surrounded by their churches and families.  Diaries describe first and second generation Swedish people as politically active. Researchers said that Swedish people kept their church activities in their language and didn’t welcome Americans. 

The Czech communities were strong, as the Bohemian representative in Nebraska said.  He praised their towns and their habits of citizenship.  The large number of Czech people kept their transplanted civilization strong.

The population of black settlers is less easy to determine; the author finally decided (perhaps incorrectly) it was filed in the ‘Other’ group.  It is interesting to note that the Southern States Homestead Act was so controversial that it was seldom used. Black settlers came to Nebraska using  the Homestead Act. History Nebraska’s Samuel Butcher photographs show some of their homes and families and UNL and Nebraska History have more resources.

Also interesting is that Nebraska’s cities saw a great many ethnic groups and nationalities. For example, Italians and Eastern Europeans came often to Omaha and work in other towns came from meat packing plants.

Although American Indians were not among the groups of settlers, the author feels that accounting for their population adds to the big picture of these times and is worth further reading and study when libraries re-open. The tribal rolls are found in large public libraries. (She does not use the term ‘Native Americans’ because, like many others, she finds that descriptor properly refers to other ethnic groups as well as American Indians.  Also, she is part of the Oto tribe and uses the term she learned as a child.)

Nebraska’s American Indian populations changed rapidly due to wars, disease, relocation(s), and return to Nebraska. For example, in 1860 the Ponca population was 3,414. After a bloody war with Sioux, the population (in 1880) was 30. (However, the 30 people returned to Nebraska after being sent to a reservation in Oklahoma. Not long after that, they lived legally in Nebraska.) 

In other examples, the Oto nation was the first tribe to cede its lands to the government and leave (officially by 1854).  A few stayed in Nebraska until 1880.  The tribe’s population was small, so they united with the Missouria.  The united population in Nebraska was 500.  The Santee-Sioux population in 1880 was 800. Other Nebraska tribes, the Iowa, Sac and Fox had a combined population in 1880 of 350. The Winnebago tribe numbered 1,000 in 1870.

The Pawnee population in the early 1800’s was 10,000. In 1840, after a great bout of cholera and other illnesses, there were 600 Pawnee Indians.  In 1875 they relocated to Oklahoma.

Indians were ‘enumerated’ (counted) by census workers, until 1880 or after, only if they were land or house owners, or if they lived on the fringes of or among the white population, or if they had ‘renounced tribal rule’ and were legal citizens of the state. If they lived on Nebraska reservations they were not counted (because they were not ‘taxed’).

   

In addition, the population of children and young adults with mixed parents (Indian and white) were put into separate reservations. These ‘tracts’ were established in the Midwestern prairie region, including in Iowa Territory, Nebraska Territory, Kansas Territory, Minnesota Territory, and Wisconsin Territory. However, this program ended in 1861.

The US census did not use the same system; but the federal census figures from earlier times like these are not separated into states.  (The tribal rolls were badly burned at the beginning of the 20^th century; records from later years are to be found from the government.) In 1860 the Indians in America numbered 44,021; on reservations 295,400. In 1880, the same group had 66,407; those on reservations were 240,400. The 1890 census shows 248,253 Indians in America.

A word about the Great Plains in Nebraska.  The grasses are not spread by pollination, but by wind, so  their flowers of springtime are tiny but very beautiful.  The root structure of the native grasses is enormous, becoming deeper as they are left alone, replenishing the soil with plants that die and come to the roots. The tall grass prairie, which is not always considered part of the Great Plains, was (and is) left to peacefully provide food for cattle, as it did for bison.

The European settlers had a good rate for staying to own their land -- often better than other groups, with at least 64% of people staying for the full number of years, despite great hardships.  They sometimes were able to use the farming methods they'd learned abroad, as in north-central Nebraska, but others adapted more quickly than is sometimes mentioned.

SOURCES/FURTHER READING/VIEWING

https://mediahub.unl.edu/channels/26276?orderby=datecreated&order=DESC

  (Videos for Center for Great Plains Studies)

https://mediahub.unl.edu/media/10145

  (Great Plains Literature)

Giants in the Earth : A Saga of the Prairie by O. E. Rölvaag (1876-1931, Project Gutenberg of Australia eBook

https://www.jstor.org/stable/967339?seq=1

  “Ethnic Group Settlement on the Great Plains” by Frederick C. Luebke

https://www.jstor.org/stable/23533829?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

  “The Good, the Bad and the Ignored: Willa Cather’s Immigrants in O Pioneers!” by Renee M. Laegreid

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/nebraska-history-and-heritage-5282396/

https://www.unl.edu/czechheritage/Census_maps.shtml

https://www.unl.edu/czechheritage/cultural_landscape.shtml

https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1077&context=historydiss

Happy as a Big Sunflower, Adventures in the West  by Rolf Johnson

https://sdn.unl.edu/ne_immigration_history

https://www.archives.gov/research/census/native-americans

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Breed_Tract

Homesteading

I have found it fascinating to research the Homestead Acts in the United States and cannot even begin to imagine how exciting the possibilities were for anyone with the courage and energy to take advantage of the legal opportunities. Most definitely this research is going to make it into my current work in progress, A Bride for Hamilton, which will be releasing in March.

The Homestead Acts were several laws in the United States by which an applicant could acquire ownership of government land or the public domain, typically called a homestead. In all, more than 160 million acres (650 thousand km2; 250 thousand sq mi) of public land, or nearly 10 percent of the total area of the United States, was given away free to 1.6 million homesteaders; most of the homesteads were west of the Mississippi River. (This fact blew my mind!)

The first of the acts, the Homestead Act of 1862, opened up millions of acres. Any adult who had never taken up arms against the Federal government of the United States could apply. Women and immigrants who had applied for citizenship were eligible. The Homestead Acts had few qualifying requirements. 

A homesteader had to be the head of the household or at least twenty-one years old. They had to live on the designated land, build a home, make improvements, and farm it for a minimum of five years. The filing fee was eighteen dollars (or ten to temporarily hold a claim to the land). 

The homestead was an area of public land in the West (usually 160 acres or 65 ha) granted to any US citizen willing to settle on and farm the land. The law (and those following it) required a three-step procedure: file an application, improve the land, and file for the patent (deed). The occupant had to reside on the land for five years, and show evidence of having made improvements. The process had to be complete within seven years.

The "yeoman farmer" ideal of Jeffersonian democracy was still a powerful influence in American politics during the 1840–1850s, with many politicians believing a homestead act would help increase the number of "virtuous yeomen". The Free Soil Party of 1848–52, and the new Republican Party after 1854, demanded that the new lands opening up in the west be made available to independent farmers, rather than wealthy planters who would develop it with the use of slaves forcing the yeomen farmers onto marginal lands. Southern Democrats had continually fought (and defeated) previous homestead law proposals, as they feared free land would attract European immigrants and poor Southern whites to the west. After the South seceded and their delegates left Congress in 1861, the Republicans and other supporters from the upper South passed a homestead act. 

I really love the ideals and principles behind these Acts. The fact that those supporting these laws wanted to allow “average” people to settle and prosper rather than those who were already wealthy landowners really appeals to me. And inspires story ideas ;-)

Keep up with all my story ideas by joining my Facebook group. And learn about all my available books on Amazon.

Check out A Bride for Carter, my first Proxy Brides book:

They didn’t meet until after the wedding day.

Carter McLain has finally accomplished the success he was striving for when he moved to the frontier a decade ago. All that’s missing is a wife to share it with. Having no desire to leave his land, he requests a friend back home to arrange a proxy marriage for him. When his bride seems too good to be true, Carter wonders if he did the right thing.

The highly publicized deaths of Ella St. Clair’s parents cause her to lose everything. Left destitute, alone, and friendless, she grudgingly accepts the offer of marriage by proxy to a man she has never met. The long trip West leaves her plenty of time for second thoughts.

What does the future hold for these legally bound strangers? Can they get past their secrets to find happiness?

Available in print and Kindle. Included in your KU subscription.

Land! by E. Ayers

I've covered tiny things that affected everyday life. So this time I thought maybe I would write about something really BIG that also had a bearing on the lives of those who went west. It was the land itself. Who owned it, what was there, and how it could be settled.

           The land was totally wide-open, raw land, except the government owned the land. (Yes, you could argue that the Am. Indians owned the land, but they believed there was no ownership - it was there for them to use.) A large chunk of our western lands was obtained from France in the Louisiana

Purchase of 1803. Most of the land beyond that portion was owned by Spain. Eventually we owned what is now known as the contiguous United States. I'd say it was a slow process, but not really. A hundred nine years, after the Louisiana Purchase, to create the 48 States is relativity fast when you look at history. The land after being purchased was surveyed and marked in neat squares creating boroughs or counties. (Well, until the land wasn't as easily divided because of mountains, etc., and by then, the government was running out of money to have the land surveyed.)

Quite a bit changed in the course of those years, and we needed a faster way to travel to the west. The government decided that we needed to build railroads, they began to divide the land based on where they thought the railroads should go. Then that land was allocated and eventually "sold" to the railroads. (Only the surface land and not what was under it.) But to prevent congestion of settlers (don't laugh) along those railroad lines, the government granted the right for the railroads to own the land, but they only owned every other square of land. And the squares were laid like a checkerboard. So, in theory, the railroad owned a square on this side of the track and the government owned the other side of that track, only to switch every few miles.

People moving west, once this land was subdivided, were allowed to homestead on the government squares, but not on the railroad squares. Each checkerboard square was 10 square miles and a square was granted to the railroad for every mile of track they built. Sounds like they were given the squares after they built the tract. Well, maybe in some places, but for the most part it was already laid out and allocated before the railroad tracks were started.

The government made some decisions about where the tracks should go, which size rails to use (that determined the type of locomotive and cars on those tracks), what steel to use, how steep the grades should be, and the number of degrees a curve could have. In today's world, it sounds sensible, but back then it forced standardization because wheels and tracks were different, and provided some of the first safety features. Then railroads were "loaned" money to build the tracks. The more difficult it would be to lay the track through areas of land where there were mountains, rivers, or hills, the more money they were given. Speculation on railroads became a major investment opportunity because in theory the railroads could make huge profits. People made fortunes or lost them. But these tracks often weren't constructed as quickly as our government thought they would be. Many railroad companies went belly-up because the cost for them to lay the tracks far exceeded any estimates.

There are tons of early maps showing railroads cross-crossing the land. What they really show is what is supposed to be there. Since the railroad wanted to build an additional rail line through Wyoming, they were offered these lands in a series of checkerboard squares. Surprise! That railroad wasn't built until well into the 1900's because it wasn't worthwhile for the railroad to actually spend the money to build it. The rail line was started several times and abandoned several times. But the railroad had the land and they sold that land to raise the money to pay the government back for that amazing loan. (Are you confused yet?)

Honestly I was so confused that it took a historian from BNSF to straighten it out for me. But I was looking at a map with the railroad on it. And the Internet was populated with the old maps showing that railroad. How could it not be there? It was merely proposed, and the land granted to the railroad much like our right-of-way today. (That right-of-way might look like a road on the map, but it's not really anything and might have trees growing in the center of it.)

We made the whole situation worse when the Yankees decided to squelch the Rebel forces during the Civil War by destroying the railroad tracks in the South. Some of those tracks took forever to rebuild, while others were quickly replaced after the War. So in the late 1860's, it looked like the railroads existed on maps, but they didn't. Money was spent on the railroads that had been destroyed during the War, thus taking away money from company funds that had been allotted to build railroads out west.

It took a large number of laborers to build these lines. These guys worked horrible hours and under even worse conditions. Yes, the Chinese, working west to east, laid a great deal of the tracks, but so did plenty of other people. Why? Because many were new immigrants often chasing the American Dream and many laborers couldn’t find work where they had been living. It was honest work with what was considered good wages for those days. Okay, it was lousy pay for a dangerous job with long hours, and they were doing it in horrendous heat and freezing cold. But they did it. It was a job and they were happy to have it. They lived in moveable tent cities with only basic amenities. As companies folded, failed, or whatever, many of these workers stayed where they were and homesteaded, because they were in the middle of nowhere with no funds.

The Homestead Act of 1860 gave the homesteader 160 acres. That really wasn't enough for people to raise cattle, so they turned them loose on government property and allowed them to graze freely during the summer. If someone had enough money, they could purchase a "square" This was actually a much smaller square than those railroad checkerboard squares, those railroad squares are 10 miles squared, and a simple square within that larger square is 1 mile by 1 mile. A square mile is 640 acres. So the homesteader of 160 acres was only homesteading a fourth of that one-square mile.

Many homesteaders were wise to the system and homesteaded on government land with nearby prairie but also next to railroad land. They bought the railroad land for a cheap price, because the railroads were frequently broke and in need of cash flow. Someone with money could take the homestead acreage and purchase quite a few one-mile squares from the railroad giving them a very large chunk of land.

The real kicker here is there was quite a bit of corruption going on in the lawless West, and buying land from the railroads was actually safer than buying land from the government. Frequently, the government really didn't know what they owned. But the railroads tended to keep accurate records. They knew exactly what they owned and where! It took until almost 1910 for the government to begin to settle who owned what. Too many people who bought land from the government had their money stolen by corrupt government agents and the papers were never actually filed with the government. Or they were filed and lost, or a fire wiped out the records. It was a huge mess. And the landowners were forced to prove what they had paid, and what had been homesteaded, including the dates.

The next big question is how did they know how much land they were homesteading? There weren't too many surveyors out west and those that were worked for the railroads. Besides a surveyor would have been expensive and the average homesteader had very little money. They marked the land themselves. They used chains, ten feet long between the first and last link. They started at a spot that was identifiable, often a tree or a large rock but frequently they started at a surveyor's mark on the corner of one of those county squares. They would pound the first stake into the ground, hook the chain over it, and stretch it out. They put a stake where the chain ended. Without removing that second stake they would swing the chain and drop the next stake. They had to pound a fence post into the hole that was made with the stake. And so it went for the perimeter of their 160 acres. It was a long, hard job, and they had to keep the line straight. (That's geometry, and I'm not going to explain it. I also seriously doubt that many settlers went to that much trouble. They merely sighted the fence line.)

Homesteading was fraught with problems beyond trying to create a house out of nothing, having clean water, and growing crops where there were none. We are rather spoiled today. We call the realtor, say we like that piece of property, a few people wave magic wands, and several weeks later, we receive a copy of the deed. Someone else has already surveyed the land, guaranteed that the house is sound, and the property actually has a clean title. I'm so glad I don't have to go out there with a mallet, a chain, a few spikes, and a shovel.

Ebook on pre-order for 99c

Release date: June 27, 2017

A Rancher's Request

Zadie Larkford, recently graduated from an Eastern women’s college, lives a quiet life in her hometown of Franklin, Virginia. Content to spend her days painting by the river and watching her friends marry, she is shocked to learn that her father has promised her hand in marriage to a complete stranger. Ultimately unable to disobey, she leaves her childhood home to travel – unaccompanied – to Creed’s Crossing, Wyoming to meet her betrothed.
Raised in a seafaring community in North Carolina, Duncan Lorde made the decision to leave his father’s prosperous fishing venture to make a life for himself in the west. Determined to succeed in the treacherous and unpredictable pursuit of cattle ranching, he has land, a small cabin, and a herd. All he needs now is a wife–a good woman who will cook, clean, and provide him with strong sons to help on the ranch. When Zadie arrives in Creed’s Crossing, the young daughter of his father’s old friend is far more independent and strong-willed than he expected.
The young would-be couple has barely begun to forge a bond when the forces of man and nature collide, impeding Duncan and Zadie as they struggle to fulfill … A Rancher’s Request.

TALES OF STRONG WOMEN IN THE WEST

What do you think of when you think of homesteading the West? I think of families or lone men. However, in Marcia Meredith Hensley’s book. STAKING HER CLAIM: WOMEN HOMESTEADING THE WEST, I learned that many lone women became homesteaders.

I read the Women of Paragon Springs series, by Irene Bennett Brown, and loved the stories of women making their way West to set up their homes. What I didn’t realize, though, was how true-to-life Ms Brown’s fictional stories were.

Paragon Springs series, book one

Ms Hensley’s book relates many women settling in Wyoming Territory. And why not? Wyoming was far ahead of the rest of America in recognizing a woman’s right to vote and other basic rights. But other stories take place in Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Idaho, Colorado, and Utah.

As you can imagine, these women set out for the West for various reasons. Some were ill-equipped for the hardships. Others flourished in their new enterprise.  Ms Hensley includes letters written back East by some of the women homesteaders telling of their experiences. Fact or fiction?

“On the whole, women who wrote about their experiences homesteading alone told positive stories. . . Although homesteading was difficult, they achieved success and had many enjoyable adventures as well. Women could do most of the work themselves, but, if necessary, they could count on help from neighbors, family, or one of the many men in the vicinity.”

Only about one in three women who homesteaded actually succeeded. In a 1921 article about her homesteading experience in Utah, Kate Keizer includes a section titled “Not All Roses” in which she cautions that for the typical homesteader without much money “the first two or three years are usually accompanied by privation and hardships.” She lists difficulties such as the high cost of freighting in supplies and having your claim contested if you were absent very long. Her greatest torments were the hordes of rabbits and prairie dogs that destroyed gardens in spite of scarecrows, guns, and poison.

Looking back on her homestead experience, Dr. Bessie Rehwinkle tempered her account of the exhilarating experience of becoming a Wyoming landowner with the admission that “it is not as easy or glamorous as the storybooks about the westward trek of the covered wagon often picture it. It is a slow process and a hard day-to-day struggle, and only the strongest are able to survive.”

The Homestead Act was in force from 1862 through 1976 (with a ten year extension for Alaska). Statistics provided by the National Homestead Monument suggest two million people attempted to earn a patent on land through the Homestead Act. Ms Hensley theorizes that 200,000 of these were women, of which 67.500 may have proved up on their claim.

I suggest reading Marcia Meredith Hensley’s book for fascinating non-fiction accounts of successful women homesteaders. For fictional accounts, nothing beats Irene Bennett Brown’s Women of Paragon Springs series: LONG ROAD TURNING, BLUE HORIZONS, NO OTHER PLACE, and REAP THE SOUTH WIND. In fact, LONG ROAD TURNING is one of my favorite books and the detail reminds me of Sweethearts' member Linda Hubalek's TRAIL OF THREAD, Trail of Thread series book one. 

True, the books are different in that LONG ROAD TURNING begins as a woman alone while TRAIL OF THREAD is a woman with a family, but the accuracy of the time period and subject matter is impressive. Both bring out the mores of the time (which favored men) and both show women determined to succeed against difficult odds. The other books in Linda's great series are THIMBLE OF SOIL and STITCH OF COURAGE.

What about you? Would you have attempted to claim your land alone?

Caroline Clemmons's latest single release is O'NEILL'S TEXAS BRIDE, available in ebook from Amazon, Apple, Nook, and Kobo and available in print from Amazon, CreateSpace, and Barnes and Noble. One of her novellas is included in the recently released box set, WILD WESTERN WOMEN RIDE AGAIN, available from Amazon for Kindle for 99 cents.