• Login
  • Register
  • FAQ
  • Contact Us
  • Home
  • Documents
  • Activities
  • Activity Tools
    • All Tools
    • Analyzing Documents
    • Discussion Topic
    • Compare and Contrast
    • Zoom/Crop
    • White Out / Black Out
    • Spotlight
    • Finding a Sequence
    • Making Connections
    • Mapping History
    • Seeing the Big Picture
    • Weighing the Evidence
    • Interpreting Data
  • Popular Topics
    • See All
    • National History Day
    • The Constitution
    • Sports: All-American
    • Rights in America
    • American Indians
    • Women's Rights
    • American Revolution
    • The Civil War
    • World War I
    • World War II
    • The Vietnam War
    • 1970s America
    • Congress
    • Amending America
    • Elections
    • What Americans Eat
    • Signatures
    • Nixon and Ford Years
  • Resources
    • Getting Started
    • Document Analysis
    • Activity-Creation Guide
    • Manage Assignments
    • iPad App
    • Presentation Materials
    • Webinars
      • Recorded Webinars
      • Live Webinars
MENU
DocsTeachThe online tool for teaching with documents, from the National Archives National Archives Foundation National Archives

Homestead Application No. 1 of Daniel Freeman

1/1/1863

Print
Add to Favorites:
Add
Saving document...
Your document has been saved.
Add all page(s) of this document to activity:
1
2
Add only page 1 to activity:
Add only page 2 to activity:
On January 1, 1863, Daniel Freeman became the first American to file a homestead claim for land under the Homestead Act of 1862. The act required a series of steps, such as improving a plot of land and living on it for five years, before the homesteader could gain ownership of the 160 acres he claimed. After initiating his claim on January 1, 1863, Freeman received his ownership certificate on January 20, 1868.

Daniel Freeman and 417 others had filed claims on January 1st. Many more pioneers followed, populating the land, building towns and schools and creating new states from the territories. By 1934, over 1.6 million homestead applications were processed and more than 270 million acres—10 percent of all U.S. lands—passed into the hands of individuals.

Show/Hide Transcript

Transcript

Application No. 1

Homestead Land Office
Brownville N.T. January 1st 1863

I Daniel Freeman of Gage County Nebraska Territory do herby apply to enter under the Provisions of the Act of Congress approved May 20th 1862 entitled, an Act to Secure Homesteads to Actual Settlers on the Public Domain
The South half of N.W. 1/4 N NE 1/4 of NW 1/4 N SW 1/4 of NE 1/4 Sec. 26. in Township [crossed out] (4) N in Range Five East, containing 166 acres Having Filed my PreEmption Declaration thereto on the Eighth day of September 1862

Daniel Freeman


Land office at:
Brownville N.T. January 1st 1863

I Richard F Barrets Register of the Land office do Hereby Certify that the above application is for surveyed lands of the Class which the applicant is legally entitled to enter under the Homestead Act of May 20th 1862 and that there is No Prior valid adverse right to the same

Richard F. Barrets
Register
This primary source comes from the Records of the Bureau of Land Management.
Full Citation: Homestead Application No. 1 of Daniel Freeman; 1/1/1863; Selected Documents Removed From Military Bounty Land Warrants, Land Entry Files, Serial Patent Files, and Various Other Series, 1817 - 1935; Records of the Bureau of Land Management, Record Group 49; National Archives Building, Washington, DC. [Online Version, https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/homestead-application-freeman, February 1, 2023]
Return to ResultsReturn

Rights: Public Domain, Free of Known Copyright Restrictions. Learn more on our privacy and legal page.

  • Explore Primary Source Documents
  •  
  • Discover Activities You Can Teach With
  •  
  • Create Fun & Engaging Activities
Follow us on Twitter:twitter
Follow us on Facebook:facebook
Please enter a valid email address

View our webinars:youtube

Get our iPad app:apple
New Documentsshare
New Activitiesshare

The National Archives

DocsTeach is a product of the National Archives education division. Our mission is to engage, educate, and inspire all learners to discover and explore the records of the American people preserved by the National Archives.

The National Archives and Records Administration is the nation's record keeper. We save documents and other materials created in the course of business conducted by the U.S. Federal government that are judged to have continuing value. We hold in trust for the public the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights — but also the records of ordinary citizens — at our locations around the country.
  • All Education Programs
  • Student Visits
  • Distance Learning
  • Professional Development
  • National Archives Museum
  • Presidential Libraries
  • Archives.gov
  • National Archives Foundation




Creative Commons License

Except where otherwise noted, DocsTeach is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Primary source documents included on this site generally come from the holdings of the National Archives and are in the public domain, except as noted. Teaching activities on this site have received the CC0 Public Domain Dedication; authors have waived all copyright and related rights to the extent possible under the law. See our legal and privacy page for full terms and conditions.