January 1, 1863
On this day, just minutes after midnight Daniel Freeman is believed to have been the first new landowner under the 1862 Homestead Act.
By all accounts he was not your average sod buster and some doubt the Ohio doctor’s claim. He may have applied some sleight of hand to arrive in Brownville, Nebraska, in order to cajole or pay the local land office clerk to allow him to register 160 acres of free land just minutes into the New Year.
Brownville, Nebraska, circa late 1860s
Not only was he timely, Mr. Freeman seemed to be just darn lucky. He filed for land located just west of the Missouri River near present-day Beatrice (Bee AT tris), Nebraska, today still rated as some of the most productive agricultural areas in the entire country.
As a “scout” for the Union Army’s 17th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, Freeman may have done some “scouting” for himself. Claiming he was on his way to St. Louis on military business, instead he wound up on the wrong side of the Missouri River nearly 400 miles upstream.
President Abraham Lincoln gets the greatest share of credit for populating huge stretches of the government’s real estate, an extension of the “free soil” policy of small farms favored by Northerners. Primarily designed to block the spread of plantation-style agriculture requiring slave labor, it was vehemently opposed by Southerners.
The Freeman Homestead circa 1880s
Not actually a new idea, versions of the Homestead Act had been proposed by Northern Republicans as early as 1850 but passage had always been blocked by Southern Democrats. Congress had actually passed the Homestead Act, three years earlier but it was vetoed by President James Buchanan. When the Southern states seceded and left Washington, Lincoln managed to sign it into law.
Nearly any head-of-household citizen over 21, including immigrants, women and former slaves could file a claim. Confederates “who had taken up arms against the United States,” however, were expressly prohibited. Another 46 million acres were included in the 1866 Southern Homestead Act in the war-torn South which allowed free slaves and non-combatant tenant farmers to acquire 80 acres of tillable land.
A family of Black homesteaders in Nebraska
During the next several decades, more than 370 million acres were transferred from Federal to private hands. Nearly half of Nebraska was claimed through homesteads and more than 90 million Americans nationwide are descended from homesteaders.
Daniel Freeman may not have seemed like the perfect pioneer but he was apparently good at it. During his lifetime he amassed more than a thousand acres of prime cropland. An unapologetic self-promoter, he originated the idea of honoring himself as the nation’s first homesteader. Not long after Freeman’s death in 1908, area residents saw the economic value of his proposal and suggested a national park.
They received a powerful ally in the 1920s when Nebraska’s influential senator, George Norris, (left) lobbied to establish an agricultural museum. The Daughters of the American Revolution also installed a marker at the site.
In 1935 Sen. Norris and newly elected congressman Henry Luckey, (below) introduced legislation creating a Federal park. 
Money for the project didn’t get appropriated until the following year. The project was further delayed by Freeman’s heirs who squabbled with the government over the sale price. Threats of condemnation proceedings two years later finally produced an agreement.
While we may not know for certain who the very first homesteader was in 1863, we do for sure know for sure who was the last. In 1974 Viet Nam veteran Kenneth Deardorff, (below) filed a homestead claim on property near Stony River in southwest Alaska.
The Homestead Act had been repealed two years earlier by the Federal Land Policy and Management Act. But the agency had granted an extension for the sparsely 49th state. Deardorff and his family “proved up” on their claim, having constructed a number of buildings and lived on the property during the required five years. Inexplicably, it took another 24 years for Deardorff’s patent to be issued. He was officially recognized as the last homesteader in 2001.
Today the Homestead National Monument includes 100 acres managed by the National Park Service as well as a relic from Deardorff’s 160 -acres. His 1942 Allis-Chalmers plow used to clear stumps and haul driftwood was moved to the Monument in 2017.
Deardorff’s 1942 Allis-Chalmers
But wait. Daniel Freeman wasn’t satisfied to just be recognized as the first homesteader. His name also went down in the annals of Nebraska juris prudence for the landmark case, Freeman v. Scheve, et al. In 1899 he filed suit against the township’s school board and the local teacher, Edith Beecher. Declaring Beecher’s religious instruction violated the separation of church and state, his suit went all the way to the Nebraska Supreme Court. The Justices agreed with Freeman, ruling Beecher’s teachings had indeed violated the State Constitution.
Freeman School had students until 1967.
And the Freeman School has become historic in its own right. As the longest-serving one-room schoolhouse in Nebraska, it’s been preserved by the National Park Service. It’s unclear, however, if it was indeed named for the self-proclaimed first homesteader or an unrelated bricklayer, long-time school board member, John Freeman.
Homestead National Monument of America and the Heritage Homestead Center are located a 10-minute drive from Beatrice. In addition to the 100 acres of restored tall grass prairie there are three miles of hiking trails. Also on the site, the restored Palmer-Epard Cabin which was built in 1867 and moved to the park from its original site 14 miles away. The Homestead Heritage Center provides interactive displays which tell the story of America’s homesteaders.
Visitor and Heritage Center is open six days a week
The Freeman School has been restored its appearance in the 1870s. Admission to the park is free. The Visitor Center, Palmer-Epard Cabin, Homestead Center and Freeman School are open Monday through Friday 8:30 to 5, Saturday and Sunday 9 to 5. Trails are open daily sunrise to sunset. All facilities are closed only on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. For more information go to nps.com/ Homestead National Monument of America, call (402) 223-3514 or write 8523 West State Highway 4, Beatrice, NE 68310.
© Text Only – 2019 – Headin’ West LLC – All photos – public domain or fair use.
*Head On West strives for historic accuracy and uses a number of sources considered reliable. When research differs on significant facts, the various points of view will be cited.