Two Young Homesteaders

Object NameBook

Author Theodora Robinson Jenness (American, 1847 - 1935)

Publisher D. Lothrop and Company Publishers (American (Boston, MA), 1868 - 1904)

Date1883

OriginUSA

MediumPaper

ClassificationsBooks, Manuscripts, Documents, Personal Symbol & Correspondence

Credit LineGift of Dennis Wendell. In the Farm House Museum Collection, Farm House Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Object number90.9.9

Status

On view

Collections

Books, Magazines, & Documents

CultureAmerican

Label TextHomesteading played a central role in Iowa’s development during the mid-to-late nineteenth century, especially after the passage of the Homestead Act of 1862 (the same year of the passage of the Morrill Act or land-grant act). This law allowed settlers to claim 160 acres of public land by living on it, improving it, and farming it for five years. Iowa’s fertile prairie soil, relatively flat landscape, and access to rivers and railroads made it especially attractive to homesteaders from the eastern United States and from Europe, including Germans, Scandinavians, and Irish immigrants. Families built sod or woodframe houses, broke the tough prairie grass with steel plows, and established farms that quickly turned Iowa into one of the nation’s leading agricultural states. While homesteading brought economic growth and permanent settlement, it also had lasting consequences. The availability of land for settlers was made possible by earlier treaties and forced removals of Indigenous peoples, meaning homesteading was directly tied to displacement and loss of Native land. Life for homesteaders was often difficult, marked by harsh winters, droughts, isolation, and demanding labor, especially for women and children. Over time, the homesteading system helped shape Iowa’s rural communities, schools, and local governments, creating patterns of land ownership and agricultural production that continue to influence the state’s economy and landscape today. https://iowaagliteracy.wordpress.com/2017/05/30/where-did-they-come-from-iowa-pioneers/ Bremer, Jeff. A New History of Iowa. University Press of Kansas, 2023.

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