By Stephanie Rockliff

The Homesteaders..
In 1862 the US Government passed a law that
allowed any family to claim 65 hectares of
land, which they had to farm for 5 years and
then they could claim it as their own. The
'Homestead act' saw 1000's of immigrants
from Europe heading west to claim the land.
After the Civil war when slavery was
abolished, freed black slaves also claimed
land on the Prairies.
 The Homesteaders..
Homesteaders had to produce their own food.
When they first decided to go west the land
wasn’t very good for growing crops and food, so
they had to spend a lot of time preparing and
ploughing the land. They then planted gardens
and picked wild berries. Fruits and vegetables
were preserved by pickling or drying. Jams and
jellies were made. Food
was stored in a root cellar.
Fruits and vegetables were
also sold to the general store
in exchange for other goods.
 The Homesteaders..
The government encouraged this settling
of the Plains -
• 1862 Homestead Act - each family given 160 acres of
land as long as they farmed it for five years
• 1873 Timber Culture Act - a further 160 acres of land
was given as long as 40 acres was planted with trees
• 1877 Desert Land Act - 640 acres of very cheap land
was made available in areas with low rainfall
• Railroad companies sold huge tracts of land along
their railway lines to homesteaders to encourage use
of their trains.
 The Homesteaders..
Cows were raised for meat and for milk which
was churned into butter or made into cheese.
Chickens provided eggs and meat. Ducks,
geese and pigs were also raised. Oxen or
horses pulled plows and wagons.
Settlers also hunted deer, rabbits, wild ducks
and prairie chickens, or caught fish.
 The Homesteaders..
When the settlers arrived they had to clear
the land. Trees were chopped down and
stumps were pulled out with a team of oxen.
The first settlers used hand tools to clear the
land, plant and harvest the crops.

Later a plow was used to work the land. The

plow was pulled by oxen or horses. It took a
lot of hard work to produce a small crop.
Wheat, barley, rye and oats were planted.
There had to be enough to feed the animals in
the winter.
 The Homesteaders..
Clothing:
Most of the early settlers did not have many
clothes. The settlers made their own clothing
from woolen cloth and linen cloth.
Clothing made from wool or linen was not
very colorful. The yarn or cloth could be dyed
different colors by using bark, nuts, roots,
leaves, flowers and berries to make the dye.
Sometimes the yarn was dyed before it was
woven into cloth. This was done so there
could be more than one color in the woven
cloth.
 The Homesteaders..
Clothing was also made from skins (hides) of
animals like deer and rabbit. The skins were
made into leather. Coats, shoes, hats and men's
pants were some of the items made from leather.
Old worn-out clothes were used for making
patchwork quilts, or rugs for the floor.
The long dresses that the women and girls wore
were made of the "homespun cloth". An apron
covered the dress.
 The Homesteaders..
Lighting:
At first candles were the only light that the
settlers had, besides the light from the
fireplace. Some candles were made from
beeswax, but most were made from
animal fat. Making candles was a messy
job and it took a long time.
 The Homesteaders..
Sod Houses:
Building a sod house was the easiest and cheapest way for settlers
on the prairies to make a home. First the sod (layer of grass and
roots) was cut into strips. The sod pieces were piled one on top of
the other like bricks. That's how the walls were made. Logs or
lumber were used for the door, door frame, and window frames.
When glass was not available, greased paper or canvas covered the
windows. For the roof, logs were placed across the top and covered
with sod and hay. Sometimes the floor was made of boards, but
often it was just packed earth. When it rained a lot, the house
leaked , but these houses were cool in summer, and warm in the
winter.

The best time for a settler to arrive at the homestead was in the
spring. Then they could plant a vegetable garden and work the land
so a crop could be planted.
 The Homesteaders..
Problems: Solving:
Ploughing and sowing - Very hard New machinery - Industrial revolution in
work, the grassland was tough to break the East made better farm machinery such
up and cast iron ploughs regularly broke as John Deere's sodbuster

Dry farming - Farmers preserved moisture

in the soil by ploughing after rain or snow,
Lack of water - Irrigation was no use
trapping in the water.
due to the shortage of lakes and rivers.
Wind pumps - Halliday's windmill could
Wells were also expensive to dig and no
keep going all day and night, pumping up
guarantee of success.
water from wells deep down, no matter
which way the wind blew.
Turkey Red Wheat - Introduced by Russian
Crops - Ordinary crops like maize (corn) immigrants accidentally thrived on the Plains
and spring wheat didn't grow well in the as it was similar to the Russian Steppes
harsh weather conditions. where they came from. The famous western
tumbleweed also arrived this way.

Fencing - Wood was scarce and

Barbed wire - Invented by Joseph Glidden in
expensive so fences couldn't protect
1874 - this was a cheap and effective
crop fields from cattle or dodgy
solution for the homesteaders.