Homestead Act: Section 6 Summary

Everything but the Kitchen Sink

  • You only get one homestead, so choose wisely.
  • The Grand Poohbah of the Land Office gets to set rules and regulations in order to carry out the terms of the Homestead Act.
  • (Fun fact: the GLO formed from the Department of the Treasury, so they were basically bean counters.)
  • Clerks in the Land Office don’t get their pay docked just because the land is free. They also don’t get any more than normal.
  • (It was $2 a claim from the homesteader.)
  • Anything already claimed stays claimed. If you’ve already claimed land before the Homestead Act went into effect, you get the rights provided in the text.
  • Spend at least two weeks in the U.S. military during wartime and you’ll get all the rights of homesteading, even if you’re under twenty-one.
  • (Oh yeah, we were already at war with ourselves in 1863.)