Seeking information on the process of acquiring Federal land in the 1850s. How did this work? Did the settler go to the land office and buy the next available parcel of land or did they first find some unoccupied land and then go to the land office and buy it? Some of the purchases I've seen are for parcels of unconnected land -- 40 acres here and 80 acres there -- purchased at the same time. I wonder how much they knew about the land before they bought it (water, roads, etc.). Ken

Ken, In the 1830s, the government took over all land including that land belonging to the Osage Indians. If you had homesteaded the land you were living on you would make a claim on it to the government. If they felt you were entitled to it they would give you a land grant (deed) for this land and it would be recorded. You had to apply for land to the Government Land Office for any land, no one owned anything in what became Miller County. If you run an abstract on property that goes back that far, it will be a land grant signed by Zachary Taylor. That was the way my great-grandfather's was. DeVere ----- Original Message ----- From: The Hartkes <purro@socket.net> To: <MOMARIES-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2001 6:49 PM Subject: [MOMARIES] Federal Land Sales > Seeking information on the process of acquiring Federal land in the 1850s. > > How did this work? Did the settler go to the land office and buy the next available parcel of land or did they first find some unoccupied land and then go to the land office and buy it? Some of the purchases I've seen are for parcels of unconnected land -- 40 acres here and 80 acres there -- purchased at the same time. I wonder how much they knew about the land before they bought it (water, roads, etc.). > > Ken > > > ==== MOMARIES Mailing List ==== > > > > ============================== > Search over 1 Billion names at Ancestry.com! > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/rwlist1.asp > >