Gary Martins said (rearranged sentences) - >Also, anyone in the US Army during the Civil War had available to them, 160 >acres or more of land. Thousands of vets hit NE. Some came first with the RR building crews (regular job with regular paycheck after returning to wartorn home after the war). They later filed for homesteads and sent for their families. >Cheap land from the railroads was the big reason for people going to >Nebraska during this time period. And the railroads advertised >heavily, both in the US, but also in Germany, and as far away as the >German settlements in Russia. Try "Nebraska, It's Characteristics and Properties" by Butler in 1873 at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~neresour/NSHS/NECP/necp0000.html Published with help(?) from Burlington and Missouri River Railroad. Somewhere in the material on the web is a story about a family move - having signed a land purchase contract with the RR, the family had free use of a car for household belongings and animals (immigrant car), plus accommodations enroute at places where had to change trains! Explore a little, please! Migration info for about 15 years later - June 1887 "Immigrant Issue" of Lincoln State Journal at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~neresour/OLLibrary/immigr/87journl.html Check the town articles for prices of land in various locations, details of local production, what crops were best, etc. Some of these towns used the opportunity to say "We need a shoemaker ... a grist mill... a hardware store..." Supposedly people purchased extra copies of this particular paper and mailed it to the folks "back home" as evidence that "the good life" was in Nebraska. We all know that! Our ancestors were part of it. T&C