By the Shores of Silver Lake

The historical Ingalls were among hundreds of thousands of families claiming land under the Homestead Act of 1862. Enacted by the United States Congress during the Civil War, the act allowed adult heads of families to claim 160 acres of public land in the Western territory. After claimants paid a small filing fee and lived on and cultivated the land for five consecutive years, they were entitled to the property for no additional charge. Although the Homestead Act succeeded in accelerating the settling of the Western United States, the legislation “proved to be no panacea for poverty” (“Homestead Act [1862]"). National Archives, 7 June 2022). Due to the cost of livestock and agricultural equipment, most laborers and farmers could not afford to build farms even with the low price of land guaranteed by the act. Those who could afford these expenses tended to settle in areas near their previous home states. Likewise, the Ingalls, who lived in Plum Creek, Minnesota, moved to South Dakota in 1879. Additionally, the act’s ambiguous wording enabled many fraudulent claims. In the end, the majority of the land was allotted to railroads, miners, and cattle ranchers: “Of some 500 million acres dispersed by the General Land Office between 1862 and 1904, only 80 million acres went to homesteaders” (“