Homestead certificate for Daniel Freeman
Daniel Freeman was the first American to file a homestead claim for land under the Homestead Act of 1862. The act required a series of steps, such as improving a plot of land and living on it for five years, before the homesteader could gain ownership of the 160 acres he claimed. Daniel Freeman initiated his claim on January 1, 1863 and received his ownership certificate January 20, 1868. Text adapted from “The Homestead Act of 1862” in the October 1997 National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) publication Social Education.
National Archives, Records of the Bureau of Land Management