Boundaries of Freedom
The fenceless plains were vast and open when early homesteaders first came here. But the very nature of homesteading - the possibility of an individual owning 160 acres - meant that somebody had to legally divide and define limits for the land.
The Land Ordinance of 1785 determined that land should be surveyed before settlement in a rectangular survey system. The basic unit was a township, a 36-square-mile area, that is further subdivided into sections and acres.
The Freemans homesteaded a quarter section, 160 acres, the number of acres specified under the Homestead Act of 1862. You are standing at the South-east corner of the Southwest quarter of the Northeast quarter of Section 26, Township 4 N, Range 5 E.
To homesteaders the boundaries created by surveyors were signs of freedom in a bountiful country that made a way for an ordinary family to own a piece of land.
[Regarding the background map on the marker]
Aerial views clearly show the United State Rectangular Survey System. Can you identify a section? a half section? a quarter-quarter section?
Notice the Freeman homestead is an odd shape. Homesteads could be any shape desired as long as each quarter-quarter section shared a side. In what other shapes could a homestead be made?
Courtesy hmdb.org
