[Homestead] History and homesteading

Bill Jones billj at harborside.com
Thu Dec 20 10:35:25 EST 2007


Gene GeRue wrote:

>Browsing through old files I found these notes and hope you will find  
>them interesting. If anyone has suggestions for additions, please  
>post same.
>
>History and Homesteading
>
>
>15th century: European peasants lived in hut villages, tilled the  
>surrounding land, ate what they grew.
>
>1785: The Basic Land Ordinance, lands in “the Northwest,” today OH,  
>MI, IN, IL, WI, were surveyed into townships and sections, minimum  
>purchase was a section, 640 ac., $1.00/ac. min. price.
>1820: Congress lowered minimum purchase to 80 ac., $1.25/ac. min. price.
>1832: Minimum purchase lowered to forty acres.
>1841: Preemption Act, 160 ac. @ $1.25/ac. plus occupancy and  
>improvements.
>1862: The Homestead Act, 160 ac., filing fee $10, make improvements.
>
>1900-1920: The golden age of agriculture per David B. Danbom, author  
>of BORN IN THE COUNTRY: A History of Rural America (1995, The Johns  
>Hopkins University Press).
>
>1929-193?: The Great Depression caused many to revert to prior self- 
>reliant lives based on home food production.
>
>1935: FIVE ACRES AND INDEPENDENCE: A Handbook of Small Farm  
>Management, by M.G. Kains, first published. Revised and Enlarged  
>Edition, 1940.
>
>1954: LIVING THE GOOD LIFE: How to Live Sanely and Simply in a  
>Troubled World, by Helen and Scott Nearing.
>• From the Preface: “During the deepest part of the Great Depression,  
>in 1932, we moved from New York City to a farm in the Green Mountains  
>[Vermont].”
>
>1968: WHOLE EARTH CATALOG published.
>
>1970: THE MOTHER EARTH NEWS was launched with a staff of two—John and  
>Jane Shuttleworth. The back cover was an ad for a special issue  
>titled How To Get Out of the City and Back to the Land.
>
>1970: Stephen Gaskin led a group of hippies from San Francisco to  
>Tennessee and founded The Farm. (Gaskin was a former English professor)
>
>1971: The first issue of AN OLD-FASHIONED RECIPE BOOK, by Carla  
>Emery, came out in pieces starting in 1971; the whole first edition  
>appeared in 1974.
>Carla died October 11, 2005 but her wisdom lives on in the lives of  
>many.
>  
>
2010: The government effectively outlaws small-scale animal husbandry by 
mandating that a microchip be placed in every chicken, and that rabbits 
receive frequent vaccinations and vet visits.





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