Peter D and Sarah’s Farm 3

The previous post in this series (here) concluded with two important points: 

the north half of the northeast quarter of section 12 in Farmers Valley Precinct, which Peter D purchased shortly after arriving in the United States, was homesteaded by someone else. Peter D came to own the south half of that quarter via the Homestead Act, but only after three other homestead claims were canceled between January 1878 and August 1880.

This post picks up the story there and looks in greater detail at who originally homesteaded the north half of the northeast quarter of Farmers Valley section 12 and how Peter D came to acquire it after settling in central Nebraska.

The tract book that we examined earlier contains the answer to our first question.

The first line records all the information for the north half of the northeast quarter of section 12. The name of the original homesteaders was Adolph Reuber, who later became the owner of a billiard hall in Aurora, Nebraska. According to the corresponding right-hand page in the tract book, Reuber filed his claim on 27 August 1872. He fulfilled all the requirements of the Homestead Act and thus received his final certificate on 12 September 1877. The 80-acre parcel was legally and officially his.

The National Archives summarizes well both the process of making a claim and the requirements that had to be met for the claim to be approved. 

The new law established a three-fold homestead acquisition process: file an application, improve the land, and file for deed of title. Any U.S. citizen, or intended citizen, who had never borne arms against the U.S. Government could file an application and lay claim to 160 acres of surveyed Government land. For the next 5 years, the General Land Office looked for a good faith effort by the homesteaders. This meant that the homestead was their primary residence and that they made improvements upon the land. After 5 years, the homesteader could file for his patent (or deed of title) by submitting proof of residency and the required improvements to a local land office. (National Archives 2021)

Reuber obviously met the residency requirement (he lived on the parcel) and had made improvements to the land (breaking sod on at least part of the acreage, one would imagine), since a few weeks after his five-year period was completed his claim was approved with certificate 6748.

Less than a year later, however, Reuber (or Ruber) sold his homestead and moved to town. According to the 25 July 1878 Republican Register, published in Aurora, Reuber and his wife sold the the 80 acres of the north half of the northeast quarter of section 12, township 9, range 5 west, to John (or Johann) Sperling of Hamilton County, Nebraska. The sale price for this improved farmland was $500.

In other words, less than a year after he gained title to the land, Adolph Reuber sold it for a tidy sum, roughly double what other parcels sold that week fetched their owners. I would venture to guess (although I have no evidence proving this) that Reuber never intended to pursue farming as a life-long profession. Rather, like many other homesteaders, he planned from the outset to earn his stake, so to speak, then cash out and take up some other line of work. As noted earlier, Reuber set up a billiard hall in Aurora, which presumably was a much easier way for him to earn a living.

Of course, this leaves us with the question of how the property finally came into Peter D’s possession. Once again, the Aurora-based Republican Register provides the answer (see the extract to the left). The 31 July 1879 issue reports that Johan Sperling and his wife sold the north half of the northeast quarter of Farmers Valley section 12 to Peter Buller for $900. In one year, Sperling had nearly doubled his investment. 

Curiously, the selling price of section 12 was again roughly double the other parcels sold at roughly the same time. Why? Maybe section 12 was superior to many other parcels in the county and thus merited a higher price whenever it was sold. Or perhaps the improvements that Reuber had made—including, I assume, some sort of house and perhaps a barn or other enclosure for animals—increased the value of the property far above unimproved land. We really do not know. All we can say with certainty is that Peter D paid $900 for the first 80 acres of his U.S. farm.

Where did Peter D, a formerly landless hick from Molotschna, get the $900 to purchase the family farm? It is possible that he was extended credit from one of the many local lenders eager to write loans for farmers establishing their livelihoods in this booming area. Or perhaps Johann Siebert, Peter D’s father-in-law, bankrolled the purchase through a personal loan. I hope someday we stumble upon a piece of evidence that points to the answer. For now we can be content in knowing that Peter D purchased his first 80 acres approximately a week after arriving in the Henderson area. That acreage almost certainly contained both a house and one or more buildings for livestock. In addition, it is highly likely that at least some of the prairie sod had been broken and that crops had been produced for several years. Life was no doubt hard, but for the first time in their lives Peter D and Sarah had a home and a farm to call their own.

* The letters w d, which appear before the selling price in the transaction report, stand for warranty deed. A warranty deed is the seller’s guarantee that he or she has legal title to the property and that there are no unstated liens, encumbrances, or claims against the property that will call into question the buyer’s full title to the land.

Work Cited

National Archives. 2021. “ The Homestead Act of 1862.” Available online here.