Charles Ingalls owned several tracts of land in Wi., and MO., beginning with his first land purchase in 1857.But, he did not take advantage of the public land laws until many years later. Although the enticement of cha or “free” land likely lured him to settle in Ks. Ingalls did not actually file a preemption or homestead claim as the land was not formally ceded by the Osage Indians during the time the family lived there.
MINNESOTA:
Charles Ingalls first took advantage of the Preemption Act on 26 June 1874 when he filed a declaration of intent to preempt a quarter section ( slightly larger than the norm, at 172.07 acres) on the banks of Plum Creek in Redwood County, MN., ( NW 18-109-38). Two men had previously filed intents to preempt this same tract of land: T. E Hindre in 1870 and Anders Haroldson in 1872. Both men had relinquished their claims before Ingalls arrived in MN.
Since the Plum Creek site was preemption, the Ingalls family required to establish and maintain a residency on the land for six months and to pay the required $2.50 per acre preemption price ( the higher cost due to the land’s proximity to the railroad in Walnut Grove) within 33 months. Ingalls paid $430.50 for this claim on 7 July 1876, prior to the family’s move to Burr Oak, Ia. Ingalls sold the land three days later to Abraham Keller for $400.. According to hi preemption papers, Charles Ingalls stated that he made first settlement on the land on 24 May 1874, and that a month later, he was residing in a house 20 X 24 and 10 feet high, with multiple doors and windows.
On June 2, 1875, Charles Ingalls filed on a tree claim in Redwood County ( SE 4-109-38) located about three miles northeast of his Plum Creek preemption site. Plum Creek flowed through both of Ingalls’ claims on its way north to the Cottonwood River. The tree claim property had previously been the homestead of Gustav Carleson and ha been abandon by him in 1874. Ingalls was not required to establish residency on this tree claim, and he continued to hold it during the entire period of time that his family resided in Burr Oak, Ia.
After returning to Mn., from Ia., Chalrles Ingalls rliquished his tree claim on 1 March 1878. On 9 May 1878, he fild on the west half of his former tree claim under the Homestead Act. That same day, David Thorpe, attorney and teacher in Walnut Grove, filed on the east half of Ingalls’ former tree claim as his own homestead.
As this was a homestead claim, Charles Ingalls was required by law to establish residency on the land within six months after filing ( by 9 Nov. 1878) and to reside on the land for six months each year he homesteaded. Laura Ingalls Wilder never wrote of either Pa’s tree claim or this first homestead claim in Mn., It is interesting to not that the person who filed on this original homestead after its relinquishment was Hans Hanson, and Wilder recounted land dealings with a “Mr. Hanson” in On the Banks of Plum Creek.
but there is no record of Charles Ingalls owning any lot in or near Walnut Grove at any time.
Ingalls’ Mn., homestead wasn’t recorded as a relinquishment until Dec. 1, 1880, over a year after the Ingalses had settled in Dakota Territory. Daivd Thorp relinquished his homestead the same day, so it can be inferred that he likely informed the land office that Charles Ingalls was no longer living in MN. Because Ingalls didn’t relinquish his homestead prior to moving to Dakota Territory , it is possible that his original plans were to return to the homestead in Mn., during the winter of 1879 – 1880. If the annual residency requirement had been fulfilled by the Ingalls family prior to leaving Redwood County in Sept. 1879, they were within their rights as homesteaders to be allowed to be away from the claim. However, the railroads offer of the Surveyor’s House in De Smet as a winter residence must have enticed the Ingalls family to remain in the area rather than retuning to Mn.
DAKOTA TERRITORY:
Charles Ingalls filed on a homestead in Kingsbury Co. Dakota Territory ( NE 3-110-56) on 19 Feb. 1880. Because he never “proved up” on his Mn., homestead claim, Ingalls did not violate the one homestead individual provision of the Homestead Act. He field his claim at the newly opened land office in Brookings; the first filing was recorded in the official tract book kept at the Yankton office on 27 Feb. 1880.In his final proof dated 7 May 1880, residing in a frame house measuring 14 X 20 feet. His written affidavit indicates that a 12 X 16 ft., addition was later added to the original shanty. He further stated that he had broken 60 acres on this homestead claim and he had planted 2,000 fruit trees, both apple and plums, ” bearing small fruit in abundance” by 1886.
in By the Shores of Silver Lake, Charles Ingalls tells his family that the whole country was going to be covered with trees. ” Don’t forget that Uncle Sam’s tending to that”, Pa said. ” There ‘ a tree claim on every section, and settlers have got to plant plant ten acres of trees on very tree claim. In four or five years, you’ll see trees every way you look”. The Kingbury County tract book, where each quarter section was listed, did set aside one quarter section ( 160 acres) per section as a tree claim( usually the southeast quarter), two quarter section as potential homesteads and the fourth quarter section could be this system of filing, since quarter sections with natural timber could not be held as tree claims and over the years the designation of claims was often changed following a first relinquishment’s.
In July 1884, Charles Ingalls publish an intent to take over the tree claim( NW 28-110-56) held by Robert Miller four miles south of the Ingalls homestead, due to Miller’s failure to plant trees on the land in compliance with the Timber Culture Act. Miller’s claim was cancelled in Nov., and Ingalls filed, on the tree claim on 2 Dec. 1884.He held this tree claim for under a year, relinquishing on 8 June 1885. Several other men subsequently filed on the land as a tree claim; it was eventually filed n as a homestead and a patent was issue in 1903.
Following the completion of their home on Third street in DeSmet, the Ingallses moved permanently from their homestead claim in Dec. 1887. However Ingalls did not sell his homestead claim until 18 Feb. 1892. While he sold this property for $1,200, the sale was subject to a mortgage of $760, which he had taken out of April 1891, yielding him a net profit from the sale or less than $400.
After move than 30 years of owning property an settling in five stats and Dakota Territory, Charles Ingalls had less than $00 to show for his efforts. Iit is no wonder that his granddaughter Rose Wilder Lane latr took a less than charitable view of the attemts in the 930s to imbue the pioneers with mythic homesteaders the toute ” freeland” foverver eludd Charles Ingalls and his family. He didn’t die landless, but he never achieved his pioneering dream of a self supporting farm in the West.
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