Kentuckian to Homesteader
Follow the stories of three Kentuckians, and the Homestead Act of 1862.
The Homestead Act of 1862
The Homestead Act of 1862, passed by Abraham Lincoln, turned over vast amounts of the public land to private citizens. 270 million acres, 10% of the area of the United States, were claimed and settled under this act.
The Homestead Act opened land ownership to male citizens, widows, single women, and immigrants pledging to become citizens. The 1866 Civil Rights Act and the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed that African Americans were eligible as well.
Both the immediate and long-term impacts of the act were monumental, having lasting impacts that can be felt to this day. The land these homesteads were created on had previously been occupied by Indigenous people and was changed forever.
Anyone over 21 years of age or the head of a household could apply for free federal land with two simple stipulations:
- Be a citizen of the United States or legally declare their intent to become one
- Do not fight against the United States or aid enemies of the United States
A new study funded by the National Park Service and conducted at the University of Nebraska found that 3,500 black claimants were granted ownership of approximately 650,000 acres of prairie land. As many as 15,000 people lived on these homesteads.
The following are three of the 15,000 stories.
Robert Anderson
Robert Anderson's story begins in 1843 in Green County, Kentucky where he was born on the Ball Plantation. At the time, he was known as Robert Ball. At the time of his birth, Robert Anderson was enslaved.
In 1850, there were 2,609 people enslaved in Green County and 430 slaveholders.
In 1864, he escaped the plantation he was being held on, and joined the United States Army. In joining the Union Army, he served under the leadership of President Abraham Lincoln.
Anderson served with the 125th Colored Infantry. During his service, he was sent across the country. Historical records can trace his unit as they traversed the country. 1 In this process, Anderson would have been exposed to climates and landscapes that vastly differed from Kentucky.
He was eventually sent back to Lexington Kentucky, where he was discharged. 2
Enlistment records (front)
Enlistment records (back)
Anderson returned to Green County, where his family remained. The freedom that he had gained was not fully realized, as people who were African American and Black were still exploited, faced discrimination, and did not have access to the full benefits of being a United States citizen.
Anderson left Kentucky and travelled to Iowa. Tabor Collage was being built, and he found work off-bearing bricks. When the job ended in 1868, he worked for a local farmer. 3
Tabor College in 1875, depicted in Fremont County atlas.
In 1870, he filed a claim under the Homestead Act in Nebraska. 285 out of the 4,583 entries filed that year were patented. Anderson now owned a 80-acre farm located in Butler County, Nebraska. 4
Homestead Certificate No. 2411
Farming in this climate was incredibly difficult work. Drought and many years of grasshopper plagues devastated crops.
Years of drought, low farm prices, and plagues of grasshoppers forced him to lose his claim in 1881. He spent the next three years as a farmhand in Kansas. It was here in Kansas that Anderson was able to receive three months of formal education. From this education, he was able to learn how to read and write. 5
Anderson continued in his quest for owning land. In 1884, he headed for western Nebraska.
By 1886, he took up a claim under the provisions of the Timber Culture Act, a follow up to the Homestead act passed in 1843 that allowed for homesteaders to get additional land, with one condition being that they planted trees.
Anderson experienced financial disasters but was able to add to his holdings. The result was a prosperous ranch in Nebraska on 2,080 acres by 1918. Most of Anderson's land was pasture, where he raised cattle and horses. He had as many as 50 horses at a time.
The photograph shows the original sod house on Robert Anderson's farm.
Anderson escaped the racial prejudice of the South, but found he still lived in a society influenced by racist ideas. The county's Black population in 1910 was 55, under 1% of the county's total population. Many were laborers who had come to the Alliance area as Burlington workers. Robert Anderson lived near Hemingford, an exclusively white town.
Photograph identified as Robert Anderson and G.A.R. members.
In 1922, at his brother’s home in Forrest City, Arkansas, Anderson met Daisy Graham. He married Daisy on March 19, 1922. She was 21, he was 79.
Daisy spoke frankly about their relationship. Anderson and his ranch offered a form of security for her she had not found in the South. Daisy and her family came to Nebraska with him.
On November 30th, 1930, Anderson, Daisy, Daisy's brother Ernest, and a friend were in a car accident. The accident took place near Union, a small town 40 miles east of Lincoln. The car left the road and overturned in loose gravel.
They were returning from a visit with Anderson's brother in Forrest City, Arkansas. Daisy and Ernest survived. Robert Anderson died en route to St. Elizabeth Hospital in Lincoln.
Dec 4th 1930 Newspaper, Hemingford Ledger
Daisy filed for pension in 1931, as shown by this record.
Daisy Anderson became a writer, publishing many written works including a personal account of her husband’s life entitled From Slavery to Affluence: Memoirs of Robert Anderson, Ex-Slave
Daisy Anderson was inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame in 1998.
You can read more of Robert Ball Anderson's story on nps.gov
Jenny Smith Fletcher and Zachary T. Fletcher
Zachary T. Fletcher was born in the late 1840s in McCracken County, Kentucky. On June 18th, 1864, he enlisted in the U.S. Military at the age of 18.
He was a part of the 8th Regiment of the US Colored Heavy Artillery, Company B, which recruited out of Paducah, Kentucky and surrounding towns.
The 8th U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery (USCHA) was the first African American artillery unit to be recruited in Kentucky. 7
Enlistment records for "Zachary" under Zachariah Fletcher
Applying for land with application number 11235, Jenny and Zachary's Homestead claim was granted. It took them west, to Nicodemus, Kansas.
Jenny and Zachary, accompanied by their children Thomas H. and Joseph, first arrived in Nicodemus in June of 1877.
Tember Culture Certificate No. 1214
They were within the first people to arrive. Jenny's father, W. H. Smith, was president of the Colony and founder of Nicodemus.
Now preserved as the Nicodemus National Historical Site, it is the oldest and only remaining Black settlement west of the Mississippi River.
The Fletchers helped their community develop and enriched the residents' lives. In 1880, Zachary served as a delegate for Graham County to the Kansas Convention for Colored Men. Zachary was also a member of the Nicodemus Cornet Band and Nicodemus Land Company. The Nicodemus Land Company gave away town lots to anyone who would agree to improve the land, encouraging economic growth in Nicodemus.
Jenny Fletcher played a prominent role in starting Nicodemus’ first public school. In 1885, Zachary was on a committee that discussed starting the colony's first official school. In the winter of 1877, Jenny became the first schoolteacher. She taught 45 pupils in her dugout home.
The dugout shown was created by Nicodemus homesteaders when traveling to and from the nearby town of Stockton, KS.
As an early settler, Z.T. Fletcher was instrumental in the development of businesses in Nicodemus. He opened a general store, the town’s first business, in the fall of 1877.
“The Generally Out-of-Everything Store,” as it was sometimes called, opened with the sale of only two items: cornmeal and syrup. Fletcher also opened Nicodemus’ first post office and operated as Postmaster.
Jenny served as the first Postmistress in Nicodemus. She was also one of the original charter members of the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church.
Flyers, such as this one, were used to promote moving to the town.
In partnership with his brother, Thomas Fletcher, Zachary built a limestone building that would become the St. Francis Hotel in 1880.
This structure, still standing, can be visited at Nicodemus National Historical Site .
The town they had helped build provided safety from the violence and injustices experienced in other communities throughout the country. The efforts of the Fletchers, combined with others in their community, provided residents with opportunities that otherwise might not have been available.
Zachary T. Fletcher died on February 24th, 1927. The exact date of Jenny's death is unknown. Jenny and Zachary are both buried in the Nicodemus Cemetery.
Nicodemus still stands as a small village and is designated as a National Historic Site of the National Park Service.
Acknowledgments
This project was created in 2023 by the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park to celebrate Black History Month.
Abraham Lincoln Birthplace NHP thanks the National Park Service sites who provided assistance with the research to make this project possible.
We also thank the Butler County Historical Society Museum (Nebraska) for providing information about their local area.
Finally, we are profoundly grateful to those who showed incredible bravery in their journey west from Kentucky to homesteads, whose stories we are privileged to tell.
