FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Genia Hesser (701) 328-210 or Mark Halvorson (701) 328-2101
April 30, 2008                                                                                        

ORIGINAL 1862 HOMESTEAD ACT DOCUMENT SIGNED BY LINCOLN
COMING TO NORTH DAKOTA HERITAGE CENTER MAY 16

BISMARCK – The original 1862 Homestead Act document, which brought thousands of settlers to the Northern Plains, is coming to the North Dakota Heritage Center in Bismarck. Signed by President Lincoln on May 20, 1862, this rare historic document will be displayed beginning the afternoon of Friday, May 16.                                

On loan from the National Archives in Washington, D.C., it will be on display through November 10, 2008 as part of the Lincoln’s Legacy in North Dakota exhibition produced by the state’s history agency, the State Historical Society of North Dakota (SHSND).  The National Archives loans original documents to qualified institutions in the United States and elsewhere for educational purposes while also ensuring their availability for future generations.

As part of the May 16 events, the U.S. Postal Service’s Bismarck office will be at the Heritage Center from 12 noon until 4 p.m., offering a special commemorative postmark in honor of the opening of the Homestead Act exhibit.  The unique postmark will be free, applied by the postmaster to any item with first-class postage.  In addition, the SHSND will give away 250 commemorative Homestead Act postcards on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Civil War-era musical entertainment will also be provided during the afternoon by the Miller Family of Mandan, North Dakota.  A cookies and coffee reception, sponsored by the SHSND Foundation, will be held in the Heritage Center mezzanine area from 2 to 3 p.m.

Also, on Sunday, May 18, Dr. Jerry Tweton will discuss the impact of the Homestead Act on the region, beginning at 2 p.m. at the Heritage Center, in the final program of this year’s Sensational Sundays series.  He is a professor emeritus of history at the University of North Dakota and senior consultant to the North Dakota Humanities Council.  

The Homestead Act is being brought to North Dakota as part of the state’s commemoration of Lincoln’s 200th birthday.  The Act is rarely displayed and has not been on public view since 1979, when it was part of a national bicentennial exhibition, The Written Word Endures, at the National Archives.

“The Homestead Act is a priceless document that represents personal history to many North Dakotans and other residents of the Plains,” said Rick Collin, state liaison to the national Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission and SHSND Communications and Education Director.  “This will be a once-in-a lifetime opportunity for many people to see this national treasure, and the State Historical Society is delighted to be able to bring it to the North Dakota Heritage Center as part of our state’s Lincoln Bicentennial observance.”         

Two of the Homestead Act’s four pages will be exhibited; the document’s other two pages will remain at the National Archives.  On display will be the first page, which begins, “An Act to secure homesteads to actual settlers on the public domain ...,” and the final page bearing the signatures of President Lincoln, U.S. Speaker of the House Rep. Galusha A. Grow (R-PA), and the President pro tempore of the Senate, Sen. Solomon Foot (R-VT).

The North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame, in partnership with the SHSND, will exhibit several additional homestead-related documents, also from the National Archives, from May through September at its museum in Medora.

The SHSND’s Curator of Exhibits Genia Hesser has been working closely with National Archives officials since May 2007 to arrange for the exhibition and delivery of this historic document to the state’s history museum.

The North Dakota Mill and Elevator has made a donation of $500 toward helping to underwrite the exhibit of the document, underscoring the importance of agriculture and its connections to the Homestead Act. 

The SHSND is working closely with the North Dakota Humanities Council, the North Dakota Council on the Arts and the Prairie Public television network to develop an hour-long television program on the Homestead Act and Lincoln’s role in signing it.  Produced by Prairie Public, that program will premier in the Fall of 2009.

The Homestead Act, which took effect on January 1, 1863, opened up 10 percent of the United States, or 275 million acres, to settlement.  Between 1879 and 1886, more than 100,000 people settled in northern Dakota Territory, or what is now North Dakota.  To claim a 160-acre homestead, a man or woman had to be head of a household and at least 21 years of age.  The law required they also build a house, have at least 10 acres under cultivation, and live on the homestead for five years.  The first person in northern Dakota Territory to “prove up” on his homestead claim was Nelson E. Nelson of rural Pembina in 1877.

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Note: JPEG photographs of the Homestead Act document and related images are available by contacting SHSND Communications and Education Director Rick Collin at (701) 328-1476 or e-mailing him at rcollin@nd.gov.