RETURNING TO THE UNITED STATES
The 1880 U.S. Census for Overton, Nebraska, boasted forty-five Black individuals representing seven families, formerly residents of Canada's Elgin Settlement. By 1885, six additional families from the Elgin Settlement joined them.
Why did more than a dozen families from the Elgin Settlement (now North Buxton) choose to homestead in Nebraska?
Was it a desire to return to the United States or was theirs a quest for more land? The ultimate reason for leaving the Elgin Settlement may have varied from family to family, but the result was the migration of an alliance of families to Nebraska. These were educated landowners with experience and knowledge in community building. These were friends and neighbors who knew each other's strengths and weaknesses.
In the mid-1870s, there were a few options available to gain land by maximizing what may have been limited cash reserves with an investment in long-term sweat equity. They could remain in the Elgin Settlement and continue cultivating what they already had or claim homestead land in the Western provinces under Canada's Dominion Lands Act of 1872.
They could also return to the United States and claim land under the Homestead Act of 1862 or the Southern Homestead Act of 1866. The chart below reflects the basic similarities and differences between their options.
Those who fled to Canada to escape enslavement in the United States were refugees, not Canadian citizens. Some remained in Canada and acquired citizenship, but many returned south of the border after the U.S. Civil War. The decision-making process for the Elgen Settlement-to-Nebraska homesteaders may have included a desire to return "home" to the United States, eligibility for Homestead Act land, climate, and, acceptance by communities already living in the homestead areas.
Gaining land under the Southern Homestead Act was probably not an option for these land seekers. None appeared to have ties to the Southern states covered under the Act, their families originating from places like New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Virginia.
The Canadian Dominion Lands Act was similar to the U.S. Homestead Act, but the difference in weather conditions could have been a decision maker. Western Canada's latitude was almost seven degrees further north, making temperatures more extreme—colder in winter and hotter in summer—than in Kent County, Ontario. Conversely, there is a two-degree or less difference between the latitude of Nebraska and Kent County, making basic weather conditions more similar to climates familiar to the homesteaders.
Though communities like Amber Valley in Alberta and Maidstone in Saskatchewan were established by Black settlers, the racial climate in Western Canada could be as hostile as any place in the United States. There were places in the United States other than Nebraska where these Black settlers could have claimed land. Unfortunately, records have not yet pinpointed why Nebraska was chosen.
HOW DID THEY TRAVEL 1,000 MILES?
BLATANT GIVEAWAY OF "INDIAN TERRITORY"
COST TO HOMESTEADERS
FOURTEEN DOLLARS AND FIVE YEARS
$14.00 AND YOUR BLOOD, SWEAT, AND TEARS FOR LAND OWNERSHIP
Charles Meehan paid $14.00 to register his claim in Cherry County, Nebraska. He committed to live on the land for five years and to improve the claim.
He and other Homesteaders cleared land, tilled the soil, planted trees, and raised crops and/or livestock. Homes were built, along with churches and schools. Post offices and shops followed.
The work to establish a homestead was difficult and often lonely, but thousands made commitments for themselves and their family's future generations.
The cost of many Homesteader's dreams was $14 and hard work, but the price was often paid through the displacement of the Indigenous peoples of North America.
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