The original document enacting the Homestead Act of 1862 and bearing the signature of Abraham Lincoln is on display at the Heritage Center in Bismarck. Encased in a low-lighted area it shows its fading age. The President’s signature pulled at me because I yearned to get close as possible to the man and the aura that surrounds his historic presidency.
Passage of this law set in place a westward movement of many Civil War veterans, Germans from Russia, Scandinavians and others. To facilitate railroad development the government granted a huge amount of land to them as incentive for building tracks to serve the newly established communities. So many came to this area that by end of this “Great Dakota Boom” 69 percent of North Dakota’s population came from foreign countries or were second generation descendents.
History says that many of them failed to prosper under the conditions, probably because of the harsh living conditions. Wild animals, lack of trees for windbreaks, crop failures, loneliness and sub-standard housing caused many to leave. Only rare examples of their houses remain. During these past few years I had reason to drive to Linton and saw a couple abandoned houses still standing, part of their exterior walls weathered away exposing the sod walls. On my last trip I looked but think they no longer stood.
My mother-in-law was born and raised in a sod house southwest of here. She told stories of how the walls were three feet thick and she could sit in the window sill to look out. It had a packed dirt floor and each year a new coat of calcimine was painted on its walls. To manufacture chinking material they tramped barefoot in mud.
One of the stories from the lore of the area still amazes me. A family trekked westward to their new land with their wagon. A blizzard caught them in the open. They overturned the wagon to use as shelter where the woman gave birth to a child.
