Existing comment:
The Homestead Act of 1862, passed during the Civil War, guaranteed 160 acres of land to anyone who agreed to improve the land and live on it for five years. As Congress anticipated, thousands headed west along the overland trails after the war to claim land.
Railroad companies pushed into the frontier after the Civil War, bringing more settlers. The railroads also dispatched land agents to Europe. Immigrants could purchase both their transportation and land from the railroad companies, land that often had been given by federal and state governments to the railroads to encourage growth. |