Donation Land Claim Act

The Donation Land Claim Act of 1850, sometimes known as the Donation Land Act, ^[1] was a statute enacted in late 1850 by the United States Congress. It was intended to promote homestead settlements in the Oregon Territory in the Pacific Northwest (comprising the present-day states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and part of Wyoming). The law, a forerunner of the later Homestead Act, brought thousands of white settlers into the new territory, swelling the ranks of settlers traveling along the Oregon Trail. 7,437 land patents were issued under the law, which expired in late 1855.

History

The passage of the law was largely due to the efforts of Samuel R. Thurston, the Oregon territorial delegate to Congress.^[2] The act, which became law on September 27, 1850, granted 320 acres (1.3 km²) of designated areas free of charge to every unmarried white male citizen eighteen or older and 640 acres (2.6 km²) to every married couple arriving in the Oregon Territory before December 1, 1850.^[3] In the case of a married couple, the husband and wife each owned half of the total grant in their own name. The law was one of the first that allowed married women in the United States to hold property under their own name.^[2] Half-blood Native Americans were also eligible for the grant.^[4] A provision in the law granted half the amount to those who arrived after the 1850 deadline but before 1854.^[4] Claimants were required to live on the land and to cultivate it for four years to own it outright.^[3]

Limitations

The provisional government formed at Champoeg had limited the land claims offered in the hope of preventing land speculation. The Organic Act of the Oregon Territory had granted 640 acres (2.6 km²) to each married couple.^[2] The new law voided the previous statutes but essentially continued the same policy and was worded in such a way as to legitimize existing claims. One such claim legitimized by the act was that of George Abernethy, who had been elected to the governorship in the days of the provisional government. His claim became famous for Abernethy Green, where new emigrants camped at the end of the Oregon Trail while seeking a piece of land for themselves.

Details

Claims under the law were granted at the federal land office in Oregon City. The most famous patent granted at the Oregon City Land Office was the plat for the city of San Francisco, which had to be sent up the coast from California by ship. The claims of the land were surveyed by the Surveyor General of Oregon, an office created out of the law. As part of the general survey, the Willamette Stone was placed just west of Portland, defining the Willamette Meridian.^[3]

Last year and aftermath

After the 1854 cut-off date, the designated land in Oregon was no longer free but was still available, selling at $1.25 an acre ($3.09/hectare), with a limit of 320 acres (1.3 km²) in any one claim.^[3] The law expired on December 1, 1855.^[3] In the following years, the price was raised and the maximum size of claims was progressively lowered.

In 1862 Congress passed the first of the "Homestead Acts," which was largely designed to encourage settlement of the Great Plains states, but applied to Oregon as well.^[3]

References

↑ Ch 76–9 Stat. 496
1 2 3 "History Minutes: Oregon Donation Land Claim Act". Education. The Oregon Historical Society. Retrieved 31 December 2012.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Riddle, Margaret (August 9, 2010). "Donation Land Claim Act, spur to American settlement of Oregon Territory, takes effect on September 27, 1850.". Timeline Library. HistoryLink.org. Retrieved 31 December 2012.
1 2 Robbins, William G. "Oregon Donation Land Act". The Oregon Encyclopedia. . Retrieved December 30, 2012.

External links

Pioneer history of Oregon (1806–1890)

Topics	American Fur Company Columbian Exchange Executive Committee Ferries Hudson's Bay Company Oregon & California Railroad Oregon boundary dispute Oregon Country Oregon Lyceum Oregon missionaries Oregon Spectator Oregon Territory Oregon Trail Oregon Treaty Organic Laws Pacific Fur Company Provisional Government

Events	Treaty of 1818 Russo-American Treaty of 1824 Willamette Cattle Company Champoeg Meetings Star of Oregon Whitman massacre Cayuse War Donation Land Claim Act Holmes v. Ford Rogue River Wars Constitutional Convention Modoc War Great Gale of 1880

Places	Albina Applegate Trail Barlow Road Canemah Champoeg Elliott Cutoff Fort Astoria Fort Dalles Fort Vancouver Fort William French Prairie Linn City Meek Cutoff Methodist Mission Oregon City Oregon Institute Philip Foster Farm Thomas and Ruckle Road Tualatin Academy Whitman Mission Willamette Trading Post

People	George Abernethy Jesse Applegate Ira Babcock Sam Barlow François Blanchet Elijah Bristow Tabitha Brown Matthew Deady Abigail Scott Duniway Thomas Lamb Eliot Philip Foster Peter French Joseph Gale Cornelius Gilliam David Hill Chief Joseph Joseph Kellogg H.A.G. Lee Jason Lee David Thomas Lenox Asa Lovejoy Morton M. McCarver John McLoughlin Joseph Meek Ezra Meeker James D. Miller John Minto Robert Newell Joel Palmer Osborne Russell Sager orphans Levi Scott Henry Spalding William Vandevert Elijah White Marcus Whitman Narcissa Whitman Geo. H. Williams Ewing Young

Transportation	Columbia Lot Whitcomb Canemah Colonel Wright Gazelle Oregon Steam Navigation Company

Oregon history	pre-Pioneer Pioneer

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