Tuesday, February 5, 2013

James S. Poulsen Desert Land Entry


Last night I was looking through my special shoe box and decided to scan some documents. I have recently discovered a new Poulsen cousin (actually, she found me -- through one of my posts of course), so I was concentrating on Poulsen documents.




So, what is a Desert Land Entry? Well, in March of 1877 Congress enacted the "Desert Land Act" which was designed to foster settlement of the arid and semi-arid regions of the west, specifically in Arizona, California, the Dakotas, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. The Act allowed anyone to purchase 640 acres of land for 25 cents per acre if the land was irrigated within three years of filing. A rancher could receive title to the land any time within the three years upon proof of compliance with the law and payment of one additional dollar per acre. 

Here is an explanation and a table that shows the sales of desert land to June 30, 1890 from Google:

The Public Domain: Its History, with Statistics

 By Thomas Donaldson, United States. Public Lands Commission (1903-1905
page 363


Great-grandpa Poulsen's Desert Land Declaration Receipt (first image) doesn't indicate how many acres he was applying for, but 25 cents an acre for a total of $30 comes to 125 acres.


June 22, 1923 he got his $30 back for "Repayment for Lands Erroneously Sold."


This is a photocopy labeled "the Jim Poulsen dry farm" in Paris, Idaho.  I believe this is the  property mentioned in the Desert Land Entry. The man on the left is James S. Poulsen. Standing next to him is my grandmother Grace Poulsen.  I can't say for sure who the others are, but it's probably his second wife Harriet Humphreys Poulsen and two of her children.  I am guessing the photo was taken sometime between 1912 and 1918.  Grace was born Dec 1901 and she looks to be in her teens.

If any of your ancestors were farmers in the desert lands, you might want to see if they applied for Desert Land Entries. Check the Records of the BLM.



Leslie Ann

2 comments:

  1. Leslie Ann, I just wanted to let you know that your blog post is listed in today's Fab Finds post at http://janasgenealogyandfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/2013/02/follow-fridayfab-finds-for-february-8.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. Let us help you purchase cheap land for sale in California and Arizona, where you can quickly build your dream project, whether it is a home or commercial building!

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