Genealogy Jottings

Adam Smith, who wrote Wealth of Nations, said that land is the basis of all wealth. Everyone knows that millions of fortune-seeking Americans in the early years of the Republic acquired land from the federal government, either through low-priced cash entry, by homesteading, or in receipt of bounty lands earned via military service. Many members of my own family did so including Thomas and Caleb Reed in Illinois, Petronellia Sherman Reed in Wyoming, Ole and Sofie Bentsen in Montana, and Laura Riddle in Nebraska.

Yet no record of government land acquisition has been found for great-grandfather Samuel Reed (1843-1928) who lived during the prime homesteading years. Why not? He grew up on a farm, so he certainly possessed the skills needed by a homesteader. Why didn’t this man who loved the west ever file on a claim or buy government land?

Perhaps it was because homesteading was hard work. Family legend has it that Samuel was not the most industrious man around. Supposedly he preferred the role of land speculator to farmer. He bought and sold tracts in Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma during his lifetime. He is said to have sold them mostly at a loss until his inheritance was gone. This man from a prosperous family did not die wealthy. He probably would have been better off had he stayed in Illinois to inherit his father’s farm on land his father acquired for cash from the government beginning in 1841.

Samuel did not follow the example set by his grandfather, his father, and even his ex-wife. Instead, he pursued get-rich-quick schemes and missed the biggest opportunity of all.

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