Daniel Freeman was a Union Army soldier stationed at Fort Leavenworth. Legend has it that, knowing the Homestead Act would open at midnight, he persuaded the Brownville, Nebraska, land office registrar to open just after 12:00 a.m. on January 1, 1863. He filed Claim No. 1, making him the earliest documented Nebraska homesteader.
He later built a log cabin on his 160-acre claim near present-day Beatrice, Nebraska, proved up the land, and lived there until his death in 1908. The site is now
Homestead National Historical Park.
Images used are not copyright-protected and provided by the
Nebraska State Historical Society.
