Federal Land Acquistion
Obtaining Land in the Public Domain
The steps in purchasing federal land are described in Land & Property Research in the United States, 2nd edition, by E. Wade Hone. Chapter nine Records Generated by Federal Lands describes each of the the steps involved in purchasing land in the public domain and the documents that were generated.
Step one was the application:
When a desired tract or parcel of land was located in the public domain an individual first needed to make an application or entry for that particular segment of land…Sometimes payment itself was considered adequate for successful application.
Auctions were usually held when an area first opned for public sale. Soon afterward, local land offices opened for business to where settlers applied on a "first come, first serve" basis for each segment of land.
In order to purchase land from the federal government, an applicant had to be native-born or at least declared an intention to become a citizen of the United States (although this requirement did not apply to military bounty land warrants and some preemption and private land claims).
The Land Act of 1820 discontinued credit sales and required cash payment in full. After full payment was made a receipt issued.
Once the application was completed, cash was paid, or appropirate arrangements made for credit and a receipt was issued.
After payment was made….
TODO: complete the steps.