1857

Dennis Chapin signed a Champaign County Homesteading Contract on April 1, 1857, purchasing five acres of land for a grand total of $226. The signing of this contract occurred in advance of the 1862 Homestead Act—a major piece of federal legislation that granted adult heads of households 160 acres of land for free, with the stipulation of  a small administrational fee and the promise to reside on the land for at least five years (National Archives). The Act was meant to incentivize westward expansion and to bolster small farmers, but actually had an adverse effect; most of the land granted by the Homestead Act fell into the hands of industrial entrepreneurs rather than small farmers.

Though there are no letters from 1858 in the collection, it is worth noting that George Franklin Bocock was born to Marcia (Chapin) Bocock & John Waddle Bocock on October 29th of that year in Champaign County, IL.