Kansas Settlement & Town
Development
The impact of government policies
and the expansion of the railroad
Government Policies
influenced thousands to settle in
Kansas
• Preemption Act
• Homestead Act
• Timber Culture Act
Preemption Act
• Designed to give settlers rights to lands they
already occupied
• Squatters could take up residence on public
lands and buy the land from the government
after 14 months
• The advantage to the squatter was the
opportunity to buy the land before it went up
for public sale
• This eliminated competitive bidders and
protected the investments the squatters had
already done to the land
• An individual could claim up to 160 acres
• Owner was obliged to pay $1.25 per acre
once a public land survey was completed
• As towns developed, shares were sold to
investors and some actually settled on the
land, others were ‘absentee speculators’
• Some towns developed, others did not
Homestead Act
• Any person over the age of 21 could claim up
to 160 acres of public land
• Homesteader had to be a U.S. citizen, or
intend to become one
• In order to get the land, settlers had to pay a
$10 fee, as well as live on the land.
• If, after 5 years, a homesteader could show
improvement to the land, they were given
clear title to the land.
• If the settler wished to buy the land before
the 5 years was up, it cost them $1.25 an acre
Timber Culture Act
• Allowed settlers to enlarge their land holdings
• The act tried to increase the amount of timber on the
plains and asked settlers to plant additional trees
• Up to 160 acres of additional land could be claimed
as long as a large number of trees were planted on
the land
• Settlers did not have to live on the land
• If claimants were successful in following the
requirements, after several years they could
purchase the land for $1.25 an acre
Railroad Expansion
The railroad industry had an enormous
impact on the settlement in the west and
especially in Kansas. There was
tremendous desire to construct the
transcontinental railroad connecting the
east coast to the west coast. The first
railroad reached the Kansas border during
its territorial period, before statehood.
In the 1850’s around the time of the KansasNebraska Act, when the Native American
tribes were being moved to Oklahoma, there
was talk of the railroads being built through
Kansas.
The Kansas Pacific railroad took an active
role in recruiting British immigrants to
Kansas because the railroad had a special
relationship with the Kansas Emmigration
Company in London. This land company
bought land from the railroad in Kansas and
sold it to the British immigrants.
• The Elwood and Marysville railroad was
the first company to actually lay tracks in
Kansas. It had plans to lay tracks all the
way to the Rocky Mountains, but the
company went bankrupt before it could
finish its plans.
• People had long debated the role of the
federal government in encouraging the
development of the railroads. If the
government was to succeed in building a
transcontinental railroad, it had to find a way
to stimulate private industry to build one
because it could not find a way to have it
happen both economically and politically, but
the railroads would not go to the expense of
building without the government’s help.
• To accomplish this, the U.S. government
passed the “Pacific Railroad Act,” which
provided land grants to the railroad.
• The government gave public lands to the
railroad companies in exchange for building
tracks in specific locations. As the railroad
expanded into new territories, everyone
believed that new settlements would follow.
That, in turn meant that the land value would
increase and could be sold and therefore the
railroad would make a profit.
• The federal government assumed that any
money made by the railroad would help
finance further expansion of the area around
where tracks had been laid.
• To help the process, the U.S. government
surveyed public lands and divided them into
one-mile square sections
• The land grants gave every other section to
the railroad company and the federal
government kept the other half of the
sections.
• The railroads had a very large impact on town
development in Kansas, especially in central and
western Kansas.
• The railroads promoted settlement and they also
worked to bring businesses to those town as well.
• Farmers needed towns to do business and
businesses need people to buy their goods and
services.
• The railroads worked to stimulate the economy
along the lines of their tracks
• The growth of towns along the rail lines resulted in
profits for the railroad companies
• From the earliest days of settlement in
Kansas, town site associations were
formed.
• It was their responsibility to survey the
lands and ‘plat’ the selection of the actual
place the town would be placed
• To pay for this and other town
developments, the association sold shares
in the town site
• Once the towns were surveyed and platted,
the lots needed to be sold and creating a
business section was very important and
most towns were platted and sized the same.
• Several small specialized businesses were
all placed in a central location and were
generally 25 feet wide, allowing for the retail
function of the space to change easily, very
much like store spaces at shopping malls
today
• The main streets were 80-100 feet wide and the
intersection of two streets was the central part of the
business section of each town.
• The residential streets were 60 feet wide, with house
lots 50 feet wide
• Towns all across Kansas were built in this way
• You can travel to smaller towns across Kansas today
and if you find the railroad tracks, the old railroad
station, then you can find the oldest and first part of
every town’s business section