FRANK JONES and
ELIZABETH WILMOT (WORTH) JONES

Page 3 of 7

"Mother was a large woman but she got down to 118 pounds because she had a goiter (thyroid problem). She did work real hard. She got so she was out of breath. I think she needed more calcium. She had us kids and her legs would hurt so. After we built our own house she couldn't go upstairs because she couldn't make the stairs. She couldn't walk a very big distance either. She'd get out of breath. I know after my sister Grace died, her boys stayed there with us, they'd want to sit on her lap. And it always hurt so bad. They'd get a chair (next to her) and manage to sit on her lap.

"Dad had a bad temper but he never hit none of us. He always left it (discipline) to mother. It was a good thing he did too because he had an awful temper. If he'd of been violent we'd a been dead. (Lizzie chuckled as she said this.) If something happened he got a switch and he was going to go over there and teach somebody something and when he got over there he threw the switch down and gave 'em a good cussing and tongue lashing, and that was harsher than the switch. And it didn't have the effect either. A tongue lashing isn't good. But mother was, well I think he might have been just a bit leery because she could have knocked him down. I never thought of it at that time but that might have had something to do with him being so meek when it come to her. (Lizzie chuckled again.)"

The Homestead Act of 1862 provided 160 acres of land to anyone who could meet the requirements of improvements on the land as well as 5 years residency. In 1904, the Kinkaid Act[1] was passed which provided 640 acres instead of 160 in the more dry and sandy unclaimed land in the north central and western parts of the state. The amount of acres was increased because it was nearly impossible to make a living for a family on 160 acres in this area. Lizzie's father George, and brothers Ralph, Ed, and Walter took out Kinkaids in the sandhills. Each "proved up on" or met the requirements to receive 640 acres. The 1910 census[2] shows Ed, Ralph and Walter each living in their own home, presumably back in the hills on their homesteads. Lizzie is 21 and living at home with her parents George and Flora, and Nellie and George D. (Dewey).

On 22 October 1910, Lizzie, age 22, started the process for herself. I haven't been able to find a reliable statistic for how many women filed for a homestead, but Lizzie was one of many. Women homesteaders had to be single, either never married, widowed or divorced. Some women homesteaders saw the opportunity to make a living on the land, some saw a chance for investment, and some, like Lizzie, filed in order to expand the family's holdings. Whether she didn't care about raising her own cattle, or she was discouraged from doing so, while she was homesteading back in the hills, her brother Walter owned the cattle that grazed the land. He had 25 cows, while Lizzie had two[3].

Lizzie's homestead of 640 acres was located in sections 8 and 17, township 23 north, range 20 west. This land is located 11 east and 4 miles north of Brewster, Blaine county, Nebraska, or 4 miles straight north of the Worth home place (S30 T23N R20W). She filed her Final Proof papers on 12 August 1915. Witnesses to her "Notice of Intention to Make Proof" were neighbors William Eldridge and Richard Scarlett, her brother Walter and father George. The Kincaid Act provided a three-year residency requirement instead of five years. These papers provide information about the improvements made on the land and show she met the requirements get the deed from the government. These improvements included 3 3/4 miles of 2- and 3-wire barbed wire fences with cedar and cottonwood posts, 35 acres plowed and planted into crops, a baled hay house which was 14 feet by 20 feet, plastered inside, with 3 windows and 1 door frame and a tar paper roof; a frame barn 12 feet by 14 feet, a well and pump, with all the buildings fenced in, with a few cottonwood and box elder trees planted around the place. All improvements were valued at $1000 in 1915. After filing the Final Proof papers and having an ad placed in the newspaper stating that she was about to complete the process, Lizzie was given a patent and title, which transfered the land from the government to her. The Land Patent[4] , or deed from the government, was dated 23 November 1915.

[1] The Kinkaid Act of 1904, Todd Arrington, Homestead National Monument of America (http://homesteadcongress.blogspot.com/2009/01/kinkaid-act-of-1904.html : accessed 2 October 2017).

[2] 1910 U.S. Census, Loup County, Nebraska, population schedule, Sawyer Precinct, ED 187, sheet 3A, dwelling 43, family 44, George H. Worth family, image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 21 Jan 2006), citing NARA publication T624, Roll 850.

[3] Elizabeth Worth (Loup County) Homestead Patent No. 500341, Serial No. 03433, 23 Nov 1915, O'Neill, Nebraska, Land Office; Bureau of Land Management, (https://glorecords.blm.gov : accessed 16 Dec 2016).

[4] Elizabeth Worth (Loup County) Homestead Patent No. 500341, Serial No. 03433, 23 Nov 1915, O'Neill, Nebraska, Land Office; Bureau of Land Management, (https://glorecords.blm.gov : accessed 16 Dec 2016).

Homestead Entry, Final Proof, Elizabeth Worth

I'm not aware of any photos or drawings of the home Lizzie and her family built on her claim. On that ever growing list of questions I wish I had asked Grandma back in 1979 are questions about this time in her life. Why did she homestead? Who built the house? Where did they get the straw bales? What was it like sleeping in the hills, listening to the silence and the wind and the occasional coyote? Where exactly was the house located? Did she have plans for a permanent house there? Did she enjoy staying in the house or was it a necessary thing to do that she didn't enjoy? Did she plant geraniums in a pot and keep them in the window of the house? (I read that in a book somewhere, maybe the Little House books or something by Bess Streeter Aldrich!) Can you imagine the view of the Milky Way from her home in the hills?

Lizzie was about two weeks shy of her 27th birthday when she received the deed to her land. We speculate that she may have homesteaded to expand the land the family could use for pasture, but her father and brothers didn't take over the land or ask her sell it to them cheap. She kept the land and rented it out until she died, when it passed to her daughter Grace. Grace kept it and rented it out also until her death when it was sold and the proceeds divided among her seven children.

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