Week 2: My Favorite Picture

 

Week 2:  My Favorite Picture

I've always loved this picture of my great-grandparents,Walter and Martha (Rakestraw) Cartwright.  I estimate by the children's sizes that the photo was taken in either 1908 or 1909. The family looks happy, healthy, and even prosperous.

In 1896 soon after Walter and Martha were married, Walter's brother Francis and his family traveled on an emigrant train with other relatives to North Dakota to apply for claims for 160 acres of land in Towner County.   The Homestead Act of 1862 granted 160 acres of unappropriated public lands to anyone who was the head of a family, 21 years old or older, and who could pay a small filing fee.  In return, the claimant agreed to work on the land and improve it--including construction of a home--over a five-year period. About 270 million acres were distributed under the Homestead Act between 1862 and 1988.  

In 1898 Walter, Martha, and their firstborn son Clifford followed the others to North Dakota where Walter applied for a U.S. patent land grant of 160 acres in Rolette County, near the county where Francis and his family were.  Rolette County shares a border with Manitoba, Canada.  On 21 Mar 1898 Walter paid $14.00 in fees and signed his "X" for the land described as the NE ¼ of Section 24 in Township 160 of Range 70W.  Over the next six years Walter built a frame house; built a sod and frame barn; constructed a frame granary; dug two good wells; and cultivated 90 acres.  On 21 Mar 1904 Walter and two friends gave Testimony of Witness that detailed his improvements to the land and not long after the land became officially his. 

Rolette County, ND---Towner County is the next county to the east

The boy shown in the picture is my grand-uncle Clifford Loyd "Pete" (born in 1897) and my grand-aunt Clara May (born in 1905).  Their little sister-to-be Irene Eldora (born in 1909) was my maternal grandmother.  Shortly after Irene was born the family moved back to Indiana.  I've always wondered if it was homesickness, the harsh winters, or a bad series of crops that drew them back home to Indiana. Did they work the land and make the necessary improvements to fulfill the requirements of the Homestead Act only to sell it for a profit before moving back home? I wish I had known to ask my grandma these questions before she died in 1977.