Three Habbens In One Section-Including a Cancellation

This is one of the prime reasons for looking at the Bureau of Land Management Tract books in states where homesteading took place–cancelled homestead entries.

Those who started the homestead process would have to had completed the same initial paperwork as someone who completed the process. For immigrants who homesteaded, this would have meant filing a copy of their naturalization papers.

I already knew Benjamin Habben obtained a homestead near Weyerts, Nebraska (in section 32 of township 16 North 48 West). But a look at the tract book from the Bureau of Land Management indicated that he was not the only Habben to file a claim in that quartersection.

The image below indicates the acreage of each parcel involved. Those with a working knowledge of land in federal land states will realize that this section has too many acres listed.

It doesn’t.

Two of those 160 acre claims were cancelled. The ones for two homesteaders were not completed:

• Robert Ross
• Elmer Habben

This can be determined by seeing the “Canc” or “Cancelled” notations on the far right hand side.

I never would have known Elmer Habben had an incomplete claim if I had not looked the tract book. Incomplete claims did not generate patents (first deeds) and do not appear in the final homestead claim records–which are available digitally at Fold3.com. 

Cancelled claims are one of those things that researchers often don’t access because determining they exist requires a manual search of the BLM tract books (usually) and that’s not an easy process–which is why looking at the BLM books for any other relative who homesteaded is crucial. Often people homesteaded in clusters–whether they completed their claim or not.

In a future post we’ll look at Elmer’s homestead application and see if there’s any notation as to why or how it was abandoned.