Alberta Homestead

(This is a picture of George and Clarence Scott, children of Thomas R. Scott, in front of the old homestead cabin, Alberta, Canada.)


Tom Scott was an eleven year old boy in Scotland, playing hooky from school, when the Canadian government passed the Dominion Lands Act in 1872. Over the next 30 years, he traveled a long way and had a lot of different experiences before finally taking advantage of that act by filing for homestead on a quarter section of land in Alberta.

Grandpa Scott wasn’t really a farmer. His father, David, was a blacksmith, very respected in the community of Beamsville, Ontario. Tom chose the profession of stonecutter, and worked at it for many years, in two countries and across a continent, from West Virginia to Alberta.

Maybe there’s something in most men, that, given the opportunity, will prod them to take a chance on something that offers more than what they have. Or at least they think it offers more. What the Dominion Lands Act offered was a free homestead of 160 acres for a $10 registration fee – provided you were a male 21 years of age or a woman who was the sole support of her family. You had to be a British subject, had to reside on the homestead for at least six months of the year for three years, make improvements to the land by cultivating at least 30 acres of land, and erect a house worth at least $300. Once these requirements were met, you could make application for a title, or patent, to your land.

The application for a patent consisted, in 1910, of some pretty specific questions concerning how long you had lived on the land, how many acres you had cultivated, how many “horned cattle, horses, sheep and pigs” you have had on the land each year, size and value of house, extent of fencing and cash value, other buildings and improvements, etc., etc.

Grandpa’s notice for approval of application for “homestead patent for the NW quarter of Section 32 Township 50 Range 1 W. 5th M. . . .” is dated Dec. 22nd, 1911, and says, “The patent will be issued in due course.” What a lot of work is represented in that one yellowed and faded piece of paper.