When one thinks about our ancestors getting land to settle in the Midwest or West, our first thoughts are that the settler either bought land from another landowner, purchased land from the federal government, or homesteaded the land.
My husband’s great-grandfather, Per Alfred Lundquist, settled in Montgomery County, Iowa, located in the southwestern part of the state, in an area of rolling hills. I first checked the Bureau of Land Management’s website of the General Land Office, and he was not listed as buying land from the federal government.[1]
Next, I checked with the local county deed records at the FamilySearch catalog, and there I found he purchased 80 acres of land from the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad on 11 October 1883. This land was in Section 30 in Township 71 of Range 37 of the 5th Principal Meridian.[2]
How is it that a railroad company would be selling land to our ancestors? The federal government wanted settlers in the plains and the West. They knew the railroads would bring settlers west, and wherever the railroad went, settlements would follow. To help finance the railroad building, in 1850, Congress voted to grant land to railroads in Illinois. By 1870, land had been granted to eighty railroad companies.
The land was given to the states, who then granted the land to the railroad as they built their track. The railroad received alternate sections, six miles on each side of the railroad track. These grants enabled the railroad company to raise funds for building its railroad by selling land adjacent to or near its lines. It was a win-win situation. Railroads needed settlers to ride their trains and send their goods, and settlers needed a way to travel to their new homes. The more people settled, the more money the railroads made.
So, when did the C.B.& Q. Railroad get its land in Section 30? I went back to the BLM website and searched using the land description Township 71, Range 37, of the 5th Principal Meridian in Section 30. No railroad came up in the search results, but the tract book is connected to this description.
On top of the area for Section 30, Township 71, Range 37, it says “E ½ of Section 30, 320 acres, granted to Burlington & Missouri River Railroad per Act June 2, 1864, approved February 3, 1869.” That is how the railroad, which had merged with another to become the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, sold 80 acres to P. A. Lundquist in 1883.[3]
What got P.A. Lundquist to come to Montgomery County? It might have been the Swedish colony that settled there. The colony may have been enticed by ads produced by the railroads, such as this one in Swedish.[4] The railroads advertised in many languages and even had land offices in foreign countries to entice settlers to the plains.
It’s nice to know that P.A. Lundquist was part of the wheels of progress that went hand-in-hand with the granting of land to the railroads, the railroads selling land to settlers, settlers riding trains and sending their goods to other places using the railroads.
#52Ancestors-Week 20: Wheels
This is my eighth year working on this year-long prompt,
hosted by Amy Johnson Crow (https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/)
at Generations Cafe. I write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or My Trails into the Past. I
have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.
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[1]
Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office Records (https://glorecords.blm.gov/search/default.aspx;
13 May 2025), searched for Lundquist in Iowa brought no returns.
[2]
Montgomery Co, Iowa, deeds, v. 17 p. 419, Chicago, Burlington & Quincy
Railroad Company to P. A. Lundquist, 1883, microfilm 1480962. These films are
locked from home, and I originally viewed them at the Family History Library
before digitization.
[3]
General Land Office, Tract Book, State of Iowa, v. 143, p. 154, Township 72,
Range 37, Section 30, Burlington & Missouri River Railroad, 1869,
[4]
CB&Q brochure in Swedish, “Room eno’ for All,” Environment & Society
Portal (https://www.environmentandsociety.org/exhibitions/cbq-railroad/room-eno-all-promotion-settlement-iowa-and-nebraska:
13 May 2025).
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