The saga of the 1866 Southern Homestead Act was in last month's Newsletter. It focused on this most unusual and ill-fated homestead law that was in force for a decade during post-Civil War Reconstruction period. One of its results, however, was enabling former Confederate soldiers the right to homesteaded like anyone else in the nation. We will now trace the story of one such former Confederate soldier, Isaac Potts, who got a homestead in Arkansas, a former Confederate state, in the mid-1890s.

First, it is important to realize that there is no way to rapidly identify which homesteaders in the USA were former Confederate soldiers or once actively supported the Confederacy-actions that under the original 1862 Homestead Act disbarred their ability to receive homesteads. Notably, the standard application form filled in by all prospective homesteads starting in the 1860s never required that they supply such information -- just as no racial information was required to be recorded. Consequently, it usually takes specific research on individual homesteaders to learn their stories. And while some of the many homesteaders in the former Confederate states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi had been Confederate soldiers or supporters, not all were. Some had fought for the Union.

One such case of a proven former Confederate soldier homesteading on public lands in the former Confederate state of Arkansas only came to my attention recently. I happened to purchase his original homestead certificate in an on-line sale, and in researching his history, I discovered that he had served in the Confederate Army in his youth. His story is probably both typical of how some former Confederates got homesteads, but also unusual as I'll soon reveal. In telling his story, I will also include my sources showing how I found his history as a help to others who may wish to do similar research.

On January 10, 1896, Isaac Potts (1844-1926) received a homestead patent for 40 acres of land in Fulton County, in north-central Arkansas. It was located in the hilly Ozark region that extended north in southern Missouri. The property Potts claimed had been administered through the Harrison, Arkansas land office, about 60 or more miles to the west of where he settled, which occurred sometime in the year 1890 or more likely in the later 1880s. This is deduced from his needing to have lived on his homestead for not less than 5 years before receiving title to it in early 1896. (The specific date of Potts' settlement on his land would in his homestead casefile in the National Archives in Washington, D.C., which I plan to see later this year.)

The homestead certificate that Potts received in January of 1896 was of the same style as all others of this period going back to the first issued in the 1860s. His, like all other homestead certificates through the early 20th century, was signed in the General Land Office in Washington, D.C. by a secretary authorized to sign the President's name. In Potts' case, the sitting President in early 1896 was Grover Cleveland -- a man whom Isaac Potts apparently like as he named a son for him.

As to Isaac Potts, he was born September 4, 1844 in Missouri, and died December 10, 1926, apparently in Fulton County, Arkansas, according to Arkansas death records found in Ancestry.com. He is buried in the Mount Calm Cemetery, Fulton County, Arkansas, near two of his children and other relatives, per Find A Grave. That website also shows a picture of his gravestone, which reported that he was born in 1840. However, census records instead suggest a more likely birth year of 1844.

Isaac Potts was married at least twice. He first married about 1869 probably in Arkansas to Phoebe Langston (1843-1885). She was born November 11, 1843 in Arkansas, and died June 29, 1885 probably in Izard County, Arkansas where they lived in 1870 and 1880, per the federal census. She was buried in Flat Rock Methodist Church Cemetery at Calico Run in Izard County, Arkansas, per Find A Grave. They had 6 children all born in Arkansas: John Mason Potts (1870-1884); Sarah Jane (Potts) Dodd (1871-1955), wife of Joseph L. Dodd (1868-1936); George Washington Potts (1874-1944); William Potts (ca. 1876-after 1880); Rebecca Ellen (Potts) Horn (1878-1908), wife of Claudius Caesar Horn (1878-1971); and Mary Meta Potts (1880-1882). Records in Ancestry.com suggest that some of these children likely have living descendants today.

After Isaac Potts' first wife Phoebe died, he remarried about 1888 probably in Arkansas to "Lou." She was born in July 1855 in Alabama, and died after 1910 when they lived in Fulton County, Arkansas. Both are reported on the 1900 census as having been married twice. In 1900 and 1910, she was listed as having had 5 children with 2 alive in 1900, but "3 alive" in 1910, so there is an error in those records. Isaac and Lou had at least 2 children together who were living with them in 1900 and 1910: Ella Potts (born Oct. 1888 in Arkansas, who died after 1910) and Grover C. Potts (born March 1893 in Arkansas, who also died after 1910).

In 1920, Isaac Potts might have had a 3rd wife. In 1920, he was listed as "age 70" and married to a wife recorded as "Sarah E. Potts," "age 60" (thus born ca. 1860), but born in Arkansas, while "Lou," his second wife, had been born in Alabama. Both Isaac and Sarah E. Potts were living together with no others in their household in Fulton Township in Fulton County, Arkansas in 1920. This was the same place Isaac had been living with "Lou" in 1910. It might be that "Lou" and "Sarah" are the same person (maybe Sarah Louise?), with the age differences in the census listings perhaps being a case of older people sometimes claiming to be younger in later life, or the census taker simply making an error.

In further examining the federal census, in 1870, Isaac Potts was farming with his first wife Phoebe in Union Township in Izard County, Arkansas. In 1880, they were farming with their children in Guthrie Township in Izard County, Arkansas. In 1900, Isaac and his 2nd wife "Lou" and family were farming at Bennet's Bayou in Fulton County, Arkansas (Fulton County adjoins Izard County on the north, with both being in the Ozark Mountains). In 1910, they were farming in Fulton Township in Fulton County, Arkansas, while in 1920, Isaac and "Sarah E. Potts," his wife, were farming in the same township.

Confederate Army records on Ancestry.com report that Isaac Pots served in Company G of the Arkansas 16th Infantry Regiment as a private. His grave listing in Find A Grave also notes his service in this unit. Newspapers.com includes an article in the December 24, 1862 issue of "World Telegraph" paper (p. 2) from Washington, Arkansas noting that an Isaac Potts, then of Company I of the Arkansas 20th Regiment, had deserted. It is unclear if this is the same Isaac Potts, but it may be. (And the "desertion" just might have been him taking longer to return to his unit than first anticipated after visiting friends or relatives.)

So far, the story of Confederate soldier and homesteader Isaac Potts is probably pretty typical, but it takes an unusual turn. He also got a second homestead. This was possible due to a change in homestead laws that took place around the time he filed for his first 40-acre homestead that was granted to him in early 1896. Under the 1889 Homestead Act, passed March 2, 1889 (25 Stat. 854), homesteaders who had filed on less than 160 acres could make another homestead entry on contiguous land and obtain a second homestead. However, both added together could not exceed a total of 160 acres.

So, that's what he did sometime in the 1910s: Isaac Potts indeed filed for an additional homestead of 32.30 acres, which, for some reason, was still unclaimed federal land that adjoined his original 40-acre homestead. On December 7, 1922, Potts was granted his second homestead. It is likely that he continued living on his homestead land in the Ozarks of northern Arkansas until his death in his early 80s in 1926. (If only we could talk to him now and hear his tales of being a Confederate soldier and homesteader-twice!)