Plowing Illustration from Scribner's Magazine
If you are fortunate enough to have letters, diaries, or memoirs from any of your ancestors, you may have read the words, “We stopped to make a crop.” I imagine you wondered where and why a family moving by wagon from North Carolina to Arkansas would stop along the way and grow something. Was it food? Did they own the land? Can I find records of them at this unknown spot? Unfortunately, the answer to all three questions would more than likely be no.
Pre-1850 American economy on the frontier was primarily based on exchange of goods and services. Families often ran out of money or tradable goods along the way. Corn, wheat, and oats were exchangeable for food, repairs on wagons, or any other crisis that developed along the way.
Each wagon or groups of wagons carried seed for crops at future homes. If a shortage or need arose, they simply picked out a fertile piece of land, plowed a small area, and planted seed in the springtime. Sometimes, they built a temporary shelter of logs or brush; other times they rigged a make-shift home using the wagon box and the tarp-like wagon sheet.
Crops were not the only medium of exchange. Most wagon groups had a herd of hogs or a few cattle with them. Livestock could be traded as well as crops. Once the trade or even a rest period was complete, the pioneers moved on to another locale. Once they found land that suited them, they may have begun the process of obtaining property.
Others like my Bailey Hill, a third great-grandfather, hopped around from pillar to post, farming here and there until the grass appeared greener on the other side. He did that from Franklin County, Tennessee to central Arkansas to east Texas and then to the Texas frontier. Parker County was a new county and desperately needed tax money. The sheriff issued an ultimatum to Bailey Hill: file a pre-emption homestead and pay taxes or go to jail. For once, Bailey Hill made a reasonable decision and filed for a homestead by proving he had been on the land three years and made improvements. And there he stayed for the rest of his life.