Galusha Grow
Harford Township, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Father of the Homestead Act, opening western lands to free settlement in 1862. Speaker of the House, 1861-63; Returned to Congress 1893-1903. Educated at Franklin Academy, Harford, and buried in this cemetery.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
This marker honors Galusha A. Grow near his final resting place in Harford, the community where he was schooled at Franklin Academy before entering public life. Known as the "Father of the Homestead Act," Grow spent his career advancing the principle that western public lands should be opened to free settlement, a cause realized in 1862. He served as Speaker of the House in the first years of the Civil War and returned to Congress near the turn of the century.
Why it matters
A local academy and country cemetery quietly anchor the story of one of the architects of American land policy, whose Homestead Act opened the West to millions of ordinary settlers.
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Related people
- · Galusha A. Grow
Related events
- · Homestead Act of 1862
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Elder Miller
Waverly Township, PA · est. 1948
Born in Connecticut in 1775, Elder Miller joined the stream of New England settlers who pushed into northeastern Pennsylvania's Abington region around 1800. On his own farm he hosted the township's first church and its first school, serving his neighbors as both preacher and teacher until his death in 1857. His homestead became the seedbed of community life on a raw frontier.
Galusha Grow
Harford Township, PA · est. 1947
Galusha A. Grow rose from this rural corner of northeastern Pennsylvania to become one of the most consequential legislators of the mid-19th century. As a champion of "free soil," he spent years pushing the idea that a settler willing to work unclaimed federal land should be able to own it, a fight that finally succeeded with the Homestead Act of 1862. He presided over the U.S. House as Speaker during the opening years of the Civil War before returning to Congress decades later.
Galusha Grow
Lenox Township, PA · est. 1947
On this site once stood the home to which Galusha A. Grow retired after a long career in national politics, living here until his death in 1907. Grow had made his name as the driving force behind the Homestead Act of 1862, which granted free western land to settlers, and served as Speaker of the House during the early Civil War before a later return to Congress. His homestead in Susquehanna County was a fitting retreat for the man who did so much to give others land of their own.
Susquehanna County
Montrose, PA · est. 1982
Split from Luzerne County in 1810 and named for its great river, Susquehanna County became an early hotbed of antislavery activity, with Montrose serving as an Underground Railroad stop. It was also home to Galusha A. Grow, the congressman who championed the 1862 Homestead Act. That law opened millions of acres of western land to ordinary settlers.