The Pre-Emption House was named after the Pre-Emption Act of 1834. The Pre-Emption Act of 1834 allowed settlers to purchase the land they were living on for just $1.25 an acre if they had improved that land with a home and crops the previous year. Although the land belonged to the Potawatomi people, a steady stream of Easterners and European immigrants, lured by cheap land, migrated to the Illinois prairies.
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