The homestead of David A. and Kate E. Clopton grew from the opportunities created by the Homestead Act of 1862 and the Timber Culture Act of 1873. After coming to Keya Paha County from Jefferson, Iowa, in 1884, they homesteaded just south of this site and later acquired the Tree Claim where they built a permanent home and raised their four children, Myrtle, Ira, Ry, and Wilda. At a time when many settlers were discouraged by Nebraska’s vast treeless prairie, the Timber Culture Act, introduced by Nebraska Senator Phineas W. Hitchcock, encouraged tree planting across the Great Plains by granting 160 acres to settlers who planted and tended ten acres of trees for eight years. Although some 2.5 million acres of Nebraska land were settled under the act, and fewer than one in five plantings matured into valuable groves because of drought, insects, or abandonment, David and Kate planted more than 4,000 trees here and inspired others to enrich the landscape. Their grove eventually included fruit, nut, berry, and flowering trees and bushes, while the family also grew crops, made hay, produced livestock, and raised children on land that remained in the Clopton family.