Changes in Land Ownership as an Index of Succession in Rural Communities

Abstract

The invasion-succession cycle so thoroughly investigated by students of urban sociology merits research by those interested in the rural community. The assumptions used in a study of thirty-four rural Nebraska communities are (1) that changes in land ownership can be taken as an index of succession in middle western farm populations; (2) that the names of landowners reveal their nationality backgrounds. The specific problems investigated were fourfold: first, who were the original settlers; second, what changes have taken place in the nationality composition of landowners since 1890; third, the phases of succession; fourth, what factors have motivated the process. The original settlers were preponderantly of old American stock; interspersed among them in isolated neighborhoods were Germans, Czechs, Irish, Swedes, and Danes. By 1890 the foreigners had already begun to displace Americans in the neighborhoods where they had settled side by side, and to invade others. These groups have continued to expand until now they own almost all the land in thirty-one of the thirty-four communities. The invasion-succession process is slowing down since the original settlers have passed on, and the younger generations have become, in the main, assimilated.