Pioneer Family Pose Outside Their Sod House, Kansas, c.1860

This family likely was a recipient of The Homestead Act signed by Lincoln giving homesteaders 160 acres to settle land. Sod houses were often built beause they were quick and cheap and satisfied the Act's requirements. This Act was passed with the intention to stop the monopolistic land grabbers from taking all the available land. Conservatives today would decry this as an infringement of "freedom."