Homesteaded: verb: to acquire or occupy as a homestead (Homestead: Noun:    the home and adjoining land occupied by a family)

From the short story ” A Jury Of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell. ” When we Homesteaded in Dakota, and my first baby died — after he was two years old – and me with no other then –”

I now understand that she meant that when she lived in Dakota for a certain time.