1862 was a very busy year for the Wild West. In July, President Lincoln signed the Morrill Land Grant Act, just over a month after the Homestead Act and one day after the Pacific Railway Act.

Manifest Destiny raising its head again, the Morrill Land Grant Act specifically set aside land in each state to be sold and the profits used for the establishment of colleges. Of course, being a government doctrine, the land wasn’t free of strings. Nope, the colleges had to focus on agriculture and/or "mechanical arts."

And they weren't talking about industrial sculpture.

So yeah; it was great that the government was getting involved in making sure more of the population could get an education, but they were determined to have a new generation of informed farmers and engineers to bring progress across the expanding nation. Of course, the majority of homesteaders under the Homestead Act couldn’t take advantage of the opportunities provided by the Morrill Land Grant Act.

The first college to be built under its auspices didn’t open its doors until 1868, five years after the first homesteaders had headed off. And let’s not forget that homesteaders were mostly the poor and undereducated, anyway.

The Morrill Land Grant Act was, however, just as important in the long run as the Homestead Act. Cornell, MIT, and over sixty more schools still in existence today owe their start to money from the Morrill Land Grant. (Source)