What happened to the farm properties upon which the Battle of Gettysburg was fought?

FRH3

Cadet
Joined
Dec 20, 2019
Can someone assist me in understanding what happened to the farm properties upon which the Battle of Gettysburg was fought?

John Herbst of Herbst Woods, renamed Reynolds Woods, was my great great uncle. The Herbst family were initially Mennonites that settled in the neighboring towns around Harrisburg, Pennsylvania from German Bavaria in 1730. The family stayed in that region and worked as farmers, pastors and blacksmiths until shortly after the Civil War concluded. Most moved to Nebraska and either farmed, worked for the railroad or meat packing companies. The lure of jobs that were created by the transcontinental railroad along with the US government's offering of homesteads in Nebraska must have been great. The timing of their move, however, and that one of the family’s farms was destroyed as a battleground makes me think that the aftermath of the Civil War played a role. Many in the family had been in that region for 130 years so there must have been considerable pressure on them to contemplate moving to the frontier.

Can someone tell me what happened to John Herbst’s property after the battle? Did the government purchase the land? If so, when?

Many thanks in advance for your consideration.

Frederick Robert Herbst III (Chicago, USA)
 
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