That land may have sold for $25, and how do we know they did not donate money to worthy causes, but, back then, neighbor helped neighbor. I do not question the motives from the mid 1800’s. Times were sure different back then. In the county I grew up in, communities may have had 50 people, their own little school for all grades and small churches. It was not until the car came into use that people went to larger churches. Larger churches may have had 50 people attending but they still did not have much money. My parents, born in 1901/904 attended schools with 8 grades. If they attended high school they had to board with someone in town. Money was scarce back then. I have driven by one of those small churches my family went to. I could not get over how very tiny it really was. I remembered it very differently. Just like the house my late sister lived in. As a kid, I thought it was huge but I went by there a few years ago and it was really small. My perspective was what changed not the buildings..
The price of land is pretty much steady throughout American history. That’s why raw land is still a decent investment. So, they spent an awful lot of hard, back-breaking labor to come up with 25 bucks.
And those stones weren’t cheap then either.