I will be honest. It has been a while since I searched at the RootsWeb General Search at Rootsweb. Searching today for my mother's maiden name of Ufkes caused me to locate a a cancelled homestead application for my great-great-grandfather in Nebraska.
The specific page I found was located under the set of web page search results, which searches web pages at Rootsweb.
The actual reference to John is on the GenWeb page for Franklin County, Nebraska, where the property was located. That website has a search engine, but searching for Ufkes on that site's search box did not locate the reference to John H. Ufkes. These search boxes are on many GenWeb county sites and I am now wondering how many are not searching the way we think they are.
We'll post more on John's homestead claim as information is obtained.