Changes on the Western FrontierChapter 5

Section 1: Cultures Clash on the PrairieSection 2: Settling on the Great Plains

Section 3: Farmers & the Populist Movement

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blfarm1.htm

http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/jb/civil/homested_2

http://www.nps.gov/home/index.htm

http://www.nebraskahistory.org/lib-arch/research/photos/highlite/butcher/photos.htm

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award97/ndfahtml/ngp_farm_threshing.html

http://honoringtheinventor.blogspot.com/2008/12/cast-steel-plow.html

http://students.ou.edu/M/Chad.A.Morris-1/photo.htm

Settlers Flock Westward

• Rapid settlement of the Great Plains was possible because of two factors

• *Federal Land Policy

• *Completion of transcontinental railroad lines

http://students.ou.edu/M/Chad.A.Morris-1/photo.htm

Impact of the Railroads

• 1850-1871: huge federal land grants given to railroad companies to encourage building

• 1st transcontinental railroad – 1869

• Railroad sold extra land to farmers

• Railroads sent recruiters to Europe

Europeans Flock to the West

• Push Factors: Reasons that people want to leave their home country.

• *1. Escape Warfare• *2. Overpopulation• *3. Lack of Economic Opportunity• Pull Factors: Reasons that people want to come

to a new country.• *1. Free Land• *2. Economic Opportunity• *3. Political and Economic Freedom

Go West

Homestead Act 1862

• The government would give the head of the household 160 acres free if homesteaders would live and make improvements on the land for 5 years.

http://www.archives.gov/research/american-west/#land

Problems with the Act

Cattlemen

Only 10% of land wentto Homesteaders

Miners & Woodcutters

Railroad Companies&

Speculators

Homestead Act Land

Exodusters

• Kansas invited African Americans from the south to settle in the state. (See poster page 231 or above)

• Settled in communities across Kansas– Nicodemus

http://www.territorialkansasonline.org/~imlskto/cgi-bin/index.php?SCREEN=show_document&document_id=102670&SCREEN_FROM=keyword&selected_keyword=Worrall,%20Henry&startsearchat=0&PHPSESSID=ac8e1ca9b1e6315220d081bf2841b538

Benjamin "Pap" Singleton

http://www.kshs.org/cool3/exoduster.htm

http://www.nps.gov/nico/index.htm

http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/program/episodes/seven/theexodust.htm

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/images/hofokan.jpg

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam009.html

Listen to Podcast with the Kansas Historical Society: http://www.kshs.org/audiotours/kansasmemory/019_exodusters.htm

Oklahoma Land Grab Race

• Sooners: Those who snuck into the territory early and claimed land sooner than they should have.

• The land run started at high noon on April 22, 1889, with an estimated 50,000 people lined up for their piece of the available two million acres (8,000 km²).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_Run_of_1889

Check out the following site for the Native American point of view: http://www.examiner.com/x-4316-Native-American-Community-Examiner~y2009m4d12-The-Oklahoma-Land-Runs

The Closing of the Frontier

• The Government passed legislation to preserve the environment of the west.– * 1872 – Yellowstone National Park– *1890’s – Yosemite, Sequoia, Kings Canyon,

Mt. Rainer

• By 1880 individuals had claimed 19 million acres

• By 1890 the Western frontier was considered gone

http://www.hippocampus.org/US%20History%20II

Settlers Meet the Challenges on the Plains

• Drought

• Floods

• Fires

• Blizzards

• Insect Infestations

• Occasional raids by Indians or Outlaws

• Not all 160 acres were equal in quality

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?ngp:2:./temp/~ammem_e6EW::

Dugouts and Soddies

• Soddies: Freestanding house made of stacked sod blocks cut out of the ground

• Dugout: Home dug out of a hill or ravine

http://www.nps.gov/home/index.htm

http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/jb/civil/homested_2

http://www.number09.com/oak_grove/SS_sodbusters.htm

Benefits & Problems

• Warm in the winter• Cool in the summer• Fire Proof

• Small• Little air or light• Snakes, insect, pests• Leaked when it rained

http://www.number09.com/oak_grove/SS_sodbusters.htm

http://www.number09.com/oak_grove/Sod12.jpg

Women’s Work• Lonely Isolated Life• People had to be very self-sufficient

• Feed Family• Make Clothing• Work in the fields (plowing, planting, harvesting)• Care for Animals (cows, hogs, sheep, chickens)• Sheer Sheep, card wool, sew or knit clothing from wool• Haul water from well• Make soap and candles• Do laundry by hand• Iron clothing• Can food• Many other things

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?ngp:1:./temp/~ammem_yxBp::

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?ngp:3:./temp/~ammem_yxBp::http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?ngp:13:./temp/~ammem_yxBp::

Women’s Work

http://www.number09.com/oak_grove/Sod6.jpg

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?ngp:1:./temp/~ammem_mVL9::

Technical and Educational Support for Farmers

• New Technology made farming easier, less time-consuming, and more profitable

• New Equipment

• Steel Plow – 1837 – John Deere• Reaper – 1834 – Cyrus

McCormick• Grain Drill – 1874• Barbed Wire – 1874• Cordbinder (Harvester) 1878• Reaper that could cut and thresh

(Fore-runner of Combine)• Windmills

http://honoringtheinventor.blogspot.com/2008/12/cast-steel-plow.html

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?ngp:2:./temp/~ammem_GTgr::

Educational Support

• Morrill Land Grant Act 1862 and 1890– Gave federal land to states to help finance agricultural

colleges.– Passed on July 2, 1862, this act made it possible for

new western states to establish colleges for their citizens. The new land-grant institutions, which emphasized agriculture and mechanic arts, opened opportunities to thousands of farmers and working people previously excluded from higher education.

• Hatch Act 1887– Established agricultural experimental stations to

communicate new developments in agriculture to farmers in every state.

http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=33#

Farming Innovations

• Development of grains for arid land

• Dry farming techniques

http://www.hippocampus.org/US%20History%20II

Farmers in Debt

High Cost of Machinery

High Cost of Machinery

High Interest RatesHigh Interest Rates

High Shipping RatesHigh Shipping Rates

Low Crop PricesLow Crop Prices

Farmers in DebtFarmers in Debt

Bonanza Farms

• Enormous single crop spreads of 15,000 to 50,000 acres

• Why did the big farms fail?

• * The couldn’t compete with small farmers who were more flexible in the types of crops they grew

• * Droughts