2. Chapter 14: The Western Crossroads (1860-1910)
Section 2: Western Farmers

3. Economic Development of the West
Civil War republicans wanted west to be developed as free states and by independent farmers who could improve the land.
Republicans passed a series of acts in 1862 to turn public lands into private property.
A covered wagon heads west.

4. Land Acts
Three government acts increased non- Indian settlement of the Great Plains.

5. Homestead Act 1862
The Homestead Act permitted “any citizen or intended citizen to select any surveyed land up to 160 acres and to gain title to it after five years’ residence” if the person cultivated the land.
Eventually 400,000 families took advantage of the offer.

6. Homestead Act
First act to allow any “head of household” who hadn’t taken up arms to the U.S. government to apply.
Including black people, former slaves and immigrants from Europe and other countries.
Must remain on the land for a minimum of five years and show evidence of improvements to the land.

7. Pacific Railway Act
The Pacific Railway Act gave lands to railroad companies to develop a railroad line linking the East and West coasts.
Attached Documents Provided below are excerpts from the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862, as well as an original map of the Union Pacific Railway

8. Morrill Act 1862
The Morrill Act granted a total of more than 17 million acres of federal land to the states. The act ordered the sale of this land to finance the construction of agricultural and engineering colleges.
The act led to the founding of more than 70 state universities (including Penn State and Michigan State).

9. Graphic Organizer
Complete the graphic organizer of the government actions to aid economic development in the west.

10. Fierce Land Competition
Came from the Expense of American Indians
‘Runs’ for land took place throughout the West.
People came on horses, bicycles, and pushing wheelbarrows full of supplies.
In October 1889 a flood of prospective settlers responded to a government offer of inexpensive homesteads in Oklahoma in the Oklahoma Land Rush.

11. The Railroads Railroad companies also lured settlers west.
Between 1869 and 1883, four rail lines were built across the West.
10 years after passing the Pacific Railway Act the U.S. government had given
railroad companies more
than 125 million acres of
public land.
Pacific Railway Act promoted the Transcontinental railroad. It was completed in Here the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads met in Promontory Point, Utah and laid a Golden Spike

12. The Railroads
Government officials believed that railroad companies would promote western settlement and economic growth.
Settlers benefited from the nearby rail lines, using them to ship their crops to
distant markets.

13. Quick Write
How did the U.S. government encourage the growth of private property ownership on the Great Plains?
by passing the Homestead Act and granting 125 million acres of public land to railroad companies
"Manifest Destiny“
- John Gast

14. Moving West Three main groups traveled westward after the Civil War:
White Americans from the East
Mississippi land was too expensive
African Americans from the South
To escape violence and persecution
Immigrants from foreign countries

15. African Americans
African Americans who moved from the post- Reconstruction South to Kansas were called Exodusters
Many exodusters took advantage of land deals
Many fled to Kansas, especially during the Kansas Fever in 1879.

16. Benjamin Singleton
Some 20,000 to 40,000 African Americans fled the South, where violence had broken out during elections in Known as Exodusters, they trekked west, following leaders such as Benjamin Singleton, a 70-year- old former slave.

17. Immigrants Many helped build the railroads
Russian immigrants may have introduced the Russian thistle – also called tumbleweed – to the West.
Many of the Chinese immigrants to the U.S. worked as farmers, farm laborers, produce vendors, or sharecroppers.

18. Quick Write Why did various groups of people migrate to the West?
Economic opportunity, escape from violence and persecution, and railroad construction.

19. Western Environments and Farming
The Great Plains region did not prosper immediately. Supplies were expensive, and the environment posed problems for farmers.

20. Scarce Resources - Water
Water was in short supply throughout much of the West.
Farmers had developed irrigation systems that used canals, dams, and sloping fields to control water flow.
Digging wells was difficult.
Some farmers used windmills
to draw water from their wells.

21. Scarce Resources
Trees were also scarce on the Great Plains, which meant a lack of fuel and building material.
Some burned dried buffalo manure. Some built sod houses, stacking chunks of the heavy topsoil like bricks.

22. USDA
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (1862) helped farmers adapt. USDA experts sought out and publicized new varieties of wheat suitable for the Great Plains.
Agents also taught dry farming – new techniques that conserved moisture.

23. New Farming Equipment
James Oliver’s plow factory in South Bend, Indiana produced thousands of plows with sharp, durable blades that could slice through the tough sod of the Plains.

24. New Farming Equipment
“Self-binding” harvesters cut wheat and also tied it into bundles.
Many new devices used steam-powered engines.

25. Hard Times
Purchasing this new equipment put many farmers into debt when they bought the equipment to compete with larger landholders.

26. Bonanza Farms
Efficient new farm machinery and cheap, abundant land enabled some companies to create a new kind of large-scale operation, the bonanza farm.
Most were owned by large companies and operated like factories.

27. Bonanza Farms
When weather conditions were favorable, bonanza farms produced large profits, but in times of severe drought or low wheat prices, bonanza farm profits fell.
The era of bonanza farms soon faded due to their inability to handle boom and bust cycles.

28. Quick Write
What technological innovations made farming profitable on the Great Plains?

29. Farm Life on the Plains
Farm families on the Plains faced many problems
Sod houses were damp and dirty, and the roofs often leaked or collapsed when it rained.

30. Harsh Weather and Hard Work
Winter on the Plains often brought blizzards and bone- chilling cold.
The summer heat was also fierce.
There were droughts with no relief.

31. Harsh Weather and Hard Work
In the 1870s farmers faced swarms of grasshoppers that devoured everything in their path, even the wooden handles of farming tools.
Raging fires sometimes
swept across the prairies.

32. Flow Chart
Provide examples of hardships that farmers on the Great Plains faced.
harsh weather
insects
prairie fires
unending work
The remains of a cornfield after grasshoppers had completed the destruction begun by drought. 90% of crops surviving the drought were destroyed by grasshoppers in an 11,000 square mile area. In: "The Drought of in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Washington," The American Red Cross, 1932.

33. Harsh Weather and Hard Work
Farming involved hard labor.
Men did most of the heavy labor of building houses, fencing the land, and farming.
Women did household and child-rearing tasks, and often spent hours in the field. They also tended gardens, preserved fruits and vegetables, and cared for farm animals.
Children had chores that involved fetching water, tending gardens, and churning butter.

34. Storytellers of the Plains
Many western writers recorded stories about life on the Plains.
Willa Cather traveled west with her family to Nebraska. She grew up on the farm and put her knowledge into writing her books. She published her first in 1913, called O Pioneers!

35. Hopeful Difficulties for many who had to abandon their farms.
Some formed communities with churches, schools, newspapers, clubs and theater halls.

36. El Final