NCSCOS Goal 4 Page 29

Homestead Act Passed in to encourage settlement of the Plains area -gave 160 acres of land to settlers if they improved the land and lived on it To any citizen or intended citizen who was the head of household Must farm the land for 5 years -land speculators People who use land for profit -Oklahoma giveaway, 1889 One day land-grab of 2 million acres that formerly belonged to the Natives “Boomers” and “Sooners” -people continued to come for the cheap lands and opportunity

55 Indian nations had been forced into Indian Territory, which contained the largest unsettled farmland in the U.S. (about 2 million unassigned acres). During the 1880s, squatters overran the land, and Congress agreed to buy out the Indian claims to the land. On the morning of April 22, 1889, tens of thousands of homesteaders lined up at the territory’s borders. At the stroke of noon, bugles blew, pistols fired, and the eager hordes surged forward, racing to stake a claim.

By sundown, these settlers, called boomers, had staked claims on almost 2 million acres. Many Boomers discovered that some of the best lands had been grabbed by Sooners, people who had sneaked past the government officials earlier to mark their claims. Under pressure from settlers, Congress created the Oklahoma Territory in In the following years, the remainder of Indian Territory was open to settlement.

New Technology Farming very difficult at first, but technology makes it easier -deeper wells Less chance of water in the wells evaporating -steel plows -better farm equipment reaper, harvesters

New Technology -Morrill Land Grants Gave federal land to the states to organize agricultural colleges Led to farming innovations -Railroad expansion transcontinental railroad, 1869 Could transport farm equipment and farm goods between East and West

Life on the Farm -sod houses blocks of prairie turf Warm in winter, cool in summer Small, poorly lit, haven for snakes and insects -weather extremes Droughts, floods, fires, blizzards, tornadoes, locust drought No rain/very dry climate Decline in farm production -isolation Miles from other settlers “I think…it took more to live twenty- four hours at a time, month in and out, on the lonely and lovely prairie, without giving up to loneliness.” ~Esther Clark Hill, Kansas

Sod Houses on the Frontier

Decline of Farming -Rise of industry Big businesses growing and offering jobs, many move East -Urbanization Growth of cities pulls many back East to work in factories -End of the frontier Frederick Jackson Turner “Frontier Thesis” Claimed that frontier captured American spirit and made America unique “Now…the frontier has gone and with its going has closed the first period of American history.” ~Frederick Jackson Turner

Decline of Farming - Great debts Farm machinery expensive = debt Drought and low market prices = Less money -Railroad charges Railroads charging Western farmers more because there is no competition “No other system of taxation has borne as heavily on the people as those extortions and inequalities of railroad charges.” ~ Henry Demarest Lloyd, 1881 Atlantic Monthly