1. To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Learning objective:
To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Please work with a partner to remind yourselves how the people shown in these photographs were affected by the construction of the railroad

2. How much progress will you make today?
Learning objective:
To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
How much progress will you make today?
Railway Company
Evaluate the impact of the railway
Grade A/A*
US Government
Use knowledge to explain the effect of the railroad on the homesteaders
Grade C/B
Joseph Glidden
Be able to describe how the railroad affected the homesteaders
Grade D/C

3. To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Learning objective:
To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Think…
‘Was the railroad the most important factor in helping the homesteaders to solve the problems of living on the Great Plains.’
12 marks

4. To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Learning objective:
To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
A homesteader is a person who settled on the Great Plains to farm the land. They are people who acquire land under acts or schemes.

5. To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Learning objective:
To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
A lot of the first homesteaders were immigrants from Ireland and Scandinavia, and they were very poor.
Many of these people, however, were drawn to the land because of the incentives that were offered to them by the US government.

6. To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Learning objective:
To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
The Homestead Act 1862
To settle ordinary families onto
the plains, the
government passed the
Homestead Act.
This enabled settlers to claim a section of land and farm it for 5 years. After that, they would pay $30 and would be presented a certificate to show they officially own the land.

7. The Timber and Culture Act 1873
Learning objective:
To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
The Timber and Culture Act 1873
Homesteaders were originally granted 160 acres of land but under the Timber and Culture Act of 1873, a homesteader could claim another 160 acres of land, if he promised to plant trees on half of it.

8. To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Learning objective:
To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
The Desert Land Act 1877
This act allowed settlers to
buy another 640 acres of land
at a cheaper price.
Although the land had to be
improved, the settlers did not
have to live on this bit of land.

9. Problems on the Great Plains
Learning objective:
To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Problems on the Great Plains
The soil and climate on the Great Plains were very different from what people had encountered before. Has no-one had farmed on the plains before- no-one knew which crops to grow or how best to prepare the land. This meant that new technologies and machinery were a necessity to survive on the Plains.

10. To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Learning objective:
To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Ploughing and sowing
Crops could not be grown until the land had been ploughed so the seeds could be planted. As the great plains had never been farmed before, some of the grasses that grew there had roots that formed a dense, tangled mass at least 10cm deep.
Some homesteaders had brought with them cast iron ploughs but even they bent and buckled under the strain and constantly needed repairing.

11. To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Learning objective:
To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Solution: Machinery
Factories in the east began to mass produce machinery. Things became cheaper and ploughs were built with steel ploughshares that could cut through the soil easily.
They also came with spare parts which meant that it could be easily repaired on the plains.

12. To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Learning objective:
To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Water
Not enough water fell on the Great
Plains so crops either would not grow
well or
not at all.
Irrigation was impossible as there were no lakes or rivers and wells were expensive and uncertain.

13. To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Learning objective:
To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Solution: Wind Pumps
The wind pumps that cattlemen and railroad builders used were quickly adapted to meet the needs of the
farmer.
A high powered drill would be used to get
down to the
water, then a wind pump built to raise the
water to the
surface.
From the mid 1880’s , a towering wind pump
dominated most of
the homesteads on the Great Plains.

14. To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Learning objective:
To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Crops
The homesteaders attempted to plant the crops they knew best, such as maize and spring wheat.
However, they did not do well on the plains with little rainfall and scorching hot summers.

15. Learning objective:
To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Solution: Dry Farming
Farmers would plough the land whenever it rained or snowed, which would create a film of dust that trapped the moisture. They could then conserve water and grow better crops.
When Russian migrants arrived on the Great Plains, they bought a variety of wheat that could grow in harsh climates.
The wind pump would also allow for better crops to be grown.

16. Land holdings Devastation Learning objective:
To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Land holdings
The size of a homesteaders land had to be enough to support his family, but also manageable. The government allocation of 160 acres could not yield enough to support the average homesteader and his family.
Solution: Timber Culture Act and Desert Land Act.
Devastation
Fire was the most terrifying for homesteaders as the climate met the merest spark could set off a wild fire. Once a fire took hold, all the homesteaders could do was hide while their crops were destroyed and the animals burnt to death.

17. To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Learning objective:
To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Fencing
Homesteaders needed a clear boundary between them and their neighbours to stop cattle straying onto the land and destroying any growing crops. They did not, however, have any timber to build fences and hedges and could not grow fast enough.
Solution: Barbed Wire
After Joseph Glidden invented barbed wire in 1874, homesteaders could fence their land quickly, efficiently and cheaply. They could plant crops without fearing they would be destroyed.

18. To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Learning objective:
To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
The Railroad
The construction of the railroad meant that the homesteaders could prosper because it brought machinery, goods and materials. This also meant that produce could be sold in more and more distant markets.

19. To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Learning objective:
To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
The Railroad
As well as improving farming, the railroad
Brought furniture and fabrics, dresses and
trousers, boots and shoes, stoves, pots and pans and oil lamps into homes on the Great Plains.
The railroad also meant that homesteaders had the opportunity to move to more fertile land.

20. To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Learning objective:
To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Role of Women
Living in a sod house was difficult work and women had to keep their families warm, fed, clothed, clean and healthy.

21. To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Learning objective:
To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Fuel and Food
Without fuel, the homesteader would be cold and hungry and there were hardly any trees on the plains.
The sod-busters wife had to collect barrow loads of dried cow and buffalo dung. It burned well but quickly.
Meals were often the same and
boring.

22. To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Learning objective:
To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Dirt and disease
All kinds of insects lived in the floor and walls of sod houses and with an uncertain water supply, women had a never ending battle against dirt and disease.
When women gave birth, there was no intervention, they simply got on with it.

23. To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Learning objective:
To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Teachers and teaching
Not all women who travelled to the great plains were married
and in 1845 they were being recruited as teachers for schools
on the plains. The pay was usually low and most lived with the
families of the children they taught.
She would often be prejudiced against and face ignorance,
sometimes working in appalling conditions.
The ‘schoolmarms’ made the west a more civilised place as they insisted on certain standards of behaviour and speech.

24. To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Learning objective:
To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Creating a community
Looking after husbands and children was often a lonely life for women so she would often have to make connections with the other homesteads. As the men were always out on the farm, it was the role of the woman to do this.

25. To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Learning objective:
To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Think…
‘Was the railroad the most important factor in helping the homesteaders to solve the problems of living on the Great Plains.’
12 marks

26. Railroad Government Technology
Learning objective:
To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Railroad
Government
Technology
Work with a partner to organise your ideas in a plan
Remember to match problem to solutions

27. Do you agree? Explain your answer
Learning objective:
To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
The railroad was the most important factor in helping the homesteaders to solve the problems of living on the Great Plains.
Do you agree? Explain your answer
12 marks
Examiner’s Tip
Please avoid using the word ‘I’ in your answer

28. To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Learning objective:
To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Quick quiz
Which act initially gave 160 acres of land to a homestead family?
What was the date of The Timber and Culture Act?
Under the Timber and Culture Act, how much land had to have trees panted on it?
How much extra land could a homesteader get under the Desert Land Act?
Give two reasons why the new plough was so beneficial.
What did Joseph Glidden invent in 1874?
Give an example the benefits of the railroad and explain what this did for the homesteader.
What did a woman homesteader use as fuel and what was a possible problem with this?
Suggest a reason why women needed to produce lots of children.
Suggest a problem with living in a sod house and how women overcame this.
11. Give an example of a medical cure used by homesteader women
12. How was the west made more of a civilised place?

29. To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Learning objective:
To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
‘What can you infer from Source A and B about the contribution of women homesteaders to living on the Great Plains.’
(4 marks)
‘I have often wondered how my mother stood it with such a family of children and no-one to help her except my oldest sister… We used soft soap that my mother made by leaching water slowly through a barrel of wood ash to get the alkali and potash, and then boiling this in a kettle with the scraps of fat she saved. Often she would sit up late at night darning our socks and mending our ragged trousers.’
Thomas Allen Branning

30. To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Learning objective:
To assess your understanding of the settlement of the Great Plains
Please work in pairs to strengthen your knowledge of se aspects of the Plains Wars:
Red Cloud’s War
Little Crow’s War