Fillable Great Plains Settling on the p0420-424aspe-0413s2 10/16/02 4:12 (Caggia Social Studies)

Fill Online, Printable, Fillable, Blank Great Plains Settling on the p0420-424aspe-0413s2 10/16/02 4:12 (Caggia Social Studies) Form

Use Fill to complete blank online CAGGIA SOCIAL STUDIES pdf forms for free. Once completed you can sign your fillable form or send for signing. All forms are printable and downloadable.

Great Plains Settling on the p0420-424aspe-0413s2 10/16/02 4:12 (Caggia Social Studies)

On average this form takes 1 minutes to complete

The Great Plains Settling on the p0420-424aspe-0413s2 10/16/02 4:12 (Caggia Social Studies) form is 5 pages long and contains:

  • 0 signatures
  • 0 check-boxes
  • 5 other fields

Country of origin: US
File type: PDF

Use our library of forms to quickly fill and sign your Caggia Social Studies forms online.

BROWSE CAGGIA SOCIAL STUDIES FORMS

Related forms
Fill has a huge library of thousands of forms all set up to be filled in easily and signed.
Fill in your chosen form
Sign the form using our drawing tool
Send to someone else to fill in and sign.
find another form
 
420 C
HAPTER 13
Terms & Names
Terms & Names
MAIN IDEA
MAIN IDEA
One American's Story
Settling on the
Great Plains
•Homestead Act
•exoduster
•soddy
•Morrill Act
•bonanza farm
Settlers on the Great Plains
transformed the land despite
great hardships.
The Great Plains region remains
the breadbasket of the United
States.
WHY IT MATTERS NOW
WHY IT MATTERS NOW
When Esther Clark Hill was a girl on the Kansas prairie in
the 1800s, her father often left the family to go on hunting or
trading expeditions. His trips left Esther’s mother, Allena
Clark, alone on the farm.
Esther remembered her mother holding on to the reins of
a runaway mule team, “her black hair tumbling out of its pins
and over her shoulders, her face set and white, while one small
girl clung with chattering teeth to the sides of the rocking
wagon.” The men in the settlement spoke admiringly about
“Leny’s nerve,” and Esther thought that daily life presented a
challenge even greater than driving a runaway team.
A PERSONAL VOICE ESTHER CLARK HILL
“ I think, as much courage as it took to hang onto the reins that day, 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 the loneliness.
”
—quoted in Pioneer Women
As the railroads penetrated the frontier and the days of the free-ranging cow-
boy ended, hundreds of thousands of families migrated west, lured by vast tracts
of cheap, fertile land. In their effort to establish a new life, they endured extreme
hardships and loneliness.
Settlers Move Westward to Farm
It took over 250 years—from the first settlement at Jamestown until 1870—to
turn 400 million acres of forests and prairies into flourishing farms. Settling the
second 400 million acres took only 30 years, from 1870 to 1900. Federal land pol-
icy and the completion of transcontinental railroad lines made this rapid settle-
ment possible.
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
From 1850 to 1871, the federal government
made huge land grants to the railroads—170 million acres, worth half a billion
▼
Plains settlers,
like this woman
depicted in
Harvey Dunn’s
painting Pioneer
Woman, had to be
strong and self-
reliant.
B. Answer
By making land
available cheap-
ly through vari-
ous land grants.
p0420-424aspe-0413s2 10/16/02 4:12 PM Page 420
Page 1 of 5
dollars—for laying track in the West. In one grant, both the Union Pacific and the
Central Pacific received 10 square miles of public land for every mile of track laid
in a state and 20 square miles of land for every mile of track laid in a territory.
In the 1860s, the two companies began a race to lay track. The Central Pacific
moved eastward from Sacramento, and the Union Pacific moved westward from
Omaha. Civil War veterans, Irish and Chinese immigrants, African Americans,
and Mexican Americans did most of the grueling labor. In late 1868, workers for
the Union Pacific cut their way through the solid rock of the mountains, laying
up to eight miles of track a day. Both companies had reached Utah by the spring
of 1869. Fifteen years later, the country boasted five transcontinental railroads.
The rails to the East and West Coasts were forever linked.
The railroad companies sold some of their land to farmers for two to ten dol-
lars an acre. Some companies successfully sent agents to Europe to recruit buyers.
By 1880, 44 percent of the settlers in Nebraska and more than 70 percent of those
in Minnesota and Wisconsin were immigrants.
GOVERNMENT SUPPORT FOR SETTLEMENT
Another powerful attraction of
the West was the land itself. In 1862, Congress passed the Homestead Act, offer-
ing 160 acres of land free to any citizen or intended citizen who was head of the
household. From 1862 to 1900, up to 600,000 families took advantage of the gov-
ernment’s offer. Several thousand settlers were exodusters—African Americans
who moved from the post-Reconstruction South to Kansas.
Despite the massive response by homesteaders, or settlers on this free land,
private speculators and railroad and state government agents sometimes used the
law for their own gain. Cattlemen fenced open lands, while miners and wood-
cutters claimed national resources. Only about 10 percent of the land was actual-
ly settled by the families for whom it was intended. In addition, not all plots of
land were of equal value. Although 160 acres could provide a decent living in the
fertile soil of Iowa or Minnesota, settlers on drier Western land
required larger plots to make farming worthwhile.
Eventually, the government strengthened the Homestead Act
and passed more legislation to encourage settlers. In 1889, a major
land giveaway in what is now Oklahoma attracted thousands of
people. In less than a day, land-hungry settlers claimed 2 million
acres in a massive land rush. Some took possession of the land
before the government officially declared it open. Because these set-
tlers claimed land sooner than they were supposed to, Oklahoma
came to be known as the Sooner State.
A
B
Posters like the
one shown here
drew hundreds of
thousands of
settlers to the
West. Among the
settlers were
thousands of
exodusters—freed
slaves who had
left the South.
▼
Vocabulary
speculator: a
person who buys
or sells something
that involves a risk
on the chance of
making a profit
MAIN IDEA
MAIN IDEA
A
Analyzing
Causes
How did the
railroads help
open the West?
A. Answer
They made it
possible for
people to travel
quickly and also
recruited set-
tlers.
MAIN IDEA
MAIN IDEA
B
Analyzing
Effects
In what ways
did government
policies encourage
settlement of the
West?
p0420-424aspe-0413s2 10/16/02 4:12 PM Page 421
Page 2 of 5
THE CLOSING OF THE FRONTIER
As settlers gobbled up Western land, Henry
D. Washburn and fellow explorer Nathaniel P. Langford asked Congress to help
protect the wilderness from settlement. In 1870, Washburn, who was surveying
land in northwestern Wyoming, described the area’s geysers and bubbling springs
as: “objects new in experience . . . possessing unlimited grandeur and beauty.”
In 1872, the government created Yellowstone National Park. Seven years later,
the Department of the Interior forced railroads to give up their claim to Western
landholdings that were equal in area to New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia combined. Even so, by 1880, individuals had
bought more than 19 million acres of government-owned land. Ten years later,
the Census Bureau declared that the country no longer had a continuous frontier
line—the frontier no longer existed. To many, the frontier was what had made
America unique. In an 1893 essay entitled “The Significance of the Frontier in
American History,” the historian Frederick Jackson Turner agreed.
A PERSONAL VOICE FREDERICK JACKSON TURNER
“ American social development has been continually beginning over again on the
frontier. This perennial rebirth, this fluidity of American life, this expansion west-
ward with its new opportunities, its continuous touch with the simplicity of primi-
tive society, furnish the forces dominating American character.
”
—“The Significance of the Frontier in American History”
Today many historians question Turner’s view. They think he gave too much
importance to the frontier in the nation’s development and in shaping a special
American character.
Settlers Meet the Challenges of the Plains
The frontier settlers faced extreme hardships—droughts, floods, fires, blizzards,
locust plagues, and occasional raids by outlaws and Native Americans. Yet the
number of people living west of the Mississippi River grew from 1 percent of the
nation’s population in 1850 to almost 30 percent by the turn of the century.
DUGOUTS AND SODDIES
Since trees were scarce, most settlers built their
homes from the land itself. Many pioneers dug their homes into the sides of
ravines or small hills. A stovepipe jutting from the ground was often the only
clear sign of such a dugout home.
Those who moved to the broad, flat plains often made freestanding houses by
stacking blocks of prairie turf. Like a dugout, a sod home, or soddy, was warm in
422
C
A pioneer family
stands in front of
their soddy near
Coburg, Nebraska,
in 1887.
▼
Background
The U.S. Census
Bureau is the
permanent
collector of timely,
relevant data
about the people
and economy of
the United States.
Vocabulary
locust: any of
numerous
grasshoppers that
travel in large
swarms, often
doing great
damage to crops
MAIN IDEA
MAIN IDEA
C
Summarizing
What was
Turner’s view of
the role of the
American frontier
in 1893?
C. Answer
That it shaped
the American
character.
p0420-424aspe-0413s2 10/16/02 4:12 PM Page 422
Page 3 of 5
Changes on the Western Frontier 423
winter and cool in summer. Soddies were small, however, and offered little light
or air. They were havens for snakes, insects, and other pests. Although they were
fireproof, they leaked continuously when it rained.
WOMEN’S WORK
Virtually alone on the flat, endless prairie, homesteaders had
to be almost superhumanly self-sufficient. Women often worked beside the men in
the fields, plowing the land and planting and harvesting the predominant crop,
wheat. They sheared the sheep and carded wool to make clothes for their families.
They hauled water from wells that they had helped to dig, and made soap and can-
dles from tallow. At harvest time, they canned fruits and vegetables. They were
skilled in doctoring—from snakebites to crushed limbs. Women also sponsored
schools and churches in an effort to build strong communities.
TECHNICAL SUPPORT FOR FARMERS
Establishing a homestead was chal-
lenging. Once accomplished, it was farming the prairie, year in and year out, that
became an overwhelming task. In 1837, John Deere had invented a steel plow that
could slice through heavy soil. In 1847, Cyrus McCormick began to mass-produce
a reaping machine. But a mass market for these devices didn’t fully develop until
the late 1800s with the migration of farmers onto the plains.
Other new and improved devices made farm work speedier—the spring-tooth
harrow to prepare the soil (1869), the grain drill to plant the seed (1841), barbed
wire to fence the land (1874), and the corn binder (1878). Then came a reaper that
could cut and thresh wheat in one pass. By 1890, there were more than 900 man-
ufacturers of farm equipment. In 1830, producing a bushel of grain took about 183
minutes. By 1900, with the use of these machines, it took only 10 minutes. These
inventions made more grain available for a wider market.
AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION
The federal government supported farmers by
financing agricultural education. The Morrill Act of 1862 and 1890 gave federal
land to the states to help finance agricultural colleges, and the Hatch Act of 1887
established agricultural experiment stations to inform farmers of new develop-
ments. Agricultural researchers developed grains for arid soil and techniques for
dry farming, which helped the land to retain moisture. These innovations enabled
the dry eastern plains to flourish and become “the breadbasket of the nation.”
D
MAIN IDEA
MAIN IDEA
D
Summarizing
How did new
inventions change
farming in the
West?
D. Answer
Inventions such
as barbed wire,
the steel plow,
and the reaper,
helped farmers
increase pro-
duction and led
to the develop-
ment of bonanza
farms.
Science
Science
INVENTIONS THAT TAMED THE PRAIRIE
On the Great Plains, treeless expanses, root-filled soil, and
unpredictable weather presented challenges to farming.
BARBED WIRE Barbed
wire prevented animals
from trampling crops and
wandering off.
REAPER By speeding up harvesting,
the reaper saved crops from inclement
weather.
STEEL WINDMILL
In regions of
unpredictable
rainfall, the steel
windmill prevented
crop dehydration
by bringing up
underground water
for irrigation.
STEEL PLOW The steel
plow made planting
more efficient in root-
filled soil.
p0420-424aspe-0413s2 10/16/02 4:12 PM Page 423
Page 4 of 5
FARMERS IN DEBT
Elaborate machinery was expensive, and farmers often had
to borrow money to buy it. When prices for wheat were higher, farmers could
usually repay their loans. When wheat prices fell, however, farmers needed to raise
more crops to make ends meet. This situation gave rise to a new type of farming
in the late 1870s. Railroad companies and investors created bonanza farms,
enormous single-crop spreads of 15,000–50,000 acres. The Cass-Cheney-
Dalrymple farm near Cassleton, North Dakota, for example, covered 24 square
miles. By 1900, the average farmer had nearly 150 acres under cultivation. Some
farmers mortgaged their land to buy more property, and as farms grew bigger, so
did farmers’ debts. Between 1885 and 1890, much of the plains experienced
drought, and the large single-crop operations couldn’t compete with smaller
farms, which could be more flexible in the crops they grew. The bonanza farms
slowly folded into bankruptcy.
Farmers also felt pressure from the rising cost of shipping grain. Railroads
charged Western farmers a higher fee than they did farmers in the East. Also, the
railroads sometimes charged more for short hauls, for which there was no com-
peting transportation, than for long hauls. The railroads claimed that they were
merely doing business, but farmers resented being taken advantage of. “No other
system of taxation has borne as heavily on the people as those extortions and
inequalities of railroad charges” wrote Henry Demarest Lloyd in an article in the
March 1881 edition of Atlantic Monthly.
Many farmers found themselves growing as much grain as they could grow,
on as much land as they could acquire, which resulted in going further into debt.
But they were not defeated by these conditions. Instead, these challenging con-
ditions drew farmers together in a common cause.
424 C
HAPTER 13
•Homestead Act
•exoduster
•soddy
•Morrill Act
•bonanza farm
1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.
MAIN IDEA
2. TAKING NOTES
Create a time line of four events
that shaped the settling of the Great
Plains.
How might history be different if one
of these events hadn’t happened?
CRITICAL THINKING
3. EVALUATING
How successful were government
efforts to promote settlement of the
Great Plains? Give examples to
support your answer. Think About:
• the growth in population on the
Great Plains
• the role of railroads in the
economy
• the Homestead Act
4. DRAWING CONCLUSIONS
Review the changes in technology
that influenced the life of settlers on
the Great Plains in the late 1800s.
Explain how you think settlement of
the plains would have been different
without these inventions.
5. IDENTIFYING PROBLEMS
How did the railroads take
advantage of farmers?
event one
event two event four
event three
▼
Bonanza farms
like this one
required the labor
of hundreds of
farm hands and
horses.
Vocabulary
extortion: illegal
use of one’s
official position or
powers to obtain
property or funds
Vocabulary
mortgage: to
legally pledge
property to a
creditor as
security for the
payment of a loan
or debt
p0420-424aspe-0413s2 10/16/02 4:12 PM Page 424
Page 5 of 5
Download
Save PDF to desktop
Email
Email completed PDF
Send for Signing
Email for others to sign
Print
Print document
Choose a Field
Click on a field and
select the person that should complete it
Want to add a signature?
You can add a signature field
and assign it to someone else
to sign
Choose a Field
Click on a field and
select the person that should complete it

Great Plains Settling on the p0420-424aspe-0413s2 101602 4:12 (Caggia Social Studies)

This document is locked as it has been sent for signing.

You have successfully completed this document.

Other parties need to complete fields in the document. You will recieve an email notification when the document has been completed by all parties.

This document has been signed by all parties.

Completed 26 February 2021

Message

View Audit Log
Print With Audit Log
Duplicate Document