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what did the Homestead Act of 1862 do?
the Homestead Act divided up plots of land and essentially gave them away to ordinary people:
plots were 160-acre ‘homesteads’ - a family house with enough land to support the family
it cost just $10 to register a claim to a homestead plot
the government didn’t want the west to be bought up by rich landowners and wanted to encourage settlement by lots of farmers - anyone could file a claim if they were over 21, head of a household or single - women, ex-slaves and intending US citizens could file claims too
once someone had lived on the land for 5 years, planted crops and built a house, they could buy the land for $30 - ‘proving up’
what were the achievements of the Homestead Act?
the Homestead Act was important in encouraging immigration from Europe - by 1875 more than half of Nebraska’s population were recent immigrants and their families
by 1876, over 6 million acres of government land had successfully become homesteads
the Homestead Act ensured parts of the Great Plains were settled for the first time
eventually, 80 million acres of land was settled as a consequence of the act - nearly half of all land in Nebraska was homestead land
what were the limitations of the Homestead Act?
although 80 million acres was eventually settled, this was out of 500 million acres of public land (16%) - the government granted far more (300 million acres) to railroad companies and sold the rest of it for higher prices to cattle ranchers
only 13 million acres of claims had been ‘proved up’ by 1884
the Homestead Act allowed people to buy their claim for $1.25 per acre once they had ploughed one acre of it - meant families filed claims to sell the land on for profit
many more homesteads were formed by people buying land from the railroad companies
what were the farming problems faced by homesteaders on the Plains?
water shortages - difficult to grow crops and water livestock
crops failed often due to dry, hard land
ploughing - grass roots were buried deep into the soil and were hard to remove
protecting crops - there were very few trees for fencing off land or for windbreaks
building materials - lack of wood on the Plains
what were some solutions to these problems?
windmills were used to pump water out of the ground - became more effective from 1874 as steel blades were used
dry farming was used and Turkey Red Wheat was brought over from Russia and was first used on the Plains in 1874
sulky ploughs were invented in 1875 - 50,000 were sold in the first 6 years
in 1874 barbed wire was invented which was a cheap and effective way to fence off land
Timber Culture Act in 1873 - gave homesteaders 160 more acres as long as they planted trees on 40 acres of it
development of the cattle industry (part 1)
1865 - after the CW ended, beef was in demand in big cities of the north
the cattle in Texas had been left unmanaged during the war and their numbers had increased enormously - now 5 million cattle in Texas
a cow was worth $40 in Chicago but in the south they were only worth $5 in the south
1866 - Texas organised a large cattle drive to Sedalia but they were blocked from going through Kansas by farmers worried about Texas fever in cows
1866 - Goodnight-Loving Trail established, didn’t go through Kansas
Goodnight and Loving drove 2,000 cattle to Fort Sumner where they sold 800 cattle for around $12,000 - nearly four times as much as they were in Texas
Loving drove the remaining 1,200 north and sold them to Ilif
development of the cattle industry (part 2)
a branch of the railroad, the Kansas Pacific, reached Abilene - Joseph McCoy realised Abilene could be a new destination for cattle drivers as it was west of Kansas farmers
McCoy bought 450 acres of land and built large stockyards where cattle could be safely kept - also had a railway depot built and arranged for the Chisholm trail to be extended to Abilene - also spent $5000 in marketing Abilene
by the end of 1867, 35,000 cattle had been driven along the Chisholm Trail to Abilene
between 1867 and 1872, 3 million cattle were driven to Abilene, making McCoy rich and Abilene the first cow town
1876 - Goodnight’s ranch in Texas had become so successful that it expanded to 1 million acres
what was the life of a Texas cowboy like?
ranches did not employ many cowboys as cattle roamed freely - the work began in early spring with the round up - cowboys drove the cattle back to the ranches where they were separated and branded
a cowboy’s main job was to drive the cattle herds from Texas to Kansas along the Chisholm Trail, which took 2-3 months or up the GL trail which took about 6 months
often involved about 3,000 cattle, which needed about 12 cowboys
at the end of the trail, in a cow town, the cowboys would herd the cattle into stockyards to be sold, and then they were paid
once they were paid, cowboys would often get drunk, fight, gamble and spend all their money
what was the significance of John Ilif and ranching on the Plains?
in 1861, John Ilif bought a herd of cattle for $500 ad they were exhausted after a ling drive and were too thin to sell for beef
if Ilif could fatten his new herd up on the grass of the Plains, he would be able to sell beef for a good price to mining towns with none of the expenses of long drives
by 1870 Ilif had extended his Colorado ranch, using the HA, to build up a patchwork of claims and had 26,000 cattle on the Plains
he sold beef to mining towns, Union Pacific railroad builders, and in 1872 won a contract to provide beef to a reservation of 7,000 Plains Indians
importance was that he had raised cattle on the Plains instead of using drives - was the start of a new phase of the industry: ranching on the open range of the Plains
why was there rivalry between cattle ranchers and homesteaders?
ranchers relied on access to huge amounts of public grazing land, ranchers used legal and illegal tactics to block homesteaders from claiming public land that ranching relied on
homesteading turned small parcels of land into private farms, homesteaders were accused of cattle-rustling, ranchers also complained that homesteaders’ barbed wire fences harmed their animals
what were the problems faced by the cattle industry from c1880s?
overstocking - through the 1870s so much money went into cattle ranching that the open range became overstocked - too many animals were relying on the same area of land
fall in demand for beef - in eastern states there was so much beef that it was much easier to get hold of beef than in the 1860s
shortage of grass - overstocking put pressure on the soil, a drought in 1883 made this even worse and prairies fires reduced grass cover even further
The Great ‘Die Up’ - harsh winter of 1886-87 killed many cattle as temperatures dropped as low as -55C
why did ranches change after 1887?
during the harsh winter of 1886-87 large ranches struggled the most - smaller ranches became the model for the cattle industry after 1887 for a number of reasons:
smaller herds could easily be found when it snowed and brought closer to the ranch buildings where there was shelter and food
during a drought, it was easier to provide water to the herd
smaller herds were easier to guard so there was more control over rustling
smaller herds reduced the supply of beef, and higher quality meat could be sold for higher prices
ranchers began fencing in their land with barbed wire to keep cattle separate
how did the changes to ranching affect the lives of cowboys?
there was much less demand for cowboys, and those who stayed in the industry were often employed as ranch hands
now had much less adventurous lives: branding cattle, mending fences and harvesting hay used to feed the hers
lived in bunkhouses, which were often not very comfortable and had strict schedules and rules to follow
were responsible for ‘riding the line’ - patrolling the boundary between one ranch and another
