US History - Chapter 13

Westward Expansion

Railway Act of 1862

• gave the Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad permission to build a transcontinental line

• the government provided subsidies to the railroads: $16,000 for each mile of track laid in the plains, $32,000 per mile in the foothills, and $48,000 per mile in the mountains

Union Pacific Railroad

• began working from Omaha, Nebraska, in 1865

• its workers included Civil War veterans, miners, farmers, Irish immigrants, adventurers, and ex-convicts

Central Pacific Railroad

• began in Sacramento, California, and pushed eastward

• 10,000 Chinese immigrant laborers were hired due to the lack of available workers in the West

The Great Northern line

the only transcontinental line that was completed without a penny of government subsidy

Promontory Point, Utah

where the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroad lines met in the middle

Comstock Lode

• one of the largest and richest mines

• located in Nevada

Ghost town

the aftermath of a mining town when its population left completely

“long drive”

the trail of 260,000 longhorn cattle from Texas to Sedalia, Missouri

Chisholm Trail

• a trail that extends from Texas to Abilene

• used by cattle brokers each year, travelling over 700,000 head of cattle along the way

• built by Joseph McCoy, a cattle broker

Gustavus Swift

invented the ice-cooled refrigerator railcars which allowed meat packers to slaughter the beef in the West and then ship the meat to the plants

Philip Armour

• developed uses for the leftover products of the cattle

• made gloves and shoes out of the hides

• bones for glue, buttons, and fertilizer

• fat (a.k.a beef tallow) → soap

Reasons why the open-range cattle industry ended:

1. meat prices dropped (there was a greater efficiency for meat production)

2. cattle overgrazed much of the land, leaving barely any food for wild herds

3. cold winters existed

Black Bart

• a well-dressed “gentleman bandit” who robbed 28 stagecoaches but never hurt any passengers

• was apprehended by Pinkerton detectives after he dropped a handkerchief with markings on it at the scene of a crime

Jesse James

• one of the most famous outlaws of the Wild West

• had a brother named Frank James

• used guerilla tactics as members of the Confederate Quantrill Raiders

• terrorized Missouri and neighboring states, robbing stagecoaches, trains, and banks

Billy the Kid

• aka William Bonney or Henry McCarty

• also a notorious outlaw

• accused of over 12 murders by the time he was 18

Wyatt Earp

• one of the best known lawmen in the Wild West

• became famous for participating in an 1881 gunfight near the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, where he and a few others engaged in a shootout with a group of outlaws, killing three

James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickock

• another famous lawman of the Wild West

• known for his fabricated stories he told about himself

• brought order to the town of Abilene, Kansas

Homestead Act of 1862

• gave 160 acres of land to any individual who paid a small filing fee and promised to live on the land five years and make improvements to it

• the goal was to open the land to small farmers

• nearly a million settlers had filed for homesteads under this law

Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862

• gave existing states 30k acres of federal lad for every representative and senator they had

• the land was to be used or sold for the purpose of establishing or supporting colleges that specialized in agricultural and mechanical education

Timber Culture Act of 1873

gave an additional 160 acres to homesteaders if they planted 40 acres in trees

Desert Land Act of 1877

gave 640 acres of desert land to those who promised to irrigate and farm it

Boomers

people who rushed into Indian territory to claim their land as cannons sounded (they make boom sound)

Sooners

• settlers who illegally stakes their claims of land before the appointed hour

• (for context, just some time before this happened, President Benjamin Harrison announced that three million acres in Indian Territory would be open to settlers beginnning at noon on April 22, 1889.)

Hardships of the Prairies

1. lack of resources

2. extreme weather of the Great Plains

3. farmers (“sodbusters”) plowing up the hard prairie grasslands

4. swarms of locusts and grasshoppers

5. resentment towards homesteaders

“soddies”

houses built from blocks of earth and sod

Grange

• aka the Patrons of Husbandry

• an organization that was founded to encourage social contracts and scientific methods of farming

• represented the economic and political interests of farmers

Farmers’ Alliance

• worked for reforms to benefit farmers

• united farm cooperatives across the country and looked to meet farmers’ demands through political measures such as railroad regulation, favorable currency policies, and antitrust laws

Reservations

special tracts of land set aside where Native Americans could theoretically live in peace

Plains Indians

• included the Cheyenne, Comanche, and the Sioux

• subsisted primarily on the bison that wandered the Great Plains in huge herds

• bison provided meat as well as hides used for clothing, blankets, tent coverings, and other necessities

Red Cloud’s War

• Captain William Fettermen bragged that with 80 men he could ride through the entire Sioux nation

• was ambushed at Fort Phil Kearny by a large Sioux war party under Lakota Sioux chief Red Cloud

• Fettermen and all his troops were killed

Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)

• ended Red Cloud’s War

• reduced Sioux lands established by previous treaties and created a new reservation that included the Black Hills

• guaranteed a portion of land outside the reservation to be free from white settlement and removed troops from the forts on that land

Great Sioux War

• the great climax of the Indian Wars

• occurred between 1876-1877

• involved cavalry Lieutenant George Armstrong Custer and Lakota Sioux leaders Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse

Battle of the Washita River (1868)

Custer divides his force and attacked the Indians, winning victory over them

Battle of Little Bighorn

• Native Americans fought with overwhelming numbers

• Custer and all his force lost their lives

• the US’ defeat became known as Custer’s Last Stand

Ghost Dance Movement

• Native Americans rebelled

• they imagined the restoration of the bison and Native American lands

Wounded Knee Massacre

• the US army tried to capture a band of Sioux near Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota

• in the process, someone fired a shot

• in the end, 25 soldiers and 150+ Native Americans were dead (half of them women and children)

Chief Joseph

• leader of the Nez Perce tribe

• tried to escape after his warriors killed white settlers

• hated war

• was caught by the cavalry and eventually settled in a resevation, where he died on September 21, 1904

Dawes Act

• allowed Native American lands to be distributed to Native American heads of households and individuals

• household heads received 160 acres while single adults received 80, and minors 40

• participants were granted land and US citizenship if they “adopted the habits of civilized life”

• the goal was to open Indian lands up for white settlement

Indian Reorganization Act

• halted the allotment program of the Dawes Act

• gave the tribes limited self-government on their reservations