Noah Webster - Taught millions to read and not one to sin
William McGuffey - Remembered for his reading textbooks
Josiah Holbrook - Founded the Lyceum Movement
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - Part of the Schoolroom poets; only American poet that was honored in England's Westminster Abbey
James Russell Lowell - Distinguished himself through his powerful patriotic verse
Washington Irving - Wrote many exciting tales of Dutch settlers along the Hudson River
James Fenimore Cooper - America's greatest novelist; who wrote Leatherstocking Tales
Nathaniel Hawthorne - Wrote the Scarlet Letter
Stephen Foster - Best known American composer
Lowell Mason - Continued the tradition of the "singing school"
Charles Wilson Peale - Helped found the Academy of Fine Arts
Eli Whitney - Invented the first cotton gin
University of North Carolina - The first state university to begin operating
Oberlin College - Where Charles G Finny pioneered higher education for blacks
Wesleyan College - Became the first college to open its doors to women.
Traditional education - Passes the accumulated knowledge of the past to the present generation
Blue-backed Speller - American spelling book
McGuffey’s Readers - Most widely used and distributed series of school books in America
Romantic era - The first half of the 19th century, Romantic era literature emphasized man's aspirations, emotions, individuality, personal experiences, and imaginations
Schoolroom or Fireside Poets - The poetry of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and James Russell Lowell - emphasized family values and patriotism
Hudson River School - Known for landscape paintings of scenes along the Hudson River
Plantation - Used slave labor to produce cash crops
Jedediah Smith - Trapper and hunter who discovered the wagon route South Pass
William Becknell - Frontier trader known as the "Father of the Santa Fe Trail"
Jason Lee - Methodist missionary who was the first to take the gospel to the Indians of the Northwest
Dr Marcus Whitman and Rev. Henry Spaulding - The missionaries to the Indies
John Sutter - Swiss settler who obtained a large grant from the Mexican government of California
William Taylor - Missionary to California; became known as the Street Preacher for his ministry to San Francisco
Santa Anna - Declared himself the military dictator of all Mexico resulting in a civil war
Jim Bowie, Davy Crockett - Inventor of the Bowie knife who died at the Alamo
James K. Polk - Democratic president
Stephen Kearney - General who led American troops overland along the Santa Fe Trail to San Diego in the Bear Flag Revolt
Zachary Taylor - Defeated Santa Anna in the Mexican War; known as "Old Rough and Ready"
James Gadsden - Negotiated the purchase of Gadsden Purchase
South Pass - Wagon route to the Oregon Country
Fort Vancouver - Only sizable settlement in Oregon Country controlled by the British
Independence, Missouri - Starting point for the long trail westward to the Pacific coast
Independence Rock - Granite landmark that westward-bound wagon trains usually reached by July
Alamo - Fortified Spanish mission in San Antonio where Texas soldiers fought to the death for Texas liberty
Lone Star Republic - Republic of Texas
Veracruz - Sight of first major amphibious landing of American forces
Great Migration - A train of 120 wagon with 1,000 pioneers to go to West
Bear Flag Revolt - Won California its independence from Mexico
Battle of San Jacinto - Great Texan victory over Mexico that won Texas its independence
Annexation - To take a land and make it part of one's own country
Mexican War - War between Mexico and the United States fought over the disputed Texas boundary
Battle of Buena Vista - Battle where General Taylor soundly defeated Santa Anna's army in February 1847
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo - It was signed by the Mexican government in 1848
Mexican Cession - Territory gained by the United States including California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Wyoming
Gadsden Purchase - Acquisition of desert land in southern Arizona and New Mexico for the planned Southern Pacific Railroad