513-518
- Recognize cause and effect relationships.
- Describe how farmers were able to settle
in the West during the 19th Century.
Quiz
Factors Contributing to Agricultural
Settlement of the West

Land grants
– Homestead Act (1862) – gave 160 acres to settlers who
would live on and improve the land for at least five
years.
– Problem?
 much of the land was poor for farming, or excluded
since it was already settled or owned by the
railroads.
– Success?
 375,000 homesteads claimed by 1890.
Homestead Act land grant
Factors Contributing to Agricultural
Settlement of the West

Land grants
– Oklahoma Land Giveaway (1889) – within one day,
over two million acres claimed by “Nooners” and
“Sooners” (claimed early).
Oklahoma Land Rush (1889)
“Nooners vs. Sooners”
Factors Contributing to Agricultural
Settlement of the West

Various Groups Encouraged Settlement
– Newspapers reported opportunity for all.
– Land and steamship companies sent agents to Europe to
“sell” America.
– Immigrant associations encouraged it.
– Railroads advertised farm lands for sale.
Factors Contributing to Agricultural
Settlement of the West

Various Groups Encouraged Settlement
– Newspapers reported opportunity for all.
– Land and steamship companies sent agents to Europe to
“sell” America.
– Railroads advertised farm lands for sale.
– Blacks created a folk movement called Exodus, settling in
KS, NE as “exodusters”.
“Exoduster”
Homesteaders
Factors Contributing to Agricultural
Settlement of the West

By force in some cases:
– Whites seized communal Hispanic lands by force, then by
law using the Santa Fe Ring.
– Las Gorras Blancas (white caps) reacted by raiding
white settlements, cutting fences, destroying railroad
property.
Difficulties Facing Settlers

Scarcity of trees meant settlers had to use available materials
for building and fuel.
Interior of sod house – photograph taken in 1923, North Dakota
Difficulties Facing Settlers




Scarcity of trees meant settlers had to use available materials
for building and fuel.
Water had to be transported over great distances.
Sense of loneliness.
Need for fencing to protect fields/livestock.
Joseph Glidden
Patent for barb wire
Difficulties Facing Settlers







Scarcity of trees meant settlers had to use available materials
for building and fuel.
Water had to be transported over great distances.
Sense of loneliness.
Need for fencing to protect fields/livestock.
Aridity of the Great Plains.
Tough sod of the Great Plains required special equipment to
plow, plant and harvest.
Outside forces oftentimes caused failure such as drought,
competition, and costs of farming.
Homesteads From Public Lands
Frederick Jackson Turner
The Significance of the Frontier
in American Society (1893)
Turner Thesis argued that
the frontier had “closed”
or settled by 1890.