Home on the Range Lands for Settlement Pacific Railway Acts (1862 & 1864) Union and Central Pacific recd. land 10 sq. miles for every mile of RR RRs sold land and made a profit Morrill Land-Grant Act (1862) Federal government gave out land to states to build land-grant colleges created to provide land for colleges University of Kentucky States sold 50 cents/acre to speculators & banks = sold for a profit Lands for Settlement Homestead Act (1862) offered 160 acres to all who met the requirements Age 21/head of household Citizens/immigrants filing for citizenship Pay $10 registration fee Build a house & live on claim for 6 mos. Farm the land for 5 consecutive years Pillsbury, Dunn County, North Dakota 1887 Custer County, Nebraska Cave-Ins Settlers Work Together Collected water would cause prairie fever, or typhoid Digging wells (better alternative), dangerous Sod digging very hard work Men-had to work away fr. Home for $, women-had to make all clothes, soap, candles, preserved foods Families cooperated-houses, barns, quilts Women in the West Women could file claims by themselves Married women, lots of alone time Women stayed behind to keep squatters off of land Needed activities for spare time Suffrage 1887 Argonia (1 st woman mayor) & Syracuse, KS 1 st towns to grant suffrage (elected female council) Wyoming (1890) when it became a state, 1 st to grant womens suffrage New Technology on the Farm Dry farming farmers planted crops that did not require a lot of rain Improved plows that could make more than one furrow at once, good for large farms Automatic drills, harrows, cornhuskers, & cornbinders SEED DRILL The Reaper Corn Husker Wheat Thresher Harrows Corn binder, c The corn binder was a child of the grain binder. Using the grain binders knot- tying mechanism, the corn binder cut, gathered, then tied the corn stalks in a bundle. The bundles were then gathered into "shocks" that stood up in the field for the corn to dry. The shocks were then either fed to farm animals, or put through a "husker-shredder." The husker-shredder separated the ears of corn and shredded the corn fodder. Bonanza Farms Hoped to feed the nation Big business farms that specialized on one type of cash crop Large amounts of produce flooded the market and prices fell Low prices led to larger production of goods, and made problems worse The Great Oklahoma Land Rush April 22, 1889 Buffalo Soldiers