Pioneers on the Plains

Ms. Richardson’s 5th grade class

Lesson Essential Question

•Why did settlers begin

living on the Great

Plains in the mid-

1800’s?

Places to Know

• Great Plains

• Nicodemus, Kansas

People to Know

• Willa Cather

• Benjamin Singleton

• George Shima

Vocabulary

• Pioneer

• Homestead Act

• Homesteader

• Sodbuster

• Exoduster

• Technology

The Great Plains

• The Great Plains was considered by many in the mid-1800’s to be nothing more than the “Great American Desert.”

• The U.S. government wanted to encourage people to live on the Great Plains.

• The President Lincoln signed the Homestead Act.

The Great Plains

• The Homestead Act gave 160 acres of

land, for just $10, to men over the age

of 21 or women if they were the head of

the household. They had to farm and

live on the land for 5 years. After the

five years the land became theirs.

The Great Plains

• These pioneers or new settlers moved

to the Great Plains with the hope of

building a new and better life for

themselves.

• The settlers that claimed the new land

given in the Homestead Act were called

homesteaders.

Settling on the Plains

• Before the pioneers could begin farming

they had to rip up the thick grass on

their land.

• This was not easy as the grass on the

Great Plains had tangled roots and

were several inches thick.

Settling on the Plains

• Because the settlers on the Great

Plains had to bust through this “sod”

these farmers were also know as

sodbusters.

• After ripping up the sod from the land,

most sodbusters used the sod to make

their houses.

Settling on the Plains

• Sod houses were built from blocks of

sod that stayed cool in the summer and

warm in the winter.

• Unfortunately for the homesteaders the

sod walls were home to bugs, mice, and

snakes!

Settling on the Plains

• Once the homesteaders were able to

plant crops, they found the land to be

very fertile.

• Willa Cather, who grew-up on the

plains, described life on the Great in her

famous novel “O Pioneers.”

America Fever

• The stories of the Great Plains spread

quickly to Europe.

• Thousands of people moved to the U.S.

to live on the Great Plains.

• The Great Plains became, and still is

today, the most productive wheat

growing region in the world!

America Fever

• The Homestead Act also provided

opportunities for African Americans as

they still faced unfair treatment after the

end of slavery.

• Benjamin Singleton began urging

African Americans to leave the south

and move to the Great Plains.

America Fever

• The African Americans living on the

Great Plains began calling themselves

Exodusters. Exo - from the book in the

Bible, Exodus; and dusters - from all of

the dust on the Great Plains.

• Soon all African American communities

began forming over the Great Plains like

Nicodemus, Kansas.

Life on the Plains

• Living on the Great Plains required

some new technology to make life a

little bit easier. Technology is the use of

new ideas to make tools that improve

people’s lives.

• Even with the new technology life was

very difficult on the Great Plains.

Life on the Plains

• Weather was harsh on the plains.

Winters brought bitter cold and deadly

blizzards. The spring often brought

tornados, hailstorms, and flooding. The

summers meant blazing heat and little

rain.

Life on the Plains

• If the weather was not bad enough, the

settlers had to watch for fires and the

dreaded grasshopper.

• Grasshoppers were so many at times

that they blacked out the sun and were

up to 6 inches thick on the ground,

destroying everything in their path.

Technology on the Plains

• Steel Plows were

first invented by a

man named John

Deere. These plows

were made just for

the Great Plains.

Technology on the Plains

• Windmills helped people on the Great

Plains gather water as most of the water

was deep underground. With the steady

wind on the Plains, windmills were ideal

tools.

Technology on the Plains

• Barbed wire helped farmers keep

animals away from their crops. A man

named Joseph Glidden invented barbed

wire in 1874. Barbed wire fences were

cheap and easy to build.

Technology on the Plains

• Dry Farming was a way that farmers

grow crops with little rain. This method

uses moisture stored in the soil, rather

than rainfall. Farmers used dry farming

to grow wheat and other crops.

Growth in the West

• People continued to move further and

further west because of the new

railroads.

• Thousands of people settled in

Washington, Oregon, and California.

• The west also attracted people from

other countries.

Growth in the West

• Many Japanese built successful farms

in the west.

• One of the more famous farmers was

George Shima.

• He was born in Japan. When he arrived

in the U.S. he was so poor he had no

money for food.

Growth in the West

• Shima soon made enough money to

rent 10 acres of land.

• He experimented with growing potatoes.

• He became know as the “Potato King.”

Review

• What did the government hope the

Homestead Act would accomplish?

• Who were the exodusters? What

caused them to move to the Great

Plains?

• Describe two inventions that helped the

pioneese on the Great Plains.