American West « History Rhymes

20May/083

The Homestead Act of 1862

Today marks the 146th anniversary of the signing of The Homestead Act. Like The General Mining Act of 1872, The Homestead Act of 1862 was designed to encourage people to settle the west. By the time the act was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on May 20, 1862, eleven southern states had already succeeded from the Union and almost a century of debate about how best to go about settling unsettled land in the west had already passed. The Homestead Act was a culmination of the triumphs and failures of the past one hundred years of experimentation.

Initially, the sale of public land in the west was seen as a source of revenue for the government rather than a means to expand the country's borders and encourage settlement. The Land Ordinance of 1785 stated that an individual had the right to purchase 640 acres of public land for $1 per acre. In 1800, the amount of acreage was reduced to a maximum of 320 acres, however, prices changed very little at only $1.25 an acre. In 1854, legislation was passed that changed the prices of land based on its desirability. A plot of land that had been on the market for 30 years, for example, was reduced to 12.5 cents per acre. Even with that kind of price, most people could still not afford it, so settlement of western lands was slow.

In the early years of settlement in the west, it was assumed that settlers would pay for the land before settling it, however, in the mid-nineteenth century, legislation supporting "preemption" -- or the right to settle land before paying for it -- began to find support in the government. However, in 1852, 1854 and 1859, the House of Representatives passed the homestead legislation only for it to be defeated in the Senate. In 1860, a bill providing government land grants to western settlers was passed by Congress, but was vetoed by President James Buchanan. The chief concern preventing the legislation from passing was the issue of slavery. Southern states whose economies were supported by large slave-run farms were deeply concerned about the creation of small farms in the west and the spread of antislavery policies.

With the secession of the Southern states, The Homestead Act of 1862 had very little trouble finding support from Congress and from the president. With the new law in place, those willing to settle in the west and who had never borne arms against the US government were allotted 160-acre lots. To get the deed to their property, they had to follow a simple three-step procedure: filing an application (see image below), improving the land, then filing for deed of title. The only money they had to pay was a small application fee unless they chose to buy the property for $1.25 an acre from the government after six months of residency. In order to receive ownership of the land, settlers had to complete five years of continuous residency, build a dwelling of at least 12 x 14 and improve the land for agricultural use. The legislation did not specify in which measurement the 12 x 14 dwelling had to be. Many people took advantage of the this loophole and built dwellings of 12 inches by 14 inches in order to claim more land. After the Civil War, Union soldiers were allowed to subtract their time served from the requirements of the Homestead Act.

Although many of the pioneers who had ventured west could not endure the hardships of life on the frontier, many of them were able to stay. By 1900, 80 million acres of public land had been distributed as a result of the Homestead Act. By 1934, 1.6 million homestead applications had been processed and 270 million acres of land had been passed on to individuals. Congress repealed the Homestead Act in 1976 with the Federal Land Policy and Management Act in the lower 48 states, giving Alaska a ten-year extension.

An example of an application for a homestead. Image courtesy of The National Archives.

An example of proof needed to be submitted to the government in order to claim a homestead. Image courtesy of The National Archives.

An example of a certificate certifying ownership of a claim. Image courtesy of The National Archives.

Tagged as: 1862, Abraham Lincoln, Acts, American West, Homestead, Settlement, Settlers 3 Comments

18May/082

Frontier Life in Washington Territory

There is a really interesting article that I came across about life on the frontier in Washington Territory in and around 1857. The article is an old article that was published in the Harper's Weekly journal on August 22, 1857. Here is a clip of the article:

The commonly-received notion of Washington Territory makes of it a country wild and rugged, made up chiefly of thickly-wooded mountains and steep ravines, having an unkind climate vibrating between a drizzle and a raw fog, robbed somehow of its due share of fair, vivifying sunshine, and inhabited by Indians the chief end and aim of whose existence is the depriving white settlers of that valuable and ornamental appendage, the scalp. A country, briefly, in every unpropitious to the husband-man and the peaceful trader, and fit goal only for those restless spirits whose mission in life is to "move West."

Mr. James G. Swan, a plain, broad-shouldered, matter-of-fact man, tells in a volume just published, * a different story. According to Mr. Swan, Washington Territory is exceeded by no part of the Union in fertility of soil, beauty and salubrity of climate, variety of natural productions, or splendor of scenery. Its mountains and plains abound in the choicest timber; its extensive and well-watered prairies have the finest soil in the world; its streams and bays teem with fish of every kin, from the salmon to the herring; and its woods and marshes are alive with every kind of game known to the American sportsman.

The Indians, against whom our Government is now waging a war of extermination, are in reality, according to Mr. Swan, a harmless and easily-guided race, very willing originally to be of service to the white settlers, but goaded on by injudicious management on the part of lawless whites to a bloody retaliation of their wrongs. They have numberless superstitions, of which our author gives an extended and interesting account, live chiefly by the chase and fishery, flatten the heads of their infants, bury their dead in canoes, and live in great fear of the memlose tillicums, or spirits of the deceased. Their doctors cure by mesmerism, and they seem to work upon the principle of "kill or cure," i. e., kill the physician if he does not cure the patient. Their women have an easier lot than generally falls to the Indian squaw.

Such were the people—peaceable, simple-hearted, superstitious, and easily guided by right-minded men—among whom the early settlers of Washington Territory pitched their tents, and with whose aid they located claims, exported oysters, hooked salmon, and cultivated potatoes and wheat.

You can find the rest on HarpWeek.com

Tagged as: American West, Frontier, Harper's Weekly, History, Life, Washington 2 Comments

16May/084

The Hanging Judge

"I have ever had the single aim of justice in view... 'Do equal and exact justice,' is my motto, and I have often said to the grand jury, 'Permit no innocent man to be punished, but let no guilty man escape.'"

Few judges in American history have such a reputation as that of Isaac Parker. Known as "The Hanging Judge," Judge Parker sentenced more than 160 criminals (156 men and 4 women) to death by hanging and tried a total of 13,490 cases in only 21 years on the bench.

Isaac Parker was born in Ohio on October 15, 1838. He grew up on a farm, but quickly discovered he had no interest in the farm life. When he wasn't needed on the farm, he went school at the Breeze Hill primary school. After completing primary school, Parker attended the Barnesville Classical Institute which was a private institution. In order to earn money to pay for his schooling, he worked as a teacher at a county primary school. As early as the age of 17, Parker opted to study law. His study of law consisted of a combination of self-study and an apprenticeship. He passed the bar exam in 1859 after reading law with a Barnesville attorney.

After passing his bar exam, Parker moved west to St. Joseph, Missouri -- a town later made famous by the infamous Jesse James. He began his legal career with the firm of Shannon and Branch which was operated by his uncle, D.E. Shannon. In 1861, after working on his own for a short while, he was elected to city attorney as a Democrat. On December 12th of the same year, he married Mary O'Toole. The couple eventually had two children: Charles and James.

After three years as a Democratic city attorney, he formally split from the Democratic party and ran for county prosecutor for the Ninth Missouri Judicial District as a Republican. That fall, he served as a member of the Electoral College and cast his vote for Abraham Lincoln. Four years later, in 1868, he won his first position as a judge. Parker won a six-year term as judge for the Twelfth Missouri Circuit, although he did not finish his term.

1870 saw a different turn in Parker's career. On September 13, 1870, he was nominated as a Republican candidate for the Seventh Congressional District in Missouri. After resigning his post as judge in favor of putting more energy into his campaign, he easily won the election on November 8th after his opponent had dropped out of the race. He easily won re-election for a second term two years later. During his second term, he gained national attention for his support of legislation for the rights and fair treatment of Indian tribes in the Indian Territory, or what is now Oklahoma. In 1874, however, the political landscape in Missouri had changed and as a Republican, Parker stood no chance of winning the election again. Instead he sought a presidential appointment to public office.

On March 18, 1875, Parker's presidential appointment was granted. He was appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant to preside over the federal district court for the Western District of Arkansas as judge. With his court in Fort Smith on the border of Indian Territory and Arkansas, it was this post that would lead him to infamy. At the time of his appointment, Indian Territory was a vast area of chaos where outlaws ruled outside the jurisdiction of the "White Man's Court." Parker sought to bring this anarchy to an end.

Parker held court for the first time on May 10, 1875. He sentenced eight men to death after being found guilty of murder. During the following summer, he would convict 15 people of murder and sentence eight of them to die by hanging on September 3rd of the same year. The sentence of one of the convicts was reduced to life in prison because of his young age and another convict was killed while attempting to escape.

The hangings of September 3rd gained national attention. Newspapermen traveled from all over the nation to attend the execution of the six men. Three of the felons were white, two of them Native American and one of them black. That morning, they were led to the gallows in front of a large crowd of spectators. As they sat at the back of the gallows, they were read their death warrants and asked if they had any last words. After the preliminaries had finished, they were led up to the scaffolding and nooses were placed around their necks by executioner George Maledon (pictured right). The trap was sprung and the six men died instantly at the end of the ropes.

The September 3rd hangings gave Judge Parker the nickname "The Hanging Judge" and were a sign that the times of the rule of outlaws in Indian Territory was at an end. His court was condemned by his critics as the "Court of the Damned." By the time his career was over, there would be 73 more hangings.

Sick from a life of overworking and spending his last few days bedridden, Parker died of a heart attack on November 17, 1896.

Tagged as: American West, Executions, Hanging, Judge 4 Comments

15May/080

Classic Westerns

One of the things that got me interested in the history of the American west are westerns. I used to watch John Wayne movies with my grandpa when I was young and since I've been in Germany, I've found that many Germans also really love westerns. They even have their own breed of the genre which is amusing to watch because the characters are supposedly in Mexico or Texas speaking German.

Anyway, I bring this up because I came across something a couple of days ago that I think any lover of the genre will appreciate, if not enjoy. It is a podcast called the Western Wednesday Podcast. The podcast has 20-30 minute shows that are available for download every Wednesday. The shows themselves were created -- both written and recorded -- in the 1950's and were designed for radio. For anyone who really enjoys westerns, this is a great opportunity to listen to some classics. Although they may not be 100% historically accurate, they are a great glimpse at the time period and they will really help put you into the mentality of someone who lived during the "wild west" days. Of course they are entertaining as well.

You can find the podcast on the Western Wednesday Podcast website where you can subscribe via iTunes or any other RSS reader that supports podcasts.

Tagged as: 1950's, American West, John Wayne, Shows, Westerns No Comments

14May/082

The General Mining Act of 1872

When gold was discovered in California in 1848, it caused a mass-migration of prospective miners to the west. Unfortunately at that time, the US government had very few mining laws, practically none of which were effective, and without a significant presence in the newly-acquired state of California, there was no good means with which to enforce those the government already had in place. Laws and mining regulations were therefore up to the individual mining communities to govern. Instead of the ineffective laws produced by the American government, they decided to adopt the Mexican mining laws which were already effectively in place. The Mexican mining laws stated that an individual who discovers gold or silver on public land has the right to mine it. These laws and regulations varied surprisingly very little between different communities with only minor differences such as the maximum size of claims.

On July 26, 1866, the first effective American mining legislation was passed by Congress. Known as the "Chaffee laws," the legislation basically made what the miners were already doing legal. At first the laws covered the legalization of mining lode, or hardrock, on public lands. The laws were then expanded in 1870 to include the legalization of placer mining, or the mining of sand or gravel for gold. With the original laws, miners could make claims if they had discovered and intended to extract gold, silver, cinnabar or copper.

In 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed the General Mining Act into law. The new act was more or less a more organized revision of the mining laws of 1866 and 1870, however, there were a few major changes in the 1872 act. Miners were now granted extralateral rights to lode claims which meant that if a miner had discovered a surface outcrop of a vein on his claim, he had the right to follow it and mine it wherever it led him, even under someone else's claim. The new act fixed the maximum size of a claim to be 1500 feet long and 600 feet wide. One of the more significant changes was the addition of "or other valuable deposits" to the list of materials that could be discovered and claimed, effectively expanding the scope of the law.

While most people know of the Homestead Act of 1862, which brought much attention to the desolate west and an onslaught of settlers, not many people know about the General Mining Act of 1872, although they were both intended to promote the settlement of the west.

$A large \"crater\" mine.$ The significance of the General Mining Act of 1872 is still felt quite prominently in the west. Aside from a few amendments made throughout the years, it remains mostly unchanged since its inception in 1872. One of the more significant amendments with the most profound impact on modern times was made just six years later and is called the Timber and Stone Act of 1878. It allowed private purchase of federal mineable land for very cheap.

Today, private miners and mining companies are able to obtain federal land for next to nothing. Modern mining techniques have also left huge craters in the western landscape, some of them large enough to see from space.

There is an interesting video from National Geographic on YouTube about the General Mining Act of 1872 and its effects on the modern west. I posted the video in an earlier post which you can find here.

Tagged as: 1872, Acts, American West, General Mining Act, History 2 Comments

8May/080

The Modocs – History and Culture of the Modocs (Part 1)

In the woods in southern Oregon, a man quietly stalks a deer. The summer weather is brutally hot and he sweats profusely. The man is careful to avoid making any sort of noise and is weary not to let his game out of sight. The deer stops in a small clearing and it is the perfect opportunity to strike. The man raises his bow and prepares it with an arrow as he gets ready to shoot. It is vitally important that he does not miss as the deer will provide food for the women and children of his village and the pelt will provide clothing. His thoughts are a blur as he takes aim and lets the arrow go. The time seems to last a small eternity until the arrow finally reaches its deadly mark. The man is a young hunter belonging to the Modocs.

When asked about the Modocs, most people will say they have not heard of them. Compared to better known Native American tribes such as the Cherokees, Apache and Arapahos, the Modocs are a relatively small and mysterious tribe, but their story is nonetheless quite interesting.

$Map of the Klamath Tribes\' Land$ Tucked away in the northwest corner of the United States, generations of Modocs lived, hunted and battled for centuries. The Modocs lived in the range from south-central Oregon to northern California, but they primarily lived around Tule Lake (see map) where they fished and ate waterfowl. Gathering was also an important part of the Modoc diet. They gathered camas root, wocus seed and other wild plants and during the summer months they also hunted deer, antelope and bighorn sheep in the high country. Eventually the Modocs adopted some of the ways of the white men such as cattle ranching and they even began working vocational jobs in Fort Klamath, Linkville, Jacksonville and Yreka. For the Modocs, to own horses as a sign of wealth that only those who were in a position of power or earned money from the white men could afford.

The Modoc tribe called themselves the Maklaks. They were part of the Klamath tribes of the northwest and spoke a language of Penution origin. Before 1800 they were part of the Lulacas tribe, but because of an internal dispute about tribute to the chief, the Modocs broke away to form their own tribe. Their villages were mostly autonomous and each had their own leaders, shamans and medicine men, however, when war was upon them, the villages would unite to fight for the common cause against the enemy. During the winter, they would live in earth-covered lodges, or “pit houses,” but the poorer families who couldn’t afford such lodges would live in mat-covered houses. In summer, they lived in domed houses made of poles and matting or lean-tos made of brush. An important part of every village was the sweathouses which served as a community center. Here both men and women would gather for prayer, religious activities and for recreation.

Everything began to go downhill for the Modocs when the first contact with the white men was established. In 1826, the Hundon’s Bay Company trading brigade established a trading station on the Dalles of the Columbia where slave trading was quite common. The Modocs received horses, firearms, clothing and other goods from the white men as payment for helping with the trading business and in exchange for slaves. Finding the trading business quite fruitful, the Modocs began to establish trading businesses of their own. They began to trade and sell lumber from their native lands and, because of their knowledge of the land and connections throughout the area, they also began to setup freighting routes for the white men. By August 1889, there were 20 tribal teams profiting in the freighting business.

Since the white men could not pronounce the Modocs’ native names, they began giving them English nicknames. The most famous of these nicknames is that belonging to the chief Keintpoos, “Captain Jack,” who would play a significant role in events to come...

Check back soon for part 2!

Other parts of this series

Tagged as: American West, Captain Jack, History, Indians, Modocs, Native Americans No Comments

6May/080

Savage Photography

In 1860, a man by the name of Charles Roscoe Savage arrived with his family in the city of Salt Lake City, Utah. It was here that he would found his photography studio and begin capturing the wild American west in photographs. The medium of photography as a means of art or even as a means of documentation had of yet not been extensively used, however, Savage blazed new trails with his photographs of the yet vastly untouched American west.

Charles Roscoe Savage (also known as C.R. Savage) was born in Southampton, England, on August 16, 1832. At the young age of 14, he joined the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which is presumably the reason for his eventual emigration to Utah. During the winter of 1856-57, he emigrated to New York where he worked for a short time as a photographer, however, he soon relocated to Florence, Nebraska on assignment from the church. His family quickly joined him there. Relocating to Iowa soon after his move to Nebraska, he founded his first independent photography studio and gallery in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

In August 1860, he traveled with his family to Salt Lake City, Utah where he established a new photography studio and gallery with a man by the name of Marsena Cannon who was a daguerreotype photographer. After Cannon left Salt Lake City, Savage formed a new partnership with George Martin Ottinger. Many of Savage's photographs were printed in the Harper's Weekly newspaper gaining him and the firm national attention. During this time Savage also worked under contract for the Union Pacific Railroad. He traveled to California in 1866 and photographed the progress as he followed the rails back east towards Utah. Some of his most famous photographs are photographs of the linking of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroads at Promontory Summit in Promontory, Utah in 1869 (pictured right). Savage also took photographs of Yellowstone National Park and Zion National Park among many other places. In 1870, Savage and Ottinger dissolved their firm and Savage formed the Pioneer Art Gallery which was subsequently replaced by the Art Bazaar in 1875 after deciding he needed more room.

On June 26, 1883, Savage's Art Bazaar burnt to the ground and with it took the negatives of his photographs. Savage died on Februrary 3, 1909 and two years later in 1911, another devastating fire destroyed the remaining negatives taken between the first fire and his death. The Art Bazaar permanently closed on December 31, 1926 after being run by his sons for several years.

An extensive gallery of photographs taken by C.R. Savage is available online at the C.R. Savage Collection at Brigham Young University.

Tagged as: American West, C.R. Savage, History of Photography, Photography No Comments

5May/080

The Death of Doc Holliday

The year is 1887. Winter is beginning to grip its icy grip on the small mountain town of Glenwood Springs, Colorado. You've just arrived after a long journey by horse from Denver. Running inside from the chilly November air outside, you seek warmth in the lobby of the fashionable Hotel Glenwood where you engage a room for the night. As you walk tiredly to your room, you pass a room in which a sick man lays coughing. You hear the coughing even as you enter your own room and close the door. You can't help but think that the man probably has consumption -- a disease which plagued many in the 19th century.

The sick man in the other room is Doc Holliday. A notorious and feared gunfighter and a man whose name is almost synonymous with the wild west outlaw, Doc Holliday's death was melodramatic at best. His profession was dentistry, but his occupation was killing, gambling and drinking.

Doc Holliday was diagnosed with consumption, or tuberculosis as the disease is known now, shortly after his graduation from the Pennsylvania School of Dental Surgery in 1872 when he was 20. His mother had died of consumption 6 years prior in 1866 and it is widely assumed that Doc Holliday contracted the disease from his mother, although it is not known for certain. After a very short and generally unsuccessful attempt at professional dentistry, a sick Doc Holliday headed west from his native Georgia to find a drier climate. In Dallas, Texas, he gave dentistry another chance, but quickly found that his true calling was gambling where he found he could earn a much larger income. He also decided that death by bullet or by knife was better than death by consumption.

Throughout the remainder of his life, he drifted throughout the west leaving behind a reputation for his deadly shooting accuracy. The Doc participated in several gunfights -- the most famous of which was the gunfight at OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona with the Earp brothers -- and sent many other men to their graves. Eventually he settled for a short while in the mountain town of Leadville, Colorado until his failing health caused him to move to Denver where it was warmer in the winter of 1885. However, Doc Holliday's stay in Denver was also short lived. In May 1887, he moved to Glenwood Springs, Colorado to take advantage of the natural springs that would presumably help his ailing body.

He checked into the Hotel Glenwood. His health continued to quickly deteriorate and he spent the last fifty-seven days of his life in bed in that hotel. Doc Holliday died on the morning of November 8, 1887. That morning, he allegedly asked for a final glass of whiskey before dying. Legend also has it that he looked down at his bare feet and said, "This is funny," although many historians consider this unlikely as he would have been too sick on the day of his death for coherent speech. Irregardless of what he may or may not have said, no one ever expected that the infamous deadly gunfighter would die in bed with his boots off.

Tagged as: American West, Doc Holliday, History, Wild West No Comments

3May/080

Mining in the Modern West

I was looking around on YouTube today and came across a really interesting video about modern mining in the Rocky Mountains by National Geographic. The primary focus of the video is about an 1872 mining law that allows mining companies to purchase federal land from the government at 1872 prices. They also talk about the effects modern mining practices have on the environment. Here is the video:

Tagged as: American West, Colorado, History, Mining, Rocky Mountains No Comments

16Apr/080

General Terry’s Order to Colonel Custer

While doing research for one of my projects about the Indian Wars, I ran into the letter that General Terry sent to Colonel Custer that ordered the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Custer's famous last stand against the Indians. I've typed the letter up and have decided to post it here.

Colonel,

The Brigadier-General Commanding directs that, as soon as your regiment can be made ready for the march, you will proceed up the Rosebud in pursuit of the Indians whose trail was discovered by Major Reno a few days since. It is, of course impossible to give you any definite instructions in regard to this movement, and were it not impossible to do so the Department Commander places too much confidence in your zeal, energy, and ability to wish to impose upon you precise orders which might hamper your action when nearly in contact with the enemy. He will, however, indicate to you his own views of what your action should be, and he desires that you should conform to them unless you shall see sufficient reason for departing from them. He thinks that you should proceed up the Rosebud until you ascertain definitely the direction in which the trail above spoken leads. Should it be found (as appears almost certain that it will be found) to turn towards the Little Horn, he thinks that you should still proceed southward, perhaps as far as the headwaters of the Tongue, and then turn towards the Little Horn, feeling constantly, however, to your left, so as to preclude the escape of the Indians to the south or southeast by passing around to your flank. The column of General Gibbon is now in motion for the mouth of the Big Horn. As soon as it reaches that point will cross the Yellowstone and move up at least as far as the forks of the Big and Little Horns. Of course its future movements must be controlled by circumstances as they arise, but it is hoped that the Indians, if upon the Little Horn, may be so nearly enclosed by the two columns that their escape will be impossible.

The Department Commander desires that on your way up the Rosebud you should thoroughly examine the upper part of Tullock's Creek, and that you should endeavor to send a scout through to Colonel Gibbon's column with the information of the result of your examination. The lower part of this creek will be examined by a detachment from Colonel Gibbon's command. The supply steamer will be pushed up the Big Horn as far as the forks if the river is navigable for that distance, and the Department Commander who will accompany the column of Colonel Gibbon, desires you to report to him there no later than the expiration of the time for which your troops are rationed, unless in the meantime you receive further orders.

Very Respectfully

Your obedient servant,

E.W. Smith
Captain, 18th Infantry
Acting Assistant
Adjutant General

Tagged as: American West, Battle of the Little Bighorn, Custer, History, Indian Wars, Indians No Comments

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