The ~Christian Country Farm~

SETTLING THE PLAINS

11:30 AM, Aug. 23, 2006 .. 2 comments .. Link

WHY DID THE FIRST PIONEERS PASS UP ALL THE LAND ON THE GREAT PLAINS?

     Because they thought the wide-open spaces between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains were much too...plain. Early explorers had looked over the flat, windy, treeless land and named it "The Great American Desert." For many years pioneers believd the plains could not be farmed and were a place fit only for Indians.

WHAT CHANGED PIONEERS' MINDS ABOUT THE PLAINS?

     As areas farther west filled up. many people were still hungry for land. To open room on the plains, the United States governmentt began pushing Indians who lived there onto reservations, or small pieces of land that were set aside for them. In 1862, the government passed the Homestead Act. This act gave 160 acres of land {about nine football fields' worth} to anyone who paid a $10 filing fee and agreed to work and improve the land for five years. Within months, thousands of settlers had moved to Kansas and Nebraska. They found out the land they now owned was no desert, but it was dry and challenging to farm.

            So many Germans settled in Kansas
              and Nebraska that some Indians
            there learned German, not English,
               as a second language!

HOW DO YOU BUILD A HOUSE WHERE THERE ISN'T ANY WOOD?

     The same way you light a fire without it--you use what's there. Pioneers who settled on the Great Plains became known as "sodbusters" because they cut up the sod {grass with the roots and dirt still attached} to clear fields and build their houses. These sturdy "soddies" were cool in the summer and warm in thw winter, and they wouldn't go up in flames in a prairie fire. Even so, the houses leaked when it rained and were impossible to keep clean. Worse, snakes and mice were known to work their way through the sod walls and ceiling and occasionally "drop in" for dinner!

            One homesteader, a doctor named Brewster Higley,
                was so fond of his new Kansas home that he wrote
                a poem about it in 1872. The following year, a
                neighbor set the poem to music, and soon
                everyone was singing "Home on the Range":

              Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam,
                    Where the deer and the antelope play,
              Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
                    And the skies are not cloudy all day.

WHICH WERE THE HARDEST THINGS ABOUT LIVING ON THE GREAT PLAINS?

a} flooding and tornadoes

b} drought, dust storms, and prairie fires

c} blizzards and frigid winters

d} grasshoppers devouring crops

e} loneliness

        Take your pick--all these dangers were part of living on the plains. Tornadoes and floods in the spring gave way to hailstroms and drought in the summer. Hot, dry weather stirred up dust storms and made conditions perfect for prairie fires. Some years grasshoppers flew in and ate nearly everything in sight, ruining crops in a matter of hours. The insects would eat leather, cloth, curtains, fence posts, door frames, and food in cupboards. When winter came bitter cold and blizzards killed people caught outside.

      But for some, the worst thing was the year-round loneliness. Neighbors could be a mile or two away, but sometimes as distant as thirty miles. The whole world seemed to be only grass and sky and sky and grass.

             One woman of the plains became famous
              for her series of Little House books, which
             describe her life on the prairie. You
             might've read these books. Do you know
             who the woman is?

             {Answer: Laura Ingalls Wilder}

Taken from "The Pioneers" by Kenneth C. Davis

Kelly KJV
Deuteronomy 6:5-9*Proverbs 31:28*Titus 2:5*
Psalm 19:14*Joshua 24:15*I Corinthians 15:58

Love your blog

11:46 AM, Aug. 23, 2006 .. Posted by 10KristieK
I am enjoying your writing....our favorite show on dvds is Little House....books even more so. I will take our youngest through this year for school. Prairie Primer.
We are in TX on a homestead...so I really enjoy your info & thoughts. I am also held up with a bumm hand this week...so you blog is good food for thought. Keep it up.:)
The Lord's blessings,
Kris M.

Untitled Comment

01:35 PM, Aug. 24, 2006 .. Posted by kayinpa
Great info! Are you guys studying Pioneers in your homeschool?