The Role of Railroad Companies, Farmers, and Cowboys in the Development of Kansas

The transcontinental railroad was starting to be built in 1863 by two main companies, the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific. In the 1800’s the railroad was seen as one of the best things and also one of the worst things that took place in the US. The railroad brought many negative effects westward for the Native Americans and Chinese, but had many positive effects for Americans in the US. Some of these positive and negatives came from events like The Great Plains, Buffalo, Manifest Destiny, and Railroad Surveyors. This essay will focus on how railroad expanding westward created more positive opportunities for the Americans to start up new lives for themselves. But it will also focus on how the Americans and the railroad expanding westward took over the Natives Americans lives and left them with little to no land to survive with. Many other obstacles and situation also came along with the Americans as they tried to build up the railroad for the people of the US.

In addition to the social and political changes that impacted the Indians, there were changes aimed at the economy which also negatively affected the Indians. One act that negatively affected the Indians was the Pacific Railway Act of 1862. This act was created to help the construction of a railroad and telegraph lines from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. Permission was given to the company creating the railroad that they can take away any land touching that of which the railroad is to be built on within 200 feet in width. Although the railroad was a great impact of Manifest Destiny because it allowed for quicker transportation of goods and people to and from the west, it legally allowed for Indian land titles to be extinguished [Doc 7].

During the Civil War a special act of Congress, known as the Homestead Act of 1862, made it possible that federal land in the west, divided

This article describes, in full detail, the many aspects of the transcontinental railroad. In this, there are a few mentions of pioneers, farmers, and regular people that have been affected by the railroad. This article is credible because it is a commonly used site and is quite accurate. The purpose of this website is to inform the reader about the transcontinental railroad. This site connects to this paper, because it provides facts about the transcontinental railroad that are useful in describing how the railroad affected farmers.

Its social and economic impacts dwell greatly in the 1800’s to the era of 2000’s as trains have always turned America into something greater in those times where travel and transport were at its hardest, but in 1862 congress passed a bill in which it would forge new history all together with the Pacific Railroad Bill and several grants that allowed financial support for Railroad companies primarily Central Pacific

During the early stages of the Civil War, railroads proved to have a phenomenal effect on achieving the Union victory over the Confederacy. The railroads not only helped to transport soldiers and goods throughout the Union sufficiently, but also increased the production rate and preservation of manufacturing. Upon seeing the power of railroads in war efforts, the Pacific Railroad Act was passed in 1862, which provided federal bonds and land grants for building a transcontinental railroad, along a northern route("Landmark Legislation:The Pacific Railroad Act"). The act pronounced that "the said corporation is hereby authorized and empowered to layout,

During the years 1790-1860 many changes in the nation were occurring in the values of Americans and in their different societies. The vacant, immeasurable land in the western frontier enabled a shift of change from social, political and economic conformity to more individual techniques and beliefs away from governmental traditions imposed more in the east coast of the nation. As different factors forced people to migrate west in the country it changed not only society and values of people in the west but also the east, transforming into a whole new affluent society. As people started to realize the nations grandness and what the property consisted of the rise in nationalism became very dependent on these enlightened ideas and visions.

The booming industry also changed agriculture by creating monopolies where they only gained substantial wealth leaving farmers with nothing. This shows how government policies usually favored policies that supported large corporations consequently leaving farmers to suffer. For example the expansion of railroads would not have been possible without huge subsidies and land grants from the government. The Pacific Railroad Way Act of 1862 may have contributed the most to the expansion of railroads, as the act had provided huge land grants and subsidies to help build railroads. As mentioned earlier with the invention of the railroad came the invention of shipping costs which farmers were very dissatisfied with. To explain further, it states in the Prairie Farmer of 1877, “Some time ago they carried a law through the Illinois

Each railroad was to receive a 200-foot-wide right-of-way and sections of public lands to help finance construction. The Northern Pacific’s charter originally provided ten alternate sections per mile in states through which it passed and 20 sections per mile in territories. If sufficient lands were not available within this grant, other sections could be selected as in-lieu from a secondary zone which reached back from the tracks another 20 miles.8 These land grants contributed greatly to commercial development and growth of towns along the track routes. A fourth railroad was the Southern Pacific, which was routed from New Orleans to Los Angeles. The Great Northern Railway was the fifth transcontinental line. The Great Northern, along with the Northern Pacific, had the greatest impact on developing the northwest. However, unlike the Northern Pacific, it was not a land-grand railroad. It did not obtain federal loans to help in its construction as did the Union

By the middle of the 19th century, the Industrial Revolution was changing the face and culture of the United States. Demand for raw materials and new inventions was increasing. From 1800-1850, territories claimed by the United States had grown to stretch from the East Coast to the West Coast. The spirit of “Manifest Destiny”, the California Gold Rush, and the promise of rich new land, ripe with raw materials and opportunity drew settlers ever westward. Following the invention of the steam engine, trains were becoming very important to the expansion of civilization and its infrastructure. Trains and the railroads they ran on soon became the lifeblood of industrialized economic development across the country. Public and private partnerships were formed with railroad companies to provide them with vast amounts of investment funding. Within a few decades, the railroad companies and their transcontinental railroads ushered in the Gilded Age and changed American society forever.

As the two railroad companies attempt to create a transcontinental railroad, an act that has never been done before (Doc G). They could not have done it without the railroad land grants that provided stability in railroad companies (Doc D). It was a reaction to the Panic of 1857 which led to a set back in railroad infrastructure (Doc I). The railroad land grants allowed for the expansion of support and connected the United States as one giant unit with easier transportation (Doc J). It also helped the economy in terms of creating new jobs for railroad workers (Doc F).

In 1860, the United States had more railroad track than the rest of the world combined. Shipping freight by rail became much more practical and affordable, easily beating out the use of steamboats. The railroad directly led to the increase of urban centers. Chicago, for example, virtually quadrupled its population during the 1850’s. By the 1880’s, there were at least 93, 267 miles of rail that stretched across the plains and just ten years later, there were 163,597 miles of rail. By 1862, Congress passed the Pacific Railroad Act, which gave the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific Railroads responsibility for building the transcontinental railroad. Congress also granted both railroads lands and millions of dollars of government loans. May 10, 1869, after six long years of hard intensive labor, the tracks of the two railroads finally met at

During this time, railroads were improving and growing as a means of common transportation. 10 years before the Homestead Act was approved, about 128 million acres of land were already reserved and granted to the government for railroad construction (Anna Khomina). Migrators were issued plots around railroads in order to continue funding as well as create job opportunities in construction and regulation. As the western frontier widened, and eventually disappeared, proposals for a transcontinental railroad began to arise. In 1862, Congress answered the people’s demands and passed the Pacific Railroad Act; with this, railroads would be connected across the nation, from California all the way to New England (http://law.jrank.org/pages/8984/Pacific-Railroad-Act.html). This intrigued western habitants because it allowed for easy transportation of goods in the newly growing corporations and businesses. The government was not the only driving force for Western settlers; many found individual factors that sparked their new

The Westward expansion provided settlers with fertile lands and according to the Homestead Act, settlers did not require to be an American citizen to fill for lands. Farmers farmed extensively, which led to smaller agriculture’s share of the economy. Although the country was producing more than its consumption, statistically; reflect a decline in the importance of farming, the farmers exported the excess. However, the migration from rural to urban areas increased due to the dominance of wage labor and the rise of industrial America, such as railroads. At this era, the whole economy seemed like to revolve around railroads, every company needs railroad to export/import goods, or accessible transportation, and it was a major supplement that powered the industrial economy. The steel rails accounted for an enormous percentage of the steel production in the United States, also a major consumer of coal and lumber, opened an unlimited

Kansas, situated on the American Great Plains, became the 34th state on January 29, 1861. Its path to statehood was long and bloody: After the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 opened the two territories to settlement and allowed the new settlers to determine whether the states would be admitted to the union as “free” or”slave,” North and South competed to send the most settlers into the region. This quickly led to violence,and the territory became known as “Bleeding Kansas.” Kansas has long been known as part of America’s agricultural heartland, and is home the major U.S. military installation Fort Leavenworth. Between 1541 and 1739 explorers from Spain and France came to Kansas for gold. Historians have reported that Native Americans were living in Kansas as early as 12,000 B.C. The United States concluded a "deal" when it signed an agreement to purchase the entire Louisiana Territory from France. William Becknell used wagons instead of pack mules or horses to take trade goods over the Santa Fe Trail. Because Becknell found a good mode of transportation and a passable wagon route, he is credited as the Father of the Santa Fe Trail. Formed in the chaos of the beginnings of the Civil War, Kansas has transformed itself from the vast prairie land of the mid-19th century into the important crossroads of American industry that it is today. Yet the facts of Kansas' history are important to study and to remember, and as such, here are seven things you might not know about the Sunflower