History 1302 Test 1
Joseph F. Glidden
(1813-1906) an American businessman and the inventor of barbed wire. He created barbed wire by using a coffee mill to form the barbs. Glidden placed the barbs along a wire and then twisted another wire around it to keep the barbs in place. He received the patent for barbed wire in 1874 and was quickly embroiled in a legal battle over whether he actually invented it. He eventually won and created the Barb Fence Company in DeKalb, Illinois, making him extremely rich. By the time of his death in 1906, he was one of the richest men in America. To demonstrate the effectiveness of barbed wire, Glidden and his sales agent for the State of Texas, Marques Fortner, developed the "Frying Pan Ranch" in Bushland, Potter County, Texas, in 1881. The wire was brought in by wagon. A herd of 12,000 head of cattle was branded with the "Panhandle Brand", which the cowboys called "frying pan". The ranch proved the success of the wire and changed ranching. When wire fences became widely available in the United States in the late 19th century, they made it affordable to fence much larger areas than before. They made intensive animal husbandry practical on a much larger scale. An example of the costs of fencing with lumber immediately prior to the invention of barbed wire can be found with the first farmers in the Fresno, California area, who spent nearly $4000 (over $75,000 in present-day dollars) to have wood for fencing delivered and erected to protect 2500 acres of wheat crop from freeranging livestock in 1872. The new barbed wire fencing also dramatically reduced the frequency of the so-called "range wars" between the 'cattlemen'' and the 'sod busters,' by preventing cattle from wandering into and destroying cultivated fields.
Edwin L Drake
(1819-1880) was the first American to successfully drill for oil. He spent the early parts of his life working the railways around New Haven, Connecticut as a clerk, express agent and a conductor. During the summer of 1857, illness prevented Drake from carrying on with his job. He retained the privileges of a train conductor, including free travel on the railroads. By 1858, the Drake family found themselves living in Titusville, Pennsylvania, where he was hired by Seneca Oil Co. on a salary of $1,000 a year to investigate the oil seeps on land owned by Seneca Oil. Drake decided to drill in the manner of salt well drillers. He purchased a steam engine in Erie, Pennsylvania, to power the drill. It took some time for the drillers to get through the layers of gravel. At 16 feet (5 m) the sides of the hole began to collapse, which compelled him to devise the idea of a drive pipe. The pipe was driven down into the ground. At 32 feet (10 m) they struck bedrock. The drilling tools were now lowered through the pipe and steam was used to drill through the bedrock. The drilling, however, was slow: his team made progress at the rate of just three feet per day. All of his initial difficulties caused scoffers and wags to nickname his well-drilling venture "Drake's Folly. " Additionally, Drake was also running out of money. The Seneca Oil Company had abandoned their man, and Drake had to rely on friends to back the enterprise. On August 27 Drake had persevered and his drill bit had reached a total depth of 69.5 feet (21 m). At that point the bit hit a crevice. The men packed up for the day. The next morning Drake's driller, Billy Smith, looked into the hole in preparation for another day's work. He was surprised and delighted to see crude oil rising up. Drake was summoned and the oil was brought to the surface with a hand pitcher pump and was collected in a bath tub. Drake is famous for pioneering a new method for producing oil from the ground. He drilled using piping to prevent borehole collapse, allowing for the drill to penetrate further and further into the ground. Drake set up a stock company to extract and market the oil. But, while his pioneering work led to the growth of an oil industry that made many people fabulously rich, for Drake riches proved elusive. Drake did not possess good business acumen. He failed to patent his drilling invention, and proceeded to lose all of his savings in oil speculation in 1863. He was to end up as an impoverished old man, and in 1872, Pennsylvania voted an annuity of $1,500 to the "crazy man" whose determination founded the oil industry.
Ulysses S. Grant
(1822-1885) was the 18th President of the US (1869-77). As Supreme Commander of the US Army, Grant worked closely with President Abraham Lincoln to lead the Union Army to victory over the Confederacy during the Civil War. He implemented Congressional Reconstruction, often at odds with Lincoln's successor, Andrew Johnson. Twice elected president, Grant led the Republicans in their effort to remove the vestiges of Confederate nationalism and slavery, protect AfricanAmerican citizenship, and supported unbridled industrial expansionism. Grant graduated in 1843 from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, served in the Mexican-American War and initially retired in 1854. He struggled financially in civilian life. When the Civil War began in 1861, he rejoined the US Army. In 1862, Grant took control of Kentucky and most of Tennessee, and led Union forces to victory in the Battle of Shiloh, earning a reputation as an aggressive commander. He incorporated displaced African American slaves into the Union war effort. In July 1863, after a series of coordinated battles, Grant defeated Confederate armies and seized Vicksburg, giving the Union control of the Mississippi River and dividing the Confederacy in two. After his victories in the Chattanooga Campaign, Lincoln promoted him to lieutenant-general and Commanding General of the US Army in March 1864. In April 1865, Robert E. Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House, after a series of bloody battles, effectively ending the war. After the Civil War, Grant led the army's supervision of Reconstruction in the former Confederate states. Elected president in 1868 and reelected in 1872, Grant stabilized the nation during the turbulent Reconstruction period, prosecuted the Ku Klux Klan, and enforced civil and voting rights laws using the army and the Department of Justice. He used the army to build the Republican Party in the South, based on black voters, Northern newcomers ("carpetbaggers"), and native Southern white supporters ("scalawags"). In his second term, the Republican coalitions in the South splintered and were defeated one by one as so-called "redeemers" (conservative whites) regained control using coercion and violence. Grant's Indian peace policy initially reduced frontier violence, but is best known for the Great Sioux War of 1876, where George Custer and his regiment were killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Grant responded to charges of corruption in executive offices more than any other 19th Century president. He appointed the first Civil Service Commission and signed legislation ending the corrupt moiety system. In foreign policy, Grant sought to increase American trade and influence, while remaining at peace with the world. His administration successfully resolved the Alabama Claims by the Treaty of Washington with Great Britain, ending wartime tensions. In trade policy, Grant's administration implemented a gold standard and sought to strengthen the dollar. Corruption charges escalated during his second term, while his response to the Panic of 1873 proved ineffective nationally in halting the five-year industrial depression that produced high unemployment, low prices, low profits, and bankruptcies. In 1880, Grant was unsuccessful in obtaining a Republican presidential nomination for a third term. Facing severe investment reversals and dying of throat cancer, he completed his memoirs, which proved to be a major literary work and financial success. His death in 1885 prompted an outpouring in support of national unity
William M. Tweed
(1823-1878) widely known as "Boss" Tweed, was an American politician most notable for being the "boss" of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party political machine that played a major role in the politics of 19th century New York City and State. At the height of his influence, Tweed was the third-largest landowner in New York City and a director of the Erie Railroad, the Tenth National Bank, and the New-York Printing Company, as well as proprietor of the Metropolitan Hotel. Tweed was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1852 and the New York County board of supervisors in 1858. He was also elected to the New York State Senate in 1867, but Tweed's greatest influence came from being an appointed member of a number of boards and commissions, his control over political patronage in New York City through Tammany, and his ability to ensure the loyalty of voters through jobs he could create and dispense on city-related projects. Tweed was convicted for stealing an amount estimated by an aldermen's committee in 1877 at between $25 million and $45 million from New York City taxpayers through political corruption, although later estimates ranged as high as $200 million. Most of the funds were siphoned out of the port authority coffers from import duties. Unable to make bail, he escaped from jail once by bribing his guard, but was returned to custody. He died in the Ludlow Street Jail.
Leland Stanford
(1824-1893) was an American tycoon, industrialist, politician, and a co-founder (with his wife, Jane) of Stanford University, named in honor of their only child, Leland Stanford, Jr., who died of Typhoid at the age of 15 while on a family trip to Florence, Italy. Migrating to California from New York at the time of the 1849 Gold Rush, he became a successful merchant and wholesaler, and continued to build his business empire. He served one two-year term as governor of California after his election in 1861, and later eight years as senator from the state. Stanford was one of the four major businessmen known popularly as "The Big Four" (or among themselves as "the Associates") who were the key investors in the Central Pacific Railroad, which they incorporated on June 28, 1861, and of which Stanford was elected president. While the Central Pacific was under construction, Stanford and his associates in 1868 acquired control of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Stanford was elected president of the Southern Pacific, a post he held until 1890 (except for a brief period in 1869-70 when Tevis was acting president), when he was ousted by Collis Huntington. As head of the railroad company that built the western portion of the "First Transcontinental Railroad" over the Sierra Nevada mountains in California, Nevada, and Utah, Stanford presided at the ceremonial driving of "Last Spike" in Promontory, Utah on May 10, 1869. The grade of the CPRR met that of the Union Pacific Railroad, which had been built west from its western terminus at Council Bluffs, Iowa/Omaha, Nebraska. As president of the Southern Pacific Railroad and, beginning in 1861, the Central Pacific, he had tremendous power in the region and a lasting impact on California. He is widely considered a robber baron.
Helen Hunt Jackson
(1830-1885) an American poet and writer who became an activist on behalf of improved treatment of Native Americans by the US government. She described the adverse effects of government actions in her history A Century of Dishonor (1881). Her novel Ramona (1884) dramatized the federal government's mistreatment of Native Americans in Southern California after the Mexican-American War and attracted considerable attention to her cause. Commercially popular, it was estimated to have been reprinted 300 times and most readers liked its romantic and picturesque qualities rather than its political content. The novel was so popular that it attracted many tourists to Southern California who wanted to see places from the book.
Gottlieb Daimier
(1834-1900) a German engineer, industrial designer and industrialist. He was a pioneer of internalcombustion engines and automobile development and was responsible for inventing the petroleum-fueled internal combustion engine. Daimler and his lifelong business partner Wilhelm Maybach designed a horizontal cylinder layout, compressed charge, liquid petroleum engine that fulfilled Daimler's desire for a high speed engine which could be throttled, making it useful in transportation applications. This engine was called Daimler's Dream. In 1885 they designed a vertical cylinder version of this engine which they subsequently fitted to the first internal combustion motorcycle which was named the Petroleum Reitwagen (Riding Car) and, in the next year, to a coach, and a boat. Daimler called this engine the grandfather clock engine (Standuhr) because of its resemblance to a large pendulum clock. In 1890, they converted their partnership into a stock company Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG, in English—Daimler Motors Corporation). They sold their first automobile in 1892.
Andrew Carnegie
(1835-1919) a Scottish American industrialist who led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century. He is often identified as one of the richest people an one of the richest Americans ever. He built a leadership role as a philanthropist for the US and the British Empire. He emigrated in 1848 to the US with his parents and started work as a telegrapher. By the 1860s he had investments in railroads, railroad sleeping cars, bridges and oil derricks. He also was a bond salesman raising money for American enterprise in Europe. He built Pittsburgh's Carnegie Steel Company, which he sold to J.P. Morgan in 1901 for $480 million. It became the U.S. Steel Corporation. During the last 18 years of his life, he gave away to charities, foundations, and universities about $350 million (in 2015 share of GDP, $78.6 billion) - almost 90 percent of his fortune. His 1889 article proclaiming "The Gospel of Wealth" called on the rich to use their wealth to improve society, and it stimulated a wave of philanthropy.
J. P. Morgan
(1837-1913) John Pierpont Morgan was an American financier and banker who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation in late 19th and early 20th Century US. In 1892, Morgan arranged the merger of Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric. He was instrumental in the creation of the United States Steel Corporation, International Harvester and AT&T. At the height of Morgan's career during the early 1900s, he and his partners had financial investments in many large corporations and had significant influence over the nation's high finance and United States Congress members. He directed the banking coalition that stopped the Panic of 1907. He was the leading financier of the Progressive Era, and his dedication to efficiency and modernization helped transform American business. Morgan has been described as America's greatest banker.
George A. Custer
(1839-1876): a US Army officer and cavalry commander in the Civil War and the American Indian Wars. Raised in Michigan and Ohio, Custer was admitted to West Point in 1857, where he graduated last in his class in 1861. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Custer was called to serve with the Union Army. Custer developed a strong reputation during the Civil War. He participated in the first major engagement, the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861, near Washington, D.C. His association with several important officers helped his career as did his success as a highly effective cavalry commander. Custer was brevetted to brigadier general at age 23, less than a week before the Battle of Gettysburg, where he personally led cavalry charges that prevented Confederate troops from turning the Union flank. In 1864, Custer was given another star and brevetted to major general rank. After the Civil War, Custer remained a major general in the US Volunteers until they were mustered out in February 1866. He reverted to his permanent rank of captain and was appointed a lieutenant colonel in the 7th Cavalry Regiment in July 1866. He was dispatched to the west in 1867 to fight in the American Indian Wars. On June 25, 1876, while leading the 7th Cavalry Regiment at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana Territory against a coalition of Native American tribes, he and all of his regiment—which included two of his brothers—were killed. The battle is popularly known in American history as "Custer's Last Stand."
John D. Rockefeller
(1839-1937) an American oil industry business magnate and philanthropist, who is considered to be the wealthiest American of all time and largely the richest person in modern history. He was born in upstate New York and after moving several times, his family eventually settled in Cleveland, Ohio. He had various siblings, including William, who would enter the oil business with him. Rockefeller became an assistant bookkeeper at the age of 16, and went into a business partnership with his brothers at 20. He bought them out and went on founding Rockefeller & Andrews with his brother William and another shareholder—chemist Samuel Andrews. And, instead of drilling for oil, he concentrated on refining. The Rockefeller, Andrews & Flagler company prospered, incorporating local refineries, until Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil Company, Inc. in Ohio in 1870. He ran it until officially retiring in 1897. As kerosene and gasoline grew in importance, Rockefeller's wealth soared and he became the richest person in the country, controlling 90% of all oil in the US at his peak. Rockefeller had enormous influence on the railroad industry, which transported his oil around the country. Standard Oil dominated the oil industry and was the first great business trust in the US. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry, and along with other key contemporary industrialists such as steel magnate Andrew Carnegie. The US Supreme Court ruled in 1911 that Standard Oil must be dismantled because it violated federal anti-trust laws; it was broken up into 34 separate entities that included companies that would become ExxonMobil, Chevron, and others. The individual pieces of the company were worth more than the whole, and as shares of the individual companies doubled and tripled in value in their early years, Rockefeller became the country's first billionaire with a fortune worth nearly 2 percent of the national economy. Rockefeller spent the last 40 years of his life in retirement at his estate. He was able to use his fortune in the creation of foundations that had a major effect on medicine, education and scientific research. His foundations pioneered the development of medical research and were instrumental in the eradication of hookworm and yellow fever. Rockefeller was also considered a supporter of capitalism based on a perspective of social Darwinism, and was quoted often as saying "The growth of a large business is merely a survival of the fittest".
Thomas Nast
(1840-1902) was a German-born American caricaturist and editorial cartoonist considered to be the "Father of the American Cartoon". He was the most fearlessly persistent critic of Democratic Representative "Boss" Tweed and the Tammany Hall Democratic party political machine. His cartoons, which trenchantly depicted Tweed's excesses and political corruption, are widely regarded as the primary factor which gradually turned the public's opinion against Tweed's organization. Many recent immigrants who were kept perpetually politically dependent as Tammany Hall clients could not read English, but they could understand very well a single-panel cartoon depicting Tweed in his misdeeds. Among his notable works were the creation of the modern version of Santa Claus and the political symbol of the elephant for the Republican Party. Contrary to popular belief, Nast did not create Uncle Sam (the male personification of the American people), Columbia (the female personification of American values), or the Democratic donkey, though he did popularize these symbols through his artwork.
Buffalo Bill Cody
(1846-1917) an American scout, bison hunter, and showman. Buffalo Bill started working at the age of eleven, after his father's death, and became a rider for the Pony Express at age 14. During the American Civil War, he served the Union from 1863 to the end of the war in 1865. Later he served as a civilian scout for the US Army during the Indian Wars. He received the Medal of Honor in 1872. One of the most colorful figures of the American Old West, Buffalo Bill started performing in shows that displayed cowboy themes and episodes from the frontier and Indian Wars. He founded Buffalo Bill's Wild West in 1883, taking his large company on tours in the US and throughout the world, performing before royalty and commoner alike and featuring such colorful personalities as Annie Oakley, Calamity Jane, and Chief Sitting Bull. Cody received the nickname "Buffalo Bill" after the American Civil War, when he had a contract to supply Kansas Pacific Railroad workers with buffalo meat. Cody is purported to have killed 4,282 American bison (commonly known as buffalo) in eighteen months in 1867 and 1868. Cody and another hunter, William Comstock, competed in an eight-hour buffalo-shooting match over the exclusive right to use the name, which Cody won by killing 68 bison to Comstock's 48.
Thomas Edison
(1847-1931) an American inventor and businessman, who has been described as America's greatest inventor. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and the long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. Dubbed "The Wizard of Menlo Park", he was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production and large-scale teamwork to the process of invention, and because of that, he is often credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory. He held 1,093 patents in his name in the U.S. alone, not to mention the many patents in the UK, France and Germany. More significant than the number of Edison's patents was the widespread impact of his inventions: electric light and power utilities, sound recording, and motion pictures all established major new industries worldwide. Edison's inventions contributed to mass communication and, in particular, telecommunications. These included a stock ticker, a mechanical vote recorder, a battery for an electric car, electrical power, recorded music and motion pictures. His advanced work in these fields was an outgrowth of his early career as a telegraph operator. Edison developed a system of electric-power generation and distribution to homes, businesses, and factories - a crucial development in the modern industrialized world.
Charles F. Brush
(1849-1929) an American inventor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He had a great interest in science, particularly the arc light; he tinkered with and built simple electrical devices such as a static electricity machine at age 12, experimenting in a workshop on his parents' farm. In 1876 he secured the backing of the Wetting Supply Company in Cleveland to design his "dynamo" (an electrical generator) for powering arc lights. Brush produced additional patents refining the design of his arc lights in the coming years and sold systems to several cities for public lighting, and even equipped Philadelphia's Wanamaker's Grand Depot with a system. In 1880, Brush established the Brush Electric Company in the U.S. and, though successful, faced stiff competition from Thomson-Houston Electric Company. In 1882, the Brush Electric Company supplied generating equipment for a hydroelectric power plant at St. Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, among the first to generate electricity from water power in the US. Thomson-Houston bought out Brush in 1889 and eventually merged to become part of General Electric in 1891. After selling his interests in Brush Electric, Brush never returned to the electric industry.
Charles Hall
(1863-1914 an American inventor, businessman, and chemist. He is best known for his invention in 1886 of an inexpensive method for producing aluminum, which became the first metal to attain widespread use since the prehistoric discovery of iron. He was also one of the founders of ALCOA, or the Aluminum Company of America, originally the Pittsburgh Reduction Company
Henry Ford
(1863-1947) an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and the sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production. Although Ford invented neither the automobile nor the assembly line, he developed and manufactured the first automobile that many middle-class Americans could afford. In doing so, Ford converted the automobile from an expensive curiosity into a practical conveyance that would profoundly impact the landscape of the 20th Century. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry. As the owner of the Ford Motor Company, he became one of the richest and best-known people in the world. He is credited with "Fordism": mass production of inexpensive goods coupled with high wages for workers. Ford had a global vision, with consumerism as the key to peace. His intense commitment to systematically lowering costs resulted in many technical and business innovations, including a franchise system that put dealerships throughout most of North America and in major cities on six continents.
Interstate Commerce Act
(1887) a US federal law that was designed to regulate the railroad industry, particularly its monopolistic practices. The Act required that railroad rates be "reasonable and just," but did not empower the government to fix specific rates. It also required that railroads publicize shipping rates and prohibited short haul or long haul fare discrimination, a form of price discrimination against smaller markets, particularly farmers. The Act created a federal regulatory agency, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), which it charged with monitoring railroads to ensure that they complied with the new regulations. The Act was the first federal law to regulate private industry in the US. It was later amended to regulate other modes of transportation and commerce.
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
(1890) a landmark federal statute in the history of US antitrust law. Passed during the presidency of Benjamin Harrison, it prohibits certain business activities that federal government regulators deem to be anti-competitive, and requires the federal government to investigate and pursue trusts. In the general sense, a trust is a centuries-old form of a contract whereby one party entrusts its property to a second party. The specific sense from 19th Century America used in the law refers to a type of trust which combines several large businesses for monopolistic purposes - to exert complete control over a market - though the law addresses monopolistic practices even if they have nothing to do with this specific legal arrangement. In most countries outside the US, antitrust law is known as "competition law." The law attempts to prevent the artificial raising of prices by restriction of trade or supply. "Innocent monopoly", or monopoly achieved solely by merit, is perfectly legal, but acts by a monopolist to artificially preserve that status, or nefarious dealings to create a monopoly, are not. The purpose of the Sherman Act is not to protect competitors from harm from legitimately successful businesses, nor to prevent businesses from gaining honest profits from consumers, but rather to preserve a competitive marketplace to protect consumers from abuses.
Jim Fisk
: (1835-1872) known variously as "Big Jim", "Diamond Jim", and "Jubilee Jim" was an American stockbroker and corporate executive who has been referred to as one of the "robber barons" of the Gilded Age. A failure as a salesman, he was sent to Washington, D.C., in 1861 to sell textiles to the government. By his shrewd dealing in army contracts during the Civil War, and, by some accounts, cotton smuggling across enemy lines (in which he enlisted the help of his father) he accumulated considerable wealth, which he soon lost in speculation. In 1864 Fisk became a stockbroker in New York City, and was employed by Daniel Drew as a buyer. He aided Drew in the Erie War against Cornelius Vanderbilt for control of the Erie Railroad. This resulted in Fisk and Jay Gould becoming members of the Erie directorate, and subsequently, a well-planned raid netted Fisk and Gould control of the railroad. The association with Gould continued until Fisk's death. Fisk and Gould carried financial buccaneering to extremes: their program included an open alliance with New York politician Boss Tweed, the wholesale bribery of legislatures, and the buying of judges. Though Fisk was admired by the working class of New York and the Erie Railroad, he achieved much ill-fame for his role in Black Friday in 1869, where he and his partner Jay Gould befriended the unsuspecting President Ulysses S. Grant in an attempt to use the President's good name in a scheme to corner the gold market in New York City. Their attempt to corner the gold market culminated in the fateful Black Friday of September 24, 1869. Though many investors were ruined, Fisk and Gould escaped significant financial harm Several years later Fisk was murdered by a disgruntled business associate.
Dug out home
During the American Civil War, the federal United States government passed the Homestead Act offering free land for those who could "prove up" their claims by living on the land and farming it for a prescribed number of years. Settlers on the newly opened Great Plains found there were not enough trees to build familiar log cabins. As shelter was essential, the frontier farmer utilized ribbons of the thick prairie sod cut as they plowed their virgin land. The strip could be cut into two foot sections, four to six inches deep, to make an almost perfect building block with good insulating properties. These first homes, often called soddies, were simply small rooms dug into the side of a low rolling hill. The walls were built up with sod blocks to a height of seven or eight feet. Holes were left for purchased doors and windows hauled from the nearest town or railroad point. Cottonwood poles were laid side by side to form a support for a roof made of a thick layer of coarse prairie grass. Over this was carefully fitted a double layer of the sod building blocks. Rain helped the sod to grow and soon the dugout roof was covered with waving grass. Some frontier families found that their cows grazed on their roof, and occasionally had them fall through. The floor of the dugout home was of dirt or rough wooden planks. Walls were lined with newspapers pasted or pinned up with small, sharpened sticks to keep dirt from flaking into the home's interior. Some families used fabric on their walls while others created a plaster coating from local limestone and sand. Some were carpeted and other variations included building on a second room for school teachers or guests. Heating could be provided by burning buffalo chips or cow chips. The home's comfort and structural stability were maximized when the structure was located on the south side of a low hill, with adequate drainage to provide run-off for rain and melting snow. Most pioneer dugouts had a very short life, being replaced by plank or rock homes when farmers had both time and money to create larger, more traditional homes. However, even when a family did build a house of logs or boards, their domestic animals would often continue to be sheltered in a sod dugout.
Robber Barons
In medieval history, a feudal landholder who, seeking to alleviate his financial difficulties, resorted to banditry protected by his feudal legal status. In 19th century usage, it was a derogatory nickname, and metaphor of social criticism originally applied to certain late century American businessmen who were believed to have used unscrupulous methods to get rich. It quickly became descriptive of the entire class of millionaire businessmen and rich tycoons whose corporate holdings built US industrialism in the 19th century.
Transcontinental Railroad
In the US, a series of transcontinental railroads built over the last third of the 19th century created a nationwide transportation network that united the country by rail. The first of these, the 1,928 mile "Pacific Railroad", was built by the Central Pacific Railroad and Union Pacific Railroad to link the San Francisco Bay at Alameda, California with the nation's existing eastern railroad network at Council Bluffs, Iowa/Omaha, Nebraska thereby creating the world's first transcontinental railroad when it opened in 1869. Its construction was made possible by the US Government under Pacific Railroad Acts of 1862, 1864 and 1867. Transcontinental railroads helped open up unpopulated interior regions of continents to exploration and settlement that would not otherwise have been feasible. In many cases they also formed the backbones of crosscountry passenger and freight transportation networks.
Bourbons
In the typical sense, the Bourbons were members of the autocratic and absolutist French royal family who ruled prior to the French Revolution of 1789; however, in American history, "Bourbons" referred to a socio-political group in the post-Civil War South. The term was used as a pejorative nickname to refer to the ex--planter class elites who sought a restoration of their old rights and powers through the imposition of a tightly and jealously-controlled social hierarchy that was at once rigid, reactionary and impermeable to newcomers or those who would subvert the feudalistic power structure of those elites.
Longhorns
Texas Longhorns are direct descendants of the first cattle in the New World. The ancestral cattle were first brought over by Christopher Columbus in 1493 to the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. Between 1493 and 1512, Spanish colonists brought additional cattle in subsequent expeditions. Over the next two centuries the Spanish moved the cattle north, arriving in the area that would become Texas near the end of the 17th century. The cattle escaped or were turned loose on the open range, where they remained mostly feral for the next two centuries. Over several generations, descendants of these cattle evolved the high feed- and drought-stress tolerance and other "hardy" characteristics that Longhorns have become known for. Early US settlers in Texas obtained feral Mexican cattle from the borderland between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande and mixed them with their own eastern cattle. The result was a tough, rangy animal with long legs and long horns extending up to seven feet. In the aftermath of the Civil War, wild longhorns were rounded up and became the basis of the cattle industry which began to bring much-needed revenue into the perpetually cash strapped South.
Homestead Act (1862)
The Homestead Acts were several US federal laws that gave an applicant ownership of land, typically called a "homestead", at little or no cost. An extension of the Homestead Principle in law, the Homestead Acts were an expression of the "Free Soil" policy of Northerners who wanted individual farmers to own and operate their own farms, as opposed to Southern slave-owners who wanted to acquire large tracts of land and use slave labor, thereby shutting out free white men. The first of the acts, the Homestead Act of 1862, opened up millions of acres. Any adult who had never taken up arms against the U.S. government could apply. Women and immigrants who had applied for citizenship were eligible. The 1866 Act explicitly included and "encouraged" blacks to participate.
The Morrill Act (1862
The Morrill Land-Grant Acts are US statutes that allowed for the creation of land-grant colleges in the states using the proceeds of federal land sales. The Morrill Act of 1862 was enacted during the American Civil War. To maintain their status as land-grant colleges, a number of programs are required to be maintained by the college. These include programs in agriculture and engineering, as well as a Reserve Officers' Training Corps program. The purpose of the land-grant colleges was: "without excluding other scientific and classical studies and including military tactic, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner as the legislatures of the States may respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life." Under the act, each eligible state received a total of 30,000 acres (120 km2) of federal land, either within or contiguous to its boundaries.
Solid South
The Solid South or Southern bloc was the electoral voting bloc of the states of the Southern US for issues that were regarded as particularly important to the interests of white Democrats in the southern states. The Southern bloc existed especially between 1877 (the end of Reconstruction) and 1964 (the year of the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964). During this period, the Democratic Party controlled state legislatures; most local and state officeholders in the South were Democrats, as were federal politicians elected from these states. Southern Democrats disenfranchised blacks in every state of the former Confederacy at the turn of the century. The "Solid South" is a loose term referring to the states that made up the voting bloc at any point in time. The Southern region as defined by U.S. Census comprises sixteen states plus Washington, D.C., Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Washington, D.C., West Virginia, Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas. This definition of the Southern region does not necessarily correspond precisely to the states in the definition of the Solid South. Maryland was occasionally considered part of the Solid South, as was Missouri, although it is classified as a Midwestern state by the U.S. Census. A former slave state, it became dominated by Democrats.
Grandfather Clause
The term originated in late nineteenth-century legislation and constitutional amendments passed by a number of US Southern states, which created new requirements for literacy tests, payment of poll taxes, and/or residency and property restrictions to register to vote. States in some cases exempted those whose ancestors (grandfathers) had the right to vote before the Civil War, or as of a particular date, from such requirements. The intent and effect of such rules was to prevent poor and illiterate African-American former slaves and their descendants from voting, but without denying poor and illiterate whites the right to vote. In order to circumvent the charge of inherent racism, however, some polities claimed that literacy tests, property qualifications and the like applied equally to poor whites in the South whose ancestors would also have been stymied by the restrictions.
Mass Production
There are 5 basic elements of mass production which, combined, contribute to industrial output. These elements are typically referred to as "The American System".
Corporations
a company or group of people authorized to act as a single entity (it is legally a person) and recognized as such in law. in other words, corporations enjoy most of the rights and responsibilities that an individual possesses; that is, a corporation has the right to enter into contracts, loan and borrow money, sue and be sued, hire employees, own assets and pay taxes. Hence,it is often referred to as a "legal person."Corporations come in many different types but are usually divided by the law of the jurisdiction where they are chartered into two kinds: by whether or not they can issue stock, or by whether or not they are for profit. Those that issue stock are referred to as "stock corporations", ownership of the corporation is through stock, and owners of stock are referred to as "stockholders" or "shareholders". Corporations which engage in manufacturing aim to grow their business in order to take advantage of a phenomenon known as the "economy of scale." This means that the larger the enterprise is, the greater the quantity produced, which results in lower per-unit cost. The intersection point of economy of scale with maximization of efficiency is the 'sweet-spot' at which all companies attempt to aim their production. Thee lower per-unit cost is a savings which makes the finished product cheaper for the consumer, resulting in more sales. For this reason, corporations will naturally engage in practices that will help them get closer to that sweet-spot. Some of the related practices that can help nudge a corporation toward the sweet-spot are:
Crop Lien System
a credit system that became widely used by cotton farmers in the US in the South, where there was little cash, from the 1860s to the 1930s. Sharecroppers and tenant farmers who did not own the land they worked obtained supplies and food on credit from local merchants. The merchants held a lien on the cotton crop and the merchants and landowners were the first ones paid from its sale to pay back their loan. What was left over went to the farmer. The system ended in the 1940s as prosperity returned and many poor farmers moved permanently to cities and towns, where jobs were plentiful because of the war.
Sharecropping
a form of agriculture in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on their portion of land. It is the historically more modern iteration of the principle undergirding the medieval system of feudalism whereby the peasantry produced crops on lands held in a feudal estate known as manorialism. Both systems operated under conditions of cash poverty which prevented payment of wages to the agricultural workers.
Comstock Lode
a lode of silver and gold ore located under the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, a peak in the Virginia Range in Nevada (then western Utah Territory). It was the first major discovery of silver ore in the US. After the discovery was made public in 1859, it sparked a silver rush of prospectors to the area, scrambling to stake their claims. The discovery caused considerable excitement in California and throughout the US, the greatest since the California Gold Rush in 1849. Mining camps soon thrived in the vicinity, which became bustling commercial centers, including Virginia City and Gold Hill. The Comstock Lode is notable not just for the immense fortunes it generated and the large role those fortunes had in the growth of Nevada and San Francisco, but also for the advances in mining technology that it spurred, such as square set timbering and the Washoe process for extracting silver from ore. The total product of ore extracted and milled in the Comstock District, 1860 to June 30, 1880, was 6,971,641 tons, 640 pounds. Peak production from the Comstock occurred in 1877, with the mines producing over $14,000,000 of gold and $21,000,000 of silver that year (about $314,868,750.00 and $472,303,125.00 today).
Political machine
a political organization in which an authoritative boss or small group commands the support of a corps of supporters and businesses (usually campaign workers), who receive rewards for their efforts. The machine's power is based on the ability of the workers to get out the vote for their candidates on election day. They rely on hierarchy and rewards for political power. Machines sometimes have a political boss, often depending on longstanding political ties within the structure of a representative democracy. In the late 19th century, large cities in the US—Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Kansas City, New York City, Philadelphia, St. Louis— had large, well-financed and powerful political machines. During this time cities experienced rapid growth under inefficient government. Each city's machine lived under a hierarchical system with a "boss" who held the allegiance of local business leaders, elected officials and their appointees, and who knew the proverbial buttons to push to get things done. Benefits and problems both resulted from the rule of political machines. This system of political control—known as "bossism"— emerged particularly in the Gilded Age. A single powerful figure (the boss) was at the center and was bound together to a complex organization of lesser figures (the political machine) by reciprocity in promoting financial and social self-interest. One of the most infamous of these political machines was Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party machine that played a major role in controlling New York City and New York politics and helping immigrants, most notably the Irish, rise up in American politics from the 1790s to the 1960s.
Sioux War
a series of conflicts between the US federal government and various subgroups of the Sioux people which occurred in the later half of the 19th century. The earliest conflict came in 1854 when a fight broke out at Fort Laramie in Wyoming, when Sioux warriors killed several American soldiers in the Grattan Massacre, and the final came in 1890 during the Ghost Dance War. The most important of these engagements was known as the Great Sioux War, a series of conflicts from 1876 to 1877 involving the Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne tribes. Following the influx of gold miners to the Black Hills of South Dakota, war broke out when the native followers of Chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse left their reservations, apparently to go on the war path and defend the sacred Black Hills. In the first major fight of the war, on March 17, 1876, about 300 men under Colonel Joseph J. Reynolds attacked approximately 225 Northern Cheyenne warriors in the Battle of Powder River which ended with a US victory. During the fighting, the Cheyenne were forced to retreat with their families further up the Powder River, leaving behind large quantities of weapons and ammunition. Next came the major Battle of Rosebud on June 17 when 1,500 Cheyenne warriors, led by Crazy Horse himself, defeated a force of 1,300 Americans under General George Crook. Crook retreated which helped lead to the infamous Battle of Little Big Horn beginning on June 25. Lieutenant Colonel George Custer, commanding a force of over 600 troops, was badly defeated with the loss of over 300 men killed or wounded, including himself. The next major engagement occurred at Slim Buttes on September 9 and 10. While moving toward Deadwood to secure supplies for Crook's command, elements of the 1st Cavalry commander by Capt Anson Mills located and attacked a Sioux village. The Dull Knife Fight, on November 25, and the Battle of Wolf Mountain on January 8, 1877 were the last major fights in the conflict. During the latter, Nelson A. Miles defended a ridge from a series of failed attacks led by Crazy Horse, who shortly thereafter surrendered at Camp Robinson, thus ending the war.
Poll Tax
a tax of a uniform, fixed amount applied to an individual in accordance with the census (as opposed to a percentage of income, or any proxy for ability-to-pay). Poll taxes were important sources of revenue for many governments from ancient times until the 19th century. They have also been used in the past, notably in the United States, to disenfranchise minority voters.
Stagecoach
a type of covered wagon used to carry passengers and goods inside. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses, or more typically, mules, which were cheaper and hardier. Widely used before the introduction of railway transport, it made regular trips between stages or stations, which were rest stops provided for stagecoach travelers. The business of running stagecoaches or the act of journeying in them was known as staging.
R. S. Lazenby
acquired the formula for, and mass-produced, the first commercially available soft drink in US history, Dr. Pepper, still manufactured in Waco, TX. (and available as far away as Athens, Greece, last time I was there) The soft drink syrup formula was named by its inventor, a young chemist named Alderton, who was anxious to curry favor with his disapproving future father-in-law, a doctor named...Pepper, of course.
The New South
also called New South Democracy or New South Creed, was a slogan in the history of the American South after 1877. Reformers use it to call for a modernization of society and attitudes, to integrate more fully with the United States, and reject the economy and traditions of the Old South and the slavery-based plantation system of the antebellum period.
Congressional Reconstruction
also known as the Reconstruction era (1865-1877). Congressional Reconstruction has two senses: the first covers the complete history of the entire country from 1865 to 1877 following the American Civil War (1861 to 1865); the second sense focuses on the attempted transformation of the Southern United States from 1863 to 1877, as directed by Congress, with the reconstruction of state and society. (Three visions of civil war memory) From 1863 to 1865, Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson both took moderate positions designed to bring the South back to normal as quickly as possible, while the Radical Republicans used Congress to block any moderate approaches, impose harsh terms, and upgrade the rights of the freedmen. Lincoln's last speeches show that he was leaning toward supporting the enfranchisement (the right to vote in public, political elections) of all freedmen, whereas Johnson was opposed to this. Johnson's interpretations of Lincoln's policies prevailed until the Congressional elections of 1866 in the North, which enabled the Radicals to take control of policy, remove former Confederates from power, and enfranchise the freedmen. A Republican coalition came to power in nearly all the southern states and set out to transform the society by setting up a free labor economy, using the U.S. Army and the Freedmen's Bureau. The Bureau protected the legal rights of freedmen, negotiated labor contracts, and set up schools and churches for them. Rebuilding the rundown railroad system was a major strategy, but it collapsed when a nationwide depression (called the Panic of 1873) struck the economy. The Radicals in the House of Representatives, frustrated by Johnson's opposition to Congressional Reconstruction, filed impeachment charges but the action failed by one vote in the Senate. In early 1866, Congress passed the Freedmen's Bureau and Civil Rights Bills and sent them to Johnson for his signature. The first bill extended the life of the bureau, originally established as a temporary organization charged with assisting refugees and freed slaves, while the second defined all persons born in the United States as national citizens who were to enjoy equality before the law. After Johnson vetoed the bills-causing a permanent rupture in his relationship with Congress that would culminate in his impeachment in 1868-Congress overrode his veto, making the Civil Rights Act the first major bill in the history of the United States to become law through an override of a presidential veto. President Ulysses S. Grant supported Radical Reconstruction and enforced the protection of African Americans in the South through the use of the Enforcement Acts passed by Congress. Grant used the Enforcement Acts to effectively combat the Ku Klux Klan, which was essentially wiped out. The Conservatives had regained power in each "redeemed" Southern state by 1877 and the Democrats, who strongly opposed Reconstruction, regained control of the House of Representatives in 1874. The deployment of the U.S. Army was central to the survival of Republican state governments; they collapsed when the Army was removed in 1877 as part of a Congressional bargain to elect Republican Rutherford B. Hayes as president. The Reconstruction Era was a significant chapter in the history of civil rights in the United States. It left the South poverty-stricken and dependent on agriculture.
Promontory Pt., UT
an area of high ground in Box Elder County, Utah. It lies to the north of the Promontory Mountains and the Great Salt Lakes. It is notable as the location of Promontory Summit, where the First Transcontinental Railroad in the United States was officially completed on May 10, 1869. By the summer of 1868, the Central Pacific had completed the first rail route through the Sierra Nevada mountains, and was now moving down towards the Interior Plains and the Union Pacific's line. More than 4,000 workers had lain more than 100 miles of track at altitudes above 7,000 feet. In May 1869, the railheads of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroads finally met at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory.
Vertical Integration
an arrangement in which the supply chain of a company is owned by that company. Usually each member of the supply chain produces a different product or (market-specific) service, and the products combine to satisfy a common need.
Dawes Act (1887)
authorized the President of the US to survey American Indian tribal land and divide it into allotments for individual Indians. Those who accepted allotments and lived separately from the tribe would be granted US citizenship. The Act was named for its creator, Senator Henry Dawes of Massachusetts. The objectives of the Dawes Act were to lift the Native Americans out of poverty and to encourage their assimilation into mainstream American society. Less well-known, however, was that the act was designed to weaken tribalism and tribal identity among the Indians, should they choose to accept the land offer and settle down. The act also, paternalistically, prevented those who took the land, from selling it in turn. Those who needed money to attend tech and trade schools were thus stymied by the provisions of the Dawes Act.
Division of Labor
breaks the production process into separate tasks performed by specialists or craftsmen. Subdividing the process down into smaller increments provides the means to employ common workers as opposed to developing a dependence on highly skilled craftsmen which may add to the cost to the work product. The danger here is the tedium of repetitive work, as Ford discovered. There are many ways to overcome this, such as routine breaks with light exercise (popular in Japan), or rotation through the various stations in the assembly line, thereby challenging workers to learn all facets of the work product.
Assembly Line
defines the progression and synchronization of work. The Ford example is typical of manufacturing, but you can find similar scenarios in the service industry, such as restaurants, banking, insurance, etc. where there is a specific sequence of events which must be followed in order to produce the desired work product in a timely manner.
Monopolies
exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity which relates to a single entity's control of a market to purchase a good or service. Monopolies are thus characterized by a lack of economic competition to produce the good or service, a lack of viable substitute goods, and the possibility of a high monopoly price well above the seller's marginal cost that leads to a high monopoly profit.
Bloody Shirt
in the American election campaigns in the 19th century, "waving the bloody shirt" was a phrase used to ridicule opposing politicians who made emotional calls to avenge the blood of political martyrs. The pejorative was most used against Republicans, who were accused of using the memory of the Civil War to their political advantage. The phrase gained popularity with a fictitious incident in which Benjamin Franklin Butler of Massachusetts, when making a speech on the floor of the US House of Representatives, allegedly held up a shirt stained with the blood of a carpetbagger whipped by the Ku Klux Kla during the Reconstruction Era. While Butler did give a speech condemning the Klan, he never waved anyone's bloody shirt. White Southerners mocked Butler, using the fiction of his having "waved the bloody shirt" in order to minimize or dismiss Klan thuggery and other atrocities committed against freed slaves and Republicans.
Standardization of Parts
invented in the 18th c. by the American developer of the cotton gin, Eli Whitney. Standardization was necessary for interchangeability and assembly by unskilled and semi-skilled workers. Such standardization provides the means to share and reuse parts not just within a single product, but between many products. Imagine you are a manufacturer of lawn mowers, and you have fifteen different models for different applications, standardization of parts lowers production costs, simplifies product development, and promotes integration within product lines. This concept can be applied outside of manufacturing as well.
Black Codes
laws passed by Southern states in 1865 and 1866, after the Civil War. These laws had the intent and the effect of restricting African Americans' freedom, and of compelling them to work in a labor economy based on low wages or debt. Black Codes were part of a larger pattern of Southern whites trying to suppress the new freedom of emancipated African American slaves, the freedmen. In the South, these were generally included in "slave codes"; the goal was to reduce influence of free blacks (particularly after slave rebellions) because of their potential influence on slaves. Restrictions included prohibiting them from voting, bearing arms, gathering in groups for worship and learning to read and write. A major purpose of these laws was to preserve slavery. In the first two years after the Civil War, white-dominated southern legislatures passed Black Codes modeled after the earlier slave codes. They were particularly concerned with controlling movement and labor, as slavery had given way to a free labor system. Although freedmen had been emancipated, their lives were greatly restricted by the Black Codes.
Laissez-faire
literally translates to "leave alone/let be". Originating in late 17th century France amongst the Physiocrat philosophers who sought an organic approach to society, hence the term''s implication to ''live and let live, the term gained traction in the writings of 18th century free-market economist Adam Smith. In capitalist economic theory, the principle of laissez-faire stipulates that the government which governs best, governs least. Smith argued that because state regulation and manipulation of the free market introduces inefficiencies which threaten the profitability of a venture or product, and because states are interested not in profits but power, any interference in the marketplace skews its aim of getting products to customers as cheaply and efficiently as possible. Therefore, Smith reasoned, the state should adopt a 'hands off' policy and allow the market to self- regulate. The idea of laissez-faire appeared in Smith's seminal work The Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, which became a cornerstone of federal policy from the American Revolution till the 1880s during which, transactions between private parties were free from government interference such as regulations, privileges, tariffs, and subsidies.
Precision Tooling
provides mechanical leverage in the assembly line. Even in Ford's day, he understood the need for using the most technologically advanced tools, something requiring constant monitoring and upgrading.
Jim Crow Laws
state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Enacted after the Reconstruction period, these laws continued in force until 1965. They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities in the states of the former Confederate States of America, starting in 1890 with a "separate but equal" status for African Americans. Facilities for African Americans were consistently inferior and underfunded compared to those available to European Americans; sometimes they did not exist at all. This body of law institutionalized a number of economic, educational, and social disadvantages. De jure segregation mainly applied to the Southern states, while Northern segregation was generally de facto— patterns of housing segregation enforced by private covenants, bank lending practices, and job discrimination, including discriminatory labor union practices. Jim Crow laws mandated the segregation of public schools, public places, and public transportation, and the segregation of restrooms, restaurants, and drinking fountains for whites and blacks. The U.S. military was also segregated, as were federal workplaces, initiated in 1913 under Democrat President Woodrow Wilson. By requiring candidates to submit photos, his administration practiced racial discrimination in hiring.
The Frontier Thesis
the argument advanced by historian Frederick Jackson Turner in 1893 that American democracy was formed by the American frontier. In the thesis, the American frontier established liberty by releasing Americans from European mindsets and eroding old, dysfunctional customs. The frontier had no need for standing armies, established churches, aristocrats or nobles, nor for landed gentry who controlled most of the land and charged heavy rents. Frontier land was free for the taking. Turner first announced his thesis in a paper entitled "The Significance of the Frontier in American History", delivered to the American Historical Association in 1893 in Chicago. He won wide acclaim among historians and intellectuals. He stressed the process—the moving frontier line—and the impact it had on pioneers going through the process. He also stressed results; especially that American democracy was the primary result, along with egalitarianism, rugged individualism, a lack of interest in high culture, and violence.
Mass Demand
the impetus for mass production. Without it, there is no need for the other four parts. In Ford's case, it was his desire to sell his product to the multitudes, not just one group. He recognized the need for studying consumption which, of course, is now a responsibility of Marketing to perform.
Sooners
the name given to settlers who entered the Unassigned Lands in what is now the state of Oklahoma before the official start of the Land Rush of 1889. President Benjamin Harrison officially proclaimed the Unassigned Lands open to settlement on April 22, 1889. As people lined up around the borders of the Oklahoma District, they waited for the official opening. It wasn't until noon that it officially was opened to settlement. The name derived from the "sooner clause" of the act, which stated that anyone who entered and occupied the land prior to the opening time would be denied the right to claim land. In 1908, University of Oklahoma football team adopted the nickname "Sooners." The U.S. state of Oklahoma has been popularly nicknamed the "Sooner State" since the 1920s
Horizontal Integration
the process of a company increasing production of goods or services at the same part of the supply chain. A company may do this via internal expansion, acquisition or merger. The process can lead to monopoly if a company captures the vast majority of the market for that product or service.
Tenure of Office Act (1867)
was a US federal law (in force from 1867 to 1887) that was intended to restrict the power of the President of the US to remove certain office-holders without the approval of the Senate. The law was enacted on March 3, 1867, over the veto of President Andrew Johnson. It professed to deny the president the power to remove any executive officer who had been appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate, unless the Senate approved the removal during the next full session of Congress. The act was significantly amended on April 5, 1869. Congress repealed the act in its entirety in 1887.
Pony Express
was a mounted, express mail service delivering messages, newspapers, and mail. The 1,900-mile-long route utilized 184 stations, situated approximately 5-25 miles apart, and roughly followed the Oregon and California Trails, then the Mormon Trail and the Central Nevada Route to Carson City, Nevada before passing over the Sierra into Sacramento, California. During its 19 months of operation, it reduced the time for messages to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to about 10 days chiefly because of the strict weight limitation of 125lbs. imposed on its rider staff. From April 3, 1860 to October 1861, it became the West's most direct means of east-west communication before the telegraph was established and put it out of business. In its short, romantic heyday, the Pony Express was vital for tying the new state of California with the rest of the US.
Compromise of 1877
was an informal, unwritten deal that settled the intensely disputed 1876 U.S. presidential election, in which 20 electoral votes were unresolved. It resulted in the national government pulling the last federal troops out of the South, and formally ended the Reconstruction Era. Through the Compromise, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was awarded the White House over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden on the understanding that Hayes would remove the federal troops whose support was essential for the survival of Republican state governments in South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana. As soon as the troops left, many white Republicans also left, and the "Redeemer" Democrats took control. The compromise also involved Democrats who controlled the House of Representatives allowing the decision of the Electoral Commission to take effect. (Black republicans felt betrayed)
