The great plains; the romance of western American exploration, warfare, and settlement, 1527-1870 . he yellow flood, and established their homes in theheart of the wilderness. Early Settlers in Kansas and Nebraska These first comers clung close to the stream val-leys and the productive bottom lands. Led byprejudices engendered in the experiences of theEast, they shunned the open prairie, holding it as oflittle value. In the timber by the rivers edge, orin the midst of those small groves common to thecountry, they built their log huts, and led lives ofprivation, hardship, and occasional peril.
The great plains; the romance of western American exploration, warfare, and settlement, 1527-1870 . he yellow flood, and established their homes in theheart of the wilderness. Early Settlers in Kansas and Nebraska These first comers clung close to the stream val-leys and the productive bottom lands. Led byprejudices engendered in the experiences of theEast, they shunned the open prairie, holding it as oflittle value. In the timber by the rivers edge, orin the midst of those small groves common to thecountry, they built their log huts, and led lives ofprivation, hardship, and occasional peril. Yet con-stantly was this thin skirmish line advancing stillfarther into the unknown, and gaining new recruitsfrom the East. Travellers published letters, thereports of explorers, private messages to friends, allserved to increase steadily the inflowing tide. Sol-diers whose terms of service had made them familiarwith the country settled there; hunters, charmedwith the rare beauty of this prairie land, becamepermanent residents; and the trader was ever closeat hand with his stock of goods. [292]. THE BEGINNING OF SETTLEMENT Organization into Territories There was, however, very little permanent whitesettlement in either Nebraska or Kansas until after1854, at which date these Territories were legallyorganized. Previous to this the entire region hadbeen designated merely as the Indian country,and its population consisted of little more thanwandering trappers and hunters, scattered fur-traders with their few employees, and those meninterested in the Santa Fe trade. Yet as soon asthese Territories were formally thrown open to set-tlement, the rush across the border began. Thelocal census in 1855 credits Kansas with a popula-tion of 8,501, which increased in five years to 107,-206. In Nebraska the growth was less remarkable,its population in 1855 being 4,494, and in i860, 28,-441. In both cases the settlements were almost to-tally confined to the river bottoms, and within acomparativ
Size: 1222px × 2044px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherchicagomcclurg
