Nebraska in 1882
From the 1830s until the end of the Civil War, wagon trains making their way to Utah, the fertile Northwest, or the gold fields of California and Colorado used towns on the Missouri River as "jumping off" points, securing supplies and information before moving on along the trails that followed the Platte and Republican River valleys. The ever-increasing number of migrants ensured the growth of commercial centers such as Nebraska City, Plattsmouth, and Omaha, but most of the interior, including river valleys, remained free from American settlement until 1848, when the government established Fort Kearney on the Platte to protect trains moving westward.
Settlement in the West meant an increased demand for Eastern goods, and the Platte River valley suited teamsters as well as migrants, feeding the growth of eastern Nebraska's cities and towns. Nebraska's Missouri River settlements increased in importance as they serviced steamboats and freight wagons, attracting merchants and freighters eager to participate in the western trade. The early success and growth of these towns ensured their influence in Nebraska territorial and state politics for decades to come; in elections, the divide between eastern and western Nebraska interests would be fodder for Anti-Monopolists, Populists, and agrarian activists.
Until the end of the Civil War, settlement remained concentrated along the Missouri, with few farms or towns more than a day's ride from the river. In spite of the growing commercial importance of the Platte River route, few settlers arrived to do more than set up small way stations along the river. By the mid-1850s, freighting companies began to establish road ranches along the route to outfit their wagon trains and stagecoaches with supplies and fresh animals; some of these outposts became cattle ranches or the nuclei of towns once the railroad displaced oxen as the major mode of transportation.
Between 1860 and 1890, Nebraska's population grew from 28,841 to 1,058,910. Native land cessions, the Homestead Act of 1862, the end of the Civil War, and the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad dramatically increased the pace of growth in Nebraska, and settlement in the state began moving westward. Conflicts between native groups and Euro-Americans kept some from choosing to settle beyond Fort Kearney until the spate of land cessions in the 1850s and 1860s "secured" most of the eastern and central parts of the territory/state; another round in the 1870s turned over the panhandle region to white control. Native resistance to white incursions continued in some areas, but a strong military presence during and after the Civil War reassured many prospective Nebraskans.
The Homestead Act of 1862 had a dramatic impact on Nebraska settlement, particularly in the immediate post-Civil War years and the 1880s, although agricultural and economic trends in the mid-1870s depressed emigration somewhat. The promise of free land drew native-born Americans and new arrivals alike; more than 11,200 filings were made in 1885 alone. Although eventually only about fifty-two percent of homestead filers proved up and earned their final patents, the dream of success was enough to draw thousands onto the Great Plains and, for many of them, the railroad was a vital part of their journey.
Aggressive advertising campaigns by railroads and civic boosters attracted new settlers eager to take advantage of the Homestead Act, commercial opportunities in central and western Nebraska pulled many of the state's eastern residents westward, and a general improvement in agricultural technology encouraged rapid population growth and fueled a sense of opportunity and progress that seemed to permeate the state at various intervals, particularly in the early 1870s and the 1880s.
Although they could be a source of much conflict, as growing dissatisfaction over rates and railroad involvement in state politics, railroads were a boon to the state; the construction of railroad lines in Nebraska facilitated settlement and economic development, particularly in agricultural regions removed from the Missouri River. After decades of passing it over, settlers headed to the Platte Valley as towns sprang up along the river, following the Union Pacific's rail line. As small railroads and trunk lines began to spring up, settlement in central and western Nebraska, as well as the isolated areas of eastern Nebraska, became more common. Settlement along the old trails of the Republican River Valley and the expanses of the Loup River valley benefited from this second spurt of railroad building. Even as immigrants poured into the state during the 1870s and 1880s, however, some areas remained sparsely populated, including the north central and panhandle regions of the state: Limited trunk lines, the Sandhills, and poor conditions for traditional farming kept these parts of Nebraska underdeveloped.
As Nebraska's population moved westward, so did lifeways that had their roots in the East. Because of a shortage of lumber, many rural Nebraskans lived in sodhouses or dugouts; when these dwellings were family homes, they frequently bore the marks of “civilization:” glass windows, lace curtains, or furnishings that reflected the Victorian preoccupation with "things" as symbols of refinement. With railroads penetrating ever further into Nebraska, settlers with the wherewithal no longer had to wait for soft goods and furnishings, as the markers of gentility arrived regularly at Nebraska depots and the rough, “frontier” edges of a community were quickly smoothed.
For many town boosters, securing a railroad line became the primary focus. Innumerable town schemes went bust when the railroad never came, but with the arrival of a railroad line, successful boosters solidified their control over local politics. While the railroads spurred emigration and town building, settlers’ reliance on railroads for goods and access to markets linked the prosperity of the state to the spread of the railroads. Combined with the influence the railroads had over local politics via grateful boosters and their supporters, this dependence was reflected in railroad corporations’ power in the statehouse.
Via heavy advertising campaigns, the railroads encouraged the hardy to venture into Nebraska’s interior to find their fortune in its soil. Advertising in Europe and the Eastern and Midwestern United States, railroads stressed the promise of fertile soil and free land for millions of city dwellers and tenant farmers. Even when tracts purchased or homesteaded were not railroad lands, increasing emigration ensured a steady flow of customers into a developing region. Railroad agents were encouraged to ingratiate themselves with church groups, public officials, newspaper reporters and editors, and local associations to ensure the spread of their messages.
European immigrants in particular relied on the railroad to move into Nebraska, frequently under the aegis of railroad agents who contracted for whole families, or even colonies of immigrants with common geographic, religious, or ethnic affiliations, to buy and settle on railroad lands. Frequently, these ready-made communities came with shared expectations and values that affected Nebraska politics and development because the solidarity and insularity inherent in ethnic group settlment meant that these local identifications were more important than national affiliation in determining political activism and voting patterns.
Good Soil for Reform by Leslie C. Working is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.