Ch 13 Sect 3 Notes-#13



How many square miles are there in Texas ? __________ (Bonus)

13.3 - Westward Expansion

Read pgs 318 - 321

EFFECTS OF WESTWARD EXPANSION

|Settlers move to West Texas |

( ( ( (

|Development reduces available land | | |Fence Cutting Wars and other |

| |Railroads |Settlers Fence off Open Lands |conflicts over land occur |

| |Expand | | |

| After the Civil War, the population of Texas boomed. In 1860, a total | Railroad companies helped towns grow. Building a rail line helped |

|of 600,000 people lived in Texas. Between 1870 and 1880, the population |attract people to a town. |

|doubled. By 1900, Texas had more than 3 million people. |Ranchers began to fence in huge areas with barbed wire. Cattle owners who |

|Many of the newcomers settled in West Texas. A married settler could get |did not own land could no longer feed their herds on the open range. They |

|160 acres of land just by living on it for 3 years. Cattle and Sheep |could not take their cattle on long drives out of Texas. Some fences even |

|Ranchers also settled in the area. |blocked their access to rivers and streams. |

|West Texas has few trees. As a result, there was no wood to build homes. |In the 1880s, these owners began striking back. They cut fences so they |

|Settlers had to make houses out of sod or chunks of soil containing grass. |could reach water or move their herds. Fighting broke out between the large|

|For fuel, they had to burn hay, cornstalks, or the dried waste products of |ranchers and the smaller ones. In 1884, Texas Legislature made it a felony |

|buffalo, called dung. |to cut fences. These laws and the work of the Texas Rangers put an end to |

|Many towns grew in West Texas. |fence cutting. |

Vocabulary:

felony – a serious crime that usually results in jail time

enclosures – fenced in areas to control the breeding of animals

Western Frontier After the Civil War

Only half of Texas had been settled at the end of the Civil War

[pic]

• between 1870-80 the population of Texas doubled, 1.2 million, due to abundant and cheap land

• by 1900 there were 3 million people in Texas

• following the Frontier Wars, Texans moved farther west

• without timber, not many trees in West Texas, settlers lived in sod houses

• to become a homestead, you had to live on the land for 3 years

• the only thing Texans battled now were rattlesnakes and grasshoppers

• since houses were so far apart, the settlers would try and get together for quilting bees, house-raisings, church meetings, and Revivals

• most Anglos were Baptist and Methodist while Tejanos were Catholic

• more Railroads

1. 583 miles of track in 1870

2. 10,000 miles of track by 1900(ended cattle drives)

The Closing of the Western Frontier

• in 1874, Joseph Glidden invented barbed wire.

• Ranchers strung 1000s of miles of barbed wire across Texas

• sometimes blocked roads and interfered with mail delivery

• Ranchers put up fences to protect their cattle and crops

• the open range in Texas ceased to exist by the late 1880s

• fence cutting wars

• some cattle owners did not own land…......they depended on the open range to feed and water their cattle

• these cattle owners would cut fences down in an attempt to reopen the range, to allow cattle to drink from streams and rivers

• finally it became a felony in Texas to cut fences in 1884

• Texas Rangers would go undercover to attempt to catch the fence cutters

• by the end of the 1880s, the Texas frontier had disappeared

• Native Americans no longer hunted Buffalo

• Cowboys no longer drove herds of cattle North

• due to barbed wire fences closing the cattle trails

|[pic] |

1. Why were enclosures so important to ranchers ?

A. enclosures allowed them to control the breeding of their animals

B. enclosures helped protect their crops

C. enclosures helped them get their cattle to market

D. enclosures made sure everyone had access to water sources

2. What is a felony ?

A. a minor crime that usually results in a fine

B. a serious crime that usually results in a fine

C. a serious crime that usually results in a jail sentence

D. a serious crime that is usually dismissed by the judge

3. Why did many people stream into West Texas in the 1870s ?

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4. What were the fence-cutting wars ?

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