The Era of the Redeemers: 1876-1900

1. State Politics in the late 1800s
2. The Indian Frontier
3. The Cattle Kingdom
4. Railroads and Industrialization
5. Reform Movements

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State Politics in the late 1800s

1. What changes did Governor Coke and his supporters make in the Texas government?(7.6:A)
       Governor Richard Coke and his Democratic supporters worked to reverse the changes made by former Governor Edmund J. Davis and the Radical Republicans. The Democrats removed state officials from office, cut government spending and made plans to replace the Constitution of 1869 with yet another new state constitution.
2. What were the objectives of the Constitution of 1876?(7.6:A)
       The main objective of the Constitution of 1876 was clear. Its creators wanted to limit the powers of the state government. To achieve their objective, the delegates reduced the governor�s term to two years, and the governor�s power to appoint state officials was reduced. 
3. Who were two influential African Americans members of the Republican party in Texas during this time?(7.6:A)
       Norris Wright Cuney, an African American from Galveston, became the party�s leader in the 1880s after Edmund J. Davis�s death. At the end of the nineteenth century, William "Gooseneck Bill" MacDonald became a well-known party leader. 
4. What were "Jim Crow" laws?(7.6:A)
        Keeping people separate in such a way is known as segregation, and the laws passed to achieve segregation in the state were called "Jim Crow" laws. Under the Jim Crow laws, black Texans could not eat in the same restaurants as whites. They could not stay in hotels designated for whites. They also could not ride in the same streetcars or railcars with Anglos. Public schools were also segregated.
5. What steps did Governor O. M. Roberts take to balance the state budget?(7.6:A)
       Governor Roberts initiated steps to reduce the state debt. The Texas Legislature reduced the pensions of war veterans, cut support for publicly funded schools, reduced the size of the Texas Ranger units and cut state spending on the penitentiary system.
6. Who designed the Capitol building in Austin?(7.6:A) (new state capitol building)
       E. E. Myers was the architect of the Texas State Capitol building.
7. How was the construction company that built the Capitol paid?(7.6:A)
       The construction company was paid handsomely with a large grant of land which later became the famous XIT Ranch.

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The Indian Frontier

1. What was the Treaty at Medicine Lodge? Who was the most outspoken critic of the treaty?(7.6:A)
       The government wanted the various Texas tribes to move onto reservations in present-day Oklahoma and to end their raids on the Texas frontier. In return for the tribes� cooperation, the government promised to furnish the Native Americans living on the reservation with food, clothing, medicine and doctors, schools, teachers and farming equipment. Many of the chiefs agreed to this proposal, but some members of the Kiowa and Comanche tribes did not. The most outspoken individual opposed to the Medicine Lodge Treaty was a Kiowa chief named Santana. He bitterly hated the idea of living on a reservation.
2. What was General Sherman's original belief about the threat posed by Indians and how did it change?(7.6:A)
       General Sherman strongly believed that Texans on the frontier had greatly exaggerated the threat posed by the Indians. When Sherman visited Fort Richardson in May 1871, a survivor of the Salt Creek Massacre told him that more than 100 Kiowas had raided a wagon train. The raiders killed approximately a dozen Texans, took all the supplies and even stole the animals used to pull the wagons. These events caused the general to change his mind about the volatile situation along the frontier. He requested that the United States remove the Native Americans from the frontier area.
3. Who was Colonel Ranald Mackenzie?(7.6:A)
       Colonel Mackenzie was the commander of the Fourth Cavalry regiment stationed at Fort Concho, near San Angelo, Texas. Mackenzie and his men, known as Mackenzie�s Raiders, quickly proved to be very effective Indian fighters. Between 1871 and 1875, Mackenzie�s Raiders were involved in several noted battles with the Native Americans living in Texas, including the Battle at Blanco Canyon, the Battle at McClellan Creek, and several other battles in the area of Fort Duncan, near Eagle Pass, Texas.
4. Why was the buffalo important to the Plains Indians?
   What happened to the buffalo?(7.6:A)
       For hundreds of years, the Plains Indians had hunted the buffalo. They found a useful purpose for almost every part of the animal. The Indians used the meat as food, the hides for clothing and shelter, and the bones and sinew for tool and weapons.
       In the early 1870s, Anglo buffalo hunters came to the Plains and killed the animals primarily for their hides. Within approximately five years, 3 million buffalo had been wiped out. By 1880, only a few hundred animals were left alive on the Plains.
5. What happened at Adobe Walls in 1874?(7.6:A)
       In June of 1874, a group of 700 Comanche, Kiowa and Cheyenne attacked 28 buffalo hunters at Adobe Walls in the Texas Panhandle, near present-day Borger. Though they had a numerically superior force, the Indians were forced to retreat. The powerful long rifles, or buffalo guns, of the hunters proved very effective against the attacking warriors. The humiliating defeat of the Native Americans only served to escalate attacks against the settlers and hunters.
6. What happened at the Battle of Palo Duro Canyon?(7.6:A)
       To put an end to the Indian raids, Colonel Mackenzie led a group of 600 soldiers to Palo Duro Canyon. He attacked five different Comanche settlements located there. Many of the Indians escaped, but the soldiers destroyed their camps, burning their dwellings, taking their food and shooting more than 1,000 horses. Without food or horses, the Indians had no choice but to return to the reservations.
7. Who were the Buffalo Soldiers? What role did they play on the Indian frontier in Texas?(7.6:A)
       The "Buffalo Soldiers" were African-American soldiers who were members of the Ninth and Tenth cavalry regiments. They were important to the army�s efforts in stopping Indian raids. They participated in campaigns against the Mescalero Apaches.
8. Who was Henry O. Flipper?(7.6:A)
       Henry O. Flipper was the first black graduate from the United States Military Academy and a member of the Buffalo Soldiers.
9. What brought an end to the Indian wars in Texas?(7.6:A)
       Chief Victorio�s death brought an end to the Indian wars in Texas.

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The Cattle Kingdom

1. Who brought the first Longhorns to Texas? What happened to these animals?
       Early Spaniards, who conquered Mexico in the 1520s, brought the first cattle, known as "longhorns", into the region. The Spaniards developed huge ranches between San Antonio and the Rio Grande. But after Mexico became independent in the early 1820s, the ranches were abandoned. The longhorn cattle were allowed to roam free and their numbers multiplied.
2. Why did Texans profit little from the cattle industry prior to the Civil War? How did this change after the Civil War?(7.6:A,B)
       Prior to the Civil War, Texans profited little from the cattle because ranchers could not efficiently get their cattle to eastern markets. The years following the war were very different. After the Civil War, the North and East had a beef shortage. Texans began to round up these free roaming cattle to profit from the beef shortage and the willingness of meat-packing companies to pay ranchers high prices for their cattle. Also aiding the cattlemen was the fact that railroad companies were building their lines across the Plains, making it possible to transport cattle to eastern markets by rail.
3. Why were cattle driven from Texas to towns in Missouri, Kansas, Colorado and Wyoming?(7.6:A,B)
       Even though railroads were beginning to stretch across the plains, they had not yet reached Texas towns. Cowboys still had to drive the cattle to railroad stations in towns that included Cheyenne, Wyoming; Pueblo, Colorado; Dodge City, Kansas; Abilene, Kansas; and Sedalia, Missouri. 
4. How are the facts about the cowboys of the Old West and their lifestyle different that what is commonly shown today?(7.6:A,B) (cowboys)
       The original cowboys were Mexican vaqueros during the 1700s. The cowboys of the Old West actually included many Tejanos and African Americans. The cowboy lifestyle was generally lonely and harsh. The cattle had to be watched constantly for fear they might stampede during a thunder storm or when threatened by a predator.
5. What invention allowed farmers and ranchers to cheaply fence in their land? How did this effect the cattle drives?(7.6:A,B)
       The range lands became fenced in with barbed wire, an invention of an Illinois man named Joseph Glidden. Farmers immediately began to use barbed wire because it was cheap, and it kept cattle from grazing their farm lands. In addition, ranchers used barbed wire to protect their grasslands from cattle being pushed on the trails, especially once the cattle market became a booming business.
6. What caused the end of the long cattle drives?(7.6:A,B)
       There were three main factors that caused the end of the cattle drives. First, Texas cattle were banned from many towns to the north because of disease. Second, the rangeland was fenced in with barbed wire. Finally, cattle drives became unnecessary when the railroad companies began to lay tracks across Texas, making it easy for cattlemen to ship their animals from Texas towns.

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Railroads and Industrialization

1. What benefits did railroads bring to Texas?(7.6:A)
       A railroad provided an improved system of transportation which allowed people and goods to travel to and from almost any place in the United States.
2. How were early railroads financed in Texas?(7.6:A)
       Railroads in Texas were financed in a number of different ways. Some cities sold bonds to the public. The money gathered from the sale of these bonds was then used to finance railroad construction. Other cities made offers of loans to railroad companies. The most common form of railroad financing was the "land grant." The Texas legislature in 1876 passed a general law for railroad development. For every ten miles of track a company built, it received 160 sections of land. 
3. Name some railroad companies that began operating in Texas during this era.(7.6:A)
       These new companies included the Rio Grande and El Paso, the Texas and Pacific Railway Company (T&P); the Southern Pacific (SP); the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe (ATSF); the Missouri Pacific (MP) and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy (CB&Q).
4. What technological advances improved agriculture during this period?(7.20:C,D)
       Agriculture also became more mechanized during this period with the introduction of horse-drawn threshers, steam-powered tractors and various other machines to plant and harvest their crops. In addition, by the turn of the century, irrigation enabled farmers to grow crops on the arid land in southwest and western Texas. 
5. Why did farmers have a difficult time during this period?(7.6:A)
       Despite changes in agricultural production, farmers still faced many hardships. With increasing competition from farmers in other states and in European countries, Texas farmers often found themselves in financial trouble, especially those who borrowed large amounts of money to buy land and equipment.
6. Besides the railroads, what other industries developed in Texas between 1876 and 1900?
       Other industries that developed in Texas between 1876 and 1900 included flour and cottonseed mills, coal-mining operations, lumber saw mills and the oil industry. 
7. Who were Lyne Barret and J.S. Cullinan?(7.6:A)
       Lyne Barret drilled the first oil well in Texas. His well in Nacogdoches County was drilled with a steam driven engine. J. S. Cullinan built the first large commercial oil refinery in Texas.

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Reform Movements

1. What was the "Greenback" party?(7.6:A)
       The Greenback party wanted the federal government to print more paper money, or greenbacks. It also wanted state governments to help the poor and to regulate large businesses, such as the railroads.
2. How were farmers and small businessmen affected by large company monopolies?(7.6:A,B)
       As competition began to disappear, the larger companies could then fix prices, usually at unreasonable rates to the consumer. Railroad operators charged higher rates to short hauls within the state and charged less for long hauls traveling out-of-state. Small farmers and merchants, who often shipped goods only short distances, felt the railroad rates were unfair. Farmers, small merchants and consumers in general could not protect themselves against such unfair business practices.
3. How did the Texas legislature deal with monopolies?(7.6:A,B)
       The Texas Legislature passed an antitrust law in 1889. It prohibited business trusts. Companies could no longer legally fix prices or limit production.
4. Who were James Hogg and John H. Reagan?(7.6:A)
       Governor James Hogg pressured the legislature to create the Texas Railroad Commission (1891). Governor Hogg convinced John Reagan to give up his Senate seat to become the first head of the Railroad Commission.
5. What were the responsibilities of the Railroad Commission?(7.6:A)
       The Railroad Commission was authorized to regulate rates and other business practices of the railroad companies operating within the state. Later, the commission was given the power to regulate all monopoly corporations. 
6. What was the Populist party?(7.6:A)
       Some Texans believed that the government should assume an even greater role in reforming big businesses and protecting farmers. These citizens formed the basis of a new political party known as the People�s or Populist party. 

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