| A | B |
|---|
| Sharecropping | system of working the land after the Civil War and not owning the land, but receiving a portion of the crops |
| boomtowns | Western communities that sprung up from mining and disappeared when the mining left |
| Chisholm trail | Jesse Chisholm established this trail for cattle from San Antonio, texas to Abilene, Kansas in 1860's |
| Transcontinental railroad | 1863 and crossed the continental US |
| Fort Laramie Treaty | 1st treaty between US and Native Americans |
| Reservations | Federal lands set aside for American Indians |
| Home Stead Act | A law passed by Congress to encourage settlement into the West by giving government owned land to small farmers |
| Exodusters | African Americans who settled lands in the late 1800's |
| Sodbusters | the name given to Plains farmers who worked hard to break up the region's tough sod |
| Dry farming | A method of farming used by plains farmers in the 1890's that shifted focus from water dependent crops to mass hardy crops |
| The National Grange | a social and educational organization for farmers |
| William Jennings Bryan | American lawyer and populist politician. Favored silver coinage, help for farmers. he was the Democratic nomination for Presidenmt and was defeated by William McKinley |
| Bessemer Process | A process developed in the 1890's that led to faster cheaper stell production |
| Thomas Edison | American inventor of over 100 patents. Invented the light bulb and power plants that supplied electricity to NYC |
| Westinghouse | created a way to transmit energy over long distances and power plants |
| The Wright Brothers | invented the airplane |
| Henry Ford | Founder of Ford motor Co. Created the moving assembly line. Helped create middle class America |
| Assemble Line | make parts on the line and pass it a long (cars) |
| Alexander Graham Bell | Inventor-hearing aides for the deaf and this led to the development of the telephone |
| Corporations | A business that sells portions of ownership called stock shares |
| Trust | A number of companies legally grouped under a Board of Directors |
