Financial Panic of 1873 (p. 7): See History from Book 4

Tree Claim (p. 15): An addition to the original Homestead Act of 1862, the Timber Culture Act of 1873 offered settlers an additional 160 acres of land if they planted trees on one-fourth of the acreage. This was expected to help solve the drought, wind, and poor growing conditions on the Great Plains during these years, as well as provide settlers with lumber for building and fuel.

Barbed Wire (p. 16): Since 1863, several farmers and inventors had been experimenting with creating fences out of wire. By 1874, the technique was becoming perfected and growing in popularity as a cheap and effective fencing method.

Turkey Red Winter Wheat (p. 17): During the 1870s, many Mennonite and Catholic immigrants from Russia were settling in Kansas. They brought a hardy new variety of wheat with them, the turkey red, that proved to be an enormous boost to the Kansas farming economy and remained the main wheat variety grown there until the 1940s.

Adobe Walls (p. 18): See Red River War below

James-Younger Gang (p. 41): the outlaw gang made up of Jesse and Frank James, the Younger brothers Jim, John, Bob and Cole, John Jarrette,Charlie Pitts, Clel Miller, Arthur McCoy, Matthew Nelson, and Bill Chadwell. They mainly robbed banks but also trains on occasion. All of them had been Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. For the Quantrill Raiders and Bleeding Kansas see Book 1 History.

Billy Brooks, L. B. Hasbrouck, Acorn Head Jones, Charlie Smith (p. 59): real horse thieves in Kansas from the period. Read more about them (and other outlaws) here.

Red River War (p. 62): In June 1874, a Comanche medicine man, Isa-tai, led a band of Indians against an encampment of white buffalo hunters at Adobe Walls in Texas. The hunters were exterminating the buffalo herds that the tribes relied on for food when the supplies on their reservations failed. The hunters successfully held off the attack, but the Indians’ situation remained desperate. The Comanches were joined by the Kiowa, Arapaho, and Cheyenne. The U.S. Army was called out to put down the uprising and ensure the Indians remained on their reservations. The Red River War was a series of around twenty battles fought in the Texas Panhandle region until the Indians under Comanche Chief Quanah Parker (son of an Indian father and white mother) surrendered the following year. Parker later worked for peace between the Indians and settlers as a delegate to Washington.

Custer’s Black Hills Expedition (p. 74): On July 2, 1874, General George Armstrong Custer, started out with the 7th Cavalry and accompanying civilians from modern-day Bismarck, North Dakota, to explore the Black Hills region, find a suitable location for a fort, a route to the Southwest, and explore the possibility of gold deposits. The latter purpose proved successful, and led to a gold rush into the Black Hills. The region had previously been promised to the Sioux and settlers banned from the area by treaties in 1868. The event significantly increased antagonism between the Sioux and the settlers in the following years.

School Recitation Poems (p. 83): The following links contain the full text of Soldier of the Rhine, Mariner’s Dream, and Blue and the Gray.

Whiskey Ring Scandal (p. 145): The Whiskey Ring Scandal referred to a group of whiskey distillers who had bribed government officials with a share in the profits in order to avoid the excise tax on liquor. Several top officials of President Ulysses Grant’s administration were involved. Grant himself fell under suspicion although he was not part of the ring and played an important role in uncovering and ending the bribery.

Boss Tweed (pg. 145): William Magear Tweed (1823-1878) a corrupt New York city politician, recognized as “Boss” of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party headquarters. Tweed controlled political appointments through patronage and stole between $25-45 million dollars of taxes from the New York residents.

Battle of the Little Bighorn (p. 188): The building tension between the Sioux Indians and the settlers from Custer’s Black Hills Expedition escalated in the summer of 1876, when the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho under Chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, and Custer’s 7th Cavalry clashed at the Little Bighorn River in southern Montana on June 25-26, 1876. Custer and his entire force was killed. Find more on the Battle here. More on George and Libbie Custer here.

Hamburg Massacre (pg. 212): On July 4, 1867, two white farmers in the small town of Hamburg, South Carolina, were unable to pass down a street due to the African-American militia drilling. The farmers brought a complaint before the court on July 8, demanding that the militia be disbanded. White men turned out in mass and the dispute turned into a battle. Six black men and one white were killed during the shootout. Wade Hampton, the Democratic governor candidate, used the incident to encourage white voters to vote Democrat through fear of race war.

The Disputed Election of 1876 (p. 224): for full details on the vote count, disputed states, and compromise process, see here

Cheyenne Escape Through Kansas (a.k.a. The Last Raid of Kansas) (p. 283): For further details see here

Ponca Indian Law Case (p. 328): For more details on the events and people involved in the Ponca Case see here