The Prairie Farmer's Plight

The economic depression of the nation affected the settlers before many had even adjusted to life on the prairie.  Overbuilding by the railroad across the Plains was largely responsible, and put the farmers deep in debt.  They purchased land on time payments, and then borrowed to finance farming equipment and seed to run the farm. 

Even before the depression in 1873, national disasters such as prairie fires, hailstorms and droughts had pushed many farms to bankruptcy.  Some private charities offered aid and state and territorial legislatures gave small assistance.  The U.S. Congress authorized the distribution of $30,000 worth of seed to frontier farmers in 1875, but all this was just a drop in the bucket to the tens of thousands of farmers in need.

The early 1870s found many farmers destitute and with an attitude of being a forgotten minority.  America post-Civil War was fast becoming an urbanized, industrial nation.  The rural farmer was no longer the heart of the agricultural nation of America's early history. 

A new organization, the National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry was formed in 1867 to organize farmers into local chapter dedicated to education, culture and socialization.  The Grange grew slowly until the 1870s when disasters forced many to find strength in numbers, and the organization became less social and more political.  In 1874, the membership stood at 1.5 million.

There was little the Grange could do about natural disasters, but they could influence commodity prices, grain storage price, and interest rates and shipping costs.  They went after the railroads for discriminatory pricing and the grain-elevator operators for colluding with the railroads.

Next time...The farmers fight back
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Today in Pioneer History: "On October 15, 1880, the warrior Victorio, one of the greatest Apache military strategists of all time, dies this day, in 1880, in the Tres Castillos Mountains south of El Paso, Texas.