Kansas

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The Cattle Industry

The first railroad line in central Kansas, the Union Pacific, had reached Abilene in 1867. Shortly thereafter, extensive corrals for cattle were built in Abilene, which became the first Kansas cow town. Texas cattlemen drove their stock north along the Chisholm Trail to the Abilene stockyards. The cattle were then shipped by rail to Kansas City, Missouri, Chicago, Illinois, or other markets east of the Mississippi. Later, other cattle trails met the railroads at the Kansas towns of Wichita, Ellsworth, Caldwell, and Dodge City.

Kansas, with its Native Americans, cowboys, cattle drives, and dusty frontier towns, became part of the legendary “Wild West” that was romanticized in stories and films. Buffalo Bill Cody lived in Kansas, providing buffalo meat for railroad workers. Abilene City Marshal James Butler Hickok (called Wild Bill Hickok), Wyatt Earp, and Ford County Sheriff Bat Masterson, tried to keep law and order in these towns and were made famous later in books and motion pictures.

In the 1870s the cattle drivers found it more profitable to raise their own stock on Kansas rangelands than to drive half-wild herds of cattle from Texas. They could thus avoid the long, arduous cattle drives, and also raise better grades of beef cattle using controlled breeding in one location. As a result, cattle raising increased in central and western Kansas, and cattle drives became more infrequent, ending completely by the mid-1880s. By that time formerly open rangeland had been enclosed by a new invention called barbed wire; stringent legislation had restricted the Texas cattle drives; and railroads had reached Texas, eliminating the original reason for the drives.

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Farm Discontent

Kansas farmers battled declining prices for agricultural products through most of the late 19th century, and paid what they considered to be excessive prices for storing and shipping their produce. Many went heavily into debt and, when they were unable to repay, lost their houses, their land, or both. As a result, Kansas farmers and those in related industries supported major political and economic reforms advocated by a number of organizations, including the National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry (called the National Grange), the Farmers’ Alliance, and the Populist Party, which was the strongest political reform organization in Kansas.

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The Populist Party called for the unlimited, or free, coinage of silver dollars and wanted the government to put larger amounts of paper money in circulation. The party hoped that these measures would make it easier for farmers to repay their debts. The party also wanted other reforms: an end to the national banking system; government-run railroads; a tax on income; the direct, popular election of U.S. senators; and the referendum, with which voters could approve or reject the laws their legislators made.

In 1892 and 1896 Kansas elected governors who received the support of both the Populist and the Democratic parties. In addition, the Populists gained control of the state legislature for a time, and a number of Populist candidates were elected to the U.S. Congress. Despite these electoral successes, however, the Populists managed to pass only limited reforms, and when farm prices began to rise in the last few years of the 19th century, the strength of the Populist Party declined.

Republicans who believed that government should play a larger role in economic affairs, called Progressives, later took on many Populist causes. Between 1904 and 1912 Kansas strengthened its child labor laws, enacted compensation for injured workers, strengthened state regulation of railroad rates, and passed a law authorizing the state to examine and approve all sales of business securities in Kansas. William Allen White, an editor from Emporia, was an important member of this group, most of whom supported President Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909) in his attempts to reform the government.

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Early 20th Century

Kansas prospered in the period between 1900 and 1930. Agricultural production grew rapidly, and Kansas became one of the leading wheat-producing regions in the United States. World War I (1914-1918) increased the demand for wheat, which encouraged the expansion of acreage under cultivation. In addition, mechanization, widespread use of dry-farming techniques, and the increasing use of irrigation also contributed to the state’s increased agricultural productivity. Although the oil industry expanded rapidly following the opening of major oil fields in eastern Kansas during World War I, meat packing and flour milling remained the leading manufacturing industries in the early 20th century.

Economic depression in the 1930s brought hardship to Kansas. A prolonged drought from 1931 to 1937 worsened the plight of Kansas farmers. The Great Plains suffered from soil erosion, and high winds churned the loose topsoil into enormous swirling dust storms, or black blizzards. In Kansas and the rest of what was called the Dust Bowl, thousands of farmers, unable to farm profitably, if at all, abandoned their farms and migrated to other parts of the country, particularly the West. Between 1930 and 1940 the state’s total population decreased, despite the fact that the urban population increased slightly.

In the late 1930s, rainfall increased, reducing the dust storms. The federal and state governments also began widespread conservation efforts to help Kansans recover from the depression. These included stabilizing and diversifying the state’s agricultural economy by encouraging the use of better crop rotation and the greater production of sorghum grains and other crops. Kansas also benefited considerably from various federal public works programs such as the Works Progress Administration, which provided money to build public buildings and roads, as well as for Kansas artists.

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World War II and Early Postwar Years

During World War II (1939-1945) the increased demand for farm products once again helped Kansas agriculture. In addition, wartime demands for machinery and military equipment greatly expanded industrial production, particularly in aircraft manufacturing in the Wichita area. By the end of the war the manufacture of aircraft and other transportation equipment was a major economic activity. As a result, Kansas’s economy became less dependent on agriculture. The trend toward industrialization was paralleled by an increase in urbanization.

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Desegregation

The 1954 decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, represented a turning point in the history of the United States. Reversing the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling, which said that racially “separate but equal” public institutions were legal, the court held that segregated public schools were “inherently unequal” and denied black children equal protection under the law. It later directed that the state provide desegregated educational facilities “with all deliberate speed.” Kansas had been only one of many states that had “separate but equal” schools that were affected by the decision. Although Southern white officials sought to obstruct implementation of the Brown decision, many blacks saw the ruling as a sign that the federal government might intervene on their behalf in other racial matters.