Collectors Guide to Morgan Silver Dollars - Littleton Coin Company

Some homesteaders constructed their houses with sod bricks.They battled nature, illness and loneliness daily. Settlers often livedfar apart from their neighbors and might go formonths without seeing another family.Most of the homesteaderslived a hand-to-mouth existence,competing for the land withrailroad tycoons and cattle baronswho were determined to letnothing stand in their way. Therailroads had snapped up thelargest and best share of publiclands – 181 million acres of land,an area about six times as largeas the state of Pennsylvania.The real rulers of the plains,however, were the cattle ranchers,to the dismay of the homesteaders.Raising their cattle on freegrasslands was so low-cost, thecattlemen realized a very heftyprofit. Cattle roamed freely,grazing wherever they wished.Permanent Expenditurefor Farm of 160 Acres,supposed to be started in 1880New Land, 160 acres, at $5 per acre ..........$800House, 16’ x 22’, complete ..........................$300Stabling, yards and well ..............................$150Farm ImplementsTwo breaking ploughs ........$35Two stirring ploughs ..........$25Two corn cultivators............$60Two harrows ......................$20Mower & reaper................$100Other implements ..............$85subtotal ..........$325Stove and other furniture............................$100Six good farm horses ..................................$600Two wagons and harnesses ......................$200total $2,475Weeks of back-breaking labor and a vital supply of food could be destroyedin a few minutes when cattle trampled through a homesteader’s garden.While the sod-busting homesteaders barely eked out a living, othersprospered quite well in the West. Rich ranchers and mine owners gladlyplunked down a heavy Morgan silver dollar for a steak dinner and a room atthe best hotel in town!The cattle business was profitable until the mid-1880s, when overproductioncaused the market to bottom out. Hundreds of ranchers pulled upstakes and moved on, including Teddy Roosevelt, who turned his holdings inthe Dakotas over to his ranch hands and moved back East. The westernlands were then left to those who were promised them in the first place: thehomesteading farmers.21