During this time, gunslingers of the west such as Wild Bill Hickok and Jesse James became famous. Wild West As the first settlers and pioneers moved into the west, there was little government. Various land acts in Oregon provided free land to pioneers, while the start of the California Gold Rush in 1848 lured thousands more. Exodusters moved West to escape sharecropping and own land for themselves. Some hoped to find new, rich farmland. West of Lake Erie, the most important town was the small trading settlement of Detroit, which as late as 1840 was a rather small town with a population of about 9000. For the best answers, search on this site https://shorturl.im/avMMm. When you picture the "westward expansion" of settlers in the United States, a covered wagon may be the first thing to come to mind. Michigan settlers came primarily from New York and New England, concentrating in the southern third of the state. The soil they left behind was … They were Russian Protestant groups. Despite the many reasons to migrate westward, the numbers that amassed in Oregon and California were modest, and migration was concentrated between 1844 and 1848. The Homestead Act and the Morrill Act were the two important land-grant acts that were passed in the Great Plains during the mid-1800s to help open the West to settlers. The Homestead Act was passed by Congress in 1862 to encourage settlement in the West by giving government-owned land to … History Early Settlers : Early Settlers: The 1800s. Prairie madness or prairie fever was an affliction that affected settlers in the Great Plains during the migration to, and settlement of, the Canadian Prairies and the Western United States in the nineteenth century. While settlers traveled west along the Oregon Trail for a variety of reasons, most were motivated either by land or gold. haha i did this unit a little while ago (: settlers moved west because they wanted to see if they could find any gold with the yukon gold rush. ... covered wagons, stage coaches and even boats were used to move people from east to west during the 19th century. They were paid little for their hard work farming and they fell into debt. there was lots of land open for people that wanted to claim it. The law was the local sheriff and people had to look to protect themselves against bandits and outlaws. and also, because of free land open. In 1800, significant numbers of settlers were moving to Kentucky and Tennessee ? LARRY WEST: After the Indians were defeated, thousands of settlers hurried west. Early in the century, as the states of Ohio, Louisiana, Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi and Alabama opened up, they too became magnets for those hoping to find their fortunes and better lands to cultivate. the only two states west of the Appalachians at the time. There was much land for sale from the federal government, but at $1.25 an acre, no one could afford it. Travelers passing through this country in 1815 encountered people who still had not heard of the War of 1812. Mennonites were some of the first to move West and to begin farming on the Great Plains. Throughout the long process of settling the American West, the legend of the West would grow and become a symbol of the rugged adventurousness of western settlers. The first white Americans to move west were the mountain men, who went to the Rockies to hunt beaver, bear and elk in the 1820s and 1830s. 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