After the War

The extension of settlement to the central and western portions of the state following the war led to warfare between Indians and settlers. As a result, the army built more forts and eventually most of the Indians were removed to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). From 1860 to 1890, the population increased by more than a million persons, a large number of whom were European immigrants (predominantly German and German-Russian). Earlier settlers had come mainly from the Ohio Valley, although there was a significant and eventually powerful minority from New England.

After the arrival of the railroads in the 1860's cattle were driven to Kansas from such places as Texas and Arkansas to be shipped to the east. Abilene, Ellsworth, Wichita, and Dodge City became prominent cattle-shipping points, or “cow towns.” It was during this rowdy era that such peace officers as “Wild Bill” Hickok and Wyatt Earp won fame. Meanwhile, it was discovered that Turkey Red, a strain of hard winter wheat brought by Mennonites from Russia in the 1870's, was suited to the Kansas climate and soil, and farming began to replace cattle raising as the main industry.

Grasshopper plagues struck Kansas during 1866-68 and 1873-76, and there were droughts and dust storms during 1873-80, 1883, and 1886-87. Many farmers suffered from these disasters as well as from the economic depressions of this period. The result was the growth in Kansas of various protest and reform movements.

The Granger movement in the 1870's, the Northern Farmers' Alliance in the 1880's, and the People's (Populist) party in the 1890's played important roles in obtaining enactment of numerous reform measures. Among them were the granting of equal property rights and local voting rights to women (1887); the passage of the first state antitrust law (1889); and several measures affecting debtor-creditor relationships. In the elections of 1892 and 1896, Kansas voters chose Populist governors. By 1898, however, populism had begun to wane, and the Republican party became the dominant political force in the state.