How Barbed Wire Was Invented 6

5th Grade Bulletin #23 Week 6-Class News Khan Academy: This week in math we will be continuing our coordinate plane module (6). This week it will be more of interpretting the quadrants on the graph, and using that information. Please let me know if you have trouble connecting with Khan Academy. Distance Learning Packets: Our packets this week include a Reading Menu #23, cursive practice writing either their graphic organizer or reading menu in cursive. Also graphic organizer for practicing the reading focus skill, a leveled reader and a Daze passage. Fluency Practice: This means repeated reading out loud of the first section of the text. Please read out loud with your student each day from the leveled reader, pages two through five. Repeated reading of the same passage builds reading fluency. Skill Practice: This week we are practicing main ideas and details, combined with summarizing the story. Please support your student with completing the story map identifying the story elements you find in the leveled reader, “text evidence”. Homework 1. Khan Academy math assignments 2. Read leveled reader pages 3-6 each day out loud 3. Finish leveled reader at least twice 4. Complete graphic organizer "Story Structure: Story Map" 5. Reading Menu 23 (answer 2 questions this week if you finish all other parts). 6. Daze #12 7. Cursive practice- write your reading menu or graphic organizer in cursive! 8. Read at least 20 minutes each day 9. Vocabulary Spelling city word practice 10. There is always Moby Max practice and Epic! *The school website has so many art, and other activities &resources. K-5 PE Week May 11th-15th The physical activity log will allow you to record specific physical activities of your choosing throughout the week. The duration of these activities will count towards your weekly physical education minutes (30 minutes a day). Please use the physical activity log below or come up with one on your own. Write your activities and total minutes/hours every day. Examples of these activities can include biking, basketball, jumping on the trampoline, walks, runs, soccer, etc. Physical Education Activity Log Date Description of Activity Duration How Barbed Wire Changed the West by Barbara M. Sharp HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HarcourT How Barbed Wire Changed the West by Barbara M. Sharp PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS: Cover © Ralph A. Clevenger/CORBIS. Title page American Stock/Getty Images. 2 Jeremy Woodhouse/Getty Images. 3 © marekuliasz/Shutterstock. 5 © Tom Bean/CORBIS. 7 Jeremy Woodhouse/Getty Images. 8 The Granger Collection, New York. 9 (l) (r) US Patent and Trademark Office, Patent No. 157124 and No. 167240. 10 © Ralph A. Clevenger/CORBIS. 13 © Ralph A. Clevenger/CORBIS. 15 American Stock/Getty Images. 17 Brian Hagiwara/Brand X Pictures. All other photos © Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishers Copyright © by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner unless such copying is expressly permitted by federal copyright law. Requests for permission to make copies of any part of the work should be addressed to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, Attn: Contracts, Copyrights, and Licensing, 9400 South Park Center Loop, Orlando, Florida 32819. Printed in the U.S.A. ISBN: 978-0-547-89052-4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 XXXX 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 4500000000 A B C D E F G If you have received these materials as examination copies free of charge, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company retains title to the materials and they may not be resold. Resale of examination copies is strictly prohibited. Possession of this publication in print format does not entitle users to convert this publication, or any portion of it, into electronic format. Table of Contents Introduction 3 The Need for Barbed Wire on the Plains 4 How Barbed Wire Was Invented 6 Glidden: The Father of Barbed Wire 7 Joseph Glidden Gets a Partner 8 A Patent War Begins 9 Farmers Fence the Plains 10 Ranchers Object 11 Changing Ranchers’ Minds 12 Fence Wars 14 A Deadly Blizzard 16 Changing Lives 17 Conclusion 18 Introduction The 1800s brought many exciting inventions. The zipper, the telephone, vulcanized rubber, and even paper drinking straws changed people’s lives in ways both large and small. One 19th-century invention had a huge effect on the American West. It was barbed wire. Barbed wire began to be used in the 1870s. Until then, land in the West had been unfenced. Farmers who moved to the plains needed to protect their crops from animals and thieves. Barbed wire helped homesteaders to settle on the often-hostile Great Plains. Ranchers relied on the open range to graze their cattle. Once farmers began to fence their land, conflict broke out. Later, trouble arose between ranchers who used barbed wire and those who didn’t. Fenced areas also affected cowboys and Native Americans whose livelihoods depended on access to open land. The story of barbed wire on the American frontier is one of ingenuity and success, conflict and heartbreak, small farms and sprawling ranches. These are some of the main types of barbed wire. 3 The Need for Barbed Wire on the Plains A rush of pioneers headed west to the Great Plains in the mid-1860s. They sought land to farm and ranch. At that time, large amounts of land were becoming available to settlers. This was because the U.S. government was taking control of lands that had been home to Native Americans. The government forced Native Americans from the open plains onto reservations. The environment on the Great Plains was vastly different to farmers from the East. On the Great Plains, building materials were scarce. There were no dense forests and few stones. Eastern farmers had used these natural resources to build fences. Even if wood or stone were available, it would have been too costly to enclose a 160-acre parcel of land. The Great Plains— a treeless, grassy region—includes land in ten different states. Great Plains 4 Looking for a solution, the homesteaders tried “furrow fences” by digging trenches around their fields. They also tried raised strips of plowed land as barriers. Neither worked. In the late 1860s and early 1870s, some farmers made fences out of thick, thorny bushes that grew on the plains. These thorny fences worked a little better but still were not effective in protecting their farms. In addition, growing the plants in the large numbers needed for fences took a very long time. Would the pioneers’ dream of turning the vast lands into prosperous farms ever come true? It would—but only with the invention of a new kind of fencing material. Barbed wire would prove to be a cheap, easy solution to the homesteaders’ problem. The Homestead Act In 1862, Congress passed the Houses of sod, or blocks of soil with Homestead Act. The law said grass and plant roots, were built by that nearly anyone could get farmers called sodbusters. 160 acres of unclaimed land for free. The person just had to live on the land for five years and improve it. Thousands of farmers dashed west to take advantage of the new law. Land claimed by homesteaders became off-limits to ranchers for grazing their cattle. 5 How Barbed Wire Was Invented A number of inventors in the mid-1800s were working to develop a new kind of fence. These inventors created different forms of what would become known as barbed wire. Each inventor was trying to make the best, most useful fencing. But none of the early forms caught on. In the 1860s, a man named Michael Kelly invented something very similar to today’s barbed wire fence. Called the Thorny Fence, it had wire points attached to twisted strands of wire. Kelly was the first inventor to use two strands of wire instead of one. But his fencing material never reached the public. Other inventors soon had better luck. In 1873, Henry M. Rose, a farmer, showed his fencing idea at the annual DeKalb County Fair in Illinois. Rose’s novel approach consisted of short wire points attached to a wooden rail. This rail would be fastened to an existing fence. When cattle felt the sharp prick of the wire points, they would move away from the “painful” fence. Three men attending the fair found Rose’s idea intriguing. They were Joseph Glidden, Isaac Ellwood, and Jacob Haish— all DeKalb residents. Each wanted to figure out a way to make a better, more effective fence. They all stood to benefit from such an improvement. Glidden was a farmer, Ellwood owned a hardware store, and Haish was a lumberman whose customers were always in need of fencing. Each businessman independently came up with the same idea: Why not attach sharp points directly to the wire, instead of to wood? 6 Joseph Glidden: The Father of Barbed Wire Joseph Glidden went to work on his idea in the kitchen of his farmhouse. According to one story, his wife told him that she needed some new fencing to keep animals out of her flower garden. Using everyday kitchen utensils such as a coffee mill and a grindstone, Glidden began to experiment. After several attempts, he succeeded in creating the barbed wire that people know today. It consisted of two strands of strong wire with wire barbs attached all along the length of the strands.

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