Lewis and Clark Timeline
Post Expedition 1891 - 1900

1891

The political successes of the Farmer's Alliance, and the desperate plight of farmers with crops at a no-profit stage, precipitate the formation of the People's or Populist Party in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Nine hundred thousand acres of Indian land in Oklahoma are opened for general settlement by a presidential proclamation.

The General Revision Act of 1891 provides for the repeal of the Timber Culture and Preemption Acts and authorizes the President, under the Forest Reserve Act, to create forest preserves "wholly or in part covered with timber or undergrowth, whether of commercial value or not...."

Over 1,200,000 acres of forest lands are set aside for federal use in the Yellowstone region by Congress; President Harrison sets aside 14 other areas of forest land by proclamation.

The Office of the Superintendent of Immigration is created.

Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, commander of the U.S. Army of the West, dies and is buried in St. Louis, Missouri.

1892

The Populist Party meets in Omaha, Nebraska and nominates James B. Weaver of Iowa for the presidency.

The Crow Indian reservation in Montana, consisting of 1,800,000 acres, is opened to settlers by presidential proclamation.

The Cheyenne-Arapaho reservation of 3,000,000 acres is opened to settlers.

The Geary Chinese Exclusion Act prevents the immigration of Chinese laborers to the United States for another ten years.

Ellis Island in New York harbor becomes the primary receiving station for immigrants.

1893

Grover Cleveland is inaugurated as the twenty-fourth President of the United States. Cleveland is the only President to serve two non-consecutive terms.

The World's Columbian Exposition is dedicated in Chicago to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the "discovery" of America. John Philip Sousa's band provides the music. At the fair, a historian named Frederick Jackson Turner proposes his "Frontier Thesis" about the settlement of the West.

The Cherokee Strip between Kansas and Oklahoma is opened for white settlement.

A financial panic is caused as the U.S. gold reserve falls below the safe minimum of $100,000,000.

A revolution in Hawaii deposes Queen Lili`uokalani. American minister Stevens raises the American flag at Honolulu and lands U.S. Marines; the U.S. establishes a protectorate over the islands. President Cleveland apologizes for the invasion in a Special Message to Congress.

Henry Ford tests his first successful automobile.

1894

The Pullman Palace Car Company reduces wages, and workers strike amid violence and bloodshed. The American Railroad Union, led by Eugene Debs, boycotts the servicing of pullman cars as a sympathy gesture, causing a general railroad strike which paralyzes fifty thousand miles of western railroads.

The U.S. Supreme Court issues an injunction against the railroad strikers, and President Cleveland orders U.S. troops to Chicago on the constitutional grounds that the strike interferes with the U.S. mails and interstate commerce.

Jacob S. Coxey, at the head of an "army of the unemployed," marches from Ohio to Washington, D.C. to demonstrate for legislation toward establishing emergency work projects. Coxey is arrested by Capitol guards for trespassing.

The first graduated income tax law is passed, and denounced as "socialism, communism, devilism."

An immigration restriction league is organized, emphasizing distinctions between "old" (northern and western European) and "new" (southern and eastern European) immigrants.

1895

The U.S. Treasury buys $62,000,000 in gold from the banking houses of Morgan and Belmont.

A revolt against Spanish rule breaks out in Cuba.

The song "America the Beautiful" is introduced.

Guglielmo Marconi invents the wireless telegraph.

Sears and Roebuck Company opens a mail-order business.

The Territory of Utah adopts a constitution calling for woman suffrage.

Drawings by Charles Dana Gibson begin to appear in reproductions, and "The Gibson Girl" becomes an American ideal.

1896

At the Republican convention Marcus A. Hanna, a millionaire Cleveland industrialist, engineers the nomination of William McKinley for President. The Free-silver dominated Democrats and Populists nominate William Jennings Bryan.

The U.S. Supreme Court espouses the policy of "separate but equal" facilities and accommodations for the races in Plessy v. Ferguson, thus legitimating more than a decade of Southern "Jim Crow Laws" and leading to nearly 60 years of legal segregation in America.

Gold is discovered in the Klondike River about three miles from Dawson in the Yukon Territory of northwest Canada.

Henry Ford and his associates complete the assembly of the first American automobile.

With Mormon religious dogma officially condemning polygamy, Utah is admitted as the forty-fifth state in the Union.

A National Forest Commission of seven members tours forests in the West for three months, and recommends adding 13 additional National Forests to federal holdings. The commission's report identifies fire and sheep as the chief destroyers of forests. President Cleveland proclaims the recommended forests, despite an outcry from Congress.

1897

William McKinley is inaugurated as the twenty-fifth President of the United States.

A national monetary conference meets in Indianapolis, Indiana, and endorses the existing (unofficial) gold standard.

News of the gold strike on the Klondike River reaches the U.S. and sets off the "Klondike Stampede."

A modern subway system is completed in Boston, Massachusetts.

The Forest Management Act, an anti-conservation measure signed by President McKinley, turns the 13 National Forests proclaimed by President Cleveland back to open public land.

1898

The battleship U.S.S. Maine is blown up in Havana Harbor in Cuba, with a loss of 260 American sailors. The battleship had arrived to protect American residents and property during the Cuban Revolution against Spain.

President McKinley asks for a Congressional resolution authorizing the use of the U.S. Army and Navy to force Spain to leave Cuba.

McKinley recognizes Cuban independence on April 11.

Spain declares war on the U.S. on April 25.

In the "splendid little war" with Spain, the United States acquires Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippine Islands, the start of a colonial empire abroad. Many of the policies of the frontier, particularly those applied to American Indian people, are used in U.S. relations with the inhabitants of these newly-acquired areas.

1899

Congress authorizes an Isthmian Canal Commission to study plans for building an interocean canal in Central America.

The U.S. attends a disarmament and arbitration conference with twenty-five other nations at the Hague at the invitation of Czar Nicholas II. A permanent Court of Arbitration is established. The U.S. insists upon its right to uphold the Monroe Doctrine when disputes involve the Western Hemisphere.

Mount Rainier is established as a National Park.

John Dewey, an educator, revolutionizes American education with the publication of The School and Society.

Scott Joplin writes down one of his tunes, "Maple Leaf Rag," which becomes an immediate popular success and introduces the vogue for "ragtime" music among white musicians and listeners throughout the U.S..

1900

Germany, Russia, Britain, France, Italy, and Japan accept the U.S. "open door" policy in China, assuring commercial equality for all powers in the Chinese trade.

With encouragement of the Dowager Empress, the "Boxer Rebellion" begins in China, a revolt against foreign intrusions in the internal affairs of China. Peking is occupied, while foreign missionaries, thousands of Chinese Christians, and the German minister to China are killed.

An international military expedition, including U.S. troops, occupies Peking, loots the city, rescues missionaries, and disperses the remnants of the "Boxers."

Orville and Wilbur Wright fly their first full-scale glider at Kitty Hawk, N.C. Its "wing-warping" technique is the first successful device built for lateral control of flight.

Twelfth census: U.S. population - 75,995,000. New York is the largest U.S. city, with a population of 3,437,000. Life expectancy is forty-eight years for males, fifty-one years for females. Immigration to the U.S. since 1820 has numbered 17,286,000 from Europe, 370,000 from Asia, 1,219,000 from Canada and Latin America, and 249,000 from all other places.