dia.com) In 1850, John Heath invented a binder to tie grains, further mechanizing U.S. agriculture. Approximately 2,133,000 bales of cotton were picked in the United States; nearly three times the amount from twenty years earlier. On September 9th, only two years after gold is discovered, California becomes the 31st state in the Union. On September 20th, Congress granted the first federal land to states for the construction between Chicago, Illinois, and Mobile, Alabama. In 1852, two railroad lines connected Chicago, Illinois, with eastern ports. In this year alone, $81 million worth of gold was mined in California. On December 30, 1853, the United States bought the Gadsden Purchase from Mexico. This stretch of land in southern Arizona and New Mexico completed the boundaries of the continental United States. By 1854, three hundred thousand people had arrived in California for the Gold Rush. The nation’s first commercial flour mill opened in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a city that would end up becoming become a major wheat-processing center. The Kansas-Nebraska Act commenced the white settlements of Kansas and Nebraska. It also helped push the country toward civil war over the issue of slavery in the territories, including Kansas. On August 3rd, the Graduation Act was passed to reduce the price of federal land. The price per acre varied from 12.5 cents to $1.25, depending on the length of time it had been on the market. On December 30th, George Bissell and Jonathan Eveleth created the nation’s first oil corporation, called the “Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company.” In 1855, Chicago, Illinois, surpassed St. Louis, Missouri, as the center for the Western grain trade. David Christy published his book “Cotton is King,” coining the phrase “Cotton is King” for the South. In 1856, the Illinois Central Railroad between Chicago and Cairo, Illinois, was completed; it received more than...
