American History by Decade: The 1870s Quiz

Answer: Cleveland, Ohio

Standard Oil started as a manufacturer of lamp oil and kerosene and was eventually broken up in 1911 after a Supreme Court case declared it a monopoly. Mobil, Exxon, Amoco, and Chevron are just a few of the companies created by the break-up of Standard Oil. Standard Oil made John D. Rockefeller (in terms of percent of worldwide GDP owned) the richest person in the history of the world.

Answer: Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho

Yellowstone park is based on a huge supervolcano, the Yellowstone Caldera, that is responsible for its many famous geysers. Ferdinand Hayden explored the area of Yellowstone in 1871 and his report to Congress convinced them to turn the area into a national park.

Answer: Bribed politicians in exchange for laws favorable to Union Pacific

Congressman Oakes Ames was ordered by Abraham Lincoln to oversee the Union Pacific portion of the Transcontinental Railroad. Ames used his position to get Union Pacific construction contracts for his family construction firm which he then transferred to a new company he had created, Credit Mobilier.

He sold shares in his company well below market price to other members of Congress and to Schuyler Colfax (Grant's vice president) in exchange for favorable legislation. Grant's presidency has always been considered corrupt primarily as a result of this scandal.

Answer: Horace Greeley

Incumbent president Ulysses Grant, who wanted continued federal oversight of the South, was the Republican nominee in 1872, and easily won re-election. The Democrats joined with the Liberal Republicans in nominating Greeley, the editor of the "New York Tribune", who was to die less than a month after the election.

Answer: Thomas Nast

Nast was born in Germany and created our modern version of Santa Claus. Nast mocked Horace Greeley's 1872 presidential campaign mercilessly, and Mark Twain considered Nast's cartoons to be the cause of Grant's victory.

Answer: The U.S. wanted to push the Lakota and Cheyenne out of the Black Hills

The Battle of Little Bighorn was a battle in the Great Sioux War of 1876. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 had given the Black Hills to the Lakota and Cheyenne, however gold was discovered in the Black Hills in 1872 and non-Indian settlers poured into the area in violation of the treaty.

The U.S. tried to negotiate a new treaty, but when negotiations broke down, they decided to remove the Indians by force.

Answer: The federal government had to end Reconstruction in the South

Many of the Southern states which had rebelled during the Civil War had been under the military control of the federal government since the end of the war. In exchange for allowing all the Southern states to self-rule, the Democrats gave Republican Hayes the presidency. The election of 1876 ended the Reconstruction era in U.S History.

Answer: The Molly Maguires

The coal company hired a Pinkerton detective, James McParland, to infiltrate the Molly Maguires. Six of the Molly Maguires were hanged as a result of his testimony.

Answer: Chief Joseph

The Nez Perce had lived near the Columbia River in Oregon and Washington for more than 10,000 years. Although Chief Joseph initially agreed to go to a reservation, he eventually took his people on a thousand mile journey to seek refuge in Canada. The U.S. Army pursued him and eventually forced his surrender.

Answer: The Lincoln County War

Englishman John Tunstall challenged the economic and political control of Lincoln County, New Mexico by Irishman Lawrence Murphy, and eventually the competition became violent. The movies "The Left Handed Gun", "Chisum", "Young Guns", and "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" are all based on the Lincoln County War.