Last updated: May 4, 2022
Lesson Plan
Frontier Life in the Texas Hill Country
- Grade Level:
- Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade
- Subject:
- Social Studies
- Lesson Duration:
- 60 Minutes
- Common Core Standards:
- 4.SL.1, 4.SL.1.a, 4.SL.1.c, 4.SL.1.d, 4.SL.2, 4.SL.3, 4.SL.4
- State Standards:
- Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Social Studies: 4.D; 7.A-B; 8.A-C.
- Thinking Skills:
- Understanding: Understand the main idea of material heard, viewed, or read. Interpret or summarize the ideas in own words.
Essential Question
How did settlement of the Texas Hill Country affect different communities and the environment?
Objective
During this lesson plan students will analyze a video to understand the significance of Lyndon B. Johnson NHP and understand Texas frontier history. Finally, students will reflect on the overall impact of settlement in the Texas Hill Country. This lesson plan and activity is Part 1 of 3 of "Frontier Life in the Texas Hill Country" Education Program.
Background
This lesson plan serves as an introduction to the history of the Johnson Settlement and to President Lyndon B. Johnson’s family history in the Texas Hill Country.
For thousands of years, the natural environment of the Texas Hill Country has attacted humans to call this place home. Native American groups lived in Central Texas before European exploration and colonization. These early inhabitants hunted buffalo and moved with the seasons to find food. Spanish explorers traveled through this area as early as 1786. Over the next one hundred years, Hispanics, Anglo Americans, and other European families began to settle in the Hill Country.
President Johnson's ancestors settled in Johnson City in the late 1860s. Lyndon B. Johnson took great pride in his heritage and the land where he was born and nurtured. His grandparents were among those who settled, built, and worked the land of the Texas Hill Country in order to forge a future for themselves, their family, and their community.
The landscape that confronted them when they first settled here was very different from the one you see today. It was deceptively lush. It seemed as though grass adorned all the beautiful hills, fish filled the streams, and game browsed the hillsides. But all the wildlife survived despite little rainfall, and each year when the rains did come, the rivers flooded.
In the late 1850s, Samuel Ealy Johnson Sr., Lyndon's grandfather, settled with his brother Tom in a one-room log cabin on 320 acres. It later became headquarters for the largest cattle driving operation in seven counties. After serving in the Civil War, Sam married Eliza Bunton of Caldwell County. In 1867 the newlyweds set up housekeeping in the log cabin, which by now also had an east room and breezeway (dog-trot).
The following year, at an opportune time, the brothers began their partnership in a cattle driving business. During the Civil War, unattended cattle on the Texas range increased significantly. After the war ended, the northern markets demanded beef. Just as rain provided the right conditions for lush growth in the Hill Country, so did increasing cattle and human populations provide opportunities for ambitious young men.
Business was prosperous that first year, and an additional 640 acres were acquired to further expand operations. The settlement location was ideal with the valleys of the Pedernales and the Blanco Rivers providing good pasture and water. It served as a rendezvous to which individual owners delivered their herds to the Johnsons. Speculation was the key to success. Buying on credit in the spring, cattle drovers would return in the autumn with mules to sell and gold to pay for the herds they had driven north on the Chisholm Trail. A steer on the Texas range cost from six to ten dollars and was worth from thirty to forty dollars delivered at the Kansas railheads.
Lyndon B. Johnson grew up listening from his grandfather tell stories of the long cattle drives and the hardships of fronteir life. Soon after President Johnson retired from office, the National Park Service, with funds donated by the former President, purchased the Johnson Settlement area. Four of the original buildings were still standing. Besides the cabin, they included a barn and cooler house built by James Polk Johnson, Samuel Ealy Johnson's nephew and namesake of Johnson City.
Preparation
To prepare for this lesson, please review The Johnson Settlement website.
Materials
Use this worksheet to review and analyze "Frontier Life" video.
Download Video Analysis Worksheet
Lesson Hook/Preview
This lesson plan serves as an introduction to the frontier history of the Texas Hill Country and the Johnson Settlement. During this lesson, students will watch a video and answer questions to explore the impact of settlement in the Texas Hill Country. This lesson plan is ideal to prepare students for their virtual and/or in person visit to the park.
Procedure
#1. Show video "Frontier Life in the Texas Hill Country: An Introduction to the Johnson Settlement" video and ask students to take notes.
#2. After video, have students complete Video Analysis Worksheet.
Vocabulary
Cowboy: one who tends cattle or horses
Chuckwagon: a wagon carrying supplies and provisions for cooking (as on a ranch)
Cattle Drive: the process of moving a large herd of cattle from one location to another more distant location (example – from Texas to Kansas)
Frontier: a region that forms the margin of settled or developed territory
Native American: a member of any of the indigenous peoples of the western hemisphere
Assessment Materials
Reflection and DialogueStudents will reflect on lesson plan assignment and complete the following questions. Teacher may also ask students to draft follow up questions for their virtual and/or in person visit to the park.
Individually or as a group, students will answer:
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What is one idea that you have taken away from today’s lesson?