Gravie sent me these factoids. I believe many of them are true, but some (perhaps most) may be false. Can we all work together to determine which are which?
100 Years Ago. . . -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
. . . It May Be Hard to Believe
The average life expectancy in the United States was 47.
Only 14 percent of the homes in the United States had a bathtub.
Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone. A three minute call from Denver to New York City cost $11.
There were only 8,000 cars in the US and only 144 miles of paved roads.
The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California. With a mere 1.4 million residents, California was only the twenty-first most populous state in the Union.
The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower.
The average wage in the U.S. was 22 cents an hour. The average U.S. worker made between $200 and $400 per year.
A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist $2500 per year, a veterinarian between $1500 and $4000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5000 per year.
More than 95 percent of all births in the United States took place at home.
Ninety percent of all U.S. physicians had no college education. Instead, they attended medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and by the government as "substandard."
Sugar cost four cents a pound. Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen. Coffee cost fifteen cents a pound.
Most women only washed their hair once a month and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
Canada passed a law prohibiting poor people from entering the country for any reason, either as travelers or immigrants.
The five leading causes of death in the U.S. were:
Pneumonia and Influenza,
Tuberculosis,
Diarrhea,
Heart disease,
Stroke.
The American flag had 45 stars. Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii and Alaska hadn't been admitted to the Union yet.
Drive-by-shootings -- in which teenage boys galloped down the street on horses and started randomly shooting at houses, carriages, or anything else that caught their fancy were an ongoing problem in Denver and other cities in the West.
The population of Las Vegas, Nevada was thirty. The remote desert community was inhabited by only a handful of ranchers and their families.
Plutonium, insulin, and antibiotics hadn't been discovered yet. Scotch tape, crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn't been invented.
There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.
One in 10 U.S. adults couldn't read or write. Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.
Coca-Cola contained cocaine instead of caffeine.
Punch card data processing had recently been developed, and early predecessors of the modern computer were used for the first time by the government to help compile the 1900 census.
Eighteen percent of households in the United States had at least one full-time servant or domestic.
There were about 230 reported murders in the U.S. annually.
Have fun!
------------------ "The difference between involved and committed? Look at a plate of ham and eggs. The chicken is involved. The pig is committed." -- Me http://www.geocities.com/cyrano_jones.geo/
quote:Canada passed a law prohibiting poor people from entering the country for any reason, either as travelers or immigrants.
This would be around 1900, right. I doubt this, simply because it's too close to 1864, when the Dominion was founded, and logically, and considering they've never once said this in any of my history classes, Canada would've welcomed, and encouraged immigrants to bolster the newfound country.
I do know we had a 'no Jews are too many' policy a long time ago, but I'm pretty sure we let everyone else in. (My Great-Grandma immigrated from Hungary in 1902. She was dirt poor)
------------------ "Hello and welcome to 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?' The show where everything's made up and the points don't matter - just like a condom to a Trekkie." - Drew Carey, Whose Line Is It Anyway?
posted
"The American flag had 45 stars. Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii and Alaska hadn't been admitted to the Union yet."
I have to check on this but I am pretty sure that New Mexico and Arizona where already states, Oklahoma became a state in errr, 1897 (I think). However Hawaii and Alaska didn't become states until 1947 (I believe).
"Coca-Cola contained cocaine instead of caffeine."
True in fact cocaine wasn't illegal until the 1920's (I believe in the Drugs and Narcotics Act that made it illegal). Even Sherlock Holmes used Opium and Cocaine (you ever wondered why he never slept ).
"Punch card data processing had recently been developed, and early predecessors of the modern computer were used for the first time by the government to help compile the 1900 census."
False the first major use of Punch card processing was in the construction of the Great Western (in 1868 I think).
"The average wage in the U.S. was 22 cents an hour. The average U.S. worker made between $200 and $400 per year."
Maybe in 1918 however I bet it was lower in 1900, for example when Henry Ford started the 5 dollar day (because he had extremely high turn over, don't think he did it because he loved his employees) the average wage was 2.22 a day(I think I could be wrong). Assuming they worked between 12 and 16 hour days they average wage would be a about between .185 an hour and .13875 an hour and that was 20 years later.
I check these as best I can when I get home.
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If you were linked here from an external site, which is most often the case, it would be nice of you to let them know.
[This message has been edited by HMS White Star (edited May 11, 2000).]
Anyway, Alaska and Hawaii became states in separate years. Something like '58 and '59, I think. New Mexico and Arizona were the two before them. Oklahoma came even before those two.
And didn't Sherlock Holmes take morphine? Maybe those other two, also, I don't know, but I was pretty sure about morphine...
------------------ "The search and the arrest provided several hours of entertainment in the neighborhood." -"Worm Suspect Arrested", Wired News
quote:There were about 230 reported murders in the U.S. annually.
Incorrect.
Homicide Arrests for 1900 by city
San Francisco, California: 86 Washington, D.C.: 18 Chicago, Illinois: 28 New Orleans, Louisiana: 61 Boston, Massachusetts: 33 Detroit, Michigan: 5 New York, New York: 429 (NA for 1900, number for 1901) Newark, New Jersey: 17 Cincinnati, Ohio: 30 Cleveland, Ohio: 22 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: 63
And according to the "Violence and Crime in Cross-National Perspective, 1900-1972" (alvailable at the NACJD) there were 1596 homicides in the United States in 1900.
------------------ Yes, that's to correct your posture. Soon you'll have a mighty hump! Now...you really are my son. This calls for a celebration: let's fire some employees. ~C. Montgomery Burns
posted
Hmm.. I may have the beginnings of a dissertation here...
1596 people were murdered in the US in 1900
in 1900, the US population was 76,212,168.
16,910 people were murdered (negligent homicide included) in the US in 1998.
in 1998, the US population was 270,296,000.
so the murder rate has risen from 1 in 47,800 to 1 in 16,000, despite our new, 'safe' society.
Hmm.
(I say 'Hmm' to let the reader draw his own conclusions without taking it to the flameboard.)
Incidentally, if anybody wants to know, Canada, with a population of 31,006,347 in 1998 had 555 homicides or 1 in 55,867. Without taking further factors into account, one can assume that a Canada with a population equivalent to the US in 1900 would expect around 1359 homicides a year. Pretty close to the same, huh?
(info courtesy World Almanac 2000, and Statistics Canada)
------------------ "Nobody knows this, but I'm scared all the time... of what I might do, if I ever let go." -- Michael Garibaldi
quote:The population of Las Vegas, Nevada was thirty. The remote desert community was inhabited by only a handful of ranchers and their families.
True.
From a brief history of Los Vegas found here we get the following.
quote:By 1900, the Las Vegas Valley had only thirty residents. In December 1902, the San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad purchased the Las Vegas Ranch (by then a fenced 1880 to 2000 acre spread) from widow Helen J. Stewart. It then began expansion of the railroad line from the Uvada, Utah, railhead and reached a point a half mile west of the Las Vegas Ranch on October 20, 1904. A tent settlement called Las Vegas had sprung up at that location that summer to support both the railroad graders and freighters heading for the newly discovered Bullfrog mining district 120 miles northwest. Although the graders moved on, the tent town continued to grow because of the Immense Bullfrog freight traffic. On January 30, 1905, the railroad was completed to California, although regular through service did not start until May. Also in January, the tent settlement contained 150 buildings completed and under construction, all on the west side of the tracks on the property of engineering/surveyor J. T. McWilliams. McWilliams sold lots and touted his townsite as the official Las Vegas site. Its southern boundary was what is now West Bonanza Road. By April Las Vegas had 1500 people living in the McWilliams townsite and along Las Vegas Creek. However, in March the railroad laid out its own townsite east of the tracks with its boundaries at Stewart, Main, Graces, and Fifth Streets, and the property was auctioned and sold on May 15-16, 1905. McWilliams� townsite quickly declined and the railroad townsite became Las Vegas. On September 5, 1905, a fire destroyed almost everything that was left in McWllllams' townsite. This area later became known as the Westside and finally West Las Vegas.
Here are some more detailed county records for Lincoln and Clark counties.
Lincoln County in 1900 - 3,284. This from Ancestry.com
On July 1, 1909, Lincoln County was split into two separate counties using the Third Standard Parallel as the division point creating Clark County. Las Vegas was named the County Seat.
1900 Census Although Clark County was not created until 1909, data is available for Lincoln County by precinct. These precincts which are now in Clark County were used to produce these figures. At that time, Bunkerville was the largest community in what is now Clark County.
Mesquite and Las Vegas were unincorporated, but they were distinct communities and census data is available for both. (Mesquite was founded in 1894 and incorporated in 1984, while Las Vegas was incorporated in 1911.)
------------------ Yes, that's to correct your posture. Soon you'll have a mighty hump! Now...you really are my son. This calls for a celebration: let's fire some employees. ~C. Montgomery Burns
quote:Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.
True
"Back in 1900, for instance, only 6 percent of 17-year-olds graduated from high school. By 1940, 25 percent of people age 25 and over had at least a high school diploma."
"In 1900, about 1 in 10 (11 percent) of all 14- to 17-year-olds were enrolled in high school; in 1997, more than 9 in 10 (93 percent) were in grades 9-12."
From the Census Bureau On the Census Bureau Facts for Features: A Century of Change: America, 1900-1999 page.
A bit more data on education:
Total enrollment: 17,072,000 K-8: 16,422,000 9-12: 650,000
High School graduates: 95,000 As percent of population of 14-17 years olds: 6.4
------------------ Yes, that's to correct your posture. Soon you'll have a mighty hump! Now...you really are my son. This calls for a celebration: let's fire some employees. ~C. Montgomery Burns
------------------ Yes, that's to correct your posture. Soon you'll have a mighty hump! Now...you really are my son. This calls for a celebration: let's fire some employees. ~C. Montgomery Burns
"Human beings have lived in the area now known as the Silver State for at least 20 millennia. During that time they have painted on cave walls, herded cattle, toiled in mines, worked as prostitutes and blackjack dealers, tested atomic weapons, and worn elaborate, glamourous costumes in some of the most stunning musical productions ever staged."
------------------ "Oh, it's an anti-anti-WTO song. It's essentially a pro-Starbucks song. I saw this picture of a guy sticking his foot through a plate-glass window in a Starbucks in Seattle, and he was wearing a Nike. Man, couldn't you just change your shoes?" -- M. Doughty
posted
Oddly enough, I was looking for something in my closet today, and I happened to open an old notebook of mine. It fell straight to a page that had a note about punchcards (this was from an intro to computers class I had to take), and it said they were used to tabulate the 1890 census. So, while they may very well have been used on the 1900, it wasn't the first time...
------------------ "The search and the arrest provided several hours of entertainment in the neighborhood." -"Worm Suspect Arrested", Wired News
quote:Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.
Incorrect.
The number is actually much lower than that.
Kathleen Guinee writes in chapter 3 of "A Journey Through the History of Information Technology."
quote:By 1900, there were already one million phones in use in the United States.
Her source is Trevor I. Williams Science: A History of Discovery in the Twentieth Century. New York: Oxford UP, 1990
The population of the Unites States according to the Historical National Population Estimates at the Census Bureau for July 1, 1900 to July 1, 1999 lists the population as:
July 1, 1900: 76,094,000
Or 1.3% of population in 1900 had phones.
However, Tom Farley, writes that
quote:By 1903 independent telephones numbered 2,000,000 while Bell managed 1,278,000. Bell's reputation for high prices and poor service continued. As bankers got hold of the company, the Bell System faltered.
He gives no source for the information. However, the rest of his article is well written and can be found at private linemagazine: a journal of inquiry into the telephone system.
And again according to the Census Bureau for July 1, 1900 to July 1, 1999 lists the population as:
July 1, 1903: 80,632,000
Or 2.5% of the population in 1903 had phones.
I have yet to find any real data on the cost of phone calls for 1900.
~~~~
Once again, your historian at large putting his degree to use for the public good.
------------------ Oh, goody, the Sea Monkeys I ordered have arrived. Heh heh heh, look at them cavort and caper. ~C. Montgomery Burns
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