Time Line

On the way to Old Sierra Historical Ranch, understand what was happening in the early 1850's so students have a feel for the setting of 1854 when they arrive.  This time line will give you an idea what to discuss and what the students can expect.

1846

• Sewing machine patented by Howe.  Five years later Singer patented a more efficient machine.  Howe sued but lost.
• The Smithsonian was founded

1847

• The Potato Famine in Ireland reach its peak.  105,000 Irish immigrated to the United States

1848

• Gold was discovered in California.
• First women's rights convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York, led by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stantton.
• Chewing gum was invented.

1849

• The gold rush was on in California.
• The safety pin was invented by Walter Hunt.

1850

• California becomes the 31st date  as part of the Compromise of 1850.  This compromise allowed California to enter the union as a "free state" and the territories to decide by popular vote whether to be free or slave.
• The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne was published.
• President Zachary Taylor died and Millard Fillmore was sworn in as the 13th president of the United States.

1851

• Gold Rush in Australia.
• Moby Dick by Herman Melville was published.
• The 1st YMCA was organized in Boston (right after one was started in Montreal).
• Social reformer Amelia Bloomer invented bloomers.  She also wrote about suffrage and the unjust marriage laws.
• Jean Bernard Foucault demonstrated the earth's rotation with his pendulum.  He could mathematically predict the speed of the earth's rotation.
• Elizabeth Blackwell campaigned for women's rights in a letter to Baroness Byron.

1852

• Elisha Otis invented an elevator that was safe by using a system of ratchets and teeth.  If the rope broke the elevator would not fall.  This made taller buildings possible.
• Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe was published first in a newspaper in installments, then as a novel, and finally as a play.  
• The population in the United States was 23 million.

1853

• Franklin Pierce was elected as the 14th President of the United States.  He was a democrat and won over Winfield Scott.  He was the first president to be born in the 19th century.
• Levi Strauss made and sold his canvas pants.
• The New York - Chicago railroad was completed.
• Potato Chips were invented.  When a customer complained that his fried potatoes were too thick, George Crum, a native American cook in Saratoga Springs, New York, deep fried a batch of super thinly sliced potatoes. (Thomas Jefferson had introduced french-fries 50 years earlier at the White House.)

1854

• The Kansas - Nebraska Act was passed.  It allowed both territories to decide by popular vote whether to be slave or free.  Pro and anti-slavery factions participated in riots and violence leading to the name "bleeding Kansas".
• The Republican Party was founded in Ripon, Wisconsin.  Abolitionists unhappy about the Kansas - Nebraska Act, helped form the party which was a coalition of Whigs, Free soldiers, and anti-slavery Democrats.  This party elected Lincoln in 1860.
• The clipper ship "Lightening" set the all time speed record for a single day's sail - it covered 436 nautical miles in 24 hours.