To Be Born 100 Years Before

If I was born 100 years before my actual birth date:

California would have recently been admitted to the union. However, my family would most likely have been living east of the Mississippi river for another 10 or 20 years.

Franklin Pierce would be President (Inauguration 4 Mar 1853). He would be succeeded by James Buchanan (inauguration 4 Mar 1857).

There would be no phones. James Buchanan would use the new trans-Atlantic telegraph cable to exchange greetings with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom (16 Aug 1858).

Mail would take forever to arrive. However stamps would become such a good money maker that the price of a stamp would be lowered to a common value of 3 cents each during this time. The Civil War is on the horizon. When it arrives it puts the postal system into turmoil.

My father and older brother probably would have been inducted into the armies of the north or the south during the Civil War. Of the wounds recorded, 70% were to the limbs and were treated by amputation.

(Florence Nightingale)

My mother would have nursed our wounds and illnesses as well as help the neighbor women when they were about to give birth.

She would make bandages and our clothing, probably sewing all by hand. There were sewing machines available but the 1850's were a time of sewing machine patent wars.

Mother and my older sisters would have been cooking over an open fire, and raising our food, be it vegetable or animal, out behind the house.

What else would have been behind the house? …. the outhouse.

My sisters would have washed the dishes and our clothes in a wash tub, hauling water from the river, or should we be so fortunate, pumping it from the well in the yard.

Grandma and Grandpa would live with us when they got too old to continue to live in their home on the farm. Grandma would have taught me to spin wool, and possibly knit and weave. Grandpa would have told stories of his father’s service in the Revolutionary War.

I would have enjoyed going to school, like most kids, but only at times when my family didn’t need me to work on the farm. And instead of school or work opportunities when I became of age I probably would have been married by 1876.

I would have looked forward to being married and having a new family. I also would have looked forward to seeing a new century, when life would be a little easier. And life expectancy, for those who survived infancy, would finally be greater than 45 or 50 years of age. I guess its a good thing I was born 100 years later, I’ve already outlived the 1850’s life expectancy.

Thanks for listening ~