When the US was
established in 1789, the colonies had been developing a free market economy
since 1600. The investors wanted raw material and goods to export and the
colonists wanted land they were denied in Europe, freedom and self-reliance.
The economy was based on agriculture, fishing, hunting, milling, mining and
foresting with a support services in towns. The economy was dependent on family
businesses. The economic opportunities were hard to miss.
Children worked in the
family business as farm workers and apprentices. They were “paid” with room and
board and trained by their parents and older siblings. They were expected to be
competent and industrius. They were homeschooled church-goers.
This economy worked,
because parents worked to improve their businesses and raise their children to
be responsible, moral and productive. The goal was self-reliance and compliance
with biblical principles.
To address disasters
like fires, floods, Indian raids and deaths, neighbors who were able helped
each other voluntarily. They gathered as communities to fight Indians and bury
the dead. They cleared land to build roads to connect farms to markets. There
was no department of transportation in 1600.
They contributed their
time to build barns and turned it into a social event and had fun doing it.
Recipients of their generosity repaid them with gratitude. Wealthy neighbors
actually donated materials. Everybody brought food and musical instruments.
Charity was voluntary and abundant.
Farming communities
battled drought, storms, crop failures and disease. The most knowledgable
offered solutions to everyone freely. Families canned their produce in jars and
shared food with neighbors freely. The objective was to get the community
through whatever disasters befell them.
Governments were
distant, but handled land titles, court cases and sought new markets for
settlers’ goods.
In 1785, Congress
approved the Land Ordinance allowing settlers to purchase land in the unsettled
territories west of the 13 colonies. Land sold for $1 per acre or less.
In 1789, when the US
was established, government got all of its revenue from Tariffs, fees and land
sales. Government focused on expanding to territories to establish new States
from the East coast to the Mississippi River and beyond with the Louisiana
Purchase of 1803.
In the 1800s, the US
land mass tripled and the steam engine allowed for the creation of railroads to
replace wagons to send goods to new markets. Steam engines also allowed grain
mills to be established without water or wind power.
Bank loans required
collateral and farmers risked their land if they overborrowed. Banks raised
capital and made loans to the most promising industries like railroads, oil,
mining and steel and to develop refrigeration to preserve food and other tools
and devices where demand could be assumed to be high.
By the 1830s the steam
engine enabled investors to establish mechanized factories beginning to do mass
production. Immigrants were needed to work in factories and build
infrastructure. Water ports allowed large cities to develop to handle shipping
of goods. Life in the territories continued with agriculture and other
industries.
In 1850, Congress
approved 3.75 million acres of unsold land in the Western Territories to
develop a railroad system to connect the west coast and east coast. There were
millions of acres of unsold land in the western territories and sale prices
reached 12 cents per acre. The Oklahoma “land rush” offered 40 acres at no
cost. The telegraph had been deployed and railroads built.
In 1872, Congress
grabbed 3.500 square miles of State land from Wyoming, Montana and Idaho to
establish Yellowstone National Park without filing an amendment allowing the
federal government to own more land than they need to function. The citizens of
these States objected, but Courts ignored this.
Technology developed
rapidly from 1850 to 1900 and the inventions that began in the 1500s were
turned into useful devices in high demand. The Transcontinental Railroad was
completed in 1869 connecting Omaha NE with Sacramento CA and replacing the
covered wagon. This allowed settlers to travel across the US in days rather
than months.
If you have ever
watched “Little House on the Prairie” or “Ann of Green Gables” you will have an
accurate picture of life in the late 1800s.
My great grandmother,
Iola Lewis Couch, was born in the 1850s and died in the 1950s. She witnessed
the Civil War, the Industrial Revolution, the end of the Indian Wars, World War
I, World War II and the modern eara with all of its time and labor-saving
inventions. I visited her often with my grandfather and heard what it was like
to live back then. They owned and operated a successful family farm near St.
Louis Mo.
My grandfather, Leo B.
Couch MD was born in the 1880s and died in the 1960s. He saw the advent of
electricity, the automobile, airplane, telephone, radio, television, water
treatment, penicillin, air conditioning and all of our modern conveniences. He
grew up on the family farm and graduated from Barnes Medical College in St.
Louis in 1905.
Life on the farm
before 1920 was not mechanized. Plows were horse-drawn, planting, harvesting
and other chores were manual.
The cost of a gasoline
powered tractor in 1920 was $785 and had dropped to $395 in 1922. Sales went from 1000 units a year to 200,000
units a year. Farming was mechanizing.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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