topic Re: The year was 1904... in Community Chat

The year was 1904...

Cecily Gerard — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 04:17:14 GMT

The average life expectancy in the U.S. was 47 years.

Only 14 percent of the homes in the U.S. had a bathtub.

Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.

A three-minute call from Denver to New York City cost eleven dollars.

There were only 8,000 cars in the U.S., 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 21st 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 $2,500 per year,

a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and

a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.

More than 95 percent of all births in the U.S. 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 was 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.

The five leading causes of death in the U.S were:

1. Pneumonia and influenza

2. Tuberculosis

3. Diarrhea

4. Heart disease

5. Stroke

The American flag had 45 stars.

Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska hadn't been
admitted to the Union yet.

The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was 30.

Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn't been invented.

There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.

Two of 10 U.S. adults couldn't read or write.

Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated high school.

Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at
corner drugstores.

According to one pharmacist, "Heroin clears the complexion, gives
buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect
guardian of health."

Eighteen percent of households in the U.S had at least one full-time
servant or domestic.

There were only about 230 reported murders in the entire U.S.

Re: The year was 1904...

ShowMe — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 04:24:24 GMT

Found this very interesting, as my father was born on January 10, 1904 in Jerseyville, Il. My grandfather was an ordained minister and had a small church there. My father was the first of 6 children. He was fortunate enough to have been able to go to Elmhurst College in Illinois, and then to Eden Seminary in Webster Groves, MO (in St. Louis County).

1904 was also the year of the World's Fair in St. Louis at Forest Park.....Remember my grandmother telling us the story of when my dad was only about 6 mos. old, they took him to the Fair and strolled him around in his buggy.

Re: The year was 1904...

LucyGoose — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 04:26:08 GMT

Very interesting.

Re: The year was 1904...

EmmaBunting — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 04:36:14 GMT

Eggs have really come down in relative price....

Re: The year was 1904...

rondell — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 04:46:00 GMT

Interesting how things have changed.

ShowMe, I enjoyed your story. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Re: The year was 1904...

ShowMe — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 04:46:17 GMT

On 1/27/2014 EmmaBunting said:
Eggs have really come down in relative price....

Emma......that's a lot of history isn't it.

One thing I am curious of is how did the OP pick 1904 to start a thread about......

Hopefully she will tell us.

Re: The year was 1904...

ShowMe — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 04:50:06 GMT

On 1/27/2014 rondell said:
Interesting how things have changed.

ShowMe, I enjoyed your story. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Why thank you rondell.......I could tell you so many stories from those early years in the 1900's......we used to sit around the table and listen to our aunts and uncles tell us the stories. And oh, let me tell you, my father could tell some stories from when he went to Eden Seminary. Some of those seminarians were stinkers.... They weren't any different back then than they are today......loved to pull pranks on other students.....and the professors.

Hard to believe what the wages were, the cost of food, etc. back then. But to them everything was as expensive to them then as things are to us today.

Re: The year was 1904...

rondell — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 04:54:39 GMT

Yes, ShowMe, times back then seemed simpler, but those folks had their day to day problems getting by in this world, just like today.

I always enjoyed listening to the old folks when I was growing up. The things they endured were so interesting to me.

Re: The year was 1904...

Heiress-inFL — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 05:04:48 GMT

On 1/27/2014 rondell said:
Yes, ShowMe, times back then seemed simpler, but those folks had their day to day problems getting by in this world, just like today.

I always enjoyed listening to the old folks when I was growing up. The things they endured were so interesting to me.

ITA rondell My grandparents have shared many stories of their growing up in the harsh winters of snow, ice, sometimes walking for miles to get to work or school. Much, much worse than what we're experiencing in today's modern times. And they didn't whine about it either. It was what it was and they just dealt with it. And of course, it's a generational attitude (I believe) about life as well.

-HIF

Re: The year was 1904...

Qwackertoo — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 05:20:35 GMT

On 1/27/2014 Heiress-inFL said:
On 1/27/2014 rondell said:
Yes, ShowMe, times back then seemed simpler, but those folks had their day to day problems getting by in this world, just like today.

I always enjoyed listening to the old folks when I was growing up. The things they endured were so interesting to me.

ITA rondell My grandparents have shared many stories of their growing up in the harsh winters of snow, ice, sometimes walking for miles to get to work or school. Much, much worse than what we're experiencing in today's modern times. And they didn't whine about it either. It was what it was and they just dealt with it. And of course, it's a generational attitude (I believe) about life as well.

-HIF

I too loved listening to the stories by my grandparents and great-grandmother too. They had it pretty tough, the Depression years, pretty much orphaned as teenagers . . .

I hope some of it is written down among all my Mother's binders and binders of genealogy . . . she has it all organized by family, maternal & paternal and each and every page in a sheet protector. I know she has many hand-written letters and such that are very old that have some personal details within. Some you can tell were written with old fountain type pens.

Re: The year was 1904...

brownie917 — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 05:36:08 GMT

The top three causes of death would ravage people in short order. --1. Pneumonia and influenza, 2. Tuberculosis, 3. Diarrhea

Re: The year was 1904...

jubilant — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 13:50:53 GMT

I just read this to my husband. We both thought it was interesting. Thanks for the post!

Re: The year was 1904...

just bee — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 14:34:34 GMT

My father was born in 1906 -- of course he died in 1970 -- but I always think about what it must have been like for him.

Re: The year was 1904...

MaggieToo — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 14:49:49 GMT

Very interesting article. Thanks for posting it.

My mother was born in March of 1904 in Georgia, and was a twin. Her brother was around 1 when he passed away. Not sure exactly of what.

My dad, who was born in 1900, finished high school and went to work for the RR. I think that was the only job he ever had. He was an auditor.

Re: The year was 1904...

Linders Back — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 16:52:14 GMT

1904 was the year my Father's Mother ran away and left him @ age 5 to be raised by his Grandmother and father. His father never remarried (took him over 10 years to track down my Grandmother to file for divorce.) I have all his weekly ledger books and to see what he earned and paid out is enlightening. ($1.10 to his Mother to buy groceries and 25¢ for the "baby" for shoes )

They lived in a multi-family house in Maine and had no indoor plumbing: barn had 6 different "stalls", one for each family! can't imagine heading out there in a cold New England winter.

When he was in HS and on the track team, they used to ice skate down the river to the next town for meets and then skate home after. Senior year, they took a class trip to DC and it was the first time he had been more than 50 miles away from home. They took a train to Portland, a boat from there to Boston, then another train to Washington.

He worked for the town doctor as a gofer in HS and the doctor paid to send him to Medical School. When he was a senior there, his ROTC unit was sent to Virginia to prepare to be sent to France in WWI. War ended before his basic did.

My Mother's Grandmother pulled the same stunt and ran away (from home in NH) at about the same time leaving her my Grandmother and Aunt to be raised alone by their Dad. He stuck them in an Orphanage and joined the NAVY and sailed around the world with The Great White Fleet in 1907. HE did reunite with them later after a vagabond life that included playing in a band on a Mississippi riverboat in the 1920's, but they never knew what happened to their Mother.

Interestingly, (for me anyway) is that after doing genealogy research, I found both my Dad's Mother and my Mother's Grandmother living in Boston within a few miles of each other in the 1920's Census.

Thanks for stirring up these old memories. The times sure were different then.

Re: The year was 1904...

ShowMe — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 17:14:46 GMT

On 1/28/2014 Linders Back said:
1904 was the year my Father's Mother ran away and left him @ age 5 to be raised by his Grandmother and father. His father never remarried (took him over 10 years to track down my Grandmother to file for divorce.) I have all his weekly ledger books and to see what he earned and paid out is enlightening. ($1.10 to his Mother to buy groceries and 25¢ for the "baby" for shoes )

They lived in a multi-family house in Maine and had no indoor plumbing: barn had 6 different "stalls", one for each family! can't imagine heading out there in a cold New England winter.

When he was in HS and on the track team, they used to ice skate down the river to the next town for meets and then skate home after. Senior year, they took a class trip to DC and it was the first time he had been more than 50 miles away from home. They took a train to Portland, a boat from there to Boston, then another train to Washington.

He worked for the town doctor as a gofer in HS and the doctor paid to send him to Medical School. When he was a senior there, his ROTC unit was sent to Virginia to prepare to be sent to France in WWI. War ended before his basic did.

My Mother's Grandmother pulled the same stunt and ran away (from home in NH) at about the same time leaving her my Grandmother and Aunt to be raised alone by their Dad. He stuck them in an Orphanage and joined the NAVY and sailed around the world with The Great White Fleet in 1907. HE did reunite with them later after a vagabond life that included playing in a band on a Mississippi riverboat in the 1920's, but they never knew what happened to their Mother.

Interestingly, (for me anyway) is that after doing genealogy research, I found both my Dad's Mother and my Mother's Grandmother living in Boston within a few miles of each other in the 1920's Census.

Thanks for stirring up these old memories. The times sure were different then.

Wow Linders.....your post on here hit home with me. I was 5 when our mother walked off and left my sister and I with our father..... Oh how I remember that day..... We were fortunate enough that our father raised us, and sometimes with the help of Grandma, and aunts....... I finally got to meet my mother when I was about 18, but we never had a good mother/daughter relationship.

Re: The year was 1904...

RetRN — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 17:53:25 GMT

Thank you for posting, I found this to be very interesting. It is so easy to forget what those before us had to endure day to day.

Re: The year was 1904...

Cats3000 — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 18:12:59 GMT

And in NYC, the first subway (the Interborough Rapid Transit {now known as the "IRT") opened for business in October of that year. It ran from the City Hall Loop Station to 146th Street. It changed the face of NYC forever.