DISCOVERING AMERICA'S PAST

In the East

Many typical family situations existed in the 1880's. By the end of the decade, a third of the country's polulation
was urban. Both recent immigrants - nearly 800,000 in 1882 alone - and the rural poor flocked to the cities
where factory work promised a living,if not much of a life. Whole families labored for long hours and even
then could afford nothing better to live in than crowded tenements. For them lawn tennis and lakeside picnics
were unthinkable luxuries.

In the West

At the same time, other families lived the way Americans did a century earler. Much of the West remained sparsely
populated and settlers who could not reach their western destinations by rail in the 1880's still transported their
household goods by wagon train. Making do in a log cabin or sod house, many such pioneering families had to
wait a .long time before experiencing any civilized comforts, a neighbor or a school near enough for their children
to attend.

Others

At the other extreme from the struggling poor were families living in unimaginable ease. Until a federal income tax was
instituted in 1913, those who established America's major new industries, such as railroads and steel, enjoyed
boundless wealth. They lived in mansions, entertained lavishly and married their daughters off to European nobility.
If not exactly typical, they were a breed of family unique to the era.

Constitution

Ammendments

Join me in a look back at the journey
Of Our Great Nation as we look at:
Family Life in early America
Fads and Fashions
Education
The Wild West
Business and Industy