Population of the United States in 1850: 23,191,876 Center of population: 23 miles southeast of Parkersburg, western Virginia
Population of the United States in 1890: 62,947,714 Center of population: 20 miles east of Columbus, Indiana
Population of western states and territories in 1850 (including present-day Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, and Utah): 179,000
Population of western states and territories in 1890: 3,134,000
Land area of the United States and its territories in square miles, 1840: 1,753,588 1860: 2,973,965
Miles of railroad 1840: 2,808 1890: 163,597
Timeline
1833 Four Flathead and Nez Percé Indians journey to St. Louis to inquire about Christian missionaries
1836 Missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman arrive in Walla Walla River valley, Washington
1837 Cherokees forcibly removed from Georgia to Oklahoma by U. S. government
1841 Migration begins along the Oregon Trail
1846 Mexican-American War begins; the first stage coach line west of the Missouri, Oregon’s “Telegraph Line,” established
1847 Mormons begin trek to Salt Lake City
1847 Cayuse Indians massacre the Whitmans and 12 others
1848 Gold discovered at Sutter’s Mill in California
1856 Methodist bishop William Taylor publishes Seven Years’ Street Preaching in San Francisco
1857 Dred Scott Decision prohibits banning of slavery in U. S. territories
1861 Civil War begins; completion of the first transcontintal telegraph makes the Pony Express obselete
1862 Homestead Act offers 160 acres of land to anyone who will live on it for five years
1866 Episcopalian Daniel Tuttle named missionary bishop of Montana
1867 U. S. purchases Alaska
1869 First transcontinental railroad completed when east and west meet in Promontory Point, Utah
1871 Indian Appropriation Act makes tribes subject to federal law
1872 Itinerant preacher “Brother Van” (William Wesley Van Orsdel) arrives in Montana
1873 Jesse James robs his first train
1878 Taylor F. Ealy and his wife, Mary, attempt to conduct school and organize a church in the midst of the Lincoln County (N. M.) War
1881 Earps and McLaurys shoot it out near the O. K. Corral
1882 Endicott Peabody arrives to minister in Tombstone, Arizona
1883 Buffalo Bill Cody opens his Wild West show
1885 Sheldon Jackson named general agent of education in Alaska
1889 Oklahoma land rush begins
1890 Mormon “Manifesto” officially ends polygamy
1890 Army chaplain William D. Bloys starts camp meetings outside Fort Davis, Texas
1895 Federal Council of Churches in America founded
1896 Klondike gold strike attracts nearly 100,000 miners to Alaska
1897 Congregational minister Charles Sheldon publishes In His Steps
1900 Western temperance crusader Carry Nation begins attacks on Kansas saloons
1905 Sheldon Jackson investigated for mismanagement of Alaska’s schools and reindeer program
1906 Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles, led by William Seymour, sparks worldwide Pentecostalism
1909 Henry Ford manufactures the Model T
Copyright © 2000 by the author or Christianity Today/Christian History magazine. Click here for reprint information on Christian History.
