I will be sharing with any reader of this blog some of the sources I utilized in my research. I own a small pocket sized booklet.

The Nancy Hendrickson’s book was published by Family Tree Books. They also publish a magazine that I can highly recommend: Family Tree. It is published and mailed out six time per year. Family Tree is also available in a digital edition.

Hendrickson’s book is divided up into six chapters: Chapter 1: Colonial American to 1763; Chapter 2 Revolutionary American 1763 to 1783; Chapter 3: An Expanding Nation 1783 to 1830; Chapter 4: Growth, War & Reconstruction 1830 – 1870; Chapter 5: Industrial Revolution 1870 to 1933; and Chapter 5: New Deal and World War II 1933 to 1945.

Each chapter contains historical information, maps, timelines, recipes, and other misc. information within the chapter time frame. I concentrated on Chapter 5 titled Industrial Revolution 1870 to 1933. This Chapter provided me with a capsule overview of the time period I am primarily focusing upon with this blog for my family history research.

The Daleiden and Schicks family lived through some facinating times. Many events took place while the family was living during the 1870 to 1933 time period. Here are some amazing facts I gleamed from this book:

• The era began in 1870, the majority of Americans were still working on farms; by 1910 (the year my grandfather was born (Frank Schlick), the workforce had shifted to industry. This era is termed the “Second Industrial Revolution“. I remember my grandmother telling me that Frank was thinking of moving to Gary Indiana to work in the steel mills rather than being a farmer. However, per my grandmother Frank did not want to move far away from his family. He picked farming and working in the outdoors as his live long work and profession.
• There was a population shift from rural to urban. A massive number of people were moving from the farm to city.
• At the turn of the century, new territories were opening to settlement, new states joined the Union. Skyscrapers, like the Empire State Building towered over cities.
• The great Chicago Fire occurred in 1871. Hundreds of people died and thousands were left homeless. The light from the fire could be seen in the western suburbs in DuPage County.
• Montgomery Ward and Sears Roebuck and Co. were founded. Sears was known for it catalogs. The catalogs filled the R.F.D. mail boxes of many farm families. One could order just about anything from Sears: clothing, furniture, books, tools and one could even mail order your home. My grandfather also remembers that once the catalogs had expired they were used in outhouses as toilet paper.
• There were several fairs or expositions held in the U.S. during this time period: the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Convention, the 1893 Worlds Columbian Exposition (held in Chicago), and the 1932/33 Chicago World’s Fair. I am uncertain if any of my relatives traveled to the 1876 or the 1893 fairs. I do know for a fact that my father was only four weeks old when he attended the 1933 World’s Fair in his mother’s arms. My Grandmother Florence Davis saved the ticket stub:
  

Other information and facts:

Inventions of the era 1870 to 1933:

• Steam shovel
• Mason jar
• Grain elevator
• Postcards
• Combine harvester
• Morse code
• Vulcanized rubber
• Barbed wire
• Lever-action repeating rifle
• Cloths pins

As we read and scan the list of inventions one can tell this a transformative era for agriculture and farming in America. Many of the inventions such as the combine harvester were laboring saving machines. Fewer farm people were needed to tend to the farm due to the inventions.

Diseases in America 1870 to 1933:

Diseases, illnesses, and infections may have interrupted the lives of many of our relatives. Thinking about our current COVID 19 pandemic we can only wonder how some of our relatives coped through the following outbreaks with few medical advancements:

• Cholera – 1832; 1840s – 1850s
• Smallpox/Typhus – 1837
• Yellow Fever 1841, 1847, 1852 and 1855
• Yellow Fever and Influenza – 1850
• Smallpox – 1860-1862
• Typoid, Yellow Fever, Scarlet Fever & Cholera – 1865-1873
• Spanish Few Pandemic 1918

German Immigration 1841 to 1890

Our Daleiden and Schlick family German immigrants came into the country through Castle Island. Between the years 1855 and 1890 most immigrants entering the port of New York came through Castle Garden, the U.S. first immigrant receiving center and the forerunner of Ellis Island. Castle Garden was located at the tip of Manhattan Island, near Battery Park. The Garden witnessed more than 8 million immigrants during its thirty-five when it was operating.

Hendrickson, in her book records the following statistics regarding German immigration time periods and the number of people immigrating:

1841 -1850 – 434,626

1851 – 1860 – 951,667*

1861 – 1870 – 787,468

The one time period in Bold* (1851 – 1860) was the time frame when both our Schlick (1852) and our Daleiden (1856) relatives immigrated to America. This was considered the highest period of German immigration to America.