My Grandparents, Great-Grandparents, and Great-Great-Grandparents World, 1800 to 1900

    In 1800, transportation and communication were no better than they had been in the Roman Empire, and in most places, they were probably worse.
    Robert Fulton’s "Clermont" provided the first regularly scheduled steamship service in the United States (up and down the Hudson River) in 1807. Scoffers may have called it "Fulton’s Folly" but by 1811, the first steamboat commissioned to ply the Mississippi had reached New Orleans. By 1819, the steam-and-sail-powered USS Savannah had crossed the Atlantic, although it wasn’t until 1838 that the first steamships crossed solely under steam power. (In 1840, Robert Cunard would found the Cunard Steamship Lines.) Today, it’s perhaps hard to realize how difficult it must have been to take a large boat up a river before the advent of the steamship. Sails don’t work well on inland waterways and towpaths wouldn’t have been very practical on large rivers. Canals were the preferred mode of land-locked water travel
    It was 23 years after the "Clermont" before steam-powered trains first appeared in the United States. The first commercially successful railroad made its debut during December, 1830 in Charleston, South Carolina. By 1835, there were 1,085 miles of railroad in the U.S., linking the major eastern seaboard cities from Boston to Charleston, with a western spur to Philadelphia. Travel time between New York City and Boston/Philadelphia was reduced from several grueling days to 6.5 hours. The transition to brief, smooth rides in heated passenger cars must have seemed like a divine miracle to travelers accustomed to long, exhausting ordeals on horseback or in bumpy stagecoaches, at the mercy of the elements. By 1840, there were 2,850 miles of railroad; by 1850 there were 9,000 miles of track, by 1860, there were 30,000 miles of rail, and by 1900, there were over 200,000 miles of rail. It took 21 years for the railroad to reach Erie, Pennsylvania across the Alleghenies in 1851, and 25 years to reach and cross the Mississippi at St. Louis in 1855. The railroads opened up "The West", which in those days, meant "west of the Appalachians". The railroads spread as a rapidly growing network throughout the 19th century, reaching their peak in the early years of the 20th century.
    Along with the 1830’s railroad went the telegraph after 1844. It’s probably hard to realize what an impact instantaneous communication must have had on society. Prior to the introduction of the telegraph, news had to be hand-carried by messenger. The Battle of New Orleans wouldn’t have been fought if the combatants had known that a truce had been signed in London six weeks earlier. Also, without rapid communications, it must be difficult to maintain a common culture. Steam-powered travel was station-to-station travel, with household-to-station personal transportation still provided by the horse.
    Cyrus Field’s laying of the first trans-Atlantic cable in 1867 provided instantaneous communication between Europe and the Americas. In retrospect, the first hint of the global-village-to-come might be said to have stemmed from that first cable.
    The telegraph was a station-to-station communications link. The telephone in 1876 may have been the first household-to-household link, and would have been far faster and less expensive to staff than the telegraph.
    The 19th century was the Age of Steam.
    Toward the end of the century, widespread use of electricity came upon the scene, along with the internal combustion engine. Beginning in 1890, urban streetcars became one of the early applications of electric power, with Welsbach mantle and arc-lamp street lights.
    In 1800, the century was lit like the Roman-Empire, by oil and candle lamps, and in 1900, by the incandescent light bulb.
    The 19th century saw the transition from cottage industry to factories. It largely saw a transition from a world of kings and nobleman to a world of mercantile princes and tradesmen. It witnessed great inequities—child labor, sweatshops, company that gave rise to the labor movements and republics/constitutional monarchies of the 20th century.
    The 19th century and all the prior centuries were the Ages of Individual Inventors. Until the 20th century, inventions were the products of individuals who, with greater or lesser success, founded companies to market their new inventions.
    19th century belt drives in factories give way to 20th century electric motors. 20 century 1st half belt-driven tools give way to 2nd half individually powered and even cordless electric tools.
 
    My great-great-grandfather, Benjamin Seitz, must have been born around 1805 (±5 yrs.). Since his name wasn't Helmut or Heinrich, it seems reasonable to suppose that he was born in the U.S. of natiive U.S. parents, since they gave their infant son the anglicized name of Benjamin. The parents most likely came from the Pennsylvania Dutch country of Pennsylvania (e.g., Lancaster, PA) into the newly-opened Western Reserve Territory.
    My great-grandfather, John Seitz, was probably born circa 1825 or 1830 near Van Wert or Vandalia, Ohio, according to his namesake grandson, my Uncle John. By 1852, John had migrated to Illinois, because it was there, in that year, that my grandfather, Henry Seitz, was born (in a log cabin). John Seitz had probably emigrated there because Illinois had just been opened to new settlers in the 1840's. The good land in Ohio was probably already taken. It was a time when the forest stretched untrammeled from the ramparts of the Appalachians to the blue horizons of the Great Plains. According to Henry Seitz, it was a time when the chestnut trees in Illinois grew 6,7,8-feet thick at the base. (If you believe that, let me know, because I've got some fish stories I want to try out on you.) 1852 was also the year of the Crimean War—the siege of Sevastopol and the Charge of the Light Brigade:
    One of John Seitz' neighbors got lost in the forest during a snow storm. In 1861, during the opening gambits of the Civil War, Quantrill's Raiders crossed the corner of John Seitz' farm. (It's interesting to note that 1929, the year I was born, is as far removed from 1997 as 1861 is from 1929.)
    Henry Seitz was alleged to have had a fiery, hair-trigger temper, and to have been the most brilliant man the family ever produced. He was a stone mason by trade at a time (before the advent of stone saws) when stonemasonry was a high art. He was tall for his day and was probably a good-looking chap. He moved around throughout the midwest, looking for work and sending his money home to his family.