When you look back at historical events, it is always nice to be able to put things in context. The year 1839 is a big one around here as it is the year the Saxon Immigrants landed in Perry County. What all was happening in the US and the World that year?

In 1839:

• The USA was 63 years old.
• The last Revolutionary War veteran would still live another 30 years.
• Missouri had been a state for 18 years.
• The American Civil War wouldn’t begin for another 22 years.
• Martin Van Buren was president.
• Queen Victoria was only 2 years in on her over 63 year reign.
• The University of Missouri was established as the first public univeristy west of the Mississippi River.
• The daguerreotype, the first publicly available photographic process, was introduced.
• William Otis patented the steam shovel. (It would be another 100 years before Virginia Lee Burton would write about Mike Mulligan’s.)
• The Boston Morning Globe published the first recorded use of “OK”.
• Belgium was recognized as an independent nation by the Treaty of London.
• The First Opium War began.
• Charles Goodyear vulcanized rubber.
• John D. Rockefeller, George Custer and Caroline Ingalls (nee Quiner, mother of author Laura Ingalls Wilder) were born.