"Could you Survive the 1860s" MSN news feature

[Eric Burke]

Kind of strange, but I figured it was related, so here's the link (it was on the MSN homepage):

http://msn.ancestry.com/landing/msn/1860/1860_quiz.htm?o%5Flid=4766&o%5Fxid=4766&SourceCode=4766&rc=locale%7E&us=0

[Clark Badgett]

Re: "Could you Survive the 1860s" MSN news feature

I find some of their "facts" in error.

[Hank Trent]

Re: "Could you Survive the 1860s" MSN news feature

I find some of their "facts" in error.

That would be an understatement. :D

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[Jayhawk102]

Re: "Could you Survive the 1860s" MSN news feature

I tried it out and thought it was really dumb. I would give it a F-

[tenfed1861]

Re: "Could you Survive the 1860s" MSN news feature

I'd like to see the people who created this quiz try to survive in the 1860s.They couldn't.This proves nothing.
Cullen Smith
BG Rifles

[Justin Runyon]

Re: "Could you Survive the 1860s" MSN news feature

Yes, this was profoundly stupid.

[cwbelle]

Re: "Could you Survive the 1860s" MSN news feature

I tried the quiz out of curiosity and found their idea that unpasteurized milk somehow imediately spoils rather "interesting" (besides other eranous facts). When I was little my family had a few milk goats (as kind of a hobby) and we never processed the milk in any way before drinking except to strain it...it lasted 'plenty long enough to reach the house and more--even when just stored in a cool, shady place (unrefrigerated). :)

[MissMaggie]

Re: "Could you Survive the 1860s" MSN news feature

Ok, here is the question. How much mining was going on in the eastern US for Gold and Silver at this point in time? And since when was water hard to find this side of the great plains? That question on water makes no sense in so many ways.

[ElizabethClark]

Re: "Could you Survive the 1860s" MSN news feature

The whole quiz jumped regions pretty badly, and alternately assumed you lived in a large rural home (separate kitchen), in an inner city (adulterated milk), in the Desert West (water), etc.

Mining was pretty huge, actually, all through the war years. Many of the major strikes in Colorado, Montana, Idaho, and Oregon happened in the late 50s and early 60s (in my hometown in Eastern Oregon, for instance, gold was struck in 1862, and by 1863, there were 10,000 people living in a valley that now holds 1800... millions of dollars of gold were pulled out in five years. Sumpter Valley to the north of us was placer-mined starting in 1862 (yep, named for Fort S), and the valley is still one gigantic rubble pile, 140 years later.) In that area, water for placer mining seemed to be the most common worry--looking into newspaper archives of the time showed quite a few murders over rights to divert a particular creek (Murderer's Creek, quite coincidentally) for placer mining. Water for drinking didn't post much of a problem, apparently, for these particular miners: the number of saloons indicates they prefered beer and whiskey to water... certainly, whiskey is better at providing an antiseptic gut after consuming spoiled meats, so perhaps they were on the right track. LOL

The surgery question gives no hint that though Lister started publishing, it took more than just a few years for antiseptic surgery to be common, and more than that for germ theory to be wholly accepted... so it's a little disingenous at best.

I'd chalk the whole quiz up to a "fun" way to advertise for the Ancestry.com services. It's hardly indicative of whether or not a person could "survive" the 1860s.

[theknapsack]

Re: "Could you Survive the 1860s" MSN news feature

I found it very much in error.
I hope people dont believe most of the questions.

[hireddutchcutthroat]

Re: "Could you Survive the 1860s" MSN news feature

Ok, here is the question. How much mining was going on in the eastern US for Gold and Silver at this point in time?

Some but not allot. However California, Nevada, and the western territories were shipping, in todays dollars, billions of dollars of gold and silver around the horn into US coffers. In many ways California and Nevada financed the Northen war effort. It was for this reason that the west coast was considered so stratigicaly important to the north, and why only 500 (organised) Californians fought in the Eastern theaters.

Anyways I found the survey lame. I think the milk on my cereal spoiled while I was writting this :wink_smil

[Robert Braun]

Mining.

There was LOTS of lead mining going on on the late 1820s-1830s in present day southwestern Wisconsin and northwestern Illinois. After the Black Hawk War of 1832, many American diggers moved on, to be replaced in no small part by European immigrants-- specifically the Cornish.

By the Civil War, many of the mines had played out... to be repaced with zinc mining in the 1880s.

Bob.

[NY Pvt]

Re: "Could you Survive the 1860s" MSN news feature

Talk about a horrible quiz.

I didn't know they delivered pizza in the 1860's. Perhaps we can include that in some of our impressions? :wink_smil

But on a serious note, since it was sponsored by Ancestory.com it would worry me that maybe some of the information on their site could be off as well. I hope not.

[7thNYcav]

Re: "Could you Survive the 1860s" MSN news feature

http://www.mme.state.va.us/dmr/PUB/Chapters/VaGold/auham1.html

Braswell Printing Co., Kerriville, Texas. 1966

Chapter VIII



GOLD MINING IN VIRGINIA
The Gold Belt in the James River Basin of Virginia, is an area about 60 miles above Richmond, consisting of Fluvana, Goochland, Buckingham, Cumberland, Powhattan, and Amelia Counties. There were hundreds of gold mines reported as operating in the early days.

In a publication by George F. Becker, in 1885, it is reported that gold was mentioned in the Southern Appalachian States, and that on about June 4, 1513, while Ponce de Leon was anchored near the southern end of the penninsula of Florida, he was informed of a cache of gold in the neighborhood that had a quantity of the precious metal. Several years later, Spanish and French explorers referred to possession of gold by the Indians, and as early as 1564, there was a description of methods used by the Indians in separating gold from sands which they found in rivers flowing from the Appalachian Mountains.

The first authentic reference to gold in Virginia was by Thomas Jefferson in 1782. He described a lump of ore found on the north side of the Rappahannock River about four miles below the falls. The ore was of about 4 lbs. and yielded seven pennyweight of gold.


Between the years of 1804 and 1828, there are mint records that show a production of $2500.00 received from Virginia. At about that time gold was discovered in both Orange and Goochland counties. The Virginia Mining Company of New York operated between 1831 and 1834, in Orange County, Virginia. It was the first gold mining operation in Virginia. At that time the early records indicate that a one-half (1/2) interest in a 20-year lease on a 5-acre tract was purchased for $30,000.00 cash. The James River Basin discovery of gold was in Goochland County about 1829. This discovery was made by the G. W. Fisher family and the mine was known as the Tellurium Mine. After that discovery, other properties in the district followed in rapid succession.

During the early period of gold mining in Virginia, most of the gold deposits were obtained by mining leases for part of the royalty, or, about 10% of the gold recovered. The early day mining operations incorporated panning for gold with the pan method, rockers for washing gravel, and "Long Toms" in connection with hydraulicing. The ore, at first, was crushed by hand in iron mortars after it had been hand sorted and the gold was obtained by panning the concentrates. The early day crushing equipment was wooden mortars lined with iron. At the Fisher Tellurium Mine, part of the equipment was operatedby horsepower. Later this was replaced by a stamp mill and "pounding" mill. In 1848, a larger, more efficient mill was installed with 40 stamps in operation, and in the Morrow Mine in Buckingham County, as many as 72 stamps were reported in operation.

The period of development of many of the mines in Virginia was approximately at the same time as the outbreak of the Civil War which put a stop to practically all mining operations in Virginia and, in the South, generally.

It is reported that after the first known deposits made in a U. S. mint of $2,300.00 in 1829, that gold production in Virginia enjoyed a steady increase until 1833, when it reached $104,000.00. After 1833, the average ran about $56,000.00 a year, until the outbreak of the Civil War.

After the Civil War, production was reported to be $21,000to $15,000.00 and in 1906, approximately $6,000.00 was reported.

Some of the gold mines of record in early day mining activities in Virginia are as follows: Webb; Ayre; Scotia; Lantana; Big Bird; London and Virginia; Bondurant; Tellurium; Young American; Bertha and Edith; Belzora; Anaconda; Shores; Hughes; Palmyra; Dickey Farm; Stokes; McGloam; Granite; Greeley; Grannison; Collins; Morgan; Kent; Busby; Payne; Waller; Fleming; Benton; Bowles; Burnett; Gold Hill; Shaw; Sneed; Page; Buckingham; Williams; Gilliam; Lightfoot; Bumpus; Ford; Morton; Anderson; Flood; Hobson; Morrow, and Seay Mines.

Gold has been found in gravels of practically all of the streams that come from the gold-bearing rocks of this area, and also in stream gravels located high above the neighboring water courses.

Gold was also found concentrated in considerable quantities in accumulation of residual clays and, like the placer deposits, they were profitably worked in a number of places. The placer gravels were extensively worked in the early days in in mines in the James River District and in many places are reported to have been very rich. Much gold was lost by wasteful methods commonly employed when the placer branch gravels were first worked. Most of the gold in this area is fine, but it was reported as granular and easy to recover.

As you can see there was gold mining in the east maybe not much but some.

I did find where there could have been more than one response, like the one with the pop tart.

Charles Felthousen
CPT CAVALRY
COMMANDING
7th NY CAV
Army of the James DEPT of VA

[ElizabethClark]

Re: "Could you Survive the 1860s" MSN news feature

Another "double answer" one: that breakfast question. How common would it be for a person to have orange juice at breakfast, outside of a city where "tropical" produce might be shipped in, as a novelty (the Christmas orange), or outside of an area where such produce grows quite naturally? And, would the person then juice the orange, or just eat it in hand?

The question also makes it sound as though "cold cereal" was tremendously common--and to my knowledge, it didn't become a major industry until later in the century. Certainly, a hard-working farmer won't make it far into his morning with only a bowl of granola to sustain him! :)