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Dreams of
making a good life drew people to the Wild West frontier by the hundreds. It’s
estimated over 350,000 people traveled the 2100+ miles of the Oregon Trail. (Cholera
was the most common cause of death for the one out of seventeen that didn’t
make it.) Thousands of others took other trails, participated in land claims,
and trekked toward the frontier on their own.
After the
war, jobs increased substantially, especially during the manufacturing boom of
the north, however, over 25% of the nation’s population was looking for work. Heading
west may have been the only hope for many of them.
While
researching for a story that included a character owning an iron works company in
Chicago I came across a 1960 publication of wages during the 1860-1880’s and
thought perhaps some of you might find the information useful. Below are the most
popular 18 industries and the average DAILY wage for 1870. These numbers are
from the East coast. An average of .20 more per day was paid in the west.
Stove foundries $2.30
Furniture $2.24
Flour and grist mills $2.69
Hardware, cutlery, etc. $2.41
Tin and sheet iron works $3.18
Saw and planning mills $2.10
Carriage and wagon works $1.96
Flint and window glass $2.47
Tanneries $2.26
Machinery $2.13
Railroad $1.06
Cigars and tobacco $1.58
Iron blast furnaces, etc. $2.27
Paper manufacture $1.85
Brick making $2.30
Clothing $1.38
Breweries and Distilleries $1.97
Woolen manufactures $1.52
Cotton manufactures $1.42
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