So the latest set of Ford truck ads claim that before the Model T, most people never travelled more than 20 miles from home in their entire lives.
I think that’s a crock of bull. But I’d like the Straight Dope. Anyone?
Well, its probably not too far from the truth. Remember America was largely an agrarian nation up until around WW I (i.e. more people worked farm jobs than non-farm) or so. For most people the only way to get around was either by horse, or by train and train tickets were pricey. I remember reading in one piece that was written shortly after the introduction of the Model-T that it enabled people to travel farther than they ever had before and allowed the guy from this town to marry a gal from that town, which was a pretty uncommon thing in certain parts of the country until the introduction of the affordable automobile.
So, while they certainly traveled more than twenty miles in their lifetime, twenty miles was probably as far as they ever got from home.
I also think it’s BS. How else was new land settled, if people didn’t travel a bit more than 20 miles?
It says “most people,” not all. It might seem a bit questionable but I don’t have trouble with it because of the pioneer aspect. For more circumstantial evidence that agrees with FoMoCo’s claim, there’s my family history: My mom worked out my family’s genealogy back to an Irish immigrant in the late 1700s. In all the generations from that until the 20th century, only two people moved away from their hometown on the New York/Canadian border, and they went to Ohio.
It is total baloney.
I went thru my family tree looking at people who lived c1900 (pre-model T).
Not one died in the same state they were born. All moved large distances at least once in their life pre-1910.
Looking at great-grandparents:
FFF Telemark NO->SD USA
FFM Bergen NO->MN->SD
FMF Hordaland NO->MN->SD (later ->ID)
FMM Buskerud NO->MN->SD
MFF IL->TX->OK (worked Texas cattle drives, generally > 20 miles)
MFM MO->TX->OK
MFF IL->MO->OK
MFM IL->MO->OK
In preceding generations for the American born, similar moves took place, with generally at least one major move per generation.
Until you get to the “old country” or before 1776, I cannot find a single known ancestor that lived their entire life in the same general area.
In Michael Chricton’s latest book (Time…uh, Timesomething or other), he claims peasants in Europe thought nothing of traveling 20 miles in a day, by foot. That’s just how life was. And while his books aren’t all the amazing works they should be – at least he tends to do cool research.
That’s why I thought the Ford add sounded fake to begin with.
ftg, just because your family was a group of movers does not mean everyone was. Anecdotal evidence such as yours does not ‘prove’ anything. It can be used to disprove a statement, such as “no family prior to the model T traveled further than 20 miles from home.” But, it isn’t saying everyone, it’s saying most. The OP statement is true if 50.000000000000001% of the people didn’t move that far.
Jman
A lot of people didn’t open up new land–they stayed put.
I think the statement might be in error, though, due to the lack of a lower limit on the time under discussion. At some point in history, it might have been true. Also, “most people” isn’t very well defined–it would seem that the meaning is “a majority” but I would rather see numbers. There were certainly “a lot” of people who travelled fairly extensively during and after the Civil War, my own ancestors among them. And, I think we are presupposing that the statement applies only to the population of the United States of America–I wonder if other populations are included?
I was doing my best shot on a random sample using the available information at hand. BTW, of the moves shown only two were post-marriage.
I saw this one on the top of a stack of census records I have lying around. The family may be distant in-law relations.
From 1880 census in Wash.:
Father born in IL, his father VA, mother OH
Mother born in IA, Father Eng., mother KY
Kid 1 KS
Kids 2&3 MO
Kid 4 IA
Kid 5 WA
Again, not so much anecdotal but random sampling. I just don’t see any staying in one place and I’ve looked at a lot of such records. The odds of this being a statistical fluke are just too small to be of any consequence. I think the data I see is far more typical than what a copy-writer for Ford ads would have.