# How much did people know about stuff, and when did they know it? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 22, 2007, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-people-know-about-stuff-and-when-did-they-know-it/416574 "2007-08-22T23:05:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2007, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-people-know-about-stuff-and-when-did-they-know-it/416574/41 "2007-08-24T18:48:39Z")
[QUOTE=plnnr] Perhaps, but it still deflates **Freddy the Pig’s** argument that by the late 19th Century it was “unusual” for someone to have no education. Having a fifth of the population over 14 illiterate wouldn’t make it exactly “unusual.” [/QUOTE] That’s why I exempted “the lowest rungs of society”. Among native-born whites–the category that applied to the Wilders–illiteracy was in single digits. Immigrants and black people who came of age before emancipation (when it was a crime in the South to teach a black person to read) naturally had much higher rates. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2007, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-people-know-about-stuff-and-when-did-they-know-it/416574/42 "2007-08-24T19:14:17Z")
Plus, weren’t Charles Ingalls and Caroline (Quiney?) both born in New York? They may have eventually moved to the backwoods, but they didn’t start out that way. And yes, I know “backwoods” is more of a metaphor than an actual location, just wanted to point that out. Sir Rhosis ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2007, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-people-know-about-stuff-and-when-did-they-know-it/416574/43 "2007-08-24T19:45:36Z")
The Ingalls family lived in the backwoods, literally, in Wisconsin. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2007, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-people-know-about-stuff-and-when-did-they-know-it/416574/44 "2007-08-25T00:02:16Z")
[QUOTE=Sir Rhosis] Plus, weren’t Charles Ingalls and Caroline (Quiney?) both born in New York? They may have eventually moved to the backwoods, but they didn’t start out that way. And yes, I know “backwoods” is more of a metaphor than an actual location, just wanted to point that out. [/QUOTE] Charles Ingalls was born in New York (but moved to Illinois, near Elgin, when he was 4. Elgin was founded in 1836, the same year Ingalls was born). Caroline Quiner was born outside of Milwaukee, and was, quite possibly, the first non-Indian born in the Milwaukee area. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2007, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-people-know-about-stuff-and-when-did-they-know-it/416574/45 "2007-08-25T00:52:52Z")
Caroline Quiner was born in 1839. [Solomon Juneau](http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=38118), Milwaukee’s first mayor, settled in Milwaukee with his wife in 1819, shortly after they were married. They had 15 children. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2007, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-people-know-about-stuff-and-when-did-they-know-it/416574/46 "2007-08-25T01:06:03Z")
Not to be a kill-joy or anything, but one thing I’d like to know: _ **Why is this thread in Cafe Society?!** _ Seems like a GQ to me… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2007, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-people-know-about-stuff-and-when-did-they-know-it/416574/47 "2007-08-25T01:45:05Z")
I’d say because the answers given, while somewhat fact-based, are open to opinion and interpretation, ruling out GQ for the most part. Uh, second part… uh, thinking fast… some knowledge comes from books which can be read in a cafe… 😃 Best, Sir Rhosis ---
**Author:** ![RedRosesForMe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/91b2a8/32.png) [@RedRosesForMe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedRosesForMe)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2007, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-people-know-about-stuff-and-when-did-they-know-it/416574/48 "2007-08-25T18:05:54Z")
[QUOTE=Mr Bus Guy] [This](http://www.amazon.com/Discoverers-Daniel-J-Boorstin/dp/0394726251) is an incredible book that has answers to the OP. [/QUOTE] Oddly enough, just after I read this thread I went to school to purchase my books for this semester, and lo and behold, this book is required for my Ages of Discovery class. I’m excited to read it now that I have a Doper’s recomendation. ---
**Author:** ![VernWinterbottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c67d28/32.png) [@VernWinterbottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VernWinterbottom)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2007, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-people-know-about-stuff-and-when-did-they-know-it/416574/49 "2007-08-25T19:29:10Z")
[QUOTE=plnnr] My grandfather, for instance, was born in 1882 and could neither read nor write until my aunt taught him to sign his name with something other than in “X.” She did this in the 1940s. [/QUOTE] But that doesn’t mean he didn’t know that nothing grows on the moon. One does not have to read or write to know stuff. Blind amputees can learn, right? My daughter knew nothing grows on the moon long before she could either read or write. The American natives thousands of years ago had no written language and probably knew more than many modern American. I heard a story about a woman picking up a piece of sheepskin at a historical re-enactment and asking how they got the fleece to stick to the leather. . . [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-people-know-about-stuff-and-when-did-they-know-it/416574.md?page=2)