OCR Text |
Show Page 19 New York City in 1826 sprawled up Manhattan Island with over a quarter of a million inhabitants, gradually engulfing the old Dutch town in its bid to become America's chief port city. Following the completion of the Erie Canal, New York was linked by inland waterways to the crescent settlements of the Great Lakes, and, by 1827, with the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys. Even then, the city was jammed with immigrants and the "poor of New York," many families subsisting on an average of eight cents a day. Laborers earned about a dollar and a half per week in 1831; a common practice in the 1820s was "putting out," contracting labor to widows or children at much less than the market wage for a skilled laborer. Consequently, New York City in mid-decade saw the beginnings of labor unrest and the fomentation of the first strikes against industry. The depression kicked off in 1819 by the policies of the central bank had left twenty thousand unemployed in the city, with about fifteen per cent of the population legally designated as paupers. Though fortunes were to be made, in inland commerce mostly, New York presented 31 an unkind demeanor to the newcomer. In addition, the summer heat and lack of proper sanitation resulted in annual epidemics, which beleaguered Orson Pratt from the moment of his arrival. He became "violently sick," and, too weak to continue his cabinet-making apprenticeship, he bolstered enough strength to hike the six miles back to the relative cool of his 32 brother's Long Island hut. Well again, but stricken with a little homesickness, Orson returned to the Canaan Township and engaged as a hand for a Mr."Noise," probably either John Noyes, a state assemblyman, or Nathan Noyes, quondam clerk of the township. About the time of his sixteenth birthday, however, Orson cleared out again, this time to cross the country, a boy in search of something picking his way over great distances on foot, seeking those |