Tom Norton

1850 Tom Norton

1850 was a hard year for the vast majority of the people in the United States. But then every year in the 1700s, 1800s and most of the 1900's was a hard time for most Americans. Economically, for a few Americans, times were good as they always have been. Of course typhoid, Cholera and so on was a problem for all, but was more of a problem for the poor. This is a fictional story based upon historical social conditions, events and places during 1850 through 1855. It is the story of a family's ordeal and how they coped with changing hardships while trying to survive the times. The story is that of a bygone American time and begins in New York City in the year 1850. The story follows members of an Irish family as they try to survive the hardships of New York City and it follows them as they try to elude a dangerous hoodlum. This situation forces them to hide in New Orleans, Saint Louis and eventually to the newly formed Nebraska Territory north of Kansas and west of Iowa. The area once called an Unorganized Territory had been embroiled in the Indian problem and to some extent affected by the Negro problem and the coming civil war. The new Nebraska Territory, being a selected portion from the Unorganized Territory, was opened to homesteading and under new regulations; a homestead was one hundred sixty acres of free land if some conditions were satisfied by the homesteader and if they could protect it from others.