Friday, August 18, 2006

Famous Americans of 1890-1910

Names of the last two centuries


For a few years, I had a website with around 200 pages in it. It's not currently online, but it still resides on my computer. One section in the website is about the years 1890-1910, and this is a list I compiled for it. It's much too long for a blog post, but I promise not to post this sort of thing often.

For people my age, I think the list demonstrates that, for us, 1900 and even the end of the 1800's were not so long ago. My great-grandparents might have read about many of these people in newspapers. The children and young folks of that time were important people, middle-aged and older, by the time I came along in 1951.

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Hourglass
What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset. -- Last words of Crowfoot, 1890

Famous Americans Who Died Between 1890 and 1900

Name (Remembered As) Born-Died

  • Crowfoot (Blackfoot warrior and orator) 1821-1890
  • Sitting Bull (Prairie Sioux Indian chief) c. 1831-1890
  • P. T. Barnum (showman) 1810-1891
  • Herman Melville (novelist) 1819-1891
  • John Greenleaf Whittier (poet) 1807-1892
  • Walt Whitman (poet) 1819-1892
  • Oliver Wendell Holmes (poet) 1809-1894
  • Frederick Douglass (abolitionist) 1807-1895
  • Eugene Field (poet) 1850-1895
  • Charles Anderson Dana (editor) 1819-1897
  • Horatio Alger (author) 1834-1899
  • Harriet Beecher Stowe (novelist) 1811-1896

Famous Americans Who Were Living At The Year 1900

Age in 1900 -- Name -- Remembered As

  • 80 -- Fanny J. Crosby -- Hymn writer
  • 80 -- Julia Ward Howe -- Poet and reformer
  • 80 -- Susan B. Anthony -- Woman suffragist
  • 80 -- Florence Nightingale -- Nurse
  • 79 -- Clara Barton -- Founder of American Red Cross
  • 79 -- Mary Baker Eddy -- Founder of Christian Science Church
  • 78 -- Red Cloud -- Ogalala Sioux chieftain
  • 77 -- Harriet Tubman -- Abolitionist
  • 71 -- Geronimo -- Apache chieftain

  • 66 -- James McNeill Whistler -- Painter and etcher
  • 65 -- Andrew Carnegie -- Industrialist
  • 65 -- Mark Twain -- Author
  • 64 -- Winslow Homer -- Painter
  • 63 -- Grover Cleveland -- U.S. President
  • 62 -- John Muir -- Naturalist
  • 60 -- Chief Joseph -- Chieftain and warrior

  • 57 -- Henry James -- Author
  • 56 -- Mary Cassat -- Painter
  • 54 -- George Westinghouse -- Inventor
  • 54 -- ``Buffalo Bill'' Cody -- Scout
  • 53 -- Alexander Graham Bell -- Inventor
  • 53 -- Thomas A. Edison -- Inventor
  • 51 -- Luther Burbank -- Horticulturalist
  • 51 -- James Whitcomb Riley -- Poet
  • 50 -- Samuel Gompers -- Labor Leader
  • 50 -- Henry Cabot Lodge -- Legislator

  • 46 -- George Eastman -- Inventor
  • 45 -- Eugene Victor Debs -- Socialist leader
  • 44 -- James B. Duke -- Industrialist
  • 44 -- Booker T. Washington -- Educator
  • 43 -- Clarence Darrow -- Lawyer
  • 42 -- Theodore Roosevelt -- U.S. President
  • 41 -- John Dewey -- Philosopher and educator
  • 40 -- Jane Addams -- Social worker
  • 40 -- William Jennings Bryan -- Orator and politician
  • 40 -- Grandma Moses -- Painter
  • 40 -- Annie Oakley -- Markswoman
  • 40 -- John J. Pershing -- General

  • 38 -- O. Henry -- Story Writer
  • 37 -- Black Elk -- Ogala Sioux Holy Man
  • 37 -- William Randolph Hearst -- Publisher
  • 37 -- Henry Ford -- Industrialist
  • 37 -- Billy Sunday -- Evangelist
  • 36 -- Albert Steiglitz -- Photographer
  • 33 -- Laura Ingalls Wilder -- Writer
  • 33 -- Wilbur Wright -- Inventor
  • 32 -- William Allen White -- Journalist
  • 31 -- Edgar Lee Masters -- Poet
  • 31 -- Booth Tarkington -- Novelist
  • 31 -- Frank Lloyd Wright -- Architect

  • 29 -- Theodore Dreiser -- Writer
  • 29 -- Orville Wright -- Inventor
  • 26 -- Robert Frost -- Poet
  • 26 -- Herbert Hoover -- U.S. President
  • 26 -- Harry Houdini -- Magician
  • 26 -- Robert W. Service -- Poet and novelist
  • 26 -- Gertrude Stein -- Author
  • 25 -- Edgar Rice Burroughs -- Novelist
  • 24 -- Sherwood Anderson -- Novelist and story writer
  • 24 -- Willa Cather -- Novelist
  • 24 -- Frank E. Gannett -- Editor and publisher
  • 22 -- George M. Cohan -- Actor and dramatist
  • 22 -- Carl Sandburg -- Poet and biographer
  • 21 -- Ethel Barrymore -- Actress
  • 21 -- Albert Einstein -- Physicist
  • 21 -- Will Rogers -- Humorist
  • 20 -- Douglas MacArthur -- Five-star general
  • 20 -- George C. Marshall -- Marshall
  • 20 -- Stephen Crane -- Novelist and poet
  • 20 -- W. C. Fields -- Comedian

  • 19 -- Cecil B. De Mille -- Film Director
  • 19 -- Edgar A. Guest -- Poet
  • 18 -- John Barrymore -- Actor
  • 18 -- Sam Rayburn -- Legislator
  • 18 -- Robert H. Goddard -- Father of modern rocketry
  • 18 -- Samuel Goldwyn -- Movie producer
  • 18 -- Franklin D. Roosevelt -- U.S. President
  • 17 -- Eubie Blake -- Pianist
  • 17 -- Lon Chaney -- Actor
  • 17 -- Douglas Fairbanks -- Actor
  • 17 -- Rube Goldberg -- Cartoonist
  • 17 -- John Maynard Keynes -- Economist
  • 16 -- Jack London -- Novelist
  • 16 -- Eleanor Roosevelt -- Reformer and humanitarian
  • 16 -- Harry S. Truman -- U.S. President
  • 15 -- Sinclair Lewis -- Novelist
  • 15 -- Chester William Nimitz -- Naval officer
  • 15 -- Ezra Pound -- Poet
  • 14 -- Al Jolson -- Actor and singer
  • 13 -- ``Fatty'' Arbuckle -- Actor and director
  • 13 -- Georgia O'Keeffe -- Painter
  • 12 -- Irving Berlin -- Songwriter
  • 12 -- Richard Byrd -- Polar explorer
  • 12 -- Dale Carnegie -- Author
  • 12 -- John Foster Dulles -- Statesman
  • 12 -- Joseph P. Kennedy -- Financier
  • 12 -- Bela Lugosi -- Actor
  • 12 -- Eugene O'Neill -- Writer
  • 11 -- Conrad Aiken -- Poet
  • 11 -- Charlie Chaplin -- Actor
  • 11 -- H. L. Hunt -- Industrialist
  • 11 -- Walter Lippmann -- Columnist
  • 10 -- Dwight D. Eisenhower -- U.S. President and general
  • 10 -- Rose Kennedy -- Mother of statesmen
  • 10 -- Edward V. Rickinbacker -- Aviator

  • 9 -- Pearl S. Buck -- Novelist
  • 9 -- Katherine Anne Porter -- Author
  • 8 -- J. Paul Getty -- Oil Executive
  • 8 -- Oliver Hardy -- Comedian
  • 8 -- Cole Porter -- Songwriter
  • 8 -- Eddie Cantor -- Actor
  • 8 -- Mae West -- Actress
  • 8 -- Wendell Lewis Wilkie -- Lawyer
  • 7 -- Omar Bradley -- General
  • 7 -- Jimmie Durante -- Comedian
  • 7 -- Dorothy Parker -- Author
  • 6 -- Jack Benny -- Actor and comedian
  • 6 -- E. E. Cummings -- Poet
  • 6 -- Martha Graham -- Choreographer
  • 6 -- Norman Rockwell -- Painter and Illustrator
  • 5 -- Richard Buckminster Fuller -- Architect and educator
  • 5 -- J. Edgar Hoover -- FBI Director
  • 5 -- Groucho Marx -- Comedian
  • 5 -- George Raft -- Actor
  • 4 -- F. Scott Fitzgerald -- Novelist
  • 4 -- Ira Gershwin -- Lyricist
  • 4 -- Lillian Gish -- Actress
  • 4 -- Buster Keaton -- Comedian
  • 4 -- Ethel Waters -- Entertainer
  • 3 -- Lucius D. Clay -- Banker and general
  • 3 -- Walter Winchell -- Columnist
  • 2 -- Bud Abbott -- Comedian
  • 2 -- Stephen Vincent Benèt -- Poet and storywriter
  • 2 -- Amelia Earhart -- Aviator
  • 2 -- George Gershwin -- Composer
  • 2 -- Charles W. Mayo -- Surgeon
  • 2 -- Norman Vincent Peale -- Clergyman
  • 2 -- Randolph Scott -- Actor
  • 1 -- Fred Astaire -- Dancer and actor
  • 1 -- Humphrey Bogart -- Actor
  • 1 -- James Cagney -- Actor
  • 1 -- Hoagie Carmichael -- Songwriter
  • 1 -- Bruce Catton -- Historian
  • 1 -- Hart Crane -- Poet
  • 1 -- Duke Ellington -- Jazz musician
  • 1 -- Ernest Hemmingway -- Novelist
  • 1 -- William C. Menninger -- Psychologist


Famous Americans Who Were Born Between 1900 and 1910


Name (Remembered As) Year Born

  • Louis Armstrong (musician) 1900
  • Adlai Stevenson (statesman) 1900
  • Chester Gould (cartoonist) 1900
  • Gary Cooper (actor) 1901
  • George Gallup (poll taker) 1901
  • Margaret Mead (anthropologist) 1901
  • Richard J. Daley (mayor of Chicago) 1902
  • Langston Hughes (poet) 1902
  • Charles A. Lindbergh (aviator) 1902
  • Ogden Nash (poet) 1902
  • Tallulah Bankhead (actress) 1903
  • George Orwell (novelist) 1903
  • Benjamin Spock (author and pediatrician) 1903
  • Bing Crosby (singer actor) 1904
  • Count Basie (bandleader) 1904
  • Lillian Hellman (playwright)1905
  • Howard Hughes (industrialist and film producer) 1905
  • Ayn Rand (novelist) 1905
  • Josephine Baker (dancer) 1906
  • Margaret Bourke-White (photographer) 1906
  • John Carradine (actor) 1906
  • Anne Morrow Lindbergh(writer and aviation pioneer) 1906
  • Milton Caniff (cartoonist) 1907
  • Rachel Carson (biologist and author) 1907
  • John Wayne (actor) 1907
  • Lou Costello (actor) 1908
  • Bette Davis (actress) 1908
  • John Kenneth Galbraith (economist) 1908
  • Al Capp (cartoonist) 1909
  • 'Herblock' Herbert Block (political cartoonist) 1909
  • Eudora Welty(writer) 1909
  • Barry Goldwater (legislator) 1909

Hourglass

5 comments:

Runawayimagination said...

You are such a keen observer of life. I really think you should write a column.

I can also sense a growing sense of anticipation (and maybe some anxiety too?) as Mr. Prarie Bluestem's return looms.

The times they are a changin'.

Genevieve Netz said...

Runaway, I am looking forward to the day, and meanwhile I am very busy with a lot of things that I am trying to finish up.

I want to complete a set of shelves in the shed that I started a few weeks ago and do a lot of deep housecleaning, as well as try to get a 2-acre yard looking fairly good. Plus, I've been driving Isaac to school and picking him up which kills a couple hours per day.

These sorts of things limit the amount of time that is available for sitting at the computer. Honestly, I think my time for blogging will be sharply reduced for much of the foreseeable future.

I do thank you for your kind words about writing professionally. I think I will still need to get a day job, but I may try to develop some sidelines that involve writing.

Wrkinprogress said...

FWIW, I agree with Runaway. You *should* write a column in a paper or magazine. You have a unique voice and live life in a place that few others do. Don't close off any possibilities -- one never knows, does one? ;)

Taylor.A.Smith said...

Great list! Thanks for posting it! I was hoping to find something similar for a project I've been working on.

It seems you might have missed some, such as John D. Rockefeller. Do you have an updated list?

Genevieve Netz said...

Thanks for visiting, Taylor. I created that list about ten years ago. If I am remembering right, I found a list of famous people in the World Almanac and worked out my lists from it. I do not have any updated versions.

John D. Rockefeller would be a good addition. If you think of any other well-known people who should be included, let me know.

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CONTENTMENT: Keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry, live simply, expect little, give much, sing often, pray always, forget self, think of others and their feelings, fill your heart with love, scatter sunshine. These are the tried links in the golden chain of contentment.
(Author unknown)

IT IS STILL BEST to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasure; and to be cheerful and have courage when things go wrong.
(Laura Ingalls Wilder, 1867-1957)

Thanks for reading.