A4 SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2019 FROM OUR ARCHIVES LNP | LANCASTER, PA

o celebrate 225 years of Lancaster newspapers, we present this week- ly series of 52 front pages from throughout our history. Many feature events that would shape the course of world history. Some feature events of great local importance. Still others simply provide windows into the long-ago lives of Lancaster County residents. Make sure to check in every week, and enjoy this trip through time with LNP.

1873

COVER 18 OF 52

PANIC OF 1873 Though the content of this 1873 front railways. One such transcontinental railroad railroad companies would go belly up, with page is typical of its time — ads, letters, was the connecting more to follow. In total, 18,000 businesses quirky anecdotes — in the background, Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest. After failed in the two years that followed. This the foundation was being laid for one being given millions of acres of land grants, “Long Depression” would continue until of the most cataclysmic economic events in Jay Cooke & Company Bank took over as 1879, eclipsing the later and more well- American history. head financier and bond agent of the project. known Great Depression as the single With the dust finally settling from the end From 1870 to 1873, Cooke attempted to longest economic contraction in U.S. history. At its worst, the unemployment rate was of the Civil War, expansion was afoot in the market bonds to investors to fund the steadily 8.25% in 1878. This economic upheaval led United States in 1873. Reconstruction efforts increasing budget of creating a rail line in to dark times for average workers. One of led to thousands of miles of railroad track unchartered territory. Due to both increasing the country’s first organized strikes took being built across the country, creating costs and construction times, many banks place in 1877 among railroad workers whose hundreds of jobs and faster travel time for were left waiting for returns on capital that wages were continually cut. Railroad workers goods. Prior to 1871, there had been 45,000 would potentially never come. In September across the country, including in Reading — miles of track laid. Between 1871 and 1900, 1873, just two months after the printing of this front page, Jay Cooke would declare ’s third-largest industrial city at 170,000 more miles were prepared for rail. the time — went up in arms against robber bankruptcy and set off a chain reaction of None of this would have been possible if not barons. State and federal governments would bank closings that would come to be known for Congress doling out millions of acres of respond in kind, sending militias to combat as the . public lands to railroad companies. and sometimes kill striking workers. All told, Most of these regions were undeveloped Almost immediately afterward, the New an estimated 100 workers were killed, over territories, allowing for the rise of speculative York Stock Exchange closed for 10 straight half of them in the Pittsburgh railroad strike investments to fund construction of the days. Before the end of the year, dozens of that ran from July 19 to July 30, 1877.

SOURCES: AMERICAN-RAILS; PBS.ORG; TREASURY.GOV | RESEARCH: KIM GOMOLL WRITING: KEVIN STAIRIKER | DESIGN: CHRIS EMLET READ MORE: BIT.LY/LANCLIFE225