Year 1825 Fun Facts, Trivia, and Historical Events

This quick read presents a collection of fun facts, trivia, and historical events from the year 1825. Discover the year’s top news stories, most influential people, historic firsts, famous birthdays, retail prices, and much more.

Take a journey through history in just minutes.

1. President of the United States: James Monroe (DR-Virginia)—Until March 4
2. President of the United States: John Quincy Adams (DR/NR-Massachusetts)—Starting March 4
3. Vice President: Daniel D. Tompkins (DR-New York)—Until March 4
4. Vice President: John C. Calhoun (D-South Carolina)—Starting March 4
5. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: John Marshall (Virginia)
6. Speaker of the House of Representatives: Henry Clay (DR-Kentucky)—Until March 4
7. Speaker of the House of Representatives: John W. Taylor (DR-New York)—Starting December 5
8. In 1825, the 18th U.S. Congress was in session until March 4. On March 4, the 19th U.S. Congress convened.
9. Unemployment rate: During the 1820s, no state or federal agencies compiled “accurate tallies” of America’s unemployment rate. Only “rough estimates” of the U.S. jobless rate were available.
10. Inflation rate: 2.06%
11. Consumer price index (CPI): 9.900
12. American companies and brands established in 1825 included The Norfolk Mutual Fire Insurance Company (known today as The Norfolk & Dedham Group).
13. In 1825, there were 24 U.S. states. In order of admission to the Union, they were Delaware (1787), Pennsylvania (1787), New Jersey (1787), Georgia (1788), Connecticut (1788), Massachusetts (1788), Maryland (1788), South Carolina (1788), New Hampshire (1788), Virginia (1788), New York (1788), North Carolina (1789), Rhode Island (1790), Vermont (1791), Kentucky (1792), Tennessee (1796), Ohio (1803), Louisiana (1812), Indiana (1816), Mississippi (1817), Illinois (1818), Alabama (1819), Maine (1820), and Missouri (1821).
14. On January 8, Eli Whitney, an American inventor and entrepreneur known for inventing the cotton gin in 1793, passed away.
15. On January 10, the capital of Indiana was moved from Corydon, Indiana, to Indianapolis.
16. On January 19, Ezra Daggett and Thomas Kensett of New York City were granted the first U.S. patent “for preserving food in tin cans, specifically for salmon, lobster, and oysters.” Their seafood preservation process “paved the way” for the American canning industry.
17. On February 9, the U.S. House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams (DR/NR-Massachusetts) as the president of the United States. (Between October 26 and December 2, 1824, presidential elections were held in the United States, and Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams, and William Crawford were the four “primary contenders” for the U.S. presidency. However, on December 1, 1824, the United States presidential election was turned over to the U.S. House of Representatives because no candidate—Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams, or William Crawford—was able to secure a majority of the 261 electoral votes needed to win the U.S. presidency.)
18. On February 12, the Treaty of Indian Springs was signed, “with Lower Creek Chief William McIntosh and a small minority faction agreeing to cede the remaining Creek lands in Georgia to the U.S. for $200,000.”
19. On May 6, French bibliophile Henri Boulard passed away, leaving a library of over 500,000 books—one of “the greatest private book collections” in history.
20. On May 11, the American Tract Society was founded in New York City by “a coalition of evangelical leaders to publish and distribute Christian literature.”
21. On May 15, German author Wilhelm Grimm (Grimm’s Fairy Tales) married Henriette Dorothea.
22. On June 3, the Kensa (Native American) Nation ceded its territory to the United States government.
23. On June 11, the first cornerstone for Fort Hamilton, a United States Army installation, was laid in New York City.
24. On October 25, the 363-mile-long Erie Canal, which runs from Albany, New York, to Buffalo, New York, opened to commercial vessels. History.com tells us that “Work began on the waterway in 1817. Teams of oxen plowed the ground, but for the most part the work was done by immigrants, among them Irish diggers who had to rely on primitive tools. They were paid $10 a month, and barrels of whisky were placed along the canal route as encouragement. West of Troy [New York], 83 canal locks were built to accommodate the more than 500-foot rise in elevation.”
25. On November 7, in compliance with the Treaty of St. Louis, an estimated 1,400 Missouri Shawnees “were forced to relocate from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, to a 50-mile square reserve in southeastern Kansas near the Neosho River.”
26. On November 12, New Echota, located today in Gordon County, in northwest Georgia, became the capital of the Cherokee (Native American) Nation until their forced removal in the late 1830s.
27. On November 26, the Kappa Alpha Society at Union College in Schenectady, New York, became the first college fraternity “to combine secret Greek-letter society traditions with literary and social functions.”
28. In 1825, the United States Postal Service started a “dead letter office” for undeliverable mail. Today, the “dead letter office” is known as the Mail Recovery Center (MRC) and is based in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2006, the MRC handled an estimated 90,000,000 pieces of undeliverable mail.
29. Key fiction works published during 1825 included Barbara Holland’s Moderation, John and Michael Banim’s Tales of the O’Hara Family, Lord Normanby’s Matilda, Sarah Green’s Parents and Wives, and Sir Walter Scott’s Tales of the Crusaders: The Betrothed and The Talisman.
30. Key nonfiction works published during the year were Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Aids to Reflection and William Hazlitt’s The Spirit of the Age.
31. Top dramatic works in 1825: George Hyde’s Love’s Victory, James Sheridan Knowles’ William Tell, and John Poole’s Paul Pry
32. Famous people born in 1825 included Harriet E. Wilson (novelist), Henri Gifford (engineer), Johann Strauss II (composer), Mary Jane Holmes (novelist), and Thomas Bramwell Welch (entrepreneur).
33. Notable people who died in 1825 included Daniel D. Tompkins (U.S. vice president), Eli Whitney (American inventor and entrepreneur), and Samuel Parr (teacher).
34. In 1825 as well, the words “ambulance,” “baby carriage,” “barn dance,” “bartender,” “bonanza,” “bull’s-eye,” “cabdriver,” “cat and mouse,” “chain of command,” “natural gas,” “pizza,” “polka,” “ranchero,” “rotisserie,” “scrapbook,” “standard of living,” “three R’s,” “trade secret,” and “walking papers” all appeared in print for the first time.
35. One bushel of apples: About 50 cents
36. One bushel of potatoes: 25 cents
37. One bushel of rye: 50 cents
38. One bushel of white beans: About $1.00
39. One fur hat: $3.00
40. One gallon of cider: About 20 cents
41. One pair of shoes: About $1.75
42. One pound and six ounces of lard: 15 cents
43. One pound of butter: 12½ cents
44. One pound of fresh beef: Three cents
45. One pound of honey: 10 cents
46. One pound of salt pork: Eight cents
47. One pound of veal: Five cents
48. One quart of soap: Eight cents
49. One ton of hay: $6.00
50. Wages for one day of mowing: 50 cents

References:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1825_in_the_United_States
2. https://www.merriam-webster.com/time-traveler/1825
3. https://www.famousbirthdays.com/year/1825.html
4. https://www.famousbirthdays.com/deceased/1825.html
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1825_in_literature
6. https://www.onthisday.com/events/date/1825
7. https://www.history.com/a-year-in-history/1825
8. https://www.onthisday.com/weddings/date/1825
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_date_of_admission_to_the_Union
10. https://www.foodreference.com/html/html/food-timeline-1820.html
11. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015035798035&seq=21

Disclaimer: In writing and editing this article, Gregory DeVictor has made every effort to ensure historical accuracy and not to mislead his audience. In addition, the contents of this article, including text, graphics, and captions, are for general informational purposes only.

© 2026 Gregory DeVictor