Year 1830 Fun Facts, Trivia, and Historical Events

This quick read presents a collection of fun facts and historical events from the year 1830. Discover the year’s top news stories, most influential people, historic firsts, retail prices, and much more.

Take a journey through history in just minutes.

1. In 1830, Andrew Jackson (D-Tennessee) was the president of the United States, and John C. Calhoun (D-South Carolina) was the nation’s vice president.
2. The United States population was 12,866,020, and the frontier boundary was the Mississippi River. There were 24 states, and the most populated state was New York, with 1,918,608 residents. Delaware was the least populous state, with 76,748 people. The five most populated cities were New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston, and New Orleans.
3. In 1830, the United States had a slave population of 2,009,048, which represented a significant portion of the nation’s total population of 12.9 million. Most of the country’s enslaved residents lived in the South.
4. The total American Indian population in the United States—including both east and west of the Mississippi River—was around 233,130.
5. According to 1830 U.S. Census data, Philadelphia was America’s third-largest city with a population of 80,642. However, 29 municipalities that are now part of the City of Philadelphia were enumerated in 1830 as separate boroughs, districts, and townships. They included Bridesburg Borough, Frankford Borough, Germantown Township, the Kensington District, Manayunk Borough, the Moyamensing District, the Northern Liberties District, Passyunk Township, Roxborough Township, the Southwark District, the Spring Garden District, and West Philadelphia Borough. Through the 1854 Act of Consolidation, all 29 of these municipalities were incorporated into the “newly expanded” City of Philadelphia.
6. Between January 12 and 27: Politician Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina and statesman Daniel Webster of Massachusetts debated the question of “states' rights vs. federal authority” in the U.S. Senate.
7. On January 12, farm servants Agnes Magnúsdóttir and Friðrik Sigurðsson were the last two people to be executed in Iceland. The pair was sentenced to death for the murders of two men, Natan Ketilsson and Pétur Jónsson, and was executed by beheading at Vatnsdalshólar in Austur-Húnavatnssýsla.
8. On January 13, a fire destroyed a significant portion of New Orleans, and “it was widely rumored at the time that the fire was deliberately set by rebel slaves.”
9. On March 16, the New York Stock Exchange had the slowest day in its history. Only 31 shares were traded.
10. On March 26, Joseph Smith published his religious text, The Book of Mormon, in Palmyra, New York.
11. The Law of April 6, 1830, was issued by the Mexican government to ban any additional American immigrants from settling in “Mexican Territory,” which included both California and Texas. Mexico passed the law to counter concerns that Mexican Texas was in danger of being annexed by the United States.
12. On April 6, Joseph Smith and five others founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon church) in Fayette, New York.
13. On May 3, the first passenger steam train in the U.S., “The Best Friend of Charleston,” began service in South Carolina.
14. On May 20, Douglas Hyde received a U.S. patent for a fountain pen.
15. On May 20, the Baltimore American published the first railroad timetable in a newspaper.
16. On May 24, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad began rail service between Baltimore and Ellicott City, Maryland, a distance of 13 miles. According to EBSCO, “Four rail cars, pulled by teams of horses, with a total seating capacity of 120 persons, made the first run.”
17. On May 24, Sarah Josepha Hale published her ever-popular nursery rhyme, Mary Had a Little Lamb.
18. On May 28, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act. The law authorized the U.S. president “to negotiate removal treaties” with Indian tribes living east of the Mississippi River, primarily in the states of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Tennessee. The goal was to remove all American Indians living in the “existing states and territories” and relocate them to “unsettled land” in the western U.S. The "Trail of Tears" ultimately forced the relocation of an estimated 60,000 "Indigenous Americans" from the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee, and Seminole tribes who lived in the southeastern United States to what is now the state of Oklahoma. The “mass migration” was marked by intense hardship, disease, and over 4,000 deaths.
19. July to August: The French Revolution of 1830, also known as the July Revolution, was an uprising that brought Louis-Philippe to the throne of France. The insurrection was triggered by the July Ordinances, a publication by King Charles X that restricted freedoms throughout France and was seen as a violation of the Charter of 1814. “Protests and demonstrations were followed by three days of fighting (July 27 to 29), the abdication of Charles X (August 2), and the proclamation of Louis-Philippe as ‘king of the French’ (August 9).”
20. On July 17, inventor Barthélemy Thimonnier received a French patent for the sewing machine.
21. August 28: The first American-built locomotive, the "Tom Thumb," raced a horse-drawn car from Baltimore to Ellicott Mills, Maryland—a distance of 13 miles.
22. On August 31, Edwin Beard Budding received an English patent for the lawn mower.
23. On September 15, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the first intercity passenger railway operated by steam locomotives, opened in the UK.
24. On September 15, William Huskisson became the world’s first person to be killed by a railway train. He was attending the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in England when he was struck by a locomotive.
25. On September 15, the First Negro Convention of Free Men took place in Center City Philadelphia at the Mother Bethel AME Church, which is also the oldest AME congregation in the United States. The convention’s attendees included 38 free African Americans from eight states.
26. On September 16, American author Oliver Wendell Holmes published the ever-popular poem Old Ironsides, which is a tribute to the USS Constitution, an 18th-century warship.
27. September 27: Under the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, the Choctaw Indian tribe ceded 11 million acres of land in Mississippi for 15 million acres of land in Oklahoma. The agreement was the first “removal treaty” carried out under the 1830 Indian Removal Act.
28. On December 6, 1830, President Andrew Jackson spoke to Congress on the progress of relocating 60,000 American Indians living east of the Mississippi River to the unsettled West. Here is an “unedited” excerpt from the president’s speech: “It gives me pleasure to announce to Congress that the benevolent policy of the Government, steadily pursued for nearly thirty years, in relation to the removal of the Indians beyond the white settlements, is approaching a happy consummation. Two important tribes have accepted the provision made for their removal at the last session of Congress, and it is believed that their example will induce the remaining tribes also to seek the same obvious advantages.”
29. In 1830, a thief had intended to steal President George Washington’s skull from his tomb in Mount Vernon, Virginia. However, the burglar mistakenly removed a skull “from the remains of one of Judge Bushrod Washington's in-laws. The desecration of the burial site prompted a new, more secure burial vault to be constructed.”
30. Back in 1830, about 70% of Americans were involved in agriculture, compared to an estimated 90% in 1800. Back then, most farms had enough land to feed one family, which was about 10 acres.
31. Farming practices in the U.S. varied by region. For example, the Northeast focused on “diversified agriculture” to support growing urban areas like Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. On the other hand, the South “experienced a boom in cotton production fueled by the cotton gin and slave labor.”
32. Popular sports in the United States included boxing, horse racing, rowing, and wrestling. (Please note that participation in certain sports often reflected social class distinctions. For example, horse racing was popular with the upper classes, while wrestling appealed more to the working class.)
33. Favorite baby names for boys in 1830 were Arthur, Benjamin, Eli, George, Henry, James, John, Joseph, Thomas, and William. Popular baby names for girls were Ada, Alice, Amelia, Charlotte, Clara, Cora, Elizabeth, Emma, Jane, and Lucy.
34. In 1830, the average life expectancy at birth in the United States was 41 years for a white male and 43 years for a white female. If a child lived to five, the life expectancy figures increased to 51.1 and 51.6 years, respectively. (Life expectancy in the U.S. during the 1830s was based on many factors, including geographic location, labor conditions, living standards, socioeconomic class, exposure to disease, and access to medical care.)
35. In 1830, the United States had around 900 newspapers, about twice as many as Great Britain. Some newspapers were published daily, and others were published weekly, biweekly, or even monthly. Certain newspapers had circulations in the thousands, while others had readerships well below one hundred.
36. Many of America’s newspapers in 1830 were short-lived. Some, however, like the Philadelphia Inquirer and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, have survived into the present day.
37. In 1830 as well, the words "accordion," "Amish," "aplenty," "black widow," "bogus," "concoction," "early bird," "humble pie," "kleptomania," "lunchroom," "menu," "paprika," "percolator," "raincoat," "ramshackle," "rodent," "soda cracker," "splurge," "tidal wave," and "tugboat" all appeared in print for the first time.
38. One barrel of flour: $4.75 to $6.00
39. One bushel of corn: 20 cents
40. One bushel of potatoes: 40 cents
41. One pound of butter: 14 cents
42. One pound of candles: 12½ cents
43. One pound of cheese: Five to eight cents
44. One pound of coffee: 15 cents
45. One pound of fresh beef: Four cents
46. One pound of fresh pork: Five cents
47. One pound of ham: Nine to 11 cents
48. One pound of honey: 10 cents
49. One pound of lard: 10 cents
50. One pound of sugar: 9½ cents
51. References:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1830
2. https://www.foodreference.com/html/html/food-timeline-1825.html
3. https://www.merriam-webster.com/time-traveler/1830
4. https://www.onthisday.com/events/date/1830
5. https://www.famousbirthdays.com/year/1830.html
6. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/april-6/mormon-church-established
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1830_in_literature
8. https://www.readex.com/titlelists/early-american-newspapers-1830-1839
9. https://pa-gov.libguides.com/c.php?g=1180939&p=8635021
10. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015035798035&seq=23
11. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112109513546&seq=627
12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1830_United_States_census
13. https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/jacksons-message-to-congress-on-indian-removal
14. https://www.onthisday.com/birthdays/date/1830
15. https://www.onthisday.com/deaths/date/1830

© 2026 Gregory DeVictor