MAIN STREET, PRAIRIEBURG
[CHAPTER XXIX]
Wages and Prices in the County from 1846 to 1856
During the decade from 1846 to 1856 land was very cheap in Linn county, and everything else was in proportion. Wages were low, and what the farmer raised on his premises he could find no market for, and, consequently, outside of wheat it was pretty much worthless. The panic of 1857 was a severe one in the county, and many of the bankers and business people met with severe reverses from which some never recovered. No one had any foreboding of the financial storm and all were caught short to such an extent that they lost nearly everything, even their homes which had been mortgaged. Many a business man with good credit, possessed of considerable means, became swamped in the crash. It mattered not what a man had in property, if it was not in gold it had no price, and there was no market for anything except on a cash basis.
From N. B. Brown's account book we glean the following as to prices for eatables in Cedar Rapids in 1846: Beef, 2-1/2c per pound, flour, 2c per pound (1-1/2c in 1847), beans, 75c per bushel, veal, 3c per pound, coffee, 14c per pound, sugar, 16-1/2c per pound, tea, $1.25 per pound, wheat 37-1/2c per bushel, corn meal, 25c per bushel, buckwheat flour, 1-1/4c per pound. This interesting book is in the possession of Emery Brown, one of the sons.
During the decade mentioned a horse sold at from fifty to sixty dollars, and a yoke of oxen could be had for the price of one good horse. As many of the pioneer farmers had not the means to purchase a team of horses, they did the next best thing and invested in a yoke of oxen and thus managed to get along and weather the storm. A good wagon with spring seat cost from one hundred to one hundred and twenty-five dollars, and a log chain from two dollars and a half to five dollars. Ordinary stirring plows sold at from ten to fifteen dollars. Mowers and reapers were not common in those days, the scythe and the cradle being the tools with which the young boy earned some of his first spending money. It was surprising how much hay and grain a good farm hand could cut in a season in this way.