Year 1831 Fun Facts, Trivia, and Historical Events

This quick read presents a collection of fun facts, trivia, and historical events from the year 1831. 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. President of the United States: Andrew Jackson (D-Tennessee)
2. Vice President: John C. Calhoun (D-South Carolina)
3. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: John Marshall (Virginia)
4. Speaker of the House of Representatives: Andrew Stevenson (D-Virginia)
5. 21st U.S. Congress: Until March 4
6. 22nd U.S. Congress: Starting March 4
7. Inflation rate: -5.43%
8. $100.00 in 1831 “is equivalent in purchasing power to about $3,725.54 today, an increase of $3,625.54 over 195 years. The dollar had an average inflation rate of 1.87% per year between 1831 and today, producing a cumulative price increase of 3,625.54%.” This means that today's prices are 37.26 times higher than in 1831, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index.
9. In 2026, a U.S. dollar buys about 2.684% of what it could purchase back in 1831.
10. Consumer price index (CPI): 8.700
11. American companies and brands founded in 1831 included the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, D. Appleton & Company, Gorham Manufacturing Company, Merriam-Webster, National Grand Bank, and the John Stephenson Company.
12. American railroads established during 1831 were the Allegheny Portage Railroad, Boston and Providence Railroad, Central Railroad of New Jersey, New York and Harlem Railroad, Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, Saratoga and Schenectady Railroad, Southwark Railroad, and the Winchester and Potomac Railroad.
13. In 1831, 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 1, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison began publishing The Liberator, an antislavery newspaper, in Boston, Massachusetts.
15. On January 15, Mr. and Mrs. Henry L. Pierson of Ramapo, New York, took the first “railroad honeymoon trip” in history while aboard a South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company passenger train. They traveled from Charleston, South Carolina, to Hamburg, South Carolina, a distance of about 135 miles. (Just so you know, Hamburg, South Carolina, once a thriving municipality, is now a ghost town.)
16. On February 19, the “York” locomotive—the nation’s first “practical” coal-burning locomotive—made its initial trial run in York, Pennsylvania.
17. On March 6, American author Edgar Allan Poe was dismissed from West Point Military Academy “for gross neglect of duty and disobedience of orders.”
18. On March 12, Clement Studebaker was born in East Berlin, Pennsylvania. He established a family company that became the world's largest manufacturer of horse-drawn vehicles, including “Conestoga wagons.” (Just so you know, Conestoga wagons “are larger, heavier versions of covered wagons, covered by hemp cloth stretched over hoops, with large wheels for traveling over primitive roads, and curved sides and floor to keep the contents centered. They were pulled by a team of four to six horses.”)
19. On March 16, French author Victor Hugo published his Gothic novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.
20. On March 18, the U.S. Supreme Court denied an injunction sought by the Cherokee (Native American) Nation to prevent Georgia from enforcing state laws that “aimed to abolish Cherokee sovereignty within their territory.”
21. On April 18, the University of Alabama was established in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
22. On April 21, New York University was founded in New York City.
23. On May 3, William Manning of Plainfield, New Jersey, received a U.S. patent for a reaper for harvesting hay and grain.
24. On June 13, Cyrus H. McCormick of Rockbridge County, Virginia, received a U.S. patent for a “side-hill plow.”
25. On July 4, the patriotic song, America (My Country 'Tis of Thee), was heard in public for the first time at a children's Independence Day celebration at the Park Street Church in Boston.
26. On July 8, John Stith Pemberton, a pharmacist and inventor, was born in Knoxville, Georgia. In 1885, he developed Coca-Cola, the world’s most popular soft drink.
27. On August 9, the DeWitt Clinton locomotive made its first run on the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad—the first railroad built in the state of New York. It was “the first scheduled steam-powered passenger train in New York State and one of the earliest in the United States.”
28. Between August 21 and 23, Nat Turner’s Slave Rebellion unfolded in Southampton County, Virginia. The uprising, led by Nat Turner, an enslaved preacher, “sought to end slavery through violence but was suppressed within days.” Over 50 whites were stabbed, and in retaliation, white mobs killed over 120 enslaved and free Black people.
29. On September 15, the “John Bull,” a British-built steam locomotive, began operating on the Camden and Amboy Railroad. The John Bull “ran for 35 years, pulling trains of passengers and cargo between the two largest cities of the time, Philadelphia and New York. A short ferry ride connected Camden with Philadelphia, and a longer ferry run connected South Amboy with New York. The locomotive propelled trains at 25 to 30 miles per hour.”
30. On October 30, escaped slave Nat Turner was captured and arrested in Southampton County, Virginia, for orchestrating the bloodiest slave revolt in United States history.
31. On November 11, Nat Turner was hanged for organizing the bloody slave rebellion that unfolded between August 21 and 23, 1831.
32. In December, the Erie Canal was forced to close for the entire month because of inclement weather.
33. On December 25, Arkansas and Louisiana became the first U.S. states to observe Christmas as a legal holiday.
34. In 1831, Erastus and Thaddeus Fairbanks, of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, received a U.S. patent for “weighing scales" that were used for weighing wagons.
35. Key fiction works published in 1831 included Catherine Gore’s Mothers and Daughters, Catherine Gore’s Pin Money, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (revised edition), Selina Davenport’s The Queen’s Page, and Thomas Love Peacock’s Crotchet Castle.
36. Notable poetic work for the year: Edgar Allan Poe’s Poems
37. Top dramatic works in 1831: John Kenney’s The Pledge and Robert Montgomery Bird’s Gladiator
38. Key nonfiction works for the year included John Stuart Mill’s The Spirit of the Age and Washington Irving’s Voyages and Discoveries of the Companions of Columbus.
39. American newspapers established in 1831: The Boston Post, The Cleveland Advertiser, and the Detroit Free Press
40. In addition to the University of Alabama and New York University, other American universities founded in 1831 included Denison University (Granville, Ohio), Wesleyan University (Middletown, Connecticut), and Xavier University (Cincinnati, Ohio).
41. Famous people born in 1831 were George Pullman (entrepreneur), James Clerk Maxwell (physicist), James Starley (entrepreneur), John Pemberton (Coca-Cola inventor), and William Marsters (explorer).
42. Notable people who died in 1831 included James Monroe (U.S. president), Jedediah Smith (explorer), and Sophie Germain (mathematician).
43. In 1831 as well, the words “Afro-American,” “birth date,” “cottage cheese,” “floor plan,” “garden salad,” “gastrointestinal,” “high tea,” “lumberjack,” “partygoer,” “Pennsylvania Dutch,” “pretzel,” “small potato,” “soup kitchen,” “thermostat,” “visa,” “Wall Street,” and “whisk broom” all appeared in print for the first time.
44. 50 bundles of straw: About $1.00
45. One bushel of apples: Around 12½ cents
46. One bushel of beans: About $1.00
47. One bushel of potatoes: Around 40 cents
48. One fur hat: About $3.00
49. One gallon of soap: Around 25 cents
50. One head of cabbage: About 10 cents
51. One pair of shoes: Around $1.75
52. One pound of cheese: About 8½ cents
53. One pound of fresh beef: Around four cents
54. One pound of fresh pork: About five cents
55. One pound of honey: Around 10 cents
56. One pound of lard: About 10 cents
57. One pound of tobacco: Around 12½ cents
58. One pound of veal: About four cents
59. One ton of coal for home heating: Around $1.25
60. Wages for one day of mowing: Around 50 cents

References:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1831_in_the_United_States
2. https://www.onthisday.com/events/date/1831
3. https://www.history.com/a-year-in-history/1831
4. https://www.foodreference.com/html/html/food-timeline-1825.html
5. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015035798035&seq=21
6. https://www.merriam-webster.com/time-traveler/1831
7. https://www.onthisday.com/weddings/date/1831
8. https://www.famousbirthdays.com/deceased/1831.html
9. https://www.famousbirthdays.com/year/1831.html
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1831_in_literature

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