Year 1835 Fun Facts, Trivia, and History

This quick read presents a mix of fun facts, trivia, and history events from the year 1835. Discover the year’s top news stories, most influential people, historic firsts, noteworthy inventions, famous birthdays and deaths, 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: Martin Van Buren (D-New York)
3. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: John Marshall (Virginia)
4. Speaker of the House of Representatives: John Bell (Whig-Tennessee)—Until March 4
5. Speaker of the House of Representatives: James K. Polk (D-Tennessee)—Beginning on December 7
6. The 23rd U.S. Congress was in session until March 4. On that date, the 24th U.S. Congress convened. Both chambers had a “Jacksonian” or Democratic majority.
7. Inflation rate: 2.33%
8. $100.00 in 1835 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $3,784.32 today. The U.S. dollar had “an average inflation rate of 1.92% per year” between 1835 and 2026, “producing a cumulative price increase of 3,684.32%.” In other words, a U.S. dollar today buys about 2.642% of what it could purchase back in 1835.
9. It’s worth noting that the U.S. dollar has lost 97% of its value since 1835.
10. $1.00 in 1835 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $37.84 today.
11. $5.00 in 1835 is equivalent in spending power to around $189.22 today.
12. $10.00 in 1835 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $378.43 today.
13. $50.00 in 1835 is equivalent in spending power to around $1,892.16 today.
14. As mentioned above, $100.00 in 1835 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $3,784.32 today.
15. $500.00 in 1835 is equivalent in spending power to around $18,921.59 today.
16. Finally, $1,000.00 in 1835 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $37,843.18 today.
17. Consumer price index (CPI): 8.800
18. American companies founded in 1835 included the Fowler & Wells Company (a publishing house).
19. American railroads established during 1835 were the Brunswick and Western Railroad, Central of Georgia Railway, Hartford and New Haven Railroad, Lake Wimico and St. Joseph Canal and Railroad Company, and the Morris and Essex Railroad.
20. In 1835, 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 (1835), Indiana (1816), Mississippi (1817), Illinois (1818), Alabama (1819), Maine (1820), and Missouri (1821). (It’s worth noting that Arkansas would be the next state to join the Union in 1836.)
21. On January 1, for the first and only time in American history, the U.S. national debt was zero, but ”it precipitated one of the worst financial crises in American history.”
22. On January 30, President Jackson became the first U.S. president to experience an assassination attempt.
23. On May 6, James Gordon Bennett, Sr. published the first issue of the New York Herald, “a mass-distribution penny daily that revolutionized American journalism.”
24. On May 8, the first volume of Hans Christian Andersen's 168 stories was published as Fairy Tales Told for Children. First Collection.
25. On June 17, Jefferson Davis, who was president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865, married Sarah Knox Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky.
26. On June 27, Frederick Henry Harvey was born in London, England. He immigrated to the United States as a teenager and later created the first restaurant chain in the United States.
27. On July 29, Ladd & Co. of Hololulu established the first successful sugar plantation in Hawaii “when the company leased the land from King Kamehameha III for 50 years at an annual rent of $300.”
28. On August 15, C. H. Farnham was issued a U.S. patent for a hand-cranked rotary washing machine.
29. On August 17, Solymon Merrick of Springfield, Massachusetts, was granted a U.S. patent “for an improvement to the screw wrench.”
30. On August 25, the first of six articles reporting the “supposed discovery of life on the moon” appeared in the New York Sun newspaper.
31. On September 14, American poet and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson married his second wife, Lydia Jackson, in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
32. On October 2, the growing tensions between Mexico and Texas erupted into violence when Mexican soldiers attempted to disarm the people of Gonzales, thus “sparking the Texan war for independence.”
33. On November 23, Henry Burden, an American engineer and businessman, was granted “the first U.S. patent for a horseshoe manufacturing machine.”
34. On November 30, American author Samuel Langhorne Clemens (aka Mark Twain) was born. His most famous literary works include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
35. On December 16, the original Delmonico & Brother Cafe at 23 William Street in New York City was destroyed by the Great Fire of New York, which also consumed an estimated 700 buildings in lower Manhattan.
36. Key fiction works published in 1935 were Edgar Allan Poe’s Berenice (a short story), Edgar Allan Poe’s Morella (a short story), and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Devil in Manuscript.
37. British writer Edward Augustus Kendall published the children’s novel Burford Cottage and Its Robin-Red-Breast.
38. Notable poetic work for the year: Robert Browning’s Paracelsus
39. Top dramatic work in 1835: John Oxenford’s one-act play, A Day Well Spent
40. Key nonfiction works for the year included James Cowles Prichard’s Treatise on Insanity and Other Disorders Affecting the Mind.
41. Famous people born in 1835 were Andrew Carnegie (entrepreneur), Mark Twain (novelist), and Thomas Burberry (fashion designer).
42. Notable people who died in 1835 included Felicia Hemans (poet), John Marshall (lawyer), and Joseph Grant (poet).
43. In 1835 as well, the words “about-face,” “barman,” “bus,” “career ladder,” “come-hither,” “doorknob,” “dossier,” “enumerator,” “fiancée,” “filet mignon,” “happy-go-lucky,” “house girl,” “ice pack,” “internal medicine,” “middle name,” “monkey business,” “perfectionism,” “racetrack,” “railroading,” “revolver,” “salt-and-pepper,” “sandman,” “standoff,” “stockpot,” “Texan,” and “zoo” 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/1835_in_the_United_States
2. https://www.onthisday.com/events/date/1835
3. https://www.history.com/a-year-in-history/1835
4. https://www.foodreference.com/html/html/food-timeline-1831.html
5. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015035798035&seq=21
6. https://www.officialdata.org/us/inflation/1835
7. https://www.merriam-webster.com/time-traveler/1835
8. https://www.onthisday.com/weddings/date/1835
9. https://www.famousbirthdays.com/deceased/1835.html
10. https://www.famousbirthdays.com/year/1835.html
11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1835_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