Silence (Howard) Buck (1778 - 1852)

Refresh this page to see various historical events that occurred during Silence's lifetime.

In 1807, Silence was 29 years old when on August 17th, the Clermont - Robert Fulton's steamboat - made the first successful steamboat trip on the Hudson River between New York City and Albany. The boat ran at an average of 5 miles per hour.

In 1826, she was 48 years old when on July 4th, former US Presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died. It was the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson died a few hours before Adams. Adams, unaware of Jefferson's death - who was both a friend and a rival - said as he was dying ""Thomas Jefferson survives."

In 1839, at the age of 61 years old, Silence was alive when in The Boston Morning Post, on March 23rd, the first recorded use of the word "OK" appeared. A columnist in the paper said this: "The "Chairman of the Committee on Charity Lecture Bells, is one of the deputation, and perhaps if he should return to Boston, via Providence, he of the Journal, and his train-band, would have his 'contribution box,' et ceteras, o.k.—all correct—and cause the corks to fly, like sparks, upward." While this is the first known time that OK appeared in print, where the word came from is still disputed.

In 1844, she was 66 years old when in June and July, the "Great Flood of 1844" occurred on the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers - the largest flood recorded in that area. The population in the area was sparse at the time, though, so the flood didn't have a lot of economic impact. The biggest loss was to the Wyandot Indians - 100 people died from diseases caused by the flood.

In 1852, in the year of Silence (Howard) Buck's passing, on March 2nd, an experimental steam fire engine was tested in the US. Great Britain had begun using "steam pumpers" after 1829, when they were invented.