I was reading a book about the Pony Express and enjoying it very much right up to the point where it talked about the race between the eastbound and westbound riders to see who, during the very first mail run, would get to the midpoint across the western United States first.

According to the book, the westbound riders were three hours behind schedule when they got to the Midway Station located south of present day Gothenburg. The book went on to say that they soon picked up an hour when they went from the Central Time Zone to the Mountain Time Zone. One problem! That first “run” was on April 3, 1860, and time zones did not exist until Charles F. Dowd, a teacher from Saratoga Springs, New York, came up with the idea in 1869.

Dowd presented his idea of a nationwide standard time system with the country broken into four time zones to the Union Pacific railroad. It took 13 years for the railroad to adopt it, which they did on Nov. 21, 1883.

At the time, every city and community basically had its own time based upon the peak of the sun at midday at that location. Church bells would ring out or a cannon would be fired and people would set their watches accordingly.

The problem with that is that the “peak” is different for different longitudes and different latitudes! Once standardized times were adopted, individual communities had to change their local times. Not everyone was happy about doing so. According to one source a preacher down south was reported to have smashed his pocket watch into the pulpit decrying the railroad’s interference with “God’s time.”

In Bangor, Maine you could be jailed if you rang the church bells according to the new “railroad time”. Here in Gothenburg the paper announced that school would be starting at 9 a.m. Old Time. The Attorney general of the United States sent out a notice that government departments could not adopt the new time system until authorized to do so by Congress, which didn’t happen until March 19, 1918.

Looking back, it seems silly. Standardized time only makes sense, particularly in the world we live in today in which travel across great distances in a short time is common. However, even in 1871, two years after the completion of the transcontinental railroad, travel along the rails was lightning fast compared to a team and wagon. The trip from Plum Creek (Lexington) to North Platte would take a couple of days in the wagon! The train, at its slowest speed, would take only six or seven hours.

However, making sense doesn’t always sway people. Possibly the best example of human stupidity and time were the riots in London in 1752 when Great Britain dropped the Julian Calendar and adopted the Gregorian one. The rioters claimed the government stole 12 days from them! How do you steal a day?

But, how much has changed? If you want to start a lively discussion about time, bring up Daylight Saving Time or if you want to talk about using something that makes sense instead of using an antiquated and cumbersome process, mention the metric system.

Nope, human nature hasn’t changed much at all. .