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The Timeline of my Immigration
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My Decision to Immigrate to America
My name is Charles M. Chaney and I used to live in England. However, I had decided to leave that country to find work in America, as I had been unemployed for two years there. The reason I had chosen to immigrate to America rather than any other country is because of the freedom promised to every citizen. I had hoped to find a job there and start a brand new life. -
My Journey to America
I will always remember the day I left the country I had lived in for my whole life. I bade farewell to all my family and friends and stepped on the ship with all my possessions, which included my clothes, money, and a pocket watch that my father had given me. I left the country thinking how fortunate I was to be able to travel to America. The two-week long trip was lengthy and boring, but it was all well worth it in the end. -
My Arrival to America
I will never forget the day I arrived to the U.S. Long before we reached land, through the misty morning air, we could all spot the faint outline of the Statue of Liberty. People all around me were laughing and crying; they had dreamed of this day their whole life, and finally it had come: the day they would become free, the day they would start a new life in a new country. -
My First Day in America
I spent the first day of my new life searching for a place to spend the night. It was past dusk when I had finally found a small hotel. There were dark clouds overhead and rain was trickling down from the sky. Almost as soon as I had been led to my room, the sound of thunder shook the house. The rain fell harder upon the rooftop. I stayed up almost all that night, thankful that I had found a place just before the storm had begun. I felt so fortunate to be in America. -
Finding a Job in America
After searching for a job for four days, I encountered a man in the streets and told him I was looking for work. After answering some questions about my past and my ability to carve, he invited me at once to work in his woodcarving shop. I began work the next day and was glad to finally have a job after two years of unemployment. -
The Reasons I Wanted to Move West
After working at the woodcarving shop for nearly two years, I wondered if this was really the way I should be living my life in America. I didn't feel quite as free or as happy as I had hoped; I did the same thing every day for relatively low wages. Everyday I asked myself, "What should I do now?" or "Did I really come all the way here just for this?" -
My Decision to Move West
My questions were answered the next week when I was walking home from work. As I was walking, I spotted a piece of paper posted to a bulletin board. It said, "FREE LAND IN THE WEST FOR ANYONE WHO WILL TAKE CARE OF IT." I remembered the farm on the small plot of land my family owned back in England. I had grown up taking care of land, and at that point I decided that moving west would be the best option for me. -
My Move Westward
After about two months, I got a train ride to move to Nebraska. I remember it extremely well. There was so much to see; there were already many farms, ranches, and plantations along the way, but my biggest surprise was when I arrived, however, which was the fact that there would be a race for land. -
The Race for Land
The race began at around noon that day. We were all lined up on the starting point of the race. When the gun was fired, we all took off on our horses, all trying to be the first to get a plot of land. In order to earn our plot of land, we had to remove the flag that was already in the plot of the land and place our own flag in the ground to show that we owned it. About five minutes into the race, I found a piece of land and planted in my flag as quickly as I could. Finally, I had my land! -
The Drought
My first year farming my new land, there was a terrible drought that ruined my crops. All summer and fall it hadn't rained, and now there there was nothing to eat for miles around. It was a very hard time because I was not able to make money by farming. I had to find other ways to earn enough money to survive. I ended up selling almost all the wealth I had accumulated in the east just to buy enough to eat, but the day that it first rained again, everybody cheered and celebrated. -
The Good Harvest
The next year was almost the exact opposite of the last year. Rain fell plentifully all year, and by the time the harvest came, there were ripe and beautiful crops everywhere. It took me a whole week to pick all the plants. It was the best year I had ever had. After that year, no matter how bad the weather was, I had decided to stay in the United States for the rest of my life.