Most people can't name any specific recession prior to the creation of the Federal Reserve, but everyone has heard of the Great Depression. A sibling commenter

Most people can't name any specific recession prior to the creation of the Federal Reserve, but everyone has heard of the Great Depression. A sibling commenter posted some good analyses, but the gist of it is that they tried tightening the money supply at the worst possible time (something the modern Fed avoids at all cost, at the expense of increasing wealth inequality by artificially inflating the value of assets whenever they start to dip).