Gnoming began in America before it was even a single nation. Many early settlers already had folk gnoming traditions they carried with them, but it wouldn't be until 1753 that Henry Haliburton began to organize gnoming efforts more formally. He made an effort to learn and preserve traditional gnoming techniques, and combined European and indigious practices. Most of his circle didn't stay in the US after the war, but brought his innovations back to the United Kingdom and laid the foundations of the British Gnome Society are firmly rooted in his work. So one could truthfully say that modern gnoming is an American invention. It is also around this time that the form of the common gnoming handle stabilized into a form we would recognize today.
1851 - Spiritual Awakening and the Foundation of the American Society of Gnomers
As hard as it is to believe now, up until the middle of the 19th century gnoming was considered an obscure pursuit for the wealthy. It was even subject to some mockery as the well-known gnoming gentleman Benjamin Willingswort was the subject of an unflattering caricuture in the August 22nd, 1847 edition of Punch. However as the century went by more middle and even working class people began to take up the hobby. Around this time people were also learning more about the spirit world, and renewed interest in gnomes soon followed. In 1851 the oldest direct ancestor of the American Society of Gnomes was founded. Originally having been a lodge of the British Gnoming Society, they broke with that august body by allowing the working class to join and soon drafted their own charter. While many of their ideas about gnomes are now held to be outdated, gnoming culture in America owes its founders a great deal. Unfortunately most records relating to the society were lost when the basement of their meeting hall flooded in 1922, so most information about this era has been lost outside of a few photographs preserved by family and a large number of gnome logs currently in the care of the Society for American Gnoming, which notably refuses to open their archives to the public or other more established societies.
1940's - Gnoming during WWII
1960's to Present day: The American Society of Gnomes and The Modern Age of Gnoming