Veteran's Day

Today is Veteran's Day in the U.S..  I often ask the students I sub for, why is November 11th Veteran's Day.  It's surprising how many high school children don't know. No matter the subject I'm teaching, I give them a mini lesson. How many of you Americans know why today, November 11th is Veteran's Day?  No peeking below for the answer.

Before the answer though, I want to salute my father, TSGT. R. D. Sager, USAF.  Dad spent 21 years serving and ended his career as a tailgunner in a B-52. He served in Vietnam and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, a high honor for Air Force personal.  Daddy died while living at the Louisiana War Veteran's home on March 29, 2006.   He is buried at Port Hudson National Cemetery in Louisiana.  Buried along side him are soldiers who died during the Civil War Battle of Port Hudson, as well as veterans from every war since.

So, why is today Veteran's Day?  It's the day that World War I ended in 1918. In 1919 President Wilson proclaimed today the first Armistice Day.  Many other countries celebrate today as Armistice Day.  The U. S. Army of Military History has a great article on the history of Veteran's Day. Click HERE to read it.

And no Veteran's Day should go by without listening to The Ballard of the Green Berets.

The Friday Record – This Week’s History

As I stated last week, I have a neat new book, 365: Great Stories From History, One for Every Day of the Year by W.B. Marsh & Bruce Carrick.  It is exactly what it says, a history lesson for each day of the year.  So, what happened this week?  A lot. 

September 5, 1638 - King Louis XIV is born, a miracle due to the fact his parents had been estranged for the previous fifteen years. However, nine months prior to Louis XIV’s birth, his father was stranded in a rain storm near his mother’s home.  So dad took refuge at mom’s and, evidently, a few more liberties as well.  Louis XIV ruled for an exceptional 72 years, longer than any other monarch in European history. 

September 6, 1901 – Leon Czolgosz shot and fatally wounded U. S President William McKinley. Czolgosz stated that he shot McKinley because he was an enemy of working people. He was convicted of the murder and electrocuted on October 29, 1901.  For further reading on McKinley: http://americanhistory.about.com/od/williammckinley/p/pmckinley.htm 

September 7, 1812 – The beginning of the end for Napoleon Bonaparte.  At the end of June, Napoleon entered Russia with an army of 530,000 men.  The army marched across the vast Russian country-side, while the Tsar refused to engage his army in a skirmish. By early September Napoleon’s forces had been reduced to about 130,000, mostly due to sickness, accident and occasional guerrilla warfare.  On September 6^th, Napoleon’s army arrived in Borodino, a town about 60 miles from Moscow.  There, General Prince Mikhail Kutuzov is waiting for him.  On the morning of September 7^th, Napoleon ordered his cannons to open fire.  By nightfall, more than 45,000 Russians are killed or wounded, but there were plenty of other Russians to take their places on the front line. Napoleon, 1,500 miles from home, lost 30,000 men.

Kutuzov ordered a retreat, allowing the French to claim a victory, but it was a farce.  While Napoleon had marched toward Moscow, the Russians had deserted it.  When his surviving army arrived, the city was empty and on fire.  For the next three months, they occupied an empty, burning city before finally, in the dead of winter, heading back to the Polish border. In the end, Napoleon lost all but 10,000 of his original force of over half a million. 

Also on September 7, in 1533, Queen Elizabeth I was born.

September 8, 1935 – A very possible U.S. president is assassinated.  Huey Long, the former governor of Louisiana, current U. S. Senator and future presidential candidate was shot by Dr. Carl Austin Weiss in the state capital building in Baton Rouge.  Weiss was also killed that day, so his true motives will never be known.  Bullet holes from this shooting can still be seen in the capital marble walls.

September 9, 1087 – William the Conqueror died in France.  After invading, conquering and uniting England, William had to return to France to defend the Duchy of Normandy from the French Army. During the battle, William’s horse stumbled and he is thrown against the iron pommel, rupturing his intestines.  Five weeks later, after an agonizing illness as infection spread throughout his abdomen, William died.  The illegitimate son of the Duke of Normandy and a tanner’s daughter ruled England for 21 years, during which time he built White Tower in the Tower of England and created a vast deer preserve still around today and called New Forest in Hampshire.

September 10, 1898 – On a quay in Geneva, an Italian anarchist stabs to death Elisabeth of Bavaria, the estranged wife of Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph.  You’ll have to investigate this tidbit yourself!

Friday Record - Great Stories From History

It's BACK!  After about a year off, The Friday Record is back. Okay. I don't know if I'll be posting it every week, but I hope to post it pretty often!

As many of you may know, Borders is going out of business.  I'm sorry to hear this.  But, I have taken advantage of the discounts. One book I bought on a recent trip was  365: GREAT STORIES FROM HISTORY FOR EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR by W.B. Marsh and Bruce Carrick. And yep, it's just like a one-year bible....a story for each day of the year, plus 'also on this day' notations.  Hey, I like ready-made posts!  LOL.  Okay, I don't plan to quote word for word, but I will list what they have noted and perhaps do research myself on it.

So, what happened today...September 2? 

"31 BC Today at the Battle of Actium, Octavian became master of the civilized world  through his decisive victory over Mark Antony.  The Augustan age had began."  Then there's a page and a half history lesson on how this came about....including, Mark and Octavian were allies in defeating Brutus after he lead the murder against Julius Caesar.  But when Mark Antony divorced Octavian's sister Octavia so he could shack up with Cleopatra, well, this rather upset Octavian and the fight was on.

Also on this day:  The Great Fire of London in 1666 started in a baker's shop on Pudding Lane.  That's the story I'd research and blog about, if I was going to do that today (okay, see below)

"1752 Britain and its colonies change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar; the following day becomes September 14."

The Great Fire of London, 1666.  This was the second great fire in thirty odd years, and it was open spaces from the 1633 fire that helped stop this one from spreading to Southwark.  But the fire was still very destructive. According to luminarium.org/:    "Although the loss of life was minimal (some sources say only sixteen perished), the magnitude of the property loss was staggering. Some 430 acres, as much as 80% of the city proper was destroyed, including 13,000 houses, 89 churches, and 52 Guild Halls. Thousands of citizens found themselves homeless and financially ruined. The Great Fire, and the fire of 1676, which destroyed over 600 houses south of the river, changed the face of London forever. The one positive effect of the Great Fire of London was that the plague, which had ravished London since 1665, diminished greatly, due to the mass death of the plague-carrying rats in the blaze."

Charles II formed a commission to redesign London.  The plan called for wider streets and brick buildings, rather than wooden structures. By 1671, more than 9,000 buildings (houses and businesses), and 50 churches had been rebuilt.  The rebuilding of St. Paul's Cathedral was started by 1675.  A monument commemorating the Great Fire was also commissioned and it still stands on the site of the bakery which started the whole thing. Pudding Lane is now called Monument Street.
Anna Kathryn Lanier
Where Tumbleweeds Hang Their Hats
www.annakathrynlanier.com

The Friday Record - Triangle Shirtwaist Compay Fire

Today marks the 100 year anniversary of the devastating workplace fire that helped shape the labor laws we have today. Below is part of an article by Bruce Watson at Daily Finance on AOL, which explains what happens better than I can.

On March 25, 1911, a fire tore through the top three floors of New York's Asch Building, home of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company. On the eighth floor, where the blaze began, garment workers and their supervisors quickly filed out. Two floors up, the company's owners -- Max Blanck and Isaac Harris -- were notified by telephone of the fire and escaped by jumping to the roof of a nearby building. 

(Victims jumped to their death to escape the flames)

But on the ninth floor there were no phone calls, fire alarms or other warnings. In fact, the 200 seamstresses who worked there -- many of them new immigrants to America -- didn't realize there was a fire until smoke began pouring in from the floor below. Within a half hour, more than half of those women were dead: They had either died in the flames, been caught in the building's elevator shaft, or lay mangled and bleeding on the sidewalk below after jumping from the windows to escape the fire. The last victim, who fell 90 feet, died five days later. Six of the victims were burned so extensively that they would remain unidentified for almost a hundred years.

See full article from DailyFinance: http://srph.it/dW1x2J

Here's a website with Cornell University on the fire, too.

Triangle Shirt Factory Fire

Information on  how the unidentified victims were identified can be found here.

Anna Kathryn Lanier
www.aklanier.com

The Friday Record - Elizabeth Blackwell

First Female Doctor in America

I’m back to referring to LADIES FIRST: History’s Greatest Female Trailblazers, Winners and Mavericks by Lynn Santa Lucia. This is a great selection of biographies on fantastic women who broke the rules and over came prejudices to conquer their chosen field. Ms. Lucia writes about America’s first female doctor, Elizabeth Blackwell on page 131.

As a young girl, Elizabeth Blackwell declared, “I don’t know what I’m going to be when I grow up, but it’s going to be hard.” What an understatement!

Elizabeth was born in 1821 in Bristol, England, the third child of nine surviving children. Her father was a successful businessman who believed the education of his daughters should be equal to that of his sons.

After selling his business, the family moved to the United States in 1832.

Elizabeth’s first job, at the age of seventeen, was that of a school teacher when she and her older sisters opened a school for young ladies. After it closed, she floundered for direction in her life. It was the dying words of a dear friend who encouraged her to become a doctor. That, of course, was better said than done. Even with practical training under The Reverend John Dickson, a former doctor, sixteen schools refused her admittance.

Geneva College in upstate New York decided to ask the student body if they would accept Elizabeth as a co-ed. The all-male, high-spirited students thought it was a hoax and overwhelming voted ‘yes.’ On November 7, 1847, to the horror of the faculty, Elizabeth reported to the Dean’s office.

Though her enrollment caused a stir in both the college and the town, Elizabeth ignored it all. She interned at Blockley Almshouse in Philadelphia, training on the ward for poor women with venereal diseases. Though the staff and some patients snubbed her, she found the experience invaluable.

In 1849, Elizabeth not only graduated in half the time it took most students, she graduated first in her class. The prestigious medical degree, however, didn’t help her enter the world of practicing medicine. No other doctor would allow her to join his practice. Nor would any other medical school accept her so she could continue her studies to become a surgeon. Eventually, she accepted a position at La Maternité, a midwifery school in France. Her dream to be a surgeon was ended at there when she lost the sight in one eye after contracting an ophthalmic infection from a child suffering with gonorrhea.

In 1850, she was accepted into St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London and was on staff throughout the winter of 1850-51. She then returned to America, but continued to find the doors to private practice soundly closed to her, despite her additional training. She eventually bought her a house and set up own practice. “Patients came very slowly…I had no medical companionship; the profession stood aloof, and society was distrustful of the innovation,” she later wrote.

In 1857, Elizabeth along with her younger sister Emily (the second woman in America to become a doctor) and German immigrant Dr. Marie Zakrzewska, established the New York Infirmary for Women and Children. It was the first hospital for women staffed by women. Set in the slums, it was desperately needed and the beds were filled within a month.

The three doctors didn’t end their work there, despite the critics. In 1868, they opened Women’s Medical College. It was devoted entirely to the medical education of women. The course study was much more rigorous than any other medical college of the time and it became the first school to require four years of study. It also gave the first medical degree to an African-American woman, Rebecca Cole.

In 1869, Elizabeth returned to England, leaving the infirmary and college in Emily’s care. After garnering support for a college of medicine for women, Elizabeth joined forces with Dr. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, England’s first female physician. The two established The London School of Medicine for Women in 1875. Dr. Blackwell accepted the Chair of Hygiene (gynecology) for a year before retiring from practice in 1876.

She then moved to Hastings, England and set to write books, including an autobiography, PIONEER WORK IN OPENING THE MEDICAL PROFESSION TO WOMEN. By the time she died in 1910, more than 7,000 women were licensed to practice medicine in America.

Read more about Elizabeth Blackwell, M.D.:

http://www.sarahgoslee.com/2010/03/24/an-elaborate-practical-joke/
http://www.pocanticohills.org/womenenc/blackwell.htm
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/physicians/biography_35.html

Other Women in Medicine:

Agnodice
Florence Nightingale
Mary Edwards Walker
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson

The Friday Record - Western Words

Here’s a fun game for those who write Westerns. These definitions come from WESTERN WORDS: A Dictionary of the Old West from Ramon F. Adams.

I’ve done this a few times before. It’s simple, match the word with the correct definition: 1X, 2Z, 3Y.

Good Luck.

Words:

1) Angoras

2) Good Whittler

3) Daunsy

4) Arbuckle

5) Motte

6) Petmakers

7) Sunpecked Jay

8) Good lay

9) Sinkers

10) Fender

Definitions:

A) Heavy leather shields sewn to the stirrup leathers.
B) Slang for biscuits.
C) A green hand.
D) A rustic; a rural resident.
E) A clump of trees.
F) Slang for spurs.
G) Moody, downcast.
H) A good cutting horse
I) Slang for chaps made of goat hide with the hair left on.
J) Well-managed ranch.

The Friday Record - The Mexican War

Mike Flanagan, in his wonderful little book IT’S ABOUT TIME: How Long History Took, tells us that The Mexican War lasted 1 year, 9 months and 27 days during 1846-1848. This war has part of its history with the Republic of Texas. In 1836, Texas won independence from Mexico and became its own country, but from the beginning, Texans planned to become part of the United States. “Due to internal disputes over slavery and continuing international arguments with Mexico,” Texas was not annexed into the U.S. until 1845, according to THE UNITED STATES: A Brief Narrative History. This annexation did not sit well with Mexico, who recognized neither the boundaries between the two countries nor the annexation of Texas.

Moreover, President James Polk very much wanted to add both New Mexico and California territories to the United States. Efforts to buy the territory from Mexico failed and Polk realized he could only achieve his goal by force. He knew, however, that he would not gain favor from his own countrymen or the international community if he started the conflict. Instead, Polk sent American troops to the disputed Texas-Mexico border. As a young Ulysses S. Grant later said, “We were sent to provoke a fight, but it was essential that Mexico commence it.” And commence it they did. On May 9, 1846 Mexican troops crossed the border and attacked the Americans. Eleven soldiers were killed, five wounded and the rest taken prisoner.

Polk immediately asked Congress to declare war on Mexico.

Both Mexico and the U.S. were ill-prepared for the war. Though Mexico had 32,000 soldiers, they were mostly pressed into service or recruited from prisons. At the start of the war, the U.S. had only 7,000 troops. By 1849, that number had increased to 104,000, with most being volunteers signed up for only six- to twelve-month stints. Ill-trained and ill-equipped, the troops often rebelled against the discipline of the military and committed plunder, rape and murder.

The obedience of the Mexican army wasn’t any better and the U.S. army consistently defeated the larger Mexican armies.

General Zachary Taylor (later President Taylor) scored two major victories North of the Rio Grande and on May 19th his army crossed the border into Mexico. They quickly captured Matamoros and achieved Polk’s goal of conquering the northern provinces of Mexico.

Taylor’s popularity and folk-hero status grated on Polk and he soon replaced Taylor with Winfield Scott as field commander. Upset about his reduction in command, Taylor ignored orders and took the offensive himself. Once again the American army met up with a much larger Mexican force. Santa Anna offered for the Americans to surrender, but Old Rough and Ready Taylor replied, “Tell them to go to hell.” The hard fought two-day battle ended in a stalemate.

Meanwhile, Scott started the long-planned move on the Mexican capital by landing his forces at Vera Cruz. After a week-long siege, the Mexican commander surrendered and Scott’s troops started the 260-mile journey to Mexico City. On September 13, 1847, the U.S. Marines occupied the “Halls of Montezuma” when they hoisted the Stars and Stripes over the National Palace.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo  was drawn up on February 2, 1848. Mexico gave up all claims to land north of the Rio Grande as well as ceding California and New Mexico to the United States. For this, the U.S. paid Mexico $15 million. The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty on March 10, 1848, officially ending the war.

AMERICA: A Narrative History outlines the legacy of this often forgotten war: 1,721 killed, 4,102 wounded and 11,155 dead of disease. “Out of every 1,000 American soldiers in Mexico, some 110 died.” This is the deadliest combatants-killed ratio in U.S. History. In other words, the percentage of those who died compared to those who fought is higher than in other war. The ratio in the U.S. Civil War was 65 dead out of every 1,000 who fought.

The landing of Scott’s forces in Vera Cruz was the first major amphibious military operation by American forces. The military and naval costs came to $98 million. For this price plus the $15 million Mexico was paid, the U.S. acquired over 500,000 square miles of territory and truly stretched “from sea to shining sea.”

Also of historical interest is the list of junior officers who would later serve as commanding officers during the Civil War: Jefferson Davis (President of the Confederacy), Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Thomas Jackson, George B. McClellan, George Pickett, Braxton Bragg and George Meade. It was on the battlefields of the Mexican War that these soldiers gained significant combat experiences, later used against each other during The War Between the States a mere 12 years later.

The Mexican War had a huge impact on the United States, evoking “a growing spirit of patriotic nationalism that increasingly characterized the American people,” says THE UNITED STATES. In contrast, it also aggravated growing tensions which featured prominently in the sectional conflict, leading to the Civil War.


Resources:

AMERICA: A NARRATIVE HISTORY by George Brown Tindall and David E. Shi
IT’S ABOUT TIME: HOW LONG HISTORY TOOK by Mike Flanagan
THE UNITED STATES: A BRIEF NARRATIVE HISTORY by Link Hullar and Scott Nelson


Anna Kathryn Lanier
Where Tumbleweeds Hang Their Hats
http://www.aklanier.com/
http://annakathrynlanier.blogspot.com/

Coming back

I've taken time off from dong The Friday Record....a post about history--an event, person, place, thing.  It's a lot of work to put that post together each work.  But since someone recently bragged about my blog, saying how informative it is, I figured I need to post The Friday Record more often. I probably won't do it weekly, but I'll shoot for twice a month...the second and fourth Friday's for sure.  I do enjoy doing the research and writing the blogs, they just took up a lot of time.  So, we'll see how this works out.

Look for the next blog on Friday, June 11th!

Anna Kathryn

How well do you know your US Civics and Economics?

Here's a fun quiz, 33 questions on US Civics and Economics.  I took the quiz, but the page which I hoped to show me the answers didn't load.  I see if I register with the website, I can get the quiz and the answers, so I'll.  I think I did good on the civic's part...it's the economics that I'm not so sure about.  What about you?  How do you think you did? 

BTW, an online article states that 60% of the incoming college freshman fail the quiz, but what's even worse, only 54% of GRADUATING seniors pass the quiz. Yale, Duke and Princent grads actually lost points, while those attending small or state schools, like Rhodes College or Colorado State, improved their points.

Get the whole article on the dismal state of Civics Classes in US colleges at Colleges Get Failing Grades on Civics.

I'm going to join the website, so I'll post the answers later....don't want you cheating....lol.
Take the Civics Quiz now.

Anna Kathryn Lanier
Where Tumbleweeds Hang Their Hats
http://www.aklanier.com/

The Friday Record - Tabitha Brown

I think we often imagine those who crossed the plains on foot and in covered wagons during the great migration in the 19th Century as young and adventurous. But the truth is, not all of them were young. One woman who braved the elements and the grueling crossing was Tabitha Brown. At the age of sixty-six, she joined her son, daughter and their families on the journey to Oregon. And, she was joined by her seventy-seven year old brother-in-law, retired ship’s captain, John Brown. Tabitha not only survived a journey fraught with danger, thirst and near starvation; she went on to become “The Mother of Oregon.”

In April 1846 Tabitha and two of her three children left Missouri for Oregon. It was a 2,000 mile trip that would take nine months through bleak deserts, across swollen streams and over snow-capped mountains.

Tabitha, Capt. Brown and her daughter and son-in-law, Pherne and Virgil Pringle, listened to a “rascally fellow who came out from the settlement of Oregon,” and assured the party that he knew a shortcut to the Willamette Valley (pg 52). It would get them to the valley sooner than those taking the more established and well-known Columbia River valley trail. Too late they realized their mistake.

The trail was not suited for covered wagon and oxen. It was nothing more than a walking path, with the road often needing to be cut while the party waited and used up its meager resources.
When the party reached the Umpqua Mountains, they had to travel through a twelve mile canyon. Very few of the parties’ wagons made it through intact. The canyon was “strewn with dead cattle, broken wagons, beds, clothing, and everything but provisions of which we were nearly destitute,” Tabitha wrote, (pg. 52).

To make matters worse, while in the canyon Capt. Brown became ill. “Their food was gone and their few remaining cattle were so weak they could not move on without rest,” (pg 49). Tabitha was encouraged to leave her daughter’s wagon train with Capt. Brown in the hopes that they would catch up to the train in front. After a harrowing night spent huddled in a tent, praying the wild animals wouldn’t eat them, the couple was found by “one of the emigrants that I was trying overtake,” (pg. 50). He was hunting deer and took the exhausted and starving couple to his wagon train, where they were fed venison.

Capt. Brown and Tabitha travelled with this train until they came to the foot of another mountain range, one in which a road had to be cut. It was while waiting for this to happen that her daughter’s train caught up with them. The family was near starved. Then winter set in.
They attempted to cross the mountain range, often only travelling one or two miles a day. In a week, their food was gone. Virgil Pringle left the stranded party to reach help. No one knew if he’d make it or not. It might well be the last time any of them were seen alive.

Tabitha’s son, Orus, who started the trip with his mother and sister, had traveled the Columbia River trail and had already arrived in Oregon. He heard tales of the Applgegate Trail (as it would later become known as) trials and concerned for his mother and sister, he set out with “four packhorses with provisions” to find them, (pg. 53).

Shortly, Orus and Virgil met up and Virgil led his brother-in-law back to the stranded travelers. Tabitha related the arrival in a letter,

“We had all retired to rest in our tents, hoping to forget our troubles until daylight should remind us of our sad fate. In the gloomy stillness of the night, hoofbeats of horses were heard rushing to our tents—directly a halloo—it was the well-known voice of Orus and Virgil; who can realize the joy?” (pg. 53)

Pushing forward, the travelers finally arrived in the Willamette Valley. “On Christmas Day 1846, Tabitha entered a house for the first time in nine months,” (pg 54). The owner of the house, a Methodist minister, traded housekeeping services for room and board for Tabitha and Capt. Brown.

Tabitha soon wanted to do more for the orphans whose parents had died on the overland trails. She realized that they, as well as the Native American children in the area, needed a home. With the help of missionaries and neighbors, she established Tualatin Academy in an old meeting house where she could “receive all poor children and be a mother to them,” (pg 54).

As her charges grew up, the trustees realized the children needed a place to a place of higher education. With land donated by The Reverend Harvey Clark, Pacific University was established, a university still in existence.

And remember, Tabitha was sixty-six when she started this journey. What do you still want to accomplish in your life?

I have written on Tabitha Brown before, and you can find more information about this harrowing journey here. Leave a comment to be elegible for my monthly drawing (For my monthly blog prize, one lucky winner will receive a DVD of GHOST starring Patrick Swazye and Demi Moore.)

Today’s information was gleaned from HEART OF THE TRAIL: The Stories of Eight Wagon Train Women, by Mary Barmeyer O’Brien.

Anna Kathryn Lanier
http://www.aklanier.com/

The Friday Record - Western Words 5

The best laid plans....and all that. I had planned to have a historical blog for today, but I never got around to doing it. So, once again, I'm turning to WESTERN WORDS: A Dictionary of the Old West by Ramon F. Adams.

Just match the Numbers (words) to the Letters (definitions). Example: 15 X, 16 Y, 17, U Be sure to post your guesses, you'll be eligible to win my monthly prize – a Smart Women Read Romance t-shirt and three romance books: too good to be true by Kristan Higgins, The Cowboy's Second Chance by Christyne Butler and To Love a Scoundrel by Kristina Cook. This blog will be your last chance to enter to win for the month, so don't be shy about matching up the words to what they mean. Oh, and, one person who does post their guesses and leaves their email address, will win a Pink Ribbon goodie bag, full of Pink Ribbon items like a pen, calendar, rubber ducky and more.

1. Manada
2. Daunsy
3. In the brush
4. Roostered
5. Batch
6. Air-tights
7. Rawhide
8. Stood up
9. Notch in his tail
10. Yack

A. Said of a horse which has killed a man
B. Unmarried man
C. A stupid person
D. A weak cow
E. Moody, downcast
F. On the dodge, running from the law
G. Canned goods
H. Brood Mare
I. Robbed
J. Drunk

Anna Kathryn Lanier
3rd Annual Breast Cancer Awareness Event
October 1-31~Multiple Prizes to Win
FMI Contest page http://www.aklanier.com/
http://annakathrynlanier.blogspot.com/

The California Gold Rush

In Make Flanagan's book IT'S ABOUT TIME: How Long History Took, he discusses the California Gold Rush, (pg. 124) which lasted 15 years, from 1849-64.

James Marshall was working for John Sutter with a crew of workers who were camped at Coloma on the American River. The men were building a saw mill and on January 24, 1849, James found a few gold nuggets. A few months later, John Bidwell found gold along the Feather River and Pearson B. Reading found gold in the Trinity River. On March 15th, “The San Francisco Californian” printed the first gold story. President Polk confirmed the discovery in December to Congress.

The following year, 30,000 true forty-niners came to California. By 1854, ten times that many, 300,000, had arrived to find their fortune as new veins and deposits were discovered.

California's Natural Resources site gives these other important gold rush dates:

In 1852, hydraulic mining began at American Hill just north of Nevada City and a Yankee Jims in Placer County.

In 1853, the first extensive underground mining of buried river channels commenced in the Forest Hill District, Placer County.

Also in 1853, the placers at Columbia, Tuolomne County, began to yield vast amounts of gold. This continued until the early 1860s. At that time, Columbia was one of the largest cities in the state.

A partial exodus of miners took place in 1853 when gold was discovered on the Fraser River in British Columbia.

In 1854, a 195-pound mass of gold, the largest known to have been discovered in California, was found at Carson Hill in Calaveras County.

By 1855, the rich surface placers were largely exhausted, and river mining accounted for much of the state's output until the early 1860s.

In 1859, the famous 54-pound Willard nugget was found at Magalia in Butte County.

By 1864, California's gold rush had ended. The rich surface and river placers were largely exhausted; hydraulic mines were the chief sources of gold for the next 20 years.


The all time high year of production was 1852, when more than $81 million of gold was produced.

It was the dream of hitting it rich that drove so many people west. Miners often spent six months' salary just getting to California. Though it was possible to find $2,000 of gold in one day, a miner was lucky to pan $10 a day. It was the possibility of the rich strike which drove up the prices of every day commodities.

Kidport Reference Library gives the following prices:

EARLY CALIFORNIA PRICES CURRENT.

Delano's "Life on the Plains and at the Diggings," gives the following as the prices paid at Lassen's Ranch, on September 17, 1849:

Flour, per 100 pounds .......... $50.00
Fresh beef, per 100 pounds .......... 35.00
Pork, .......... 75.00
Sugar, .......... 50.00
Cheese, per pound .......... 1.50

H. A. Harrison, in a letter to the "Baltimore Clipper," dated San Francisco, February 3, 1849, gives the following price-list:

Beef, per quarter .......... $20.00
Fresh Pork, per pound .......... .25
Butter, per pound .......... 1.00
Cheese, per pound .......... 1.00
Ham, per pound .......... 1.00
Flour, per barrel .......... 18.00
Pork, per barrel .......... $35 to 40.00
Coffee, per pound .......... .16
Rice, per pound .......... .10
Teas, per pound .......... .60 cents to 1.00
Board, per week .......... 12.00
Labor, per day .......... $6 to 10.00
Wood, per cord .......... 20.00
Brick, per thousand .......... $50 to 80.00
Lumber, per thousand .......... 150.00

William D. Wilson, writing to the "St. Joseph Valley Register," on February 21, 1849, gives the following schedule of prices at Sutter's Fort:

Flour, per barrel .......... $30 to $40.00
Salt Pork, per barrel .......... 110 to 150.00
Salt Beef, .......... 45 to 75.00
Molasses,.......... 30 to 40.00
Salt Salmon .......... 40 to 50.00
Beans, per pound .......... .20
Potatoes, .......... .14
Coffee, .......... 20 cents to .33
Sugar, .......... 20 cents to .30
Rice, .......... 20 cents to .30
Boots, per pair .......... $20 to 25.00
Shoes,.......... 3 to 12.00
Blankets .......... 40 to 100.00
Transportation by river from San Francisco to Sacramento, he says, was $6 per one hundred pounds. From Sacramento to the mines by team at the rate of $10 for every twenty-five miles.

“The rush to the diggings produced a handful of millionaires and many more broken hearts.”

http://www.answers.com/topic/john-bidwell
http://ceres.ca.gov/ceres/calweb/geology/goldrush.html
http://www.kidport.com/RefLib/USAhistory/CalGoldRush/CalGoldRush.htm

The Friday Record - The Trial of the Pig

For today's blog, I'm turning back to Michael Powell's book CURIOUS EVENTS IN HISTORY, which I've talked about before. It's a small book, but it's chockful of interesting historical events. "The Trial of the Pig," page 40, is about more than just one event. It's about several that took place during The Middle Ages, the prosecution of animals for, well, acting like animals. Powell explains that "Humans were trying to work out their place in God's scheme and were uncertain about the roles of animal," pg. 42. They would put the animals on trails to help "exert control over the uncertainties of life and symbolically restore order to their chaotic world," pg. 42.

Animals and insects were often brought before ecclesiastical and secular courts, with their lawyers, on charges ranging from criminal damage to murder.

Examples of such trials are:

* In 1494 a pig was charged with attacking a child and killing it. Jehan Levoisier, the judge, found the pig guilty and sentenced it to be "hanged and strangled on a gibbet of wood."

* In 1750 a she-ass was charged with coition with her human owner. She was acquitted because of her previous good conduct.

* In the 1500's "some rats" were charged with "feloniously and wantonly" eating and destroying a barley crop.

Powell says that Edward Paysons Evans's 1906 book THE CRIMINAL PROSECUTION AND CAPITAL PUNISHMENT OF ANIMALS is the "definitive book about this phenomenon." In it, Evans gives accounts of cases brought against dolphins, cows and goats.

When found guilty, the animals were often dressed as humans and then executed.

Have you come across an unusual trial during your research or in a book?

Anna Kathryn Lanier
3rd Annual Breast Cancer Awareness Event
October 1-31~Multiple Prizes to Win
FMI Contest page http://www.aklanier.com/

The Friday Record - Manifest Destiny

Hello! After taking a week or so off, I'm back with The Friday Record. It is the one weekly post I have the most difficult with because, well, because I have to DO something...like research a subject and write about it. Often, I run out of time before I can do that. So, The Friday Record will most likely be a hit and miss in the future.

Today, I'm writing about Manifest Destiny, the notion that inspired thousands of Americans to say good-bye to their way of life and familiar surroundings and head west to the vast and wild frontier.

In 1845 a magazine reporter wrote “Our manifest destiny is to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.” He was, in other words, giving a moral excuse to the greed and imperial ambition of the American people to expand westward. God had predestined the United States of America to stretch from sea to shining sea and it was the duty of the American people to spread Christianity and democracy across the continent.

The idea of Manifest Destiny did not originate with this reporter. Since 1803, when President Thomas Jefferson instigated the Louisiana Purchase, Manifest Destiny was in the works. It continued on with the acquisition of Florida and parts of Alabama and Mississippi in 1819 from Spain. In 1845 Texas, its own republic since winning independence from Mexico ten years earlier, was annexed into the United States. In 1846 the long disputed border with Canada in the Northwest was finally settled to be 49 degrees latitude. In 1848 the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending the Mexican War, gave the U.S. New Mexico and California. And finally, in 1853, the Gadsden Purchase acquired Arizona from Mexico. This completed the contiguous states.

It was not Manifest Destiny alone, however, that spurred on the tens of thousands of people to take the harsh, dangerous journey west. It was economic depressions, in 1837 and 1841. It was word of the rich, fertile soil in Oregon. It was the gold discovered in 1848. It was greed.

As AMERICA: A Narrative History says, “Trappers and farmers, miners and merchants, hunters, ranchers, teachers, domestics, and prostitutes, among others, headed west seeking their fortunes.” THE UNITED STATES: A Brief Narrative History says, “The desire for land of their own, the search for economic opportunity, and the promise of starting over in a new region ranked high among the many and complex reasons that people decided to endure the hardships....”

The pioneers of the mid-1800's did overcome vast hardships to settle the land and fulfill Manifest Destiny. The trail alone offered up “difficulties in finding adequate food and water, hostile Indians, and the danger of being trapped by snow in the mountains.” (THE UNITED STATES) Once they reached their destination, they often had those difficulties as well as others to contend with, including death. However, the westward movement “constitutes a colorful drama of determined pioneers and cowboys overcoming all obstacles to secure their visions of freedom and opportunity amid the regions awesome vastness.” (AMERICA)

Yet, Manifest Destiny did not come without a long-lasting price to America. In addition to the hardship the pioneers suffered, “...the colonization of the Far West involved short-sighted greed and irresponsible behavior, a story of reckless exploitation that scarred the land, decimated its wildlife, and nearly exterminated the culture of Native Americans.” (AMERICA)

It is hoped that if given a chance to do it all over again, the American government and people would have done it differently. But it is doubtful it would have happened any other way. The desire of the government and the desire of the people would not have changed. As one gold seeker proclaimed, “The whole emigration is wild and frantic with a desire to be pressing forward.” A desire to own land, find economic freedom, to find freedom itself in a new life. Thousands of Americans and new emigrants were willing to endure the hardships and carve a place in history in the name of Manifest Destiny. And the government was glad they were.

Now, to put a writing lesson curve on this....how does your story emulate the idea of Manifest Destiny? How are your characters predestined to change their lives, their ideas, their souls? What are they willing to give up to find the brass ring across the dangerous frontier?

Anna Kathryn Lanier
Monthly Prizes to Win!
http://www.aklanier.com/
http://rosesofhouston.blogspot.com/

The Friday Record - The Pony Express

For today's blog, I'm once again turning to Mike Flanagan's book: IT'S ABOUT TIME: How Long History Took. I've done several blogs using this little book since I started The Friday Record and I recommend it for a quick look at history. The back blurb says that IT'S ABOUT TIME “chronicles nearly two hundred key events” which “offer an utterly unique and fascinating perspective on human history.”

(Pony Express Rider, Billy Fisher, right)

On page 94, Flanagan reports on The Pony Express, which existed in 1860-61 for 1 year, 6 months, 22 days. With the Westward Expansion off to a pretty good start and large settlements established along the west coast, it was important for business to be conducted in a timely matter. Back then, timely manner meant twenty days by coach from St. Louis, Missouri to Sacramento, California or thirty days by ship from New York City to San Francisco, California. So, William Russell, Alexander Majors and W. B. Wendell devised a plan to send mail via horseback, a much faster mode of transportation, which cut the time in half to only ten days. The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco has posted a reprint of the San Francisco Newsletter, September 1925, which says,

Six hundred broncos, especially chosen for fleetness, toughness and endurance, were purchased. Seventy-five men, none of them weighing over one hundred and ten pounds, were engaged as riders, being selected on account of their bravery, their capacity for deprivation and their horsemanship, as well as for their shooting abilities and their knowledge of the craft and the manner of attack of the Indians. One of these, Henry Wallace**, was selected for the signal honor of inaugurating the Pony Express on April 3, 1860. In one of the laced pockets of his mochilla (Mexican saddlebags) he carried a message of congratulation from President Buchanan to the Governor of California, the words having been telegraphed that very morning from Washington to St. Joseph.

**This is in dispute. On the City of St. Louis, Missouri website, it says “Historians have never fully agreed whether Johnny Fry or Billie Richardson was the first rider...” So, I have any idea who Henry Wallace is...

One hundred ninety (190) stations were set up over the 1,966-mile trail. According to the San Francisco Newsletter, the riders were given six hours to ride sixty miles on six different horses, which were traded at the stations. Other resource sites say the riders were allowed to travel up to 75 miles before trading off with another rider.

While The Pony Express was a huge and instant success, its days were numbered from the start. Already, transcontinental telegraph wire was being strung and railroad tracks laid. In addition, the cost of sending a letter was prohibitive, $5 a half-ounce (compared with our 44 cents for the first ounce). The founders, who already owned a freighting business, envisioned government contracts to be big money-makers. Unfortunately, that never came about and when the telegraph was finally finished, The Pony Express met its doom. So did the financial situations of its founders. All three died in poverty, having lost half a million dollars in the venture.

(Frank E. Webner, right)

However, during its short-lived life, The Pony Expressed covered over 650,000 miles and delivered 34,753 pieces of mail. Information in that mail included the election of Abraham Lincoln as president and the taking of Fort Sumter by the Confederates.

Anna Kathryn Lanier

http://www.aklanier.com/

The Friday Record - Omens That Changed History

For this week's The Friday Record, I'm turning once again to Michael Powell's book CURIOUS EVENTS IN HISTORY. I spoke about this book a couple of weeks ago (see See Draco and Draconian Law). It's a fascinating little book with dozens of interesting historical facts. On page 36, Powell has an chapter on Edward IV's Magic Vision.


Now here's my disclaimer....I don't know much of the War of the Roses, but here's a brief history to set things up:

Edward's father, Richard, Third Duke of York. and his brother, Edmund, Earl of Rutland, had been killed in the Battle of Wakefield, leaving Edward as the head of the House of York and fighting for the throne of England in the War of the Roses. Margaret of Anjou was the wife of Henry VI and mother to the man who would be king (unfortunately, the son died in the battle of Twekesbury at some point in the war). Owen Tudor, Earl of Pembroke was the leader of the Lancastrians.

Margaret was advancing from the North with her army and Pembroke was advancing from South Wales with his army. They planned to meet up and advance together on Edward. Edward turned toward Pembroke, meeting up with him at Moritmer's Cross, before Pembroke could join forces with Margaret.

The day of the battle, Edward and his men witnessed a parhelion: “It occurs when sunlight is refracted through microscopic ice crystals, usually when wispy cirrus clouds high in the sky cover the sun, causing two ghost images to appear on either side of it,” Powell explains. In other words, the army witnessed what it thought were three suns raising in the sky, which then joined into one sun before their eyes. Now, this is 1461......the army was terrified and took it as an bad omen that they should turn tail and run. Edward, at the ripe old age of eighteen, saw it as a positive sign. He rallied his men with a speech quoted in Davies Chronicle (and Powell's book): “Beeth of good comfort and dreadeth not! This is a good sign, for these three suns betokeneth the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, and therefore let us have a good heart, and in the name of Almighty God go we against our enemies!” (37)

With his army believing God was on their side, they went forth into one of the bloodiest battles of the War of the Roses. They did, however, come out the victors and two weeks later, Edward was crowned of England.

Powell goes on tell of two other “natural phenomena that altered the course of history.” (38) During the two-year siege of Syracuse on the island of Sicily by the Athenians during the 5th century B.C., an eclipse represented a bad omen to the Athenians. About to abandon the siege and return home, they decided the eclipse was telling them that was a bad idea. So they stayed. It was a major mistake. The Syracusans were able to slip through the blockades and “destroy the Athenian fleet and Army.” (38) This was the beginning of the end of the Greek empire.

Christopher Columbus used an eclipse to his advantage as well. Marooned on the island of Jamaica in 1504, he demanded food for his starving men. The Jamaicans told Chris where to get off and refused to give him any. Consulting his almanac, he discovered that an eclipse was predicted in just a few days. He told the natives that if they didn't give his men food, God would blacken the sky as punishment. Well, they scoffed, but after the eclipse, they supplied Chris and his crew with supplies aplenty until they were rescued several months later.

We know that omens, tea readings, bone readings and such have been around for ions. Which one in particular has caught your attention? Would you use it in a story? Leave a comment and a lucky winner will win a copy of Emma Lai's debut story HIS SHIP, HER FANTASY, which just came out on Wednesday and already has a 4 heart review from Night Owl Romance.

Anna Kathryn Lanier
WHERE TUMBLEWEEDS HANG THEIR HATS
http://www.aklanier.com/

The Friday Record - Naughty History

Today, I have a guest blogger, Diliah Marvelle, who will talk about NAUGHTY HISTORY....something she's researched in depth for her two books. Oh, and she's asked for your opinion on the subject of schools for love and seduction education, so be sure and leave a comment. Delilah will give away TWO copies of Lord of Pleasure to some lucky commenters......Anna Kathryn

I've always had a genuine interest in not just writing, but history. In particular, NAUGHTY history. Being first generation Polish and having been raised by a traditional European father who would rather gouge his eyes out than talk about sex, I have to say all things naughty naturally seemed exciting and forbidden. Which is why I was ultimately drawn to write about it. What sort of naughty history am I talking about? The sort that led to my series about a school in 1830 London England that educates men on the topic of love and seduction. Many will say that such a thing could have never existed. To those I say, you'd better brush up on your history. Enter Ninon de L'Enclos. A 17th century French courtesan who was renown for hosting "meetings in a classroom type setting" in her bedchamber with aristocratic men to conduct discussions on the topic of love, seduction, philosophy, and sex. Ninon understood something that many courtesans did of her day. That men had no form of "open discussion" with regard to sex with women. And that if given the chance, they'd flock to her. Which they did. She was brilliant. And apparently, the men who flocked to her thought so too. That said, I turned Ninon's little bit of history into an actual classroom setting trying to imagine what such a school for men would really be like in the time period I write in and what sort of men would show up. The result was MISTRESS OF PLEASURE (released September 2008) and LORD OF PLEASURE (to be released August 4, 2009).

That said, I turn this over to you, dear reader. If you could get your man to enroll in a school that would educate him on the topic of love and seduction, would you do it? And if so, why? I'll toss my garter in first. Yes, I would TOTALLY enroll my husband. Why? Because as amazing as he is during the day, I'm sorry but he needs to be reminded what is expected of him at night, especially after 15 years of marriage. The same old position simply won't do for this girl. (He'd kill me if he saw me post this, LOL) Oh. And by the by, if you're curious about naughty history (and I know you are!!) be sure to check out my blog, A BIT O'MUSLIN at http://www.delilahmarvelle.blogspot.com/.


Delilah Marvelle
http://www.delilahmarvelle.com/
Lord of Pleasure, August 2009
RT Reviewer's Choice Award Nominee,
N.O.R's Best Historical Romance of the Year
& Booksellers Best Award Double Finalist!

The Friday Record - Draco and Draconian Law

I have found a new little book of historical fact to add to my library: CURIOUS EVENTS IN HISTORY by Michael Powell. It contains information on more than three dozen historical events, including The Trial of the Pig, The Battle of the Bees, the Murderer from the Mayflower, and The Man Who Walked Around World. I just bought the book, so I have only read a couple of the stories and only one mentioned above. I might add, the book is on the smallish side, with only 140 or so pages and each topic is typically only two pages long, with short paragraphs (In other words, a quick, easy read).

One I read with interest was The Unfortunate Death of Draco.

According to the book and a few websites, ancient Athens didn't have a written law book. Basically, the nobles, or “eupatrids...made all the legal decisions and were the enforcers of the law.” (Powell, page 11). But without a written record of the laws, they became arbitrary and inconsistent. In 621 B.C., the people were fed up with oral laws that changed at the whim of the person pronouncing them. So, Draco was drafted to codify the laws. Powell says, “He didn't create the laws; he merely standardized them and then wrote them down.” About.com says, “Whether or not it was intentional, when Draco codified the laws, it brought to public attention Athens' outrageous and archaic penalties.” Death was given for not only the most heinous crimes, but also lessor ones, including stealing food.

According to Plutarch in “Life of Solon”, "And Draco himself, they say, being asked why he made death the penalty for most offenses, replied that in his opinion the lesser ones deserved it, and for the greater ones no heavier penalty could be found."

Dictionary.com says Draconian as a word came into use in the 1800's and defines it as:

1) of, pertaining to, or characteristic of Draco or his code of laws.
2) (often lowercase) rigorous; unusually severe or cruel: Draconian forms of punishments

Even with Draco being responsible for the written law, Powell says he was respected among the people. In 590 B.C., a testimonial was to be held in his honor. The custom at the time, to show respect, was to throw one's cloak or hat at the honored person. However, there were so many people in attendance, that he was smothered by a pile of linen....literally. “By the time he was rescued from beneath the enormous pile of discarded garments,” Powell says, “Draco had suffocated to death.” (12)

So, I think I have to agree with Powell's title for this story, Draco did suffer an Unfortunate Death.....

I'm trying to think what question I can ask for today's discussion. Asking for the most unusual death you've heard about seems a bit macabre and I don't want to gross people out. So, maybe we can do with the title of the book....curious events in history, what's one you've heard about?

I'll draw for a winner from those who comment.....and the lucky winner will receive a copy of Deanna Raybourn's novel “Silent on the Moor.”

Anna Kathryn Lanier
Booksigning - August 15
Learn more at:
http://www.aklanier.com/

The Friday Record - On Vacation

Sorry, folks, there will probably not be a The Friday Record for awhile. Since last Sunday, my three grandchildren, aged 4, 2 and 19 months, have been at my house. The 19-month-old's mom is also here, but it's still hectic to say the least, especially with a day camp thrown in. I've not had time to research something to post. The kiddos will be here through Sunday, July 5th, so busy next week too. Then I do have a week off, but I'll be preparing for my trip to National and making sure I'm caught up on work before leaving. Then, I'll be gone 2 weeks for National.

So, The Friday Record will be taking a vacation through July.

I hope everyone has a GREAT summer!

Anna Kathryn
www.aklanier.com

The Friday Record

Well! I hate computers. I'm the contest chair for an RWA chapter's contest. This is the week we have to get all the judges lined up for the entries. And though I had most of them set up already, there's always a last minute rush to fill spots. So, needless to say, I've been busy this week. I'm very grateful for my category chairs, who are helping me keep my head on straight.

So, how does that tie into my hate of computers? Well, I've been so busy with the contest that I didn't get my planned blog on the San Francisco earthquake and fire done. Instead, I started a short and quick blog on a different subject for The Friday Record, only to have my document program freeze on me, and since I hadn't 'saved' the three paragraphs I'd thus far written, I lost them. And frankly, I decided I didn't want to rewrite them. So, instead of a blog about Tomball, TX (interestingly enough, named after a congressman Tom H. Ball), you get a directly cut and pasted paragraph on Pens from On This Day. I thought pens were a good subject for writers to read about and discuss....and unlike computers, they don't crash and loose your copy!

Fact of the Day: Pens

Reed was the first real "pen" (c 3000 BC) and the first inks contained a gelatin derived from boiled donkey skin, which gave the ink its viscosity - but also a very unpleasant odor that had to be perfumed with musk oil. Around the 6th century BC and for more than a thousand years thereon, the quill reigned as the standard writing instrument for people of many civilizations. Swans, turkeys, and geese's large wing feather made the best quill pens. Archaeologists discovered bronze pen points embedded in the ruins of Pompeii but not until the late 1700s were stell-point pens used. A century later, fountain pens were developed - the name chosen because the ink of these pens flowed continuously, like water in a fountain. L.E. Waterman, a New York stationer, devised the practical ink reservoir system. Lazlo Biro relied on improved methods for grinding ball bearings for machines and weapons and produced the first ball-point pens suitable for writing on paper around 1944. The Pentel, introduced by Tokyo's Stationery Company, was the world's first felt-tip pen, c 1960.

http://www.reference.com/thisday/

So, do you have a favorite writing instrument? I don't....whichever pen is available, I'll use it. My mom had a favorite pen type, one she used for years, but I think we've had trouble finding it the last few years. Sucks for her. I like getting free pens and will use them, especially if they're from writers. And I'll leave them at places, so others can steal them and learn about the writers, too.

Anna Kathryn Lanier
Where Tumbleweeds Hang Their Hats
Heartwarming, Sensual Westerns
www.aklanier.com