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around my heaviest meteorite, channeling some Betrand Russell.
Big thank you to Col. Chris Hadfield for this most amazing gift.
Cats are very much not chill in space. Dogs and chimps can brag about their astronaut kin, and Russian turtles have been around the moon, but cats have failed in training. They have only made zero-g flight tests and a suborbital flight with the French, and that is not enough time for them to get past their "must land on my feet" reflex... video example.
Charleston est. 1670, pop. 127,999 (2013)
• Rainbow Row consists of 13 early-18th c. wharfside houses • designed for colonial mercantile life with ships docked at wharfs across the street • upper floors served as residences • ground floors were used by factors as counting rooms or as shops • though joined by common walls like row houses, diverse roof styles offer evidence that nearly all of these bldgs. were constructed separately over a period of time —"Urban Architecture in Colonial Charleston"
(L) No. 89 (c.1787), Deas-Tunno House (blue)
• 3½-story brick house • outbuildings include slave quarters & former warehouses restored as residences • built by John Deas, Jr. (1761-1790), member of a prominent Scottish family of merchants & planters • either during or shortly after the American Revolution this house replaced a tenement built by Scottish merchant/planter George Seaman & destroyed by the Great Fire of 1778 —Historic Charleston Foundation
• J.D. Jr.'s father, John Deas Sr. (1735-1790), was married to Seaman's stepdaughter, Elizabeth Allen Deas (1742-1802) • upon Seaman's death in 1769, she inherited most of his estate, including Thorogood Plantation & 141 slaves • by 1790, the Deas's had 208 slaves, none of whom fled the Plantation during the chaos of the Revolution —"The Goose Creek Bridge, Gateway to Sacred Places", Michael J. Heitzler
• Deas Sr. & his brother David were merchants & slave traders • David introduced golf to America, 1743 • First Golf Played, USA, 1788
• another Deas Family, this an African-American one, appears to have it's American roots in late 18th c. Charleston • research suggests the family line may have originated in Sierra Leone, where the Deas ancestors were presumably shipped from Bunce Island on the H.M.S. Brigantine Dembia, then sold or kept as slaves by John & David Deas —"Pearls of Wisdom of Three Generations"
• the slave ship was named for the Dembia River in Sierra Leone, where "black merchants [brought] slaves and ivory" • at Gambier, a settlement on the river, African children liberated from slave-smuggling vessels were kept "constantly under Christian instruction" by members of The Church Missionary Society, who also clothed, fed & provided the children with vocational training —"Southern Evangelical Intelligencer," 03 April, 1819
• in 1787 the Deas mansion was purchased by Scottish imigrant, Adam "King of the Scotch" Tunno (1753-1832), one of Charleston's wealthiest merchants • Tunno traded in Scottish imports, silk, fine cloth, wine & slaves • was steward of the St. Andrews Society • for over 40 yrs. this house was his home & place of business
• considered a bachelor, Tunno nevertheless raised a family here with a "fine looking [brown] person," Margaret Ballingall, who ran the household & oversaw the slaves • they appeared in public as a couple & attended church together at Charleston's elite St. Philip's • they were renowned for the elegance of their dinner parties • —"Women in the South across Four Centuries"
• though state law did not prohibit inter-racial marriages, Tunno & Ballingall were apparently never married (apart from their "moral marriage," derived from decades of living together as husband & wife) • denied the sacraments at St. Philip's, Margaret presented a letter from Adam stating that she was his wife & was henceforth permitted to commune • the white community viewed Ballingall as a housekeeper, concubine or slave, but among blacks she was considered Tunno's wife —"The Women of Charleston's Urban Slave Society", Cynthia M. Kennedy
• Margaret Ballingall (c. 1769-1839) aka, Bellingall, Bettingall, Battingall, and in her youth, Peggy, daughter of Sarah, was a slave who had already changed hands about eight times when, in 1795, Tunno purchased "Peg" & her 2 children, Hagar & Owen, from the daughter of Scottish planter Robert Ballingall
• evidence suggests that Tunno & Ballingall had already been living together since at least 1782, and that she had borne him both a son who died in infancy & — the very year Tunno purchased her — a daughter, Barbara, aka Barbary
• although Tunno treated Ballingall as a free woman & she lived as such, there is no record of manumission • however, Barbara, Tunno's natural daughter, was manumitted in 1803 & in her will, Margaret identifies herself as "a free black woman"
• in his will, Tunno left "the free black woman" Margaret & daughter Hagar $1,250 each, with extra money for Margaret to purchase a new house • his natural daughter Barbara was given $2,500, slaves & several personal items from her father's home • larger bequests were left for some of his white relatives
• after Adam's death, Margaret & her children became homeowners, slaveholders & prominent members of Charleston's free black community • their financial success included dealings with white businessmen, some possibly intimate as posited by historian Amrita Chakrabarti Myers • when she died, Margaret Ballingall Tunno's estate was worth $15,000-$20,000
(C/L) 91 East Bay (c.1788), Inglis Arch House (peach)
• site of a pre-Revolutionary store leased by Scottish immigrant, George Inglis (1716-1775) • known as the lnglis Arch House after the covered alley — once known as Middle Alley — that passed through the bldg. —Historic Charleston Foundation
• purchased in 1774 by mercantile firm Leger & Greenwood — Peter Léger (1732-1775) & William Greenwood (1740-1822) — shortly after they half-heartedly participated in the "Charleston Tea Party" • though neither favored American independence, they went along with popular opposition to Britain's Tea Act by refusing a shipment of tea 12 days before the Boston Tea Party
• their building burned in the fire of 1778, about the same time that Leger & Greenwood ceased operations & Greenwood, a Tory, fled to Britain • rebuilt & sold to Rhode Island merchant Nathaniel Russell • severely damaged during the Union siege, 1864
• purchased in 1920 by preservationist Susan (Sue) Pringle Frost (1878-1960), who owned several nearby properties • New York playwright John McGowan (1894-1977) & his wife, Betty purchased No. 95 (green) from Frost in 1938, which they restored as their residence • bought No. 93 (yellow) & the adjoining No. 91 (peach) in 1941 • considered demolishing the 2 dilapidated structures to create a garden for their home • chose instead to restore them as investment property • removed 19 c. Greek Revival details from No. 91 • added the current details, e.g., the roofline & 1st floor arched doors
(C/R) No. 93 (c.1778), James Cook House (yellow)
• 3½-story stuccoed brick structure believed to have been built by house carpenter James Cook • replaced Loyalist Fenwicke Bull's Flemish gabled house and shop, destroyed in the 1778 fire • like many tradesmen of his era Cook, building houses with at least 4 slaves, assembled a real estate portfolio to take advantage of Charleston's robust rental market
• this house, however, Cook built for himself • his widow lived upstairs until her death in 1826 • the house then passed to Charleston-born Jew, Moses Hyams (1798-1868), a commission merchant dealing in rice who maintained his business at this location • Hyams was probably responsible for the Greek Revival facade & gutting of the interior for warehouse space • the neighborhood declined in the late 19th c. and was essentially a slum when preservationist Susan Pringle Frost purchased this and neighboring buildings in 1920
• in 1941, hoping to return the building to it's original appearance, New York playwright John McGowan (1894-1977) & his wife, Betty, secured the services of a preservation specialist, African-American carpenter/builder Thomas (Tom) Mayhem Pinckney (1871-1952), who performed the restoration
• the Greek Revival façade was removed, revealing a hip roof to which a dormer was added • landscape architect Loutrel Briggs (1893-1977) added a formal garden —Historic Charleston Foundation —Charleston County Public Library —Charleston Post & Courier, 30 April, 1979
(R) No. 95 (c.1778), Charles Cotesworth Pinckney House (green)
• 4-story Flemish gabled townhouse probably dates from shortly after the Great Fire of 1740 & seems to have survived the 1778 fire • its builder's identity is unknown • one possibility is Othniel Beale (1688-1773), chief engineer of Charles Town's fortifications • the giant order pilaster of the adjacent Beale house at No. 99-101 E. Bay matches those of this house • further, this house & the adjacent Beale structures occupay the site of a house inherited by Beale’s wife Katherine “Hannah” Gale & a lot Beale purchased across from his wharf —Roots & Recall
• its also possible that the house was built by Philadelphia Quaker Joseph Shute, a merchant who operated a fleet of ships & owned an island he named Shute's Delight (now remembered only as Shute's Folly) • in 1731 Othniel Beale had been a witness at Shute's wedding, & by 1748, Shute owned this house • in 1849 Shute declared bankruptcy, handing over for auction all assets except essential bedding, clothes, tools & "arms for muster" if he had any • returned to Philadelphia, 1751 — "The Road to Black Ned's Forge: A Story of Race, Sex, and Trade on the Colonial American Frontier"
• in 1779 the house was owned by Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (1746-1825), American statesman, Revolutionary War veteran & delegate to the Constitutional Convention • twice nominated by the Federalist Party as its candidate for U.S. President • lost both elections
• property purchased by a commercial interest in 1789 • storefront window later replaced with the existing entrances & small windows • like other properties in this group, this one was purchased in 1920 by preservationist Susan Pringle Frost (1878-1960) and restored by New York playwright John McGowan and his wife, Betty • interior detail
• Charleston Historic District, National Register # 66000964, 1969 • declared National Historic Landmark District, 1973
Mixed media colored pencil and markers. Drawing was done in a card I sent when I ordered a book directly from Noah Ben Shea called Remember This My Children. He gave a presentation in 2002 and had his books for sale. He actually let me take the book and pay him later. I sent the card and my money for the book. Then he sent me another Copy! Amazing writer with a beautiful message.
Bonita, AZ (unincorporated, pop. 1,872)
• one-story adobe structure on a cobblestone foundation [1898 photo] [1982 photo] • last vestige of the 19th c. town of Fort Grant, Arizona Territory (A.T.), site of Billy the Kid's first kill • built by Danish immigrant Andrew M. "Andy" Johnson (1860-1917) & British-born Henry F. "Barney" Knowler (c. 1863-1906) • both had served together as soldiers at the nearby military post
Camp Grant
• Camp Grant, aka Fort Grant, was established at the foot of Mt. Graham in 1872 • it replaced the original "Old" (1860) Camp Grant, which once stood about 65 miles to the NW [photo], but was abandoned after the 1871 vigilante-led slaughter of Apache Indians known as the Camp Grant massacre • Apaches Tell Their Story • list of Indian Massacres
• the first troops arrived at "New" Camp Grant in 1873 [photo] • personnel included American Indian Scouts
"The bleakness of the natural environment was more than matched by the drudging monotony of the life and work at the fort and the bad relationships between the officers and enlisted men." —Pvt. Edgar Rice Burroughs, Fort Grant, Arizona Territory, ERBzine
• quartered 35 mi. from the nearest town & provided with necessities only, Fort Grant troops lived a spartan life, with one exception: evidence suggests that alcoholic drinks were sold at the installation's Norton & Stewart store after it took over the operation of the fort's sutlers store • still, to satisfy demand for goods & experiences unavailable at the post, a civilian community unofficially known as Camp Grant (later Fort Grant) began to take root
Bonita
• c. 1876, enterprises such as Atkins' cantina & "hog ranch" (bordello), & Cahill's blacksmith shop were established beside or in some instances on the post, as was the Hotel de Luna [photo], basically a restaurant with bunks • nearby, McDowell's general store, [map], occupied the site on which the Bonita Store now stands
• one of the town's first entrepreneurs, saloonkeeper George Warren Atkins (1846-1888), was a Confederate veteran who moved to the area in 1876 • strapping Irish immigrant Francis P. (Frank) "Windy" Cahill (c. 1845-1877), an ex-infantryman who had served at the old Camp Grant, opened a smithy nearby
• Boston-born John H. Norton (1846-1911), owner of several Arizona businesses & founder of nearby Willcox, AZ, opened his first store at Camp Grant • another still stands in Willcox [photo]
• Canadian Miles Leslie Wood (1848-1930) owned the Hotel de Luna (1876) • he variously served as the town's justice of the peace, constable & sheriff • having arrived at Tucson in 1869, he is considered Arizona Territory's sixteenth settler • worked as a butcher at the old Camp Grant • moved to the new military post c. 1875 • a year later, "Adobe Tom" Varley (1854-1925) built his hotel
• the waiter at the Hotel de Luna restaurant was Caleb Baines Martin (1848-1926), a former slave from Natchez, MS • arrived at Camp Grant with the cavalry, 1870 • by 1887 he was a successful rancher • his Martin Wells Ranch grew to 640 acres with 300 head of cattle • the family produced 3 Generations of Black Cowboys • in 1991, grandson Caleb Banks Martin (1909-1992) was inducted into the Willcox Cowboy Hall of Fame • Jesse Martin Washington • The Caleb Banks Martin Family
• Ohio-born merchant Milton McDowell (1841- post-1883), arrived at the settlement & by 1874 was justice of the peace • that year he opened a mercantile & brewery at the site of the present Bonita Store [1876 newspaper ad] • another establishment patronized by the troops was Lou Elliott's dancehall & a brothel run by George McKittrick, who doubled as deputy sheriff
• the settlement's population grew to ~1,000 • c. 1879 it was officially designated "Fort Grant" & c. 1884 renamed "Bonita," perhaps after the nearby Sierra Bonita Ranch, the town's social center
"Bonita was a gun-shooting, whisky-drinking, hell-raising town with a dozen saloons, gambling joints and a red light district." —Arizona Daily Star (Tucson), 14 Dec, 1966
• all enlisted men at the post were paid $13 once a month (in 1864 black soldiers had demanded and won equal pay from the Union Army) • each payday the town's population spiked as soldiers packed its venues, joined by an influx of gamblers, hangers-on & prostitutes who rotated in from Tombstone and Tucson • locals who were usually just occasional patrons would save up to join the payday debauchery —Did you know what Fort Grant Dragged in with it, part one, by Danny Haralson, Eastern Arizona Courier
Henry Antrim arrives
• 17 year old Henry Antrim, alias "Kid," arrived at Camp Grant in 1876 having never killed a fellow man • by the time he moved on to New Mexico he was well on his way to becoming Billy the Kid, the storied gunslinger who rode with the Lincoln County Regulators [photo]
“...as fine looking a lad as ever I met. He was a lady’s man and the Mexican girls were all crazy about him. He spoke Spanish quite well." —Frank Coe (1851–1931) [photo], one of the Kid's best friends & a fellow Regulator during the Lincoln County War... more…
"…he weighed about 125 pounds and was five feet seven inches tall, and as straight as an arrow. The Kid had beautiful hazel eyes. Those eyes so quick and piercing were what saved his life many a time." —Frank Coe
"He… had very small hands and feet. His two front teeth were large and protruded. He was a nice and polite chap. —Dr. M. G. Paden Lincoln County resident
"He was not handsome, but he had a certain sort of boyish good looks. He was always smiling and good-natured and very polite and danced remarkably well ...." —Paulina Maxwell [photo], supposedly the Kid's sweetheart —Arizona Highways, August 1991 • [photos] of Lincoln County War participants
A killing at Milton McDowell's
• in 1874, Scottish-born John R. Mackie (or Macky) — a 24 year old 6th Cavalry private who would soon be Kid's partner — shot T.R. Knox in the neck during a card game dispute at McDowell's • Mackie & McDowell were charged with attempted murder, the latter as an accessory • both were released after the shooting was ruled self defense on the grounds that Knox was a "muscular man" who acted in a "violent and riotous manner" against a person who was "no match for him"
Henry Antrim, horse thief
• the Kid briefly worked as a cook & bussed tables at the Hotel de Luna, before turning to theft with his accomplice, John Mackie…
"Soldiers would come from Fort Grant to visit the saloons and dance halls here. Billy [he was still Henry] and his chum Macky would steal the saddles and saddle blankets from the horses..." —Miles L. Wood, Justice of the Peace
"Wood recalled one occasion when two officers attempted to secure their mounts by running long picket ropes from the hitching rail outside to the bar inside. 'Macky talked to the officers,' said Wood, 'while Billy cut the ropes from the horses leaving the officers holding the pieces of rope.'" —Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life, Robert M. Utley
• a formal complaint accusing Antrim of horse theft was sent to Constable Wood by Camp Grant's Major Charles Compton
• Antrim & Mackie awaited breakfast at Wood's Hotel de Luna • as Wood approached their table with a serving tray, he suddenly pulled a gun from under it • arrested them for horse theft & delivered them to Fort Grant's stockade in shackles applied by Cahill, the blacksmith • Henry promptly escaped through the building's chimney —What Fort Grant dragged in with it, part two, Danny Haralson, Eastern Arizona Courier
Antrim's first kill
• on the evening of 17 Aug, 1877, Frank Cahill accosted Antrim at Atkins' cantina • eyewitness Augustus Montague "Gus" Gildea (1854-1935), an army scout, Texas Ranger and later an outlaw, recalled the encounter in a 1931 interview with a reporter for The Tucson Citizen:
"Billy the Kid… came to town, dressed like a country jake, with store pants on and clodhopper shoes instead of boots. He wore an old six-shooter in the waistband of his trousers…
"The blacksmith, Cahill, frequented George Atkins' saloon. He was called 'Windy' because he was always blowin' about first one thing and then another. Shortly after the Kid came to Fort Grant, Windy started abusing him.
"He would throw Billy to the floor, ruffle his hair, slap his face and humiliate him before the men in the saloon. The Kid was slender, no match for the blacksmith, a burly man with a gruff voice and a blustering manner.
"One day he threw the youth to the floor. He pinned his arms down with his knees and started slapping his face…
"People in the saloon were watching the two on the floor. Billy's right arm was free from the elbow down. He started working his hand across and finally managed to get hold of his .45.
"All of a sudden it was absolutely silent in the saloon —not a sound. The blacksmith evidently felt the pistol muzzle rammed against his side for he straightened up. Then there was a hell of a noise and a lot of smoke. Windy fell over to one side as the Kid wiggled loose and ran to the door. He jumped into the saddle on John Murphy's racing pony and rode out of fort Grant.
"When I came into town the next day from Colonel Hooker's ranch where I was working, Murphy was storming around and cursing the Kid, calling him a horse thief, murderer and similar names. I told him he would get his horse back, that the Kid was no thief.
"In about a week one of Murphy's friends rode into town on Cashew, Murphey's horse, saying that the Kid had asked him to return the animal to its owner."
• Arizona Weekly Star, 23 August, 1877: "Frank P. Cahill was shot by Henry Antrim alias Kid at Camp Grant on the 17th, and died on the 18th. The following are the dying words of the deceased:
"I, Frank P. Cahill, being convinced that I am about to die, do make the following as my final statement: My name is Frank P. Cahill. I was born in the county and town of Galway, Ireland: yesterday, Aug. 17th, 1877, I had some trouble with Henry Antrim, otherwise known as Kid, during which he shot me. I had called him a pimp, and he called me a S____ of a b____, we then took hold of each other: I did not hit him, I think: saw him go for his pistol, and tried to get ahold of it, but could not and he shot me in the belly…"
• with Henry Antrim already on the run, the coroner's inquest declared him guilty of murder • Gus Guildea saw it differently: "He had no choice; he had to use his equalizer."
• on August 18 a "citizen," presumably Cahill, was buried in grave No. 12 at the Fort Grant Cemetery • the marker [photo] is absent legible identification —The Billy the Kid Reader, Fredrick Nolan
Roberts buys Bonita Store
• Milton McDowell sold his business & the original building on this site to British immigrant William Roberts (1845-1911), who years later (1889) relocated to accommodate not only his store & saloon, but also a hotel & a stage line
• Roberts' new location proved unpropitious for business • next door was a shabby establishment known as "The Hook," a “hog ranch” & dance house where "colored women of the most notorious character… hold high carnival, quite frequently resulting in the killing of one or more of the nation's defenders." — The St Johns Herald (St Johns, Arizona), 07 Aug, 1890
• a month before Roberts moved in, Camp Grant was abuzz over an incident at the "Hook" • in a dispute over a money game, Pvt. Horace Johnson, a Buffalo Soldier, slapped feisty courtesan Fannie Oliver & stormed off, then reappeared • Oliver, whose trail of arrests included assault & battery in New Orleans, vagrancy in Galveston & assault with a .45 in El Paso, pulled a pistol & shot Johnson dead • a few weeks later the saloon was set ablaze, allegedly by Johnson's comrades • Buffalo Soldiers of the American West • [photos]
• in 1890 Roberts and "Hook" owner James W. Cress (1856-1890), having already established a contentious relationship, argued over a fence Cress had erected • the dispute ended with Roberts — Bonita's Constable — chasing Cress & firing 3 shots into his back, although Roberts later claimed that Cress fled after his first shot & only the last two were back shots • this was just one of the six shootings in Bonita that day, three of them fatal • Roberts was found not guilty of murder —All about the ‘Hook’ by Danny Haralson, East Arizona Courier
• his business in a tailspin, Roberts sold off his holdings, made some investments & eventually became the honorable Judge William Roberts, Kirkland, A.T.
A race for $20,000,000
• a year after the Kid killed Windy Cahill in Atkins' cantina, George Atkins shot & killed 28 year old William Wade in what was ruled a justifiable act • business, already slow, got worse • in July 1879, Pima County sued his Atkins' Dance House at Fort Thomas for $37 in back taxes • by the end of the year, Atkins had closed down & moved on
• he settled in Tombstone Canyon at Bisbee, a young mining town founded in 1880 • built a home at Castle Rock [photos] beside the stone cabin of pioneer prospector George Warren (1835-1923) • invested in Tombstone & Bisbee mines • opened one of the four original saloons in the new town of Charleston
• on July 3, 1880 Warren, while drinking with Atkins in (presumably) his Charleston saloon, claimed he could outrun a man on a horse in a 100 yard race • he then proposed a wager: his stake in the rich Copper Queen Mine against Atkins' saddle horse & mining claims • challenge accepted
• in front of a small crowd, Warren drove a stake into the ground at 50 yards (46 m), counting on gaining enough ground to win while rounding it, just as he'd witnessed as a 10 year old watching the man vs. horse races of his Apache captors
• at the sound of a gunshot they were off • Warren did gain the lead on the turn but Atkins, fiercely spurring his mount, blew past him • victorious, the former Camp Grant saloonkeeper sold his share of the Copper Queen for US $250K, estimated to be worth about US $20MM in 2016 dollars —A Footrace to Obscurity, Tom Rizzo
• the following year, Atkins signed an oath accusing Warren of insanity • after a hearing, Warren was declared insane & placed in confinement, but later discharged
• George W. Atkins died, age 43, at Tombstone & was buried in Boothill Graveyard
• George Warren died penniless & was buried in a pauper's grave • his body was later moved to a prominent place in the cemetery where a monument was erected honoring him as a Bisbee pioneer • his image appears on the Arizona State seal [photos]
McDowell moves on
• his Camp Grant store sold, by July, 1879 Milton McDowell opened a mercantile in the new town of Charleston • partnered with with A.T. Gattrell (1844-1925), a man who would soon parlay his "meanest saloonkeeper in Charleston" reputation into a judgeship • McDowell was also a principal in the Smith-McDowell Brewery, a partner in Brook's Saloon & Charleston's deputy sheriff • he married in 1882
Massachusetts-born Amos Wells Stowe (1828-1883) had claimed the 160 acres used to develop Charleston in 1878 & laid out a twenty-six block grid w/sixteen lots per block • He offered free 3 yr land leases that required the purchaser to invest at least $100 in improvements • at the end of the lease, the purchaser was to pay Stowe the price of the lot with the improvements —Wikipedia
• by May 1879, approximately 40 buildings, most adobe, had been erected • many residents worked at Millville, on the opposite bank of the San Pedro River • population peaked at ~425 —photos, Wyatt Earp Explorers
"They didn't begin their day down there till dark, and then they whooped it up. Election days were the richest of all. The townspeople never pretended to come out of their holes to vote. The Cowboys, hundreds of them, would come in on their Sunday horses, tank up and then proceed to capture the ballot box and stuff it as they please." — John Dunbar, editor of the Phoenix Gazette, Arizona's Rustler King, Wagons West Chronicles, Oct. 2016
• McDowell's mercantile had plenty of competition that included at least 4 Jewish store owners: Herman Wellisch, Harris Aaron, Sam Katzenstein, who was also Charleston's postmaster, & Tucson's Louis Zeckendorf • Aaron also partnered with Jack Schwartz in a saloon [photo] until Schwartz, aka Jacob "J.W." Swart, killed the asst. foreman of a mill & fled Charleston • Schwartz had purchased the saloon in 1881 from Frank Stilwell (1856-1882), who was killed the following year by Tombstone deputy marshal Wyatt Earp (1848-1929) • Blood on the Tracks… Wyatt Earp vs. Frank Stilwell, True West
• as deputy sheriff, Milton McDowell served papers that resulted in the garnisheeing of fellow Charlstonian George Ellis's wages • Ellis, an asst. foreman at a smelter, later responded by ambushing The deputy with a Winchester rifle: "...the ball striking McDowell just to the left of the backbone and angling to the right, passed out in front below the right shoulder." —Weekly Republican (Phoenix, Arizona), 7 Jun, 1883
• Ellis fled & McDowell survived, only to be arrested on a charge of insanity 2 months after he was shot • he was declared insane due to "hallucinations," i.e., falsely believing he was the owner of the Copper Queen Mine • he was then sent to the California State Insane Asylum at Stockton
• having suffered crippling financial losses, Stowe's Charleston townsite was sold for $1,000 a day before it was to be auctioned off on the Tucson Courthouse steps • after the 1887 Sonora Earthquake rendered all of its buildings uninhabitable, Charleston became a ghost town
Epilogue
"Today, apart from the Bonita store… a huge barn of a place with fifteen-foot-high ceilings, everyone of those buildings is gone…" —Frederick Nolan, The Billy the Kid Reader
• Bonita prospered for nearly three decades until Fort Grant was abandoned in 1905 • in 1910 the census confirmed that the prostitutes, dance houses & all save one of the mercantiles were gone, leaving the Bonita Store and the memory of Billy the Kid as the sole survivors of the town's heyday in the Old West
• Miles L. Wood purchased the Bonita Store, which was operated by his DuBois descendants for decades before it closed down
• Fort Grant is now an Arizona state prison • Facebook
• though a quiet town with a fraction of its former population, Bonita attracted national attention one last time in 1901 when local cattle rancher D.R. Thomas and his Black Movement to Central Africa petitioned the U.S. Congress to purchase land in Africa & populate it with black Americans, enabling them to build a free and independent government of their own
• in 2011, the Upham tintype of Billy the Kid — the only available image of him with sufficient provenance to be universally accepted as authentic — was purchased for $2.3MM by libertarian billionaire William Koch
National Register # 98000172, 1998
English translation: Every woman is the gift of a world to me.
;-) ...
Salonfähig - Frauen in der Heine-Zeit
Frauen sind schon immer Muse und Irritation für Schriftsteller und Künstler gewesen. So auch für Heinrich Heine.
Er hatte natürlich Beziehungen zu den Frauen des 19. Jahrhunderts. Sie waren für ihn Freundinnen, Feindinnen, Förderinnen, Gönnerinnen und Frauen der Familie.
Ihre Beziehungen zu Heine changierten zwischen Liebe, Bewunderung, Verehrung, Respekt und Ablehnung.
Seine Äußerungen waren meistens sicher salonfähig ... ;-) ...
Heine for fast-food-lovers:
www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/h/heinrich_heine.html
en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Heinrich_Heine
www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/16071.Heinrich_Heine
P1020303_pt_bw
When Stephen Fox arrived in New Orleans in 1825 on a pig boat, with a ten-dollar gold piece, a pearl stick pin, he pitted himself against the indolent, slave-ridden, caste bound planters, with the skill and daring of the card-sharp he was. He gambled, won and built "Harrow", the greatest mansion house and plantation in Louisiana. He took the love of three women: Odalie Orceneaux, his wife; her sister, Aurore; and Desiree, his Black mistress. Fox had a child by each of them. This story is charged with blood and passion and strife between the races. [ Source: Goodreads website at www.goodreads.com/book/show/1269821.The_Foxes_of_Harrow ]
The book was the basis for a rather good 1947 movie starring Rex Harrison and Maureen O'Hara. Here's an excerpt:
J is for JOURNAL
Many years ago I was involved with a group which was pioneering the concept of *healing* using the Expressive Arts. All of us were eventually certified and a lot of our work was featured in some of the first books published on the process*.
It was a very exciting time of my life for bonding and healing.
One of the sayings I coined was:
"Trust the Abstract; Things happen there"
~Antoinette Ledzian~
. . . so I was touched when my husband included that in his flip-flip rolodex, along with a calligraphic stroke I had given to him!
Eventually I got trademarked as "The Journal Lady®"
and the rest is history . . . always ongoing . . .
Post Script for the BCD Just Jigsaws Group:
Here are two photos from the Second Wooden Mystery Group Project. - the start and the end. You may have heard me talk about it, and I wrote about the first one in the BCD magazine. Genest does large jigsaws too!
Detail of Annunciation c1469 by Francesca del Cossa, in an extreme line-cut jigsaw made by Genest Desfosses, Le Colimacon.
At face value an Annunciation scene set in an open logia, the complex architectural setting is not quite real, but a trompe l'oeil with deliberate logical flaws. The column base is away from the wall although the capital is against the wall, supporting a ceiling beam. The Virgin's room is too shallow for all the furniture, there is something wrong with the views of arcade vaulting.The snail is huge but the dog is tiny. After I finished the jigsaw we did an internet search on 'annunciation pillar snail' and came up with the identity of the painting, at Dresden - see below. It also brought up a reference on 'goodreads' to a novel and an essay by art academic Daniel Arasse. The presence of the snail is undoubtably what attracted Genest to the painting - as it is his trademark figural piece (see column).
Here is a link discussing Arasse's essay (The Snail’s Gaze, and Secrets de Peintres in “Histoires de Peintres”) and interpretation of the symbolism of the (outsize) snail which crawls in/along the edge of the painting.
retinalechoes.wordpress.com/2013/02/07/the-snails-duality/
"Arasse interprets how this duality of the Snail’s presence both in and on the painting draws our regard into the depiction, by pointing to its artifice. The Snail, incongruous by both its presence and size, is simultaneously real and irreal, drawing the viewer into its embrace, and in this intimacy whispers to its viewer the secrets of its inadequacy. ‘Who am I,’ asks the painting, ‘belonging to this material world to attempt to ever represent the conception of the Son of God?’"
(The goodreads review pointed out the diagonal axes in the painting linking the outsize snail, pillar/Gabriel's hand and God (strangely snail shaped) in the sky. It also pointed out the parallel elements of Gabriel's foot, halo, wings and pointing arm, building struts and column tops. Retinale also reminds us of the contemporary third story of the eighth day Boccaccio'd Decameron, a tale of three medieval Florentine painters one of whom is credulously tempted by a confidence trickster and whose fellows remind him of the reality of their situation as painters. "Boccaccio’s mischievous tone presenting the image of the Snail as a metaphor for the painter who does little more than “smear a trail of slime across a wall” adds a second, more impious interpretation of the lowly gastropod to modify Arasse’s humble, celestial Snail.")
Retinale continues, "For Arasse, the Snail in Francesco del Cossa’s Annunciation painting “leads us to understand that this painting is itself a poor, inevitably inadequate representation of the event it represents.” Bocaccio’s metaphor adds a second, alternative perspective – the Snail is not simply the figure of painting’s inadequacy, it is also a sign of the painter’s supremacy.
The painter, lowly mortal though he may be, is nonetheless tasked with creating the infinite. As a painter of holy images, his daily task is to represent the unrepresentable by dealing with this creation quotidianly. It is not enough for the religious painter to passively await God’s inspiration, for he must also calculate ratios of dyes, formulate new compositions, figure costs, and select brushes, all to create an icon which will eventually be vested with sanctity. Pointing out painting’s artifice opens the door not only to a pious interpretation but also to an impious one, illustrating the painter’s unique position between the Infinite and the Void.
Although Francesco del Cossa’s Snail is most certainly on the painting, as a painted figure it still never ceases to be in the painting. Its body remains constituted of tints, and not of blood. Here is the source of the Snail’s duality – the Snail is composed from the same matter which one uses to compose images of the Lord. The Snail’s painted representation indicates an existence in the artificial world of painting, and its size indicates its existence in this material plane – granting the Snail a duality of spirit and flesh much like that of the Son of God.
The Snail which granted access into the painting, now also provides an exit out of it, doubling the Snail’s significance. Although the Snail might be the mundane which grants access to the heavenly realm, it is also the celestial brought down to the level of the gastropodal. The Snail is more than “painting which cannot represent” but it is also “the painter who must represent” by smearing his trail of slime behind.
The Snail becomes the dual figure of humility/pride, creature/creator that embodies every painter of holy images. And who knows? Perhaps this was Francesco del Cossa’s way of painting his autoportrait into the painting, as the lowly servant and powerful creator, and it is his head peeping out from beneath the shell?"
Another theory about the snail (from a Christian commentator, not convinced by this one):
"The snail was thought to live underground in the dark in its shell for three months of the year when it would re-emerge. If this makes you think of the time Christ spent in the tomb, you have solved the riddle. Many of the extra items in these paintings hint at the end of Christ's time on earth, even as His time in human flesh is just beginning."
Gresham College Lecture, 2014 Steve Jones Genetics Professor - Art of Snails & Snails in Art:
"... medieval painters included them in paintings of the Virgin Mary, due to the belief that their shells meant that their modesty was protected and they reproduced without sex."
www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/snails-in-art-and-t...
Manhattan, NY (settled 1624, pop. 1.6MM) • East Village
• Grace Episcopal Church • French Gothic Revival design by 25 yr. old James Renwick, Jr. (1818-1895), his first major commission • cornerstone laid, 1843 • church consecrated, 1846 • church history
• built of “Sing Sing marble,” actually Tuckahoe Marble quarried from the Sing Sing Quarry [photo] by Sing Sing Correctional Facility prisoners
• spire, 226’ high, was among the tallest points on the early NYC skyline • originally wood, was replaced by a marble spire, 1883
• situated in one of the most visible locations in Manhattan, the corner of East 10th St. where Broadway bends S/SE, aligning w/ the city’s avenues [c. 1900 photo]
• for much of the mid/late 19th C., considered NYC’s most fashionable church & most prestigious site for marriage or burial • like many other churches, charged “pew rents,” an annual fee for the use of its seats • initial pew rents were $3/wk. (= $114 today), thus the congregation in the early years consisted largely of wealthy New Yorkers [1918 video]
“In his 1882 New York by Gaslight, author James, D. McCabe, Jr. would point out, “At the morning service a greater display of wealth and fashion is presented here than at any other city church. Grace Church has been the scene of more fashionable weddings and funerals than any other place of worship.” —Daytonian in Manhattan
• on 10 Feb, 1863, the American Civil War was raging, demonstrations, protesting the country’s first military draft were on the verge of becoming full-blown draft riots, and a widely anticipated event took place in Grace Church; Charles Sherwood Stratton (1838-1883) — a wealthy, international celebrity better known as General Tom Thumb — and Mercy Lavinia Warren (1841-1919) exchanged wedding vows • both were proportionate dwarfs in the employ of P.T. Barnum, performers at his American Museum
• Stratton was a gifted entertainer who sang, danced & performed physical comedy, stage name taken from “The History of Tom Thumbe,” a story first published in 1621, attributed to London romance writer Richard Johnson (1573–c.1659) • Lavinia began her career performing on a river boat, signed w/Barnum, age 21
“The church was comfortably filled by a highly select audience of ladies and gentlemen, none being admitted except those having cards of invitation. Among them were governors of several of the States, to whom I had sent cards, and such of those as could not be present in person were represented by friends, to whom they had given their cards. Members of Congress were present, also generals of the army, and many other prominent public men. Numerous applications were made from wealthy and distinguished persons, for tickets to witness the ceremony, and as high as sixty dollars [= $1,400 today] was offered for a single admission. But not a ticket was sold; and Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren were pronounced ‘man and wife’ before witnesses.” —P.T. Barnum, “Struggles and Triumphs”
• the Brooklyn Eagle editorialized, “We are surprised that the clergy, or representatives of so respectable a body as the Episcopal Church should, for a moment, allow themselves to be used by this Yankee showman to advertise his business”
• amid widespread criticism of the church for it’s complicity in what was widely viewed as another Barnum publicity stunt, Stratton responded, “It is true we are little but we are as God made us, perfect in our littleness. We are simply man and woman of like passions and infirmities with you and other mortals. The arrangements for our marriage are controlled by no showman.”
“The more than 2,000 invited wedding guests [photo] appeared to be a who’s who of American nobility, including a number of congressmen and high-ranking generals, in addition to the thousands of average New Yorkers who showed up hoping to catch a glimpse of the famous tiny couple.” —A General, a Queen and the President
“The wedding party’s arrival outside the church at half past noon touched off a stampede among combatants fighting for a close-up view. The police restrained them only with extreme exertion. Inside, ‘an instantaneous uprising ensued,’ The New York Times reported the following day. ‘All looked, few saw. Many stood upon the seats, others stood upon stools placed on the seats. By many, good breeding was forgotten. By very many the sanctity of the occasion and the sacredness of the ceremonies were entirely ignored. As the little party toddled up the aisle, a sense of the ludicrous seemed to hit many a bump of fun, and irrepressible and unpleasantly audible giggles ran through the church.’” —Boundary Stones
• the couple received wedding presents from wealthy Americans, including a miniature horse-drawn carriage fashioned by Tiffany & Co. • the ceremony, officiated by Stratton’s hometown minister, Junius Willey, was followed by a reception at the Metropolitan Hotel, attended by guests who had purchased tickets from Barnum
• the newlyweds [illustration] then traveled to Washington where Charles’s brother was stationed w/ the Union Army • checked in to Willard’s Hotel
• on 13 Feb, 1863, a well-publicized reception for the couple was held in the East Room of the Lincoln White House, hosted by First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln & America’s tallest president [illustration] —Andrew Martin
Livinia Warren: “[The] President took our hands and led us to the sofa, lifting the General up and placed him at his left hand, while Mrs. Lincoln did the same serve for me, placing me at her right… Tad, the favorite son, stood beside his mother and gazing at me… whispered to his mother, ‘Mother if you were a little woman like Mrs. Stratton you would look just like her.'”
“The marriage of Gen. Tom Thumb cannot be treated as an affair of no moment -- in some respects it is most momentous. Next to LOUIS NAPOLEON, there is no one person better known by reputation to high and low, rich and poor, than he…
“Those who did and those who did not attend the wedding of Gen. Thomas Thumb and Queen composed the population of this great Metropolis yesterday, and thenceforth religious and civil parties sink into comparative insignificance before this one arbitrating query of fate -- Did you or did you not see Tom Thumb married?” —NYT 22 Feb, 1863
• Stratton retired wealthy • couple lived in a Bridgeport, CT mansion, owned a yacht, a summer home in Massachusetts [photo] and a custom-built cottage on Cut in Two Island East in Connecticut’s Thimble Islands • in 1855, when bad investments forced Barnum to file for bankruptcy, Stratton provided financial assistance d& became Barnum’s business partner
• 28 yrs. later, Charles died of a stroke • the couple’s lavish lifestyle had reduced their wealth but enough remained to support Lavinia’s retirement • chose instead to return to the stage, used the stage name “Mrs. Tom Thumb” & assembled a troupe of touring “Liliputians”
• married Italian proportionate dwarf Count primo Magri (1849-1920), who, with his brother, joined the troupe • Count & Countess [photo] lived in Middleborough, MA, • summers, operated a roadside general store for auto tourists called Primo’s Pastime, where they posed for photos w/customers —Atlas Obscura
• the Mrs. Tom Thumb company toured the country [photo], garnering favorable reviews, e.g., “The entertainment given by the Mrs. Tom Thumb Company Saturday was really a fine thing. The little people cannot help being interesting and the tricks of magic were also good, as were the music and trained birds, but the suspension in mid- air of the little countess and change of character was the best thing of the kind ever seen here,” —Newburyport (MA) Herald following a 2 July, 1889 performance at the Exeter (NH) Opera House
• shortly after Stratton’s death, theaters began staging re-enactments of the couple's nuptials • “Tom Thumb weddings,” aka "miniature weddings, became a fad in the 1890s-1900s and continued to be staged by churches, community organizations and charities well into the late 20th C., mainly as fundraisers [photo]
• Grace Church is a National Historic Landmark designated for its architectural significance and place within the history of New York City, and the entire complex is a New York City landmark • one of seven New York City buildings designated by the Municipal Art Society as being of national importance, to be preserved at all costs
designations:
NY Landmarks Preservation Commission:
• church & rectory landmarked, 1966
• Fourth Avenue church houses landmarked, 1977
National Register of Historic Places:
• church & dependencies, # 74001270, 1974
• national historic landmark, 197
Marking my page in a great book, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
This is a beautiful historical literary piece! Well worth the read and reread! And here is my review for GoodReads:
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek will takes readers hiking the trails of the Appalachian Mountains. But in 1935, you might have been brave to do so as this was a much oppressed area during the Great Depression. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal in 1935 created the Works Progress Administration (WPA) bringing literacy to an impoverished area and providing work for women. Thus, the Pack-Horse Librarians Project was born!
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is a “footprint in literary history” says its author, Kim Michele Richardson. This 30’s-40’s piece of historical fiction is a vivid sketch of the fierce but faithful librarians ‘fully packed’ with specially chosen books, magazines, newspapers, and hand-crafted scrapbooks ready for delivery to isolated Kentuckians. This story is also a tribute to the horses, mules, and canoes that faithfully carried the book-women through all kinds of weather conditions and over rough terrains. She also weaves into this story a loving look at the blue-skinned residents (a medical condition called methemoglobinemia) of Kentucky and the hardships they experiences in their struggles for human rights and dignity.
Historical pictures, notes, and author’s interview at the end of the book state that the pack-horse librarians delivered 3,548 books monthly! Wow!!!
Kim Michele Richardson gives readers a parallel look at the beauty of the mountains and the brutality of poverty on the people of Kentucky, living in extreme poverty. She writes from the heart as she grew up in an orphanage and in foster care in Kentucky. Hers is a sincere storytelling that is masterful.
Such an excellent read! I would give this book a triple 5 stars!
• aka Hindu Palace, a private residence designed by Miami Beach architect August Geiger (1887-1968) • known for his Mediterranean Revival-style buildings & his projects w/ "Mr. Miami Beach," Carl Fisher • later the Dade County School Board architect
• the building's design was loosely based on a temporary set built for the motion picture Lucky Charm • the film, said to be one of the first shot in Miami, was produced by Fox, directed by Richard Stanton & starred William Farnum & Anna Luther
• part of the movie was shot at Spring Garden, a new residential development on the north bank of the Miami River • advertised as "the most exclusive subdivision in Miami" (and now the oldest on the river) • lot sales continued during the filming
• Spring Garden developer John Seybold (1872-1940), an immigrant from Germany, was a prominent Miami baker & businessman • knowing the publicity value of a Hollywood movie shooting in a small town of ~30,000 residents, he ran an ad in the Miami Metropolis inviting the public to visit the shoot (and hopefully check out the lots for sale) • a large crowd arrived & was horrified as the leading man, Farnum, narrowly escaped immolation when a grass hut collapsed in flames • the movie, now considered lost, was released in 1919 as The Jungle Trail
• after the shoot, with the film's large temple set still fresh in the town's collective memory, Seybold built this permanent version beside the Seybold Canal turning basin, where the temporary one had stood • the exotic new residence became a Spring Garden landmark, its signature cupolas soon echoed by the nearby 12th Ave. bridge tender houses
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• When Seybold purchased the Spring Garden property in 1913, it already had a colorful history • from the late 1890s to the early yrs. of the 20th c., the point at the junction of the Miami River & Wagner Creek – now Spring Garden Point Park — was the site of Alligator Joe's Crocodile and Alligator Farm, a tourist attraction owned by Warren Frazee (1873-1915), aka Alligator Joe • his main business was shipping animal hides & eggs to U.S. markets, e.g., 600 alligator hides & 2,892 alligator eggs shipped in 1898 • won $200 staging an alligator vs. crocodile fight (the gator won) —Florida's Warren Frazee — The Original Alligator Joe, Jim Broton, Tequesta, Issue 68, 2008
• when the Hindu Temple was completed, Seybold immediately sold it to Lillian and Charles O. Richardson, who had lived in Miami since 1897 • their new residence was close to a cluster of popular attractions on the north fork of the Miami River, one owned by Richardson • successive generations of the family occupied the house until 1990
• Charles O. Richardson (1868-1935), actor & theater operator, is said to have exhibited the state's first motion picture • his Miami tourist venue began as Richardson Grove (aka Richardson Plantation), founded in 1896 by his father, Otis Richardson (c. 1819-1901) • located on the S. bank of the river, close to today's 25th Ave. • in the renamed Musa Isle Fruit Farm, the word Musa being the botanical genus of bananas • became a favorite stop on river tours
• in 1907 Richardson sold the farm to John A. Roop (1866-1962), who dropped "Fruit Farm" from Musa Isle's name • Richardson returned to the theater business • purchased the Alcazar Theater & attempted to provide Miami's 1st air-conditioning by raising the floor & installing a fan to blow air, cooled by ice blocks, through holes under the seats —The Early Years Upriver by Donald C. Gaby, Tequesta 48 (1988)
• Musa Isle's new owner, erected an observation tower at what is now NW 22nd Ave • in 1919, he leased a section of the grove to a Seminole named Willie Willie (c. 1886-1929), presumably to compensate for reduced income following a 1917 hard freeze that wiped out the the crop & damaged his fruit trees • the move was also a response to a Coppinger's, a competitor on the river who had opened a Seminole village that was attracting the tourist boats • in 1921, on his newly leased land, Willie Willie established the Musa Isle Seminole Village & Trading Post, where trappers brought their bounty for sale to wholesalers
• Willie Willie was unique in that he was comfortable among whites & in fact married to a non-Indian • outside of the village he wore stylish clothes • his frequent speeding tickets warranted notices in the Miami Herald • profits from his various enterprises were an estimated $50K annually, equal to about $600K in 2016 dollars • “[He] had more money than he could use. He married outside his tribe and burned up the highways in his high priced car. However, Alan W. Davis, a hunter who became the foreman of the Musa Isle Indian Vilage, and Lucien A. Spencer, the special commissioner of the Seminole Agency, identified the sale of egret plumes as the business in which Willie Willie made his real money." —The Enduring Seminoles: From Alligator Wrestling to Ecotourism, Patsy West
• in 1911-12, Cardale Resort, with a skating rink, dance floor & the ~90 foot observation tower, opened in Cardale Grove (formerly Richardson Grove) at Musa Isle • the telescope-equipped tower offered expansive views of Miami & the adjacent Everglades • guests arrived at Cardale Landing via the Cardale boat (aka Car' dale, Car Dale)
• horticulturist & landscape designer Henry Coppinger Sr. (1848-1924), an Irish immigrant, arrived in S. Florida c. 1898 • in 1911 he purchased 10 acres of south bank riverfront property near Musa Isle • after trading for an adjacent, less rocky parcel at S.W. 19th Ave., he created a botanical garden to grow, hybridize & sell exotic plants • named the venture Coppinger's Tropical Gardens • Henry Coppinger hybrids soon decorated homes throughout the city
• in 1914 the attraction opened to tourists, featuring a Seminole camp that was already on the property when it was purchased • in the early 1900s, canals built to drain the Everglades had decimated hunting areas, diminishing the Seminoles' main source of income: animal hides & pelts • remaining as an exhibit at Coppinger's offered the Indians a decent living —Memories of Old South Florida, Don Boyd • —The Florida Anthropologist, Dec. 1981, Dorothy Downs
• the attraction expanded, becoming Coppinger's Tropical Gardens, Seminole Indian Village and Alligator Farm • Coppinger's Pirate's Cove added alligator wrestling in 1919, introduced by "The Alligator Boy," Henry Coppinger Jr. (1898-1976) • said to have been the second white child born in Miami —Henry Coppinger Jr." By Chris Mayhew, Palmpedia • video: Seminole Alligator Wrestling (2:28)
• "Chief" Jack Tigertail (1872-1922), a winter resident at Coppinger's, was murdered there in 1922 • this was big news in Miami because Jack was well known there, especially after leading a rescue team into the Everglades To find a missing surveying party • after a sensational trial, a white man was convicted of the crime, then acquitted on appeal • although the case was never solved, Indians at Coppinger's suspected Tigertail's cousin, Charlie Billie • the "Chief" was the first Miami Seminole buried in a white cemetery —The Enduring Seminoles: From Alligator Wrestling to Ecotourism, Patsy West
• after his death, the camp's name was changed to Tigertail Indian Village, & advertised as "home of the late Chief Tigertail," at least until 1926 • a towering image of Jack Tigertail soon greeted motorists entering the young city of Hialeah —The Long Sleep of Jack Tigertail, Stuart McIver, Sun Sentinel, August, 1993
• Hindu Temple designated a City of Miami Historic Site, 1991 • Spring Garden designated a City of Miami Historic District, 1997
Afiladas no son las letras sino las sombras.
# # #
Sharp are not the lyrics but the shadows.
# # #
End of Maze series.
I'm reading Bill Bryson's book At Home – appropriately enough at home. I bought this with a voucher in Waterstone's bookshop in Winchester in 2010, the year it was published. However, it has been on the shelf ever since and I have only just started reading it this week. That's a pity as it's really interesting.
The hereios of the We're Here! group have paid a visit to the Reading Books in Nice Places group today at my suggestion.
Stuck for an idea for your daily 365 shot? Join the hereios of the We're Here! group for inspiration.
Here are a few choice comments about this book from reviewers on the Goodreads website (at www.goodreads.com/book/show/4921979-washington-confidential):
"The 1950s were a bit wilder than the ABC sitcom "Ozzie and Harriet" from the day might suggest. The Confidential crime series penned by Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer were bestsellers which titillated the American public in great detail about bawdy nightlife, political corruption..." -- Phillip Crawford Jr.
"Incredibly racist, homophobic and rabidly conservative (in all the wrong ways, if there even is a right way), this book must have been quite titillating in 1951 to the same sort of people who nowadays get their "enlightenment" from Glenn Beck..."
-- Butch Lazorchak
"Okay, I like purple prose from time to time. Pulp fiction, in general, is something that I like the idea of more than I actually enjoy consuming. At first there were some slightly titillating stories of the seedy underbelly of D.C., but they quickly grew stale..." -- Frank
"I may be the only person to have read this book in the past fifty years but since I work with the personnel records of former government employees this stuff is my jam! Yes--it was horribly offensive but in the context of the time period during which it was written it gives us a feel for the attitudes of the time..." -- Ashley
St. Louis, MO (est. 1764. pop. ~300K) • Laclede's Landing
• Peper Building, aka Raeder Place Building • 6-story Victorian/ Italianate style tobacco warehouse, built on a site originally bought from American Indians for a yoke of oxen, plow, cow & 2 sows.• designed by Frederick Wiliiam Raeder (b.1832) for fellow German immigrant Christian Peper (1826-1903), founder of Christian Peper Tobacco Co., 1852
• a significant St. Louis cast-iron structure, one of the largest cast-iron front buildings in the U.S., listed in Source Book of American Architecture: 500 Notable Buildings from the 10th Century to the Present
• by the end of the 19th c., St. Louis was the largest processor of chewing & pipe tobacco in the U.S. • building’s plank floors were slanted so workers could roll large tobacco barrels down toward the Mississippi • in 1906, the company produced a series of racy cards for their Turkish brand Kadee cigarettes—one of the first uses of artistically-posed nude models for advertising [photo] • company was acquired by the Bloch Brothers Tobacco Co., early 1950s —Laclede's Landing Architecture
• Peper was the pioneer St. Louis tobacco merchant • had lived in the U.S. since age 13 • went into the grocery business then, in 1848, partnered in a tobacco firm which lasted 4 yrs. • founder & sole owner of Christian Peper Tobacco Co. • built an early cotton press [postcard, cotton compress c. 1905] • founded Peper Cotton Press Co. • St. Louis became a leader in the cotton trade • served as president of the Broadway street railroad for 35 yrs. • one of the 1st contributors to a fund to initiate the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (1904 St. Louis World's Fair) —Connie Nisinger, Find a Grave
Marker:
"On this site stood the Old Missouri Hotel [photo]. The first legislature convened here under the first state constitution on September 18, 1820. The year before Missouri was admitted to the Union. It was also the site of the inauguration of the first governor of Missouri, Alexander McNair and of the election of the state’s first U.S. Senators David Barton and Thomas Hart Benton."
• In 1831, the hotel’s owner, Major Thomas Biddle (1790-1831), engaged in a dual with U.S Congressman Spencer Pettis (1802-1831) on Bloody Island, a Mississippi River sandbar • both were mortally wounded —An Affair of Honor on the Western Frontier
• with the exception of the removal of the cornice, bldg. remained intact from the time of its construction [photo] • remodeled 1976 by architectural firm Kimble A. Cohn Associates as part of Laclede’s Landing redevelopment • recently housed Peper Lofts residential apartments, multiple options for loft living in Downtown in St. Louis, the Old Spaghetti Factory, & the offices of Abstrakt Marketing Group
• Christian Peper Building, City Landmark # 31, 1971
• Laclede's Landing Historic District, National Register # 76002262, 1976
• aka Hindu Palace, a private residence designed by Miami Beach architect August Geiger (1887-1968) • known for his Mediterranean Revival-style buildings & his projects w/ "Mr. Miami Beach," Carl Fisher • later the Dade County School Board architect
• the building's design was loosely based on a temporary set built for the motion picture Lucky Charm • the film, said to be one of the first shot in Miami, was produced by Fox, directed by Richard Stanton & starred William Farnum & Anna Luther
• part of the movie was shot at Spring Garden, a new residential development on the north bank of the Miami River • advertised as "the most exclusive subdivision in Miami" (and now the oldest on the river) • lot sales continued during the filming
• Spring Garden developer John Seybold (1872-1940), an immigrant from Germany, was a prominent Miami baker & businessman • knowing the publicity value of a Hollywood movie shooting in a small town of ~30,000 residents, he ran an ad in the Miami Metropolis inviting the public to visit the shoot (and hopefully check out the lots for sale) • a large crowd arrived & was horrified as the leading man, Farnum, narrowly escaped immolation when a grass hut collapsed in flames • the movie, now considered lost, was released in 1919 as The Jungle Trail
• after the shoot, with the film's large temple set still fresh in the town's collective memory, Seybold built this permanent version beside the Seybold Canal turning basin, where the temporary one had stood • the exotic new residence became a Spring Garden landmark, its signature cupolas soon echoed by the nearby 12th Ave. bridge tender houses
• When Seybold purchased the Spring Garden property in 1913, it already had a colorful history • from the late 1890s to the early yrs. of the 20th c., the point at the junction of the Miami River & Wagner Creek – now Spring Garden Point Park — was the site of Alligator Joe's Crocodile and Alligator Farm, a tourist attraction owned by Warren Frazee (1873-1915), aka Alligator Joe • his main business was shipping animal hides & eggs to U.S. markets, e.g., 600 alligator hides & 2,892 alligator eggs shipped in 1898 • won $200 staging an alligator vs. crocodile fight (the gator won) —Florida's Warren Frazee — The Original Alligator Joe, Jim Broton, Tequesta, Issue 68, 2008
• when the Hindu Temple was completed, Seybold immediately sold it to Lillian and Charles O. Richardson, who had lived in Miami since 1897 • their new residence was close to a cluster of popular attractions on the north fork of the Miami River, one owned by Richardson • successive generations of the family occupied the house until 1990
• Charles O. Richardson (1868-1935), actor & theater operator, is said to have exhibited the state's first motion picture • his Miami tourist venue began as Richardson Grove (aka Richardson Plantation), founded in 1896 by his father, Otis Richardson (c. 1819-1901) • located on the S. bank of the river, close to today's 25th Ave. • in the renamed Musa Isle Fruit Farm, the word Musa being the botanical genus of bananas • became a favorite stop on river tours
• in 1907 Richardson sold the farm to John A. Roop (1866-1962), who dropped "Fruit Farm" from Musa Isle's name • Richardson returned to the theater business • purchased the Alcazar Theater & attempted to provide Miami's 1st air-conditioning by raising the floor & installing a fan to blow air, cooled by ice blocks, through holes under the seats —The Early Years Upriver by Donald C. Gaby, Tequesta 48 (1988)
• Musa Isle's new owner, erected an observation tower at what is now NW 22nd Ave • in 1919, he leased a section of the grove to a Seminole named Willie Willie (c. 1886-1929), presumably to compensate for reduced income following a 1917 hard freeze that wiped out the the crop & damaged his fruit trees • the move was also a response to a Coppinger's, a competitor on the river who had opened a Seminole village that was attracting the tourist boats • in 1921, on his newly leased land, Willie Willie established the Musa Isle Seminole Village & Trading Post, where trappers brought their bounty for sale to wholesalers
• Willie Willie was unique in that he was comfortable among whites & in fact married to a non-Indian • outside of the village he wore stylish clothes • his frequent speeding tickets warranted notices in the Miami Herald • profits from his various enterprises were an estimated $50K annually, equal to about $600K in 2016 dollars • “[He] had more money than he could use. He married outside his tribe and burned up the highways in his high priced car. However, Alan W. Davis, a hunter who became the foreman of the Musa Isle Indian Vilage, and Lucien A. Spencer, the special commissioner of the Seminole Agency, identified the sale of egret plumes as the business in which Willie Willie made his real money." —The Enduring Seminoles: From Alligator Wrestling to Ecotourism, Patsy West
• in 1911-12, Cardale Resort, with a skating rink, dance floor & the ~90 foot observation tower, opened in Cardale Grove (formerly Richardson Grove) at Musa Isle • the telescope-equipped tower offered expansive views of Miami & the adjacent Everglades • guests arrived at Cardale Landing via the Cardale boat (aka Car' dale, Car Dale)
• horticulturist & landscape designer Henry Coppinger Sr. (1848-1924), an Irish immigrant, arrived in S. Florida c. 1898 • in 1911 he purchased 10 acres of south bank riverfront property near Musa Isle • after trading for an adjacent, less rocky parcel at S.W. 19th Ave., he created a botanical garden to grow, hybridize & sell exotic plants • named the venture Coppinger's Tropical Gardens • Henry Coppinger hybrids soon decorated homes throughout the city
• in 1914 the attraction opened to tourists, featuring a Seminole camp that was already on the property when it was purchased • in the early 1900s, canals built to drain the Everglades had decimated hunting areas, diminishing the Seminoles' main source of income: animal hides & pelts • remaining as an exhibit at Coppinger's offered the Indians a decent living —Memories of Old South Florida, Don Boyd • —The Florida Anthropologist, Dec. 1981, Dorothy Downs
• the attraction expanded, becoming Coppinger's Tropical Gardens, Seminole Indian Village and Alligator Farm • Coppinger's Pirate's Cove added alligator wrestling in 1919, introduced by "The Alligator Boy," Henry Coppinger Jr. (1898-1976) • said to have been the second white child born in Miami —Henry Coppinger Jr." By Chris Mayhew, Palmpedia • video: Seminole Alligator Wrestling (2:28)
• "Chief" Jack Tigertail (1872-1922), a winter resident at Coppinger's, was murdered there in 1922 • this was big news in Miami because Jack was well known there, especially after leading a rescue team into the Everglades To find a missing surveying party • after a sensational trial, a white man was convicted of the crime, then acquitted on appeal • although the case was never solved, Indians at Coppinger's suspected Tigertail's cousin, Charlie Billie • the "Chief" was the first Miami Seminole buried in a white cemetery —The Enduring Seminoles: From Alligator Wrestling to Ecotourism, Patsy West
• after his death, the camp's name was changed to Tigertail Indian Village, & advertised as "home of the late Chief Tigertail," at least until 1926 • a towering image of Jack Tigertail soon greeted motorists entering the young city of Hialeah —The Long Sleep of Jack Tigertail, Stuart McIver, Sun Sentinel, August, 1993
• Hindu Temple designated a City of Miami Historic Site, 1991 • Spring Garden designated a City of Miami Historic District, 1997
Card 60: Things that should have their own festival.
My Answer: Kinda obvious but..... BOOKS!
So many of you have probably saw this coming but I'm leaving Flickr.
It's been fun. I've had some wacky conversations. I've met some cool people. But the time to leave is long overdue.
Some of you have helped me in ways that you'll never know. Making me laugh when I was secretly sad, making me think about things in a new light and sometimes just inspiring new story ideas.
I wish you all luck in your endeavors and I thank you for taking the time to look and comment on my pics. :)
Feel free to follow and/or message me at these places.
~~ 🍩Find Me🍩~~
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Here have some doughnuts ヽ(ᵔᗜᵔ)ﾉ🍩 🍩 🍩 🍩
Stay Safe, Eat Doughnuts, and Read Good Books (╭☞ ⌐■ ◞ ■ )╭☞
“I have been finding treasures in places I did not want to search. I have been hearing wisdom from tongues I did not want to listen. I have been finding beauty where I did not want to look. And I have learned so much from journeys I did not want to take. Forgive me, O Gracious One; for I have been closing my ears and eyes for too long. I have learned that miracles are only called miracles because they are often witnessed by only those who can can see through all of life's illusions. I am ready to see what really exists on other side, what exists behind the blinds, and taste all the ugly fruit instead of all that looks right, plump and ripe.”
- Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem -
American cartoonist Gary Larson, the creator of The Far Side, a single-panel cartoon series that was syndicated internationally to newspapers for 15 years. The series ended with Larson's retirement on January 1, 1995. His 23 books of collected cartoons have combined sales of more than 45 million copies. [wikipedia]
From this reference photo
Sample of his ginius work can be found by typing his name in the google search bar...
Pencil, watercolor pencil, markers in sketch book, displayed inside a digital frame here
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Finished off a set of 2017 children's books in order to complete a 100 book to be read in 2017 challenge and recorded at GoodReads. I just made it. I read about 15 adult novels and then focused on 2017 children's literature. As a former teacher librarian, I still love reading the brand new books for children and guessing which will win awards. I enjoy writing reviews and posting these in GoodReads and Pinterest, and sometimes on Flickr, Facebook, and Twitter!
Here's my pick for the top 50 children's books in 2017: www.goodreads.com/list/user_vote/5887155
Well worth reading them, at any age!!!
Vicksburg, Mississippi est. 1825, pop. (2013) 23,542 • MS Delta
• site crowns the highest hill in Vicksburg • land donated by the family of the city's founder, Newitt Vick • built by the Weldon Brothers, immigrants from County Antrim, Ireland • Greek Revival design attributed to William Weldon in collaboration with slave John Jackson, a noted draftsman & artist who "drew the plans for many of the public buildings erected by [the Weldon's], including the courthouses still standing at Raymond and Vicksburg." —"The Emergence of the Cotton Kingdom in the Old Southwest: Mississippi, 1770--1860," John Hebron Moore, 1988
"The Weldon Brothers... Well known in Mississippi as large building and bridge contractors, owned and educated to mechanic pursuits, 100 slaves, many of whom are now residing in the river counties of the State, and most of them are well-to-do. Their draughtsman, John Jackson, a natural genius in that line, lives now at Port Gibson, the scene of much of the work of the Weldons. He painted the handsome drop curtain at Odd Fellow’s Hall, Port Gibson, and assisted in drawing the plans of the handsome Court house at Vicksburg, which the Weldons built in 1858.
"The writer had large dealings with these brothers in the days of their activity, and knows that while they were strict and exacting with their slaves, they were yet kind in their treatment; feeding and clothing them well; and they were not unmindful of their proper enjoyment; the suppers and music at their Christmas balls costing sometimes as much as $600. Tom Weldon was a very passionate man, as well as powerful and brave. Sometimes he would strike the negroes with his fist, and if they showed fight, it was his boast that he always gave them a white man’s chance, and fought fairly with them to the end. He had a fine mind, and but for his profanity was an eloquent talker.
"He equipped a company for the war at Natchez – the Weldon rebels [Co. L, 44th Mississippi Reg., C.S.A.] – but was employed, himself, chiefly in the secret service of the Confederate Government. George, the oldest of the three brothers, was very loquacious, and a great reader. William was a milder mannered man than the others, and very intelligent." —"Random Recollections of Early Days in Mississippi", Horace Smith Fulkerson, 1885
• Thomas Weldon (1816-1865) is said to have been instrumental in developing an electric spark underwater torpedo (naval mine) • on 12 Dec, 1862 it sank the USS Cairo, the first US warship ever destroyed by this type of weapon • "USS Cairo gunboat sunk by an IED" —Standing Well Back
• the Weldons utilized ~100 highly skilled slave artisans at the job site to burn brick & erect the $100K courthouse • the Ionic capitals were cast by Baker Iron Company, Cincinnati & transported to the site by river boat • stucco finish applied to exterior, 1907 • bldg. retains original iron doors & shutters
• Jefferson Davis (1808-1889), a local planter who became president of the Confederacy, launched his political career on these grounds • bldg. targeted by Union warships on Mississippi River during the American Civil War's 47-day Siege of Vicksburg • became the symbol of Confederate resistance • following the city's surrender, 4 July, 1863, Union soldiers under Maj. Gen. U. S. Grant replaced the Confederate flag with the Union flag on the Courthouse cupola [photo]
• U.S. Presidents Zachary Taylor, Ulysses S. Grant, William McKinley & Theodore Roosevelt spoke here, as did woman's suffrage leader Carrie Chapman Catt & black American icon Booker T. Washington
• bldg. was neglected after the completion of the New Warren County Courthouse (1940) • damaged by the 1953 Vicksburg Tornado • demolition considered • aware of the building's historical significance, Eva ("Miss Eva") Whitaker Davis (1892-1974) established the Vicksburg & Warren County Historical Society in order to to preserve it • on 3 June, 1948, the courthouse reopened as the Old Courthouse Museum • exhibits reflect the heritage of the area from pre-historic Indians through the present day • has one of the largest Civil War collections in the U.S.A.
• named one of the 20 most outstanding courthouses in America by the American Institute of Architects • Old Courthouse History • Court House Lagniappe Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
• Historic Vicksburg District • HABS MS-119 • designated Mississippi Landmark, 1986 • National Register 68000029, 1968 • designated National Landmark, 1968
/ The old order changeth
Apo-Summicron-M 1:2/50 ASPH.
www.goodreads.com/quotes/404311-the-old-order-changeth-yi...
“I’ve never been nearly as alone as I always say I am”
― Jill Alexander Essbaum, Hausfrau
My latest read for 2016.
I've had this one on my wish list for a while.
A few chapters in and I'm realizing that it's a pick that could warrant an explanation.
On the other hand...keep the bookclub guessing.
34:366
• aka Hindu Palace, a private residence designed by Miami Beach architect August Geiger (1887-1968) • known for his Mediterranean Revival-style buildings & his projects w/ "Mr. Miami Beach," Carl Fisher • later the Dade County School Board architect
• the building's design was loosely based on a temporary set built for the motion picture Lucky Charm • the film, said to be one of the first shot in Miami, was produced by Fox, directed by Richard Stanton & starred William Farnum & Anna Luther
• part of the movie was shot at Spring Garden, a new residential development on the north bank of the Miami River • advertised as "the most exclusive subdivision in Miami" (and now the oldest on the river) • lot sales continued during the filming
• Spring Garden developer John Seybold (1872-1940), an immigrant from Germany, was a prominent Miami baker & businessman • knowing the publicity value of a Hollywood movie shooting in a small town of ~30,000 residents, he ran an ad in the Miami Metropolis inviting the public to visit the shoot (and hopefully check out the lots for sale) • a large crowd arrived & was horrified as the leading man, Farnum, narrowly escaped immolation when a grass hut collapsed in flames • the movie, now considered lost, was released in 1919 as The Jungle Trail
• after the shoot, with the film's large temple set still fresh in the town's collective memory, Seybold built this permanent version where the temporary one had stood • the exotic new residence became a Spring Garden landmark, its signature cupolas soon echoed by the nearby 12th Ave. bridge tender houses
• When Seybold purchased the Spring Garden property in 1913, it already had a colorful history • from the late 1890s to the early yrs. of the 20th c., the point at the junction of the Miami River & Wagner Creek – now Spring Garden Point Park — was the site of Alligator Joe's Crocodile and Alligator Farm, a tourist attraction owned by Warren Frazee (1873-1915), aka Alligator Joe • his main business was shipping animal hides & eggs to U.S. markets, e.g., 600 alligator hides & 2,892 alligator eggs shipped in 1898 • won $200 staging an alligator vs. crocodile fight (the gator won) —Florida's Warren Frazee — The Original Alligator Joe, Jim Broton, Tequesta, Issue 68, 2008
• when the Hindu Temple was completed, Seybold immediately sold it to Lillian and Charles O. Richardson, who had lived in Miami since 1897 • their new residence was close to a cluster of popular attractions on the north fork of the Miami River, one owned by Richardson • successive generations of the family occupied the house until 1990
• Charles O. Richardson (1868-1935), actor & theater operator, is said to have exhibited the state's first motion picture • his Miami tourist venue began as Richardson Grove (aka Richardson Plantation), founded in 1896 by his father, Otis Richardson (c. 1819-1901) • located on the S. bank of the river, close to today's 25th Ave. • in the renamed Musa Isle Fruit Farm, the word Musa being the botanical genus of bananas • became a favorite stop on river tours
• in 1907 Richardson sold the farm to John A. Roop (1866-1962), who dropped "Fruit Farm" from Musa Isle's name • Richardson returned to the theater business • purchased the Alcazar Theater & attempted to provide Miami's 1st air-conditioning by raising the floor & installing a fan to blow air, cooled by ice blocks, through holes under the seats —The Early Years Upriver by Donald C. Gaby, Tequesta 48 (1988)
• Musa Isle's new owner, erected an observation tower at what is now NW 22nd Ave • in 1919, he leased a section of the grove to a Seminole named Willie Willie (c. 1886-1929), presumably to compensate for reduced income following a 1917 hard freeze that wiped out the the crop & damaged his fruit trees • the move was also a response to a Coppinger's, a competitor on the river who had opened a Seminole village that was attracting the tourist boats • in 1921, on his newly leased land, Willie Willie established the Musa Isle Seminole Village & Trading Post, where trappers brought their bounty for sale to wholesalers
• Willie Willie was unique in that he was comfortable among whites & in fact married to a non-Indian • outside of the village he wore stylish clothes • his frequent speeding tickets warranted notices in the Miami Herald • profits from his various enterprises were an estimated $50K annually, equal to about $600K in 2016 dollars • “[He] had more money than he could use. He married outside his tribe and burned up the highways in his high priced car. However, Alan W. Davis, a hunter who became the foreman of the Musa Isle Indian Vilage, and Lucien A. Spencer, the special commissioner of the Seminole Agency, identified the sale of egret plumes as the business in which Willie Willie made his real money." —The Enduring Seminoles: From Alligator Wrestling to Ecotourism, Patsy West
• in 1911-12, Cardale Resort, with a skating rink, dance floor & the ~90 foot observation tower, opened in Cardale Grove (formerly Richardson Grove) at Musa Isle • the telescope-equipped tower offered expansive views of Miami & the adjacent Everglades • guests arrived at Cardale Landing via the Cardale boat (aka Car' dale, Car Dale)
• horticulturist & landscape designer Henry Coppinger Sr. (1848-1924), an Irish immigrant, arrived in S. Florida c. 1898 • in 1911 he purchased 10 acres of south bank riverfront property near Musa Isle • after trading for an adjacent, less rocky parcel at S.W. 19th Ave., he created a botanical garden to grow, hybridize & sell exotic plants • named the venture Coppinger's Tropical Gardens • Henry Coppinger hybrids soon decorated homes throughout the city
• in 1914 the attraction opened to tourists, featuring a Seminole camp that was already on the property when it was purchased • in the early 1900s, canals built to drain the Everglades had decimated hunting areas, diminishing the Seminoles' main source of income: animal hides & pelts • remaining as an exhibit at Coppinger's offered the Indians a decent living —Memories of Old South Florida, Don Boyd • —The Florida Anthropologist, Dec. 1981, Dorothy Downs
• the attraction expanded, becoming Coppinger's Tropical Gardens, Seminole Indian Village and Alligator Farm • Coppinger's Pirate's Cove added alligator wrestling in 1919, introduced by "The Alligator Boy," Henry Coppinger Jr. (1898-1976) • said to have been the second white child born in Miami —Henry Coppinger Jr." By Chris Mayhew, Palmpedia • video: Seminole Alligator Wrestling (2:28)
• "Chief" Jack Tigertail (1872-1922), a winter resident at Coppinger's, was murdered there in 1922 • this was big news in Miami because Jack was well known there, especially after leading a rescue team into the Everglades To find a missing surveying party • after a sensational trial, a white man was convicted of the crime, then acquitted on appeal • although the case was never solved, Indians at Coppinger's suspected Tigertail's cousin, Charlie Billie • the "Chief" was the first Miami Seminole buried in a white cemetery —The Enduring Seminoles: From Alligator Wrestling to Ecotourism, Patsy West
• after his death, the camp's name was changed to Tigertail Indian Village, & advertised as "home of the late Chief Tigertail," at least until 1926 • a towering image of Jack Tigertail soon greeted motorists entering the young city of Hialeah —The Long Sleep of Jack Tigertail, Stuart McIver, Sun Sentinel, August, 1993
• Hindu Temple designated a City of Miami Historic Site, 1991 • Spring Garden designated a City of Miami Historic District, 1997
"Send one away, I'm feelin' tired."
www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/259666.Mae_West
Queen Square, Liverpool.
Balfour House (1835), 1002 Crawford St, Vicksburg, MS, USA
Vicksburg, Mississippi (est. 1825, pop. (2013) 23,542) • Facebook • MS Delta • The Town & the Battle —NY Times
• 2-story Greek Revival house w/projecting portico built by wealthy businessman William Bobb (1802-1871) • resembles Mount Stirling (1848), Providence Forge, VA • next door to the Gen. John C. Pemberton House, Confederate headquarters during the siege of Vicksburg • rehabed in 1980s • photo c. 1866
• home of Civil War diarist Emma Harrison Balfour (1818–1887) & husband, Dr. William T. Balfour (1815-1877), who purchased the house in 1848
• in 1862, the Balfours threw a Christmas Eve Ball in this house • Vicksburg socialites braved a violent storm to celebrate the holiday with Confederate officers & their ladies • meanwhile, on the other side of the Mississippi River, CSA Colonel Philip H. Fall received an urgent telegram from a station 36 mi. north, warning that a fleet of nearly 100 Union boats was moving toward Vicksburg • Col. Fall immediately set out into the storm & made it safely across the turbulent river
• just after midnight, muddy & soaking wet, he burst into the Balfour House, disrupting the festivities as he conveyed the message to General Martin Luther Smith (who, like Gen. Pemberton, was born & raised in the North) • on hearing the news, Smith announced "This ball is at an end! The enemy is coming down river. All non-combatants must leave the city!"
• after brief goodbyes to loved ones, the men rushed away to report to their stations • the initial battle of the Vicksburg Campaign — the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou (a Confederate victory) — began 26, Dec. —Wikipedia
• remaining in this house throughout the 47-day Siege of Vicksburg (16 May-04 July, 1863), Balfour wrote Vicksburg, a city under seige: Diary of Emma Balfour, May 16, 1863 - June 2, 1863:
May 17
(re: the Battle of Champion Hill, after receiving a dire message from Lt. Underhill)
“My pen almost refuses to tell of our terrible disaster of yesterday… We are defeated — our army in confusion and the carnage awful! Whole batteries and brigades taken prisoners — awful! Awful!
"...What is to become of all the living things in this place when the boats begin shelling – God only knows. Shut up as in a trap, no ingress or egress – and thousands of women and children who have fled here for safety…”
May 31
"The shelling from the mortars was worse than usual last night… I could hear the pieces falling all around us as the shells would explode, and once I thought our time had come… The mortars [fired] all night. We soon perceived that we could not retire while they fired as they had changed the range, and every shell came either directly over us or just back or front of us, so we made up our minds to sit up and watch, hoping, however, that they would cease about midnight, as they sometimes do… but no, all night it continued to add to the horror."
• 26-year-old Mary Ann Loughborough (1836-1887) was also among the 1,500 civilians who chose not to evacuate • her diary & letters were published in the 1864 book, "My Cave Life in Vicksburg: With Letters of Trial and Travel"
"A young girl, becoming weary in the confinement of the cave, hastily ran to the house in the interval that elapsed between the slowly falling shells. On returning, an explosion sounded near her—one wild scream and she ran into her mother’s presence, sinking like a wounded dove, the life blood flowing over the light summer dress in crimson ripples from a death-wound in her side caused by the shell fragment."
"A little Negro child, playing in the yard, had found a shell; in rolling and turning it, had innocently pounded the fuse; the terrible explosion followed, showing, as the white cloud of smoke floated away, the mangled remains of a life that to the mother’s heart had possessed all of beauty and joy."
• Union soldier Pvt. Merrick Wald (1840-1911), 77th Illinois, Company C, also kept a diary:
4 July, 1863
"Well Vicksburg has surrendered at last. When they (Rebels) first came out of their holes they looked like they hadn't drawn a long breath for six months... how sad these noble soldiers looked and how I respected them for fighting so hard for their Cause."
• the custodian of Wald's diary has stated that out of Merrick's unit of 350 men, 45 survived the entire war —Civil War Diaries
• Vicksburg surrendered on the 4th of July — US Independence Day
“About three o’clock the rush began. I shall never forget that woeful sight of a beaten, demoralized army that came rushing back – humanity in the last throes of endurance.” —War Diary of a Union Woman in the South by Vicksburg Unionist Dora Richards Miller
• on seeing US flag flying over the courthouse, Miller wrote, “Now I feel once more at home in mine own country” • more typical of local sentiment, Alice Shannon wrote that she could see “that hateful flag flying from the Court House Hill.” —Photographic Tour of Civil War Vicksburg
• the devastated City of Vicksburg didn't officially celebrate the nation's birthday again until 1944 (though unofficial celebrations were not uncommon) • during the occupation, Union General James B. McPherson made Balfour House his headquarters • more recently it was a B&B & is now a private residence
• Civilians During the Siege of Vicksburg • Vicksburg During the Civil War • National Park Service
• designated Mississippi Landmark, 1986 • HABS MS-116 • Uptown Vicksburg Historic District, National Register # 93000850, 1993 • Balfour House National Register # 71000458, 1971
"A young Indian boy carves a little canoe with a figure inside and names him Paddle-to-the-Sea. Paddle's journey, in text and pictures, through the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean provides an excellent geographic and historical picture of the region."
...It’s more entertaining than TV. Just ask a cat looking out, or a man looking in on a life he desires.”
- Jarod Kintz, This Book is Not FOR SALE -
• aka Hindu Palace, a private residence designed by Miami Beach architect August Geiger (1887-1968) • known for his Mediterranean Revival-style buildings & his projects w/ "Mr. Miami Beach," Carl Fisher • later the Dade County School Board architect
• the building's design was loosely based on a temporary set built for the motion picture Lucky Charm • the film, said to be one of the first shot in Miami, was produced by Fox, directed by Richard Stanton & starred William Farnum & Anna Luther
• part of the movie was shot at Spring Garden, a new residential development on the north bank of the Miami River • advertised as "the most exclusive subdivision in Miami" (and now the oldest on the river) • lot sales continued during the filming
• Spring Garden developer John Seybold (1872-1940), an immigrant from Germany, was a prominent Miami baker & businessman • knowing the publicity value of a Hollywood movie shooting in a small town of ~30,000 residents, he ran an ad in the Miami Metropolis inviting the public to visit the shoot (and hopefully check out the lots for sale) • a large crowd arrived & was horrified as the leading man, Farnum, narrowly escaped immolation when a grass hut collapsed in flames • the movie, now considered lost, was released in 1919 as The Jungle Trail
• after the shoot, with the film's large temple set still fresh in the town's collective memory, Seybold built this permanent version beside the Seybold Canal turning basin, where the temporary one had stood • the exotic new residence became a Spring Garden landmark, its signature cupolas soon echoed by the nearby 12th Ave. bridge tender houses
• When Seybold purchased the Spring Garden property in 1913, it already had a colorful history • from the late 1890s to the early yrs. of the 20th c., the point at the junction of the Miami River & Wagner Creek – now Spring Garden Point Park — was the site of Alligator Joe's Crocodile and Alligator Farm, a tourist attraction owned by Warren Frazee (1873-1915), aka Alligator Joe • his main business was shipping animal hides & eggs to U.S. markets, e.g., 600 alligator hides & 2,892 alligator eggs shipped in 1898 • won $200 staging an alligator vs. crocodile fight (the gator won) —Florida's Warren Frazee — The Original Alligator Joe, Jim Broton, Tequesta, Issue 68, 2008
• when the Hindu Temple was completed, Seybold immediately sold it to Lillian and Charles O. Richardson, who had lived in Miami since 1897 • their new residence was close to a cluster of popular attractions on the north fork of the Miami River, one owned by Richardson • successive generations of the family occupied the house until 1990
• Charles O. Richardson (1868-1935), actor & theater operator, is said to have exhibited the state's first motion picture • his Miami tourist venue began as Richardson Grove (aka Richardson Plantation), founded in 1896 by his father, Otis Richardson (c. 1819-1901) • located on the S. bank of the river, close to today's 25th Ave. • in the renamed Musa Isle Fruit Farm, the word Musa being the botanical genus of bananas • became a favorite stop on river tours
• in 1907 Richardson sold the farm to John A. Roop (1866-1962), who dropped "Fruit Farm" from Musa Isle's name • Richardson returned to the theater business • purchased the Alcazar Theater & attempted to provide Miami's 1st air-conditioning by raising the floor & installing a fan to blow air, cooled by ice blocks, through holes under the seats —The Early Years Upriver by Donald C. Gaby, Tequesta 48 (1988)
• Musa Isle's new owner, erected an observation tower at what is now NW 22nd Ave • in 1919, he leased a section of the grove to a Seminole named Willie Willie (c. 1886-1929), presumably to compensate for reduced income following a 1917 hard freeze that wiped out the the crop & damaged his fruit trees • the move was also a response to a Coppinger's, a competitor on the river who had opened a Seminole village that was attracting the tourist boats • in 1921, on his newly leased land, Willie Willie established the Musa Isle Seminole Village & Trading Post, where trappers brought their bounty for sale to wholesalers
• Willie Willie was unique in that he was comfortable among whites & in fact married to a non-Indian • outside of the village he wore stylish clothes • his frequent speeding tickets warranted notices in the Miami Herald • profits from his various enterprises were an estimated $50K annually, equal to about $600K in 2016 dollars • “[He] had more money than he could use. He married outside his tribe and burned up the highways in his high priced car. However, Alan W. Davis, a hunter who became the foreman of the Musa Isle Indian Vilage, and Lucien A. Spencer, the special commissioner of the Seminole Agency, identified the sale of egret plumes as the business in which Willie Willie made his real money." —The Enduring Seminoles: From Alligator Wrestling to Ecotourism, Patsy West
• in 1911-12, Cardale Resort, with a skating rink, dance floor & the ~90 foot observation tower, opened in Cardale Grove (formerly Richardson Grove) at Musa Isle • the telescope-equipped tower offered expansive views of Miami & the adjacent Everglades • guests arrived at Cardale Landing via the Cardale boat (aka Car' dale, Car Dale)
• horticulturist & landscape designer Henry Coppinger Sr. (1848-1924), an Irish immigrant, arrived in S. Florida c. 1898 • in 1911 he purchased 10 acres of south bank riverfront property near Musa Isle • after trading for an adjacent, less rocky parcel at S.W. 19th Ave., he created a botanical garden to grow, hybridize & sell exotic plants • named the venture Coppinger's Tropical Gardens • Henry Coppinger hybrids soon decorated homes throughout the city
• in 1914 the attraction opened to tourists, featuring a Seminole camp that was already on the property when it was purchased • in the early 1900s, canals built to drain the Everglades had decimated hunting areas, diminishing the Seminoles' main source of income: animal hides & pelts • remaining as an exhibit at Coppinger's offered the Indians a decent living —Memories of Old South Florida, Don Boyd • —The Florida Anthropologist, Dec. 1981, Dorothy Downs
• the attraction expanded, becoming Coppinger's Tropical Gardens, Seminole Indian Village and Alligator Farm • Coppinger's Pirate's Cove added alligator wrestling in 1919, introduced by "The Alligator Boy," Henry Coppinger Jr. (1898-1976) • said to have been the second white child born in Miami —Henry Coppinger Jr." By Chris Mayhew, Palmpedia • video: Seminole Alligator Wrestling (2:28)
• "Chief" Jack Tigertail (1872-1922), a winter resident at Coppinger's, was murdered there in 1922 • this was big news in Miami because Jack was well known there, especially after leading a rescue team into the Everglades To find a missing surveying party • after a sensational trial, a white man was convicted of the crime, then acquitted on appeal • although the case was never solved, Indians at Coppinger's suspected Tigertail's cousin, Charlie Billie • the "Chief" was the first Miami Seminole buried in a white cemetery —The Enduring Seminoles: From Alligator Wrestling to Ecotourism, Patsy West
• after his death, the camp's name was changed to Tigertail Indian Village, & advertised as "home of the late Chief Tigertail," at least until 1926 • a towering image of Jack Tigertail soon greeted motorists entering the young city of Hialeah —The Long Sleep of Jack Tigertail, Stuart McIver, Sun Sentinel, August, 1993
• Hindu Temple designated a City of Miami Historic Site, 1991 • Spring Garden designated a City of Miami Historic District, 1997