Colonial American Wallpaper



A fragment of 18th-century English floral wallpaper in the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

collection (acc. no. 1966-164) shows a vibrant verdigris green glaze background

where the paper was protected by an overlap at the seam.

        In early colonial America, wallpaper was used by the more affluent but in the more unimportant rooms of homes. Rooms like the drawing and dining room and ballroom were covered with fabric in strips or panels with fancy cording or wood framing to hide the seams.
        By 1712, when wallpaper had become popular in the colonies, the English introduced a tax on any paper that was "painted, printed or stained to serve as hangings." To get around the taxes, artists hand colored wallpaper after it was hung on the wall.
        The industry grew and in 1773, Parliament repealed that tax, but still levied custom duties. Many wallpapers of that time were predominently blue in color because indigo, the source of the color, was one of the few crops not taxed by the English. In the early 1800s, falsification of wallpaper customs stamps was a crime punishable by death.        

Popular toile pattern usually printed in blue, red, or green.

        One type of wallpaper made during colonial America was a form of stenciling. A wood block was carefully prepared in relief, which means the areas to show “white” are cut away with a knife, chisel, or sandpaper leaving the characters or image to show in “black” at the original surface level.  
        Artisans would apply ink to the block with a roller and bring it into firm and even contact with the paper or cloth to achieve an acceptable print. The content would print “in reverse” or mirror-image. Multiple blocks were used for coloring, each for one color.
        Often, a simple design was block printed, and an artist embellished the design by hand.
        The earliest known fragment of European wallpaper that still exists today was found on the beams of the Lodge of Christ's College in Cambridge, England, and dates from 1509.
        In 1785, the first machine for printing colored tints on sheets of wallpaper was invented, and a patent was registered in 1799 for a machine to produce continuous lengths of paper.

Susan F. Craft is the author of The Chamomile, an inspirational Revolutionary War romantic suspense that takes place in Charleston, SC.  Lilyan Cameron, the heroine of The Chamomile, is a wallpaper and portrait artist. The Chamomile won the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Okra Pick award. Susan is represented by the Hartline Literary Agency.

Touring Tyntesfield, the Setting of The Governess of Highland Hall With Author Carrie Turansky---and A GIVEAWAY!

Early in 2012 when I started working on ideas for The Governess of Highland Hall, I wanted to find an English country estate for my setting. I am a visual writer, and finding images for my characters and setting brings the story to life for me. I loved visiting Highclere Castle where Downton Abbey is filmed, and I wanted to find an estate that gave a similar impression but was unique. After searching online, I discovered Tyntesfield, and I was delighted when I followed several more links to other images and articles. It was the perfect inspiration for the Ramsey family's Highland Hall.

Tyntesfield is a beautiful Victorian Gothic Revival house and estate near Wraxall, North Somerset, England. The house is a Grade 1 listed building, which means it has special historic significance and cannot be demolished or changed without permission from the government. 

The house is named after the Tynte baronets, who owned estates in the area since about 1500. The location was formerly a 16^th-century hunting lodge, which was used as a farmhouse until the early 19th century. In the 1830s a Georgian mansion was built on the site. William Gibbs, an English businessman, who made his fortune by importing guano (bird droppings) from South America that was used to make fertilizer bought the house in the 1860s. Gibbs became the wealthiest non-noble in England for a time, and he enlarged Tyntesfield to become the beautiful estate it is today. 

William and Blanche Gibbs were very dedicated to their faith, and they had a beautiful chapel added in the 1870s. The estate was passed down to each generation and remained in the family until 2001 when Richard Gibbs passed away. 

Tyntesfield was acquired by the National Trust in June 2002 after a fundraising campaign was initiated to prevent it being sold to a private party and to ensure it would be open to the public. The first ten weeks after the acquisition, over 189,000 people visited Tynestesfield. They were eager to see the lovely estate that remained very much the same for the last 150 years. 

Several of the scenes in The Governess of Highland Hall are set in the great hall, the gallery, the library, and the nursery. So I thought you would like to see those areas of the house.

If you’d like to see more photos of Tyntesfield come visit my Pinterest boards. When you do, you can step back in time and meet the Governess and all the characters at Highland Hall. 

I'm giving away a copy of The Governess of Highland Hall. Drawing is open only to mainland US and Canada. Which room at Tyntesfield is your favorite and why? I love to connect with friends on Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter, Pinterest, and through my website blog. I hope to see you there!


The Governess of Highland Hall

Missionary Julia Foster loves working alongside her parents, ministering and caring for young girls in India. But when the family must return to England due to illness, she readily accepts the burden for her parents’ financial support. Taking on a job at Highland Hall as governess, she quickly finds that teaching her four privileged, ill-mannered charges at a grand estate is more challenging than expected, and she isn’t sure what to make of the estate’s preoccupied master, Sir William Ramsey.
 
Widowed and left to care for his two young children and his deceased cousin Randolph’s two teenage girls, William is consumed with saving the estate from the financial ruin. The last thing he needs is any distraction coming from the kindhearted-yet-determined governess who seems to be quietly transforming his household with her persuasive personality, vibrant prayer life, and strong faith.
 
While both are tending past wounds and guarding fragile secrets, Julia and William are determined to do what it takes to save their families—common ground that proves fertile for unexpected feelings. But will William choose Julia’s steadfast heart and faith over the wealth and power he needs to secure Highland Hall’s future?

Would You Have Allowed Jenner to Inoculate You?

Edward Jenner (1749–1823).
Photo courtesy of the
National Library of Medicine.
Discovered here.

Have you ever thought it might be fun to have lived at a different time in history? No computers, no phones, no airplanes. You may immediately think, no way! I like those conveniences. There are pros and cons to many aspects of living during different historical time periods. However, the lack of current day medical practices and our extensive knowledge of disease is something I wouldn’t want to leave behind if time travel were possible.

You wouldn’t want to have the need for surgery because chances are that you wouldn’t get it (they rarely performed surgical operations) and you’d die, or you would get it and you’d die, or if you were that sick you’d just want to be left alone to die. Medicine is one of those things that I wouldn’t want to give up if I could escape into Regency England (one of my favorite eras) for a year or so.

Did you know that Edward Jenner discovered the vaccine for smallpox in late 18th century England? I doubt many high school students know about smallpox today unless they watch movies on bioterrorism, etc. Isn’t it scary that a disease that was virtually wiped out by 1977 could be resurrected for horrifying purposes?

Jenner used the pus and infectious matter of a dairymaid’s cowpox to inoculate a small boy in 1796. Do you want to know what that looked like? Probably not but I’ll tell you. He scraped inside nasty looking wounds on Sarah Nelm’s (dairymaid’s) hand and arm, gathered the infection, created two small incisions in the boy’s (James Phipps) arm and spread the pus into the incisions. You can read more here about the method of variolation here.

From Wikipedia, Jenner's Theory:

The initial source of infection was a disease of horses, called "the grease", which was transferred to cows by farm workers, transformed, and then manifested as cowpox.More here. For more on the great and terrible scourge go here.

Did you know the history of smallpox inoculation? Did any of this surprise you? Brings a whole new meaning to the saying, "A pox upon you!" Of course in that day if they didn't mean smallpox they probably meant the "Great Pox," syphilis. That's another post.

  From an etching by James Gillray (1757-1815) 1802 caricature of Jenner vaccinating patients who feared it would make them sprout cowlike appendages. From Wikipedia.   

Tidbits About Cotuit, MA.

Tidbits About Cotuit

Cotuit is one of the hidden places on Cape Cod, it’s off the main road and you wouldn’t think there was a village there because most of the streets going into it, look like residential streets. I selected Cotuit because of a family connection to the location and decided to have my hero from my next novel hail from there.

So, let me share a few little tidbits I know about this place. First, it was known as Cotuit Port until 1872 when the name changed and Port was removed from the name. The harbor is what you call a natural harbor. The reason for this is that it is protected by jutting spits of land on both sides of the entrance into the harbor, which any seaman will tell you is very nice to protect your boat. So being a coastal town people made their livings mostly from the sea. Seamen, Fishermen, Ship Builders, Captains, Whalers, Steam engine engineers and even some crafty smugglers have made their home in Cotuit.
(The picture on your right comes from one I found on the internet at Card Cow and printed on the card it says it's of the upper harbor of Cotuit harbor.
Below is a series of 7 pictures I took of Cotuit Harbor a couple years ago.

Catboats were one of the boats built there. A Catboat is unique to the Cape and has a low draw with a forward mast which were helpful for fisherman in the area. Today a Catboat is strictly a pleasure craft. Here’s an example of a Catboat.

Cranberries grow in the marshes and Oysters are plentiful in the harbor. Cotuit Oysters are not as plentiful as they once were but are known for their unique ‘sweet’ taste.

In the mid 1800’s Cotuit was discovered as a place to build a summer residence. My husband’s ancestors owned the first Inn, The Santuit House, built by Braddock Coleman in 1860. It was the first hotel on the Cape.

Cotuit also has another first distinction and that is Union Church where the members combined three churches of various faiths and built one Community based church in 1846. It was the first community church in America.

One of my in-laws favorite novelist was Joseph C. Lincoln who set many of his stories on Cape Cod. To them it brought back memories of childhood and many of the characters he wrote about they saw in people they knew as children. If you’re ever looking for something to read with that old character charm I highly recommend Lincoln’s novels.

Pictured on the left is the Anna B. Heidritter the last four-masted cargo schooner on the East Coast, it was manned by Captain Bennett Coleman who was born in Cotuit.

Bennett's home, pictured below is fairly typical for some of the larger homes in the area.

As I mentioned the village of Cotuit roots are in the sea. And I grew up on Martha's Vineyard not too far from Cotuit by the way a sea gull. It was fun searching for the pictures from my trip and difficult to limit to just a few. If you're ever on the Cape, take the time to find this hidden treasure. Don't forget to stop in to the general store and the historical society. And if your imagination runs wild visiting old cemeteries, you'll want to stop by the one in Cotuit. There are a lot of old stones there, some have been lost over the years but there are some great lines captured on these stones, giving you a glimpse of some of the people who have gone before us.

Lynn A. Coleman is an award winning & best-selling author who makes her home in Keystone Heights, Florida, with her husband of 39 years. Check out her 19th Century Historical Tidbits Blog if you like exploring different tidbits of history.

Knit Four, Purl Four

By Linda Farmer Harris

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott was an early favorite of mine. I loved Jo and understood her angst about having to stay in the house and learn the womanly arts instead of being out of doors. When “Jo shook the blue army sock till the needles rattled like castanets, and her ball bounded across the room,” I was right there helping her scoop it up. I wondered if we would ever master the needles and yarn.

It was the first time I encountered knitting in fiction. Jo continued her knitting in Good Wives and Miss Alcott used knitting as a clever way to hide facial expressions and other reactions of her characters.

I learned to knit when I was in grade school. My mother showed me the pink booties her mother had knitted for me. It would be decades before I could knit with the precision and manipulation of double point needles needed for baby socks, but I racked up a lot of hats and scarves.

I began to watch for knitting and needlework references in fiction. A high school favorite, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, had a character who knitted. Madame Defarge, an archetypal evil character in Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, used pattern stitches as a code to knit a list of the upper class doomed for the guillotine.

Who can forget Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple sitting in a corner knitting and eavesdropping? She carried her knitting as readily as she donned a sweater before an outing.

The very first description of Miss Marple in a 1928 Sketch magazine mentions her knitting: [She wore] a black brocade dress, very much pinched in round the waist. Mechlin lace was arranged in a cascade down the front of the bodice. She had on black lace mittens, and a black lace cap surmounted the piled-up masses of her snowy hair. She was knitting — something white and soft and fleecy. Her faded blue eyes, benignant and kindly, surveyed her nephew and her nephew's guests with gentle pleasure.

Many children know that the hero of Jessica Day George's Princess of the Midnight Ball is a knitter.

Clara Peggotty in Charles Dickens's 1850 novel David Copperfield is the housekeeper of the Copperfield home and plays a big part in David's upbringing. The name "peggotty" or a "knitting nancy" a knitting device, is thought to be a reference to Clara Peggotty's fondness for knitting.

Book One, Chapter 3: Mrs. Peggotty with the white apron, was knitting on the opposite side of the fire. Peggotty at her needlework was as much at home with St. Paul's and the bit of wax-candle, as if they had never known any other roof.

Ron Weasley’s mother in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels knitted jumpers (sweaters) for each member of her family every Christmas that reflected the person’s interest. Because Harry is such a close friend of the family, he gets a Weasley jumper each year. Hagrid is also a knitter, as we discover when he first took Harry to Diagon Alley: “Hagrid took up two seats [on the train] and sat knitting what looked like a canary-yellow circus tent.”

Jane Fairfax in Jane Austen’s Emma knits a pair of garters for her grandmother (Chapter 10).

It is thought that Penelope in Homer’s Odyssey was actually a knitter, not a weaver, as some texts have translated. The rationale for this is drawn from her actions while she awaits the return of Odysseus. To avoid commitment to any of the many suitors seeking her hand in marriage, she claims she needs to weave a burial shroud for Odysseus’ father Laertes — “she weaves every day, but then unravels her work every night.” Knitting scholars believe Penelope was actually ripping out her rows of knitted stitches.

Men also knit and apparently have done so for centuries. They also write about it — James Norbury, The Knitter's Craft, Knit with Norbury, Knitting is an Adventure and the classic Traditional Knitting Patterns. Others just do it.

Okay, we’ve looked at a few characters in fiction who knitted, but what about the writers. Dorothy Parker, poet and short story author, took her knitting with her everywhere. In Hollywood, Dorothy knitted and dictated screenplay dialogue while her husband Alan Campbell typed them. Dorothy Parker’s review of a forgettable musical: “If you don’t knit, bring a book.”

In Knitting Yarns by Ann Hood (W.W. Norton & Company, 2013), twenty-seven writers tell stories about how knitting challenged, healed, or helped them to grow. For example, Barbara Kingsolver, Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike (1989), sheers a sheep for yarn. Elizabeth Berg, The Handmaid and the Carpenter (2006) writes about her frustration at a knitting failure. Ann Patchett, What Now? (2008) describes her life through her knitting. Andre Dubus III, Townie (2011) knit a Christmas gift for his blind aunt. Kaylie Jones, Lies My Mother Never Told Me (2009) finds the woman who used knitting to help raise her in France and heals old wounds. Sue Grafton, W is for Wasted (2013) shares her passion for knitting. Included are five original knitting patterns created by Helen Bingham, http://www.helenbinghamdesigns.com.

Knitting Christmas gifts is one of the activities Eleanor uses as she awaits the return of Barrett in my novella Christmas Gold.

Researching and crafting novels is a long process and the reward may be further down the road. Knitting is a great stress reliever and small projects provide immediate gratification. 

I also knit historical patterns. It's fun to ferret out the meanings and terms that have changed over the years. For example, purling was called seaming or backwards knitting. Knit-two-together was abbreviated "N" - narrow by knitting two stitches together. Stitch names have also changed.

My favorite historical patterns are the Seafarer's Scarf and Hat. The original patterns were invented in 1898 during the Spanish American War. Mrs. E.A. Gardener, from what is now Manhattan, New York, conceived the idea of supplying our war ships with items that were needed. Included in the "comfort bags" were hand knitted scarves, hats, socks, mittens, and sweaters. Patterns and opportunities to contribute to the annual knitting campaign can be found at http://cas.seamenschurch.org/christmas-at-sea.

The Seafarer's Scarf and Hat and other patterns are offered by Christmas at Sea through The Seamen's Church Institute of New York & New Jersey, which is the longest continuous charity knitting program in the United States.

The 6 1/2" X 46" scarf pattern is simple — Using No. 6 needles and 4.5 ounces of 4-ply yarn, Cast on 32 stitches with medium tension. Knit even for 14 inches. Knit 4, Purl 4 for 18 inches, Knit even for 14 inches. Bind off with medium tension. Do not block. Gauge is 5 sts. = 1" and 7 rows = 1".

Do you knit? What do you knit? 

If you write, have you put knitting in your book?

Blessings,

P.S. — I did learn to knit baby booties and socks. I just finished chair leg socks for my wooden kitchen chairs so they wouldn't screech on the Travertine tile. Two sets down six more sets to go.

How Honey Bees Came To America

Hi!  Winnie Griggs here

In one of my prior books I had a scene where the heroine was attempting to harvest honey in the wild.  It was a small scene, but it was pivotal the story.  Problem was, I didn’t know anything about gathering honey, not in the present and definitely not in the 1890s which is when my story took place.  So off I went to do some research - and what fun research it was!

One of the more interesting things I learned (which had nothing to do with the scene in my story) was something of the history of honey bees in America.  Today I thought I’d share the highlights of that history with you.

There are lots of bees that are native to America, but honey bees are not.  The assumption is that they arrived here with the earliest settlers who would have considered them a must-have item not just for the honey they produced and pollination duties they performed, but also for their wax making abilities.

The earliest mention of the honeybee’s journey to the New World can be found in shipping records dating back to the 1620s.  It would take over 230 years for them to make it to the Pacific coastal states.

Those first bees to be transported here arrived in Virginia.  Once they got a toehold, however, they began moving further afield by swarming.  By 1639 they could be found in neighboring Maryland.  By 1655 swarms had established hives in Pennsylvania and Connecticut.  By 1820 honeybees could be found as far afield as Michigan, Missouri, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas.

Things slowed down for a while, but eventually they made it to Utah courtesy of the Mormon settlers and by 1852 they’d shown up in Nevada.

The Rockies proved to be a significant barrier to the migrating swarms.  Even with the help of migrating settlers, the trip over the snowy peaks was not an easy one for the bees.  One story speaks of a traveler who planned to undertake a trip to Oregon via the Applegate Trail.  He was offered $500 if he could successfully deliver a viable hive of honey bees.  According to the anecdote, he decided to take two hives with him thinking that way he would surely arrive with enough live bees to make one intact hive.  Alas all the bees in both hives perished of cold and disease before he was able to make it to the other side of the mountains.

In 1853 an enterprising individual purchased twelve hives in Panama.  He then transported them across the Isthmus and sent them on to San Francisco.  One sole hive survived the trip but that was all it took.  That thrive flourished and as with that original hive in Virginia 220+ years earlier, it went on to spawn a number of swarms.

As you can see from this short history the journey of the honeybee across America was very similar to that of the early settlers themselves.  They faced some of the same barriers - disease, harsh climates, predators, resource competitors, and geographical roadblocks - that hindered their advance.  But the human and apian settlers had a very symbiotic relationship during this westward push.  The honey bees not only provided honey and wax for the settlers, they often arrived in advance and helped to spread the white clover and other European grasses that the imported livestock favored.  In return, the humans planted countless acres of land with crops that were favorable to honey bee populations, built hives, and more importantly transported them over terrains such as treeless plains and mountain ranges that would have been difficult for the honey bees to cross on their own. 

How about you folks out there?  Do any of you have experience with bees, either in the wild or in a man-made hive? 

Becoming A Doctor In the Old West--and a Giveaway

Hi everyone, it’s Jennifer Uhlarik again. Glad to be back with you again this month. Make sure to read to the end to find out about my surprise giveaway.

Today, I wanted to share a bit about one of the recent topics I’ve been researching—how a person became a doctor in the Old West. I would guess most people have heard of some of the abominable practices of early medical doctors. Bloodletting, purging, leeches. Or later on, the use of the toxic and ineffective combination of calomel and castor oil for various ailments. Or the Civil War surgeons who performed amputation after amputation without disinfecting anything or anesthetizing their patients. It gives me the shivers to think what sick or wounded people were subjected to in order to feel better—only to grow worse and die in many cases.

Doctors today go through many years of schooling, residency, and fellowships, and most (if not all) mortgage their future to pay for it all. But it wasn’t always that way. Back in the 1800’s, there were three methods in which a person could become a doctor.

Attend medical school.
Apprentice under a knowledgeable doctor.
Purchase a diploma from a diploma mill.

Yikes! Purchase a diploma and become a doctor? Yes. Somewhere around the early 1850’s, states began requiring credentials to practice medicine, and not long after that, diploma mills began popping up. If you could pay the fee, you could receive a diploma titled in your name, stating you were capable to practice medicine. What a frightening thought. No training. No lectures. No tests. Just pay the cash, and here’s a diploma to flash.

A more respected route was the apprenticeship. Many who wanted to learn medicine but couldn’t afford to attend medical school would choose this route. What this entailed was for the apprentice to work with a local doctor who was willing to teach him about medicine. When apprentices first started their apprenticeships, they would likely spend more time caring for the doctor’s horses than real patients. Apprentices would chop and carry wood, clean the doctor’s office, run the doctor’s non-medical errands, all to pay for his training and upkeep. He would also ride along on calls or watch procedures performed in the office. And eventually, after watching, listening, and learning, the apprentice would be given the opportunity to attempt the procedures himself.

The length of apprenticeships varied, and it depended largely on how much the doctor could teach and how quickly the apprentice learned. Once the doctor had taught all he could to his student, he would write up a document that stated the apprentice was knowledgeable in the practice of medicine and was capable of practicing on his own. The apprentice then could start his own office as a full-fledged doctor. This method of study produced many very qualified doctors in the Old West, but began to fall out of favor in the early 1870’s. I’m sure some continued to apprentice under local doctors for a bit longer, but this time frame was also when medical schools began to grow, both in number and quality.

© Dana Hughes

In 1850, there were approximately forty medical schools in the United States. That number swelled to more than sixty by 1876. Many of these schools were found out West, and the cost to attend was very affordable, since the residents of the western states and territories tended to be less than affluent. During this time period, students were required to attend two four-month-long sessions. These sessions would occur a year apart. Students would hear lectures on anatomy, physiology, midwifery, chemistry, and surgery, and the teachers would present some cases using cadavers obtained by grave-robbing. Anyone who could pay the money and completed both four-month sessions would be given a diploma. These newly-graduated doctors often went on to apprentice under a more established physician, but that practice began to fall out of favor by the early 1870’s.

By the turn of the century, medical schools began to improve. Prior to this point, there were few admission requirements other than to pay tuition. Shortly before 1900, medical school admission became more selective, coursework grew longer, and more hands-on practice in autopsy and dissections was given. Students were required to spend more time studying pathologies of disease. They attended conferences where strange maladies were presented. Hospitals were used for teaching on live patients with real maladies and injuries. But it wasn’t until 1910 that true standards of medical education were created, causing many of the Western medical schools to close because they couldn’t comply.

© Jennifer Uhlarik

So now it’s your turn. If you had lived during these times and wanted to be a doctor, which path would you have taken—diploma mill, apprenticeship, or medical school? Leave your email address if you would like to be entered in the drawing for two handmade soaps (Rosemary and Smashed Pumpkin Pie scents).

Thanks for visiting. See you all next month!

Jennifer Uhlarik discovered the western genre as a pre-teen, when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has won the 2012 CWOW Phoenix Rattler, 2012 ACFW First Impressions, and 2013 FCWC contests, all in the historical category. She is also the winner of the 2013 Central Florida ACFW chapter's "Prompt Response" contest. In addition to writing, she has held jobs as a private business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, and her favorite--full-time homemaker. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers and lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband, teenaged son, and four fur children.

All the.News That's Fit to Print--and Then Some

 

One of my favorite research tools is old newspapers.  I used to make myself sick going through microfiche at the library, but thanks to the Internet many 18th and 19th century newspapers are now available on line.

Reading some of these newspapers is like reading the National Enquirer.   

During the 1800s there were no shortages of ghosts, UFOS, monsters or things that go bump in the night.  Weird animals?  You name it.  Giant reptiles, huge birds and an eighteen horn cow made headlines and that wasn't all;  A Texas man outgrew his coffin and another man was hypnotized by the telegraph.  

Sightings frightened residents and created “adject fear” in livestock 

 

 

You’ve heard of Roswell and the alien that supposedly crashed there, but did you know that something similar happened in Aurora, TX in 1887? According to “Hidden Headlines of Texas” compiled by Chad Lewis “something out of this world” crashed and demolished a windmill in Aurora. “Mr. T.J. Weems, a U.S. Army Signal Service Officer and an authority on astronomy, gives his opinion that the pilot was a native of Mars.

 Buzzing lights, airships, immense meteors and strange moving lights were witnessed by firemen, undertakers, miners and a twelve year old who “didn’t believe in ghosts, whose parents never scared him with spook stories, and who is one of the best behaved scholars in fourth grade.”

Ghosts were reported even by those proclaiming not to believe in them

Houses, mines, theaters and even certain roads were haunted.  According to an article in a Tombstone Epitaph dated 1907, a Texas mining man purchased a haunted mine and soon realized his mistake when “spirits” chased away his workers.

Wild men ran rampant through the old west, though none of the real wild men reported in newspapers were quite as handsome as the “wild man” hero in one of my books (Yep, inspiration abounds in those old newspapers). Posses were formed to chase down various wild men but apparently few were ever caught. 

One wild man in Galveston created “consternation” among its citizens by “lapping up milk like a dog” and “eating fried chicken raw.”  Not everyone was disturbed by his behavior.  The Galveston Daily News defended the wild man in an editorial: “Well, do not be heard on the poor, frenzied creature; he is probably some eminent Republican who ran away to keep from being nominated for the vice presidency.”

“Lunacy” and “sudden insanity” seemed to plague 19^th century citizens  

Jokes, religious excitement, storms and disgrace were among the reasons given for a sudden crazed or deranged state.  You’ve heard of postal workers running berserk, right?  It turns out that telegraph operators sometimes went postal, too.  One such telegrapher in El Paso, Texas proclaimed he was God and threatened to “demolish” a co-worker.   Another crazed telegraph operator ran amuck and terrorized an entire county.  It’s not clear if he was ever captured.

Things got so bad according to a preface in Wisconsin Death Trap by Michael Lesy that “Many historians have become convinced there was a major crisis in American life during the 1890s.”

Bizarre behavior blamed on

 Industrial Revolution 

Electricity, telephone and automobile came right on the heel of the train and telegraph.  Not only did these inventions change the way people lived but how they thought.  Electricity was even blamed for the suffragette movement that swept the country.   

It kind of makes you wonder what they’ll say about those of us living in the electronic revolution, doesn’t it?  Personally, I haven’t seen any Martians, but I was once hypnotized by my iPhone.  

So what do you think? Are things better or worse now then they were back then?  

Or about the same?

"Exquisitely Intriguing"-Starred review from Publishers Weekly

She's a Pinkerton detective; he's got more aliases than can be found on Boot Hill.  Neither has a clue about love . . . . 

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Kentucky Brothers Divided

Civil War Turmoil

and a surprise Giveaway

      The phrase “brother against brother” is often associated with the Civil War. The Crittenden family of Kentucky knew its meaning firsthand.
      Brothers George Bibb Crittenden and Thomas Leonidas Crittenden fought on opposite sides of the conflict, and both rose to the rank of major general, Thomas for the North, George for the South.

Gen. George B. Crittenden

      George was already a veteran when the war broke out, having fought in the Black Hawk War and also against the Mexican Army for the independence of Texas. A West Point graduate, he served with the U.S. Army early on, but accepted a commission as a colonel with the Confederate Army at the
start of the Civil War.
     As a Confederate officer, he rose to the rank of major general in less than a year and commanded the District of East Tennessee. However, he was later transferred away from the front lines and then court-martialed because of a drinking problem. George resigned from the army, but later returned to it and fought the last part of the Civil War as an enlisted soldier.
     Thomas, his younger brother, also had some rough spots in his military career. He had been a lawyer, and served as an aide to General Zachary Taylor during the Mexican War. Afterward, he served as U.S. consul in England. He stuck with the U.S. Army during the Civil War. In 1860 he was made a brigadier general of volunteers and commanded a division of the Army of Ohio. After serving with distinction at Shiloh, he was promoted to major general of volunteers. He served well at the Battle of Stones River and the Battle of Murfreesboro.

Gen. Thomas L. Crittenden
portrait by Matthew Brady

    Though he was a skilled military officer, Thomas L. Crittenden suffered from having a less gifted general above him. Crittenden and Alexander McDowell were blamed by Union General William Rosencrans for the costly loss at Chickamauga and were relieved of their commands. Rosencrans’s later record told the truth about who was inept. Crittenden and McDowell were exonerated, and the blame for the fiasco at Chickamauga was transferred to Rosencrans, who was relieved from command. Thomas Crittenden regained the respect of his peers and was back in the thick of things, now serving in the Army of the Potomac at Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor.
      Kentucky was a border state, and while families in every state were divided, Kentucky was perhaps one of the worst, so far as torn loyalties went. Another family deeply affected was the Breckenridge family. Robert Breckenridge had two sons fighting for the North and two for the South. Kentucky statesman Henry Clay had three grandsons fighting for the Union and four for the Confederacy.

Photo by Charles Edward via Wikimedia Commons

     At the beginning of the Civil War, the governor declared Kentucky a neutral state, but shortly afterward, dissenters formed a Confederate government and went ahead with secession. For much of the war, the Confederate state was occupied by Union troops, which made things difficult for families who were loyal to the South.
     About 100,000 men from Kentucky served in the Union Army, including almost 24,000 African Americans. The estimated number of Kentucky men who fought for the Confederate Army ranges from 25,000 to 40,000. The psychological toll on families divided in their loyalties can only be imagined. 

     One more example of a divided Kentucky family: in mid-1862, General Benjamin Helm took command of the First Kentucky Brigade. He died of his wounds received at the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863. President Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky. Confederate General Helm was President Lincoln’s brother-in-law.
 

  I’m now researching some aspects of the Civil War for an upcoming book. My Wyoming Brides novels take place just before and during in this period. Today’s giveaway is a copy of Protecting Amy, my first-ever published book, in either paperback or digital form. The winner will be chosen by random draw on Saturday (Oct. 26). To enter, comment here.

 

Susan Page Davis is the author of more than forty published novels. A history major, she’s always interested in the unusual happenings of the past. She’s a two-time winner of the Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award, and also a winner of the Carol Award and the Will Rogers Medallion, and a finalist in the WILLA Awards and the More Than Magic Contest. Visit her website at: www.susanpagedavis.com .

Native American Mission Schools

Apache Boarding School students
 

Today's post is written by guest author and Genesis winner, Kiersti Plog.
 

When I began a story set in 1911 at a Navajo mission school, I imagined a day school where children came in the morning and went home each night. But I quickly discovered boarding schools formed the vast majority of mission or government schools for Native American children during the 19^th and 20^th centuries.

These boarding schools formed a cornerstone of the “assimilation” approach to the late 1800s so-called “Indian problem.” With the near-completion of westward expansion, the indigenous inhabitants were quickly being crowded out of their centuries-old homelands and way of life. Though armed resistance seemed mostly subdued after the 1890 tragedy at Wounded Knee, Native Americans’ traditional nomadic lifestyle seemed incompatible with white settlers’, and the United States government simply did not know what to do with them.

Some, including Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum, actually advocated for “total annihilation” as a solution. The more “humane” method adopted came largely through boarding schools. By taking Native children from their families and bringing them up in conformity to the dominant culture, they would lose their “Indian-ness” and be able to assimilate into white society—or that was the hope. “Kill the Indian, save the man,” Captain Richard Pratt called it. His Carlisle Indian School, founded in 1879 in Pennsylvania, served as a model for many boarding schools to come.
 

Navajo Tom - Before and after "conversion" 1882
 

When students arrived at school, their hair was shorn short—upsetting to the children, as hair cutting was reserved for mourning in most Native American cultures. Their traditional clothing was taken away, replaced with military-style uniforms. They saw their families only a few times a year. If caught speaking their native language rather than English at school, punishment came fast and often severe. A missionary who has worked on the Navajo reservation most of his life told me many Navajo elders today still carry bitterness and resentment over having their mouths washed out with soap at boarding school, merely for speaking their own language.

As I learned about these schools and the children who attended them, my heart began to be broken. No doubt many of those who founded these boarding schools and advocated for this approach meant well. But when one people automatically assume their ways to be superior and more God-given than another’s, damage is done. On the Navajo reservation, at least two entire generations of children were raised in the militaristic setting of boarding school rather than by their parents. These children themselves thus never learned how to parent, leading to widely disintegrating families today. The attempt to forcibly remove culture and language has also contributed to a deep identity crisis among many Native Americans.

 

Not all children had a bad experience at boarding school. For some who came from poor or even abusive families, school became a refuge of safety and three meals a day. But regardless, the impact of boarding schools on Native American society has been indelible. Many of these schools still exist as mission and day schools on reservations today.

 

 

Kiersti Plog
 

Kiersti Plog holds a life-long love for history and historical fiction and lived with her family for five years in New Mexico near the Navajo Reservation. Her yet-unpublished novel Beneath a Turquoise Sky is set at a Navajo mission boarding school and received the ACFW Genesis Award for Historical Fiction in 2013. She writes stories that show the intersection of past and present, explore relationships that bridge cultural divides, and probe the healing Jesus can bring out of brokenness. A member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Kiersti loves learning and growing with other writers penning God’s story into theirs, as well as blogging at www.kierstiplog.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Voting in Regency England

Naomi Rawlings here today. I’ve always found the process of democracy—and elections in particular—rather fascinating. And as we head into the month of November, I wanted to share a little about elections and voting rights in Regency England.

I’m afraid voting options were rather limited for the common British subject. Britain’s Parliament is (and was) divided into two houses, the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The House of Lords was composed of peers who were approved membership by their fellow peers, and these positions in the House of Lords were handed down through heredity. Your regular English coal miner or weaver or farmer had no voice in anything that happened in the House of Lords.

The House of Commons was a little more democratic in nature. These members were “elected,” by counties and boroughs, though a lot of corruption was embedded in the electoral process. When Regency characters in novels and movies mention purchasing a seat in the House of Commons, that’s because the electoral process was so crooked individuals could well “purchase” seats that were supposed to be "elected."

Further complicating the issue, a Member of Parliament representing a county had to have a yearly income of 600 pounds. And a Member of Parliament representing a borough had to have a yearly income of 300 pounds. Thus election to and involvement in parliament was unattainable for the average Englishman. In fact, lower born sons of peers filled a good number of the seats in Commons for this very reason.

Even more disparaging, all voting was done open ballot, and oftentimes retribution could occur if you voted for the wrong person. For example, if an earl's third son was running for a seat in Commons and you farmed the earl's land, you could go cast your vote for the opposing candidate. But you might well loose your rights to farm as a result.

Elections were hardly honest or fair. It was a world where the most elite and wealthy controlled the government and gave the bulk of the country's citizens very little power. Most citizens were not even allowed to "vote."

To vote in county elections, a person had to be:

1. Male--Though offensive to most people living today (myself included), this was completely normal for the time period. Women’s suffrage wasn’t even thought of yet.
2. A Property Holder with land worth 40 shillings or more per year--this is known as the forty shilling freehold.

To vote in borough elections, you had to be:

1. Male
2. A resident of the “right” county or borough.There were a lot of populated cities in Regency England that didn’t get any representatives in the House of Commons. The designated “boroughs” were delineated during the Middle Ages and not changed until 1832. So numerous cities that sprang into existence due to industrialism were denied members to the House of Commons, while some extremely small communities that had been thriving 400 years earlier got to elect officials.
3. 3). Owner of a certain amount of wealth or property. The degree of wealth and property ownership varied from borough to borough. In some places, the forty shilling freehold stood. In others, not receiving alms or poor relief earned you the right to vote. And in others, simply owning a home gave you opportunity to vote.

So now I’m curious. If you’d been living during the Regency days, do you think you (or your husband) would have been able to vote? I daresay my husband would not own enough property to qualify.

*****

Naomi Rawlings is mom to two young boys, a wife to her wonderful husband, an author for Love Inspired Historical, and an avid reader. She and her family live in Michigan’s rugged Upper Peninsula, where they get over 200 inches of snow per winter and share their ten wooded acres with black bears, wolves, coyotes, deer, and bald eagles. Because of her romance novel addiction (and the alarmingly high number of books she devours per week) she started a website for inspirational romance lovers like herself:  www.inspirationalromanceratings.com. Naomi is looking forward to the release of her next book, The Wyoming Heir, in January 2014. For more information about Naomi or her books, please visit her website at www.naomirawlings.com.

Note: This blog post was originally published on Regency Reflections in November 2012