Gold Mining Methods in 1830s Georgia

Sluice box

by Denise Farnsworth

My last two posts introduced the Georgia Gold Rush and its first boom town, Auraria. Today let’s look at the gold mining methods used in the early days of the bonanza.

The typical picture we imagine of a miner bent over a creek with pan in hand reflects placer or deposit mining. Prospectors often searched for a bend in the stream where the eroding bank might reveal a gold-bearing layer. Gold flakes washed into the stream would be caught at the bend with other rocks and minerals in a gravel layer. The process of plunging and swirling water over the contents would eventually reveal the heavier gold flakes on the bottom of the pan.

Other early methods were not much more advanced and consisted of washing the gravel layer of a stream through a sluice box or a splint basket into a trough rocker, a hollowed-out log about a dozen feet long. While the water from the sluice box passed through the trough, it was kept in constant motion. The gold sank to the bottom through the continually moving silt and was caught by transverse cleats.

Diving bell on its side with bottom exposed.

Enterprising miners with some cash on hand soon broadened efforts by drifting flatboats on the Chestatee and Etowah rivers to dredge the bottom. In early 1833, a diving bell was launched on the Chestatee by a former Tennessean named McCallom.

Eventually, placer mining petered out, and hard rock mining was required. To locate a vein mine, a miner would begin at a spot in the creek known to have placer deposits and work their way upstream, test-panning as they went. An abrupt drop in the gold content indicated a vein in the surrounding hills. Soil testing continued until it was located. Then tunneling operations would begin. 

The ideal tunnel was seven feet square, but most ran only two to four. Timbers were needed to reinforce the rock riddled with fissures. Wheelbarrows or tracks and carts might be employed depending on the size of the mining operation. Vertical shafts were also dug, usually twenty to thirty feet deep but occasionally over a hundred. Once the ore was extracted from the vein mines, it was taken to a stamp mill to be crushed. These mills ranged from a single stamp hung from a bent sapling to as many as ten stamps powered by a water wheel.

The more complex mining methods required organization and financing. A number of gold mining companies were formed during the Gold Rush. Some of these included: 

• Augusta Mining Company, Habersham Mining Company, and Naucoochy Mining Company, 1832
• Pigeon Roost Mining Company and Belfast Mining Company, 1834
• Georgia Mining Company, Chestatee Mining Company, and Cherokee Mining Company, 1835
• Lumpkin County Mining and Manufacturing Company, 1837

The easy gold played out by the early 1840s so that when gold was discovered in California, prospectors were all too eager to abandon the Georgia hills. They took their tools, their expertise, and even their town names with them. But later in the 1800s, another surge of hard rock mining occurred with the use of high-powered drills and hydraulic mining methods. Many Georgia mines continued lucrative operations well into the 1900s.

Look for further upcoming posts about the Georgia Gold Rush. Book one of my Twenty-Niners of the Georgia Gold Rush, The Songbird and the Surveyor, set in Auraria in 1833, is now available! A marriage of protection. A past full of pain. In Georgia's wild gold country, love might strike when it's least expected. https://www.amazon.com/Songbird-Surveyor-Twenty-Niners-Georgia-Gold-ebook/dp/B0F556951W/

Denise Farnsworth, formerly Denise Weimer, writes historical and contemporary romance mostly set in Georgia and also serves as a freelance editor and the Acquisitions & Editorial Liaison for Wild Heart Books. A wife and mother, she always pauses for coffee, chocolate, and old houses.

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Pizza Pizza

By Suzanne Norquist

When the family gathers on the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving, what do you feed them? Pizza? Or maybe you save that for Saturday when everyone is tired of turkey. I tried to hide the leftover turkey pieces on a homemade pizza one year, but my family saw right through it.

Pizza didn’t make an appearance in the United States until around 1900. Then, it didn’t become popular until after World War II when soldiers returned from Italy. Over time, several varieties grew popular.

Throughout history, various societies have placed toppings on flatbread, creating a sort of pizza. However, the kind we know today didn’t appear until the late 1700s and early 1800s in Naples. The tomato, which was native to Peru, didn’t reach Naples until about that time.

The basic pizza, called pizza marinara, was initially made by sailors’ wives (la marinara) for their husbands, hence the name.

Street vendors sold early varieties to the working poor in Naples. They were inexpensive and could be eaten on the go. Upper-class society turned its nose up at the dish.

Rumor has it that pizza Margherita was named for Queen Margherita of Italy in 1889. When she visited Naples, she grew bored with the typical food of the upper crust and decided to try some street fare. She requested an assortment from a pizzeria in the city and tried them. Her favorite was topped with mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, and basil. It had been called mozzarella pizza, but was renamed Margherita pizza.

These basic ones made their way to Italian communities in major cities in the United States. It’s unclear when the first pizzeria in New York City started. Records indicate it was around 1900. Italian names were often misspelled in directories, and pizza makers may have been simply listed as bakers.

After World War II, pizza took off in the United States. An article in the New York Times predicted that pizza could be as popular as hamburgers.

Giant, floppy slices of New York Pizza came into vogue in the 1940s. Customers who were short of cash could purchase a single slice instead of the whole pie. They could eat folded pieces on the go with one hand.

Not to be outdone, Chicago bakers created their own hearty, deep-dish variety, which was more like a pie. Ike Sewell and Richard Riccardo developed this in 1943 for Pizzeria Uno.

Saint Louis Pizza went the opposite direction, with crust so thin that it was almost a cracker. In 1945, famous tenor Amedeo Fiore opened a restaurant with his wife, which served this variety. Detroit Pizza was originally baked in a square auto parts pan in the 1940s, a nod to the automotive industry.

Greek Pizza was invented in 1955 by Costas Kitsatis in Connecticut. It had a light, spongy crust. It is typically heavier on sauce and includes more Greek toppings.

Hawaiian Pizza with pineapple and ham (or Canadian bacon) was created in Canada in 1962. Sam Panopoulos was inspired by Chinese dishes, which mixed sweet and savory flavors.

Of course, California needed its own version. In the 1970s, Ed LaDou selected unusual ingredients—mustard, ricotta, pate, and red pepper.

As a Colorado girl, I enjoyed Colorado Pizza at Beau Jo’s in Idaho Springs. Developed in 1973, this pie boasts an outside crust so thick that it needs to be eaten with honey at the end of the meal.

No matter which style is your favorite or what toppings you prefer, it’s probably better than my homemade, turkey pizza post-Thanksgiving.

Bon appetite. 

*** 

Love In Bloom 4-in-one collection

“A Song for Rose” by Suzanne Norquist

Can a disillusioned tenor convince an aspiring soprano that there is more to music than fame?

“Holly & Ivy” by Mary Davis

At Christmastime, a young woman accompanies her impetuous younger sister on her trip across the country to be a mail-order bride and loses her heart to a gallant stranger.

“Periwinkle in the Park” by Kathleen E. Kovach

A female hiking guide, who is helping to commission a national park, runs into conflict with a mountain man is determined to keep the government off his land.

“A Beauty in a Tansy”

Two adjacent store owners are drawn to each other, but their older relatives provide obstacles to their ever becoming close.

Republished from Bouquet of Brides

Buy links: https://books2read.com/u/bOOx8K

https://www.amazon.com/Love-Bloom-Mary-Davis/dp/B0FPLFYCXR/

 

Suzanne Norquist is the author of two novellas. Everything fascinates her. She has worked as a chemist, professor, financial analyst, and even earned a doctorate in economics. Research feeds her curiosity, and she shares the adventure with her readers. She lives in New Mexico with her mining engineer husband and has two grown children. When not writing, she explores the mountains, hikes, and attends kickboxing class.

The Bridge That Changed Chincoteague

  _By Tiffany Amber Stockton

For centuries, both Chincoteague and Assateague Island existed as a world unto themselves. They sat as a barrier between the mainland and the sea, a salt-scented haven surrounded by marsh and tide.

Four miles! That's how far the island sat from the mainland.

Islanders relied on boats and ferries to reach the mainland. Groceries, mail, supplies, and even doctors came by water, and life flowed with the rhythm of the tides. That isolation shaped a culture of self-reliance and a close-knit community that became as much a part of the island’s identity as the oysters and ponies.

Then came the bridges. Six, to be exact.

When the Island Connected to the Mainland

The causeway and drawbridge officially opened in 1922, and it served as the beginning of transformation. The wooden planks stretched across the marsh like an invitation to progress. Locals watched the slow transition as cars replaced boats, tourists arrived with cameras, and new businesses cropped up along Main Street to serve them. For the first time, Chincoteague was accessible to anyone curious enough to cross.

This is an excerpt from the book: You Wouldn’t Believe: 44 Strange and Wondrous Delmarva Tales, written by Jim Duffy.

"The road was quite an engineering feat. A canal was dug out alongside the proposed route so that crews and supplies could access the construction area. Humongous “mud-digger” machines scooped up muck from here and there, then dropped that muck inside of pilings sunk into the marsh. Multiple layers of oyster shells went atop that mud. Heavy rollers packed those shells down. More mud went atop the shell layers. Six separate bridges would be built to carry the roadway over the various creeks, sounds, and narrows between Chincoteague and the mainland. One of those bridges would have a newfangled drawbridge to let boats through."

At first, some celebrated. Others worried. Older islanders spoke wistfully of quiet nights when only the sound of gulls and wind filled the air. Eventually, talk of land sales, vacation cottages, and “outsiders” occupied most conversations.

Yet the bridges and causeway also brought opportunity. Children could more easily attend mainland schools, fishermen could sell their catch to more markets, and merchants found steady income beyond the tourist season.

This was the era when families like mine witnessed firsthand the island’s shift from insular to interconnected. I remember my grandfather talking about seeing the very first automobile on the island after it crossed the drawbridge. And for my great-grandfather, the growth eventually brought new clients into his barbershop, which helped him better feed his family.

In hindsight, that bridge became a symbol. It connected not only two pieces of land but two ways of life. It tested the island’s resilience and reminded its people that progress, though sometimes uncomfortable, can coexist with preservation. The islanders have made sure of that by honoring the traditions handed down from generation to generation while valuing the natural beauty and wildlife of the islands.

Today, visitors drive across the modern causeway (the six bridges are now each less than 30 years old) with little thought to the history beneath their tires.

Yet, Chincoteague still balances that same tension. It teeters between holding fast to its roots while also welcoming change. The bridge stands as both a literal and metaphorical link between past and present, reminding us that even when the tide of time brings new currents, the heart and resiliency of the island endures.

Another island strikes this same balance, although the governing leaders decided to not allow gas-powered vehicles there. Read more about Mackinac Island between the larger part of Michigan and the Upper Peninsula.

NOW IT'S YOUR TURN:

* Have you ever visited a place that felt “frozen in time” until modern development changed it? How did you feel about that shift?

* What do you think communities lose or gain when they become more connected to the wider world?

* If your hometown had a “bridge moment” that changed its history, what would it be?

Leave answers to these questions or any comments on the post below.

** This note is for our email readers. Please do not reply via email with any comments. View the blog online and scroll down to the comments section.

Come back on the 9th of each month for my next foray into historical tidbits to share.

---

BIO

Tiffany Amber Stockton has embellished stories since childhood, thanks to a very active imagination and notations of talking entirely too much. Honing those skills led her to careers as an award-winning and best-selling author and speaker, while also working as a professional copywriter/copyeditor. She loves to share life-changing products and ideas with others to help them get rooted in truth and live a life of purpose.

Currently, she lives with her husband and fellow author, Stuart Vaughn Stockton, along with their two children, two dogs, and five cats in southeastern Kentucky. In her 20+ years as a professional writer, she has sold twenty-six (26) books so far and has agent representation with Tamela Murray of the Steve Laube Agency. You can find her on Facebook and GoodReads.

Joe Rochefort: The Man Who Turned the Pacific Theater of WWII

by Martha Hutchens

image by @everett225, deposit photos

He was an unlikely sort to be able to make such a claim. While he was a naval officer, he was by all accounts an indifferent seaman. He was known to wear slippers and a smoking jacket to his most important WWII assignment. His work was not even acknowledged until years after his death. He was politically inept and narrowly escaped a court-martial in 1921, when the tanker he was duty officer on dragged its anchor in San Francisco Bay.

And yet, all of the war in the Pacific turned on this single man.

To understand this, you have to understand the Battle of Midway, fought on June 4–7, 1942. At this point, much of the U.S. Pacific Fleet was still on the ocean floor at Pearl Harbor. The U.S. had at best three functional carriers, but two was more accurate. Japan had ten operating carriers. The Battle of Coral Sea was fought in May 1942 and stopped Japan’s advance but was technically a draw. The Battle of Midway was the first clear U.S. victory in the Pacific and ended with the sinking of all four Japanese carriers there. Most historians consider it the turning point of the war in the Pacific.

So what was Rochefort’s assignment? He led Station HYPO, the Navy’s codebreaking unit.

Rochefort first started work in cryptanalysis in 1925. Codebreaking was not a prestigious assignment. Everyone knew you had to go to sea to get promoted. But it appealed to Rochefort. In 1929, he was posted to Japan for three years, where he was to learn the language. He then spent several years at sea until returning to Pearl Harbor in late 1939.

In late 1940, the U.S. Army broke the Japanese code Purple. This was a diplomatic code, not a military one. The equivalent Navy code was designated JN-25, and it became Station HYPO’s main objective.

image by @zim90, deposit photos

In December 1941, JN-25 remained unbroken. Traffic analysis told the team that the Japanese were planning something big, but the target was elusive. For months, Rochefort had been tracking large units of the Japanese fleet, but in mid-November Admiral Yamamoto put up a dense “electronic smokescreen” that allowed the carriers that attacked Pearl Harbor to slip through. The team at Station HYPO was devastated at their intelligence failure, which in reality belonged equally to the Army, the Navy, and Washington politicians.

Not long after Pearl Harbor, Rochefort told his team to “Forget Pearl Harbor and get on with the war.”

When Admiral Nimitz was assigned to be the Pacific Commander-in-Chief, he was not impressed with Rochefort, who narrowly kept his position.

Rochefort was not responsible for the actual codebreaking—that task fell to Lieutenant Commander Thomas Dyer, who led the work beautifully. By mid-January 1942, HYPO was decrypting fragments of messages. By the end of March, Americans were reading a substantial number of JN-25 messages.

Rochefort’s responsibility was to determine the significance of these messages, a difficult task considering well more than half of the messages they received remained unbroken. And in early 1942, his record was spotty. He did accurately predict an air raid on Hawaii on March 4, 1942. Buried in the minutiae of these decryptions was the Japanese designation for Midway: AF.

In early May, HYPO was receiving between 500 and 1,000 intercepts per day and reading parts of around 60% of them. Rochefort told Nimitz it was clear the Japanese were planning a major new initiative, but he didn’t know where.

Many potential targets were considered—Pearl Harbor, the U.S. West Coast, even the Aleutian Islands (where there was a small incursion, but that’s a different blog post).

image by @PhotoWorks, deposit photos

But on May 13, a decryption landed on Rochefort’s desk. A Japanese ship was to load supplies and proceed to Affirm Fox—AF. With tens of thousands of messages between the two of interest, Rochefort remembered that AF was Midway. Nimitz sent Captain Lynde McCormick to “the dungeon," the home of Station HYPO. It took a full day, but Rochefort and crew convinced him that Japan intended to commit four carriers to Midway. Then they had to convince Washington, and no one there had much confidence in Rochefort.

But Nimitz did, and this was confirmed by another intercept on May 16. But how to convince Washington?

Here comes one of the most impressive sleights of hand in military history. One of Rochefort’s subordinates, Jasper Holmes, suggested sending an encrypted message to the naval air station on Midway. It instructed the officers there to send an unencrypted message reporting difficulties with their distillation plant.

Midway had no source of fresh water and depended entirely on these plants. Not long after, HYPO decrypted a message saying there was a water problem on AF. The ruse had worked.

The battle at Midway was hard fought, and the victory required both skill and a measure of luck. But America’s fleet wouldn’t have even been there if it weren’t for Joe Rochefort.

He was nominated for a Distinguished Service Medal, but the recommendation was quashed. In Washington, Rochefort was considered an insubordinate cuss, difficult to work with and unpleasant to be around. He was relieved of duty at Station HYPO in October 1942.

Joe Rochefort died in 1976. In 1985, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal posthumously. And even today, few know his name or the pivotal role he played in WWII.

Best-selling author Martha Hutchens is a history nerd who loves nothing more than finding a new place and time to explore. She won the 2019 Golden Heart for Romance with Religious and Spiritual Elements. A former analytical chemist and retired homeschool mom, Martha occasionally finds time for knitting when writing projects allow.

Martha’s debut novel, A Steadfast Heart, is now available. You can learn more about her books and historical research at MarthaHutchens.com.

When his family legacy is on the line, rancher Drew McGraw becomes desperate for someone to tame and tutor his three children. Desperate enough to seek a mail-order bride. But when the wrong woman arrives on his doorstep, Drew balks.

Heiress Kaitlyn Montgomery runs straight from the scandal chasing her toward a fresh start on a secluded ranch. She strikes a bargain with Drew—a marriage convenient for both of them.

But the more Kaitlyn adapts to ranch life and forms a bond with Drew’s children and their enigmatic father, she realizes that this ranch is where she is meant to be. And then her past catches up with her…

From Plymouth to Plymouth

Over four hundred years ago, the people we now know as "Pilgrims" set out from Plymouth for the New World, seeking relief from religious persecution in their home country. Every Thanksgiving, children don paper hats and cardboard bonnets to reenact the life of these settlers after their arrival. Their difficult journey as well as salvation at the hands of the local Native American tribes is the stuff of legends (as well as the basis for a national holiday).

But how much do you know about the Pilgrims before they were Pilgrims?

The Pilgrims, in fact, never called themselves Pilgrims. Instead, they were "Separatists" or "Saints," a congregation of disgruntled English Protestants from the village of Scrooby in Nottinhamshire. They did not want to pledge allegiance to the Church of England, an entity they viewed as a merger between church and state and one that, in their opinion, was as corrupt as the Catholic Church it had replaced not so long ago. Not only did Separatists believe that true worship must progress from an individual relationship with God rather than state-mandated religion, they also saw many of the church's doctrines and practices as direct contradictions to the Christian gospel to which they claimed to adhere. For example, the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer was viewed as blasphemous, having not been inspired by God nor having no scriptural justification. The Separatists wished to break away and form their own independent churches guided by the Holy Spirit rather than government assignation. (This was a split from another group of Separatists known as Puritans who sought to reform the government church.)

But, at a time in which church and state were combined, any break from the church was viewed as treason, and the Separatists were forced to flee to Holland. Although they found religious freedom in their new home, they also found themselves struggling to adapt to the realities of living in a foreign country, one in which they didn't speak the language nor understand the prevalent culture or customs. The language barrier prevented all but the lowest-paying jobs, and the relatively "modern" society was viewed as sinful and depraved.

It was soon clear that Holland was not the answer to their quest. They needed a place where they could establish their own culture, form their own society, and worship in a way free of government influence. The best place for this, they decided, was somewhere far from England, uninhabited and away from distraction.

A place like the New World.

Photo Credit: history.com

The Separatists returned from Holland, hoping to formulate a plan and secure finances for this new adventure. The Virginia Company, already staking claim in what would soon be America, gave the Separatists permission to establish a plantation on the East Coast between 38 and 41 degrees north latitude (roughly between Chesapeake Bay and the mouth of the Hudson River). The King of England, perhaps seeing the voyage as a solution to the headache the Separatists were causing, bid them a hearty farewell, so long as "they carried themselves peaceably."

Joining the Separatists on their journey was a group of not-so-kindly named "Strangers," non-religious people simply seeking fortune or a new life in America. Approximately 102 people bid England farewell in August 1620 aboard two merchant ships, the Mayflower and the Speedwell.

They returned only a few days later.

The Speedwell had begun to leak almost immediately, forcing the travelers to return to port and, after a thorough inspection, was deemed unseaworthy for the voyage. Rather than delay any longer and await, not only the finances for another ship, but also the unlikely availability, the passengers and crew of TWO ships instead merged onto one. The Mayflower now carried double the people, in addition to double the food supply, double the weapons cache, and an overwhelming assortment of live animals, including sheep, goats, chicken, and dogs).

When the Mayflower finally set sail on September 16, 1620, she was over-burdened and had also missed the window of opportunity for a smooth voyage, setting sail right in the height of the Atlantic storm season. In addition, the ship itself was never meant for a cross-ocean trip; more suitable for short crossings, its high, wall-like sides made it difficult to sail in the strong winds that often blew across the Atlantic. A voyage that should have taken a month instead lasted 66 days, causing illness, food shortages, poor tempers, and even a few deaths.

Even more hardships waited for them upon arrival. They landed well north of their allotted land, in the midst of Native American land in which they had no right to be (although the "right" of the Virginia Company to its own claimed land is still up for debate as well). The long journey had depleted their supplies and broken their bodies, and the New World wasn't at all what they had expected it to be.

Photo Credit: brittanica.com 

And yet they persisted, establishing a colony for the glory of God and the right to worship in the way they saw fit. Their determination and drive set the precedent for what we now know as the "American Spirit"--and became the basis for our modern day Thanksgiving celebration. 

Jennifer L. Wright grew up wanting to be a reporter, but it only took a few short months of working in journalism for her to abandon those aspirations for fiction writing instead. She loves to reimagine and explore forgotten eras in history, showcasing God's light amidst humanity's darkest days. Her books have won multiple awards, including Golden Scroll and Angel awards. She currently lives in New Mexico with her husband, two kids, a couple of hyperactive dachshunds, and an ever-growing herd of guinea pigs. 

 

Lighthouses During World War II

Although more than one thousand lighthouses have been constructed in the U.S. over the years, according to the US Lighthouse Society, there were never more than 850 in operation at the same time. During the colonial period, beacons were primarily used as navigational aids, then lighthouse ships came into being, followed by lighthouses.

Initially under the Treasury Department, lighthouse operations moved to the Department of Commerce in 1910. Nearly two decades later on July 1, 1939, the service merged with the U.S. Coast Guard. Keepers were given the choice of staying on as civilians or joining the Coast Guard with a military rank. Additional Coast Guard members were assigned to the lighthouses, living and eating with the keeper’s family.

Along the East Coast, the more than six hundred lighthouses became observation posts where “Coasties” patrolled the shoreline for U-boat activity on foot with K-9 units, horseback, and jeeps. Wireless radios were installed at the top of lighthouses to provide communication with others lighthouses on the coast.

Two lighthouses in Florida had additional responsibilities.

The St. Augustine lighthouse added a training station where hundreds of men and women received

basic training. Headquarters was set up in the famous Ponce de Leon Hotel, a luxury hotel built between 1885 and 1889 by Standard Oil co-founder Henry M. Flagler and known as The Ponce.

The Jupiter Inlet lighthouse added naval married men’s quarters and the super-secret Station J, an operation using high-frequency direction finding (HF/DF), AKA “Huff-Duff” designed to intercept U-Boat radio messages and tip off U.S. forces to attack enemy vessels. According to the National Park Service, this highly successful site ended German dominance of the Atlantic.

Do you know of other lighthouses with special duties during World War II?

_________________________

Linda Shenton Matchett writes happily-ever-after historical Christian fiction about second chances and women who overcome life’s challenges to be better versions of themselves. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, she was born a stone’s throw from Fort McHenry (of Star-Spangled Banner fame) and has lived in historical places all her life. She is a volunteer docent and archivist at the Wright Museum of WWII and a former trustee for her local public library. She now lives in central New Hampshire where she explores the history of this great state and immerses herself in the imaginary worlds created by other authors.

Legacy of Love: Part of the Cheerful Heart Christmas Anthology

Will their love come at a cost?

Escaping Boston to avoid a marriage of convenience aimed at garnering society’s respect for her family name in the shadow of her father’s war profiteering, Meg Underwood settles in Oregon. Despite leaving behind the comforts of wealth, she’s happy. Then the handsome Pinkerton agent, Reuben Jessop, arrives with news that she’s inherited her aunt’s significant estate, and she must return home to claim the bequest. Meg refuses to make the trip. Unwilling to fail at his mission, Reuben gives her until Christmas to prove why she should remain in Oregon and give up the opportunity to become a woman of means. When he seems to want more than friendship, she wonders if her new-found wealth is the basis of his attraction.

Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4qd3eR2

Photo Credits:

Biscayne Lighthouse: Pixabay/Jeff Raymond

St. Augustine Lighthouse: Pixabay/Michelle Barnhill


Sources:
https://www.staugustinelighthouse.org/2020/08/11/world-war-ii-on-americass-first-coast-part-two-the-american-response-semper-paratus/

https://monheganmuseum.org/WWII/war-begins-landing-page/war-begins-coast-guard

https://www.jupiterlighthouse.org/blog/station-j-world-war-2/

https://serenewandering.com/2024/06/30/world-war-ii-tower-and-the-cape-may-lighthouse

https://uslhs.org/sites/default/files/articles_pdf/Ponce_de_Leon_WWII.pdf

https://www.coastalgeorgiahistory.org/visit/world-war-ii-museum/

https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/history-of-lighthouses.htm

The Frontier Midwife Who Solved the Mystery of a Deadly Illness

By Mary Dodge Allen

From the early 1800s until 1927, a mysterious illness claimed the lives of thousands of Midwestern U.S. settlers, including Abraham Lincoln's mother. It was known by various names - "the trembles" or "the slows" - but most often it was called "milk sickness" because people often died after consuming dairy products. During the epidemic of 1818, Nancy Hanks Lincoln died of milk sickness when her son Abe was only nine years old. 

Nancy Hanks Lincoln (Public Domain)

Milk Sickness - Mysterious and Feared:

In 1809, Thomas Barbee, a doctor from Bourbon County, Kentucky was the first to document the symptoms of milk sickness in writing. The illness baffled frontier doctors, and the standard treatment, bloodletting, did nothing to help the victims. Its fatality rate was high, often taking the lives of half the settlers in a frontier community. A healthy person could be struck down in a matter of days, progressing from trembling, vomiting and delusions, and ending in coma and death. 

It's easy to see how settlers came to fear this mysterious ailment that could kill so quickly. Some blamed the cause on poisoned alkali water, arsenous fumes in the air, and even the work of evil spirits. Nursing animals, like calves and lambs, also died of the illness. Doctors assumed the adult livestock were consuming some kind of poison that tainted their milk, but they were unable to identify the source of this poison.

Enter: Anna Pierce Hobbs - Frontier Midwife:

Anna Pierce Hobbs (Public Domain)

Anna Pierce was born in Philadelphia in the early 1800s and headed west with her family as a young girl, settling in Rock Creek, an area in southern Illinois. Anna's budding interest in medicine grew as she saw the many illnesses, like cholera, that plagued the early settlers.

As a young woman, Anna went back to Philadelphia to study medicine. Nursing, midwifery and dental extractions were the only areas of medicine a woman was allowed to study and practice in the 1820s. It's unclear exactly where Anna studied, but she returned to Rock Creek after finishing her education.

Anna became the only medical practitioner in Hardin County, serving settlers across the large region. Her patients regarded her with affection, calling her "Doctor Anna." In the early 1830s, Anna married Isaac Hobbs. At this time, milk sickness had become an epidemic in Hardin County, killing many, including Anna's mother and her sister-in-law.

Anna's Mission to Find the Cause:

The deaths of close family members made Anna even more determined to find the source of the poison that caused milk sickness. She observed that the illness occurred mostly in summer and early fall, and she came to believe a seasonal plant was the source of the poison. 

In her spare time, Anna began tracking the cattle in the area and observing their grazing habits. They most often grazed in open fields, but in times of drought, they would stray into forested areas to graze.

One fall day in 1834, Anna packed a lunch, took her rifle and set out with her dogs to observe the cattle who were grazing in the nearby woods. While there, she encountered an elderly Shawnee medicine woman, who was hiding to avoid her tribe's forced migration to Kansas. (In 1834, this migration was forced upon the Shawnee tribes in Illinois, as a result of the 1830 Indian Removal Act.)

Lithograph of a Midwestern Shawnee Village, "Kanya Village" by George Lehman

Anna took pity on the woman and gave her the lunch she had packed. Then she escorted her to her own home, so the woman could rest. When the medicine woman learned about Anna's interest in milk sickness, she declared she knew the source of the poison. The medicine woman took Anna back into the woods and showed her a plant with bunches of fuzzy white flowers.

Close up of white snakeroot (Public Domain)

This plant was a perennial herb called white snakeroot, Ageratina altissima. It is seasonal, flourishing in the summer and early fall and grows mostly in wooded areas. Anna experimented by feeding the plant to calves, and she soon saw the clear symptoms of milk sickness.

White snakeroot flourishing in forested area (Public Domain)

She began warning settlers all through the county about white snakeroot. She even grew a few of the plants in her garden, to show people what it looked like. Men in the area went out through the fields and forests abd uprooted this plant. After three years, white snakeroot was largely eradicated in this area of southern Illinois, along with occurrences of milk sickness.

Anna is known to have sent letters informing doctors across the frontier that she'd discovered white snakeroot as the cause of milk sickness. But she got little response. There were no medical journals in these frontier areas, and the male doctors in this era weren't inclined to give much credence to the discovery of a frontier midwife. 

As a result, milk sickness continued claiming hundreds of victims. But in the early 1900s, this illness gradually declined, due to industrialization - changes in feeding cattle and the mass production of milk.

The dark areas show the large range of white snakeroot

It wasn't until 1927, nearly 100 years after Anna's discovery, that researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture published a report on the toxic substances in white snakeroot. They confirmed milk sickness was cause by white snakeroot's main toxic ingredient: Tremetol. 

It is a poison that is very potent. If tremetol contaminates bales of hay, it can retain its toxicity up to five years. Tremetol is also fat soluble. It concentrates in milkfat, which is why it was so deadly.

Newspaper article about the USDA report on Tremetol and milk sickness (Public Domain)

Later Life:

When Anna was in her late 50's, her husband Isaac Hobbs died of pneumonia, leaving her a generous inheritance. By this time, Anna had also accumulated a tidy sum from her medical practice. 

Eson Bixby, a younger man with an abundance of charm, proposed to Anna. She married him, ignoring warnings that he was a ne'er-do-well interested in her money. But Anna also took the precaution of hiding most of her fortune.

One night, Eson lured her from the house on the pretext that he knew someone who needed medical help. In a remote area, under cover of darkness, he attempted to tie her up so he could force her to reveal the location of her money. But Anna escaped from him, and she gradually recovered from her wounds. Eson ran off and was never heard from again.

It is alleged that Anna hid her money in a cave near a small town called Cave-In-Rock in Hardin County - now known as Anna Bixby Cave. There is a marker in Anna's honor at Cave-In-Rock. 

Anna Bixby Cave (Public Domain)

Anna Pierce Hobbs Bixby died in 1869 and was buried next to the grave of her first husband, Isaac Hobbs. Anna's life-saving discovery of the source of milk sickness, and her success at locally eradicating the disease was all but forgotten - until the 1960s - when historians rediscovered her accomplishment and began a campaign to give her recognition. 

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Mary Dodge Allen is currently finishing her sequel to Hunt for a Hometown Killer. She's won a Christian Indie Award, an Angel Book Award, and two Royal Palm Literary Awards (Florida Writer's Association). She and her husband live in Central Florida. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and Faith Hope and Love Christian Writers. 

Website: www.marydodgeallen.com

Recent release, anthology devotional: El Jireh, The God Who Provides

Mary's story, entitled: A Mother's Desperate Prayer, describes her struggle with guilt and despair after her young son is badly burned in a kitchen accident. When we are at the end of all we have, El Jireh provides what we need. 

Click the link below to purchase on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/El-Jireh-God-Who-Provides/dp/1963611608

Mary's novel: Hunt for a Hometown Killer won the 2022 Christian Indie Award, First Place - Mystery/Suspense; and the 2022 Angel Book Award - Mystery/Suspense.

Click the link below to buy Hunt for a Hometown Killer at Amazon.com:

Hunt For A Hometown Killer: A Novel: Allen, Mary Dodge: 9781952369704: Amazon.com: Books

Link to Mary's Spotlight Interview:   Mary Dodge Allen Author Spotlight EA Books