IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH (Part 5)

By Catherine Ulrich Brakefield

In my September 16th blog post, “Courage More Exhilarating than Fear” Eleanor and Franklin chose not to divorce, to mend their differences, and live with each other’s faults. Now with this new disease, polio, raising its ugly head, Eleanor urged Franklin not to give in to self-pity, and continue his political career.

Eleanor worked diligently to help her husband win the governorship of New York. With the help from her grassroots connections, Franklin was elected governor of New York in 1928.

Now that he was elected, Eleanor’s duties and workload doubled. She had promised to be his eyes and feet. This did not come easy. She loved helping her husband however, she missed being as close to her children as she once was. Meeting people and being involved in projects daily took its toll.

She pressed on and earned many strong supporters, one of whom was newspaper reporter Lorena Alice Hickok, he had earned the nickname “Hick.” His endorsement and encouragement helped Eleanor start writing the column, My Day.

Through her column, she encouraged her readers to write to her. She received hundreds of thousands of letters and did her best to reply to them.

Eleanor felt Americans’ needs deeply and heard their voices. Nor was she shy, nor did she hesitate to whisper her information into the ear of the governor.

Franklin listened to her. After all, she had known him longer than any of his constituents. Franklin knew he could trust her more than anyone else.

Her work as a grassroots activist and settlement worker was an asset. Her enthusiasm, zeal, and dedication allowed Franklin to see, through his mind’s eye, New York’s problems clearly and what needed to be done for the suffering citizens.

October 29, 1929, came in with a punch in the gut to every American. The stock market crash on October 29th, was known as Black Friday. This depression continued through the late 1930s and as I say in my novel Waltz with Destiny, wages remained low throughout the early 1940s.

Americans never experienced such want. History books would record this period as the Great Depression. No statesman had ever experienced a desolation of this magnitude. President Herbert Hoover did his best. But it was time to give someone else a chance to help those floundering in the sea of depression America found itself swimming in.

As I explained in Destiny of Heart, those who owned their homes often rented out rooms to pay for their taxes. Those who did not own their homes were sometimes forced to pack up what belongings they could on their automobiles, live out of them or find a place to live and work.

Whenever people are caught in the throngs of confusion, the ugly head of socialism and communism will rear its deceptive head. Widespread unemployment and poverty prompted the attraction of Marxism. Many viewed socialism and communism as a remedy for their woes and economic struggles. Little did anyone know how treacherous these ideologies were. Nor that in the 1940s World War II would awaken the world to the need to fight for the very freedom they once took for granted!

When the presidential election season rolled in, Franklin’s bold words “there is nothing to fear but fear itself” gave hopeless Americans new hope in Franklin’s “New Deal,” which Eleanor’s influence helped her husband draft. This “New Deal”, propelled Franklin into the presidency in 1936.

Eleanor would write in My Day, “We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face…we must do that which we think we cannot.”

Waltz with Destiny: Esther (McConnell) Meir finds herself in a story-book romance that swirls into a rendezvous with destiny when Eric Erhardt is swept up into Hitler's diabolical war. Eric wages his battle for survival as a rifleman in the 34th Infantry Division traveling up the boot of Italy—.

"…of Waltz with Destiny… I was reading Capt. Kimble’s words about D-Day… the music I had going started playing “God Bless the USA.” Goose bumps popped up all down my arms and legs, and I’m sitting here with tears in my eyes. The message of the Destiny series is even more applicable to today than when it first released…" Debra B.

Catherine is the award-winning author of Wilted

Dandelions, Swept into Destiny, Destiny’s Whirlwind, Destiny of Heart, Waltz with Destiny, and Love's Final Sunrise. She has written two pictorial history books, The Lapeer Area and Eastern Lapeer, and short stories for Guideposts Books, CrossRiver Media Group, Revell Books, and Bethany House Publishers. Catherine and her husband of fifty-three years live on a ranch in Michigan and have two adult children, five grandchildren, four Arabian horses, two dogs, two cats, one bunny, and six chickens. See CatherineUlrichBrakefield.com for more information.

See previous Roosevelt posts for previous references of these blogs.

Civil War Nurse Clara Jones: An Angel in the Storm

by Sherry Shindelar

Women Volunteering at a Philadelphia Hospital during the Civil War 
(photo courtesy of the Library of Congress)

Twenty-eight year-old grammar school teacher, Clara Jones, couldn’t stand the thought of sitting idly by while men were serving and dying on the battlefield for their country. A strong supporter of the Union, she longed to “be in the midst of the distress … lending a helping hand to the poor fellows” instead of being “tied to school.”1

But as a single woman, she couldn’t afford to resign her position as a school teacher, so in her spare time, she threw herself into knitting socks for the soldiers since she couldn’t follow them to the battlefield. However, sewing and knitting weren’t sufficient. During the school summer break of 1861, Clara volunteered as a nurse in a Philadelphia area hospital, near her home in Germantown, PA, after wounded soldiers were sent there to recover. She couldn’t bear to think of men “dying without a friendly hand to minister to their necessities, tossing about in pain, and none to hold the cup of water to the parched lips.” Clara determined to do what she could to help care for them.

Civil War Nurses (Harpers 1862)

Clara didn’t give up on her dream, and she didn’t make excuses for why she couldn’t do what she felt called to do. She threw herself into serving with a passion. Every school break, she headed to a hospital to care for wounded and suffering soldiers. Serving in Philadelphia wasn’t enough. She volunteered on a hospital ship, in hospitals in Alexandria, VA, and on battlefields. And she wouldn’t take no for an answer, whether the no came from a hospital administrator, a doctor, army officers, or the Superintendent of Army Nurses Dorothea Dix.

Eager to be where most needed, she arrived in Gettysburg, July 19th, two weeks after the battle to work in a hospital of five hundred wounded, of which one hundred were Confederates. She devoted herself to caring for the neglected Rebs, who too often received very little care after an initial exam/treatment from a surgeon. Her heart went out to the dying who “were far from home and friends and no prospect of sending a message to a heartbroken wife or mother.”

Nurses and Wounded Solgiers at the Hospital Tents at Gettysburgh

A determined lady, Clara passionately pursued her calling. She persevered through moments/hours/days of disappointment, hardship, and frustrations, refusing to allow people or obstacles to get in the way of her caring for the wounded and dying soldiers.

Clara’s Civil War service continued until her sister became seriously ill in 1864, and then she devoted herself to caring for her until her death. This led to a new calling: being a mother to her sister’s three children. 

1All quotes are taken from a collection of Clara Jones’s letters held at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine located in Frederick, MD.

Sherry Shindelar

Originally from Tennessee, Sherry loves to take her readers into the past. A romantic at heart, she is an avid student of the Civil War and the Old West. Sherry is a multi-award-winning writer. She currently resides in Minnesota with her husband of forty-one years.

Connect with Sherry: website, newsletter, Amazon, FB, Goodreads

Texas Reclaimed

Can love blossom between a woman haunted by her family’s past and a man with a war-scarred heart?

Cora Scott is determined to hold onto her family's Texas ranch and provide a stable home for her young half brother, Charlie, despite the mounting challenges of post-Civil War frontier life. But when a scheming creditor threatens to seize their land, she must accept help from Ben McKenzie, a former Yankee soldier sent by her late brother. Though Ben's generosity and strength draw her, the man's private struggle she stumbles upon—too reminiscent of her father's alcoholism—makes her question whether she can trust her heart to him.

Ben McKenzie arrives in Texas intent on fulfilling his promise to his dying friend to protect Cora and Charlie. While using his inheritance to save their ranch, he battles not only the loss of their cattle but also his dependency on laudanum—a medicine that turned into a curse after his imprisonment at Andersonville. As his feelings for Cora deepen, he must choose between his promise to his father to take over their Philadelphia newspaper and his growing dream of a life with Cora in Texas.

Ice Cream and the Ice Cream Parlor by Denise M. Colby

How Did Ice Cream Come to Be?

Ice Cream has been noted to have been around since the middle ages with Italy taking the lead in the 17th century with a style we are more familiar with. When it spread north to France, they created a version made with egg yolks. As it came to America, I found in my research that Philadelphia was one of the places a new ice cream was created. A style with no eggs or egg whites only, and a pure vanilla sugar created by a James W. Parkinson.

(Side note: I found a recipe on a website by writer and historian Becky Diamond, where she shares more history about Parkinson’s ice cream, his vanilla, and the history of ice cream, if you are interested.)

 

Early Ice Cream Flavors
These nineteenth century ice cream flavors were quite different than what we eat today. Fruit flavors were the most common. In the 1840s and 1850s the most popular included vanilla, lemon, strawberry and pineapple. Which meant the flavor was vanilla and real fruit was layered on top, not necessarily mixed in.

 

Who Ate Ice Cream?

Ice Cream was the favorite dessert for many statesmen including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Ice cream also appeared in private parks in New York, Washington, and Columbia and also served as an upper-class dessert at dinner parties.

It wasn’t easy to keep. One needed ice and ice melted. As refrigeration grew, so did the popularity of ice cream.

The first hand-cranked ice cream freezer was invented in 1843 by Nancy Johnson. This made production faster and smoother.

The first ice cream plant went into operation in 1851. Jacob Fussell built the first commercial manufacturing plant, which dropped production costs and made ice cream even more accessible.

Bassets Ice Cream in Pennsylvania opened in 1861, and is one of the oldest continuously running ice cream companies.

All of these milestones created the opportunity for ice cream socials and the ice cream parlor.

Ice Cream Parlor History

It’s been noted that the first parlor came about in the 1600s in France. In the United States, the first was noted to have been opened in New York City in the late 1700s by a confectioner named Phillip Lenzi. He started serving the frozen treat at a counter at his sweets shop.

Ice cream saloons (later called parlors - because the term was a safer alternative for women than saloon) also became known as ladies cafes. Women weren't allowed in saloons and taverns. But this space they could frequent. That appeal is what drove owners to appeal to a more female audience. So they were designed as large spacious rooms with mirrors and bright gaslights.

 

Inside of Gunters (from an article by https://restaurant-ingthroughhistory.com/2012/08/19/ice-cream-parlors/)

Ice Cream Parlors were deemed safe, respectable, and alcohol free, so women could visit them without an escort. It was one of the first places women met in public. I love this picture below! Where I worked had a vibe like this.

 

We recently visited a deli, and they had tables with this design on them.

Exactly what the tables at the ice cream parlor I worked at had.

 

Besides a place for women, ice cream parlors soon became a destination for a courting couple (without family or a chaperone in attendance) because it was deemed safe.

That said, there was still one group of ladies that were not allowed the same freedoms in an ice cream parlor—schoolmarms. Female schoolmarms were not allowed to be courted (it was written in their contract) where their male counterparts could. Being seen alone with a man risked her moral reputation, which would cost her teaching job. This was well known and many busy-bodies watched closely just in case a young lady made the mistake of appearing with someone unrelated to her. She would be judged harshly if she did.

Why did I want to talk about ice cream?

I love ice cream. My first job was in an ice cream parlor that had a victorian design incorporated. I loved working there. It had a great ambiance.

As I've been writing my series with schoolmarm's, I couldn't wait to write a scene in a book with characters in an ice cream parlor. My latest novelette now has that scene in it. You can find out more about this free book on my website.

AN UNEXPECTED MARRIAGE PROPOSAL By Denise M. Colby

Tilly Johnson has only ever wanted one thing—to teach. Wishing to make a difference in her own one-room schoolhouse, she crosses the country to California to follow her dream. Railroad detective Grant Stone has purposely built his life on staying detached for reasons he can’t talk about. But he won’t sit by and watch when the stranded young woman whose name is on everyone’s lips needs assistance. Except the desire to protect her reputation leads to a marriage proposal he never intended to make…and a wife he never planned on wanting.

 

Denise M. Colby writes historical romance sweetened with faith, hope, and love. She finds history fascinating and contemplates often how it was to live in the 1800's. Her debut novel, When Plans Go Awry, is a 2025 Carol Award finalist. Sign up for her newsletter at www.denisemcolby.com or follow Denise on Facebook, Instagram, Bookbub, Pinterest, or GoodReads.

Keeping the Faith—and Keeping Cool: Church Before Air Conditioning

Imagine a July Sunday morning in a rural Kentucky church in the 1930s. Despite the heat, women wear their best Sunday dresses, while many of the men have put on white shirts, dark suits, and ties. Farmers who own no suit may have donned freshly pressed overalls and a plaid shirt.

Through the large, open windows, flies and an occasional bee buzz in and out. The preacher’s booming voice competes with the chirping of birds and the occasional creaking of a passing wagon. The still air inside seems hotter than outside, heavy with the scent of perfume and sweat.

And above it all comes another sound—the soft, steady flutter of dozens of cardboard fans moving back and forth throughout the congregation.

Miller Funeral Home in Ashland, KY,
sponsored this church fan depicting
Christ on the Mount of Olives.

By the late nineteenth century, advertising fans had become a familiar sight in American churches, and they remained common well into the twentieth century—especially in churches without electricity or air conditioning. A flat wooden handle was glued or stapled to printed cardboard, allowing the user to wave the fan to provide a cooling breeze. Three-panel folding fans with no handle were also produced.

Although Carrier Air Conditioning, founded in 1915, offered cooling mechanisms for industry, it wasn’t until the 1930s that window air conditioners became available—for a steep price. Many rural churches, especially in the South, did not have electricity available until decades later, and when they did, less expensive ceiling fans were the first choice to provide relief from the heat.

Some church fans with an advertisement on the back
were made in a three-panel folding style without
a wooden handle, like this one picturing
The Last Supper.

But the humble cardboard fans remain a vivid reminder of Sunday mornings before air conditioning changed the church-going experience.

Many featured religious artwork—Jesus, the Good Shepherd, praying hands, biblical scenes, flowers, or inspirational sayings. Others carried scenic or patriotic images.

The most interesting aspect was who paid for them. Fans offered inexpensive, useful advertising that could remain in the church for a long time. Funeral homes became especially associated with them, but banks, insurance agents, drugstores, grocery stores and other businesses advertised on them as well.

The religious picture faced the worshipper while the business advertisement appeared on the reverse. The arrangement could produce an amusing contrast. A worshipper might gaze at Jesus the Good Shepherd while the person in the pew behind stared at the name of a nearby funeral director.

This fan advertised a funeral
home in Chattanooga, TN.

During World War II, insurance companies and
banks often promoted War Bonds on the backs
of handheld church fans.

Today, those advertisements can be more than curiosities. Surviving fans may preserve the names, addresses, telephone numbers, and proprietors of funeral homes and other businesses that received little attention in newspapers or official records, especially in Black communities. A humble piece of cardboard intended to keep worshippers cool can therefore become a small historical document.

When I started looking for a fun memento to promote my historical novel, Moonshine River, I wanted something that might have been familiar to people living in my characters' world. A church fan seemed perfect, especially since one was used in a scene in the novel.

The fan I used to promote my novel was
reminiscent of church fans from the early
20th Century.

Do you remember seeing these fans in church or at other locations, or have you actually used one? And do you remember what was advertised on the back? I’d love to hear your stories.

Sources:

Fisk, Sammy, "OH032 Bobby Allen Oral History" (2025). Land Between the Lakes. 2. https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/oh-lbl/2

A time when hand fans cooled church-goers - Auction Finds

Holding on to Americana | Our State

Collection of church fans represents Southern hospitality

Air Conditioning History, Facts & Overview of Air Conditioners

Church Fans: Keeping It Cool Old School - WorthPoint

Curator's Corner - Preserving African American History and Material Culture: Church Fans

Multi-award-winning author Marie Wells Coutu finds beauty in surprising places, like undiscovered treasures, old houses, and gnarly trees. All three books in her Mended Vessels series, contemporary stories based on the lives of biblical women, have won awards in multiple contests. She is currently working on historical romances set in her native western Kentucky in the 1930s and ‘40s. Moonshine River, the first book in her Between the Rivers Legacy series, released in September 2026. Learn more and sign up for a free historical short story at www.MarieWellsCoutu.com.






She'll break the law to save her mother. He'll uphold it to save her soul.

After her father’s sudden death, Naomi Ross is left with an impossible choice: let her ailing mother go without desperately needed treatment—or take over the illegal whiskey business she never wanted.

Then Cullen Downs comes home.

Naomi has loved the preacher’s son since childhood, but Cullen is no longer the young man who left Golden Pond. Disgraced by his own mistakes, he’s returned determined to reclaim his faith and fight the liquor trade that nearly ruined his life.

That puts him squarely against the woman he can’t seem to stop loving.

With Prohibition crumbling and danger closing in from moonshiners, a corrupt lawman, and Chicago gangsters, Naomi’s desperate choices threaten more than her freedom. They could cost her Cullen—and the future she never dared believe could be hers.

In the rugged hills of Depression-era Kentucky, two people on opposite sides of the law must discover whether love can survive betrayal, whether good intentions can justify wrong choices, and whether God’s grace is big enough to redeem them both.

Give My Regards to Brede Weg

By Kathy Kovach

Streets named Broadway are plentiful in America. From Los Angeles, California to Paduka, Kentucky—even my hometown of Denver, Colorado. Yet, any mention of Broadway elicits high-stepping dance routines, belting tunes, and bright footlights.

Broadway is synonymous with live theater.

Jennie Bobb, with her daughter, Nellie Longhat, both Delaware (Lenape)

Long before the theaters were built, Broadway’s location was a native American Lenape trading trail cutting through the heart of Manhattan Island. Known as the Wickquasgeck Trail, named for the Wecquaesgeck people, it followed a ridge of dry ground that passed by swamps, boulders, and fields.

In the 17th century, the Dutch moved in. They named their settlement, located in the southern tip of the island, New Amsterdam. By February 2, 1653, New Amsterdam officially became a city after receiving municipal rights.

Utilizing the existing trail to link trade with the rest of Manhattan, they broadened it in 1658 in order to get wagons through. This became de Heere Straet, or Gentleman’s Way. Most people simply referred to it as brede weg, or the broad road. From there, it morphed into Broad Street which eventually rolled off the tongue as Broadway.

As a side note, New Amsterdam became New York in 1664 when the British began to rule.

To think this infamous street went from a dusty native American trail to essentially the very pulse of bustling Manhattan boggles the mind. It has, in fact, escorted an assortment of New York’s population for hundreds of years.

Now that commerce could flow freely, businesses and houses for the elite popped up faster than a standing ovation. Broadway became a social hub, which naturally ushered in various forms of entertainment. Theaters were built. Everything from pantomime to Shakespeare were offered.

The Park Theatre

In 1798, the first world-class theater showed up at the southern end of Broadway, known as the Park Theatre. It hosted highly regarded performers from all over the globe. The Astor Place Theatre was built further uptown in 1847. It was around this area that many other venues clustered, and it is now known as the Broadway theater district.

Then came electricity.

Times Square today

At the dawn of the 20th century, all up and down Broadway, signage announced the next big thing. But no one could see them at night. Colorful lights made them shine . . . temporarily . . . until they burned out at an alarming rate. White lights seemed to last longer. Thus, all bulbs were changed to clear, and Broadway went from being known as a tiny trading trail to The Great White Way in 1901.

Ziegfeld Girls

Over the next two decades, a shining star arose shaping the Broadway musicals that we know of today. Utilizing glitzy music and dance, untamed humor, elaborate sets, and extravagant costumes, Impresario Florenz Ziegfeld managed and produced revues hosting such talents as W.C. Fields, Fanny Bryce, Will Rogers and countless others. Irving Berlin created music for the Ziegfeld Follies, including “A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody”, that became the theme song for the popular Ziegfeld Girls. These were a host of up to forty women dressed in glamorous costumes who moved about the stage, often as a backdrop to the performers. Enjoy Dennis Morgan singing the Hollywood version in 1936:

By 1920, the area around Broadway and 42nd Street had firmly established itself. Over eighty theaters sprang up and created what we now know as Manhattan’s Theater District.

Who knew Broadway was simply that? A broad street. Yet it has elicited so much more emotion. Broadway is the rhythm and harmony winding through each heart that loves the kicking high step and a serenading tenor. It’s the storyteller that makes us laugh and cry . . . and forget. An escape into another world, if only for three hours.

You know what they say. If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. And if you do make it there, give my regards.

Titanic: Legacy of Betrayal

A TIME-SLIP NOVEL

A secret. A key. Much was buried on the Titanic, but now it's time for resurrection.

Follow two intertwining stories a century apart. 1912 - Matriarch Olive Stanford protects a secret after boarding the Titanic that must go to her grave. 2012 - Portland real estate agent Ember Keaton-Jones receives the key that will unlock the mystery of her past... and her distrusting heart.

To buy: Amazon

Kathleen E. Kovach is a Christian romance author published traditionally through Barbour Publishing, Inc. as well as indie. Kathleen and her husband, Jim, raised two sons while living the nomadic lifestyle for over twenty years in the Air Force. Now planted in northeast Colorado, she's a grandmother and a great-grandmother—though much too young for either. Kathleen has been a longstanding member of American Christian Fiction Writers. An award-winning author, she presents spiritual truths with a giggle, proving herself as one of God's peculiar people.

Website
Blog With A Giggle
CraftCinema

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A Family's Legacy at the Alamo by Cheryl Rae Johnson

My mother loved history. She especially loved family history. Because my father was a mission pastor, I was not raised in my parents' home state of Texas, but I grew up knowing that I had a third great grandfather who signed the Texas Declaration of Independence, that this same grandfather has a Texas county named after him, and that he had a son, my great, great uncle, who had at the tender age of eighteen, died at the Alamo.

The author's third great grandfather, Jesse Grimes

Jesse Grimes married my third great grandmother, Martha Smith in 1813. They would have nine children together, but Martha would die in 1824 giving birth to their final children, twins. Two years later, Grimes married widow Rosanna Britton, with whom he had six more children. Jesse and Rosanna moved to Texas shortly after their marriage, where he eventually settled in what is now Navasota on land they named Grimes Prairie. That area is now Grimes County, Texas, named in his honor in 1846 while he was still living. 

By formulanone - FM1774 North - Grimes County Line, CC BY-SA 2.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=119993786

It did not take long for Jesse Grimes, a lawyer and judge, to become involved in the politics of Texas, especially as the territory fought for its freedom from Mexican rule. Tensions with the Mexican government had been brewing for well over a decade. Political and social differences, lack of religious freedom, and unkept promises from the Mexican government kept tensions brewing. But when General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna declared he was now the dictator, negotiations with Mexico ended. Delegates were elected for the Convention of 1836 to meet and draft the Texas Declaration of Independence. Jesse Grimes was one of the fifty-nine delegates sent as a representative of Washington on the Brazos, and on March 2, 1836, he became the fifty-ninth person to the sign the document declaring Texas its own Republic. 

Copy of Texas Declaration of Independence
Cheryl Rae Johnson's personal collection

Jesse Grime's Witness as Representative from Washington on the Brazos
Cheryl Rae Johnson's personal collection

  While Grimes was attending the convention and signing the declaration, one of his sons with his first wife, Martha, was doing his part to help Texas win its independence. Eighteen-year-old Albert Calvin Grimes fought at the Battle of the Alamo alongside men like Davy Crockett and James Bowie. 

Around the first of December 1835, Calvin Grimes traveled to San Antonio with other young men who would also fight at the Alamo. Upon arriving, he served as an orderly sergeant in the Corps of the Artillery in the Army of Texas, helping to maintain the eighteen cannons there. Santa Anna attacked the fort on February 23. After a thirteen day fight and three battles, the Mexican dictator prevailed. The more than two thousand men of the Mexican army was no match for the two-hundred and sixty Texans fighting for their freedom. 

On March 6, 1836, four days after Jesse Grimes signed the Texas Declaration of Independence, his son, Albert Calvin Grimes died fighting for that independence, unaware that his father had signed the declaration. The battle cry went forth, Remember the Alamo, and Calvin Grimes' death, along with all 189 soldiers who died that day, was avenged when, a little over a month later, Santa Anna was captured and Texas gained its independence. 

Veteran's

Memorial in Grimes County
Albert Calvin Grime's name is incorrectly
listed as Alfred.
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/grimes-albert-calvin.

It is not surprising that Calvin Grimes would take up the fight, as he came from a long line of patriots. His father fought in the War of 1812, and both his great-grandfather and grandfather fought in the American Revolution. 

Jesse Grimes would stay active in Texas politics, running alongside Sam Houston as Independent candidates for governor and lieutenant governor in the 1857 state election. They lost that year, but Houston would win with another running mate two years later in 1859. 

Grimes died March 15, 1866, and is buried in the Texas State Cemetery in the state's capital of Austin. 

Grave marker for Jesse Grimes in Texas 
State Cemetary, Austin
Author's Personal Collection

.

Albert Calvin Grimes Memorial at the Alamo
Two of the grands pointing to his name.

Every so often our family makes the trek to San Antonio, where we Remember the Alamo and those, like my great, great uncle who gave their lives fighting for independence. And like my mother, we teach the family legacy to future generations.

Two of the grands learning family history
at the Alamo in San Antonio.

About Cheryl Rae Johnson:  

Cheryl Rae Johnson writes historical romance set in the American South. She has made her home in all corners of the US, but is now settled on the eastern edge of Texas, where she teaches writing and literature at her local university as well as ministers alongside her husband of over forty years in her local church. She can often be found drinking coffee and hanging out with her ever-growing brood of grandchildren. She loves to connect with readers. You can join her at:                                       Cheryl Rae Johnson Website 

                     Goodreads

                     Amazon

Start Book 1 of the Chattanooga Hearts Series for free this month, Oct. 14-16.

 

Whose Time Is It Anyway?

By Suzanne Norquist

As we near the annual time change in the United States, I find myself considering international time zones and the Prime Meridian. How did this worldwide system come about?

Before modern transportation and communication, everyone did their own thing. Clock towers in large cities synced up local times. Think of Big Ben in London, Zytglogge in Bern, Switzerland, and Independence Hall in Philadelphia. The rest of the world didn’t matter.

When trains started whisking people across large countries, time differences became a problem. The same was true of instantaneous communication over telegraph lines and, later, wireless devices. People in different parts of the world could converse instantly.

The variations in recorded time posed problems for scientists as well. Astronomer Cleveland Abbe struggled to reconcile observations of the northern lights because scholars used their local times when recording data.

Engineers pushed for standardization related to longitude. But what longitude should be the base? Sailors’ maps used different prime meridians (aka zero degrees longitude) depending on their country of origin. This presented a problem with increased globalization.

In 1878, Canadian railroad engineer Sanford Flemming suggested dividing the globe into twenty-four zones, one for each hour. The next year, he published a paper estimating ship tonnage using various meridians. More than half of the ships used the Greenwich meridian as the base. He recommended adopting this as the standard. Although others liked the idea, it wasn’t accepted for years.

By 1883, railroads in the United States established the time zones we still use today. The convention was necessary for keeping timetables.

The real game changer came in 1884 when U.S. President Chester Arthur hosted the International Meridian Conference in Washington, D.C. Forty-one delegates from twenty-five nations attended. They represented countries in Europe, South America, Japan, and others. The fact that they made this long journey before modern transportation highlights the importance of the issue.

This event established the Greenwich meridian, which passed through the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, as the reference for longitude and time. All countries agreed to adopt a universal day with midnight as the start of the twenty-four-hour clock.

At the same time, the International Date Line, which separates the two calendar days, was established on the opposite side of the globe at 180 degrees longitude. That line has been shifted in populated areas to prevent confusion caused by different dates in one location.

Even though the delegates agreed, the resolutions were only suggestions, and countries were slow to adopt them. Some, who tried to make the changes quickly, created so much confusion that they returned to their original system.

Over time, technology, particularly wireless communication, pushed most countries to conform.

There are still a few holdouts. China has only one official time zone even though the international system suggests that it should have five. They had five time zones until 1949, when the communist party chairman put them all on Beijing time.

As fall approaches, and I turn all my clocks back an hour, I’ll remember that this action is only a small piece of the much larger picture. In the same way, the next time I study a globe, I’ll note that the lines for longitude and latitude are man-made conventions.

***

 

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 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/

 

 Multi-published author Suzanne Norquist has worked as a chemist, professor, and financial analyst, and has even earned a doctorate in economics. Everything fascinates her. Research feeds her curiosity, and she shares the adventure with her readers. She lives in New Mexico with her mining-engineer husband and takes road trips to visit her children and grandchildren. When not writing, she hangs out with her two active Siberian Huskies, takes piano lessons, and studies the Bible with the church ladies.