The Ice Flood of 1918: When the Bay Inlets Froze

    _By Tiffany Amber Stockton

Here's a look back at the winter of 1917-1918, when parts of the Chesapeake Bay and coastal inlets froze so completely that people and carts crossed on ice. Can you believe it?

The Winter the Coast Stood Still

The tide had stopped breathing. From Chincoteague to Crisfield, the sea lay silent under a crust of ice so thick you could drive a wagon across it. Steamboats and other waterway vessels sat stuck for nearly a month due to the frigid temperatures and blizzard that brought uncharacteristic cold further south than it had ever remained for this long.

For people who depended on the water for travel and livelihood, it brought things to a halt. That freeze rearranged priorities overnight. Mothers stretched meals, and churches drew people together for warmth and survival.

The freeze affected nearly everything. Watermen couldn’t get to their oysters and crabs. Small towns that relied on regular marine deliveries had to deal with delayed supplies or no deliveries at all. Even the mail struggled to get through when boats were stuck and roads weren’t much better.

They Must Survive

People adapted, as they always do. Sometimes, you simply don't have a choice. And sometimes, you get the opportunity to tackle things that got pushed aside for more important needs. Like how men spent the downtime repairing boats and gear that normally never stopped long enough to get a thorough overhaul. And children did exactly what you’d expect. They tested the ice, ignored stern instructions, and had adventures they’d retell for decades afterward. :)

Now, I'm sure a little bit of tall tale snuck in there during the retelling at some of my family gatherings, but the details still tracked with real events. And no one challenged the report of a few men on their bellies pulling a wide sleigh across the ice to get much-needed supplies to island residents.

Thankfully, that blizzard and winter didn't end in disaster. But when I read about that experience, I'm reminded that my great-grandparents dealt with that surprise weather without modern forecasts, heated trucks, or social media updates. They had to rely on their common sense, neighbors, and a lot of layers of clothing. One of many good things came out of it, though.

They left us the stories!

NOW IT'S YOUR TURN:

* Have you ever heard an older family member talk about extreme weather conditions they endured?

* Do you know of any famous weather stories from your own hometown?

* If you lived in a coastal community back then, which part do you think would have been hardest: food, work, or travel shutting down?

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.

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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.

Historians Say "Never." Springfield, Missouri Begs to Differ.

Photograph by Martha Hutchens, image on display at History Museum on the Square

by Martha Hutchens

“The gunfight in the middle of Main Street in an Old West town never happened,” historians say.

And mostly, they’re right. But there was that one time in Springfield, Missouri—the story that made Wild Bill Hickok famous.

Many of the details are disputed, but we do know that Wild Bill shot Davis Tutt on the Springfield square on July 21, 1865. Davis Tutt died. And it all started over a watch.

Image by @RobStark/ Deposit Photos

We have two main almost-contemporary sources: Colonel George Ward Nichols, who wrote for Harper’s New Monthly Magazine in 1867, and Return I. Holcombe, who wrote The History of Greene County, Missouri in 1883. It was Nichols’s story that made Hickok famous, but was it accurate?

Both sources seem to agree that Hickok and Tutt were acquaintances. The men each earned their living by gambling and would have frequented the same places.

According to Nichols, Tutt had loaned Hickok money. Hickok had a good night at the tables, and Tutt asked for the $40 Wild Bill owed. Bill paid him, and Tutt then added that he was owed another $35 for a different loan. Bill didn’t question the second loan but believed he only owed $25 and wanted to check his records. Tutt scooped Bill’s watch off the table to hold as surety. Wild Bill took this as a mark against his honor, since it implied he was a man who didn’t pay his debts.

Holcombe tells a simpler story. Hickok and Tutt were playing each other, and Hickok had a bad night. He lost his money, his watch, his diamond pin, and his diamond ring.

Both sources say that Hickok requested (or demanded, depending on the account) that Tutt not wear the watch. But Tutt wore the watch to the town square the next day, July 21, 1865.

According to Holcombe, Hickok first called out to Tutt when he was roughly 100 yards away, warning him not to come across the square with the watch. By the time Tutt was about 75 yards away, he made the soon-to-be fatal error of reaching for his gun.

Hickok drew his pistol, steadied his right arm on his left forearm, and shot Tutt between the fifth and sixth ribs. Tutt died within a few minutes. The sheriff approached Wild Bill, who surrendered his pistols and admitted to shooting Tutt.

Nichols described an event much closer to what we see in Western movies, with the men facing each other about fifteen yards apart.

Image of Springfield Town Square, by Martha Hutchens

I’ve been to the square and seen the places where the men stood, or at least where the historical markers say they stood. It is far closer to seventy-five yards, which would be a difficult shot even today. With the pistols of 1865, even a skilled marksman would have needed a great deal of luck. Whether that was good luck or bad would depend on which side you stood on.

Hickok stood trial and was acquitted under self-defense, or more accurately, reasonable doubt that he was the aggressor. According to Holcombe, Tutt’s handgun was displayed as evidence, and it had a single chamber empty.

At this point we gain another contemporary source: the local newspaper, The Weekly Patriot. Unfortunately, it tells us very little, only that the jury reached its verdict in minutes and that there was general dissatisfaction with the outcome. Under Missouri law at the time, self-defense did not apply if a man willingly entered a fight he could reasonably avoid. The jury appears to have set aside this standard.

Image by @marzolino/Deposit Photos

There may have been another underlying issue. This shooting took place only three months after the end of the Civil War, and southwest Missouri had seen violence years before 1861. Hickok served with the Union, and Tutt with the Confederacy. But the story is complicated. Tutt was almost certainly acting as a double agent, reporting Confederate movements to the Union, and considering the units each man served in, it is likely Hickok knew this.

As you might expect, Nichols and Holcombe disagree about the role the war played in the gunfight. Nichols claimed that Hickok had killed one of Tutt’s friends during the war, while Holcombe maintained that once the war was over, it was truly over for Hickok.

It is also difficult to ignore the possibility that a jury composed entirely of Union loyalists in postwar Springfield felt little sympathy for a former Confederate.

To tell the truth, I find the disagreements in this story to be one of its most interesting aspects. History is so seldom as cut-and-dried as it appears in textbooks.

What everyone agrees on is that Nichols’s article in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine made Wild Bill Hickok a celebrity, and he went on to become one of the most well-known names in the Old West.

Historians are right to distrust the word never—and Springfield, Missouri, reminds us why.

If you'd like to learn more about the background of both men in this fight, you can find that information here, on my website.

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’ 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…

Charles Marion Russell by Nancy J. Farrier

 

Charles Marion Russell

Charles Marion Russell, probably best known as an artist who depicted life in the Old West, also wore many other hats. He was a well-known story teller, a writer, historian, and an advocate for the Western Plains Indians. He loved the outdoors and he loved his adopted State of Montana so much that he didn’t want to leave.

Camp Cook's Troubles
Courtesy Wikipedia Commons

Born in 1864, in St. Louis, Missouri, Charles wanted to grow up to be a cowboy. His father partnered in a brick manufacturing business, but Charles, who struggled with book learning, wanted to go west. Just shy of his sixteenth birthday, he arrived in Montana ready to fulfill that dream. He started out learning the wilderness from a hunter and trader, Jake Hoover, spending two years with him.

The Tenderfoot
Courtesy Wikipedia Commons

In 1882, he began to live his dream as a night herder for some cattle outfits. What he didn’t realize at the time, was that he would gain more than learning to wrangle cattle. He would learn firsthand how the men and animals of the west interacted. Later, he would turn those memories into paintings and sculptures so realistic they would seem to take on a life of their own.

Waiting for Chinook
Courtesy Wikipedia Commons

In a depiction of a particularly brutal winter, Russell painted a watercolor of a starving cow surrounded by wolves. This picture brought him widespread recognition in 1887. By this time, he was already known locally for his story telling. He had a quiet way of speaking that kept his audience enthralled.

The Cryer
Courtesy Wikipedia Commons

By 1893, Russell turned to art full time. In 1896, he married Nancy Cooper. She had a head for business and in time became his business manager. Russell painted more than 2,000 pictures, plus the many bronze sculptures he made. His artwork appeared on postcards, color reproductions and in calendars. He was considered the first “Western” artist to live most of his life in the West. 

Buccaroos
Courtesy Wikipedia Commons

Stories abound on the life of Charles Russell. He was known as a constant smoker. It’s said that as soon as one cigarette finished, he would stop and roll another one. This often happened when he would be telling stories to an audience. Even if he had come to a critical place in the story, he would stop talking until he’d finished rolling and lighting his next cigarette. He expected his listeners to wait and they were so caught up in the tale he’d been unravelling that they did wait for him.

To the Victor Belongs the Spoils
Courtesy Wikipedia Commons

Russell was also noted for not laughing as he told stories. He spoke in a slow, drawling narrative, is expression deadpan. Even if he had his listeners laughing aloud, he didn't smile, or change from his serious demeanor. 

I love Russell's vivid portrayal of the West. Have you ever seen any of Charles Russell's paintings or sculpture? I appreciate that he lived the life before putting it on canvas, in bronzes or in words. What other artist do you know that did this?

Nancy J Farrier is an award-winning, best-selling author who lives in Southern Arizona in the Sonoran Desert. She loves the Southwest with its interesting historical past. When Nancy isn’t writing, she loves to read, do needlecraft, play with her cats and dog, and spend time with her family. You can read more about Nancy and her books on her website: nancyjfarrier.com.

Women of the Resistance: Cristina Luca Boico

During the research for my upcoming series, The Resistance Chronicles, I found countless stories of brave women who served in resistance groups around the world. Some joined groups within their native countries. Others like Cristina Luca Boica, today’s featured resister, fled their homelands and joined organizations within their new country.

Born Bianca Marcusohn on August 8, 1916 in Botosani, Romania, Cristina and her family were part of the Jewish middle-class. According to several sites, Romania is a “deeply Francophile country," with French being the language of the Romanian elite since the 18th century. At the time of her upbringing, French was a mandatory language taught in schools, and she and her sister grew up reading French literature.

While attending Carmen Sylva High School, an elite school with an excellent national reputation, Cristina experienced her first antisemitic encounter that she later described a some of the non-Jewish students “maintaining a certain distance from us.” Additionally, the school had a dorm specifically set aside for Jewish students that was often attacked by non-Jewish students. She spent quite a bit of time at the dorm, Schuller, debating the merits of communism with Zionist students. She, and many others, argued that communism could end antisemitism because it “promised a better world for all, and thereby the genuine liberation of the Jewish people, allowing for a complete flourishing of its potential, dissolving nationalities, religions, and ethnicities.”

In 1937, she was expelled from university because of her political activities, and she left Romania to

continue her schooling at the Sorbonne. Three years later she participated in the 1940 demonstrations to protest the arrest of Paul Langevin, a French physicist who was outspoken about his opposition to fascism. She was arrested but quickly released.

The following year she joined the Organisation Spéciale—Main-d’Euvre Immigrée (OS-MOI), the armed group of the Immigrant Labor Force and came up with her first nom de plume: Monique. By 1942, she’d lost her job as a translator and went to work for the OS-MOI full-time. Shortly thereafter, the organization merged with two other groups, and she changed her name one final time to Cristina Luca. Her role was extensive, and she became an intelligence officer. She selected targets for resistance attacks and collected information. Reportedly with the knowledge of her professors, she stole chemicals from the school’s lab that she gave to the partisans. With her knowledge of chemistry, she constructed Molotov cocktails for sabotage missions.

In the first six months of 1943, there were fourteen train derailments, thirty-four acts of arson or bombings, and forty-three assassinations. It is unknown how many of these activities involved Cristina. By 1944, she was assigned to combat duty and participated in several partisan attacks. During the liberation of Paris in August 1945, she was part of the revolt, and after the city’s liberation, she joined the French Army as a lieutenant.

After the war Cristina returned to Romania, eventually married, and worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Due to the change in political climate, she was dismissed from her job in 1952, and her husband was “purged from his position” a few months later. They eventually left Romania and settled in France where she passed away in 2002 at the age of 85.

_________________

Spies & Sweethearts

She wants to do her part. He’s just trying to stay out of the stockade. Will two agents deep behind enemy lines find capture… or love?

1942. Emily Strealer is tired of being told what she can’t do. Wanting to prove herself to her older sisters and do her part for the war effort, the high school French teacher joins the OSS and trains to become a covert operative. And when she completes her training, she finds herself parachuting into occupied France with her instructor to send radio signals to the Resistance.

Major Gerard Lucas has always been a rogue. Transferring to the so-called “Office of Dirty Tricks” to escape a court-martial, he poses as a husband to one of his trainees on a dangerous secret mission. But when their cover is blown after only three weeks, he has to flee with the young schoolteacher to avoid Nazi arrest.

Running for their lives, Emily clings to her mentor’s military experience during the harrowing three-hundred-mile trek to neutral Switzerland. And while Gerard can’t bear the thought of his partner falling into German hands, their forged papers might not be enough to get them over the border.

Can the fugitive pair receive God’s grace to elude the SS and discover the future He intended?

Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/u/m0Od9l

Sources:
https://publicseminar.org/2016/08/antifascism-as-political-passion-in-the-life-of-cristina-luca/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cristina_Luca_Boico
https://jewishlink.news/debunking-the-sheep-to-the-slaughter-myth-resistance-heroism-marceau-and-mime-in-occupied-france/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romania_in_World_War_II
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Romania
https://bmmhs.org/romanian-military-experience-during-the-second-world-war
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/media/documents/publication/ACFAF5.pdf

Photo Credits:

Cristina Luca: By unknown - Original publication: Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org

Sorbonne: Pixabay/Pexels

Resistance Members: REX Shutterstock/Roger Viollet

HMS Resolute - How a British Ghost Ship became a U.S. Presidential Desk

By Mary Dodge Allen

Did you know that the desk used in the Presidential Oval Office was made with wood from a British sailing ship? Here is the fascinating story of the HMS Resolute.

John F. Kennedy, Jr. playing under the Resolute Desk, October, 1963 (Stanley Tretick)

In 1855, Captain James Buddington was standing the the crow's nest of a whaling ship named George Henry, searching for whales in the frigid water of the North Atlantic Ocean, when he spotted a ship in the distance. The large ship appeared to be abandoned and trapped in an ice pack.

Captain James Buddington (Public Domain)

Captain Buddington ordered his crew to sail toward the ice pack. Then he sent a few crew members to investigate the mysterious ship. They crossed the ice on foot and boarded the ghost ship. 

When they entered the main cabin, they were spooked by what they saw. Glasses containing various liquors sat on the table, along with plates of half-eaten food, as if the captain and the ship's officers had just stepped out for a moment. They discovered the name of this ghost ship was the HMS Resolute.

HMS Resolute's Origin and Failed Expeditions:

Five years earlier, in February 1850, a British sailing ship named Ptarmigan was re-fitted and strengthened for Arctic exploration. This ship, renamed Resolute, was given a polar bear figurehead to signify its purpose - to search the Arctic Ocean for a missing polar expedition.

British Admiral John Franklin, 1828 portrait by Thomas Phillips

The Franklin Expedition:

In 1845, British Admiral John Franklin and his 128 member crew sailed from England in two ships to explore the Arctic Ocean in search of the fabled North West Passage - a shorter shipping route from Europe to Asia. They had been missing for five years.

First Search: During 1850-51, the Resolute was part of a four-ship Arctic search expedition. They found no sign of Franklin's ships or crew.

Second Search: In April 1852, the Resolute was part of another, larger Arctic search expedition. This time, traces of timber from Franklin's abandoned winter camp were found on Victoria Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. 

During 1853-54, the expedition ships split up to search a larger area of the icy Arctic Ocean, hoping to discover the fate of Franklin and his crew.

Sketch of HMS Resolute frozen in the ice as her crew abandons her. (Public Domain)

Unfortunately, most of the ships, including HMS Resolute, became trapped in ice packs. Crews were forced to abandon these ships. Some were rescued by other expedition ships, while others made hard marches across the ice to the rendezvous point at Beechey Island in the Arctic Archipelago. Finally, in August 1854, this search was called off, and the officers and crews sailed back to England on overcrowded relief ships.

Rescue of the HMS Resolute:

Captain Buddington, an experienced whaler, had been on his way back to his home port - New London, Connecticut - after an unsuccessful whaling trip. As soon as he spotted the large ship trapped in the ice pack, he saw an opportunity.

HMS Resolute had miraculously survived several months in the Arctic ice with no major damage. Captain Buddington decided to turn his failed whaling trip into a successful salvage operation. He figured that he and his crew could make a profit if they sailed the Resolute back to New London, where it could be sold for salvage.

After making the Resolute seaworthy and releasing it from the ice, Captain Buddington and a portion of his whaling crew sailed it back to New London. The rest of his crew sailed the whaler George Henry back to New London, under the command of Buddington's first mate, John Quayle.

Captain Buddington wrote about the difficult voyage aboard HMS Resolute:

"After a stormy passage of 64 days, having in the time a succession of gales, and being driven as far south as Bermuda, we at last reached the port New London... on Sunday, December 23, 1855."

Salvage Rights Dispute:

The British government asserted its ownership of HMS Resolute. But the U.S. whaling firm, Perkins and Smith argued that since their employee, Captain Buddington had rescued the Resolute, they now owned the salvage rights.

Perkins and Smith enlisted the help of Henry Grinnell, an American businessman who was an expert on British and American salvage rights. Grinnell agreed to serve as a negotiator with the British government.

British salvage law: Rights belong to the Captain who recovered the salvaged ship.

American salvage law: Rights belong to the Ship Owners who recovered the salvaged ship.

In 1856, the British government agreed to award the salvage rights to the U.S. firm, Perkins and Smith. But this action only added to the ongoing political tensions between America and Britain.

To ease political tensions, Henry Grinnell urged Congress to pass a bill to fully repair and restore the HMS Resolute and return her to Britain, as a goodwill gesture. The bill passed in 1856, and Congress purchased the HMS Resolute for $40,000.

After the HMS Resolute was expertly re-fitted, it sailed to Britain and was presented to Queen Victoria on December 13, 1856. She boarded the ship to inspect it on December 16, 1856.

Illustration of Queen Victoria boarding the HMS Resolute on December 16, 1856 (Public Domain)

Who Received the $40,000 Salvage Profit?

Traditionally, the salvage rights owners, Perkins and Smith, would divide the profit between its investors, the captain and the crew.

But Perkins and Smith had sold their whaling assets to the firm of Williams and Haven, who now owned the salvage rights. 

This new firm stubbornly refused to split any salvage profit with Captain Buddington or his crew. The firm argued that Captain Buddington had broken his contract when he left the whaler George Henry and sailed the HMS Resolute back to New London.

Captain Buddington sued the firm of Williams and Haven. The court eventually awarded a portion of the salvage money to his crew, but it upheld the ruling that the captain did, indeed, break his contract. As a result, Captain Buddington never received any portion of the salvage profit.

From Sailing Ship to Presidential Desk:

Portrait of Queen Victoria (Public Domain)

HMS Resolute remained in the British Navy for the following 23 years and served as a symbol of friendship between the U.S. and Britain. In 1879, Queen Victoria had the ship decommissioned and salvaged for timber.

Four desks were made with these timbers. One of them, a large partner's desk, was presented to U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880, as a gesture of gratitude for the return of HMS Resolute. It became known as the Resolute Desk.

The Resolute Desk in the Yellow Oval Room, 1886, during the Grover Cleveland presidency. (Wikipedia)

From that time forward, the Resolute Desk has been used by every U.S. President, except Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.

(After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, President Lyndon Johnson - at Jackie Kennedy's request - allowed the Resolute Desk to be exhibited on a three-year world tour, to raise funds for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.)

In 1966, the Resolute Desk went on display at the Smithsonian, until President Jimmy Carter brought the desk back into the Oval Office in 1977. Since then, it has continued to be used by each U.S. President.

Here are a few photos of the Resolute Desk in use:

President Jimmy Carter at the Resolute Desk, 1977. (Public Domain)

President Ronald Reagan at the Resolute Desk, 1985. (Wikipedia)

President Barack Obama sitting at the Resolute Desk, 2009. (Wikipedia)

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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 Book

When Workhouses in Nineteenth Century Ireland and Britain Punished the Poor

By Donna Wichelman

Though you may never have read Charles Dickens’ famous 1843 novella A Christmas Carol or seen the movie or theatrical production based on the book, you have no doubt heard the phrase humbug and know about the main character, Ebenezer Scrooge. He was a miserly man of wealth in Victorian England who disparaged anything related to charity or goodwill. So, when two portly gentlemen approach Scrooge, raising funds to help the poor and destitute, Scrooge is not impressed with their desire to provide for the hundreds of thousands “… in want of common comforts …”

“Are there no prisons?” asked Scrooge.
“Plenty of prisons,” said the gentleman.
“And the Union workhouses?” demanded Scrooge. “Are they still in operation?”
“They are. Still,” returned the gentleman, “I wish I could say they were not.”
“Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,” said Scrooge. “I am very glad to hear it.”

In the course of the rest of the dialogue, the gentleman tells Scrooge that those who are told they must go to the workhouses would rather die than be sent there, and Scrooge, in his miserly manner, says they had better do so, as it would decrease the surplus population.

Cover of the Classic Novel

In a recent trip to Kilkenny, Ireland, I had the opportunity to walk the hallways of a former workhouse-turned-shopping-mall. The irony was not lost on me as I contemplated the streams of local holiday shoppers buying up their baubles and toys, and wondered if any of them heard the echoes of extreme depravity that once shuffled through there. Unfortunately, the back-street tours were closed for the Christmas season, but remnants are there if you look for them.

The lid of a Wooden Travel Trunk Displayed at the Shopping Mall: Donna's Gallery, December 2025

Actual Trunk on Display at the Mall: Donna's Gallery, December 2025

A Stop On One of the Back-street Tours: Kilkenny Shopping Mall: Donna's Gallery, December 2025

A Former Courtyard Where Workhouse "Inmates" Would Gather, now an Outdoor Food Court. The Stone Walls of the Workhouse Seen in the Background: Donna's Gallery, December 2025

Why would a pauper say that he'd rather die than be sent to one of the workhouses?

In my historical romance, A Song of Deliverance, my protagonist Anna reflects on her life as a young child in Ireland during the famine years, “possessing only vague, watery impressions of hunger that never ceased to gnaw at her stomach and a dank, dingy workhouse her parents had called the pathway to the dead. As it was, her older brother Ryan died of dysentery in the wretched conditions. The resounding consequences had left Da impoverished in mind and spirit, and Ma picking up the pieces of a broken and fettered man.”

Ireland had been under British rule since the sixteenth century, including the English Poor Laws, a system of poor relief in England and Wales that had developed from late Medieval law (see Wikipedia: English Poor Laws). The idea of the workhouse emerged as early as the fourteenth century, during the Black Death, to address labor shortages. But it wasn’t until much later, and after several iterations of the Poor Laws over the centuries, that the concept of the workhouse took shape.

By the nineteenth century, several factors converged to bring about the English New Poor Law of 1834. The end of the Napoleonic Wars saw mass unemployment, new technologies replaced agricultural workers, and a series of bad harvests brought about an economic decline. This made the old system of poor relief untenable. Thus, the New Poor Law was designed to reverse the economic trend by discouraging the provision of relief to anyone who refused to enter a workhouse. By 1838, the same law had been enacted in Ireland.

Unfortunately, making entering a workhouse compulsory to receive relief spawned unethical practices among owners of for-profit institutions, like using workers as slave labor for back-breaking jobs and putting them in dangerous situations. But one’s refusal to enter the workhouse indicated that he or she could support oneself. Thus, as the potato famine struck Ireland and people were starving, many had little choice but to enter the workhouses.

A common layout of workhouses resembled a prison, with four three-story buildings surrounded by an outer wall and four separate courtyards. The “inmates” were segregated into four distinct groups—the aged and impotent, children, able-bodied males, and able-bodied females, thus separating families from one another. Separating them out this way during the famine would supposedly direct treatment to those who needed it most, prevent the spread of disease (mental and physical), and provide a deterrent from pauperism.

Workhouse Design

Architect Sampson Kempthorne (1809–1873), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In practice, the workhouses were like prisons for the poor, with cold and dank sub-standard living conditions and providing poor-quality food, leaving residents bereft of nutrition and a substantive ability to fight off diseases. Statistics show that most workhouses were ill-equipped to meet the demands placed on them, and one-quarter of all famine mortality occurred within their walls.

Eventually, as the century came to a close, workhouses became places for the elderly and the sick rather than the able-bodied poor. Legislation was passed in 1929, allowing local authorities to convert workhouses into municipal hospitals. But it wasn’t until 1948, with the passage of the National Assistance Act, that the Poor Law finally disappeared and with it the last of the wretched workhouses.

In an excerpt from an article in the Current Archaeology Magazine, The Kilknenny Workhouse Mass Burials: an archaeology of the Irish Potato Famine, April 4, 2013, the author quotes Frenchman Gustave de Beaumont's statement in 1835: I have seen the Indian in his forests, and the Negro in his chains, and thought, as I contemplated their pitiable condition, that I saw the very extreme of human wretchedness; but I did not then know the condition of unfortunate Ireland … In all countries, more or less, paupers may be discovered; but an entire nation of paupers is what was never seen until it was shown in Ireland.’  See the entire article in the Current Archaeology Magazine. 

Donna is an Angel-award-winning author of Historical fiction for A Song of Deliverance. Book Two in the Silver Singing Mine series, Rhythms of the Heart, was released in November 2025. Weaving history and faith into stories of intrigue and redemption grew out of Donna's love of travel, history, and literature as a young adult while attending an international college in Wales, U.K. She enjoys developing plots that show how God's love abounds even in the profoundly difficult circumstances of our lives. Her stories reflect the hunger in all of us for love, belonging, and forgiveness.

Donna was a communications professional before becoming a full-time writer. Her short stories and articles have appeared in inspirational publications. She has two indie-published romantic suspense novels, Light Out of Darkness and Undaunted Valor, in her Waldensian Series. 

Donna and her husband of forty-one years participate in ministry at their local church in Colorado. They love spending time with their grandchildren and bike, kayak, and travel whenever possible.

Vital to the Justice System, Court Reporters have been Around for Centuries

Please welcome guest blogger, Janette Johnson Melson, author of Underneath the Ficus Tree.

With eyes weaving back and forth from speaker to speaker, the woman whispers into the mask covering her mouth. Her words identify not only what is being said and done in the courtroom but also who is doing it. Providing an accurate transcript of the proceedings is her job. She may sit off to the side and blend into the backdrop, but her role is important. She is the court reporter.

Many are not familiar with this type of court reporter, known as a voice writer, but the technology has been around since Horace Webb invented it in the 1940s. A pen shorthand court reporter, Webb was frustrated by the difficulty of keeping up with fast talkers and complex terminology and with the double work of the transcription process. At that time, most reporters dictated their shorthand notes to be typewritten later. However, if the proceedings could be dictated while they were happening, there would be no need for dictation later or for schooling to learn shorthand. Webb’s idea was a good one, but how could a reporter repeat everything being said without disturbing the testimony? What he needed was a microphone inside a sound-insulated container that would record his voice without his voice being heard outside the device. Unfortunately, nothing like that existed, which sent Webb to the drawing board.

After months of unsuccessful trial and errors with cigar boxes, tomato cans, and other

household items,Webb finally hit upon a coffee pot. Stuffed to muffle the sound and fitted with a rubber facepiece, which had been originally designed for the Air Force, the Stenomask came into being. By placing the mask over his mouth and nose, he could whisper into the microphone inside the pot, and his voice was recorded onto analog cassette tapes to be transcribed later.

By the 1990s, the masks were smaller and lighter, and the device recorded onto a dual-track cassette tape—one track for an open mike that recorded the actual proceedings and a second track for the reporter’s whispers. Nowadays, the mask covers only the mouth, and the dictation feeds directly into a computer with speech-recognition software that instantly converts it into real-time text.

Although Webb was a pen shorthand reporter when he invented the Stenomask, another form of shorthand reporting already existed and had been around since 1877. Miles Bartholomew invented the first stenotype machine, a ten-key device that used dots and dashes to represent letter combinations. Then in 1906, Ward Stone Ireland invented the prototype for the modern stenotype machine, and it is still in use today. Resembling a typewriter, it combines the qualities of shorthand and the ease of typing to allow the reporter, also known as a stenographer, to record the proceedings. It writes numbers and letters phonetically, which uses fewer strokes than a typewriter. A stenographer is the type of court reporter that most are familiar with.

However, court reporting itself has been around for centuries, dating back at least to 450 BC when people used cuneiform, similar to Egyptian hieroglyphics, to group sounds together and then assign symbols to those sounds. Pictures were then assigned to these symbols.

Since the earliest days of Adam and Eve, people have committed crimes and been involved in disputes which had to be judged. And within those judgment proceedings, someone had to be recording them. Regardless of the way those people do their job, they are vital to the justice system. They are the court reporters.

For more information about Horace Webb and his Stenomask, read this story. 

Janette Johnson Melson spent seven years as a voice writer court reporter, during which she gained the knowledge and experience to write her debut novel and prequel novella, Underneath the Ficus Tree. But her dream of becoming a writer happened long before, after she penned her first poem at the age of six. A degree in English/journalism helped her to realize that dream, and she worked as a print journalist until a move to another state required a new career path as a court reporter. Through the years, her writing has garnered recognition and awards, most recently receiving an Honorable Mention in the 2025 ACFW KidLit Contest. She has also been named a finalist in the 2021 Oregon Christian Writers Cascade Contest and 2021 Florida West Coast Writers, Inc., Contest. When not writing, she teaches piano and enjoys living in a lake house in Georgia with her husband and their rescue pup. She is also blessed with a daughter, son-in-law, son, daughter-in-law, and two grand girls. She can be reached on her website (jjmelson.com), author Facebook page (JanetteJohnsonMelson.Author), or by email janette@jjmelson.com.

Underneath the Ficus Tree

Because of her Christian conviction to save herself for marriage, voice writer court reporter Edie Randolph often feels like a mythical creature in today’s broken world. She’s hesitant about dating but finds a potential partner in her own klutzy way. Tripping over a potted ficus, she literally falls for legal clerk Matt McConnell, a man of similar values but more experience. Intimidated by his past, she wonders if she can learn to cope with it.

Matt hasn’t dated since recommitting his body to Christ. When he meets Edie, a lovely woman with a strong faith, he feels an immediate bond. However, a misunderstanding leaves him feeling judged by her, and he fears his past may hinder them from having a future.

With the baggage each of them carries, will they be unable to navigate a path going forward? Or will they find their way back to each other underneath the ficus tree?

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