Alexander Hamilton ~ Founding Father, Anonymous Author, Doomed Duelist

Note ~ The Florida Artists, Architects, and Authors Series will continue next month.

A FOUNDING FATHER

 

Though Alexander Hamilton is considered a Founding Father, he is one of four in that historic group who didn’t sign America’s Declaration of Independence from the British on July 4, 1776.

The other three are George Washington, James Madison, and John Jay. 

 

General Washington was too busy actually fighting for that independence. However, he read the newly-signed document to the Continental Army on July 9th. Alexander Hamilton was only 19 years old at the time.

Or maybe he was twenty-one. His birthday is January 11th, but historians disagree on whether he was born in 1755 or 1757.

Here are a few details historians accept as fact:

• Hamilton was born out-of-wedlock in the West Indies and orphaned in 1768. His father had abandoned the family before then.
• From 1777 to 1781, he served as George Washington's trusted aide-de-camp.
• He was an artillery officer in the American Revolutionary War and fought in the Siege of Yorktown (1781).
• After the war, he was a lawyer and founded the Bank of New York.
• As a delegate to the Philadelphia Convention, he was involved in the drafting of the U.S. Constitution.
• As the first Secretary of the Treasury, he served in President Washington's first cabinet.

 

AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR

 

Along with all his many historical political achievements, Hamilton also bequeathed a tremendous literary legacy…many written under a pen name.

 

Let’s take a look at a few of his better-known works.

 

The Revolutionary Versus the Loyalist

 

In 1774, Loyalist Samuel Seabury, a Church of England clergyman, published pamphlets intended to scare the American colonists from rebelling against the king. He wrote under the pseudonym of A. W. Farmer, an abbreviation for A Westchester Farmer.

 

In response, Hamilton anonymously published A Full Vindication of the Measures of Congress. Seabury published another pamphlet in response to Hamilton and then Hamilton responded with The Farmer Refuted.

 

Pen Name ~ Publius

In 1778, Hamilton signed three accusatory letters with the pseudonym Publius. The name came from a book titled Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans. The original Publius Valerius, better known as Publicola or “friend of the people,” helped to found the ancient republic of Rome. 

The three letters accused Samuel Chase—who is a signer of the Declaration of Independence and, in 1787, represented Maryland in the Continental Congress—of using insider knowledge to benefit from the flour market.

The Reynolds Pamphlet

To defend his own integrity, Hamilton wrote a ninety-five-page pamphlet confessing to an affair he’d had during his tenure as Secretary of the Treasury. 

 

While not excusing Hamilton’s behavior, it’s widely believed Mrs. Reynolds and her husband conspired to set Hamilton up so they could blackmail him. 

 

In the pamphlet, published in 1797, Hamilton admitted he was guilty of adultery but vehemently insisted he was not guilty of corruption.

 

The Federalist Papers

Hamilton is most well-known for writing fifty-one of the eight-five installments of The Federalist Papers. The remaining essays and articles were written by James Madison and John Jay, but each one appeared under the pseudonym of Publius—the same pen name that Hamilton used for his letters attacking Samuel Chase.

Hamilton, Madison, and Jay wrote The Federalist Papers to encourage public support for the proposed U.S. Constitution. The vast majority of the essays were published between October 1787 and August 1788 in New York newspapers and sometimes reprinted in other states' newspapers.

 

The collected Federalist Papers
in one volume and
an advertisement for the book.

 

Poetry

 

Before embarking on his political writing career—remember that his first anonymous pamphlets were written in 1774—Hamilton wrote a few poems and a hymn that appeared in the Royal Danish American Gazette, a St. Croix (Virgin Islands) newspaper.

 

The first two published poems were printed with Hamilton’s query letter. He wrote:

 

“I am a youth about seventeen, and consequently such an attempt as this must be presumptuous; but if, upon perusal, you think the following piece worthy of a place in your paper, by inserting it you’ll much oblige Your obedient servant, A.H.”

 

Another poem, “The Melancholy Hour,” was published on October 11, 1772 under the pseudonym Juvenis.

 

“This brooding work,” writes Ron Chernow in his biography of Hamilton, “reprises the theme of the hurricane as heavenly retribution upon a fallen world.” He quotes the following two lines:

 

Why hangs this gloomy damp upon my mind 

Why heaves my bosom with the struggling sigh?

 

An unsigned four-stanza hymn, “The Soul Ascending Into Bliss,” appeared in the Gazette on October 17, 1772. Chernow calls this “a lovely, mystical meditation in which Hamilton envisions his soul soaring heavenward.”

 

Here’s an excerpt:

 

Hark! Hark! A voice from yonder sky

Methinks I hear my Savior cry…

I come oh Lord, I mount, I fly

On rapid wings I cleave the sky.”

 

The Gazette published another poem, “A Character” by A.H., on February 3, 1773.

 

“In this short, disillusioned work,” Chernow writes, “Hamilton evokes a sharp-witted fellow named Eugenio who manages inadvertently to antagonize all his friends.” 

 

Here are the final two lines of the poem: 

 

Wit not well govern’d rankles into vice

He to his Jest his friend he will sacrifice.

 

A DOOMED DUELIST

 

On July 11, 1804, Hamilton and Aaron Burr fought a duel. 

 

Though Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson held opposing political views, Hamilton supported Jefferson for the presidency over Burr who was considered to be power-hungry and unprincipled scoundrel by his contemporaries. 

Burr accused Hamilton of impugning his honor and challenged him to a duel after Hamilton refused to apologize for disparaging remarks he’d made.

 

Hamilton told his second that he would purposely miss Burr and may have expected his opponent to do the same. 

 

However, Burr aimed at Hamilton and wounded him. 

 

Hamilton died the next day.

 

Whether born in 1755 or 1757, he wasn’t yet 50 years old.

 

HONORING HAMILTON

 

“…he was first on the $5, then the $2, $20, $50, $500, $1000 (those larger denominations were only used to move money among banks or between banks and the Federal Reserve). Since the currency was redesigned and given a standard size in 1928, Hamilton has been on the $10” (Brian Phillips Murphy).

 

RE-IMAGINING HAMILTON

 

The highly-acclaimed Broadway production of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton was nominated for 16 Tony Awards and won 11 including Best Musical, Best Actor, Best Choreography, and Best Orchestrations. The script was based on Ron Chernow’s biography of Hamilton.

 

Your Turn ~ Which of Hamilton’s writings impress you the most?

Johnnie Alexander writes award-winning stories of enduring love and quiet courage. Her historical and contemporary novels weave together unforgettable romance, compelling characters, and a touch of mystery. A sometime hermit and occasional vagabond who most often kicks off her shoes in Florida, Johnnie cherishes cozy family times and enjoys long road trips. Readers are invited to discover glimpses of grace and timeless truth in her stories. Connect with her at johnnie-alexander.com.

 

Sources

 

Chernow, Ron. Alexander Hamilton. New York: Penguin Press (2004). https://archive.org/details/alexanderhamilto00cher/page/38/mode/2up. (Accessed on June 29, 2025.)

 

Murphy, Brian Phillips. “Alexander Hamilton on the $10 Bill: How He Got There and Why It Matters.” The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/essays/alexander-hamilton-10-bill-how-he-got-there-and-why-it-matters (Accessed on June 30, 2025.)

 

https://blogs.loc.gov/catbird/2017/09/a-look-at-alexander-hamiltons-saucy-religious-sentimental-poetry/

 

https://declaration.fas.harvard.edu/faq/founding-fathers-not-signers

 

https://historythings.com/the-many-written-works-of-alexander-hamilton/

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Hamilton

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Federalist_Papers

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton_(musical)

 

Photos ~ All photos are in public domain except the Hamilton poster which is categorized as “Fair Use." 

"Alexander Hamilton" ~ Portrait by John Trumbull. 

 

"Alexander Hamilton in the Uniform of the New York Artillery" ~ Portrait by Alonzo Chappel.

Portrait of Hamilton authoring the first draft of the U.S. Constitution in 1787.

A 1901 illustration of Aaron Burr fatally wounding Alexander Hamilton in their 1804 duel in Weehawken, New Jersey. 

The Federalist Papers.

An advertisement for the book edition of The Federalist. 

Tiny Island, Big History

By Tiffany Amber Stockton

So, as if my life didn't have enough happening, I decided it was a good idea to sign on with a monthly challenge with a few other authors who are part of my local writer's chapter. Although I've remained consistent with article writing, copywriting and copyediting, it has been a few years since I last had a fiction novel release. This challenge is helping me flex those story muscles and form a daily habit that will lead to me finishing this book that has been sitting on my computer for far too long.

Although the research is already done, today I'm sharing a little background of unique facts about this little island called Chincoteague, just off the Eastern Shore of Virginia and to the east of the Delmarva Peninsula.

CHINCOTEAGUE ISLAND

The history of human activity in Chincoteague, on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, begins with the Native Americans. Settlers from Europe swooped in and overtook the land in the late 17th century, but until then, the Chincoteague Indians used it as a place to gather shellfish. They aren't known to have lived there, though, as the island lacked suitable soil for their agriculture. Marshland doesn't typically grow much of anything except reeds.

Picturesque view of Chincoteague away from the populated
portion of the island (looking toward Assateague)

Once the European settlers inhabited the island, a series of disputes over who would own the island ensued. That led to patents being issued and a final resolution of an even split between two gentleman. With ownership of the island settled, it mostly existed as a place to house livestock, since they could feed off the marsh grasses. No need for fences or other enclosures to prevent the animals from straying either. How far could the animals go when they're on an island surrounded by water? (grins)

This led to the origin of the ponies on Assateague, though legends reported a Spanish shipwreck which left the ponies as cargo to swim to the nearest island. Historians believe the legend of the shipwreck simply became entwined with the history of the ponies until it was accepted as "truth." Funny how history does that from time to time. Makes me wonder just how much of unrecorded history is truly fact or merely embellished truths spoken from generation to generation until the truth and the embellishment can no longer be separated. Have you ever come across details like this?

Anyway, back to Chincoteague.

Stanley Jester (a distant cousin) harvests oysters by hand at low
tide in his oyster bed in the shallows of Chincoteague Bay

For the next hundred years or so, the island remained a place to house livestock for owners living on the mainland of Virginia. Following the Revolutionary War, residents realized the potential of business and industry through the abundance of shellfish in the area. This industry became so big, shipments went as far north as New England to the cities steadily growing there, and as I mentioned last month, my grandfather's family lived here. It was shellfish being provided to the White House under President Woodrow Wilson which led to my great-grandfather's cousin marrying the president while he was in office, leaving me with a family connection to "American royalty."

Throughout these years of shellfish and seafood industry, Chincoteague thrived. In 1876, a rail line completed a stop just 5 miles from the island with a steamship completing the distance. This gave oystermen an efficient means of getting their shellfish to market and began the wave of tourists escaping the city heat in the summer. Tourism hasn't slowed since.

NOW IT'S YOUR TURN:

* If you had an island similar to Chincoteague just a short distance across a narrow channel from where you lived, what would you do with it?

* Are you a fan of shellfish or seafood? What's your favorite?

* What recounting of an event do you know where the real truth has been fused with legend or unrecorded history? How much is true and what is legend?

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 improve their lives in a variety of ways, but especially from the inside out.

Currently, she lives with her husband and fellow author, Stuart Vaughn Stockton, along with their two children, three dogs, and three 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.

Tadeusz Kościuszko, Romantic Hero

by Kit Hawthorne

Readers of historical fiction—and of history—are familiar with the plight of members of European gentry and nobility who have fallen on hard times. We have all read about poor but worthy gentlemen who earn their bread through military service, church work, or educating the children of the upper classes. Any other form of work was considered a degradation for the gently born. Tutors and governesses were in a particularly sad state, isolated both from the laboring staff of the household and from their employers.

Such was the case with Tadeusz Kosciuszko, the youngest son in a noble Polish family, who ultimately fought on the Patriot side in the American Revolutionary War. Kosciuszko’s family was at the lower economic end of the szlachta, a broad class of Polish nobility. In my last month’s post, I wrote about how his education at a military academy prepared him for a distinguished career in the fledgling United States. Under the guidance of the academy’s superintendent, the Oxford-trained Englishman John Lind, Kosciuszko not only learned the art of war, but was exposed to Enlightenment teaching that emphasized democratic ideals and personal freedom.

While the storm of war rose in the American colonies, Poland was experiencing its own political turmoil, which culminated in the nation’s being carved up by the stronger European powers of Russia, Prussia, and Austria. The Polish people, chafing under this humiliation, found common cause with the colonists in their struggle against British Imperialism. They applauded the brave protests of the Sons of Liberty, whose exploits across the Atlantic were written about in Polish press reports.

But there was another pivotal experience of Kosciuszko’s that set him on the road to the New World, and that one concerned his love life.

Engraving by Josef Grassi

In 1774, after finishing his studies in France, Kosciuszko returned home to find that his older brother’s profligacy had nearly bankrupted the family’s estate. According to Gary B. Nash and Graham Russell Gao Hodges, “Kosciuszko’s bleak future seemed to be that of half of Poland’s nearly landless noblemen, who, owning no serfs, plodded into the fields to do the farm labor themselves, often hanging their sword on a tree while plowing and harvesting. As a partitioned Poland fell into a deep slough, only a sense of class superiority based on birth, equestrian skills, and physical bravery remained for such impecunious gentry” (Friends of Liberty: Thomas Jefferson, Tadeusz Kosciuszko, and Agrippa Hull).

Like many an impoverished romantic hero, Kosciuszko took a job as a tutor. His employer was Józef Sylwester Sosnowski, a member of the high-ranking magnate class of Polish-Lithuanian nobility, and the wealthiest man in Poland. Kosciuszko went to work teaching Sosnowski’s daughters…and soon fell in love with one of them.

Portrait by Josef Grassi

Eighteen-year-old Ludwika Sosnowska was no mean scholar herself. While under Kosciuszko’s tutelage, she and her sister made the first ever French-to-Polish translation of La Physiocratie, a comprehensive treatise by Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours on physiocracy, an economic theory that emphasized the role of agricultural production in national prosperity. Ludowika’s father refused Kosciuszko’s request for her hand, telling him that “ringdoves are not for sparrows, and the daughters of magnates are not for the sons of the szlachta.” Undeterred, Kosciuszko and Ludwika planned to elope, but they were found out. Sosnowski had Kosciuszko beaten and driven from his estate under threat of death. Living on borrowed funds, Kosciuszko left Poland in search of a new livelihood.

His travels ultimately led him to the United States, where he enjoyed a brilliant career fighting valiantly on the Patriot side. Later, after the end of the Revolutionary War, he returned to Poland and continued to contend for the cause of liberty in the uprising that bears his name.

Ludwika ultimately married Prince Józef Aleksander Lubomirski, a member of the magnate class, at her father’s behest. In 1788, she used her influence as a Polish princess to try to get Kosciuszko an appointment in the Polish army, but was unsuccessful. (Six years later, he rose to prominence as the leader of Kosciuszko’s Uprising.)

Kosciuszko himself never married. To the end of his days, he carried a lock of Ludwika’s hair and kept it close to his heart.

The Last Visit to Maihaugen

During the 1700s in Norway, large farms could contain thirty buildings. In other parts of Europe, many structures in one space could have been feudal systems which consisted of a baron's property where serfs farmed the land. These Norwegian farms ran similarly but not under serfdom. Proprietors owned the land and had tenants. After reading information on this design, this seems it was a better situation overall. Yet the proprietor in Norway often retained the best land for himself and offered the more challenging locations to his tenants. Portions at high elevations where frost risk was common or low in the valley where the farming was less favorable were the areas inhabited and worked on by tenants.

The prior two posts showed many of the buildings that existed on the Norwegian farm of that era. These structures preserved by Anders Sandvig allow visitors to experience a slice of Norwegian life of the past. Read Maihaugen: Open Air Museum and Maihaugen: Open Air Museum: Inside Out for a recap.

A farm could have consisted of many of these buildings: winter house, summer house, schoolhouse, sheds, stables, barns, threshing structures, other houses, cookhouse, barn for drying grain, smithy, woodshed, mill, and many more. Farms might have had water systems in the dryer areas. Farmers created these tools to bring water to the valleys using soil or wood. They could have been kilometers long to bring water from the mountains to the locations where it was needed.

Guest houses were needed on the farms for craftsmen staying extended periods of time, family, or other visitors. One such structure at Maihaugen is the Lieutenant’s house. It was named such because a lieutenant inhabited the space for a long time. 

This building was used to store food in the cellar. It had a bedroom and living area on the first floor. The upper floor was used to store wool. It was commonly referred to as “The Wool House.”

Venturing out of the farm areas of the Open Air Museum will deliver you past the fishermen’s camp complete with chapel and into the more modern area. The Town is the latest installment. It features multiple buildings representative of the 1900s.

Stores, a post office, and a chemist’s office with  laboratory are a few of the spots that adorn the streets. There are homes that display building techniques and variations of contents from the early 19th century through the 20th century. You can literally walk through the ages.

           

       

          

I would like to leave you with a tour of doors so to speak. I am fascinated by doors in my travels. Perhaps it is the possibility of what could be behind the doors. Then again, maybe it is the fact that so many people have passed through those doors over millennia. 

Whatever the reason for my interest, it should be noted that the doors at Maihaugen are fantastic! I wonder if these individuals invested copious time to create these portals because it was an opportunity to display their artistic talent or even personality. The house floor plans themselves for most of the structures were simple boxes. Not a lot of variety existed in the buildings. While furniture allowed individuality inside, the door held weight as a first impression for any passerby. Take a gander at these beauties. Leave a comment with your favorite. Does your door at home reflect your style?


   

And a gate for good measure...

As a child, Rebecca loved to write. She nurtured this skill as an educator and later as an editor for an online magazine. Rebecca then joined the Cru Ministry - NBS2GO/Neighbor Bible Studies 2GO, at its inception. She serves as the YouVersion Content Creator, with over 90 Plans on the Bible.com app.

Rebecca lives near the mountains with her husband and a rescued dog named Ranger. If it were up to her, she would be traveling - right now. As a member of ACFW and FHLCW, Rebecca learns the craft of fiction while networking with a host of generous writers. She is working on her first fiction novel. This story unfolds from the 1830s in Northern Georgia.

Rebecca and fellow blogger, Cindy Stewart, traveled to Europe on a writing research trip. They met many people and interesting characters during their journey. The photos shared within this post were captured by Rebecca. The troll of course was elusive.

Connect with Rebecca:
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Maihaugen - Open Air Museum: Inside Out

Beauty and wonder exist inside the structures of the Open Air Museum just as they do outside. Peering into the main rooms and lofts of these 190 buildings gives visitors a chance to imagine what everyday life was like for Norwegians in the 1700s and 1800s. More than 50,000 items are catalogued at Maihaugen. They also give a glimpse into how the lives of these individuals unfolded. In the image above the washboard indicates 1864. Washing clothes was a chore, literally and figuratively without our modern conveniences. How do you suppose they used the other implements shown in that photo?

To consider an upper-class family’s home and lifestyle, peek into the main room of the House from Mytting. Up to date with all the latest of the 19th century, the people who lived here enjoyed furniture from urban craftsmen and from their travels. The interior was divided into rooms, which made cleaning easier. Not to mention the outdoor privy which kept the interior tidy as well. 

If you are thinking this furniture and decor looks a bit fancy for a house with grass growing on its roof, your thoughts are in line. The exterior of this dwelling was first built in 1760 but was erected in Sandvig's garden in 1897. The final placement at Maihaugen occurred in 1904. (You can read about the founder of this museum, Sandvig, in the last post.) The furniture collections evolved over those 137 years and do not reflect the original pieces from 1760. Those would be more in line with what you can see in some of the upcoming houses.

The House from Vigstad has a half-loft. It has building dates of 1709, 1813, and 1904. This “Akershus style” features decorative paintings on its doors and cupboards. These motifs came before carvings of later dates. The paintings are true examples of what existed in the later portions of the 18th century. The main area was a workroom for craftsmen who created bentwood boxes that could hold food and small objects.

Before the days of assisted living or nursing homes, the younger generation took over the farms and moved their parents into adjoining structures so they could care for them. If you read Amish stories, you may recall the “Dawdi Haus.” Similarly, in Norway this “Nystua” or New House was built in 1787. It has a room with a bedroom connected to the main house for this purpose.

In 1860 the New Education Act passed, requiring a permanent school in each township if there were enough children. This was the end of the ambulatory school system. This School House was finished in 1863. Notice the teacher’s quarters attached to the school room. This benefit gives a whole new meaning to commuting to work, doesn’t it?

This Winter House was built at the end of the 17th century. It gained new decorations and was moved in 1785. Less people lived on the farm in the winter. Smaller structures were therefore fitting. Children slept in a half loft. There was a drying cupboard fitted with slate shelves between the fireplace and the wall. A stove from 1758 made by Baerum Ironworks sits in the room. Notice the nifty niches to store dishes near the ceiling and the clock attached to the wall.





The last structure for this post is the Per Gynt Loft. It was built around 1620. Yes, you read that correctly, 1620, and it is still standing where it was re-built. As a frame of reference, the Mayflower left England in August of 1620.

The room you see on the ground floor of the loft stored grain. Upstairs the living room with fireplace served as a guest room for any season of the year. Anders wanted to include the character Peer Gynt inspired by a Norwegian Folk Tale, so he named the loft Per Gynt.

Next month is the last visit to Maihaugen. We will look inside the Lieutenant's House, talk about Norwegian farms of the era, and glance at some glorious doors. Which structure boasted your favorite interior from the post above? Were there any tools or implements you recognized and could share their purposes?

As a child, Rebecca loved to write. She nurtured this skill as an educator and later as an editor for an online magazine. Rebecca then joined the Cru Ministry - NBS2GO/Neighbor Bible Studies 2GO, at its inception. She serves as the YouVersion Content Creator, with over 80 Plans on the Bible.com app.

Rebecca lives near the mountains with her husband and a rescued dog named Ranger. If it were up to her, she would be traveling - right now. As a member of ACFW and FHLCW, Rebecca learns the craft of fiction while networking with a host of generous writers. She is working on her first fiction novel. This story unfolds from the 1830s in Northern Georgia.

Rebecca and fellow blogger, Cindy Stewart, traveled to Europe on a writing research trip. They met many people and interesting characters during their journey. Rebecca captured the images shared in this post, except for the troll... he is still at large.

Connect with Rebecca:

Facebook Goodreads Instagram Pinterest Twitter

What Do Fish, Hiding, and Hunting Have to do With it? (Wild West Sayings We Use Today)

Welcome to a fun adventure into word history. The origin stories of words can be mystifying or enlightening, but they are always intriguing. Ready to explore the past in a often surprising way? All aboard for a journey through time. 

Wild West Sayings We Use Today, Part 29

So, what do fish, hiding, and hunting have to do with the Wild West? Read on and discover how they connect to the current crop of Wild West sayings used today. 

 Scad

In the 18th century, fishermen harvested millions of scads, silvery fish with deeply-forked tails, that congregated in schools off the coast of Britain. It’s not difficult to imagine how such abundance might have fostered a metaphor. 

‘Scad’ or 'scads' was used in the Wild West, as today, to describe bountiful quantities of an item. The connection to fish seems plausible but is unproven. The origin of the idiom is unknown.

Historical Reference: 

The first print citation for ‘scad’ gave the word as a slang term for ‘dollar’: "This land of our dads...is a dinger at nailing the scads" (The American Magazine; 1809). This little ditty meant that America provided abundant opportunities to make money. At that time, scads referred to dollars. By the mid-19th century, scad meant large quantities of anything. It was often used with ‘oodles,’ which means the same thing. This gave rise to the emphatic form: ‘scadoodles.’ (Don't you just love that word?) When describing a grandiose amount, I suppose you had to improvise.

Examples:

• We harvested a scad of walnuts.
• We harvested scads of walnuts.
• We harvested scads and scads of walnuts.

Make Yourself Scarce

Going from abundance to our next expression may seem dizzying, but let’s take a look at ‘make yourself (myself, oneself) scarce.’ This expression for abandoning, escaping, or avoiding a difficult situation was first noted in 1771 according to Etymology Online. While I couldn’t verify this, I did come up with a quaint quote dated only ten years later.

Historical Reference 

“He thought he should insure their love, to which he had the best possible title, and by those very means he lost it. Be wise, my friend; take warning; make yourself scarce, if you wish that persons of little understanding should know how to prize you" (Private Letter from renowned poet and hymn writer William Cowper to the Reverend John Newton; 1781).

Example

You might want to make yourself scarce until our neighbor calms down a bit.

Scare Up

This phrase describes finding something with perhaps a little difficulty. “Rustle up’ is another way of saying this. The English Oxford Dictionary defines ‘scare up’ as colloquial, which means that if I tried to slip it into one of my manuscripts, it wouldn't make it past my editor. However, i might get away with couching this term in dialogue for a colorful character. A colloquial phrase, if you haven’t guessed, is more appropriately spoken than written.

Scare up originated as a hunting term in 19th-century America. It meant to frighten game out of cover. The figurative nuance naturally arose from the practical meaning.

Historical Reference

The first printed citation for ‘scare up’ as a hunting term is from 1846: “He is also to send us the rattles of the biggest snake ever scared up in ‘Old Norf Caline’” ("Spirit of the Times," a New York sporting periodical).

The phrase is used as an idiom in “Loyalties,” a 1922 play by John Galsworthy: “I can scare up the money for that.”

Example

I’d better scare up some coffee.

Thanks for joining me again! I hope you enjoyed this month’s selection. Tell me, did you guess any of the phrase origins (or likely origins)? Which of them have you heard or used? See you next month for another word adventure.

What’s New with Janalyn Voigt

Work on The Whispering Wind (Montana Gold, book 6) is progressing. As I mentioned last month, I’ve been dealing with distractions lately. Those haven’t let up, a fact that has pros and cons. On the negative side, distractions can steal both my focus and time. They force me, out of self-defense, to improve my concentration and better manage my time. If you also struggle in this area, I can tell you that prayer works wonders.

Here's my brief author bio:

Janalyn Voigt fell in love with literature at an early age when her father read chapters from classics as bedtime stories. When Janalyn grew older, she put herself to sleep with tales "written" in her head. Today Janalyn is a storyteller who writes in several genres. Romance, mystery, adventure, history, and whimsy appear in all her novels in proportions dictated by their genre. Janalyn Voigt is represented by Wordserve Literary. Learn more and visit the bookstore at http://janalynvoigt.com.

The Promise Tree 

A preacher’s daughter shouldn’t encourage a troublemaker—no matter what her wayward heart desires.

Liberty has always believed she should marry a man of God, but Jake doesn’t qualify. The promises they’d made at age twelve can’t change that. If only Jake would stop pursuing her, she might keep from falling in love with him.

Jake fears he’ll lose Liberty to Beau, the new man in town. He doesn’t trust the smooth-talker—and certainly not with Liberty. Expressing his opinion sounds jealous and pushes Liberty further away. Jake’s efforts to forget the woman he loves lands him in jail for a crime he didn’t commit.

A bounty hunter on the trail of a notorious outlaw gallops into town, and Liberty finds herself in unexpected peril. When Jake rides after her, he faces a test of faith. Jake and Liberty must each overcome their own false beliefs. Only then can they experience the truth of God’s redeeming love.

Set during a troubled time in America, the Montana Treasure series explores faith, courage, and love in the Wild West. Read this heartwarming story to affirm your faith in love.

Fall in Love with The Promise Tree