Women Homesteaders: Polly Mulhollin by Izzy James

 Land ownership has fed the imagination of many a heart. When tamed, acreage provides a means to live and thrive. Left untamed it feeds dreams. 

commons.wikimedia.org

Women have never been immune to the siren song of adventure. In the course of my research I have come across the stories of many of them. No matter what timeframe you read about you will find women breaking the molds we have been taught to believe. From land grants of the colonial times to the more modern Homestead Act, women actively pursued dreams of land ownership. Sometimes they were alone, often they came with brothers, other family members, and even friends.

Rebecca Boone  https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/journalpatriot.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/c/34/c34dfc8c-050c-5f82-8776-7a9db3dfbc2a/63b46a531630f.image.jpg

Land in colonial Virginia was doled out by the Crown through men like Lord Fairfax or the Royal Governor. Parcels of land were granted to pilgrims willing to create farms and pay the quitrent. A quitrent was similar to a tax on the land that was due yearly. 

Sir William Gooch, Governor of Virginia 1727-1749

https://www.pinterest.se/pin/225039312603056136/

A story is told of a young Irish indentured servant who came to the Virginia colony in the 1740s. After meeting the conditions of her contract she blazed out on her own into the wilderness of the Shenandoah Valley. Her understanding was that if she placed a cabin on a piece of land the one hundred acres surrounding it would be hers in a “cabin claim”. 

https://www.britannica.com/place/Appalachian-National-Scenic-Trail

Polly Mulhollin did this thirty times. 

When the heir of Benjamin Borden, Sr. came to provide deeds to his father’s settlers he reportedly found Miss Mulhollin and her cabins. History is silent as to whether he honored her claims with deeds or not. What is reported is that she married and her descendants still live near the Wilderness Road. 

I discovered Polly’s story when researching for my Wilderness Road series. Polly’s example is inspirational to Beti, who is venturing out for a future in Kentucky.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CS4GPDQY/

About The Road Home: The Wilderness Road Book 1

A Cinderella story about a pirate's daughter on the Wilderness Road to Kentucky.

Beti Boatman, pirate's daughter, long dreamed of traveling to a place where no one knew her name. When looters showed up on the day she buried her father her choice was made. Leave her home or allow the only two people in the world she loves to live in constant danger.

When Zeke and what's left of his regiment organized a wagon train west, they did not expect to encounter a woman traveling alone. Beti insists she doesn't need his help, but Zeke knows better and the strong need to protect her runs deep. Things get complicated when looters track Beti down. And emissaries from her mother’s country claim Beti is a real princess. Now Beti must choose: the hardships in Kentucky or a throne.

Izzy James lives in the traces of history in coastal Virginia with her fabulous husband in a house brimming with books. Born with a traveling bone and an itch to knit. Izzy travels to every location where her books take place, from Williamsburg to Wyoming, popping in yarn stores along the way.

Connect with Izzy through her website at izzyjamesauthor.com and sign up for her monthly newsletter.

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Website: https://izzyjamesauthor.com

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Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/9815799.Izzy_James

Resources: The Wilderness Road, Robert L. Kincaid, Bobbs-Merrill Company Publishers, Copyright 1947; Kessinger's Legacy Reprints Edition

World-Famous Tumor Surgery by Dr. Ephraim McDowell

    By Tiffany Amber Stockton

In September, I shared the next to last group of state origins. Only one more post to go on those. You can read last month's post if you missed it.

Today, we're looking at a world-famous surgery performed by an amazing physician who married the daughter of the first governor of Kentucky.

EPHRAIM McDOWELL, PIONEER SURGEON

I recently had the good fortune of visiting the McDowell House in Danville, Kentucky. Bonus fact. It's also the site and town where the Kentucky Constitution was decided and signed to make Kentucky a state...the first on the western side of the Appalachians.

While waiting for our tour of the house, we stepped inside five log buildings that had been carefully maintained and restored to resemble their original condition. There was a post office, a meeting house, a jail, a courthouse, and the first apartments for the territory. Between 1784 and 1792, 10 constitutional conventions took place at the courthouse of Constitution Square. The jail had a fascinating story about a pair of brothers who had been apprehended on charges of robbery and fraud, escaped the jail, but then were found again. There was also the first bar, but that was a white clapboard building that's now a working restaurant on site.

These buildings represent the early beginnings of a state with a rich history and countless ties to the westward expansion of the United States. Those who explored this area were true pioneers, fighting through the dense forests and establishing friendly relations with the Native Americans they encountered.

In the early days of this young nation, this rugged landscape was mostly wild and untamed, and doctors didn't always have a place to call home. Instead, they traveled sometimes more than 100 miles to attend to those who needed their care. Dr. Ephraim McDowell was one such doctor, although he was also known across a large territory as a highly skilled surgeon as well. When we finally had the opportunity to begin our tour, we were led through the outdoor gardens that have remained the herb and root gardens they were when Dr. McDowell lived there. How convenient it must have been to simply step outside and retrieve the necessary vegetables for cooking or herbs for healing. It's amazing to think of those same herbs still being used today in the healing process. My favorite part was probably the apothecary shop with its wide array of tinctures, blends, and healing items.

Dr. McDowell's knowledge was likely why he was called to attend to Mrs. Jane Crawford when she realized something wasn't right about what she had thought was a twin pregnancy. However, when intense pain occurred almost incessantly, she and others knew they needed a doctor to examine her. Dr. McDowell arrived and discovered Mrs. Crawford wasn't pregnant, but had an ovarian tumor. He offered to perform the surgery to remove the tumor, but he was honest in telling her the chances of survival with or without the surgery were slim. Either the tumor would kill her, or the surgery would. It was her choice.

The doctor left, and a few days later, Mrs. Crawford followed, making the 60-mile journey on horseback with the tumor still intact. She agreed to the surgery—one that had never been done anywhere in the world at the time. On Christmas morning of 1809, Dr. McDowell performed the surgical extraction of a 22-1/2 pound tumor without the benefit of anesthetic, which wasn't known in the medical profession at the time. Everyone attending to Jane simply tied her down and did their best to keep her immobilized. Jane sang hymns and recited Bible verses to distract herself from the pain.

The surgery was a success, and Jane went on to live another thirty-two years, even outliving Dr. McDowell, who had died 11 years earlier. Another fascinating fact is learning Jane was up and moving three days following the surgery. When the doctor asked her what she was doing, she told him she was making her bed, and she had work to do. :) Tough woman!

Countless other stories were told of the McDowell family, including their involvement with politics, lawmaking, and notable influence for the state of Kentucky. There's even a bronze statue of Dr. McDowell in Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C. My mind is already buzzing with ways to incorporate this story into one of my books.

And that's all for today.

NOW IT'S YOUR TURN:

* Which choice would *you* have made? 

* Have you or anyone you know received an exploratory surgery that hadn't been performed many times? What was it? What was the result?

* How does knowledge of this surgery make you grateful for modern medicine?

** 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.

Leave answers to these questions or any comments you might have on this post in the comment box below. For those of you who have stuck around this far, I'm sending a FREE autographed book to one person every month from the comments left on each of my blog posts. You never know when your comment will be a winner! Subscribe to comments so you'll know if you've won and need to get me your mailing information.

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

For those interested in my "fictional" life as an author and industry news about other authors, subscribe to my quarterly newsletter. Receive a FREE omitted chapter from my book, A Grand Design, just for subscribing!

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BIO

Tiffany Amber Stockton has been crafting and embellishing stories since childhood, when she was accused of having a very active imagination and cited with talking entirely too much. Today, she has honed those skills to become an award-winning, best-selling author and speaker who is also 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.

She lives with her husband and fellow author, Stuart Vaughn Stockton, along with their two children and four cats in southeastern Kentucky. In the 20 years she's been a professional writer, she has sold twenty-six (26) books so far and is represented by Tamela Murray of the Steve Laube Agency. You can find her on Facebook and GoodReads.

George Rogers Clark Doubles U.S. Territory + HUGE Giveaway

 By Tiffany Amber Stockton

Last month, we delved into the history and development of Bluegrass music and the inspirations behind it stemming from the ballads of Scotland and Ireland. If you missed last month's post, you can read it here.

Today, it's back to some names of individuals who contributed greatly to the expansion into the Frontier west of the Appalachians.

AMERICAN FRONTIER PIONEER

When stories from the Revolutionary War are told, towns like Lexington and Concord or events like Crossing the Delaware and winter at Valley Forge are brandished everywhere. How often do you hear about the American Frontier, though? Sure, Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett are the names of many bigger-than-life folk tales, but what about the heroes who are often overlooked?

Although Daniel Boone made great strides toward opening up the frontier on the other side of the Appalachian Mountains by leading hundreds through the Cumberland Gap, he didn't succeed alone. Many other frontiersman with equally expansive visions played vital roles, and George Rogers Clark was one of them.

Born to wealthy landowners in Virginia, he spent most of his early years right on the westernmost border of what outlined the United States at the time. He was a red-headed giant (I like him already! *winks*) and commanded quite a presence with his confidence and knowledge, but he was also adept at persuasion. When the Revolutionary War began, he convinced Virginia to declare Kentucky a county of Virginia in order to secure supplies, then convinced Patrick Henry to send him and a small army to capture British outposts along the Ohio River.

There was a ruling from England that settlers could not expand west across the mountains, but colonists didn't exactly like those restrictions, so the adventurous pioneers moved out there anyway. In retaliation, the British engaged Native Americans to attack any settlements, leaving most settlers unprotected. That's where Clark stepped in to gain support.

His efforts led to the overtaking of multiple forts along the Ohio River (often with no exchange of gunfire) as well as negotiations with several Indian tribes, convincing them to stop fighting for the British. By the end of the War, Clark had amassed a substantial amount of land for the United States through mostly peaceful engagements, nearly doubling its existing territory. The area he secured through his military leadership would become present-day Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky, with Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota also included.

Unfortunately, as the highest ranking officer leading those campaigns, he often had to personally sign for supplies. When he appealed to the state of Virginia to cover the costs, no one wanted to take responsibility for those wartime debts. He died penniless in 1818. Only his heirs were able to finally receive a settlement from the government four years later.

Even though his accomplishments were discounted during his lifetime, the role Clark played in America's westward expansion is definitely recognized today.

Fun Fact: In 1783 Thomas Jefferson asked Clark if he would lead an expedition to explore the western part of the continent. Although Clark decided against the invitation, he later brought his youngest brother William to Jefferson’s attention. That's right. William Clark, the man who partnered with Meriwether Lewis to explore the Louisiana Purchase lands. :)

NOW IT'S YOUR TURN:

* What was your favorite part about today's post?

* If you live in any of the current states from the Northwest Territory, are you aware of any monuments, statues, plaques, etc. that honor George Rogers Clark?

* Who is a lesser-known hero in *your* area that might deserve bigger notice than the history books have granted?

Leave answers to these questions or any comments you might have on this post in the comment box below. For those of you who have stuck around this far, I have started a new pattern of sending a FREE autographed book to one person each and every month from the comments left on this blog. You never know when your comment will be a winner! Be sure to come back to this post to see if you've won.

Return to this blog every day for fascinating historical influences, but for my next contribution, visit on the 9th of September to learn about Stephen Bishop, the slave who explored Mammoth Cave and helped turn it into a tourist attraction!

For those interested in my "fictional" life as an author and industry news about other authors, subscribe to my quarterly newsletter. Receive a FREE omitted chapter from my book, A Grand Design, just for subscribing!

To celebrate reaching 3 Million views, HHH is hosting a HUGE giveaway of over 60 books in 18 prizes, so there are many chances to win! One grand prize will consist of 10 books, two readers will win a second prize containing 5 books, and there will be 15 winners of a third prize containing 2 books each. There are several ways to earn entries, such as following or commenting on the HHH blog each day. You can also enter with your email address at Rafflecopter using the link below. Thank you for being part of the HHH community, and best wishes in the giveaway!

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/ce16d9c612/

Here are the 5 titles I donated to the giveaway:

Tiffany Amber Stockton has been crafting and embellishing stories since childhood, when she was accused of having a very active imagination and cited with talking entirely too much. Today, she has honed those skills to become an award-winning, best-selling author and speaker who is also an advocate for literacy as an educational consultant with Usborne Books. She loves to share life-changing products and ideas with others to help improve their lives in a variety of ways.

She lives with her husband and fellow author, Stuart Vaughn Stockton, along with their two children, two dogs, and two cats in Kentucky. In the 20 years she's been a professional writer, she has sold twenty-six (26) books so far and is represented by Tamela Murray of the Steve Laube Agency. You can find her on Facebook and GoodReads.