Biltmore the Estate and Giveaway Christmas Ends November 16th

Welcome back! Debbie Lynne here with more on the Vanderbilts. But today I'm going to be talking about the Biltmore House. I have a GREAT GIVEAWAY! It's getting to be that time of the year when we are starting to turn out thoughts to the holidays. So I'm giving away a copy of A Biltmore Christmas and I'm giving away a beautiful Biltmore Christmas ornament!  Leave a comment (I'd love to hear what you'd put in your dream house) and don't forget your email addy so I can contact you should you win. Happy reading!

By Valerius Tygart - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2826627

I love the Appalachian mountains and I'm not alone. By 1880 passenger trains had come to Asheville, NC, making the town only a day's journey from New York. The quiet mountain town full of fresh air, hot mineral springs, and beauty became the perfect resort for busy city people.

George Vanderbilt visited Asheville in 1888 with his mother and was captivated by the area's beauty. He was hooked and immediately started purchasing land for his estate. When it was all said and done, George had acquired 125,000 acres! As he planned his new endeavor, Vanderbilt modeled his dream on European and English traditions where the country estate showed wealth, significant land ownership, pursuit of physical well-being, and the importance of family and friends.

By 1889 construction had begun! This French Renaissance Chateau was the largest undertaking in residential architecture. With 250 rooms, it nearly took a whole city of skilled craftsman six years to complete this fairy tale castle. 

Together with Richard Morris Hunt (architect) and Frederick Law Olmsted (Landscape designer), George Vanderbilt brought his vision to fruition. The three men worked closely together, building a strong friendship, focusing on the same goal—making a unique American country estate.

By JcPollock - Self-published work by JcPollock, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1220643

December 24th, 1895 the house George Vanderbilt has poured himself into is opened to friends and family, full of beautiful decorations and holiday festivities. The home consists of 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, and 65 fireplaces. It sports a very masculine Billard Room giving men a place to retreat. Doors concealed in the fireplace lead to a smoking room and a gun room, which are just a few of the marvelous rooms adorning the Biltmore Estate. 

It would take me another six posts to touch on all the rooms that Vanderbilt saw fit to build, but I'll mention a few that I found interesting. There is a 72 x 42 foot Banquet Hall with 70 foot high ceiling arches, a breakfast room, a music room, a 90 foot long Gallery, a library containing over 23,000 books, a gymnasium, a trophy room, indoor swimming pool, and the last room I'll mention but certainly not the least is the bowling alley. 

By Kristiebracag - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52286518

In 1889 Biltmore Village was purchased by Vanderbilt, formally the town of Best. Already consisting of a railway station, two small inns, a grist mill, and a few houses, Vanderbilt added cottages, shops, a school, post office, Church, laundry, hospital and the Biltmore Office Building. 

I hope you've enjoyed learning a little more about the history of the Biltmore Estates. I didn't even touch on the landscaping, so if you want to learn more you can go to www.biltmore.com. All pictures used are from the Biltmore website. 

If you'd like to have Biltmore wallpaper on your computer go to their photo gallery and they give you free downloads! 

Don't forget to leave a comment and let me know what would be your dream room or feature in a house along with your email addy to be entered to win A Christmas at Biltmore and a beautiful Biltmore Christmas ornament. For an extra entry drop by http://seriouslywrite.blogspot.com/2013/11/embracing-rejection-what-you-can-learn.html (this link won't work until the 16th) on November 16th and leave a comment and then come back here and let me know you stopped by to see me on Seriously Write and I'll give you a second entry to win.


Debbie Lynne Costello is represented by Tamela Hancock Murray of the Steve Laube Agency. She attended Heritage University, where she studied Journalism and worked in the editing department. She has completed five full length novels set in the Charleston, SC and Savannah, GA area in the late 19th century and is now seeking homes for them.

She and her husband have four children. They live in upstate South Carolina with their family. In her spare time, she sews, paints, knits, camps (in a fifth wheel) and plays with the grandbabies.
WEBSITE: www.debbielynnecostello.com BLOG:  www.theswordandspirit.blogspot.com BLOG: www.fictionaddictionfix.blogspot.com 

Tecumseh: Panther Across the Sky ~ by Ramona K. Cecil

Tecumseh

While researching my book Heart’s Heritage, one of the more interesting historical figures I encountered was the Shawnee war chief, Tecumseh. Born in 1768 near present day Chillicothe, Ohio, Tecumseh rose to fame as a prominent leader among the Native American tribes of the old Northwest Territory.

 

In the Shawnee language the name Tecumseh means either “Shooting Star,” or “Panther Across the Sky.” The second definition seems more likely as his father belonged to the Panther clan of his tribe.

 

Living up to his name, Tecumseh spent his life in a fierce campaign to repel the migration of white settlers into the western lands. When Tecumseh was still a boy, his father was killed by white frontiersmen who entered Shawnee lands in violation of a treaty. This seminal event may well have triggered Tecumseh’s determination to drive the white man back to the eastern seaboard.

 

At the age of fifteen, Tecumseh joined a group of Shawnee that regularly attacked flatboats carrying white settlers down the Ohio River from Pennsylvania.

 



Battle of Fallen Timbers

During the American Revolutionary War, the Shawnee allied with the British to fight the American settlers. At the end of the war, Tecumseh continued to battle the Americans, joining the Wabash Confederacy, a group Native American tribes of the Northwest Territories that banded together in an effort to push back the ever encroaching white settlers. Tecumseh took part in many battles including the Battle of Fallen Timbers against General “Mad” Anthony Wayne in which, Wayne prevailed.
 

 

The Prophet

Tecumseh’s younger brother, known as the Prophet, had turned from a life of alcoholism in his younger years to become a religious leader among the Shawnee, predicting destruction of the white European race. Acclaimed by both friend and foe as an inspiring orator, Tecumseh eloquently preached against appeasement of the whites. Both brothers were bitter that other Native American chiefs had signed treaties that sold large chunks of the Northwest Territory to the whites. In an 1811 speech, Tecumseh lamented; “Where today are the Pequot? Where are the Narragansett, the Mochican, the Pocanet, and other powerful tribes of our people? They have vanished before the avarice and oppression of the white man ... Sleep not longer, O Choctaws and Chickasaws ... Will not the bones of our dead be plowed up, and their graves turned into plowed fields?”  

 

But unlike Tecumseh and his brother, not all leaders of the Ohio tribes saw violence as the best way to deal with the settlers. Shawnee chief Blackhoof, worked to maintain peaceful relations with the whites. So when Tecumseh and the Prophet’s warlike rhetoric began causing tension between the Indians and the settlers, Blackhoof insisted that the brothers leave Ohio. Tecumseh and the Prophet moved west to Indiana Territory near present day Lafayette, Indiana, and established a Shawnee village they called Prophetstown, now an Indiana state park and historical site.

 

Tecumseh's meeting with Harrison

In 1810, Tecumseh had a contentious meeting with Indiana Territory governor, William Henry Harrison and demanded that Harrison rescind earlier land purchase treaties. Harrison flatly rejected Tecumseh’s demand, enraging Tecumseh. Violence between Harrison’s men and Tecumseh’s braves was narrowly averted when a chief of the Potawatomi tribe urged the warriors to leave in peace.

 

1811 Comet

The peace was short-lived as Tecumseh traveled south down the present day states of Indiana and Kentucky, recruiting Native American tribes to join him in warring with the white settlers. In 1811 two natural events occurred, helping Tecumseh in this endeavor. In March of that year, a comet streaked across the sky. Since his name meant “Shooting Star,” Tecumseh as well as Indians of various tribes took the sign to mean that the Great Spirit had indeed sent the Shawnee chief to unite the tribes against the settlers. Then in December of that same year the New Madrid earthquake shook the entire Midwest, convincing the tribes that the Great Spirit wished for them to support Tecumseh and the Prophet.


New Madrid Earthquake

 

 

While Tecumseh was down state recruiting allies, United States forces led by William Henry Harrison attacked and destroyed Prophetstown, burning it to the ground. This event came to be

Battle of Tippecanoe

known as the Battle of Tippecanoe. After that defeat, the Prophet is said to have placed a curse on Harrison who, years later, died a month after winning the 1840 election for President of the United States. For the next hundred and twenty years, every president elected in a year ending in zero died in office. This month Americans will observe the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, elected in 1960. This phenomenon, which has been called the “Zero Curse,” was finally broken when President Regan, elected in 1980, survived an assassination attempt.

 

When the War of 1812 broke out, Tecumseh again allied with the British, who paid five dollars for each white American man’s scalp and three dollars for the scalp of a woman or child. Tecumseh’s campaign became a bloody part of the larger war.

 



Battle of the Thames

Tecumseh finally met his own demise in 1813 at the Battle of the Thames, which took place between British and American forces in Upper Canada.

 

Though a fierce and arguably blood-thirsty warrior, Tecumseh’s passion to hold onto his ancestral lands and the Shawnee way of life can’t help but evoke a measure of respect. His eloquent words regarding life and death still echo a noble challenge down through the years; “When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose lives are filled with the fear of death, so that when the time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.”



Leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of Great Plains Brides, a compilation of Ramona K. Cecil's book A Bride's Sweet Surprise in Sauers, Indiana and Erica Vetsch's book A Bride's Portrait of Dodge City, Kansas.








Ramona Cecil is a poet and award-winning author of historical fiction for the Christian market. A proud Hoosier, she often sets her stories is her home state of Indiana.





Check out her newest release at www.ramonakcecil.com            
 

MAIL-ORDER BRIDES AND GROOMS IN THE 1800S - Lena Nelson Dooley

I've always been fascinated by the concept. And actually, my Summerside Press novel Love Finds You in Golden, Colorado, is a mail-order bride book.

One of my favorite resources for this is the book Hearts West by Chris Enss.

Would you be tempted to answer an ad that says:

"Wanted: A girl who will love, honest, true not sour; a nice little cooing dove and willing to work in flour:"

"A gentleman of 26 years old, 5 feet 3 inches, doing a good business in the city, desires the acquaintance of a young intelligent and refined lady possessed of some means, of a loving disposition from 18 to 23, and one who could make home a paradise."

"An intelligent young fellow of 22 years, 6 feet height, weight 170 pounds Would like to correspond with a lady from 18 to 22. Will exchange photos: object, fun and amusement, and perhaps when acquainted, if suitable, matrimony."

"A lively widower of 40, looking much younger, 5 feet 7 inches high, weighing 145 pounds would like to correspond with some maiden or widow ladyof honor who would like a good home, kind husband and plenty."

I'm not sure I would. Actually, wondering what would make a woman answer one of these ads is the catalyst to the birth of my Golden, New Mexico, novel.

Of course not all the ads were for men trying to find wives. Some were women trying for husbands. Here's one of those ads:

"A lady, 23, tall, fair and good looking, without means, would like to hear from a gentleman of position wanting a wife. She is well educated, accomplished, amiable, and affectionate."

When gold was discovered in California, an influx of men stampeded to find their riches. Unfortunately, not many women accompanied them.

San Francisco even had a newspaper titled Matrimonial News, dedicated to promoting "honorable matrimonial engagements and true conjugal facilities" for these men who came west.

An editorial in Alta California another newspaper said, "We want an emigration of respectable females to California; of rosy-cheeked 'down east' Yankee girls--of stout 'hoosier' and 'badger' lasses, who shall be wives to our farmers and mechanics, and mothers to a generation of 'Yankee Californians.' "

Here's another advertisement:

"Lonesome miner wants a wife to share stake and prospects. Please respone to . . ." and the name and post office followed.

In the 1860s, Asa Mercer went to the "Atlantic states" to bring boatloads of women to the Pacific Northwest.

Some of the women who came were sadly disappointed, but many found a good life in the west. They became the matriarchs of strong families who built the country, leaving a legacy of adventure, strength, and often a strong faith.

On another note, I'd love for you to come over to my Fan page on Facebook and become a fan.

http://www.new.facebook.com/pages/Lena-Nelson-Dooley/42960748768?ref=ts

If you would have been single in that time period, do you think you would have considered answering one of those ads?

My beautiful San Luis Valley

Hi, again. This is Louise M. Gouge, and I'm here to tell you about one of my favorite places in the world.

Starting a new book series can be very exciting for a writer. I’m especially happy to be writing my next series because it takes place in a beautiful part of the United States where I haven’t lived for almost thirty-four years: the San Luis Valley of Colorado. I’d been wanting to set a book series there for a long time, and now I finally have a chance to do so. San Luis Valley Brides will be published by Harlequin's Love Inspired Historical line beginning in June 2014. Of course, I have to make these stories westerns, a genre I’ve always wanted to write. But what’s so special about this high mountain valley that sprawls across central-southern Colorado between the Sangre de Cristo and San Juan Mountain ranges? 

First and most obvious is the spectacular beauty of the landscape. Presided over by queenly Mount Blanca, which reaches a majestic 14,345 feet high, the Valley has an area of 8000 square miles. According to Wikipedia, “Blanca Peak is the fourth highest peak in Colorado, and the eighth highest peak in the contiguous United States.” Travelers across this wide, flat valley never have to feel lost in the SLV as long as Blanca is in sight.

Isn't this a gorgeous scene? This distant mountain is part of the San Juan range on the west side of the Valley. Have you ever seen a bluer sky?

Another important landmark is the famous Rio Grande Del Norte, or as most of us know it, the Rio Grande, whose headwaters flow from the San Juan Mountains on the western side of the Valley. From there, the water takes an eastern, then southern path, winding down to New Mexico and finally Texas, where it forms a natural border between the United States and Mexico.

No one who's traveled to the San Luis Valley can forget the Great Sand Dunes National Monument. These sand dunes have been formed by winds sweeping across the Valley for millenia. They're a great place to explore.

Another reason I love the San Luis Valley is its rich history. Before the coming of Europeans in the 1600s, Native Americans used this area for hunting but didn’t make permanent settlements due to the extremely cold winter weather. When my family moved to the SLV in 1960, we could still find arrow heads left by those long-ago hunters.

After the arrival of Spanish settlers, Ute tribes settled in the southwest corner of the Valley. For a time, Mexico owned what later became Colorado Territory, but the land became the property of the United States with the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. People of Spanish and Mexican descent were forced from the land granted to them by the Spanish crown, and Americans began to move to the Valley….slowly. Then, after the Civil War, easterners moved to this area, lured by promises of rich farmland and mineral wealth in the form of gold and silver. Any time you have the conflicts inherent in these situations, the history is ripe for plucking as settings for exciting western adventures. These two pictures show the interior of Fort Garland, where the United States Cavalry kept law and order in the area.

My third reason for wanting to set my stories in the San Luis Valley is my own personal connection to the place. As mentioned before, my family moved to Alamosa, the Valley’s largest town, in 1960, where I graduated from high school and attended Adams State College (shown at right). Later my husband and I settled there and had our four children. During all of that time, I loved the history that permeated every square foot of the area. Old buildings, leftover sections of railroad tracks, early architecture, legends and lore, the bluest sky you’ll ever see any place in the United States, even the below-zero degree winter weather all call out to me to tell their stories.

So as I leave Regency England behind and begin this new adventure of writing westerns, I’ll invoke memories of the John Wayne movies I grew up watching with my father. I hope my readers will be as happy to make the journey with me as I am to embark on it.

This will be my last post for a while. In previous posts, I have enjoyed telling you a little bit about the various ethnic groups that make up my ancestry, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about the Irish, Scottish, Welsh, English, Norwegian, and Dutch people who left their mark on my DNA.

Except for the book cover, every picture on this page was taken by my husband, my friend Pam Williams, or me. We own the copyrights and can prove it. I hope you enjoyed this visit to a beautiful part of the United States of America.

I would like to give away a copy of my final Regency novel, A Lady of Quality, to someone who leaves a comments about your favorite location for novels. This giveaway is for U. S. and Canadian residents only, and it is the responsibility of the winner to know the laws and rules regarding free giveaways where you live.

Louise M. Gouge writes 19^th romances for Harlequin’s Love Inspired Historical line. Her most recent release (July 2013) is A Lady of Quality, a Regency romance. She has now turned her attention to writing western romances set in her old, cold, and much-beloved home state of Colorado. Louise also has the following books available for Kindle and Nook: Escape from Kikwit! Ahab's Bride, Hannah Rose, Son of Perdition, Then Came Faith, Then Came Hope

 

CHRISTMAS IN THE 1800s By Cynthia Hickey

Christmas traditions have been around since almost forever, but it wasn't until the 1800s that celebrations began to resemble how we celebrate today. Since most of my historicals take place in the 19th Century, I'd thought I'd share some of the traditions of that era.

Preparations often started early. Mothers started the mince meat for pies three months in advance in order for it to mature. Younger family members strung traditional red and green around the house. Green for the continuance of Jesus's life, and red for the blood shed at His Crucifixion.

In the 1840s, the sending and receiving of Christmas cards became something to look forward to. A week before Christmas, the family searched for the perfect Christmas tree, often a fir and dragged it home to decorate.

The Christmas tree first gained popularity in British and American society thanks to the husband of Queen Victoria, the German-born Prince Albert. He installed a decorated Christmas tree at Windsor Castle in 1841, and woodcuts of the Royal Family’s tree appeared in London magazines in 1848. Such illustrations, published in America a year later, created the fashionable impression of the Christmas tree in upper class homes.

The night before Christmas was normally spent at church. When the family arrived home, the children hung stockings in hope Father Christmas would leave a treat. In return, they left Mom's mince meant pie which she had prepared weeks ago.

The Civil War brought about the biggest change in how Christmas was celebrated. As with slavery, the North and the South were divided on the issue of Christmas. Many Northerners saw sin in the celebration of Christmas, choosing to put most of their emphasis on Thanksgiving. But the South embraced Christmas as an important part of the social season. The first three states to make Christmas a legal holiday were Alabama in 1836, Louisiana and Arkansas in 1838.

After the War, traditions spread like wild fire. Children's books played an important role in spreading the customs, especially of trimming trees and gifts delivered by Santa Claus. Sunday school classes encouraged the celebration. Women's magazine suggested ways to decorate.

By the last quarter of the nineteenth century, Americans decorated with abandon, caroled, baked, and shopped. Since then materialism has rocketed. The traditions we celebrate today came from these earlier times.

In the anthology, A Pioneer Christmas, my story, A Christmas Castle, takes the reader back to a simpler Christmas. Here is a photo of what their home might have looked like.

For your chance to win a copy of A Pioneer Christmas, an anthology with nine best-selling and award-winning authors, tell us of one of your favorite holiday traditions. One that my family started over twenty years ago is hanging a stocking for Jesus in the center of ours. Before we can dig into our stocking, we have to put something in His. Something only we can give Him. These are kept secret between us and the true reason we celebrate the Holiday.

Myths of Colonial Quilting by Carla Olson Gade

There are myths that have been perpetuated about quilting in early America that kindle our fascination for the past. Yet historians have discovered that quilting in colonial times is not what we might imagine.
When I researched quilts for my Quilts of Love series novel, Pattern for Romance, which takes place in 18th century Boston, Massachusetts my preconceived thoughts of quilts and quilting we altered forever.

A quilt is not a quilt — A “quilt” in colonial times was the terminology for a garment as well as a bed covering. When a woman put on her quilt it referred to her quilted petticoat. This petticoat was often ornately designed and worn as an outer skirt to show off the patterns stitched into the fabric. Under-petticoats were also worn, but a quilted petticoat was a beautiful garment meant to be shown off. Other garments were also quilted such as banyon robes, gowns, caps, waistcoats, and children’s garments.

Piecing a quilt — A bed quilt was not pieced together with scraps of fabric. Piecework quilts were not made popular until the early 19th centuries after the trade embargoes were lifted, although by the late 18th century some quilts were embellished with cut pieces of chintz and appliqued to the bed quilt. In colonial days, whole pieces of cloth were quilted together with batting in between the top and bottom layers, thus the whole-cloth quilt. The quilting on these bed coverings were stitched with elaborate designs and highly valued.

Time to quilt — Quilting was not a daily activity during the colonial era, except for someone who was a quilter by trade…and paid little for it. Quilting was enjoyed by women of leisure and higher social standing, but most women in colonial America could not afford to spend their time on such a task with spinning, weaving, cooking, farming to do. On occasion women would get together to quilt as a group activity as many hands make light work, but it was an uncommon event. This gathering was called a party or a quilting and the men would join them in the evening for food and dancing. The term “quilting bee” was not used until about 1825.

An American invention — We often think of quilting as being as American as Apple Pie and Baseball. Although quilting has been an American pastime for centuries, it did not originate in America as a thrifty necessity. As we know, America was created of peoples from many countries, people who already had quilting traditions and unique patterns. Whole-cloth and piece-work quilting can be traced to Egyptian times, but the whole-cloth quilting was done for centuries before the first pilgrims came to our country. Knights of the middle ages even wore quilted garments beneath their armor. In Marseilles, France during the mid-18th century, machine stitching of whole-cloth quilted fabric was invented and imported, yet it was not commonly available in America during the periods of trade embargoes, thus the need for colonial women to quilt their own garments and coverings when needed.

Carla Olson Gade has been imagining stories most her life. Her love for writing and eras gone by turned her attention to writing historical Christian romance. She is the author of “Season of Love” in Mistletoe Memories (Barbour/2013) and Pattern for Romance in the Quilts of Love series (Abingdon/2013). A native New Englander, she writes from her home in beautiful rural Maine where she resides with her family. You can connect with Carla on her blog Adventures of the Heart at www.carlaolsongade.com.


 Christina Rich is giving away a 10.00 Amazon gift certificate to one commenter. Winner will be announced Saturday, November 9, 2013.

Scotland Yard: A Brief History

by Kathleen Y'Barbo

As a writer of historical novels, I find myself drifting recently toward heroes who are lawmen. From Old West sheriffs to turn-of-the-century Pinkerton agents, my guys put men behind bars and protect their women with skillful shooting and the adept mind of a crime fighter.

Then came my novel Sadie's Secret, which releases in February 2014. When faced with an 1890s lady Pinkerton who needed a suitable match from the other side of the Atlantic, I decided a proper Englishman with Scotland Yard credentials would fit the bill. Thus began a search for the identity of a certain London detective, and with it came the most fascinating peek into the history of Scotland Yard.

4 Whitehall Place

Scotland Yard is a more recent name for an institution that was created by Sir Robert Peel, Home Secretary in 1829. An interesting aside is that not only did Sir Robert give rise to this new London police force, but he also gave them the nickname that endures to this day: bobbies. The first plainclothes detectives were utilized in the 1840s, reportedly making the public uncomfortable that there were now police"spies" in their midst.

Sir Robert Peel

Commonly known as The Met, the Metropolitan Police force grew so large that by the 1880s the organization's offices expanded beyond its location at 4 Whitehall Place, a private residence with a courtyard that opened onto a courtyard called The Great Scotland Yard. Beginning in 1887, new headquarters were built at Victoria Embankment overlooking the Thames. During the construction of the new building, workers unearthed the dismembered torso of a woman. Known as the Whitehall mystery, the case was never solved.

Over the years, Scotland Yard detectives have investigated many high profile cases, including the murders of the elusive Jack the Ripper, a case that was finally closed unsolved in 1892. The force endures today, its ranks having swelled to an impressive 30,000 officers. Its history lives on in fictional tales such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series, and in film and television. However, behind the fiction is a group of dedicated men and women who will no doubt create their own legends someday.

__________________________

Bestselling author Kathleen Y’Barbo is a multiple Carol Award and RITA nominee of fifty novels with almost two million copies of her books in print in the US and abroad. A tenth-generation Texan and family law paralegal, she is nominated for a Career Achievement Award as well a Reader’s Choice Award by Romantic Times magazine. Her newest release, Millie’s Treasure, was awarded 4 ½ stars and is an August 2013 Romantic Times Top Pick. Find out more about Kathleen and her books or follow her on social media at www.kathleenybarbo.com.