In February of 1895, Charleston experienced the coldest winter ever on record up to that date. It reached a low of twelve degrees Fahrenheit. Entire crops of strawberries, cabbage, lettuce, and peas were destroyed both within the city and across the state. The cold weather decimated both the city's food supply and its ability to export food products. While the account of the cold spell focuses on...
On January 23, 1890, a small county newspaper printed in Lexington, Virginia published an article discussing the corruption of the election process with the memory of the prior year's November election fresh in the mind. The writer of the article was disgusted with the corruption of the election process, and was fed up with the continuing corruption. The congressional seats of important mining areas...
In May of 1816, Henry Banks put up his estate for sale. Banks had incurred debt to a man named Neil McCaul, and he needed the profit from this sale to settle up with him. The land for sale was property on both sides of the canal, just a mile or so south of Richmond, Virginia. Banks put an ad in a local Richmond paper, the Virginia Argus, to inform his neighbors of the sale. He did not, however, include...
On May 7, 1840, Sam Forwood, in Clark County, Alabama, wrote to his son William on the health of his family. Numerous family letters focused on health. In this correspondence, the first paragraph tended to discuss the health of all members of the family and the history of any sicknesses since the last letter. The Forwood family was generally in sufficient health, despite a fever here and there. However,...
Pride was the driving force of Augusta County, Virginia- pride and patriotism not only for the country, but for the county as well. Augustan citizens therefore became quite disgruntled when one of the adjoining counties earned the venerable title, Athens of the Valley due to the assiduous efforts it made to improve its county's schools. One agitated Augusta resident in particular took it upon himself...
The 1840 presidential election campaign pitted the Whig ticket of William Henry Harrison and John Tyler against the sitting Democratic President Martin Van Buren. The parties spent much of their energy courting the South. Each tried to present itself as the protector of southern interests, emphasizing its candidates' “southern-ness' and anti-abolition credentials. Van Buren, running on a platform...
A total of 400 Republicans, Democrats, and Populists declared that they stand emphatically in favor of free silver. Men of all three parties gathered in convention at Athens, Alabama to form themselves into the Central Silver Club. They promised that they would vote for all and only those men who supported the free coinage of silver in the next elections, regardless of the candidate?s party affiliation....
America's fifth president, James Monroe, was a lawyer from the state of Virginia belonging to the Democratic - Republican Party, and served as president from 1817 to 1825. His presidency encompassed what came to be called the “Era of Good Feelings.' The largest political crisis Monroe faced while in office came toward the end of his first term, when the question of slavery shrouding the entrance...
During the late nineteenth century, urbanization prompted mass migrations of southerners to cities. This caused crowding within the cities and soon sanitation became an issue. Despite the problems, it was not until the last two decades of the 1800's that cities started addressing this problem. However, once it started in one city, others started following suit. Portsmouth was one of these cities...
The Mayor and Common Council of Annapolis declared a by-law to prevent the firing of guns within the city limits. The Mayor first informed the citizens of Annapolis on the by-law in an article published in the local paper, The Maryland Gazette, on March 25, 1824. The article permitted a week long period of time for news of the by-law to reach the people of Annapolis before the Common Council planned...