Episodes Nearest to April 2, 1879: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. Letter to Thomas Butler Concerning Selling His Land in Woodruff County
    date April 2, 1879map WOODRUFF, Arkansastags Agriculture, Economy

    The letter to Thomas Butler concerning his property holdings in Woodruff County,

    Arkansas was sent to him by his lawyer, J. Cole Davis. In the letter, Davis was writing to inform

    Butler that he believed that it was possible to receive at least 2,500 cash for his land in

    Woodruff County. Butler's land has been leased to tenants through Davis's business for some

    period...

  2. Methodist Preacher Attacked
    date March 26, 1879 to April 23, 1879map PULASKI, Arkansastags African-Americans, Church/Religious-Activity, Crime/Violence

    When Reverend W. M. Todd came to his new district, he heard threats that the white men in the area had a way of getting rid of men who came from the North to preach to the colored people. Todd may or may not have taken the threat seriously. Regardless, he worked with his superior Reverend I. G. Pollard to organize services that were open to mixed congregations. It was after such a service on March...

  3. Commencement at Howard Draws an Illustrious Crowd
    date May, 1879map Washington City, District of Columbiatags African-Americans, Education, Government, Politics, Race-Relations, Slavery, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    It wasn't every day after the Civil War that former slaves and former slave-owners would admit to having something in common, much less celebrate it openly. But in the early summer of 1879 at the commencement exercises for Howard University, they did just that. The crowd began to arrive and soon it became clear that there was not nearly enough room to seat everyone who wanted to witness the...

  4. Chas. M. Evans, Manufacturer of Artificial Limbs
    date February 16, 1879map WARREN, Mississippitags Health/Death, War

    Chas. M. Evans, Manufacturer of Artificial Limbs of the best quality, solicits a share of the Southern patronage the ad read. Prices have been reduced and other special inducements are now offered Southern citizens and soldiers. To insure satisfaction, each leg may be fitted and test fully before any payment is required. Mr. Evans, purveyor of prosthetics, provides the Rev. C.K. Marshall of Vicksburg,...

  5. Letter from African American addressing white Democrats
    date February, 1879map JACKSON, Mississippitags African-Americans

    In early 1879, a black man anonymously wrote to Governor John Marshall Stone chastising white Democrats in Mississippi. The letter addresses many things, such as the myths about black men wanting white women. No document better captures the anger that black men from Mississippi reserved for those most directly responsible for stealing the promise of Reconstruction away from them.<br />An...

  6. The Consequences of Non-Conformity
    date May 20, 1879map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Native-Americans, Carl Schurz

    Little Chief of the Cheyenne Indian tribe once said, "I'd rather die than conform to the white man's way." On the morning of May 19, 1879, Secretary of Interior Carl Schurz spoke to the Cheyenne Indians and their leader, Little Chief. Little Chief was old and spoke for the Cheyenne Indians, while the five other tribe members, being very young, listened. Schurz had told Little Chief, "the...

  7. Desolating Epidemic in San Antonio
    date January 30, 1879map MILAM, Texastags Health/Death, Economy

    An unknown epidemic struck the community of San Antonio, Texas, in January of 1879. There had been much disease spread throughout Texas in this time, but this epidemic was unrecognizable. The symptoms were such as cholera or yellow fever, which had previously desolated the population in San Antonio, and more widely, throughout Texas.

    Cholera is usually transmitted through either the consumption...

  8. The Inquest of a Dead Black Man in a Richmond City Jail
    date January 8, 1879map RICHMOND, Virginiatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Health/Death, Law, Race-Relations

    According to a Richmond jury, George Fagan, a black prisoner in the city jail, "came to his death on the 8th day of January, 1879, from consumption," and "the officers in charge are no way responsible." The State, a Richmond City newspaper relayed this story to the public as front-page news the following morning. The article went on to describe the jury's view that a hospital should...

  9. Youthful Misconduct in Celebration of Christmas
    date December 24, 1878 to January 8, 1879map AUGUSTA, Virginiatags Arts/Leisure, Church/Religious-Activity, Crime/Violence, Law, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    The members of the City Council of Staunton, Virginia voted against the suspension over the Christmas holiday of an ordinance that forbad the use of pop-crackers in the streets. Christmas was to be celebrated in a joyful, yet quiet manner, not with the use of small explosives, which are noisy and might interfere with private celebrations. On the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth of December, a serenade...

  10. Youthful Misconduct in Celebration of Christmas
    date December 24, 1878 to January 8, 1879map AUGUSTA, Virginiatags Arts/Leisure, Church/Religious-Activity, Crime/Violence, Law, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    The members of the City Council of Staunton, Virginia voted against the suspension over the Christmas holiday of an ordinance that forbad the use of pop-crackers in the streets. Christmas was to be celebrated in a joyful, yet quiet manner, not with the use of small explosives, which are noisy and might interfere with private celebrations. On the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth of December, a serenade...

  11. Youthful Misconduct in Celebration of Christmas
    date December 24, 1878 to January 8, 1879map AUGUSTA, Virginiatags Arts/Leisure, Church/Religious-Activity, Crime/Violence, Law, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    The members of the City Council of Staunton, Virginia voted against the suspension over the Christmas holiday of an ordinance that forbad the use of pop-crackers in the streets. Christmas was to be celebrated in a joyful, yet quiet manner, not with the use of small explosives, which are noisy and might interfere with private celebrations. On the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth of December, a serenade...

  12. Segregation Has Not Died
    date 1879map TARRANT, Texastags Cemetery, Segregation

    Segregation Has Not Died

                Segregation is a nasty, uneducated word in today’s era.  Though most African-Americans died as free men, they had been laid segregated in old, befouled cemeteries usually off to the side or back of the clean, well-kept white person’s cemetery.

                The Constitution of the United States of America, written in 1776,...

  13. James Eads's Mississippi river jetty system completed
    date July 8, 1879map PLAQUEMINES, Louisianatags Economy, Migration/Transportation, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    After five years of construction, James Eads jetty system officially succeeded by lowering the depth of the Mississippi river to 30 feet at its mouth. This accomplishment allowed for the port of New Orleans to accommodate the larger ocean-going ships of the 19th century. In 1883 this improvement would be complemented by the beginning of regular freight routes through New Orleans by the Southern...

  14. Threat of Houston, Texas race riot leads to armed suppression of African-Americans.
    date July 21, 1879map HARRIS, Texastags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Race-Relations

    Racial tensions rose to the boiling point after a black citizen named Floyd was lynched by a white mob. In response to the perceived threat of a black race riot in reprisal for this atrocity, “parties of well armed men' descended upon the city, while the neighboring city of Richmond sent six deputy sheriffs to “restore order.' In addition to this the city of Houston escalated...

  15. Rich goldmine discovered north of Atlanta, Georgia
    date July 22, 1879map DAWSON, Georgiatags Economy

    Atlanta, Georgia set off a miniature gold rush. Newspapers in the region responded to the bonanza by publishing detailed articles about the development of gold mines in the region. One such article appearing in the Enterprise and Mountaineer of Greenville, South Carolina on December 24, 1879 declared that the Pigeon Roost mine would be the “largest and most productive mining camp this side...

  16. Jule's Need for Legal Help
    date August 12, 1879map RAPIDES, Louisianatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence

    Lily Suner wrote a letter to her brother on August 12, 1879 regarding Jule, an African American in need of legal help. Jule appeared to be related to the siblings in some way, since the brother was in a position to tell Jule's children and wife that he sent his love and Suner was in communication with him. The letter began with Suner chiding her brother for not writing to her in Alexandria,...

  17. The Greenback party goes down to defeat in November elections led by the losses in Mississippi
    date September 10, 1879map HINDS, Mississippitags African-Americans

    Prior to 1879, the Greenback Party had burst onto the political scene and presented a truly unique and radical voice in American politics. Although the Greenback Party's roots were with the miners in the Rocky Mountain States and with the farmers of the Midwest, the depression in agricultural prices following the Panic of 1873 allowed the party had made significant inroads among the Southern...

  18. Sanitary Reform in Wake of Epidemics
    date October 19, 1878map GALVESTON, Texastags Government, Health/Death, Law, Science/Technology, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    "It is now eleven years since the fever was epidemic in Galveston, and the citizens believe that with proper attention to sanitary precautions they need never suffer again." Referring to an epidemic of the yellow fever in 1867, an article in the Scientific American used Galveston, Texas, as an example for sanitation standards when quarantining the yellow fever in 1878. The article continued...

  19. Coal Miners of Allegany and Garrett Refuse to Work for Less Than Fifty Cents
    date September, 1879map ALLEGANY, Marylandtags Politics

    The coal miners of the Allegany and Garrett Counties in Maryland met on Wednesday, September 10, 1879 and decided to continue their strike. Two representatives from twenty-eight mines met in Lonaconing. Almost unanimously, the miners decided they would not work for less than fifty cents per ton of coal; the companies said they could not pay more than forty cents and that this was even too high to...

  20. In Cahoots With the Foxes
    date October, 1878map TALBOT, Marylandtags African-Americans, Arts/Leisure, Race-Relations, War

    Fox-hunting was the most popular sport on the Eastern Shore, especially in the bountiful counties of Talbot, Somerset, and Queen Anne. To preserve and encourage this particularly Southern sport, Hanson Hiss and other Maryland gentlemen founded the Elkridge Fox-Hunting Club in October of 1878. George S. Brown assumed the Presidency, but only on the condition that no bag-fox be used in any hunt. The...

  21. Bank Failure precipitates “commercial crisis' in Charleston, South Carolina
    date September 19, 1879map CHARLESTON, South Carolinatags Economy, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    On September 19th a dispatch to The Enterpirse and Mountaineer of Greenville, South Carolina reported that “The commercial circles were much agitated to-day by the announcement of the suspension of the banking and exchange house of James Adger &Co.' The failure of this bank was not only a significant financial blow to Charleston, but was also part of a larger story about the weakness of...

  22. Son Writes to His Mother from School in Baltimore
    date October 14, 1878map BALTIMORE, Marylandtags Arts/Leisure, Economy, Education, Urban-Life/Boosterism, Women

    Shirley, going to school in Baltimore, Maryland, wrote his mother about his life in Baltimore and also reflected on how he wished to take care of her. He talked about how he was in the fourth grade, and depending on his examination grades, he would move to the third, second, and first grades. He then mentioned that he could go on to Baltimore College. He liked this idea but he also quickly stated...

  23. Fashion of the South
    date October 12, 1878map HENRICO, Virginiatags Arts/Leisure, Women

    The image of the southern lady in the post-Civil War period was of the utmost importance. A woman's image described her lifestyle and stature. It was through image that personal wealth was shown. When the Richmond Standard newspaper wrote an article critiquing the new fashions of the fall, it helped the southern woman perfect her look. The article first described the stock available...

  24. The Insane Hospital
    date October 1, 1879map JEFFERSON, Alabamatags Church/Religious-Activity, Health/Death, Government, Women

    Every October, without fail, the Superintendent of the Alabama Insane Hospital released his report about the year that was. In October of 1879, Dr. Bryce, the superintendent, expanded his report, by including particular conditions and patient numbers, among other details. Averaging 400 patients, the hospital treated anything from pneumonia to cerebral softening to utter, indefinable insanity. The...

  25. Performance by the Stonewall Brigade Band in honor of the Mayor of Winchester
    date October 9, 1879map AUGUSTA, Virginiatags Arts/Leisure, Politics, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    Music is a form of communication that does not require its attendants to share a common language, thus allowing it to serve as a unifying medium. The performance of the Stonewall Brigade Band of Staunton confirmed the friendship that existed between the two sister cities of the Valley of Virginia, Staunton and Winchester. The Brigade Band performed to the general delight of all present outside...