In this day and age, newspapers rarely print fiction. Of course, there is the occasional magical story written by a third grade class that appears every once a week in the Arts and Entertainment section of the paper, but for the most part, fictional stories of real substance are not published in newspapers anymore. This was not the case in the 1800's. Appearing in The Valley Star each week was...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
To usher in the start of classes on September 20th, 1877, Norwood High School and College issued their mission statement for the upcoming school year. The brochure spoke of the school as one of the finest training schools in the South (as well as the world) in producing fine, intelligent, young gentlemen ready to enter the world. The brochure reports that the school's emphasis on creating...
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...
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...
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...
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...