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...
As Edward Ayers explains in the Promise of the New South, even though the railroad had an “aura of glamour' in the South, working on the railroad was dangerous. Many accidents occurred, varying from simple unimportant incidents such as a hand crushed, to as serious incidents such as a black man's head cut off when a train ran over him. Often accidents happened on the tracks, and trains...
On August 23, 1882, heavy rains poured down on Dove Creek, Spring Creek, the Middle Concho, and the South Concho which were already high due to summer rains. By the morning, the Middle Concho was seen to be thirty feet above its level and rapidly rising. They overflowed and destroyed the town, Ben Ficklin, on August 24. As recorded in the article “Swept Away by a Flood,' the office register...
Jack Turner was born a slave in about 1840 and refused to submit to the “black' way of life in post-war white Alabama. Although he was arrested and sometimes convicted on charges such as drinking and gambling, adultery, and theft, he became a leader of Choctaw County's blacks. He was also a somewhat successful organizer for the local Republicans and he played a key role in bringing...
As reported in the State, on March 1, 1882, the coal companies decided to make the following changes: “For digging coal, 50 cents per ton and 1.65 per day for driving in the mines, and all other labor to proportion, and that twelve hours would constitute a day's work.' The Knights of Labor refused to accept this offer and the “great strike' began on March 14, 1882. Edward...
Ben Hill was in state politics for more than three decades, and at the time of his death, he was a Democratic U.S. senator. Even though the public had been waiting for his death for weeks, the Atlanta Constitution stated that “the shock is almost as great as if the whole state had been taken by surprise.' He had been dying of Epithelioma, a skin cancer, and underwent several operations,...
Edward Ayers, in the Promise of the New South, described that the South was a “notoriously violent place.' In the South homicide among blacks and whites was the highest compared to the rest of the nation and world. Within the turbulent south during the 1880s and early 1890s, “politics and economic turmoil' constantly threw both blacks and whites into conflict. Most violence was...
On the morning of September 14, 1882, Philip Henry Pitts ran various errands around town. He needed to make a few purchases, namely tools and home goods. While in town Pitts noticed a few stores had closed signs in the window. Upon returning home to his plantation, Pitts entered in his diary, Thursday Holy day among the Jews - All places of business closed among them this day...and this is new year...
On the morning of September 14, 1882, Philip Henry Pitts ran various errands around town. He needed to make a few purchases, namely tools and home goods. While in town Pitts noticed a few stores had closed signs in the window. Upon returning home to his plantation, Pitts entered in his diary, Thursday Holy day among the Jews - All places of business closed among them this day...and this is new year...
After Dr. William W. Godding, the 2nd superintendent of Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, DC, witnessed the autopsy of Charles Guiteau, his viewpoint on the pathology of the insane was solidified and, therefore, resulted in the drastic alteration of the mission, practices, and clinical direction of Saint Elizabeth’s. The hospital was established by an act of Congress in 1852...