Episodes Nearest to December 4, 1886: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. A Great City
    date December 4, 1886map AUGUSTA, Virginiatags Arts/Leisure, Economy, Migration/Transportation, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    By 1900, Staunton had a population of 7,289, and in 1886, the city already boasted of its greatness. The Goodson Gazette, a small circulation paper, ran a few lines devoted to the city's attractive characteristics. Not only did the city have electricity, but also they had streetlights on some of the main streets. They had a telegraph since the 1850's, but did not mention it, nor...

  2. A Morning in the Kitchen
    date December 1, 1886map BRISTOL, Massachusettstags Economy, Women

    In December of 1886, "A Morning in the Kitchen" was published in Rushlight, the magazine of Wheaton Female Seminary in Norton, Massachusetts. In this essay our unknown author provided accounts from a day without her cook. She began her essay by remarking on the morning outside and then discussed the tasks of making and cleaning up after a meal. She stated that men's genius was...

  3. Negro Family Turning White
    date December 11, 1886map TAZEWELL, Virginiatags African-Americans, Law, Race-Relations

    Race relations and classifications resounded strongly in the minds of many in the South. West Virginia was no exception to this. A story ran in the Martinsburg Gazette on December 11, 1866 that a young African American boy living in Chicago, Illinois was supposedly turning white. Born to two African American parents, the pigmentation in the young boy's skin was becoming increasingly lighter...

  4. Teaching in the South
    date October 9, 1886 to 1886map BEDFORD, Virginiatags Economy, Education, Women

    Education in Southside Virginia during the late nineteenth century was sporadic and not completely uniform. While there had been an educational revival after the Civil War, public education was still defined by the typical one-room schoolhouse, taught by a young woman with children whose ages ranged from 6 years to 16 years. Teaching was not an ideal job; it was very difficult. Even with the difficulties,...

  5. Thanksgiving Day
    date November 6, 1886 to November 27, 1886map AUGUSTA, Virginiatags Arts/Leisure, Church/Religious-Activity, Health/Death, Economy, Government, Politics, Urban-Life/Boosterism, War

    The November 6, 1886, edition of the Goodson Gazette of the Virginia Institute for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind ran the announcement by President Grover Cleveland who declared Thursday, November 25 as a day of thanksgiving and prayer. He asked the families of the country to gather and show their thanks and gratitude for their lives. Two weeks later, the paper ran Governor...

  6. Henry Grady sells the “New South'
    date December 22, 1886map FULTON, Georgiatags Economy

    Henry Grady was the editor of the Atlanta Constitution and a supporter and spokesman of the “New South' concept. Grady was invited to speak at the New England Club of New York in 1886, where he made a famous speech about the New South. He disarmed his listeners by saying “There was a South of slavery and secession that South, thank God, is dead. There is a South of union and freedom...

  7. Henry Grady and His New South Speech
    date December 22, 1886map NEW YORK, New Yorktags Politics

    A man of great charisma and incredible oratory skills, Grady was a man with a goal. Henry W. Grady was born in Georgia and was throughout his career a spokesman, a proponent, and an ambassador for the South to the rest of the world. Growing up in the disenfranchised and embittered South, Grady had a vision of a reintegrated South that would take its place of glory and prominence in the newly restored...

  8. A Strike at the Docks
    date January 15, 1887map WARWICK, Virginiatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Economy, Politics

    The Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Company lay powerless, while over 300 mostly black dockworkers armed themselves with any object they could find. Once organized, they forced their way through the barricaded doors of Pier 2. Now inside the docks, they struck out at the scabs, filling their jobs, and ravaged the offices, where they stole a barrel of whiskey. The effects of their new capture only further...

  9. The New Teacher's Institute
    date October 21, 1886map RICHMOND, Virginiatags Church/Religious-Activity, Education, Race-Relations, Women

    In Warsaw, Superintendent Robert Hall called a meeting for the new teachers of the Northern Neck Peninsula. The teachers needed to talk about the best way to educate the hundreds of students entering the new public school system. Reverend A. B. Kinsolving opened the session by leading prayers. Mr. Hall began the discussion by encouraging the teachers to express their candid views on each topic covered...

  10. Texas Farmer's Alliance
    date January 20, 1887map MC LENNAN, Texastags Agriculture, Economy, Race-Relations, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    When they met on January 20, 1887 in Waco, members of the Texas state alliance made plans to stage a coup that would get rid of the current president of the organization and unite smaller factions already within the coalition. This newly integrated group created a national alliance, known as the Texas Farmer's Alliance, and declared C.W. Macune their president. <br /><br />The...

  11. Male Competition and a Female Audience
    date January 26, 1887map NORFOLK CITY, Virginiatags Government, Politics, Women

    On January 26, 1887, the Virginian Weekly & Carolinian reported with little excitement that the Senate had rejected a constitutional amendment for women's suffrage. Paying more attention to the Army Appropriation bill, funding for public building, and the Railroad Attorney's Bill, the article hardly focused on women's perpetual disenfranchisement. While one senator presented...

  12. The Federal Government Passes the Dawes Act
    date February 8, 1887map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Indians

    By the 1870s, prime agricultural land remained in the plains. Many American citizens believed the federal government should free this valuable land from nomadic Indian tribes for white settlers. Other whites approached the situation from a paternalistic perspective and insisted Indians should be assimilated into American society. Named after Senator Henry Dawes of Massachusetts, the Federal Government...

  13. Badly in Need of a Revival
    date February 26, 1887map HAWKINS, Tennesseetags Arts/Leisure, Church/Religious-Activity, Women

    Rogersville needed religion- at least Reverend Jarvis and Reverend Roberts thought so. These two clergymen, along with the ministers of the churches near Rogersville held a series of union meetings or revivals at the Methodist Episcopal Church.

    The faithful churchgoers who attended prayed together, coming forth to offer their wishes for the success of the revival meeting and for the souls...

  14. Hatch Act of 1887
    date March 2, 1887map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Agriculture, Health/Death, Economy, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    During and after the Civil War, many farms and ranches were without the man power needed to cultivate the land. William Henry Hatch of Missouri joined forces with Norman J. Coleman to create legislation that would promote all aspects of agriculture. The Martinsburg Gazette reported that “President Grover Cleveland approved the famous Hatch Act on March, 2 1887,' which created agricultural...

  15. Anne Sullivan begins teaching Helen Keller
    date March 3, 1887map COLBERT, Alabamatags Health/Death, Education

    Helen Keller was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama in 1880. At the young age of nineteen months, Helen's brain and stomach were exposed to Scarlet Fever, which left her blind, deaf, and mute. Helen explained in her autobiography, “then, in the dreary month of February, came the illness which closed my eyes and ears and plunged me into the unconsciousness of a new-born baby. They called it acute...

  16. Town Improvement Association of Winter Park
    date March 3, 1887map ORANGE, Floridatags Agriculture, Economy, Government

    The city of Winter Park was established in 1881 as a main trading center for fruit companies throughout Central Florida. This flourishing trading spot transformed itself into a popular resort where northerners came to flee from the harsh cold northern winters. According to the Seminole Hotel Booklet, the Winter Park area was ideal for northern settlement since it was full of natural...

  17. Major Earthquake Hits Charleston, South Carolina
    date August 31, 1886map CHARLESTON, South Carolinatags Health/Death, Economy

    Almost exactly one year after being hit by a category three hurricane that destroyed 90 percent of Charleston's homes, on August 31, 1886, the city was hit with another devastating blow. Before it had fully recovered from the effects of the hurricane, the city was rocked by an earthquake that registered a 6.6 on the Richter scale. Eyewitness accounts report that tremors were felt all over the...

  18. Major R. R. Henry runs for Congress
    date August 13, 1886map TAZEWELL, Virginiatags Economy, Government, Politics, War

    Major R. R. Henry of Tazewell County, Virginia campaigned for a seat in Congress under the Democratic Party in 1886. People from neighboring communities such as Lynchburg, Abingdon and Wytheville voiced their full support of his campaign and hopes for his success in the quest for a seat in Congress in the November elections. Although varied in their syntax, the message behind Henry's supporters...

  19. They Elope
    date March 18, 1886 to 1886map PITTSYLVANIA, Virginiatags Church/Religious-Activity, Women

    Miss Lizzie D. Hutter was everything a southern, Virginia belle should be. She was accomplished, beautiful, from a good family, and very popular in the highest of social circles. She was known as a poetically perfect and symmetrically beautiful girl. She was the eldest daughter of the superintendent of the Houston mines, and both her mother's and father's side were distinguished families...

  20. Engines of Progress
    date April 2, 1887map CALHOUN, Alabamatags Economy, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    Deep in the iron-rich north central region of Alabama, industry was booming. The owners of Murray and Stephenson ironworks in Anniston took the huge step of enlarging their foundry, allowing for bigger commissions and higher production rates. They had negotiated with the managers of the Alabama Car Works for a contract for enough work for the next eight months.

    Over at the engine works of...

  21. In Memory of Patriotism and Valor
    date July 31, 1886map NORTHUMBERLAND, Virginiatags Arts/Leisure, Migration/Transportation, War

    The camp ground at Marvin Grove was the site for this year's Annual Reunion of Confederate Veterans on the Northern Neck peninsula. The Northern Neck News widely advertised the event, hoping that the Reunion would receive ... the favor and patronage it justly merit[ed], especially because the proceeds went to the construction of a Methodist Church. While men stabled their horses, they recognized...

  22. Communion Alcohol
    date April 9, 1887map ALEXANDER, Illinoistags Temperance Movement, woman’s suffrage

    In a letter dated April 9, 1887 Isabella Maud Rittenhouse described a confrontation with her pastor. Rittenhouse, a teetotaler and member of the Temperance Movement, had demanded to know whether communion wine contained alcohol, to which her pastor dismissively replied that “it amused him to hear these WCTU people talking about unfermented wine; that there was no such thing in Christ’s time”.

  23. Chincoteague Prohibition
    date April 25, 1887map ACCOMACK, Virginiatags African-Americans, Church/Religious-Activity, Law, Politics, Race-Relations, Women

    On a late April weekend, Chincoteague residents gathered to celebrate the one year anniversary of their local option legislation, which barred their community from devastating alcohol consumption. Crowded in the town's Temperance Hall, because of rain outside, Friday night witnessed the much anticipated literary and musical entertainment. Despite the weather, spirits remained high and prominent...

  24. Convict Standoff
    date July 13, 1886 to July 14, 1886map DADE, Georgiatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Economy, Government, Law, Race-Relations

    It was already hot. As the Superintendent lined the convicts up to march back to the Dade County coal mines for another day of exhausting labor, one group refused to move. At the head of a long line of men chained together, the leader of the rebellion spoke up to Colonel Tower. He said that he and all the rest of the men from his stockade refused to work another day in the heat at their awful work....

  25. The Education of African Americans After the Civil War
    date 1886map ALBEMARLE, Virginiatags African-Americans, Economy, Education, Health/Death, Law, Politics, Race-Relations

    "Our crops are poor on account of too much wet in the summer which prevented us from working with them," John McClure, a resident of Albemarle County, wrote to his aunt and uncle. He went on to explain that "with what little (crops) we have to sell won't bring enough to pay for the expense of raising it." Other such maladies that McClure noted were that the livestock was not selling for a...