Episodes Nearest to May 14, 1889: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. Yellow Fever Strikes Kearney, Mississippi
    date May 14, 1889map SHELBY, Tennesseetags Health/Death, Economy

    The letter to Stephen Duncan, a wealthy cotton and sugar planter in Natchez, was postmarked Kearney, Mississippi and began with a harried excuse. The letter's author, a business associate of Duncan's, apologized for the delay of a trip out West to hire Chinese laborers. Your letter of July 1st [1879] received today the letter hurriedly opened. Had I known where to address you, I should have...

  2. Mary Evans Thanks Brian Philpot, Her Former Master, for His Sending Money
    date May, 1889map FREDERICK, Marylandtags African-Americans, Church/Religious-Activity, Economy, Race-Relations, Women

    Mary Evans, living in Knoxville in Frederick County, Maryland, in May 1889, wrote her former master, Brian Philpot, to thank him for his gift of five dollars. She wrote that she did not know how to thank him for his kindness and made sure to write him right away to tell him so. Evans also remarked that she [remained] as ever a servant. She said if he came by, he would see what his gift had done...

  3. How the Wrong Man Got Liquor
    date May 22, 1889map OGLETHORPE, Georgiatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Law

    One does not usually conceive of alcohol as the traditional gift of mysterious benefactors, yet that is exactly what Jake Culberth received in his depot package one day. An agent roused Culberth from his work to pick up a package which he eventually discovered was full of alcohol Believing it to be the gift of some kind person, Culberth and his friends immediately set forth consuming the package's...

  4. Dam Breaks, Johnstown Floods
    date May 31, 1889map CAMBRIA, Pennsylvaniatags highdeath toll

    On May 31, 1889 one of the most devastating disasters in Pennsylvania history occurred in Cambria County, starting in the town of St. Michael and ending in Johnstown. The dam of the South Fork of the Little Conemaugh, which created Lake Conemaugh was abandoned by the Alleghany Portage Railroad in 1854. It was then purchased by the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club. They were to maintain the...

  5. "Victor"  is the written account of Victor Hesier's story.  He was a survivor of the 1889 Johnstown Flood.
    date May 31, 1889map CAMBRIA, Pennsylvaniatags 1889 Johnstown Flood, Johnstown Flood Survivors

    Imagine being tossed around by the rush of floodwaters, hanging on to a rooftop for dear life while the thunderclap of a massive wave destroys your childhood home; or helplessly watching as those around you are carried off to a watery grave.   That is what Victor Heiser, a survivor of the 1889 Johnstown Flood endured.   Victor Heiser’s written description of the flood is a chilling account...

  6. Reverend Hawley Calls for Baltimore Methodists to Modernize
    date April 24, 1889map BALTIMORE, Marylandtags Church/Religious-Activity

    On April 24, 1889, The Episcopal Methodist, a Baltimore, Maryland newspaper, published an article by the Reverend J. M. Hawley entitled Southern Methodism and the Age, calling for the Methodist Church to reform itself in order to be a success in the modern age. Hawley called the present age a great period for both the Church and the country. The Church, he said, must embrace the age and modernize...

  7. The Lynching of Scott Baily
    date April 23, 1889map PITTSYLVANIA, Virginiatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Health/Death, Race-Relations

    On April 23rd, 1889, “...Scott Baily, colored, made a desperate but unsuccessful attempt to commit an outrage on the person of one of the most prominent young ladies in the village. ; Baily was caught soon afterwards, confessed his crime, and was lynched about midnight.' The ritual act of lynching was used by white Southerners to literally destroy the humanity of the black victim, but...

  8. Mormons Forced Out of a Georgia County
    date April, 1889map GLASCOCK, Georgiatags Church/Religious-Activity

    Two Glascock County, Georgia residents returned to their home in Gibson, expecting nothing out of the ordinary. Yet on this day in early April 1889, a group of local citizens waited for their arrival. Upon their return, the group strongly advised that the two residents, who happened to be of the Mormon faith, leave immediately. The warning proved effective as the Mormons departed from the area shortly...

  9. Southern Ladies
    date June 12, 1889map RICHMOND, Virginiatags African-Americans, Arts/Leisure, Slavery, Women

    In an 1889 letter to her close friend, Mrs. Hannah Weisiger described her late mother as "one of the noblest & dearest women on earth...so much good...yet so humble...of her good deeds." Throughout the nineteenth century, Southern women were idealized as the moral compass of the family, supposedly gentle and noble in deeds. Even in the latter part of the century, values firmly rooted in the...

  10. Florida Canal?
    date January 1, 1889 to 1889map ST JOHNS, Floridatags Economy, Politics, Migration/Transportation

    The recovering South slowly caught up to the North after the Civil War in means of transportation. In a large a state as Florida, transportation posed a serious problem in the late nineteenth century. However, politicians felt that railroads were a priority since Florida is a peninsula. More than 300 miles of land also created a challenge to connect the Atlantic Ocean and trade from Europe to prosperous...

  11. Remembering the Confederacy: Helpful or Hurtful?
    date 1889map NOTTOWAY, Virginiatags Politics, Race-Relations, War

    In 1889 Thomas D. Houston, formerly a Captain in the Eleventh Virginia Infantry, wrote about a letter a man named Captain James had written to his family after the Battle of Gettysburg. Houston's writing demonstrated that more than ten years after the Civil War, Southerners were still haunted by the devastation and eventual loss they faced during the Civil War. At the same time, they still...

  12. Journey to Freedom: The Bethany Veney Story
    date 1889map PAGE, Virginiatags Runaway Slaves, Children, Freedom, Massachusetts, Women, Slavery

    Bethany Veney recalls her time as a slave in her autobiography, The Narrative of Bethany Veney: a Slave Woman. Born into slavery Bethany had little memory of her early life, but distinctly remembered being a source of entertainment for her master by singing and dancing. Although Bethany never mentioned feelings of objectification or dehumanization, which Hartman discusses in Scenes...

  13. A New Reservation for Geronimo
    date July 7, 1889map SWAIN, North Carolinatags Government, Law, Migration/Transportation, Native-Americans

    Chief Geronimo and his Apaches were forcibly removed from the western territories of the United States. The government relocated them to Mt. Vernon Barracks, Alabama, where they were forced to stay, cramped and confined, until the government decided what to do with them and where to send them next. As Native Americans, they were at the mercy of an unsympathetic government.

    Sometime thereafter,...

  14. New Pastor at St. Patrick's
    date February, 1889map WILKES, Georgiatags Church/Religious-Activity, Migration/Transportation, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    Bittersweet best characterized the attitude of his beloved congregation. Though greatly appreciative of the 15 years he spent in Washington, Georgia, the congregation of St. Patrick's deeply regretted the transfer of Reverend J. M. O'Brien to his new parish in Augusta County. Thankfully, his former congregation will not be devoid of his influence despite his physical absence. The fruits...

  15. Cry for No More Public Lynchings
    date February 12, 1889map SCHLEY, Georgiatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Race-Relations

    The wires to Atlanta were cut. No telegram of a last minute pardon or respite would reach the county to deter their actions. Nothing could stop the ghastly show from proceeding. Thus wrote the Chattanooga Times in reference to the lynching of an African American male in Georgia's Schley County Tuesday, February 12, 1889. Thousands of individuals gathered to participate in the brutal death of...

  16. Angel Comes to Johnstown
    date June 5, 1889 to October 24, 1889map CAMBRIA, Pennsylvaniatags relief effort

    As the news of the destruction of the 1889 Johnstown flood reached beyond Cambria County, relief and aid efforts immediately began to mobilize and move into the valley. Among the first to arrive was Clara Barton, the "Angel of the Battlefield." Barton's American Red Cross was a relief organization that she founded during the Civil War. During the war, she and her envoy of good...

  17. Love Letters from William A. Moats to Nela Miller
    date April, 1889 to December, 1889map PENDLETON, West Virginiatags Arts/Leisure, Women

    During an eight month period, William A. Moats wrote love letters to Nela Miller. Each letter was structurally similar to the previous, always commenting on his good health and the hope that the letter reached her well. Moat made continually plans to visit her and her family in the months the correspondence took place. As the letters evolved chronologically, his profession of his undying love for...

  18. Boston's Predicament: Women in the City
    date August 18, 1889map SUFFOLK, Massachusettstags Migration/Transportation, Urban-Life/Boosterism, Women

    According to the Boston Daily Globe of August 18, 1889, "Too Good to Lose Are Boston's Surplus Women." This article pertains to a matter of utmost importance, the eligible bachelors of the Wild West heroically discovering a solution for the "marriageable femininity" and the "confoundly delicate matter" of the over 80,000 surplus of women in Massachusetts. Belle Eyre even reports that these men...

  19. Freedom of the Black Press?
    date August 20, 1889 to August 27, 1889map DALLAS, Alabamatags African-Americans, Health/Death, Politics, Race-Relations, Slavery

    It was just another days' work for two employees of the Alabama Great Southern train company. On the evening of August 27, 1889, the trainmen pulled into the Birmingham station and prepared to disembark. Upon exiting the train, the workers spotted two black men swinging from trees in the near distance. According to sources at The Washington Post, the lynched men were the incendiary...

  20. Albert Spalding and Baseball's World Tour
    date October, 1888 to May, 1889map COOK, Illinoistags Arts/Leisure, Diplomacy/International

    Packing their bats, balls and bags, a group of courageous men set out upon a journey of unprecedented nature and purpose. The year was 1888, and Albert G. Spalding had organized a group of all-star baseball players for the purpose of taking the game of baseball on a tour around the world. A former baseball player himself, Spalding saw this tour as an opportunity to spread the national pastime over...

  21. The Cycle of Sharecropping
    date January 9, 1889map FALLS, Texastags African-Americans, Agriculture, Economy, Race-Relations, Women

    Widowed and with few options available to support herself, Dolly Lang, a black widow living in Falls County, Texas, signed a sharecropping contract with Mrs. V.C. Billingsley on January 9, 1889. The contract specified that Lang agreed to lease around 48 acres of land previously rented by her husband Ellis Lang and on which she currently lived. The land was to be used for growing cotton. Consequently,...

  22. Military Inspection and Celebration in Panola
    date September 27, 1889map CLARENDON, South Carolinatags Arts/Leisure

    On September 27, 1889, General Bonham came to the Panola Academy to do his inspection of Clarendon's cavalry, consisting of the Hampton Light Dragoons commanded by Captain D.W. Brailsford and the Connor Mounted Rifles led by Captain A.L. Lesesne. By 11 o'clock in the morning, the decorated Panola Academy building was filled with lovely maidens and friends of the company who had come to watch...

  23. The Fitzhugh Family Reunion
    date December 24, 1888map HENRICO, Virginiatags Arts/Leisure, Church/Religious-Activity, Migration/Transportation, Women

    It was a shame that Mary was away for the holidays, her sister Lizzie thought. Christmas was a time to spend with family, both close and distant. Mary Fitzhugh had moved to Richmond almost two months ago, and it was too great a distance for her to make the trip. In a letter, Lizzie Fitzhugh wrote to her sister: So many young cousins are assembling to-getther, at first one house and then the other....

  24. President of Wake Forest University Denounces Participation of his students in Republican Stump-speaking
    date October 26, 1889map WAKE, North Carolinatags Education, Politics

    Despite President Charles E. Taylor's plea, the students of Wake Forest University would not silence their political opinions.On the night of October 26, 1889, a Republican stump-speaking, literally delivering a speech from atop a freshly cut tree stump, occurred half-a-mile from campus. Fifty of Taylor's students attended the stump-speaking, led by Wake County native John Nichols, who was...

  25. The Power of Scientific Racism in Central Virginia
    date November 27, 1888map SPOTSYLVANIA, Virginiatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Race-Relations

    James Holladay, a farmer from Spotsylvania County, Virginia, felt relieved as he read Francis Ruffin's pamphlet entitled The Negro as a Political and Social Factor. Holliday conveyed his gratitude in a letter to the author. Holladay proclaimed, Your forcible presentation of facts, derived from a national experiment, and from extended intelligent and conscientious observation in different fields....