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...
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,...
Jute manufacturers had announced early in 1888 that they would raise the price of their products. This proclamation triggered deep resentment among cotton farmers in the South, who were already struggling because of the oppressive crop-lien system. Raising the price of an essential component to cotton-picking, the jute bag, was adding insult to injury. Farmers Alliances across the South saw the...
One of the leading pioneers of the modern Civil Rights movement, W.E.B. DuBois was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts in 1868. DuBois grew up in an environment of intellectuals. Thus, he witnessed few direct displays of Jim Crowism. A talented student, DuBois excelled academically in high school. Upon graduation, he hoped to attend Harvard or Yale. Due to lack of funds, however, he traveled...
The Women's Medical College of Baltimore in Maryland held its sixth ever graduation ceremony in the afternoon on May 2, 1888. The ceremony was held at the YMCA Hall, decorated for the occasion. There was music and speeches and the Dean of Students, Dr. Richard Henry Thomas, announced the graduates. The graduates were Ida C. Coler, Mary P. Dole, and M. Lizzie Zimmerman. Coler was from Ohio, Dole...
As a result of tariffs and the opening of new ports along the Atlantic coast, the east Floridian port city of Jacksonville suffered mightily in the late 1800's. Many Southern farmers abandoned the once profitable cotton and tobacco crops for lumber and textile industries. In February 1888, Jacksonville organized an international Subtropical Exposition, inviting President Grover Cleveland to...
As William Bibb read the letter, he grew anxious and apprehensive about the decision he had to make. Bibb, a Louisa County attorney, received a letter on May 5, 1888 from R. M. Barllock in Woodburn, Virginia asking Bibb to represent him in a law suit involving a former slave. Barllock wanted to collect money from the estate of a man who had passed away several years ago. In his letter to Bibb,...
Miss Jennie Barker made note of each day of her life in the year 1888 by writing inside a diary given to her as a gift by her cousins on New Year's Day of that year. On March 31st, Jennie wrote, she and her friend Clara took a trip to the market in Washington, D.C. where they lived. After marveling at the flowers and other wares, they decided to attend a nearby women's rights meeting. Jennie...
In early March, the Tennessee Farmers Alliance elected State Congressman John P. Buchanan the President of their newly formed organization. A self-educated farmer noted for his energy and dedication, Buchanan was the first cousin of James Buchanan, the fifteenth President of the U.S. His robust personality made him a popular politician among the lower classes. <br /><br />The Alliance...
In March, seventy representatives from the Knights of Labor, the Agricultural Wheel, and the Farmers Alliance met in Montgomery to discuss the possibility of forming a joint political party. Several county leaders had already dismissed the convention, condemning its aims to mix economic interests with political power as impractical. Instead of forming a political party, the critics urged the gathered...