by Sharon Hall | Oct 3, 2014 | Feisty Females
Ida Bell Wells was the oldest daughter of James and Lizzie Wells, born in slavery (temporarily) on July 16, 1862 in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Less than six months later, all slaves were set free by Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. James was a master carpenter...
by Sharon Hall | Oct 1, 2014 | Digging History Magazine, Ghost Town Wednesday
“It isn’t likely that a tourist will ever see the old Reagan County Courthouse at Stiles unless he is looking for it, or just flat lost.” That’s what a contributor on the Ghost Towns web site had to say about Stiles, Texas. It’s a bit off the beaten track these...
by Sharon Hall | Sep 29, 2014 | Mothers of Invention
Today’s “mother of invention” article features another “parent-friendly” product (last week it was disposable diapers). As you will see, she could also be characterized as a “feisty female”. Patsy O’Connell Sherman was born on September 15, 1930 in Minneapolis,...
by Sharon Hall | Sep 26, 2014 | Surname Saturday
Most sources agree that today’s surname is of occupational origins, perhaps referring to someone who was a mender of pots and pans (“tinner”). The earliest individuals bearing a particular surname, especially an occupational one, were usually employed in that...
by Sharon Hall | Sep 24, 2014 | Digging History Magazine, Ghost Town Wednesday
Some historians credit Joseph S. “Buckskin Joe” Works, a Texas land promoter, with the founding of today’s ghost town around 1887. Another historian, Dr. Edward Everett Dale who was a research professor of history at the University of Oklahoma, wrote in 1946 that the...
