by Sharon Hall | Feb 11, 2014 | Tombstone Tuesday
Nancy Crawford Bray was born on February 16, 1801 in Virginia (possibly Greenbrier, which is now West Virginia). Her mother died when Nancy was but seven years old — family histories and newspaper articles record that she helped raise her three young brothers. ...
by Sharon Hall | Feb 10, 2014 | Motoring History
The first decade of the twentieth century had already seen its share of automobile races, beginning with the Gordon Bennett Races in France, sponsored by James Gordon Bennett, Jr. who owned the New York Herald newspaper. At the beginning, races were city to city...
by Sharon Hall | Feb 8, 2014 | Surname Saturday
Doolittle The surname Doolittle is of Norman origin and gradually Anglicized over time. One of the members of William of Normandy’s expedition was named “Du Litell” or “de Dolieta” (which meant “of Dolieta” a location along the Normandy coast). Rudolph of Dolieta,...
by Sharon Hall | Feb 7, 2014 | Feudin' & Fightin' Friday
A woman was at the center of this feud in early twentieth-century Texas, a love triangle in which two wealthy cattle ranchers fought over who would win her back – the husband or the lover. The feud might have started, innocently enough, years before when the two men,...
by Sharon Hall | Feb 5, 2014 | Digging History Magazine, Ghost Town Wednesday
On September 4, 1848, a forty-acre tract of land in Newton County, Missouri was sold by Frederick Hisaw to John and Thomas D. Isbell for $300. Upon this land the Isbells built a distillery and grist mill (Jolly Mill), perhaps with slave labor, according to local...
