by Sharon Hall | Jul 17, 2015 | Far-Out Friday
On February 22, 1918, with war raging across the seas in Europe, Harold and Addie Wadlow of Alton, Illinois welcomed their firstborn child into the world – Robert Pershing Wadlow. He was a little over eighteen inches long and weighed eight pounds and six ounces – a...
by Sharon Hall | Jul 8, 2015 | Digging History Magazine, Wild Weather Wednesday
Frank Melbourne mysteriously disappeared, although he had long since been found to be a fraud. (In case you missed previous articles, check out Part One, Part Two and Part Three of this series.) Yet, that didn’t stop other so-called rainmakers from attempting to...
by Sharon Hall | Jul 2, 2015 | Time Capsule Thursday
July 4, 1876 – The United States was celebrating its first centennial eleven years following the end of the Civil War. In Philadelphia, soldiers from the North and South, “the Blue and the Gray”, marched together. There were lively and soul-stirring festivities held...
by Sharon Hall | Jun 30, 2015 | Tombstone Tuesday
Josiah Wilson Rainwater was born on October 10, 1843 in Waterloo, Pulaski County, Kentucky to parents Bartholomew and Nancy McLaughlin Rainwater. He was the youngest of eleven surviving children born to their marriage and named after Reverend Josiah Wilson, a...
by Sharon Hall | Jun 23, 2015 | Tombstone Tuesday
I came across this interesting person recently while researching the two-part series on Chedorlaomer “Lomer” Griffin (Part One, Part Two), who for many years was believed to have been born in 1759 when in fact he was born in 1772. At the time of his death he was...
by Sharon Hall | Jun 17, 2015 | Digging History Magazine, Wild Weather Wednesday
In the early 1890’s several men claiming to be rainmakers were making headlines — from explosive-laden balloons launched to blast rain from the sky (see Part One of the series) to the super-secret formulas Frank Melbourne, a.k.a., the “Rain...
by Sharon Hall | Jun 12, 2015 | Feisty Females
Lillian Heath was born in Burnett Junction, Wisconsin on December 29, 1865, the daughter of William and Calista Hunter Heath. Her father later moved the family steadily west, first to Aplington, Iowa and in 1873 to Laramie, Wyoming. The Transcontinental Railroad was...
by Sharon Hall | Jun 11, 2015 | Time Capsule Thursday
What was happening on this day in June of 1924? The big front-page headlines were buzzing about the Republican National Convention, on the verge of nominating their man Calvin “Silent Cal” Coolidge. The only concerns were over certain contentious planks in the...
by Sharon Hall | Jun 10, 2015 | Ghost Town Wednesday
Indian legends about long-lost silver mines brought prospectors to Marion County in north central Arkansas during the 1880’s. News of shiny metallic flakes found in rocks caused a “silver rush”, bringing wealth-seekers from the nearby states of...
by Sharon Hall | Jun 3, 2015 | Digging History Magazine, Wild Weather Wednesday
Frank Melbourne, The Rain Wizard Just because General Dyrenforth was on his way to being exposed as a fraud (see Part One of this series) didn’t stop others from trying, nor end the public’s fascination with so-called rainmakers. Frank Melbourne immigrated to...
