by Sharon Hall | Sep 15, 2014 | Military History Monday
It’s an historical fact that over ten thousand soldiers under the age of eighteen served in the Union Army during the Civil War. Granted, many of them served as drummers and fifers, but their service was nonetheless invaluable. Drummers set the marching pace and...
by Sharon Hall | Sep 13, 2014 | Surname Saturday
The Trowbridge surname was seen as early 1184 in Wiltshire County, England as “Trobigge”, probably derived from the Old English word which translated means someone dwelling near a wooden bridge. Later recorded instances of the name include: Troubrug (1212); William de...
by Sharon Hall | Sep 12, 2014 | Feisty Females
After becoming the first woman to hike the Appalachian Trail solo at the age of sixty-seven in 1955, today’s “Feisty Female” remarked to Sports Illustrated upon completing the trek, “I would never have started this trip if I had known how tough it was, but I...
by Sharon Hall | Sep 10, 2014 | Digging History Magazine, Wild Weather Wednesday
On September 8, 1900 a massive storm was raging and headed for the Texas coast. The storm, which may have originated off the western coast of Africa, had already inflicted heavy damage in New Orleans and was heading west. The city of Galveston, located on thirty...
by Sharon Hall | Sep 9, 2014 | Tombstone Tuesday
I gotta say this was a difficult article to research – so darn many General Washington Gentry’s or George Washington Gentry’s or General George Washington Gentry’s in Johnson County, Tennessee it seemed. I think (I hope) I have figured it out...
by Sharon Hall | Sep 6, 2014 | Surname Saturday
Those who regularly read the Surname Saturday articles know that there are usually multiple theories as to a surname’s origin. Such is the case again today with the Kitten surname. According to House of Names, the Kitten surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, possibly...
by Sharon Hall | Sep 5, 2014 | Feudin' & Fightin' Friday
As the political rule-of-thumb goes, most people don’t pay attention to upcoming national elections until after Labor Day. Here’s a look back at an era gone by – or is it? As another saying goes, “some things never change”. Today we are accustomed to the color-coded...
by Sharon Hall | Sep 3, 2014 | Digging History Magazine, Ghost Town Wednesday
The period of history encompassing the early to mid-1800’s was marked by the emergence of several utopian societies in America, presumably founded to establish their own version of “heaven on earth”. Sir Thomas Moore had first coined the Greek term for his...
by Sharon Hall | Sep 2, 2014 | Tombstone Tuesday
Andrew Garfield Shoun and Elizabeth Powell married in 1817 and began raising a family in 1818 with the birth of their first child Andrew. Then came George Hamilton (1822), Rachel Catherine (1823), Isaac Harvey (1825) and Joseph Nelson (1827). In 1829 their...
by Sharon Hall | Aug 30, 2014 | Surname Saturday
Most sources agree that today’s surname is of English or Scottish origin, although uncertain as to whether the name is merely habitational or perhaps derived from Old and Middle English. It’s possible that the Scottish version was habitational, named after a village,...
