by Sharon Hall | Oct 31, 2014 | Feudin' & Fightin' Friday
While doing some family research last week, I came across something called a “frog war”. What’s a frog war? I’ve done some “frog” stories, one called “The Battle of the Frogs” and one about an old horned toad named Rip, but this one isn’t about an amphibious...
by Sharon Hall | Oct 29, 2014 | Digging History Magazine, Ghost Town Wednesday
I’ve been reading a series of books about Swedish immigrants who came to America and settled in central Kansas beginning in the late-1860’s. According to the Kansas Historical Society, eastern immigration companies sent agents to Europe to encourage...
by Sharon Hall | Oct 28, 2014 | Tombstone Tuesday
I was trolling through Vermont cemeteries looking for a subject for today’s article when I came across four graves in the Alburgh Tongue Cemetery in Grand Isle County, all children of “B.S. (or Benajah S.) and Asenath Phelps” … hmm. The children were: ...
by Sharon Hall | Oct 27, 2014 | Military History Monday
I’ve been reading an excellent book about James Abram Garfield, the twentieth President of the United States (look for a book review soon). I didn’t really know that much about him, except that he was assassinated not long after he was inaugurated in 1881. Not a lot...
by Sharon Hall | Oct 25, 2014 | Surname Saturday
Brinson I don’t usually write about surnames from my own family tree, but I’ve been researching this line a bit and there are some pretty interesting characters – so why not? One of my ancestors appears to be perhaps the first Brinson to immigrate to America in...
by Sharon Hall | Oct 22, 2014 | Digging History Magazine, Ghost Town Wednesday
Today, this would be considered an unfortunate name for a town, ghostly or otherwise. Believe it or not, years ago the swastika symbol was widely used. It was also used by Native American tribes like the Navajos, Hopis, Apaches and others (although later...
by Sharon Hall | Oct 18, 2014 | Surname Saturday
There at least two schools of thought regarding the origins of today’s surname. Ultimately, it appears to me that its origins were most likely Germanic, although the first settlers who came to America in the 1630’s came directly from England. Two sources...
by Sharon Hall | Oct 15, 2014 | Digging History Magazine, Ghost Town Wednesday
I was looking for an interesting ghost town to feature this week, preferably short and sweet since I’m under the weather this week with some nasty upper respiratory thing-y. I opened up one of my trusty ghost town books, Ghost Towns of Kansas by Daniel Fitzgerald. ...
by Sharon Hall | Oct 13, 2014 | Tombstone Tuesday
Stephen Paul was born in Robeson, North Carolina around 1836 to parents John H. and Mary (Wise) Paul. John and Mary had both been born in North Carolina and after they married in 1825 they produced a large family. By 1850 there were thirteen children enumerated,...
by Sharon Hall | Oct 13, 2014 | Mining History Monday
By the mid-nineteenth century there were few Chinese immigrants who had made their way to America. In early 1849, there were only fifty-four in the entire state of California, but that would change as word spread and gold rush fever took hold. The prospect of work,...
