by Sharon Hall | Sep 22, 2014 | Mothers of Invention
Parents around the world can thank today’s “mother of invention” every time they pick up a Pampers®, Huggies® or Luvs® to change their little one’s diaper. Although her ideas were considered impractical at the time, they eventually led to the first truly...
by Sharon Hall | Sep 20, 2014 | Surname Saturday
Bowditch This unique surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, believed to have derived from an estate in Dorsetshire (pre-Norman Conquest of 1066) and seen as well in the southern counties of Somerset and Devonshire. The place name in Devon was derived from an Olde English...
by Sharon Hall | Sep 17, 2014 | Digging History Magazine, Ghost Town Wednesday
This county in northwestern Kansas had been home to buffalo-hunting Native Americans and was named for General William Tecumseh Sherman of Civil War fame by the Kansas legislature in 1873. Cattle and sheep ranches were established in the early 1880’s on land...
by Sharon Hall | Sep 16, 2014 | Tombstone Tuesday
Nathaniel Bowditch (pronounced bau-ditch) was born to parents Dr. Henry Ingersoll and Olivia Jane Yardley Bowditch on December 6, 1839. As noted in the memoir written by his father, Memorial of Nathaniel Bowditch, he “received his grandsire’s name because he was the...
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...
