by Sharon Hall | Jun 9, 2014 | Mining History Monday
While researching possible topics for today’s article, I was thinking perhaps mining history and then ran across a link to a story about a blind miner in Mohave County, Arizona. Hmm … that sounds interesting, so I researched a bit further. Just the story about...
by Sharon Hall | Jun 7, 2014 | Surname Saturday
Today’s surname is easy to identify as to its origins. After the Norman Conquest in 1066 the name appeared as a locational name. The family lived in Leicestershire in a town called “Frisby” (no longer in existence). There is a village in Leicestershire today called...
by Sharon Hall | Jun 6, 2014 | Feisty Females
Elizabeth “Bessie” Coleman was born on January 26, 1892 to parents George and Susan Coleman, she being the tenth of their thirteen children. George Coleman was part African American and part Cherokee, a sharecropper in Atlanta, Texas which had been settled by former...
by Sharon Hall | Jun 4, 2014 | Digging History Magazine, Wild West Wednesday
This gun battle at Blazer’s Mill, located on the Rio Tularosa, is considered part of the Lincoln County War of 1878. The most famous participant of that war was, of course, William H. Bonney, a.k.a. “Billy the Kid.” Billy and his fellow posse members...
by Sharon Hall | Jun 2, 2014 | Mothers of Invention
The subjects of today’s article were not only “mothers of invention” but also made a bit of naval history as well, contributing to the Union’s cause during the Civil War. Sarah Mather Unfortunately, for history’s sake, little is known about inventor Sarah Mather. One...
by Sharon Hall | May 31, 2014 | Surname Saturday
The Nutting surname is Anglo-Saxon and derives from the Middle Ages English name of “Cnute” which became popular after a Dane by the name of “Cnut” became King of England in 1016. According to the Patronymica Britannica: Ferguson derives this name and Nutt from...
by Sharon Hall | May 30, 2014 | Feudin' & Fightin' Friday
This family feud simmered quite awhile before it ended in the early 1900’s in eastern New Mexico, in an area now known as Quay County. The feud began in east Texas during the Civil War when the two patriarchs of the Spikes and Gholson families crossed paths, or...
by Sharon Hall | May 28, 2014 | Digging History Magazine, Ghost Town Wednesday
This ghost town in the Coeur d’Alenes of Idaho, although once a thriving gold mining town, might not be worthy of a mention, but for the fact that Wyatt Earp and Josephine “Sadie” Marcus arrived there in early 1884 for the Coeur d’Alene gold rush. Titus Blessing,...
by Sharon Hall | May 27, 2014 | Tombstone Tuesday
John Wesley Spikes was born in Alabama on September 29, 1841 to parents John Edward and Nancy (Colquehoune) Spikes. In 1843 his mother passed away and his father married Lucinda Carter on January 11, 1844. Lucinda was a widow with a young son, also named John, and...
by Sharon Hall | May 21, 2014 | Digging History Magazine, Ghost Town Wednesday
Kimberly, Utah, located in the northwest part of Piute County, began to be settled in the 1890’s. In 1888 prospectors came to the Tushar Mountains to find a storied lost mine called “Trapper’s Pride.” It may not have been the mine they were searching for, but...
