Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Billiards Pioneer Style
One sport popular on the frontier was "horseback billards". It was considered courageous to ride your horse into the nearest saloon. Once inside, you could stay on your horse for a game of billards, shooting from a top your horse. :) That is provided you got to stay once you rode your horse into the saloon - it was commonplace to "escort such ill-mannered visitors outside at the point of a gun!
Monday, September 28, 2009
Pioneer Icons of the American West
Log Cabin
Conestoga Wagon
One Room Red Schoolhouse
Concord Stagecoach
Buffalo Gun
Pioneer Newspaper
Conestoga Wagon
One Room Red Schoolhouse
Concord Stagecoach
Buffalo Gun
Pioneer Newspaper
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Buffalo Aftermath
1874-1875
After buffalo devastation, a profitable business was the recovery of animal skeletons for fertilizer. It is estimated that 10-20 tons of bones a day were harvested in the heyday.
Bones were sorted for market, sometimes finding Indian skulls, legs, arms, and even skeletons of women and children who had been lost along the wagon trails. The woman and children were known to thrown aside as a reverence for helplessness and innocence and not used for fertilizer.
After buffalo devastation, a profitable business was the recovery of animal skeletons for fertilizer. It is estimated that 10-20 tons of bones a day were harvested in the heyday.
Bones were sorted for market, sometimes finding Indian skulls, legs, arms, and even skeletons of women and children who had been lost along the wagon trails. The woman and children were known to thrown aside as a reverence for helplessness and innocence and not used for fertilizer.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Great Cyclones of the Prairie
It you go looking for major cyclones (tornados) in the Plains during the 1800s you will find that the year 1882 was a devastating year for Kansas:
Rice County, Kansas 1882. Completely destroyed everything built, farmed or stored. There were few survivors.
Emporia, Kansas 1882 - sudden and destructive
What did the pioneers of the Plains do when a tornado was coming? The same thing they do today, they ran down into the cellars. Cellars were built into the ground and had doors that opened out and locked behind them. The cellar walls were earthen, as was the floor. Insides were damp and cool for storage of food. It wasn't a pleasant place to stay for any length of time and often the cyclone would blow off any doors not secured well and suck out the food and people hiding below.
Rice County, Kansas 1882. Completely destroyed everything built, farmed or stored. There were few survivors.
Emporia, Kansas 1882 - sudden and destructive
What did the pioneers of the Plains do when a tornado was coming? The same thing they do today, they ran down into the cellars. Cellars were built into the ground and had doors that opened out and locked behind them. The cellar walls were earthen, as was the floor. Insides were damp and cool for storage of food. It wasn't a pleasant place to stay for any length of time and often the cyclone would blow off any doors not secured well and suck out the food and people hiding below.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Receipt for Homestead circa 1864
Found this Homestead receipt in full
Receiver's office, Brownville, Nebraska on the Day 30th, 1868. Received of Daniel Freeman, the sum of six dollars and no cents, being the second half of compensation of Register and Receiver, and balance of payment required by law for the entry of (undeciperable plot) of Section Twenty-Six (26) in Township Town 4 north of Range five East containing 160 acres, under the acts of Congress approved. May 20, 1862, and March 21, 1864, entitled "An act to secure homesteads to actual settlers on the public domain" $6.00
Freeman was the first Nebraskan to meet the Homestead Act's requirement that a claim be occupied or farmed for 5 years.
Receiver's office, Brownville, Nebraska on the Day 30th, 1868. Received of Daniel Freeman, the sum of six dollars and no cents, being the second half of compensation of Register and Receiver, and balance of payment required by law for the entry of (undeciperable plot) of Section Twenty-Six (26) in Township Town 4 north of Range five East containing 160 acres, under the acts of Congress approved. May 20, 1862, and March 21, 1864, entitled "An act to secure homesteads to actual settlers on the public domain" $6.00
Freeman was the first Nebraskan to meet the Homestead Act's requirement that a claim be occupied or farmed for 5 years.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Police Blotter 1852 - Part 3
Hope you are finding these as funny as I do...
Indecent Exhibition - Antonio Rico has got a music box and a magic lantern. His pictures represent members of the human family in the Texas cosutme. Whilst the exhibition is going on, he grinds Yankee Doodle out of the box and charges two rials a sight. He was discharged and the indecent pictures ordered to be destroyed.
Susannah, the Indian woman who has not been out of the station house for one week at a stretch in two years, was up again, with another attack of the prevailing epidemic. Sent down for 9 days.
Gaudalupe Parvenise, sleeping with a friend Sunday night, abstracted $10 from his pocket, for the purpose, he said, of preventing somebody else from taking it. Sent down for 3 months.
At least they were humorous crimes back then!!
Indecent Exhibition - Antonio Rico has got a music box and a magic lantern. His pictures represent members of the human family in the Texas cosutme. Whilst the exhibition is going on, he grinds Yankee Doodle out of the box and charges two rials a sight. He was discharged and the indecent pictures ordered to be destroyed.
Susannah, the Indian woman who has not been out of the station house for one week at a stretch in two years, was up again, with another attack of the prevailing epidemic. Sent down for 9 days.
Gaudalupe Parvenise, sleeping with a friend Sunday night, abstracted $10 from his pocket, for the purpose, he said, of preventing somebody else from taking it. Sent down for 3 months.
At least they were humorous crimes back then!!
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Police Blotter Part 2
More of Police Blotters circa 1852
A Hard Old Case - J Keyser was found miserable drunk of Pacific Street and taken in. When called up in the dock, he was hardly able to stand, being considerably affected with the trembles. He admitted having been on a bender for a whole week. Fined $5 and sent to the lock up for five days.
Henry Foster, considerably noisy and furious, fined $5
Color Harmony - Henry While and George Brown, being very blue, went into Green Street and blacked each others eyes. Fined $25 each.
A greaserita named Carolina and an American name Hyde, with their heads wrapped up in several handerchiefs, appeared in the dock to answer a charge of fighting desperately on Dupont Street. Fined $20 each and put in the jug for ten days.
John Briggs, found comfortably drunk on Long Wharf. Discharged on promise to reform.
E Jones was found by Officer North on the corner of Long Wharf and Montgomery Street in a state of drunkedness and quite disorderly. He resisted the officer manfully, tearing his breeches and committing other small depradations. Fined $20 or ten days.
Mrs. Mark Quirk, proprietrees of a rum mill on Stockton Street, was found punching the goard of a poor, ill-shaven, luckless wight that had drank until he had become weak in the knees. Fined $50 and the Recorder sent the man to jail for three days because he had become so drunk as to let the woman thrash him.
One more set of these next time...
A Hard Old Case - J Keyser was found miserable drunk of Pacific Street and taken in. When called up in the dock, he was hardly able to stand, being considerably affected with the trembles. He admitted having been on a bender for a whole week. Fined $5 and sent to the lock up for five days.
Henry Foster, considerably noisy and furious, fined $5
Color Harmony - Henry While and George Brown, being very blue, went into Green Street and blacked each others eyes. Fined $25 each.
A greaserita named Carolina and an American name Hyde, with their heads wrapped up in several handerchiefs, appeared in the dock to answer a charge of fighting desperately on Dupont Street. Fined $20 each and put in the jug for ten days.
John Briggs, found comfortably drunk on Long Wharf. Discharged on promise to reform.
E Jones was found by Officer North on the corner of Long Wharf and Montgomery Street in a state of drunkedness and quite disorderly. He resisted the officer manfully, tearing his breeches and committing other small depradations. Fined $20 or ten days.
Mrs. Mark Quirk, proprietrees of a rum mill on Stockton Street, was found punching the goard of a poor, ill-shaven, luckless wight that had drank until he had become weak in the knees. Fined $50 and the Recorder sent the man to jail for three days because he had become so drunk as to let the woman thrash him.
One more set of these next time...
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Police Blotter ...1852
(When reading this just think of Jay Leno when he does police blotter reports :) These are hilarious! They are direct quotes.
From the Police Court Column - Daily Alta California 1852
George Dits was found insensible drunk in front of the Custom House. He was taken up in a handcart and emptied in the police station. Fined $5
Hyppolite Boveau, a Frenchman, fired a pistol in the street and did not know any better. Discharged.
Florence C Stevenson got drunk and attempted to take a grocery on Dupont Street by storm. Fined $7
John Gomez, a red-shirted, squalid looking greaser, was guilty of beating and maltreating his woman, quite an interesting specimen of the female sex. John accounted for her black eye by saying that the bedpost flew up and hit her. John was fined $25 and sent down for 10 days.
Colonel Waters of the Curbstone Rangers was picked up helplessly drunk on Kearny Street and taken to the station house in a wheelbarrow. Fined $5
Three Frenchmen with unpronounceable names were found very noisy on Pacific Wharf and fined $5 each.
More next time...
From the Police Court Column - Daily Alta California 1852
George Dits was found insensible drunk in front of the Custom House. He was taken up in a handcart and emptied in the police station. Fined $5
Hyppolite Boveau, a Frenchman, fired a pistol in the street and did not know any better. Discharged.
Florence C Stevenson got drunk and attempted to take a grocery on Dupont Street by storm. Fined $7
John Gomez, a red-shirted, squalid looking greaser, was guilty of beating and maltreating his woman, quite an interesting specimen of the female sex. John accounted for her black eye by saying that the bedpost flew up and hit her. John was fined $25 and sent down for 10 days.
Colonel Waters of the Curbstone Rangers was picked up helplessly drunk on Kearny Street and taken to the station house in a wheelbarrow. Fined $5
Three Frenchmen with unpronounceable names were found very noisy on Pacific Wharf and fined $5 each.
More next time...
Saturday, September 5, 2009
And Then the Blizzards Came
Lawrence, KS Winter 1856 - "As the wind drove snow through the walls of soddys, the temperature sank to 20-30 below zero. Breakfast beverages were frozen on the table, bread needed thawing to slice. Settlers are surviving by makeshift tents of blankets around the stove."
Dakota Territory January 1888 - " The "Schoolchildren Blizzard" strikes during school hours. The morning was mild and warm with children playing outside without hats or mittens, reports one witness. Suddenly the blizzard came rolling across the prairie from the northwest with a loud noise - "looking like a long string of 25 ft high cotton bales, each one bound tightly with heavy cords of sliver".
The children barely reached the schoolhouse in time. The force of the blizzard lifted the school building from its cobblestone foundation. All of the children were safe and stayed for the night. By mid-morning the blizzard was over and the children set out for home through the deep snow drifts.
Buffalo County Dakota - Among the missing and presumed dead in the recent blizzard is a couple who were outside their soddy and unable to find each other in the blinding snow.
A schoolhouse caught without fuel, sent children to a settler's home some 140 yards from the school. It is reported that they lost their way and fell into a ravine. Half frozen and exhausted, they found a pile of straw and tunneled into it for the night. They all survived, missing the settler's home by only 6 feet!
Not sure where we are head next - farther west, maybe Dodge City and beyond. Stay tuned.
Dakota Territory January 1888 - " The "Schoolchildren Blizzard" strikes during school hours. The morning was mild and warm with children playing outside without hats or mittens, reports one witness. Suddenly the blizzard came rolling across the prairie from the northwest with a loud noise - "looking like a long string of 25 ft high cotton bales, each one bound tightly with heavy cords of sliver".
The children barely reached the schoolhouse in time. The force of the blizzard lifted the school building from its cobblestone foundation. All of the children were safe and stayed for the night. By mid-morning the blizzard was over and the children set out for home through the deep snow drifts.
Buffalo County Dakota - Among the missing and presumed dead in the recent blizzard is a couple who were outside their soddy and unable to find each other in the blinding snow.
A schoolhouse caught without fuel, sent children to a settler's home some 140 yards from the school. It is reported that they lost their way and fell into a ravine. Half frozen and exhausted, they found a pile of straw and tunneled into it for the night. They all survived, missing the settler's home by only 6 feet!
Not sure where we are head next - farther west, maybe Dodge City and beyond. Stay tuned.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
The Locust Invasion
The Wichita Eagle, 1874...Locust plagues swarmed the prairie, devouring everything in their path. Coming in untold millions in cloud upon cloud, until their fluttering wings looked like sweeping snowstorms in the heavens - until their dark bodies covered everything green upon the earth. The insects blanketed the prairie six inches deep and with their combined weight snapped off the limbs of cottonwood trees.
Topeka, KS ... After consuming the corn crop, the locust consumed prairie grass, leaves and bark off of trees, leather boots and harness straps, even fence posts, door frames, and the handles of axes and plows. They attacked the piles of cord wood and cut it into chunks without even splitting it first!
The cause of origin of these locust assults remains a unknown mystery and they have departed as stangely as they arrived.
Next...Lawrence, KS Winter 1856
Topeka, KS ... After consuming the corn crop, the locust consumed prairie grass, leaves and bark off of trees, leather boots and harness straps, even fence posts, door frames, and the handles of axes and plows. They attacked the piles of cord wood and cut it into chunks without even splitting it first!
The cause of origin of these locust assults remains a unknown mystery and they have departed as stangely as they arrived.
Next...Lawrence, KS Winter 1856
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