Category History
The Mail Runner
“In all communities which maintain any pretence at civilisation and up-to-date methods, an efficient postal service is an absolute sine qua non.” — Confederate States of America: Government Postage Stamps (1913) by Frederick John Melville Early in 1861, when his home state left the Union, John H. Reagan left the U.S. House of Representatives. Soon […]
About Fred’s Head
Frederick Bailey Deeming was bad in so many ways. A swindler and bigamist, he graduated to murderer when his first wife and their four children became inconvenient. He buried them under the kitchen floor of a cottage in Rainhill, England, and cemented them over. A few months later he killed another wife in Melbourne, Australia, […]
Daisy Lamb
Daisy Lamb with daughter Sallie Sarah Ann Chaffee, who went by “Daisy,” was the wife of Col. William Lamb, CSA, commander of Fort Fisher, which guarded the approaches to Wilmington, North Carolina, during the Civil War. The war had moved her around. In 1862, while Daisy was living in Wilmington with her husband and three […]
The Big Snow
In December of 1937, Buffalo, N.Y., had a snow storm documented by Keith Winship and his Brownie camera. The storm, while not the largest ever in Buffalo, did merit a British Pathé newsreel appearance.
The Cyclone
My father’s photo album included three photos of the legendary Cyclone roller coaster at the Crystal Beach amusement park in Fort Erie, Ontario, just across the Peace Bridge from Buffalo, N.Y. The Cyclone was one of three coasters designed and built by Harry G. Traver, and was variously described as “the thrill of thrills,” “revered […]
Lewiston Ice Jam, 1938
My father took seven photos of the Lewiston ice jam of 1938. Lake Erie, being shallow, was prone to the buildup of ice in the winter, which then went over Niagara Falls in huge blocks. The flow of the lower Niagara River couldn’t handle that much ice, and it collected in ice jams, most notably […]
Colgate vs. Tulane, 1937
In October of 1937, Tulane, the Green Wave, defeated Colgate’s Red Raider football team 7-6 in the new Roesch Memorial Stadium in Buffalo, N.Y. My father took three pictures… And even sneaked a shot of the press box… I love the hats, the microphone on a trunk, and the headphones. Roesch Memorial was soon renamed […]
Clover
Last week I was in Clover Boldt’s bedroom. She was not there. In fact, she was never there, and her bedroom at Boldt Castle was never finished. Today it has been carefully recreated as the room it would have been, had not her mother, Louise, died in 1904 during the castle’s construction, halting all work […]
Sorting Out a Festering Fleshpot
In 1817, Spain’s hold on its American colonies, including Florida, was weakening, so much so that an adventurer named Gregor MacGregor was able to take possession of Florida’s Amelia Island with an amateur army of 100 men. But within a few months of yellow fever and not much to eat, MacGregor abandoned his possession, which […]
Speak English
“These foreign people have thrown a circle around themselves… they have studiously striven to exclude everything American and to cherish everything foreign… There must be an interpretation anew of the oath of allegiance… It means that you will speak the American language, sing American songs; that you will begin earnestly to study American history; that […]
Faithful Readers 