Women Who Rode Horseback Delivering Library Books

 

"They were known as the "book women." They would saddle up, usually at dawn, to pick their way along snowy hillsides and through muddy creeks with a simple goal: to deliver reading material to Kentucky's isolated mountain communities."

So began an article I happened upon on the Atlas Obscura website, written by Anika Burgess in 2017.  Quoting from the article: 

The Pack Horse Library Initiative was part of FDR's Works Progress Administration, created to help lift America out of the Great Depression. Roving horseback libraries weren't entirely new to Kentucky, but this initiative was an opportunity to boost both employment and literacy at the same time. 

The Book Women rode 100 to 120 miles a week, on their own horses or mules, along designated routes, regardless of the weather. Sometimes they had to go on foot! By the end of 1938, there were 274 librarians riding out across 29 counties in Kentucky. This WPA program employed nearly 1000 riding librarians. Funding ended in 1943 as WWII loomed. 

The counties had to have their own base libraries from which the women would travel.  Reading materials.... books, magazines and newspapers ...... were all donated. In December 1940, a notice in the Mountain Eagle newspaper noted that the county library "needs donations of books and magazines regardless of how old or worn they may be." 

Did you have an ancestor in the 1930s in Kentucky who might have been a horseback riding librarian??? 

History of Spokane's Flour Mill

  1928

"Spokane Flour Mills once shipped its wares all over the world" began an article in the Spokesman Review, 22 Jul 1972 by Jan Chrisman. "It closed shop last week after 80 years of operation." The 3-column article detailed the long and convoluted history of the mill. A shorter summary was found on the Spokane Historical website, an article by Jesse Roberts: 

The city of Spokane began as a small cluster of buildings on the south side of the falls, focused around saw mills and and later flour mills. This is why the city was originally named Spokane Falls. After the 1889 fire had burned much of the city it was decided to build a new mill on the north side of the falls.

The mill was finished in 1895 but it wasn’t put into operation until 1900. The reason for the delay was lawsuit over ownership of the mill. The previous owner, Simon Oppenheimer, went bankrupt and went off the grid. The ownership of this mill passed to James Glover and a series of complex lawsuits between him, the city of Spokane and a Dutch financial firm named Kantoor soon ensued. Eventually Kantoor won the suits and the mill was able to enter operation. This was one of the most spectacular and complex lawsuits in Spokane history.

The mill worked regularly until 1972 when it, after many years of service, closed its doors. This was not the end of the Flour Mill though. Soon, in 1973 the mill was converted into a shopping center in preparation for EXPO ‘74. This was one of the first examples in Spokane of a historic building being preserved and reused for a new function. Its location was directly next to the north entrance to the EXPO, which got it much publicity during the EXPO. It contains many interesting little shops including Tobacco World and Olde Joe Clark’s Photography Studio which have been there since it was converted. At first, much of the original equipment was left in place, but was later removed.

DONNA:  Also Clinkerdagger's  restaurant is there now!

The Flour Mill serves as a reminder of the industrial origins of Spokane and of the importance of water power throughout the history of Spokane. Its conversion to a shopping center has maintained the location’s viability while allowing it to continue to serve as a reminder of the city’s history.

History Of The Hamburger

I photographed this poster in the famous CNN Tower in Toronto, Canada. Doesn't it make your mouth water? Even if it does look impossible to pick up!!   So what's the history of the good old American backyard BBQ staple, the hamburger??  There was pages of information resulting from consulting Google; I suggest you might go read some for yourself. Here are some bits:

WIKIPEDIA: Considerable evidence suggests that either the United States or Germany (the city of Hamburg) was the first country where two slices of bread and a ground beef patty were combined into a "hamburger sandwich" and sold, it really boils down to who was able to prove it and not hearsay. There is some controversy over the origin of the hamburger because its two basic ingredients, bread and beef, had been prepared and consumed separately for many years in different countries before their combination. Shortly after its creation, the hamburger quickly included all of its currently typically characteristic trimmings, including onions, lettuce, and sliced pickles.

1885  --  "National Birth of the Burger Day" is celebrated on September 18 to honor the invention of the burger in 1885 at the Hamburg Fair.

Who invented the beef hamburger?

First, the Library of Congress agrees it was Louis Lassen who invented the burger when he put scraps of ground between slices of bread for fast, easy eating.

The ancestor of the modern hamburger arrived at American shores in the 19th Century when German immigrants brought with them a dish called Hamburg style beef, which, in turn, had been brought to Hamburg from Russia some time around the 14th Century. It was in America that this raw, chopped piece of beef would evolve over time to become the succulent patty sandwiched in a bun that we call a hamburger.

Now, it has been established that the development of the hamburger took place in America around the turn of the last century, but there is great dispute over what happened after the German patty arrived in America.

And I leave you to study it out for yourself.......... after you wipe your fingers and chin from eating that hamburger!!

Why Do We Do Genealogy? Part 2

 

This is a continuation not of Alexandra Rain’s article but a parallel article.  This bit is from the Sept/Oct 2020 issue of YourGenealogyToday magazine, an article by T.S. Davis titled “What I’m Looking For.” I quote from his article:

“It is an odd obsession, and people who are not consumed by it can’t understand why we don’t focus on our own lives at the least instead of scouring the internet and tramping around graveyards on the weekend, or why we don’t worry more about what’s going to happen to our family than what already has happened. There’s no good retort to this argument. But I will say this: the past is as unpredictable as the future, but unlike the future, the past is discoverable, and often a lesson can be learned that prepares us for the future. And also, a person’s unique personality and struggle in life, their contribution to the human experience, is not forgotten until the past person who knew and loved them is gone. Until that happens, something can still be learned from them. And even when they finally are forgotten, some future obsessed descendant like me may come along and discover them all over again and appreciate them for the interesting life of anonymity that they lived.”

“Most of us would like to be remembered ourselves, so we do our fair share of remembering. Finally, there is the desire of practically everyone not to feel alone in this present moment. We want to be part of a tradition, a family that struggled and failed, or succeeded, and struggled again, a family that somehow, inexplicably and miraculously, led to us in this present moment. Because it somehow validates what we’re going through and gives us the strength to continue.”

**Thanks to Scientific Magazine for the image via Google. 

Why Do We Do Genealogy? Part 1

 

Read recently an article by Alexandra Rain in the April 2023 issue of Deseret Magazine and was fascinated by her ideas.  I quote from her article:

“The urge to document our lives is not new,” Rain wrote. “Humans have been documenting themselves for as long as we’ve had the ability to do so. The first known “selfie” dates to about 40,000 years ago when a person pressed their hand to a cave wall and sloshed it in red paint. A more modern “selfie” is “Portrait of a Man in Red Chalk,” drawn on paper by Leonardo DaVinci in 1510. Across the millennia, we have painted ourselves, carved likenesses of ourselves and sculpted ourselves.”

“In 1839, a Parisian named Louis DaGuerre invented a technique that would hand self-portraits over to the masses. The daguerreotype captured images on a device that could be carried anywhere. After World War II, 35mm cameras became accessible to ordinary families. A decade later, disposable point-and-shoot camera were the rage. Camera sales grew until 2010 when more than 120-million were sold globally.”

“Camera phone changed the game. There are now an estimated 1.5-billion iPhone owners worldwide (documenting themselves)! We post baby pictures, graduation pictures, wedding pictures and even our meals. (And certainly our gardens, pets and travels!!) “

“So why do we all want to record our own images? Quoting Joe Marotta, a photog and emeritus art professor at the University of Utah, who quoted Louis DaGuerre as saying, “Now my immortality is guaranteed.” Meaning he would be remembered and relevant beyond his time on earth. Marotta said, “The photograph in a sense extends our mortality.”

“Grandmas who did scrapbooks of photos and beg the indulgence of grandchildren to sit and learn, didn’t do it for herself,” wrote Rain,” but for the living so we can remember.”

 

Continues with Part 2 next..................

Thousand Island Ancestors...... Might You Have One?

 

Thousand Island Ancestors….. Might You Have One?

A century ago, the Thousand Island area of the St. Lawrence River (some 1864 actually) was the playground of some of America’s richest people. They came and built “cottages” (mansions!) as their summer retreats.  Clayton, Jefferson County, New York, was sort of a jumping off point for these well-heeled folks to board their private yachts and sail to their summer “cottage.”  Bet you didn’t know that Thousand Island Salad Dressing was first concocted there by the wife of a local fisherman…….. it was for salmon, not salad.  But I digress.

We’ve all been told a hundred times to check out the small-little-town libraries, museums and historical societies where our ancestors might have lived. Well, BINGO on Clayton!  While on my cruise trip in May, we moored for a day at Clayton. I made a beeline for the Thousand Islands Museum and Clayton Research Library Collection.  Yes, the little museum was impressive….. it gets cold enough there that in days gone by there were trotting-horse races held on the ice… but it was the genealogy collection that really impressed me.

There were binders shelved around three sides of the room; two sides held over 300 binders labeled by surnames, families that had lived in the area. And these were fat-stuffed binders with newspaper clippings, obits, letters, all sorts of goodies! Of course I looked at the binder for POTTER and first thing was a spiral-bound booklet titled Potters of New York…. A resource I’d never seen before! Likely a local author’s compilation.

The third side of the room was their local veterans’ memorials, some dating back to the Civil War. On the final side of the room were binders labeled businesses, churches, schools, groups, cemeteries, rivers, etc. The four walls surrounded a 12-foot table with 12 comfy chairs.

So, Lesson #1:  do not neglect contacting even small towns for they are always very proud of their history and most always have resources on the folks who made that history. And Lesson #2, if you have a Thousand Island ancestor, contact the Clayton Research Library, 312 James Street, Clayton, NY, 13601, or click to www.timuseum.org or email info@timuseum.org.

How Washington Place Names Came To Be

How Washington Place Names Came To Be: From The Untamed Olympics, by Ruby El Hult, 1954   (GV= George Vancouver)

Strait of Juan de Fuca – 1592, Portuguese captain/sailor first to sail into the Sound

Heceta Head – 1862, Bruno Heceta, Capt. of Spanish ship/exploration

Destruction Island – 1775, Spanish men went ashore for wood/water were killed

Mt. Olympus – for Greek god, Capt. John Meares, 1788

Port Discovery – Capt. George Vancouver, 1790

Dungeness Spit – Capt. GV, 1792, rem’d him of Dungeness on English Channel

Port Angeles – “Puerto de Neuestra Senorade Los Angeles” 1791 by Francisco de Eliza…. Officially changed 1862

Port Townsend – Capt. GV, 1792, "in honor of noble marquis of that name”

Mt Rainier – Capt. GV, for his old friend Capt. Peter Rainier

Hood Canal – Capt. GV, “Right Honorable Lord Hood” ---- GV, thinking of his homeland, “named many places for friends and English noblemen of his acquaintance.”

Puget Sound – Lt. Peter Puget, with GV, 1792 by Capt. GV

Gray’s Harbor – Capt. Robert Gray, first to sail into Columbia River, 1792

Port Gamble – Wilkes Expedition, 1841, unsure if John or Robert Gamble, 1868 after founding of Pope/Talbot mill 1853

Renton – Capt. Wm Renton, pioneer of Seattle area, 1875

Camano Island –1847, in honor of Francisco de Eliza, 1790

O’Leary Creek, flows into Gray’s Harbor—1850, Irishman Wm O’Leary

Lake Crescent – 1890, crescent-shape

Crescent Beach – 1892, town laid out as deep water lumber shipping port; razed 1920s as part of coast defense system

Lake Sutherland – John Sutherland, 1865, Canadian fur trapper

Ebey – Col. Isaac N. Ebey, first permanent resident Whidbey Island, 1851

Seattle – Chief Sealth

Kingston – 1853, originally Apple Tree Cove

Mt Baker – 1792, Joseph Baker sailed with Capt. GV

Winthrop – Theodore Winthrop, 1853, traveling journalist

Denney – Arthur Denney, representative for WA Terr

Lauridsen – G.M. Lauridsen. Danish world traveler, bought lots in Port Angeles

Elliott Bay – Prof D B. Elliott, 1898, from Chicago Field Museum to study

Everett – John Everett, came with fur trappers, 1890

LaPush – French, la bouche, the mouth so said but WRONG

Fidalgo – Salvador Fidalgo early sailor 1790s

Forks – 1912, laid out by early homesteaders

McCleary – Henry McCleary, 1898

I gleaned these bits/answers from Ruth's book; I did not fact-check them with Google. Begs a good point:  do we swallow so-called facts without checking their veracity???

 

Canada Day Celebration Mirrors Our July 4th

 

As we celebrate American Independence on July 4th annually, our Canadians celebrate their independence on July 1st. Why? 

July 1, 1867: The British North America Act (today known as the Constitution Act, 1867) created Canada. On June 20, 1868: Governor General Lord Monck signs a proclamation that requests all of Her Majesty Queen Victoria's subjects across Canada to celebrate the occasion on July 1.

How much do we know about our Canadian neighbors? See how you do on this 20-question quiz.......  answers way at the bottom!

Canadian Trivia

1.    1. Name the territories and provinces that comprise Canada?

2.   2. Which Canadian province is officially bi-lingual?

3.    3. What are the two national sports of Canada?

4.    4. How many points are on the Maple Leaf on the flag?

5.    5. The first YMCA in Canada was opened in what city?

6.    6. Which Great Lake does not share a border with Canada?

7.    7. When is Canada Day celebrated? (Formerly Dominion Day.)

8.    8. Which spreadable good was invented by a Canadian pharmacist?

9.    9. In some Canadian provinces, doctors can give a prescription to do what?

 I 10. In 1995, Quaker Oats gave this away in their cereal boxes.

1 11. PEI residents are known by this starchy nickname?

1   12.    Which territory or province is largest?

1  13.   Curling was invented in what country?

 114.     Who is the immediate past Prime Minister of Canada?

1   15.    Who is the current P.M.?

1   16.    “Double-double with timbits” in Canada means what?

1 17.       Seal flippers are a delicacy in Newfoundland, yes or no?

        18.   What natural phenomenon in 2021 in British Columbia caused a massive marine die out?

        19.    Which Canadian city staged an elaborate ruse that Nazis were invading in 1942?

2       20.     Who is the most famous Canadian folk singer?

 

1.    Ontario, Northwest Territories, Newfoundland/Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Nunavut, Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Yukon

2.    New Brunswick

3.    Hockey and LaCrosse

4.    Eleven

5.    Montreal

6.    Michigan

7.    July 1^st

8.    Peanut butter, 1884

9.    Park passes (to get outdoors!)

10.           Hockey card

11.           “Spudheads,” for potatoes

12.           Nunavut

13.           Scotland

14.           Harper

15.           Trudeau

16.           Coffee (2sugars/2creams) and donut holes (in Tim Horton’s)

17.           Yes

18.           Heat wave

19.           Winnipeg

20.           Leonard Cohen (and you guessed Gordon Lightfoot, right?)

 

This was a game played on board the Pearl Mist by a Canadian entertainer who said he used Google to compile the list….. “so blame Google for any mistakes!”