Trivia Time!

 

* We here in the Pacific Northwest do love our often-immense Douglas Fir trees. Did you know that this tree was named for David Douglas, born in Scone, Scotland, in 1799? This famous botanist arrived at the mouth of the Columbia River in April 1825 and during the next two years he traveled up the Columbia, Snake and Okanogan rivers, some 4000 miles. Why? He was noting, comparing, gathering and preparing specimens for shipments back to London. In July 1834 he was on the island of Hawaii, planning to walk the 100 miles to Hilo. He met his death on July 12th by falling into a rock-walled pit, built to trap wild bulls. Unfortunately there was also in the pit an angry bull. There is a small monument on the spot but today it is rather inaccessible.

* Did your ancestors come from Alsace-Lorraine? Where is this, Germany or France? Alsace-Lorraine is a region in the northeastern part of France, located on the border with Germany. The small area covers only about 12,000 square miles of territory. Switzerland lies to the south and Luxembourg to the north. For hundreds of years, the inhabitants of this territory have been part German and part French. The area has seen wars of conquest many times beginning about 300A.D. Both France and Germany sparred over ownership of the area but after World War II the region became part of France.

* Ever been to a podunk  town? A common implication of Podunk is that it's a place so dreary and remote that it's not even worth situating on a map. One of the most famous people to refer to Podunk was Mark Twain, who in 1869 wrote that a certain fact was known even "in Podunk, wherever that may be." Would you guess that there was a town originally known as Podunk in Washington? Yepper, tiz so. On the Lewis River, sixteen miles north of Vancouver is the bitsy town of LaCenter. John Pollock claimed a homestead there in 1865 and folks have lived there ever since. Early on, the only access to the town was via the river for there were no roads. Do you know anybody from Podunk? (There are also towns by that name in Connecticut, Michigan, Vermont, Massachusetts, Nebraska and New York. Now you're ready for Jeopardy!)

Trivia Time!

 

The phrase "mad as a hatter" referred to the 19th century hat-makers were were poisoned by the mercury they used to treat the felt.

Christmas was not declared a national holiday until 1890.

The phrase "second string," which today means replacement or backup, originated in the Middle Ages, when an archer carried a second string in case the one on his bow broke.

During the peak of the western cattle drives, as many as one in four cowboys was African-American.

After she was crowned, the first act of Britain's Queen Victoria was to move her bed out of her mother's bedroom and into a room of her own.

The first bomb dropped by the Allies on the city of Berlin during WWII claimed an unusual casualty...the only elephant in the Berlin zoo. 

During his invasion of England in 1014, King Olaf's fleet of Viking ships managed to pull down London's wooden Thames River bridge. Hence the children's song about London Bridge falling down. 

The last soldier of WWII, Japan's Lt. Hiroo Onoda, didn't surrender until 1974. He refused to be "fooled" by allied stories about the war ending in 1945 and only gave up the fight after his old unit commander was flown to the Philippines and ordered him to lay down his arms.

And where did these wonderful bits come from? The Armchair Reader: Amazing Book of History, published in 2008, and found in a thrift store. Are they true? 

Trivia Time

 Hopefully we're into the hottest days of summer, so tiz a good time for some genealogy and history trivia!

"In the 1800s the method of making one plank (long board cut from a log) was that a pit was dug. The tree was placed over the pit. Two men would go into the pit, and two men would be on top of the log and together they would handsaw each plank. The men down in the pit would get sawdust in their eyes and that was how the expression "it's the pits!" originated."  (Church of Our Lord tour guide, Victoria, BC)

In November, 1217, the 10-year-old King Henry III signed a charter giving England's common people some legal rights for the first time. One big provision is that the concept of "royal forests," where common folks could not hunt and poaching was a death sentence. This new rule reduced the size of these off-limits forests and restored ancient hunting rights. (History Magazine, from England, 2024)

Ever heard of Frozen Charlotte Dolls? Frozen Charlotte dolls are small, solid, porcelain or bisque dolls that were popular in the mid-1800s to early 1900s, particularly in Europe and the United States. They are named after a popular poem and song about a young woman named Charlotte who froze to death while refusing to bundle up for a winter carriage ride. The dolls were mass-produced in Germany and became a common bath toy and a relatively inexpensive children's toy.