History | dual personalities

May 21, 2024

“…the great floodgates of the wonder-world swung open…”*

by chuckofish

On this day in 1844 the Missouri and Mississippi rivers reached the most devastating flood stages in history. The Mississippi River swelled to nearly 12 miles wide during the the flood. Crowds gathered on rooftops in St. Louis to watch the houses and trees of Illinoistown (now East St. Louis) being carried away. Steamboats that were still running on the river reported crashing into chimneys and mill machinery hidden below the water’s surface. River pirates took small boats back into the flooded, abandoned towns, looting the upper stories of homes.

The 1844 flood and 1993 flood square off as St. Louis’s “biggest”—the 1844 flood carried 21 percent more water, but the 1993 flood crested more than 8 feet higher. Had the 1993 flood carried the 1844 flood’s volume, it would have almost certainly crested St. Louis’s floodwall (the 1993 flood came within three feet of crest).

To give you an idea, here’s a photo of high water–flooded levee with buildings on one side and boats on the other–at St. Louis during the 1858 flood. (Missouri Historical Society Collections.)

Not until June 28 did the waters begin to recede. By the middle of July the river was back to normal.

After the flood, Congress passed the Swamp Act in 1849 providing land grants to build stronger levees.

“A young man was sitting at home when a terrible rainstorm began. Within hours, the man’s house began to flood, and someone came to his door offering a ride to higher ground. The man declined, saying, ‘God will take care of me.’ A few hours later, as the waters engulfed the first floor of the man’s home, a boat passed by, and the captain offered to take the man to safety. The man declined, saying, ‘God will take care of me.’ A few hours after that, as the man waited on his roof—his entire home flooded—a helicopter flew by, and the pilot offered transportation to dry land. Again the man declined, telling the pilot that God would care for him. Soon thereafter, the waters overcame the man, and as he stood before God in heaven, he protested his fate: ‘You promised that you’d help me so long as I was faithful.’ God replied, ‘I sent you a car, a boat, and a helicopter. Your death is your own fault.’ God helps those who help themselves.”

–J.D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy

*Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

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April 10, 2024

Things of minor consequence

by chuckofish

This has turned into a busier week than usual. I am actually making to-do lists!

I am finishing up an article for the Kirkwood Historical Review about the renovation of Mudd’s Grove, the 165-year old home which the Historical Society bought in 1992 and made their headquarters. The house had been allowed to fall into wrack and ruin and was in really terrible shape when it was rescued.

It is sad when this happens and I am sympathetic to the poor soul who lived there and for years pretended to be “working” on the house. Ultimately it took hundreds of thousands of dollars and hundreds of volunteer hours to accomplish its renovation.

It is the showplace of our town now and a testament to what volunteers can do.

In my humble opinion, people would do well to give more money to historic preservation and less to already massively-endowed schools and universities that no longer teach much worth learning anyway. Maintaining historic homes and buildings is an ongoing endeavor–money is always needed–and the local, state and federal governments don’t do much to support this kind of thing.

Well, I’ll get off my soapbox.

Speaking of history, a lot of interesting things happened on April 10, among them: Archduke Maximilian of Hapsburg was proclaimed emperor of Mexico in 1864, Confederate General Robert E. Lee addressed his troops for the last time in 1865 following his surrender to General Grant the day before, the Titanic set sail in 1912, The Great Gatsby was published in 1925, and in 1939 the A.A. “Big Book” was published. In 1970 Paul McCartney announced he was leaving the Beatles.

We also remember Michael Curtiz, the great Hungarian director, who died on this day in 1962. He came to Hollywood in 1926, when he was 39 years old. He had already directed 64 films in Europe, and soon helped Warner Bros. become the fastest-growing movie studio. He directed 102 films during his Hollywood career, mostly at Warners, where he directed ten actors to Oscar nominations. He himself was nominated five times, and won twice, once for Best Short Subject for Sons of Liberty (1939) and once for Best Director for Casablanca (1942). The secret to his success was his amazing versatility–he could handle any film genre: melodrama, comedy, love story, western, film noir, musical, war story, or historical epic. He cared about the human-interest aspect of every story, stating that the “human and fundamental problems of real people” were the basis of all good drama.

A look at the list of movies he directed shows his range and his amazing success. I’m thinking something with Errol Flynn might be in order tonight.

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April 8, 2024

“Civil War skeletons in their graves”*

by chuckofish

How was your weekend? Mine was a quiet one, mostly spent hanging out at home. Although it was chilly, we could sit out on the patio and soak up some vitamin D on Saturday.

I went to a few estate sales and picked up two books.

I am reading the Keegan now and really enjoying it. I am no scholar, but I find it accessible and readable. And I love reading about all those guys, especially my heroes: Grant and Sherman.

There is much to be learned from them.

Church was held outside on Sunday morning and luckily it was not raining, although it was chilly, overcast and windy. I dressed appropriately and I enjoyed it. We started a new sermon series on Paul’s letter to Titus, having finished the gospel of Mark, and our new young (29 years old) lead pastor gave a good sermon. He does not cut and paste from the internet, but gives a good exegesis of the text, in this case Titus 1:1-4. Stonewall Jackson would have approved–it was all about the doctrine of election.

Meanwhile Anne “enjoyed the astonishing delight of getting to see my name in Not the Bee underneath the Andrew Walker tweet that went viral.” Take heart, not all the news is terrible. As the Bee says:

We’re here, and we’re fine.

Growing up Baptist and going to VBS didn’t hurt anyone.

There’s no book because this is how normal, well-adjusted, salt-of-the-earth Christian men and women are raised. Nothing is extraordinary about this story. And that’s the point – God uses the weak and mundane and insignificant things in the world’s eyes to shame the things that the world considers #StunningAndBrave.

Amen, brother.

The young bud played in his first lacrosse game and was, by all accounts, a scrappy competitor.

*And here’s a blast from the past which has new meaning for us since Decatur is just up the road now from daughter # 2 et famille.

I am told it is Katie’s favorite song right now and she always sings along to the line, “Sangamon river it overflowed.”

Now go in peace to love and serve the Lord.

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January 24, 2024

Fun facts to know and tell

by chuckofish

Yesterday we were able to put away the storm gear and venture outside in relatively balmy temperatures in the 40s. Hopefully this weather system will persevere through next week when daughter #3 and DN will make the Big Move to Illinois. As you can imagine, the Move looms large in their lives and three-year old Katie has a limitless supply of questions.

Well, in case you were wondering, Illinois has been a state since 1818.

It is known as the “Land of Lincoln”–an excellent slogan, as they go. Three U.S. Presidents have been elected while residents of Illinois: Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant and Barack Obama. Ronald Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois and raised in Dixon. He graduated from Eureka College outside Peoria where he was student body president, played football and was president of his fraternity. Although he left Illinois after college never to return, Reagan is a true son of Illinois.

Illinois is a very flat state, lying entirely in the Interior Plains. Its highest point is Charles Mound at 1,235 feet (376 m) above sea level. It is located in the Driftless Area in the northwestern part of the state. At 279 feet (85 m) above sea level, the lowest elevation point in the state is located near Cairo and the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.

Champaign is the 10th largest city in Illinois. Because the university and a number of well-known technology start-up companies are located there, it is often referred to as the hub, or a significant landmark, of the Silicone Prairie.

Carl Perkins and Bob Dylan joined forces in 1969 to write the song “Champaign, Illinois”, which Perkins released on his album On Top. This is a very cool, fun fact. Not many towns can say that Carl Perkins and Bob Dylan wrote a song about them.

“Yes, I certainly do enjoy Champaign, Illinois!”

My maternal grandmother was born and raised in Illinois–the Ravenswood neighborhood on the North Side of Chicago. After her mother, Anna Hough, and father, William Carnahan, were married in Colorado in 1889, they moved to Chicago where they lived thereafter and brought up their five children. They helped found the Ravenswood Baptist Church which still appears to be going strong.

The next few days are going to be a stressful time for daughter #2 and her famille as they wrap things up in Maryland and head west. I have no doubt they’ll all handle it with aplomb.

He moved away from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it; so he named it Rehoboth, for he said, “At last the Lord has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.” (Genesis 26:22)

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January 10, 2024

Keepin’ the peace

by chuckofish

How’s it goin’? It is still rainy and windy here. And kind of snowy. But later in the week we are supposed to get the real thing and some real cold temps. C’est la vie. January. Okay.

In the meantime today we toast Samuel Colt (1817-1862)–the man who revolutionized firearms manufacturing in the United States and who established Colt’s Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company. He was born on this day 207 years ago.

Colt’s U.S. revolver patent gave him a monopoly of revolver manufacture until 1857. His was the first practical revolver and the first practical repeating firearm. One of his slogans, “God created men, Col. Colt made them equal,” became a popular adage in American culture.

Yes, when you are in possession of a loaded Colt revolver the long centuries of arbitrary oppression of the physically weak by the physically strong are at an end. And a well-armed woman is the equal of any man.

Dubbed the “Peacemaker”, the 1851 Navy Colt six-gun was the choice sidearm of such historical figures as James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok, often called the “Prince of Pistoleers,” as well as many of his contemporaries, such as John Wesley Hardin, the James-Younger Gang, the Pinkertons, as well as many U.S. dragoons of the pre-Civil War years.

As Shane says, “A gun is a tool…as good or as bad as the man using it.”

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.

5 Comments

November 9, 2023

Bread from heaven

by chuckofish

We are experiencing Indian Summer this week in flyover country–absolutely beautiful days in the 70s and even 80s with the sun hitting the orange leaves in a really spectacular way. And the leaf blowers are out in full force. I do get tired of all the noise, like a bajillion bees coming in waves to attack us. 🙄

My friend Don sent this photo of his birdbath with “the neighborhood bluebirds”.

I live a mile or so away and I have never seen a bluebird!

As we all know, the streaming platforms are a wasteland and I haven’t watched network tv for years. So I am forced to watch episodes of old shows like the old lady that I am. Lately, however, I have added Harry Wild to my watch list (on Acorn). It stars the lovely Jane Seymour as a recently retired English professor who discovers a knack for investigation and cannot help but interfere with the cases assigned to her police detective son.

Although she doesn’t quite look her age–she’s five years older than I am–she doesn’t hide the fact that she is an old retired lady. She dresses like I do. She drives an old (red) car and drinks (too much) red wine. She knows a lot about English literature. She speaks with grammatical precision and corrects those who don’t. I can actually relate to her. Also the show is filmed in Dublin and I have actually been there, so that is interesting and familiar. The show is not American, so the Irish are not stereotypes.

So I recommend it if you are looking for something to watch. And who isn’t?

Today we must not forget to remember that unsung hero Elijah Parish Lovejoy (November 9, 1802 – November 7, 1837) who was an American Presbyterian minister, journalist, newspaper editor and abolitionist. He was murdered by a pro-slavery mob in Alton, Illinois, during their attack on his warehouse to destroy his press and abolitionist materials. As I’ve said before, Lovejoy’s life (and murder) is another reminder to us today of how rough and dangerous life was in my part of the country back in the mid-nineteenth century. And people think emotions run high these days!

We also remember Edna May Oliver who died on this day, her birthday, in 1942. She was an American stage and screen actress who specialized in formidable older women, such as Lady Catherine de Bourgh in Pride and Prejudice (1940) and Miss Pross in A Tale of Two Cities (1935). She was only nominated once for a supporting actress Oscar, but it was for a doozy–Mrs. McKlennar in Drums Along the Mohawk (1939).

I re-watched this movie recently and was really impressed by it. And Edna May Oliver is great; she never crosses the line into farce which a lesser actress might do. She is always 100% believable.

So enjoy these last beautiful days of fall, watch an old lady in a tv show or movie, remember some history, and praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Help me to see that although I am in the wilderness
  it is not all briars and barrenness.
I have bread from heaven, streams from the rock,
  light by day, fire by night,
  thy dwelling place and thy mercy seat.

–Valley of Vision

4 Comments

August 17, 2023

Live Free or Die*

by chuckofish

Bennington Battle Day is observed on August 16 annually, and this year it marked the 245th year of the battle. It is a state holiday in Vermont honoring the American victory against the British forces during the American Revolutionary War.

The Bennington Battle began in July 1777 when the British forces led by General John Burgoyne captured Fort Ticonderoga and Mount Independence. Their goal was to cut off New England from their other colonies. On August 9, General Burgoyne sent German Lt. Colonel Friedrich Baum with an armed troop consisting of 800 men to raid Bennington and plunder food supplies and ammunition. On August 14, this raiding party won the battle over the American militia, which was led by Brigadier-General John Stark. However, the battle didn’t stop there. The New Hampshire militia regrouped and grew in number to prepare for the final battle that took place just two days later. Reinforced by Vermont militiamen led by Colonel Seth Warner and members of the Green Mountain Boys, they decisively won the battle, capturing at least 700 men.

In 1877, a local historical society began to plan a monument for the battle’s centennial celebration, which was eventually attended by President Rutherford B. Hayes. The monument’s cornerstone was laid in 1887, and it was completed in November 1889 at a total cost of $112,000 (including the site). Dedication ceremonies were delayed until 1891, when President Benjamin Harrison attended the ceremonies. Statues of John Stark , Seth Warner and other notables ornament the grounds.

You may recall that John Stark, while hunting in 1752, was captured by Abenaki Indians, taken to Canada and made to run the gauntlet. Stark grabbed a club and attacked the Indians who were so impressed by his courage that he was adopted into the tribe. (He was later ransomed.) Stark fought through the French and Indian War as an officer in Roger’s Rangers. With the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, Stark became colonel in the New Hampshire Militia. Stark fought at the Battles of Bunker Hill, Trenton and Princeton, before returning to New Hampshire to raise more men for the Continental Army and leading the Americans at the Battle of Bennington.

And he was married to the redoubtable Molly Stark.

My question is: why was there never a movie made about this hero? Really, there are only a very few movies of consequence about the revolutionary period. The only ones that come to mind are Drums Along the Mohawk (1939), Alleghany Uprising (1939) and Northwest Passage (1940). Can you think of any others? (Please don’t say The Patriot.)

Our country’s 250th birthday approaches–so read some history, watch an (old) movie, visit an historical site. Join your local historical society!

*“Live Free or Die. Death is not the greatest of evils.”–John Stark

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August 9, 2023

Let us have peace

by chuckofish

Mount McGregor is a mountain in Saratoga County, New York. It is one of the principal peaks of the Palmertown Range.

“The Palmertown range is the most easterly of the five great mountain-chains which traverse the great wilderness. The Palmertown range begins on Lake Champlain, near Ticonderoga, and running down on both sides of Lake George, crosses the Hudson above Glen’s Falls, and running through the town of Wilton, ends in the high ground of North Broadway, in Saratoga Springs.”
(History of Saratoga County, New York)

The mountain was renamed after Duncan McGregor purchased it for back taxes and built a hotel called the Mountain House in 1876. In 1881 McGregor sold the mountain to the Saratoga, Mount McGregor and Lake George Railroad, owned by Joseph Drexel who constructed a narrow-guage railroad from Saratoga Springs and built the Hotel Balmoral at the summit with accommodation for 300 guests.

In 1885 Drexel loaned his friend, seriously ill former president Ulysses S. Grant, the use of his personal cottage on the mountain. Here Grant spent the last six weeks of his life struggling valiantly to finish his memoirs before he died. Grant succeeded, put down his pencil and died three days later.

The cottage, preserved exactly as it was at his death, is now the Grant Cottage State Historic Site and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. We toured the house (after waiting for a DAR chapter to go through) and hiked down to the lookout spot where Grant enjoyed the spectacular view.

It was very cool. You can see Mt. Greylock in Massachusetts!

The hour and a half tour was given by a volunteer docent who really knew his stuff and was obviously an aficionado and admirer of Grant. It was really one of the best tours I have ever had–and I do not as a rule like tours, usually given by amateurs who do not know history or understand context and resort to telling “amusing” stories and making cracks about the olden days. This tour was also devoid of politics and or opinions. It was, however, an hour and a half long and as we were standing the whole time, I was about to die at the end of it.

Luckily, I was able to take a seat in exactly the spot where the Great Man himself sat on the front porch. (Not in the same chair, however, which is inside.)

You know how I love U.S. Grant, so this was a special place to be. Here are a few more pictures of the cottage.

By the way, the floral arrangements from his funeral are still intact 137 years later!

I feel that we are on the eve of a new era, when there is to be great harmony between the Federal and Confederate. I cannot stay to be a living witness to the correctness of this prophesy; but I feel it within me that it is so. The universally kind feeling expressed for me at a time when it was supposed that each day would prove my last, seemed to me the beginning of the answer to “let us have peace.” (Personal Memoirs)

Thanks to the boy who drove the rented Expedition like a fighter pilot to our various destinations and to daughter #1 who took all of these pictures!

4 Comments

August 2, 2023

This and that

by chuckofish

On August 2nd, 1923–100 years ago–Vice President Calvin Coolidge and his wife Grace were on vacation at Coolidge’s family farm near Plymouth Notch, Vermont in the Green Mountains.

The farm house had no electricity and a phone that only occasionally worked. The couple went to bed early, but a little before midnight, they were awakened by a loud knock at the front door. A moment later, Coolidge’s father called up to Calvin to come down. President Warren Harding was dead.

Coolidge got dressed. He prayed with his wife. And in the early morning hours of August 3rd, he was sworn into office by his father John Calvin Coolidge Sr. who was a Vermont notary public and justice of the peace. By the light of a kerosene lamp, Calvin Coolidge became the 30th President of the United States. Since it was 2:47 in the morning, President Coolidge went back to bed.

With the 1924 election just around the corner, many expected Coolidge to be a lame duck President, but on his train ride back to Washington he began immediately to plan how to build upon Harding’s most important policies. His first order of business…limiting the government itself.

We could use old Silent Cal these days, don’t you think?

Well, it is August now and we are well into the Dog Days of Summer. We are finally getting out of town tomorrow–heading to Saratoga, NY to attend the wedding of my nephew Tim and Abbie.

We are very much looking forward to the festivities and to seeing our DP and her family, but the air travel will no doubt be arduous. Please pray for travel mercies for the OM and me, the boy, daughter #1, and daughter #2 and her petite famille.

In the meantime, here are some good links to worthwhile things:

August on TCM is Summer Under the Stars month with a different star celebrated every day. At first glance it’s not a great selection, but there are some good days in there!

This is the Introduction to the graphic novel, The Grand Inquisitor, but it serves as an excellent overview of Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. This novel is very relevant today in view of our culture’s desire to find technological/scientific solutions to the problem of Evil. “This way of thinking appalled Dostoyevsky. With his profound grasp of psychology, he regarded the materialists’ view of human nature as hopelessly simplistic. Deeply suspicious of what intellectuals would do if they ever gained the power they sought, he described in greater detail than any other nineteenth-century thinker what we have come to call totalitarianism. Even in its less terrifying forms, rule by supposedly benevolent experts was, he thought, more dangerous than people understood.”

Also, I read recently that the New York Times is disbanding its sports department. Oh really? If our local paper got rid of its sports department, there would be (literally) nothing left to read. Another nail in the coffin of print journalism I guess.

We are looking forward to a guest post from DN on Friday, so stay tuned!

The painting is “The Swearing In of Calvin Coolidge by His Father” by Arthur I. Keller, 1923.

3 Comments

August 1, 2023

Nil sine Numine*

by chuckofish

Today we celebrate the day in 1876 when U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant signed a proclamation admitting Colorado to the Union as the 38th state. Because the country had just celebrated its centennial a few weeks earlier, Colorado became known as the “Centennial State”.

Several months prior, in December 1875, leading Colorado citizens gathered to draft a state constitution, among them our great-great grandfather John Simpson Hough, who represented Bent County.

He received 240 votes in the sparsely populated county.

Delegates to the convention came from every district in the soon-to-be state. They met at the Odd Fellows Hall, upstairs from the First National Bank, on Blake Street in Denver. Modeled after the United States Constitution, Colorado’s Constitution set the terms and duties of state government officials, and outlined the manner by which a law could be introduced and passed. It established the State Supreme Court, as well as district and county courts. A program for the supervision and maintenance of a public school system was created. A state tax system was developed, rules that regulate railroads and other corporations were adopted, and provisions created to amend that State’s constitution.

So join me tonight in a toast to the state of Colorado and to John S. Hough.

In science news, please note that the first of two full moons in August will reach its peak today, August 1, so be sure to check it out. And as an added bonus, both of the full moons this month are also supermoons!