#west chester railroad

[aryburn-trains]

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas as a Santa Claus train on the West Chester Railroad passes the former Pennsylvania Railroad shelter at Locksley. December 8, 2012

[xtruss]

There are as many variations on the Feast of the Seven Fishes as there are participants. Menus often have changed drastically since the turn of the 19th century, but the object of cultivating family and heritage remains. Photograph By Andrew Scrivani, The New York Times/Redux

What is the Feast of the Seven Fishes?

This Christmas Eve seafood feast is an Italian American tradition that dates back to an immigration wave in the 1900s.

— By Allie Yang | Wednesday July 26, 2023

An episode aptly titled “Fishes” from Hulu’s breakout series The Bear explores complex family dynamics against the backdrop of an Italian American tradition: The Feast of the Seven Fishes.

Throughout the Season 2 episode, no one seems able to adequately explain its history. Characters attempt to contextualize the origins of the meal, with explanations ranging from “it’s tradition… the seven fishes” to “it’s a chance to be together and to take care of each other and to eat together, and there’s seven fishes, which means you have to make seven entirely different dishes, seven entirely different ways.” A discerning viewer will note the circular reasoning.

By episode’s end, the audience might leave with unanswered questions. Namely: What is the Feast of the Seven Fishes, and where did it originate?

Italian Origins

The Feast of the Seven Fishes is a dear tradition to many Italian Americans who enjoy (at least) seven different seafood dishes on Christmas Eve. You might find labor-intensive preparations of baccalà (salted cod fish), calamari fritti with lemon and marinara sauce, stuffed escarole, fried smelt, scungilli (conch) in a chilled seafood salad, and stuffed clams oreganata.

You won’t hear about “festa dei sette pesci” in Italy though, says Michael Di Giovine, professor of anthropology at West Chester University of Pennsylvania and author of Edible Identities. In Italy, the holiday is simply “la vigilia,” “the eve” of Christmas. And fish is really only eaten in Southern Italy on the holiday.

This is because the feast has evolved to be uniquely Italian American over the past hundred years.

At the turn of the 19th century, Italian immigration exploded, numbering 300,000 in the 1880s, jumping to 2 million by 1900. As Italian immigrants moved away from extended family and their children grew and married Americans, the Feast of the Seven Fishes evolved from la vigilia into something much more extravagant. Di Giovine says the feast was a way to differentiate themselves, a marker of identity. It also became a tradition to strengthen bonds with both family present and ancestors past.

Today, there are as many interpretations of the feast as there are participants, Di Giovine says.

Why Fish—And Why Are There Seven?

A vast majority of Italian immigrants to the United States were from rural Southern Italy at the turn of the 19th century. When the country was unified in 1861, they had new freedoms from a weakened aristocracy. They came to America because there were jobs (from building railroads to skyscrapers) and mobility. Friends and family found success and brought their loved ones to the U.S.

Some say fish was chosen for the Feast because it was plentiful for impoverished families in Southern Italy. Others say the sea represented Italian Americans’ connection between their old and new homes. Still others say fish was served simply because it’s seen as an aphrodisiac.

Though many families no longer associate the feast with Catholic tradition, there’s likely a religious explanation for the seafood. The first Christians used fish iconography to denote membership. In one biblical tale, Jesus procures a large catch of fish, and promises his disciples an abundance of followers when he commands them to be “fishers of men.” To this day, the Pope wears the “ring of the fisherman.”

Seven is also a holy figure: it’s the number of sacraments and deadly sins. In the Bible, Jesus miraculously feeds a crowd of people with seven loaves and fishes. “Consumed in multiples of seven, then, fish may be a deeply ingrained symbol of sanctifying and revivifying a plentiful group, and of promising continued abundance for posterity,” Di Giovine writes in a 2010 paper on the subject.

Tradition is Always Evolving

Italian culture is very regional, with small communities specializing in certain foods. North and Central Italy didn’t eat fish on Christmas Eve. The rush of immigrants at the turn of the 19th century were from the South, which has Spanish influences on the language and food. Fish, olive oil, vinegar, beans, tomatoes and fried foods like pizza fritta (pizza pockets) and zeppoles (donuts) are foods from the Italian South (notably not pasta).

In the 1900s, anti-Italian sentiment was high and Italians from different regions were lumped together by outsiders. Eventually, traditions also became melded together to produce the current Americanized image of pan-Italian food that ranges from pizza to cannoli, which are both regional in Italy.

After World War II, Italians were accepted members of American society. They moved (with everyone else) to the suburbs, their kids went to school with those from other backgrounds, and TV was popularized, homogenizing the population’s taste. Language and religion are lost quickly in this situation, Di Giovine says, and food could be a way to separate yourself that you could choose when to use.

Writer and director Robert Tinnell made a comic in 2004 about his experience with the Feast of the Seven Fishes, which he later made into a 2019 movie. Growing up in North Central West Virginia, he fondly remembers his great grandmother organizing the Feast. After she died, his grandfather and other men in the family took over. That particular masculine domesticity is something that the first Italian immigrants would have also performed out of necessity: men came to America first, without their wives and daughters.

However, knowledge about where to shop, when to prepare, how to cook, the history behind the meal, and family traditions quickly became the responsibility of mothers to pass down to their daughters, Di Giovine says. They are also likely the ones who have the ultimate say in making changes to recipes. Over time, families often tweak the menu to make things easier, cheaper, more abundant, and more accommodating of dietary restrictions.

“We’re not precious. I do a couple things that would have been on her table,” Tinnell says, referring to his great grandmother. “But then my wife loves seeking out new things. A few years ago, we picked up oysters and set them up outside over open flames; we roasted them in the shells. My family never did that. But I wouldn't trade the time that I spend with my father-in-law, my brothers, to all the kids—it's a new thing. And that's what's important here… that togetherness and that shared experience.”

[guerrerense]

B&O ALCO S2 #9115 @ West Chester, PA por Darryl Rule Por Flickr: As the another long day on the railroad comes to an end, the conductor on an old B&O ALCO prepares to hop on board to wrap up the day's duties.

[lboogie1906]

Isaac D. Shadd (c. 1829 – March 15, 1896) was a newspaper publisher, printer, politician, and bookkeeper. Before the American Civil War, he and his sister Mary Ann Shadd moved to Chatham, Ontario, and published the anti-slavery newspaper, The Provincial Freeman. He and his wife taught at the Chatham Mission School. He was involved in the planning of John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry and led the Chatham Vigilance Committee to rescue Sylvanus Demarest in 1858. He returned to the US and served as a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives during the Reconstruction era (1871-76). He was the Speaker of the House (1974-75).

He was born in Delaware. He was raised Catholic as one of thirteen children of Harriet Burton Parnell and Abraham D. Shadd, both of whom were abolitionists.

Black children were not allowed to attend school in Delaware, so in 1833 Abraham moved the family five miles over the border to West Chester, Pennsylvania. The children studied in a Quaker school. Abraham and Harriet Shadd’s houses in Delaware and Pennsylvania were stations on the Underground Railroad.

He married Amelia Freeman (1861). She was encouraged to move to Chatham by William Still, William King, and Martin R. Delany to establish the Chatham Mission School. She arrived in Chatham in 1856 and the school opened in 1859. It offered classic courses, including philosophy and music. The school received donations and held fundraisers, but it was difficult to keep the school solvent. Sometimes, Amelia taught in public schools to earn enough money to keep the school open. She provided private music, art, and embroidery classes. She organized several religious, lecture, and literary events for the community and contributed to The Provincial Freeman. She was a temporary editor for the paper.

He had a son, Charlton, from an earlier relationship or was adopted. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[your-home-solutions]

When to Call a West Chester PA Electrician

West Chester, PA offers a mix of small-town charm and cosmopolitan flavor. Its historic downtown is home to 83 shops, 59 restaurants, live music, cultural events and street fairs. Visitors can also hop aboard one of the nation’s oldest railroads for a train excursion. There are many ways to increase your pay as an Electrician. Some of these ways include gaining more management experience or earning advanced degrees. 

Electrical repair is one of the primary services that Your Home Solutions offers. Our West Chester PA electricians has the knowledge and skills to diagnose and repair any electrical issues in your home or business. Whether a faulty circuit breaker or a malfunctioning electrical appliance, we will diagnose the problem and offer a solution that meets your requirements.

Furnace Odors

As your furnace heats and distributes air throughout your home, it can pick up odors from your pets or from other sources in your house. When these odors are noticed, it may be time to schedule an HVAC service.

A musty smell is a common problem, particularly as it occurs at the change of seasons when dust collects on your furnace and in your air ducts. This dust burns off when you turn on your heater, and this scent usually goes away after a few hours.

A burning or metallic odor indicates that components inside your heater are overheating. This is dangerous, as it can cause carbon monoxide to leak into your home. This invisible gas can be deadly if inhaled. If you smell this odor, shut off your heater and call an HVAC professional immediately. If the odor persists, it could be the sign of an oil leak. A rotten egg smell means you may have a natural gas leak. Since this flammable, combustible gas is naturally odorless, suppliers add a rotten egg scent to help detect leaks.

Sewer Line Odors

If you notice an unpleasant odor coming from your shower, bath, floor drains or other fixtures in your home, it may be due to a sewer line problem. A leaky sewer line can allow hydrogen sulfide and other dangerous gases to seep into your house, creating a foul smell.

You can try to pinpoint the source of the odor by finding the sewer line clean-out point. This will likely be a pipe four inches in diameter set into the ground near your foundation and covered with a screw-in plug. It’s best to search around the entire perimeter of your property, including flower beds, to find this point.

If you can’t locate the clean-out plug, try speaking to your home’s previous owner or calling your city. Most cities keep maps of where underground utilities and sewer lines are placed, and they should be able to provide you with the information you need over the phone. Alternatively, you can check for the smell of fresh sewage outside your house or basement. This could mean that your septic tank is overflowing and needs to be serviced.

Generator Odors

Whether you have a standby generator installed in your home or are considering purchasing one, you’ll want to ensure that it is properly connected and operated. This can be done by having a licensed electrician install a changeover switch between your electrical panel and your generator. The switch will allow power to flow from only one source at a time and will help avoid overloading your system or creating a safety hazard.

If your generator is causing your GFCI outlets to trip, this can be a sign of a ground fault in your home’s electrical system or an incompatible 2-pole transfer switch. You can easily fix this issue by having a professional licensed electrician install a 3-pole switch. Find local trade schools and technical colleges with electrician certificate classes near you. Enroll in a program and learn to read blueprints, run wiring, inspect and replace electrical components, and assure that local electrical codes are met.

Additionally, the company provides electrical installation services for new construction and renovations. Our electrician West Chester PA can complete any installation task, from installing new outlets and light fixtures to wiring an entire home. We are dedicated to ensuring that all installations are performed correctly and safely, and we collaborate closely with our clients to determine their needs and preferences.

We also offer electrical maintenance services, repair, and installation. Regular maintenance is required to guarantee your electrical system's correct and safe operation. The company's electricians will comprehensively inspect your system, identify potential problems, and provide maintenance recommendations to keep your system in excellent condition.

Your Home Solutions has fully licensed and insured west chester pa electrician. We are dedicated to providing safe and dependable electrical services to our clients and adhere to all safety regulations and industry standards. In addition to offering competitive service pricing, the company ensures that clients receive the best value for their money. We are your best option if you need an electrician in West Chester, Pennsylvania. With our team of highly skilled electricians, dedication to safety, and commitment to quality, you can rest assured that your electrical needs will be met with distinction. Contact us immediately to schedule an appointment and see the difference  for yourself.

[springvalleyroofing]

Roofers in Montgomery County PA Can Improve the Look and Value of Your Home

Roofers in Montgomery county PA, are a valuable resource for anyone who is interested in improving the look and value of their home. They are trained to recognize issues and make repairs as needed, and they can also help to prevent future problems from occurring. If you are considering hiring one of these professionals, it is important to do your research before selecting a company. There are several factors to consider, including experience and price.

Montgomery County, Pennsylvania is a county in southeastern Pennsylvania, northwest of Philadelphia. It is a gently hilly piedmont region bounded by the Schuylkill River and other waterways, including Green Lane Reservoir. Its population was 826,518 in the 2020 census.

Its affluent residents enjoy a diverse economy and high quality of life. In addition to its thriving business sector, it is home to many of the nation’s best public and private schools. It is also known for its extensive system of parks and green spaces, and it features dozens of supermarkets and hundreds of cafes and restaurants.

In the nineteenth century, Montgomery County was an active region of family farms and small industries. Turnpikes, canals, and railroads crisscrossed the area, connecting it to Philadelphia and other parts of the state. Early European settlers worked modest-size farms and owned some African-descended slaves, though many Quaker, Mennonite, and Schwenkfelder landowners opposed slavery.

Upgrading the roof of your house is a big investment. It is also an important element of your home’s protection and energy efficiency. In fact, a new roof will often save homeowners money in the long run, as it can significantly reduce energy costs. It is also an excellent way to increase the resale value of your home.

If you are in the market for a new roof, it’s best to find a local roofing contractor that has years of experience. This will ensure that the job is done right the first time and you don’t end up with costly repairs later on. Also, a local roofing contractor will know the weather conditions in your area better than someone from out of town.

There are various types of quality roofing available in the market, including asphalt shingles, copper, slate, and wood. Each type of roofing has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. However, it is essential to have a reliable roof over your head to protect you and your loved ones from harmful elements like rain.

While most homeowners will need a roofer for some repairs at some point, it is important to do routine maintenance to ensure that your roof stays in good condition. You can also hire a local roofer to do a thorough inspection of your roof before deciding on any repairs or replacements. These experts can provide you with a range of services, including roof repair, gutter installation and siding repairs. Moreover, they can help you with the entire process of choosing the right roofing materials for your property. You can also get an estimate for your project, which will save you time and money.

At Spring Valley Roofing, we take roof inspections seriously. Before our team begins any roof service or repair job, our exclusive West Chester roofing contractor makes sure to perform a thorough inspection. Inspecting a roof before beginning any service is an important step of the process, as it can provide vital information about the condition of a roof, including its age, materials used, and any existing damage or problems.

[briansolomonauthor]

Chester Depot Revisited

Crossing Vermont from west to east in January, Kris and I paused at the old depot in Chester on Vermont Rail System’s Green Mountain Railroad. My first visit to Chester was back in the 1970s, when this was the regular run-around for the Steamtown excursion from Bellows Falls. Freshly fallen snow covered the ground in our most recent visit, but the old station was just the way I remember it. I…

[packedwithpackards]

Chapter XII: Cyrus, Dora, and the last of the Packards

In April 1878, the life of 26-year-old Plainfield-born man, Cyrus Winfield Packard, less than 10 years before his father, William H., would die, would change. Recently requested photocopies of Cyrus’s marriage records from the Massachusetts State Archives indicate that Cyrus was a farmer living in Cummington, Massachusetts, a town of Hampshire County, marrying a 15- or 16- year old woman named Nellie Mason. [265] Nellie, born in August 1861, was the daughter of Eurotas/Erastus Mason and his wife Jane, had lived in the town of Cummington for her whole life. The following year, the newlyweds were living in Easthampton, Massachusetts, within the same county. Cyrus as a farmhand and Nellie, taking the last name of Packard, as a servant for the Penderwood family. [266] At some point, Cyrus and Nellie decided to have a baby. Less than nine months later, on February 13, Nellie would die at the tender age of 19, from German measles and typhoid fever, while giving childbirth. [267] With the death of Nellie, Cyrus moved on, leaving her in the dust.

On November 21, two months after purchasing 112 acres in Plainfield from William L. Packard and gaining the farm in Plainfield with a stand of maple sugar trees, he married again, like many Packards before him. This was to a woman named Dorothy “Dora” (or Dory) Ann Mills in Glens Falls, New York, the town in which she was born.

Dora, who worked in a shirt factory (1880) and as a teacher (1870) in the past, had lived in Warren County, New York since June 1, 1849, when she was born, approximately. [268] While her gravestone says she was 38 years, 10 months old at the time of her death, the 1850 and 1860 U.S. Federal Censuses show a woman named “Dorothy A. Mills” or “Dory Mills” as born in 1849 or 1850. The reasons for why she would say she was younger than she actually was are not currently known. [269] Dora was the daughter of John Rand Mills and Margaret Bibby and had six living siblings by 1881, living in Chester, Bolton, Glens Falls, within Warren County, New York. [270] Dora’s parents are worth noting. John Rand Mills, born in Ireland, in Sept. 1804, immigrated to the United States by 1830, marrying Margaret Ann Bibby, born in the same part of Ireland.

Over the following years, Dora and Cyrus had seven children with the last name of Packard. They include John Henry (Oct. 15-1882-Oct. 28, 1950), Margaret Alice (Jan. 27, 1884-Aug. 4, 1976), Joseph Winfield (Jun. 17, 1885- Mar. 9, 1910), Charles Edward (May 5, 1887-Nov. 4, 1960) or “Uncle Charlie,” Marion Estelle (Feb. 12, 1889-Jun. 13, 1965), Robert Barnabas (Jan. 19, 1891-Apr. 11, 1956), later becoming Robert Byron Mills II, and Mabel Hattie (b. July 19, 1892) who died on Dec. 1, 1961. [271] John H. would never marry, and Margaret would marry a man named Kenneth Brown in 1913, having one daughter and two sons. As for Joseph, he was an unmarried man reportedly killed while working on the railroad. “Uncle Charlie” married to Bertha Churchill in 1919 with whom he had a child named Douglas M. Packard, and two daughters. In 1940, Charlie remarried to Pearl Gleason. Marion married Edward Dean in 1908, living in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and John Nocker in 1954, and may have had two children from her first marriage (as stated in 1930 and 1940 censuses). Mabel H., buried at West Hill Cemetery in Plainfield, Massachusetts, married first to Giles Whitley with whom she had four children (Giles, Margaret, Harold, and Frances), and second, in 1920, to Joseph T. Landstrom, having six children (Dorothy, Barbara, Phyllis, Joseph (died as an infant at one year old), Alice, and Joan).

Little is known about the early life on the farm for these individuals. This is because the 1890 census was destroyed on January 10, 1921 when a fire swept the Commerce Department building, creating an “archivist's nightmare, with ankle-deep water covering records in many areas” destroying many of the records. [272] There are land records which relate to Cyrus and Dora. In one agreement, he mortgages (or sells?) 112 acres to Henry L. Goodrich. [273] This is likely the Packard farm. Later that month, Henry C. Packard purchases for Cyrus, from Goodrich, the same land. [274]

In 1891, B. Winslow wrote a poem for the 10th anniversary of Dora and Cyrus’s marriage on November 21, 1881. [275] The full poem tells about Dora and Cyrus’s marriage although it is unsurprisingly upbeat, as should be expected at least for the mores of the time:

It was November twenty-first In eighteen eighty one When Love had long enough been nursed Their married life begun.

The vows that then were made and sealed, In eighteen eighty one, From all that yet has been revealed Show all was then well done.

Ten years have passed of married life, And no talk of divorce; Showing a true and faithful wife, And husband, too, of course.

And children, well, there are a few, From union such as thus To bind them in affection true, And crown their wedded bliss.

Four sons, two daughters, fair and sweet, Have blessed this happy home; A present source of pride and joy, Their hope in years to come.

Labor and care have marked their lot, But health hath lent its cheer; So at their toil they've murmured not, Showing their love sincere.

They've shared each scene of joy and woe, And well redeemed the vow They made and sealed ten years ago. And which they honor now.

And their gathered in their home at night, Are friends of youth and age; And all is full of sweet delight, To write on mem'ry's page.

Fond mem'ry's page, on which they stand, Dear memories of the past; Hopes we have had and joys we've planned, That were too sweet to last;

Let us be thankful for them all, Nor at their loss repine And as God's future mercies fall, Hail those for us that shine;

And nobly bear each trial sent, In heart and spirit true; Thus may we have a calm content, Our life' brief journey through.

God bless the bride and bridegroom here, As long as life shall last; May they have memories fond and dear, Such as they have market the past.

Among them all will not be least The memories of this night, When friends invited here were to feast On memories fair and bright.

Despite this lack of records, there is one photograph shared by Dianne Blomquist on the “David Vallender family tree” on Ancestry, showing the family of Cyrus and Dora in Plainfield in 1892. The image shown on the next page shows the 7 children of both of them, providing a snapshot into their life  and customs. This shows that the family was at least partially proper, although this image does not hint at their occupations. Other images of Dora and the family cannot be found, but there are photographs of all of their children at later ages, the same being the case for Cyrus as well.

While Cyrus’s face is not totally clear in the photograph, another one taken around the same time at Camp 55, shows Cyrus (along with Joseph Beals Jr.), listed a member of the Plainfield chapter of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW). The SUVCW are direct descendants from those “regularly mustered and served honorably in…honorably discharged from, or died in the service of…regiments called to active service…between April 12, 1861 and April 9, 1865.” [276] This means that Cyrus was wearing his father’s uniform, hat, & pants, with two medals already on the uniform or given as a part of his membership. Some context is necessary here. Joseph Beals, Jr., who lived with Hattie B. and Joseph Beals in 1900, would be dead by July 29, 1941 after living in Goshen for most of his life. Since Hattie was Dora’s sister, Joseph Beals Jr. would be his nephew. This would also explain why Cyrus was the informant for Joseph Beals, the husband of Hattie, who died in 1900.

Comparing three available photos, the rightmost one coming from another family history, shows that he was clean cut for this 1892 photograph:

On February 5, 1895, Dora died of tuberculosis (pulmonary phthisis) in Plainfield and was buried in Pottersville, part of New York’s Warren County, a town 35 miles north of her birth place, Glens Falls. This burial place was likely chosen to put in her grave in proximity with surviving family members. On May 11, 1895, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and Mountain Miller Women’s Relief Corps hosted a memorial service for Dora in West Cummington. There are religious messages, with some calling her a “devoted wife” and “earnest Christian woman” while those within the Relief Corps call her a “sister.” [277]

At the memorial service, likely all of her children were attending. One individual, Joseph Beals, who was Dora’s brother-in-law since he had married Dora’s sister (and his wife), Hattie, described Dora as “kind to everybody” and said that he knew Dora through her “sickness.” This was further cemented by the fact that he visited with Hattie 2-3 times a week, possibly indicating she was sick from 1889 (when Hattie and Joseph married) to 1895. Also at the memorial service a “Poem by Dora M. Packard” which was written in July 1894 was read. Using the clues noted in this pamphlet, it is clear that Dora was a member of the National Women’s Relief Corps. Specifically she was part of Corps No. 158 (Mountain Miller Corps) which was organized on November 22, 1892 and was based in Plainfield, meeting the first Friday of every month. [278] The National Women’s Relief Corps, which still exists to this day, was an auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic (Civil War Veterans). It is a secret and “patriotic organization,” meetings held at least once a month, with applications (by those over 16 with "good moral character made in writing and vouched for with two members." [279]

More specifically it had (and has) the explicit purpose to perpetrate memory of the Grand Army of the Republic. As for the latter organization, it came about originally limited to “honorably discharged veterans of the Union Army, Navy, Marine Corps or the Revenue Cutter Service who had served between April 12, 1861 and April 9, 1865” and departments within the organization generally consisted of the Posts within a state and at the national level, with the organization operated by an elected “Commandery-in-Chief" The rituals at the meetings and induction ceremonies were “similar to the Masonic rituals,” used currently by the SUVCW, along with multi-day encampments (meetings) with the final Encampment held in Indianapolis in 1949. [280]

With Dora’s death, the Packard family split apart. Some were adopted by others, like Robert by Dora’s brother, Mabel by the Cosgrove family in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and Marian and Charles E. by the Beal family in Goshen, Massachusetts. [281] While the 1900 census was issued on June 16, another document claimed he died on June 10. The only reason for this discrepancy in dates means that either the census information was collected before June 10 or that Joseph died on a date after June 16.

With the family going different ways, few stayed with Cyrus. About 6 months after Dora died, he married again to Clementina Cheney. Coming from a well-established New England family, she stayed at home, while Cyrus was a carpenter. He wasn’t done having children. With Clementina he had 5 more children with the last name of Packard, putting his number of offspring at 12. [282] These children would be Olive Martha (October 23, 1896-January 20, 1969), Herbert Miles (October 1898 - August 30, 1966), Rachel May (April 13, 1900 - September 22, 1933), Thomas “Tom” Theodore Packard (May 2, 1902 - 1975), and Harold “Harry” Cyrus Packard (Apr. 24, 1907 – 1975). None ever married.

By 1900, only one of Cyrus’s children from his marriage with Dora would be living with him: John H. Packard who was working as a farm hand. As the head of the household, Cyrus lived on a mortgaged farm and was a carpenter. [283] Later censuses show that none of the children he had with Dora would be living with him. By 1910, he would be mortgaging the farm, but would be a general farmer, living in the same neighborhood as Henry C. Packard’s family. [284] 10 years later, he would own the farm which he had mortgaged for so many years, and be classified as a farmer, just like his sons Herbert & Thomas. Cyrus would later be a cemetery commissioner in Plainfield (in 1907 and 1911). [285]

Ten years later, in 1910, Hattie B., Dora’s sister, was still living in Goshen. [286] She was widowed (evidencing Joseph Beals’ death in 1900) , living with her daughter Edith, from her marriage with Hannibal, and a boarder named George A. Andrews. Two years later, on August 3, 1912, Hattie B. died of chronic vascular heart disease. She was called “Hattie B. Beals” on her gravestone. This same gravestone gives her wrong year of birth, meaning it is off by 11 years! [287]

Before his death, Cyrus would engage in a land transaction with A. H. Allen & Co. involving the 112-acre Packard farm in 1900, mortgage 100 acres of land to a Plainfield resident named Alden L. Torrey in 1905, with the same 100 acres, involved in a mortgage transaction with the Haydensville Savings Bank in 1909, mortgage the property with the same bank (or a different one?) in 1920, four years before his death, and let a company put up powerlines on his property in 1922. [288] In 1924, Cyrus would die, reportedly on April 2, after suffering from a brain tumor, and his wife one year earlier, in 1923. Cyrus, and many of his children, and wives were buried in West Hill cemetery in Plainfield. After Cyrus’s death, Tom took over the “old” Plainfield farm or “home farm” of Cyrus in 1925, buying it for $1,000 from the administrator of his estate, William A. Packard. [289]

Tom kept the farm running, although he wasn’t an “old type carpenter” like Cyrus, until December 1946, when a fire destroyed it, two months after the mortgage on the property was released. After that point, he bought property nearby, the Enoch Sanford homestead, operating it until his death. According to some of those at the Cummington Historical Museum, Tom was quite a character and a potato farmer (with Green Mountain potatoes) but he had a tendency to burn down his barns time and time again. Later he would be a selectman, head the Plainfield Republican Committee, and be a town historian (helping found the Plainfield Historical Society), take notes on local cemeteries. [290] Harold, on the other hand, helped out in the local community, in terms of carpentry and other tasks. The images after this paragraph, in this chapter, show Cyrus, Tom, Mabel, Rachel, Olive, and Marion in later life. In later years, Tom would run “Packard’s store” in Plainfield, still remembering his “late” father, Cyrus. [291]

Most, if not all, of these photos are courtesy of DGVallandar on Ancestry.

Most, if not all, of these photos are courtesy of DGVallandar on Ancestry

Notes

[265] The marriage of Cyrus W. Packard and Nellie J. Mason is documented in Vol. 299, p. 6 & 24, showing their marriage was registered in Cummington and in Plainfield, accounting for duplicate records, with the marriage notice two days before; Nellie J. Mason, Aug. 1, 1861, Massachusetts Births and Christenings, Family Search, citing Cummington, Hampshire, Massachusetts, FHL Microfilm 1,888,606; The Mason Household, Massachusetts State Census, 1865, Family Search, Cummington, Hampshire, Massachusetts, State Archives; Mason Household, US Federal Census, 1870, Cummington, Massachusetts, NARA M593. They were married by a Plainfield Justice of the Peace named Jason Richards.

[266] Packards in Easthampton, Tenth Census of the United States, US Federal Census of 1880, National Archives, NARA T9, Record Group 29, Roll 437, Page 347D, Enumeration District 344, Image 396.

[267] Nellie J. Mason Packard Find A Grave entry; Nellie J. Packard or Mason, 1881, Massachusetts Deaths and Burials; William W. Streeter and Daphne H. Morris, The Vital Records of Cummington, Massachusetts 1762-1900 (Cummington, MA: William W. Streeter, 1979), 140, 215.

[268] Mills Household, Glens Falls, Warren, New York, Census of 1850, NARA M432, Roll M432 609, Page 33A, Image 70; Mills Household, Chester, Warren, New York, Census of 1870, NARA M593, Roll M593 1109, Page 575A, Image 146817; Hammond Household, Glens Falls, Warren, New York, Census of 1880, Roll 941, Page 141A, Image 0437; Mills Household, Census of the state of New York, for 1855. Microfilm. New York State Archives, Albany, New York; Mills Household, Census of the state of New York, for 1865, Microfilm, New York State Archives, Albany, New York.

[269] Mills Household, US Census of 1850, Glens Falls, New York, Family Search, National Archives, NARA M432; Dorothy Ann "Dora, Dory" Mills Packard gravestone; 1870 U.S. Federal Census, Chester, New York.

[270] Mills Household, 1830, Wethersfield, Genesee, New York, NARA M19, Roll 90, Page 331, FHL 0017150; Mills Household, 1840, Chester, Warren, New York, Roll 349, Page 335, Image 685, FHL 0017209. John Rand Mills and Margaret Ann Bibby Mills are buried in Chester Cemetery, within Orange, New York.

[271] John Henry Packard, Margaret Alice Packard Brown, Charles Edward Packard, Marion Estelle Packard Nocker, and Robert Byron “Bert” Packard Mills II’s Find Grave entries. Kenneth’s son’s address was in Burbank, CA.

[272] National Archives, “1890 Census,” Feb. 17, 2005; Kellee Blake, ““First in the Path of the Firemen”: The Fate of the 1890 Population Census, Part 1,” Prologue, Spring 1996, Vol. 1; Kellee Blake, ““First in the Path of the Firemen”: The Fate of the 1890 Population Census Part 2,” Prologue, Spring 1996, Vol. 28, No. 21. W.B. Gay’s "Town of Cummington" within Part Second. Business Directory of Hampshire County, Mass., 1886-87 (Syracuse, NY: W.B. & Gay Co., 1886) lists on page 49, Mary Nash, Charles S. Packard, Cyrus W. Packard, Fordyce Packard, Frank L. Packard & Russell R. Packard. Even with the loss of records in 1890, other sources, like city directories, allow the Packard story to be found and pieced together. This is important for learning more of this family history.

[273] Purchase of land by Merritt Torrey and Stillman Ford, June 13, 1866, Massachusetts Land Records, Hampshire, Deeds 1866 vol 234-237, p. 19, image 466 of 837, Family Search; Mortgage or sale of land to Henry Goodrich by Cyrus W. Packard, Massachusetts Land Records, Hampshire, Deeds 1896-1897 vol 491-494, p. 321-322, images 697 and 698 of 757,courtesy of Family Search. The latter agreement is the only one I could find which mentions “Dora A. Packard.”

[274] Purchase of land by Henry Packard for Cyrus W. Packard from Henry L. Goodrich, Sept. 12, 1890, unindexed documents, book 436 page 43-44 via http://www.masslandrecords.com/Hampshire/, click on "unindexed property search"; Purchase of land by Henry L. Goodrich from Richard A. Lyman, Jan. 13, 1887, unindexed documents, book 410 page 475 via http://www.masslandrecords.com/Hampshire/, click on "unindexed property search." Next page gives the date and more specifics. Nothing more about this agreement is known. Dora would, in 1893, greenlight the selling of Cyrus’s land.

[275] In Packard Genealogy assembled in 2017. Given to the Plainfield Historical Society. Examined on August 5, 2017; Mercer V. Tilson, The Tilson genealogy (Plymouth: The Memorial Press, 1908), 370.

[276] The picture referred can be found here. Membership, Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, accessed July 14, 201. 1900 U.S. Federal Census, courtesy of Family Search; 1910 U.S. Federal Census, courtesy of Family Search; 1920 U.S. Federal Census, courtesy of Family Search; 1930 U.S. Federal Census, courtesy of Family Search; 1940 U.S. Federal Census, courtesy of Family Search. Find A Grave for Joseph Beals. On April 27, 1898, Joseph Beals, Jr. had married Florence Lena Hall Pratt in Cummington but the marriage was also recorded in Goshen and Plainfield.

[277] This sentence and the one before it cite the Packard family file at the Cummington Historical Museum has one pamphlet titled “In memoriam Dora M. Packard 1895.” Her death record claims both of her parents were born in Britain.

[278] Journal of the Seventeenth Annual Convention of the Department of Massachusetts, Women's Relief Corps, Auxillary to the Grand Army of the Republic. Lowell, Mass. February 12 and 13, 1896 Vol. 17 (Boston: E.B. Stillings & Co., 1896), pp 37, 100, 187; Other Packards, like Eliza J. of Brockton and C.M. Packard of Avon were members (Journal of the Seventeenth Annual Convention of the Department of Massachusetts, Women's Relief Corps, Auxillary to the Grand Army of the Republic. Lowell, Mass. February 12 and 13, 1896 (Boston: E.B. Stillings & Co., 1896), 30, 100, 190, 247. Not a member in 1889 or 1890, at least not a major member (Proceedings of the Tenth Annual Convention of the Department of Massachusetts, Woman's Relief Corps, Auxillary to the Grand Army of the Republic, Boston Mass. Feb. 12 and 13 1889 (Boston: E.B. Stillings & Co., 1889), 5; Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual Convention of the Department of Massachusetts, Woman's Relief Corps, Auxillary to the Grand Army of the Republic, Boston Mass. Feb. 5 and 6, 1890(Boston: E.B. Stillings & Co., 1889), 45-46, 96; Journal of the Fourteenth Annual Convention of the Department of Massachusetts, Women's Relief Corps, Auxillary to the Grand Army of the Republic. Boston, Mass. February 8 and 9, 1893 (Boston: E.B. Stillings & Co., 1893), 32, 89, 187, 210. Dora's chapter not around in 1901. "all loyal ladies" who are "interested in the good work" can be part of the relief corps (History of the Department of Massachusetts, Woman's Relief Corps, Auxillary to the Grand Army of the Republic (Boston: E.B. Stillings & Co., 1895), 16; "The Relief Corps," The National tribune. (Washington, D.C.), 22 Dec. 1892.

[279] History of the Department of Massachusetts, Woman's Relief Corps, Auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic (Boston: E.B. Stillings & Co., 1895), v, viii, 10-14, 16-17, 20, 23, 29, 33, 37, 45, 48-59, 61-64, 71-76, 86, 123, 191. Emily L. Clark initiated the Mountain Miller Corps No. 158 in Plainfield on Nov. 22, 1892 with the charter membership as 12 individuals and has 23 by the present date, forwarded supplies to soldier's home in Chelsea and has relief fund (History of the Department of Massachusetts, Woman's Relief Corps, Auxillary to the Grand Army of the Republic (Boston: E.B. Stillings & Co., 1895), 276). Corps officers were elected annually at the last regular meeting in December and each corps could have a relief fund for those in need. They did special work at a soldier's home and Clara Barton supported the organization.

[280] SUVCW, “About the Grand Army of the Republic,” accessed August 13, 2017. The Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War goes as far back as 1881, there is an entry for William H. Packard in the SUVCW database, C.M. Packard of Avon, in Norfolk was a member but his identity is not known. Dora’s chapter was mentioned in The National Tribune from Washington, District of Columbia, Dec. 1, 1892, p. 10, within The National Tribune from Washington, District of Columbia, Dec. 22, 1892, p. 10 and Greenfield Gazette And Courier Newspaper, August 31, 1901, p. 8.

[281] DGVallender, “Mabel Adoption,” courtesy of Ancestry.com; Massachusetts Death Records, 1841-1915 notes that she died in Plainfield; Mills Household, Bolton, Warren, New York, Census of 1860, NARA M653, Roll M653_403, Page 304, Image 308. Courtesy of Ancestry.com; Mills Household, Chester, Warren, New York, Census of 1870, NARA M593, Roll M593 1109, Page 575A, Image 146817. Courtesy of Ancestry.com; Cosgrove Household, Pawtucket Ward 4, Providence, Rhode Island, Census of 1900, Roll 1511, Page 13A, Enumeration District 156, FHL microfilm 1241511. Courtesy of Ancestry.com; Mixed Family Household, Pawtucket Ward 1, Providence, Rhode Island, Roll T624_1440, Page 16A, Enumeration District 120, FHL Microfilm 1375453.; Thomas Dunne, “Margaret Mills Cosgrove,” Find A Grave Entry, Jun. 9, 2008; Mills Household, Census of the state of New York, for 1855. Microfilm. New York State Archives, Albany, New York; Mills Household, Census of the state of New York, for 1865, Microfilm, New York State Archives, Albany, New York; 1900 U.S. Federal Census; Headstone Application for U.S. Military Veterans in February 1948. This shows that Cyrus clearly moved off ALL of his children to Dora’s relatives, not his own, which is utterly selfish by any standards of decency. This is an opinion, but a well-grounded one.

[282] A Find A Grave entry for Clementina; Marriage of Cyrus Winfield Packard and Clementina Cheeney, 1895, Vol. 452, p. 19 (and transcription of this page); Cyrus W. Packard & Clementine Cheney, 1895, Vol. 452, p. 47 (and transcription of this page); Herbert Miles Packard, Olive Martha Packard, Rachel May Packard, Harold Cyrus Packard, and “Tom” Theodore Packard memorials; Birth of Harold Cyrus Packard, Births Registered in the Town of Plainfield for 1907, Aug. 24, 1907, Vol. 567, p. 281; DGVallender, “Tom Packard Telegram,” date unknown, relating to Plainfield Republican Committee. This shows his political leanings.

[283] Packard Household, US Census of 1900, Plainfield Town Northampton city, Hampshire, Massachusetts, enumeration district 644, sheet 2A, National Archives, NARA T623.

[284] Packard Household, US Census of 1910, Plainfield, Hampshire, Massachusetts, enumeration district 712, sheet 1A, National Archives, NARA T624, roll 594; Packard Household, US Census of 1920, Plainfield, Hampshire, Massachusetts, enumeration district 180, sheet 3A, National Archives, NARA T625, roll 705.

[285] Massachusetts Year Book for 1907, No. 9 (Worchester, MA: F.S. Blanchard & Company, 1906), 172; Massachusetts Year Book for 1911, No. 13 (Boston: Geo. E. Damon Company, 1911), 176.

[286] 1910 U.S. Federal Census; Joseph Beals died in Cummington on June 11, 1900 at age 67, 9 months and 9 days, he died of diabetes and something else; his parents were Dexter Beals (of Plainfield) and Julia Packard (of Goshen); he was a farmer, living in Goshen in his last days as noted in "Deaths Registered in the Town of Goshen for the Year nineteen hundred," vol. 505, p. 259 which was taken from photocopied vital record requested from the Massachusetts Archives in July 2017.

[287] Gravestone of Hetabella Belle “Hattie” Mills Beals; Death certificate of Hattie B. Beals. It is not known why the gravestone is so wrong. Perhaps the people informing the person giving the gravestone had incorrect information

[288] Cyrus and A. H. Allen & Co. agreement, Nov. 29, 1900, Massachusetts Land Records, Hampshire, Deeds vol 540-541, p. 317-318, images 484 and 485 of 545. Charles N. Dyer is a witness for Clementina; Agreement between Cyrus W. Packard and Alden L. Torrey, Jan. 3, 1905, unindexed documents, book 591, p. 71-72 via http://www.masslandrecords.com/Hampshire/ click on “unindexed property search”; Agreement between Cyrus W. Packard and Huntington Savings Bank, June 1, 1909, unindexed documents, book 643 page 51-52 via http://www.masslandrecords.com/Hampshire/, click on “unindexed property search”; Agreement between Cyrus W. Packard and Federal Land Bank of Springfield, Mar. 2, 1920, unindexed documents, book 755, page 47-48 via http://www.masslandrecords.com/Hampshire/, click on “unindexed property search”; Clarifies his right to 112 acres in Plainfield, Sept. 8, 1922, unindexed documents, book 799, page 94 via http://www.masslandrecords.com/Hampshire/, click on “unindexed property search”; Agrees for company to put up powerlines on his property, Aug. 5, 1922, unindexed documents, book 783, page 504 via http://www.masslandrecords.com/Hampshire/, click on “unindexed property search”; Find A Grave entries of Clementina and Cyrus Winfield Packard. A photograph of Cyrus taken around his death in 1924, shows him looking very old with white hair and a slight mustache, possibly pale, with a suite and tie on, looking all dressed up for some occasion.

[289] Memoirs of Howard N. Hathaway, Dec. 23, 1970, transcript of original within Shaw Memorial Library, corrected for Plainfield Historical Society on July 7, 2007, p. 64, 68-69; Prescilla C. Alden and Arvilla L. Dyer, Plainfield, ed. Nancy C. Alden, 2006, Plainfield Historical Society, p. 5, 9, 11; Thomas buys the farm for $1,000 from William A. Packard, administering Cyrus's estate, June 16, 1925, unindexed documents, book 824 page 111-112 via http://www.masslandrecords.com/Hampshire/, click on “unindexed property search”; Mortgage to Federal Land Bank of Springfield Discharged, Oct. 25, 1946, book 1009, p. 486 via http://www.masslandrecords.com/Hampshire/.

[290] H. Elmer Muller, Sketches and directory of the town of Cummington (West Cummington, MA: Published by Author, 1881), pp 11, 18, 20, 26, 30, 39, 41; Plainfield Historical Society, Maps, accessed July 14, 2017; Plainfield Historical Society, "Notes by Thomas T. Packard on Plainfield Cemeteries," date not known; Plainfield Historical Society, “Cemeteries of Plainfield,” accessed July 14, 2017; Plainfield Historical Society, “Plainfield Massachusetts Historical Society 1961 Charter,” accessed July 14, 2017; Plainfield Historical Society, “About Hidden Walls Hidden Mills,” accessed July 14, 2017. The Packards had allied with the Shaw family and clashed with other families within the town. By 1979, with the death of Tom Packard, his estate of over $84,000 had been divided up. The previous year, an attorney from Springfield, Massaschusetts, Doris F. Alden, Tom’s half-sister, meaning that some were given certain shares, specifically receiving a portion of $5,610.69 from the estate, while other nieces and nephews received a 2.5% share ($2,104.01) rather than 6.2/3% share, while Winfield H. Brown, administrator, Doris F. Alden Administrix (female), and Douglas M. Packard received a 20% share ($16,832.08). One relative offered $35,000 to buy the Packard house and 10 acres of land, but this was not accepted ultimately by the owners.

[291] North Adams Transcript, North Adams Massachusetts, Dec. 13, 1951, Page 15. Courtesy of Newspapers.com.

Note: This was originally posted on September 21, 2018 on the main Packed with Packards WordPress blog (it can also be found on the Wayback Machine here). My research is still ongoing, so some conclusions in this piece may change in the future.

© 2018-2022 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

[thesehauntedhills]

THE SCREAMING BRIDGE of

MAUD HUGHES ROAD

Located between Princeton & Millikin Roads in Liberty Township, the Screaming Bridge is the home of several mysterious tales. The bridge spans the mainline that has had many names since the 1870’s -the Short Line, Big Four, New York Central, Conrail, Penn Central, and now, Norfolk Southern. No one knows for sure when it first was called the Screaming Bridge, but allegedly the original bridge here was grooved, and caused a sound similair to a scream when a vehicle drove across it.

But, urban legend tells of a more sinister origin to the name. It’s said that the ‘scream’ that is heard is that of someone who has died here. One of the earliest tragedies linked to the bridge goes back to a railroad accident in which two men were scalded to death when the locamotive they were on exploded between West Chester and Gano. However, that accident was in West Chester Township (formerly Union Township). The Maud Hughes bridge is in Liberty Township, yet somehow, the accident became attributed to this area.

Other tales tell us though that the ‘Screaming Bridge’ name came from one of several possible other events. Stories such as an arguing couple crossing the bridge, when a woman was pushed, or fell, to her death. Or of another couple breaking down at the bridge, and the boyfriend left his girlfriend behind to go get help. When he later returned, she was found hanging by her neck from the bridge. Yet another tells of a distrought mother throwing her newborn baby from the bridge, so the screams you hear are of her misery and horror of what she did.

While these are all stories told of any number of bridges around the world, there’s more. Reports of phantom trains or engineers on the tracks below. Orbs seen floating along beneath the bridge, along with supposed Satanic rituals taking place below as well. Still other variations of the tales say that if you stop on the bridge, and flash your headlights 3 times, some form of ghostly activity will occur. I wouldn’t recomend trying though, the bridge turns sharply at either end, making it impossible for oncoming traffic to see you until they are right on you!

A 1909 accident killed two engineers and injured 3 others aboard a train on October 24th. One of the engineers killed was off duty, hitching a ride back home to Middletown when the steam locamotive exploded. It had been fully loaded with water when it left Ivorydale in Cincinnati, but after about 11 miles out, a leak had drained most of it, causing the explosion. That accident wasn’t the only tradgedy along that stretch of track. On June 7th. 1976, at the Princeton Road overpass in Liberty Township, a Penn Centeral employee was killed when two rails protruding from a southbound work train penetrated the cab of the Northbound locamotive he was on.

So while I can’t say no one had died here, in fact, i’m sure someone has at some point in time, but all these tales surrounding the bridge seem to be just urban legend, or error. But who’s to say, after all, those phantom trains and engineers have to come from somewhere, maybe they are just passing by here on thier way to the other side!

[she-who-fights-and-writes]

May you give some tips on how to write about mid-nineteenth century and early twentieth century ?? Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks if there is an answer or not xd 😅 greetings and take good care :) :D

Okay, so I only really know about AMERICAN mid-nineteenth and early 20th century history, so I hope that’s what you mean!!

How to Write About The Mid-Nineteenth/ Early Twentieth Century America

This post will encompass 1850-1920 in America only. A lot of things happened during this period, so I’m going to try to outline it as best I can! This post is gonna be a long one, so I put all of the specifics under the cut:

Overview:

The Industrial Revolution hits. We begin this era with horse-drawn carriages and end with planes, tanks, and cars.

Expansion west, “Manifest Destiny”

The Civil War ends slavery in the United States

The Gilded Age marks an era of unbridled capitalism and robber barons, while the Progressive Era following it marks an age of activism and human rights.

13th Amendment in 1865 abolishes slavery, 14th and 15th Amendments in 1868 and 1870 gives Black people the right to vote, 19th Amendment in 1920 gives women the right to vote.

World War I marks a major advancement in technology and global affairs, sets the stage for the second world war that will come later.

The Roaring 20s provides a façade of success to precede the gigantic stock market crash of 1929.

I’ve copied and pasted a lot of this information directly from America’s Best History and added tidbits of my own as well!

1. The 1850s

Presidents:

Zachary Taylor (1849-1850)

Millard Fillmore (1850-1853)

Franklin Pierce (1853-1857)

James Buchanan (1857-1861)

Important Events:

- Peak point of tension between North and the South, primarily over which states will be admitted as free states or slave states.

- The Compromise of 1850 admits California as the 31st state, without slavery, and adds Utah and New Mexico as territories with no decision on the topic. The Fugitive Slave Law is strengthened under the Compromise, which also ended the slave trade in the District of Columbia.

-1854 - The Republican Party is founded, in opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act. (Note: This form of “Republican” is essentially modern-day Democrats. The parties switched platforms later.)

-The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 allows the issue of slavery to be decided by a vote of settlers. This established the territories of Kansas and Nebraska and would breed much of the rancor that culminated in the actions of the next years of "Bleeding Kansas."

2. The 1860s

Presidents:

James Buchanan (1857-1861)

Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865)

Andrew Johnson (1865-1869)

Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877)

Important Events:

-1860- The Pony Express begins. Overland mail between Sacramento, California and St. Joseph's, Missouri is carried over the Oregon Trail for eighteen months by this series of riders on horseback, then rendered obsolete when the transcontinental telegraph is completed.

- 1860 - South Carolina is the first southern state to secede from the Union in response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President.

-The Homestead Act of 1862 is approved, granting family farms of 160 acres to settlers, many of which were carved from Indian territories. This promotes expansion West, and eventually led to the establishment of the state university systems.

- The Civil War 1861 – 1865

Overview: Union won due to their advanced railroad system and industrialization that provided them with clothing and other supplies. South is ransacked by General Sherman, brings about era of Reconstruction. Slavery is abolished, but former slaves are not immediately emancipated.

People to know:

Abe Lincoln (President of the Union)

Ulysses S. Grant (Union General, future President)

William Sherman (Union General)

Jefferson Davis (President of the Confederacy)

Robert E. Lee (Confederate General)

Stonewall Jackson (Confederate General)

 Important Events/Battles:

Fort Sumter 1861- A fort in Charleston, South Carolina harbor is bombarded by Confederate forces after the U.S. Army commander failed to evacuate, thus triggering a declaration of war.

Battle of Bull Run 1861- First official battle in Manassas, Virginia. Confederates emerge victorious as picnicking (yes, you read that right. People were picnicking and using the battle as entertainment) onlookers watch on in horror; realization that this war won’t be resolved quickly or easily.

Emancipation Proclamation is issued by Abraham Lincoln on September 22, 1862 stated that all slaves in places of rebellion against the Federal Government would be free.

Battle of Shiloh 1862- Victory of Union over Confederacy. Led by Ulysses S. Grant.

Battle of Antietam 1862- Bloodiest day of the war in Sharpsburg, Maryland. 

Gettysburg 1863- Considered the turning point of the war. The furthest Southern incursion into the North, where the Union beats back the attacking Confederate troops. A few weeks after the war, Lincoln issues the Gettysburg Address (“Four score and seven years ago…”).

The South Surrenders on April 2nd, 1865

- April 9th, 1865 - Abe Lincoln is assassinated at Ford Theatre by John Wilkes Booth. Andrew Johnson takes his place, and he does not keep up Reconstruction and withdrew all troops from the South so they could be left to their own devices. This is said to be the reason for segregation.

- 1866 -The KKK is formed  to prevent Black people from voting. Things such as poll taxes, grandfather clauses, and literacy tests are implemented by states to also discourage Black people from voting as well.

-  1867 -Alaska is purchased from Russia for $7.2 million dollars, approximately two cents per acre, by signing the Treaty of Cession of Russian America to the United States.

- 1869- The final golden spike of the transcontinental railroad is driven into the ground, marking the junction of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads. This act, as much as any other, would signal the marked increase in the settlement of the west.

3. The 1870s

Presidents:

Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877)

Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881)

Important Events:          

-The Gilded Age begins. Characterized by gross materialism and blatant political corruption that gave rise to important novels of social and political criticism.

-1870 - Standard Oil Company is incorporated by John D. Rockefeller.

-1870 - The first African-American to be sworn into office in the United States Congress, Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from Mississippi takes his place in the United States Senate.

- 1870 - The 15th Amendment is ratified. It gave the right to vote to Black Americans. Race would officially no longer be a ban to voting rights, though it continues to be an issue in Southern states.

- 1871 - The great fire of Chicago starts. The fire burned 1.2 million acres of land, destroyed 17,450 buildings, killed 250 people, and left 90,000 homeless.

- 1876 - The Battle of Little Big Horn occurs when Lt. Colonel George Custer and his 7th U.S. Cavalry engage the Oceti Sakowin and Cheyenne Indians on the bluffs above the Little Big Horn River. All 264 members of the 7th Cavalry and Custer perish in the battle, the most complete rout in American military history.

- 1877 - Crazy Horse surrenders to the United States Army in Nebraska. His people had been weakened by cold and hunger.

- 1878 - The first commercial telephone exchange is opened.

- 1878 - Thomas Edison patents the cylinder phonograph and the Edison Electric Company begins operation

4. The 1880s

Presidents:

James A. Garfield (1881-1881)

Chester A. Arthur (1881-1885)

Grover Cleveland (1885-1889)

Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893)

Important Events:

- 1881 - Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone Company.

-1882 - The Standard Oil Company trust of John D. Rockefeller is formed when Rockefeller places all of his oil holdings inside it.

- 1883 - The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act is passed by Congress, overhauling federal civil service and establishing the U.S. Civil Service agency.

- 1884 - The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in the U.S.A. call for an eight-hour workday.

- 1885 - The Statue of Liberty arrives for the first time in New York harbor.

- 1886 - The Haymarket riot and bombing occurs in Chicago three days after the start of a general strike in the United States that pushed for an eight-hour workday.

- 1887 - Congress passes the Interstate Commerce Act to regulate and control the monopolies of the railroad industry.

- 1888 - The prototype for the commercial phonograph is completed by Thomas A. Edison

- 1888 - The Washington Monument officially opens to the general public.

5. The 1890s

Presidents:

Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893)

Grover Cleveland (1893-1897)

William McKinley (1897-1901)

Important Events:

- The rise of Imperialism.

- 1890 - The Battle of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, occurs in the last major battle between United States troops and Native Americans. Hundreds of native men, women, and children are slain.

- 1892 - Ellis Island, in New York Harbor, opens as the main east coast immigration center, and would remain the initial debarkation point for European immigrants into the United States until its closure in 1954. More than 12 million immigrants would be processed on the island during those years.

- 1892- Nativist sentiments rise with the immigration of Southern and Eastern Europeans flooding into the country. Italian, Polish, Russian, and other immigrants face significant discrimination.

- 1895 - The first professional football game is played in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.

- 1896 - Plessy vs Ferguson decision by the Supreme Court states that racial segregation is approved under the "separate but equal" doctrine. This paves the way for Jim Crow laws in the South.

- 1896 - The first modern Olympic Games is held in Athens, Greece.

- 1896 - Gold is discovered near Dawson, Canada, setting up the Klondike Gold Rush

- 1897 - The era of the subway begins when the first underground public transportation in North America opens in Boston, Massachusetts. 

-1897- The Progressive Era begins

- 1898 – The Spanish- American War begins. It lasts one year and ends in U.S. victory. It was triggered by United States battleship Maine exploding and sinking under unknown causes in Havana Harbor, Cuba, killing two hundred and sixteen seamen. 

- 1898 - The United States annexes the independent republic of Hawaii.

- 1899 - The Open Door Policy with China is declared by Secretary of State John Hay

9. The 1900s

Presidents:

William McKinley (1897-1901)

Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909)

William Howard Taft (1909-1913)

Important Events:

- 1901 - The American League of Major League Baseball is formed.

- 1902 - The first movie theatre in the United States opens in Los Angeles, California.

- 1902 - Cuba gains independence from the United States.

- 1903 - Inventors Wilbur and Orville Wright succeed in the first sustained and manned plane flight.

- 1906 - The Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act is passed due to the efforts of “muckrakers” that worked to expose corruption. “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair, which described the horrible conditions in the meatpacking industry, helped sponsor outrage that would get these laws passed.

- 1908 - The first passenger flight on a plane occurs when Wilbur Wright escorts Charles W. Furnas in the Wright Flyer III at Huffman Prairie Flying Field in Dayton, Ohio.

- 1908- The first production Model T is built at the Ford plant in Detroit, Michigan.

10. The 1910s

Presidents:

William Howard Taft (1909-1913)

Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)

Important Events:

- 1911 - Standard Oil is declared a monopoly by the United States Supreme Court and ordered dissolved under the powers of the Sherman Antitrust Act.

- 1913 - The first moving assembly line is introduced and adopted for mass production by the Ford Motor Company, allowing automobile construction time to decrease by almost 10 hours per vehicle.

- 1915 – The first telephone conversation is conducted by Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas A. Watson between New York and San Francisco.

- 1915 - The British ship Lusitania is sunk by a German U-boat submarine, causing 128 American passengers to be lost. Germany, although it warned of the pending crises to passengers, issued an apology to the United States and promised payments.

- 1918 - The influenza epidemic Spanish flu spans the globe, killing over twenty million worldwide and five hundred and forty-eight thousand people in the United States.

- World War I 1917-1918

Overview: After three years spent remaining neutral, the United States joins World War I. The U.S. made its major contributions in terms of supplies, raw material, and money, and its joining into the war helped to turn the tides against the Germans and Ottomans.

People to know:

Woodrow Wilson (President)

John J. Pershing (General)

Important Events/Battles

The United States declares war on Germany in 1917 after the Zimmermann Telegram is given to the United States by Britain on February 24, showing the offer by Germany to give Mexico back the southwest United States if they would declare war on the United States.

June 26th, 1917 - The first troops from the United States arrive in Europe to assist European allies in World War I. Troops engaged in World War I would include conscript soldiers authorized by the passage of the Conscription Act, the Selective Services Act, on May 18, 1917. General John Pershing would be placed in command of the American Expeditionary Forces during the campaign.

1918 - The United States military forces has over one million troops in Europe fighting in World War I.

May 28, 1918- United States forces are victorious in the Battle of Cantigny, the first independent American operation.

September 26, 1918- Allied forces begin the attack at Meusse-Argonne, the final offensive of the war.

November 11, 1918 - Hostilities in World War I begin to end with the Austria-Hungary alliance for armistice with the allies on November 3. Armistice Day with Germany occurs when the Allies and the German nation sign an agreement in Compiegne, France. Woodrow Wilson would become the first U.S. President to travel to Europe while in office when he sails to attend the Paris Peace Conference on December 4.

1919 - The Treaty of Versailles is signed, ending World War I.

- 1919- The 18th Amendment is passed, bringing about the era of Prohibition

11. The 1920s

Presidents:

Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)

Warren G. Harding (1921-1923)

Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929)

Herbert Hoover (1929-1933)

Important events:

-1920 - The League of Nations is established with the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles, ending the hostilities of the first World War. In a final vote, the United States Senate again votes against joining the League.

- 1920 - Women are given the right to vote when the 19th Amendment to the United States constitution grants universal women's suffrage.

- 1920 - The National Football League is formed

- 1921 - A national quota system on the number of incoming immigrants is established by the United States Congress in the Emergency Quota Act, curbing legal immigration.

- 1923 - The first sound on film motion picture Phonofilm is shown in the Rivoli Theatre in New York City by Lee de Forest.

- 1924 - The Indian Citizenship Act granted all Native Americans citizenship that had been born within the territory of the United States.

- 1925 - Nellie Tayloe Ross is inaugurated as the first woman governor of the United States in Wyoming.

- 1925 - Radiovision is born. The precursor to television is demonstrated by Charles Francis Jenkins when he transmits a 10 minute film of synchronized pictures and sound for five miles from Anacostia to Washington, D.C. to representatives of the United States government.

- 1928 - The first appearance of Mickey and Minnie Mouse on film occurs with the release of the animated short film, Plane Crazy.

- 1928 - Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly over the Atlantic Ocean.

- 1929 - Postwar prosperity ends in the 1929 Stock Market crash. The plummeting stock prices led to losses between 1929 and 1931 of an estimated $50 billion and started the worst American depression in the nation's history.

Hope this helped, and happy writing!!!!!

[hagleyvault]

Today’s #WorkerWednesday post brings us inside the tool room of the Hoopes Brothers & Darlington sawmill in Brooksville, Florida. A note on the reverse of this ca. 1907 photograph identifies the person on the far right as Frank Orville Reagan (1869-1937), the son of Owen Wily Reagan (1847-1909), the sawmill’s manager.

The company that owned the mill, Hoopes Brothers & Darlington, began in West Chester, Pennsylvania in 1867 as a manufacturer of wooden spokes for wheels. By the 1880s it had become one of the largest wooden wheel makers in the United States, with mills and timber harvesting operations established throughout the southern United States.

The mill seen here was established in 1906. Hoopes Brothers & Darlington had originally established their Florida operations in nearby Ocala in 1899, but relocated after exhausting local timber supplies and to take advantage of cheaper railroad freight rates. Owen Wiley Reagan had also managed the Ocala mill, with his son Frank working as assistant manager. After his father’s death in November 1909, Frank took over operations of the Brooksville mill.

This photograph is part of Hagley Library’s collection of Hoopes Brothers & Darlington, Inc. photographs (Accession 1969.099). This collection consists of miscellaneous images from the company, largely dating between 1900 and 1948, as well as advertising material and letterheads. To view the collection online now in our Digital Archive, click here.

[whitepolaris]

Frick’s Lock

Like the canal system that put it on the map, Frick’s Lock is history. It’s a completely deserted Chester County village of about ten abandoned buildings, some dating from the 1700s, some from about fifty years ago. Although it’s within striking distance of highly populated areas, it will never be developed or lived in again, because it’s in the shadow of the Limerick power plant. When nuclear power looms on the horizon, even real estate developers steer clear. But this old village is an ideal destination for fans of stone buildings on the National Historic Register, especially for those who like to avoid tourist traps.

The stone buildings of Frick’s Lock are now boarded up and overgrown, and the place looks appropriately mysterious. Some of the buildings are clearly from the Revolutionary War era, others are more modern, but all are in a state of disrepair: Roofs are collapsing, iron railings are rusting away, and shutters are dilapidated.

In its heyday, Frick’s Lock was a thriving commercial boat town, a big economic factor in the early 1800s. Before airplanes, trucks, and railroads, canals were the best way to transport materials from mines and factories to the retail market. So when the Schuylkill Navigation Company routed a sixty-mile-long canal through the area in the 1820s, Frick’s Lock really took off. The eighteen acres of farmland became the village of Frick’s Lock (originally plural because there were two locks there). The surrounding area had been a 120-acre farm owned by the Grumbacher-Engel family, into which John Frick had married in the 1780s. The canal runs about a hundred feet north of the farmhouse, circa 1757, and the lock is more than two hundred feet west of it. 

In 1884, the Pennsylvania Railroad laid track on the south side of the village and constructed a station at the town, which by then had become the singular Frick’s Lock. This helped the town survive the canal company, unable to compete with the new-fangled railroad transport, ran into financial difficulty in 1890 and the lock was closed down. The canal was drained in the 1930s.

In a case of karmic retribution, the railroad industry suffered a similar fate with the advent of trucking and air traffic. The rail station closed, and the little village declined so much that nobody put up much opposition when the huge Limerick power station was built in its backyard. But there are plants afoot at the East Coventry Township Historical Commission of Chester County to restore the village. It will take time and funds, so there’s still a chance this quiet and unsullied ghost town while it has its cachet as a tourist-free zone. You can get there from Pennsylvania Route 724 near Parkerford. 

[handeaux]

A Brief History Of Garbage In Cincinnati: From Porkopolis To Mount Rumpke

In the beginning, Cincinnati had no garbage. Really.

The Porkopolis hogs took care of pretty much everything. The system was neat and efficient and, to a particular English visitor, grotesquely horrifying. In her 1832 screed, “Domestic Manners of the Americans,” the formidable Fanny Trollope relates her dismay, on taking rooms in Cincinnati, to discover no rubbish cart, “no pump, no cistern, no drain of any kind,” to dispose of garbage. Her landlord informed her that Cincinnatians threw everything in the middle of the street for porcine consumption. With a shudder, she agreed the system worked:

“In truth, the pigs are constantly seen doing Herculean service in this way through every quarter of the city ; and though it is not very agreeable to live surrounded by herds of these unsavoury animals, it is well they are so numerous, and so active in their capacity of scavengers, for without them the streets would soon be choked up with all sorts of substances in every stage of decomposition.”

The Civil War was imminent before Cincinnati surrendered to the idea that maybe having droves of hogs fulfilling municipal sanitary functions might be somewhat less than optimal. A city report of 1862 records the decision to organize rubbish removal:

“About two years since, the City Council were seriously exorcised about the system then used in cleaning streets, and they passed an ordinance compelling the occupants of houses to place their ashes and garbage in separate vessels, so that, during the summer months especially, they could be frequently removed.”

Notice the distinction between ashes and garbage. In 1862, “garbage” was largely organic food waste, while “ashes” referred to mineral refuse. Ashes were consigned to two destinations – dumped in the Ohio River, or dumped in valleys and gullies around the city.

Organic matter, whether vegetable (what we might call “compost”) or animal, what our ancestors called “offal,” was commercially valuable. People bid to pay Cincinnati to haul away garbage. Thar’s gold in them thar garbage cans! Henry & Kate Ford, in their 1881 history of Cincinnati, report that the winning 1866 bidder to head the Cincinnati Street Cleaning Department had to pay the city for the privilege:

“Colonel A. M. Robinson was appointed superintendent of streets, by whom a contract was made with George Thompson, by which he paid three thousand dollars a year into the city treasury, in consideration for the house offal and animal garbage he was to collect from the streets.”

Within 20 years, a Cincinnati guide book boasted about the profitable qualities of Queen City garbage:

“The Cincinnati Fertilizer Company has its sheds on the Ohio and Mississippi and Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis, and Chicago Railroads, six miles west of the city, on the river-bank. By a contract with the city this company gathers and consumes all the garbage, offal, and dead animals found within the city limits. These are manufactured into a fertilizer, soap-grease, bone-dust, etc., and shipped to the South, East, and to Europe. The enterprise is quite profitable, both to the city and the Fertilizer Company.”

The problem, as always, was the obstreperous householder who could not comprehend the instructions to separate ash from garbage. Comingled refuse clogged the fertilizer factory and had to be dumped somewhere – usually in any convenient valley or gully, where it stank bodaciously. The 1916 “Citizen’s Book” chastised those who mixed refuse:

“By the selection of galvanized iron receptacles, reasonably uniform in size and appearance, and with water-tight and dogproof lids, citizens can add materially to the efficiency of this work in preventing unhealthful conditions. Also, contrary to ordinance, many people mix ashes with the garbage, with the result that the mixture is rejected by the contractor, and it is hauled to dumps by the city, thereby creating a local nuisance.”

Where were these city dumps? Due to Cincinnati’s hilly terrain, they were pretty much everywhere. Not only did Cincinnati’s random dumps stink, they regularly caught on fire. Here is the 1898 city report:

“Owing to the topography of the city, it has been found expedient, and in many instances wise, for the city to use some of the low grounds and old ravines for dumping ashes, cinders, and such refuse. The careless mixture of garbage and various animal and vegetable debris, not suitable for these dumps, has led to their abuse. As a result, the dumps, in some instances, are a very great annoyance. The dreadful odors arising from them are not only destructive of comfort, but deleterious to the health of persons living near them or to those compelled to pass them.”

Remember, Cincinnati labored until the 1920s under the machine rule of Boss Cox for whom garbage collection became a political plum bestowed upon the highest bidder. Finally, under Charter Government, Cincinnati established a city-wide network of incinerators. If it burned, it went into the incinerator. If it didn’t burn it went into the Gest Street Dump next to the Millcreek. The incinerator system survived for almost 50 years.

Cincinnati wasn’t the only garbage producer in the area. Cheviot had its own dump out on South Road. Dumps in West Chester, Loveland, Arlington Heights, St. Bernard and Sharonville swallowed untold tons of refuse.

Finally, every municipality for miles around signed contracts with a Carthage pig farmer named Bill “Sweet William” Rumpke. Garbage was gold to Bill Rumpke. He earned as much as $20,000 a month in the 1950s to haul garbage to his pig farm, where 600 hogs ate what they could and the rest got sold for scrap. Cincinnati garbage had come full circle, back to the pigs.

Eventually pushed outside the city limits by a horde of NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) activists, Rumpke (and his pigs) ended up in Colerain Township, creating the foundations for Mount Rumpke – now the tallest point in Hamilton County.

In the 1970s, environmental regulations caught up with Cincinnati’s incinerator system. All of them were shut down, and all of Cincinnati’s garbage, like all of our municipal neighbors, ended up in Bill Rumpke’s Colerain landfill.

Now, it’s not ashes and offal that get separated, but common trash from recyclables.

[floridarevealed]

Chester Shell

By Joanna Grey Talbot

Chester Shell did not grow up in the easiest of times but he was a man of purpose and vision. Born on February 16, 1892, in Orange Springs, Florida, he learned how to hunt, fish, and train bird dogs. These skills would give him a step up in life and give him the opportunity to change the lives of his fellow African Americans.

By the 1900 census he and his mother, Sofia, step-father, Howard, and five siblings and half-siblings were living in Hawthorne, Florida. Howard worked for the railroad as a crosstie chopper. These are the wooden supports that the rails are laid on top of. Sofia was taking care of the family and the older children, including Chester, were in school. At that time there was no school building for the black students, so they met in private homes and churches for only 3 months of the year. This experience planted a seed in Chester’s mind that would grow into a life-changing decision later in life.

Hawthorne Train Station, courtesy of the Matheson History Museum

In 1910 Chester’s family was listed in the census as still living in Hawthorne and all of his siblings were either working for local businesses or in school. Chester would have been 18 or 19 and isn’t listed, so it’s highly likely he had moved out to make his way in the world.

We find him again in 1917 when he registered for the World War I draft. By this time he was married to Marie Riley, a native of Interlachen, and living back in Hawthorne. He was working as a farmhand for G. D. Moore, the son of William Moore who founded the Moore Hotel in Hawthorne.

The Moore Hotel, 1900s, courtesy of the State Library & Archives of Florida

Chester’s first child, Elmer Randolph, was born in Hawthorne on August 3, 1919. Yet, by the 1920 census Chester and his young family were living in West Palm Beach and he was working as a laborer in “rock work.” In 1921 their daughter Margery Joyce was born and the next year their youngest, Arthur Ray, was born.

At some point we know they moved back to Hawthorne because Chester began working as a porter for the Seaboard Railroad and as hunting/fishing guide for Moore’s Hotel. Chester led hunting expeditions for wealthy, northern visitors. 

A hunting party at Moore’s Hotel, 1900s, courtesy of the State Library & Archives of Florida

Sadly, Marie passed away in 1924 and is buried in the Hawthorne Cemetery. Two years later, though, Chester made a decision that would change the lives of generations of black children in Hawthorne. Remembering his experiences as a student in Hawthorne and watching his own children attending school in private homes and churches, he knew something had to change.

According to the Alachua County Library District’s Heritage Collection he approached the Alachua County School Board in 1926 and requested that a school be built for the black students.  He was told that if he raised half of the necessary money the School Board would match the funds. Mr. Shell decided to put his northern contacts to use, many that he met through his time working at the Moore Hotel. He traveled north to raise money and even solicited the Rosenwald Fund, which contributed $1,200. In addition, the black community in Hawthorne sold dinners and made personal donations. The goal of $10,000 was reached and the school was built in time for the 1927-1928 school year. It covered only kindergarten through the eighth grade, so high school students had to be bused to Gainesville's Lincoln High School.

Chester Shell in the 1920s, location unknown, courtesy of the Alachua County Library District

A high school for Hawthorne's black students was finally built in 1955 and was called Shell High School. Shell High was integrated in 1970 and in the 1990s it became Shell Elementary School, which is still in operation today.

On August 8, 1930, Chester married Millie Dorthula Woodward. It doesn’t look as if they had children of their own, at least according to the census data. I was unable to find them in the 1930 census but by the 1935 state census he is still listed as living in Hawthorne and working for Moore’s Hotel as a “superintendent of woods.”

In 1940 the census states that they are living on Sanders Street and own their home. All three of his children would attend college and Elmer and Arthur served in World War II. Elmer attended Florida A&M, served in the Marine Corps during the war, earned his Master’s, married Gladys Floyd and became an educator and minister. His sister, Margery, became a teacher and married Robert Johnson in 1946. Arthur worked at Camp Blanding and then served in the Navy in World War II. He married Verlee Bonniegene Dubois in 1947.

Chester remained very active in the Hawthorne community, even serving as president of the Alachua County Voters League. He traveled extensively, often for religious and political gatherings, visiting 37 of the 50 states. He loved sports, especially baseball, basketball, hunting, and fishing.

His wife, Millie, passed away in 1956 and Chester in 1967. Both are buried in the Hawthorne Cemetery with Elmer, Margery, and Arthur.

Chester Shell, 1960s, courtesy of the Shell Elementary School Enrichment Class of 1997 website http://www.afn.org/~hawthorn/ourtown/history2.html

[blackkudos]

Robert Hooks

Robert Hooks (born Bobby Dean Hooks, April 18, 1937) is an American actor, producer, and activist. He is most recognizable to the public for his more than 100 roles in films, television, and stage. Most famously, Hooks, along with Douglas Turner Ward and Gerald S. Krone, founded The Negro Ensemble Company (NEC). The NEC is credited with the launch of the careers of many major black artists of all disciplines, while creating a body of performance literature over the last thirty years, providing the backbone of African-American theatrical classics. Additionally, Hooks is the sole founder of two significant black theatre companies: the D.C. Black Repertory Company, and New York's Group Theatre Workshop.

Biography

Early life

The youngest of five children, Hooks was born in Foggy Bottom, Washington, D.C. to Mae Bertha (née Ward), a seamstress, and Edward Hooks who had moved from Rocky Mount, North Carolina with their four other children, Bernice, Caroleigh, Charles Edward "Charlie", and James Walter "Jimmy". Named Bobby Dean Hooks at birth, Robert was their first child born "up-north" and the first to be born in a hospital. His father, Edward, died in a work accident on the railroad in 1939.

Hooks attended Stevens Elementary School. In 1945, at the insistence of his sister Bernice who was doing community arts outreach for youngsters at Francis Junior High School, he performed the lead in his first play, The Pirates of Penzance, at the age of nine. From the ages of 6 to 12, Bobby Dean journeyed with his siblings to Lucama, North Carolina to work the tobacco fields for his uncle's sharecropping farm as a way to help earn money for the coming school year in D.C.

In 1954, just as Brown vs. Board of Education was being implemented in the north, he moved to Philadelphia to be with his mother, her second husband, and his half-sister, Safia Abdullah (née Sharon Dickerson). Hooks experienced his first integrated school experience at West Philadelphia High School. Hooks soon joined the drama club and began acting in plays by William Shakespeare and Samuel Beckett. He was graduated in 1956, passing on a scholarship to Temple University in order to pursue a career as a stage actor at the Bessie V. Hicks School of Theatre (alongside Charles Dierkop and Bruce Dern, with whom he second-acted plays doing their pre-Broadway tryouts in Philadelphia) while working at Browning King, a men's tailor shop at Fourteenth and Chestnut streets.

Career

Having trained at the Bessie V. Smith School of Theatre in Philadelphia, and after seeing A Raisin in the Sun in its Philadelphia tryout in February 1959, Hooks moved to New York to pursue acting. In April 1960, as Bobby Dean Hooks, he made his Broadway debut in A Raisin in the Sun replacing Louis Gossett, Jr. who would be doing the film version. He then continued to do its national tour. He then stepped into the Broadway production of A Taste of Honey, replacing Billy Dee Williams; then repeating the same national tour trajectory as he had done for "Raisin..." the previous year. In early 1962 he next appeared as the lead in Jean Genet's The Blacks, replacing James Earl Jones as the male lead, leaving briefly that same year to appear on Broadway again in Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright before stepping back into the lead role in The Blacks in 1963. He then returned to Broadway, first in Ballad for Bimshire and then in the short-lived 1964 David Merrick revival of The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Any More (as a character created by Tennessee Williams for this revival) and starring Tallulah Bankhead and Tab Hunter in his only stage performance. Immediately thereafter, in March 24, 1964 he originated the role of Clay in Amiri Baraka's Dutchman. With this play, on the advice of Roscoe Lee Brown, Hooks became known as, Robert Hooks. He also originated roles on the New York stage in Where's Daddy? for which he won the Theatre World Award and he was nominated for Best Male Lead in a Musical for Hallelujah Baby while he was simultaneously starring in David Susskind's N.Y.P.D.—the first African American lead on a television drama.

In 1968 Hooks was the host of the new public affairs television program, Like It Is.

Hooks was nominated for a Tony for his lead role in the musical, Hallelujah, Baby!, has received both the Pioneer Award and the NAACP Image Award for Lifetime Achievement, and has been inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame. He also won an Emmy for his PBS special, Voices of Our People.

Significant roles for which Hooks is known include Reeve Scott in Hurry Sundown (1967), Mr. T. in the blaxploitation film Trouble Man (1972), grandpa Gene Donovan in the comedy Seventeen Again (2000), and Fleet Admiral Morrow in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984). He also appeared on television in an episode of the NBC crime drama series The Eddie Capra Mysteries in 1978 and portrayed Doctor Walcott in the 1980s television series Dynasty.

Activism

Arts and Culture

In 1964, as a result of a speaking engagement at the Chelsea Civil Rights Committee (then connected to the Hudson Guild Settlement House) he founded The Group Theatre Workshop (GTW), a tuition-free environment for disadvantaged urban teens who expressed a desire to explore acting. Among the instructors were Barbara Ann Teer, Frances Foster, Hal DeWindt, Lonne Elder III, and Ronnie Mack. Alumni include Antonio Fargas, Hattie Winston, and Daphne Maxwell Reid.

The Group Theatre Workshop was folded into the tuition-free training arm of the The Negro Ensemble Company (NEC) founded in 1967 with Douglas Turner Ward and Gerald S. Krone with a $1.3 million grant from the Ford Foundation under the auspices of W. McNeil Lowry.

From 1969-1972, Hooks served as an original board member of Black Academy of Arts and Letters (BAAL) (located in New York) alongside C. Eric Lincoln, President; John O. Killens, Alvin F. Poussaint, and Charles White. Chartered by the State of New York, BAAL's mission was to bring together Black artists and scholars from around the world. Additional members included: Julian Adderley, Alvin Ailey, Margaret Walker, James Baldwin, Imamu Baraka, Romare Bearden, Harry Belafonte, Lerone Bennett, Arna Bontemps, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee Davis, St. Clair Drake, Ernest Dunbar, Katherine Dunham, Lonne Elder III, Duke Ellington, Alex Haley, Ruth Inge Hardison, Vertis Hayes, Chester Himes, Lena Horne, Jacob Lawrence, Elma Lewis, Henry Lewis, Paule Marshall, Donald McKayle, Arthur Mitchell, Frederick O’Neal, Gordon Parks, Sidney Poitier, Benjamin Quarles, Lloyd Richards, Lucille D. Roberts, and Nina Simone.

In response to the violence in his home town of Washington, D.C. in the wake of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, and aided by a small grant from the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation, Hooks took a leave of absence from the Negro Ensemble Company to create The D.C. Black Repertory Company (DCBRC, 1970-1981). As Founder and Executive Director, the DCBRC was intended as a further exploration of the ability of the arts to create healing. The a capella group Sweet Honey in the Rock was created and developed within its workshop process.

The Inner Voices (Lorton Prison arts training program, 1971) proved to be a result of the beneficial effect of the DCBRC in the D.C. area. In response to a direct plea from an inmate, Rhozier "Roach" Brown, who was serving a life sentence in Lorton, Hooks' D.C. Black Repertory Company structured the first prison-based arts program in the United States. While it is the norm now, it was then a revolutionary attempt at rehabilitation through the arts. Eventually The Inner Voices performed more than 500 times in other prisons, including a Christmas special entitled, "Holidays, Hollowdays." Due to Roach's work, President Gerald Ford commuted his sentence on Christmas Day, 1975.

His relocation to the West Coast redirected Hooks' approach to parity in the arts with his involvement with The Bay Area Multicultural Arts Initiative (1988) as a board member and grant facilitator-judge. Funded by monies from a unique coalition made up of the San Francisco Foundation (a community foundation); Grants for the Arts of the San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, and The National Endowment for the Arts, the function of this organization was the funding of deserving local multicultural arts organizations.

In 1992, Hooks co-founded (with writer Lonne Elder III) Arts in Action. Located in South Central Los Angeles, this was a film and television training center established to guide individuals who aspired to careers in film production. It formulated strategies and training for securing entry-level jobs. Courses included: career development workshops; pre-production and production for film and television; creative problem solving in production management; directing for stage and screen—principles and practices; also the craft of assistant directors, script supervisor, technicians, wardrobe, make-up, etc.

The Negro Ensemble Company of Los Angeles (NEC-LA) (1994-1997) was created because so many New York members and original members had relocated to the west coast. Hooks, as founder and executive director enlisted alumni from his New York Negro Ensemble Company to serve as board members: Denise Nicholas, Denzel Washington, James Earl Jones, Laurence Fishburne, Richard Roundtree, Samuel L. Jackson. NEC-LA's goal was to be a new and innovative multi-ethnic cultural project that strived to achieve the community effectiveness and professional success of its parent organization.

Personal life

Hooks is the father of actor, television and film director Kevin Hooks. He married Lorrie Gay Marlow (actress, author, artist) on June 15, 2008. Previously, he was married to Yvonne Hickman and Rosie Lee Hooks.

Awards

1966 - Theatre World Award (1965–66 ) for "Where's Daddy?" (The Billy Rose Theatre)

1979 - American Black Achievement Award - Ebony Magazine

1982 - Emmy Award for Producing (1982) Voices of Our People: In Celebration of Black Poetry (KCET-TV/PBS)

1966 - Tony Nomination, Lead Role in a Musical for Hallelujah, Baby

1985 - Inducted into The Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, recipient Oscar Micheaux Award (1985)

1986 - March 2nd declared Robert Hooks Day by the City of Los Angeles, Mayor Tom Bradley

1987 - Excellence in Advertising and Communications to Black Communities from CEBA (Excellence in Advertising and Communications to Black Communities)

2000 - Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa honorary degree, Bowie State University

2000 - May 25th declared Robert Hooks Day in Washington, D.C.

2005 - Beverly Hills/Hollywood Chapter NAACP Image Award for Lifetime Achievement

2005 - Beverly Hills/Hollywood Chapter NAACP Trailblazer Award to the Negro Ensemble Company

2005 - Trailblazer Award – City of Los Angeles

2006 - The Black Academy of Arts and Letters (TBAAL), Lifetime Achievement Award (Dallas)

2007 - The Black Theatre Alliance Awards / Lifetime Achievement Award

2015 - Living Legend Award (2015) National Black Theatre Festival

2018 - October 18th proclaimed Robert Hooks Day by Mayor Muriel Bowser, Washington, D.C.

2018 - Hooks is entered into The Congressional Record by the Hon. Eleanor Holmes Norton, September 4, 2018, Vol. 164

2018 - Visionary Founder and Creator Award - D.C. Black Repertory Company on its 47th anniversary

Acting Credits

Film

Sweet Love, Bitter (1967) .... Keel Robinson

Hurry Sundown (1967) .... Reeve Scott

Last of the Mobile Hot Shots (1970) .... Chicken

Carter's Army (1970) .... Lt. Edward Wallace

Trouble Man (1972) .... Mr. T

Aaron Loves Angela (1975) .... Beau

Airport '77 (1977) .... Eddie

Fast-Walking (1982) .... William Galliot

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) .... Admiral Morrow

Passenger 57 (1992) .... Dwight Henderson

Posse (1993) .... King David

Fled (1996) .... Lt. Clark

[onceuponatown]

Chester Park. Cincinnati, Ohio. Ca. 1910.

Chester Park was located along the railroad lines near the intersection of what is now Spring Grove and West Mitchell avenues. The site, now partially occupied by Greater Cincinnati Water Works, began as a local horse racing club in 1875 owned by then-Cincinnati Bell president George Stone, according to "Cincinnati: A Guide to the Queen City and Its Neighbors."  

Chester Park added a bicycle racing track in 1886, amusement rides and a place for concert and operas. The Cincinnati Street Railway Co. bought the property in 1895, rebranded it as an "amusement resort" and added new features such as a swimming area. 

By the 1920s the park had a "large lake bisected by a midway, so that boating could be enjoyed on one side and swimming on the other. Circling the lake was the boardwalk with all the fun devices and eating places necessary to produce a carnival spirit," according to the guide.

With the advent of cars, the Great Depression and Cincinnati growing around it, Chester Park started experiencing financial troubles by 1930 and was also unable to compete with Coney Island, which was still thriving at the time.

Chester Park's amusement rides and attractions closed in 1932 after the city of Cincinnati turned off the park's water for unpaid bills. In 1933, only the pool and rink reopened. The pool then closed in 1941.