stories of america
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George Washington’s Army, My Ancestor’s Farm
The Revolutionary War becomes a little more real when you discover that George Washington’s army once camped on your ancestor’s property. My 5X great grand uncle, Joshua Guerin (1737-1808), lived with his wife and eight children on a 76-acre farm near Morristown, New Jersey. Joshua served as a sergeant in the Morris County militia and… Continue reading
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When Flour Sacks Became Fashion
During the Great Depression, families learned to make use of nearly everything – and that included the cotton sacks that held flour, sugar, animal feed, and other staples. Women were already re-purposing the sturdy fabric into dresses, shirts, underwear, aprons, quilts, and other household goods. Eventually, manufacturers caught on. Rather than printing their sacks with… Continue reading
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What the Founding Fathers’ Pants Can Tell Us
History is often found in letters, diaries, government records and dusty old documents. And sometimes, apparently, it’s found in pants. While listening to Nathan Philbrick’s Travels with George, I learned a wonderfully unnecessary bit of American history: George Washington had very large thighs. According to Philbrick, Washington spent so much of his life on horseback… Continue reading
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Turns Out, We Weren’t Just Farmers: My Family Connection to Henry Ford
For most of my years researching genealogy, I have jokingly described my ancestors as a bunch of farmers. And, to be fair, a lot of them were. They worked the land, raised families, moved from one small town to another, and lived lives that didn’t seem particularly likely to intersect with the people whose names… Continue reading
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For Five Dollars a Day: The Dogs Used to Hunt Human Beings
Sometimes the smallest pieces of the historical record are the hardest to look at. While listening to the audiobook “The Calamity Club” by Kathryn Stockett, I encountered a reference to dogs used to track enslaved people who attempted to escape. I knew about slave catchers, of course, but had never given much thought to the… Continue reading
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The Pilgrims Weren’t Exactly Great Neighbors
Most of us learned a fairly tidy version of the Mayflower story in school. A ship full of Pilgrims crossed the Atlantic in 1620 in search of religious freedom, landed in a strange new wilderness, struggled through a terrible first winter, and – with the help of the Native people they encountered – managed to… Continue reading
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Want to Join the Union Army? Open Wide.
Imagine showing up to enlist in the Union Army during the Civil War and being told to open your mouth. The Army wanted to see your teeth. And not just because they were concerned about whether you could chew your dinner. Civil War soldiers carried ammunition in paper cartridges. To load a rifle-musket, a soldier… Continue reading
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One Week in Charleston: 118 Deaths in 1836
Sometimes I find history when I’m not looking for it. While searching old newspaper archives for something entirely unrelated, I came across this report published in The Charleston Daily Courier on October 4, 1836. It is a mortality report from the Charleston (South Carolina) Board of Health, and what gave me pause was not simply… Continue reading
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Greenfield Village: Where History is Still Happening
There are places where you go to learn about history, and then there are places where you can walk straight into it. Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan is very much the latter. Spread across 80 acres, adjacent to the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation, the village is filled with historic homes, workshops, farms, businesses,… Continue reading
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An 11-Year Old Almon Hunt and a Hanging in Norwalk
Sometimes the most interesting pieces of family history are hiding in a single sentence. While searching old newspapers, I came across an article in the September 8, 1894, Sandusky Register about Huron County, Ohio. Near the end, the wandering correspondent stopped to mention a familiar name: “Almon Hunt is the oldest man here; he is… Continue reading
