May « 2008 « History Rhymes

31May/082

Downtime

I apologize for the downtime. I had some issues with the domain and it looks like they've finally been taken care of.

While doing research for another project of mine, I stumbled across a place in the American Memory collection from the Library of Congress where you can download the 1903 silent film, "The Great Train Robbery."

It's a very interesting 12-minute silent film that shows how three robbers are able to rob a train and all of its passengers. The film itself is interesting because it was quite groundbreaking for its time. It introduced new editing techniques such as cross cutting, double exposure composite editing, camera movement and on location shooting. You can read more about the film itself on Wikipedia.

You can download the short film in three different formats here: The Great Train Robbery.

Tagged as: 1903, Bandits, Films, History, Robbers, Robbery, The Great Train Robbery, Train No Comments

20May/083

The Homestead Act of 1862

Today marks the 146th anniversary of the signing of The Homestead Act. Like The General Mining Act of 1872, The Homestead Act of 1862 was designed to encourage people to settle the west. By the time the act was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on May 20, 1862, eleven southern states had already succeeded from the Union and almost a century of debate about how best to go about settling unsettled land in the west had already passed. The Homestead Act was a culmination of the triumphs and failures of the past one hundred years of experimentation.

Initially, the sale of public land in the west was seen as a source of revenue for the government rather than a means to expand the country's borders and encourage settlement. The Land Ordinance of 1785 stated that an individual had the right to purchase 640 acres of public land for $1 per acre. In 1800, the amount of acreage was reduced to a maximum of 320 acres, however, prices changed very little at only $1.25 an acre. In 1854, legislation was passed that changed the prices of land based on its desirability. A plot of land that had been on the market for 30 years, for example, was reduced to 12.5 cents per acre. Even with that kind of price, most people could still not afford it, so settlement of western lands was slow.

In the early years of settlement in the west, it was assumed that settlers would pay for the land before settling it, however, in the mid-nineteenth century, legislation supporting "preemption" -- or the right to settle land before paying for it -- began to find support in the government. However, in 1852, 1854 and 1859, the House of Representatives passed the homestead legislation only for it to be defeated in the Senate. In 1860, a bill providing government land grants to western settlers was passed by Congress, but was vetoed by President James Buchanan. The chief concern preventing the legislation from passing was the issue of slavery. Southern states whose economies were supported by large slave-run farms were deeply concerned about the creation of small farms in the west and the spread of antislavery policies.

With the secession of the Southern states, The Homestead Act of 1862 had very little trouble finding support from Congress and from the president. With the new law in place, those willing to settle in the west and who had never borne arms against the US government were allotted 160-acre lots. To get the deed to their property, they had to follow a simple three-step procedure: filing an application (see image below), improving the land, then filing for deed of title. The only money they had to pay was a small application fee unless they chose to buy the property for $1.25 an acre from the government after six months of residency. In order to receive ownership of the land, settlers had to complete five years of continuous residency, build a dwelling of at least 12 x 14 and improve the land for agricultural use. The legislation did not specify in which measurement the 12 x 14 dwelling had to be. Many people took advantage of the this loophole and built dwellings of 12 inches by 14 inches in order to claim more land. After the Civil War, Union soldiers were allowed to subtract their time served from the requirements of the Homestead Act.

Although many of the pioneers who had ventured west could not endure the hardships of life on the frontier, many of them were able to stay. By 1900, 80 million acres of public land had been distributed as a result of the Homestead Act. By 1934, 1.6 million homestead applications had been processed and 270 million acres of land had been passed on to individuals. Congress repealed the Homestead Act in 1976 with the Federal Land Policy and Management Act in the lower 48 states, giving Alaska a ten-year extension.

An example of an application for a homestead. Image courtesy of The National Archives.

An example of proof needed to be submitted to the government in order to claim a homestead. Image courtesy of The National Archives.

An example of a certificate certifying ownership of a claim. Image courtesy of The National Archives.

Tagged as: 1862, Abraham Lincoln, Acts, American West, Homestead, Settlement, Settlers 3 Comments

18May/082

Frontier Life in Washington Territory

There is a really interesting article that I came across about life on the frontier in Washington Territory in and around 1857. The article is an old article that was published in the Harper's Weekly journal on August 22, 1857. Here is a clip of the article:

The commonly-received notion of Washington Territory makes of it a country wild and rugged, made up chiefly of thickly-wooded mountains and steep ravines, having an unkind climate vibrating between a drizzle and a raw fog, robbed somehow of its due share of fair, vivifying sunshine, and inhabited by Indians the chief end and aim of whose existence is the depriving white settlers of that valuable and ornamental appendage, the scalp. A country, briefly, in every unpropitious to the husband-man and the peaceful trader, and fit goal only for those restless spirits whose mission in life is to "move West."

Mr. James G. Swan, a plain, broad-shouldered, matter-of-fact man, tells in a volume just published, * a different story. According to Mr. Swan, Washington Territory is exceeded by no part of the Union in fertility of soil, beauty and salubrity of climate, variety of natural productions, or splendor of scenery. Its mountains and plains abound in the choicest timber; its extensive and well-watered prairies have the finest soil in the world; its streams and bays teem with fish of every kin, from the salmon to the herring; and its woods and marshes are alive with every kind of game known to the American sportsman.

The Indians, against whom our Government is now waging a war of extermination, are in reality, according to Mr. Swan, a harmless and easily-guided race, very willing originally to be of service to the white settlers, but goaded on by injudicious management on the part of lawless whites to a bloody retaliation of their wrongs. They have numberless superstitions, of which our author gives an extended and interesting account, live chiefly by the chase and fishery, flatten the heads of their infants, bury their dead in canoes, and live in great fear of the memlose tillicums, or spirits of the deceased. Their doctors cure by mesmerism, and they seem to work upon the principle of "kill or cure," i. e., kill the physician if he does not cure the patient. Their women have an easier lot than generally falls to the Indian squaw.

Such were the people—peaceable, simple-hearted, superstitious, and easily guided by right-minded men—among whom the early settlers of Washington Territory pitched their tents, and with whose aid they located claims, exported oysters, hooked salmon, and cultivated potatoes and wheat.

You can find the rest on HarpWeek.com

Tagged as: American West, Frontier, Harper's Weekly, History, Life, Washington 2 Comments

16May/084

The Hanging Judge

"I have ever had the single aim of justice in view... 'Do equal and exact justice,' is my motto, and I have often said to the grand jury, 'Permit no innocent man to be punished, but let no guilty man escape.'"

Few judges in American history have such a reputation as that of Isaac Parker. Known as "The Hanging Judge," Judge Parker sentenced more than 160 criminals (156 men and 4 women) to death by hanging and tried a total of 13,490 cases in only 21 years on the bench.

Isaac Parker was born in Ohio on October 15, 1838. He grew up on a farm, but quickly discovered he had no interest in the farm life. When he wasn't needed on the farm, he went school at the Breeze Hill primary school. After completing primary school, Parker attended the Barnesville Classical Institute which was a private institution. In order to earn money to pay for his schooling, he worked as a teacher at a county primary school. As early as the age of 17, Parker opted to study law. His study of law consisted of a combination of self-study and an apprenticeship. He passed the bar exam in 1859 after reading law with a Barnesville attorney.

After passing his bar exam, Parker moved west to St. Joseph, Missouri -- a town later made famous by the infamous Jesse James. He began his legal career with the firm of Shannon and Branch which was operated by his uncle, D.E. Shannon. In 1861, after working on his own for a short while, he was elected to city attorney as a Democrat. On December 12th of the same year, he married Mary O'Toole. The couple eventually had two children: Charles and James.

After three years as a Democratic city attorney, he formally split from the Democratic party and ran for county prosecutor for the Ninth Missouri Judicial District as a Republican. That fall, he served as a member of the Electoral College and cast his vote for Abraham Lincoln. Four years later, in 1868, he won his first position as a judge. Parker won a six-year term as judge for the Twelfth Missouri Circuit, although he did not finish his term.

1870 saw a different turn in Parker's career. On September 13, 1870, he was nominated as a Republican candidate for the Seventh Congressional District in Missouri. After resigning his post as judge in favor of putting more energy into his campaign, he easily won the election on November 8th after his opponent had dropped out of the race. He easily won re-election for a second term two years later. During his second term, he gained national attention for his support of legislation for the rights and fair treatment of Indian tribes in the Indian Territory, or what is now Oklahoma. In 1874, however, the political landscape in Missouri had changed and as a Republican, Parker stood no chance of winning the election again. Instead he sought a presidential appointment to public office.

On March 18, 1875, Parker's presidential appointment was granted. He was appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant to preside over the federal district court for the Western District of Arkansas as judge. With his court in Fort Smith on the border of Indian Territory and Arkansas, it was this post that would lead him to infamy. At the time of his appointment, Indian Territory was a vast area of chaos where outlaws ruled outside the jurisdiction of the "White Man's Court." Parker sought to bring this anarchy to an end.

Parker held court for the first time on May 10, 1875. He sentenced eight men to death after being found guilty of murder. During the following summer, he would convict 15 people of murder and sentence eight of them to die by hanging on September 3rd of the same year. The sentence of one of the convicts was reduced to life in prison because of his young age and another convict was killed while attempting to escape.

The hangings of September 3rd gained national attention. Newspapermen traveled from all over the nation to attend the execution of the six men. Three of the felons were white, two of them Native American and one of them black. That morning, they were led to the gallows in front of a large crowd of spectators. As they sat at the back of the gallows, they were read their death warrants and asked if they had any last words. After the preliminaries had finished, they were led up to the scaffolding and nooses were placed around their necks by executioner George Maledon (pictured right). The trap was sprung and the six men died instantly at the end of the ropes.

The September 3rd hangings gave Judge Parker the nickname "The Hanging Judge" and were a sign that the times of the rule of outlaws in Indian Territory was at an end. His court was condemned by his critics as the "Court of the Damned." By the time his career was over, there would be 73 more hangings.

Sick from a life of overworking and spending his last few days bedridden, Parker died of a heart attack on November 17, 1896.

Tagged as: American West, Executions, Hanging, Judge 4 Comments

16May/080

Best Educational Blog

I really excited to announce that History Rhymes has been nominated for the Best Educational Blog award!

If you enjoy reading History Rhymes, click on the button below to vote for this blog.

Thank you for all of your support!

Tagged as: Awards, Best Education Blog No Comments

15May/080

Classic Westerns

One of the things that got me interested in the history of the American west are westerns. I used to watch John Wayne movies with my grandpa when I was young and since I've been in Germany, I've found that many Germans also really love westerns. They even have their own breed of the genre which is amusing to watch because the characters are supposedly in Mexico or Texas speaking German.

Anyway, I bring this up because I came across something a couple of days ago that I think any lover of the genre will appreciate, if not enjoy. It is a podcast called the Western Wednesday Podcast. The podcast has 20-30 minute shows that are available for download every Wednesday. The shows themselves were created -- both written and recorded -- in the 1950's and were designed for radio. For anyone who really enjoys westerns, this is a great opportunity to listen to some classics. Although they may not be 100% historically accurate, they are a great glimpse at the time period and they will really help put you into the mentality of someone who lived during the "wild west" days. Of course they are entertaining as well.

You can find the podcast on the Western Wednesday Podcast website where you can subscribe via iTunes or any other RSS reader that supports podcasts.

Tagged as: 1950's, American West, John Wayne, Shows, Westerns No Comments

14May/082

The General Mining Act of 1872

When gold was discovered in California in 1848, it caused a mass-migration of prospective miners to the west. Unfortunately at that time, the US government had very few mining laws, practically none of which were effective, and without a significant presence in the newly-acquired state of California, there was no good means with which to enforce those the government already had in place. Laws and mining regulations were therefore up to the individual mining communities to govern. Instead of the ineffective laws produced by the American government, they decided to adopt the Mexican mining laws which were already effectively in place. The Mexican mining laws stated that an individual who discovers gold or silver on public land has the right to mine it. These laws and regulations varied surprisingly very little between different communities with only minor differences such as the maximum size of claims.

On July 26, 1866, the first effective American mining legislation was passed by Congress. Known as the "Chaffee laws," the legislation basically made what the miners were already doing legal. At first the laws covered the legalization of mining lode, or hardrock, on public lands. The laws were then expanded in 1870 to include the legalization of placer mining, or the mining of sand or gravel for gold. With the original laws, miners could make claims if they had discovered and intended to extract gold, silver, cinnabar or copper.

In 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed the General Mining Act into law. The new act was more or less a more organized revision of the mining laws of 1866 and 1870, however, there were a few major changes in the 1872 act. Miners were now granted extralateral rights to lode claims which meant that if a miner had discovered a surface outcrop of a vein on his claim, he had the right to follow it and mine it wherever it led him, even under someone else's claim. The new act fixed the maximum size of a claim to be 1500 feet long and 600 feet wide. One of the more significant changes was the addition of "or other valuable deposits" to the list of materials that could be discovered and claimed, effectively expanding the scope of the law.

While most people know of the Homestead Act of 1862, which brought much attention to the desolate west and an onslaught of settlers, not many people know about the General Mining Act of 1872, although they were both intended to promote the settlement of the west.

$A large \"crater\" mine.$ The significance of the General Mining Act of 1872 is still felt quite prominently in the west. Aside from a few amendments made throughout the years, it remains mostly unchanged since its inception in 1872. One of the more significant amendments with the most profound impact on modern times was made just six years later and is called the Timber and Stone Act of 1878. It allowed private purchase of federal mineable land for very cheap.

Today, private miners and mining companies are able to obtain federal land for next to nothing. Modern mining techniques have also left huge craters in the western landscape, some of them large enough to see from space.

There is an interesting video from National Geographic on YouTube about the General Mining Act of 1872 and its effects on the modern west. I posted the video in an earlier post which you can find here.

Tagged as: 1872, Acts, American West, General Mining Act, History 2 Comments

11May/080

The Scofield Mine Disaster

The day of May 1, 1900 started off as any other ordinary day for the miners in Scofield, Utah. Early in the morning, the men and boys kissed their wives and mothers good-bye as they left for a hard day's work in the mines. Later in the day was to be festivities celebrating May Day, to which many of the miners were looking forward. None could predict that many of the miners would not live to see later in the day.

At around 10:28 AM, there was a very loud noise that came from mine No. 4 -- one of the two mines belonging to the Pleasant Valley Coal Company at Winter Quarters. Many people in the town heard the blast, but thought it was fireworks for the celebration later in the day. Mine employees not working in the mine realized it was something more serious, however. One of the employees was mine superintendent T.J. Parmley who put together a search and rescue party to go into the mines. What the team found was death and devastation.

Although the cause for the explosion is not known for certain, there is speculation that blasting powder exploded and set off a chain reaction when highly explosive coal dust -- which the mine was covered with -- blew up following the initial blast. When the rescue team got to the entrance to mine No. 4, they found it had been completely blocked with debris. When the entrance was finally cleared, they found the mine to be a death trap. Those who had survived the initial blast were suffocating from the "afterdamp" which consists of toxic gases combined with a lack of oxygen. Miners in adjourning mine No. 1 were not affected to the same degree by the blast, but they soon had to evacuate the mine due to poisonous gases escaping from mine No. 4.

By the end of the day, the body count had reached 200 victims. There were more bodies than available coffins and several had to imported from Denver. Casualties outside the mine itself include workers such as John Wilson who had been at the mouth of the mine at the time of the explosion. Wilson was flung 820 feet and was found lying against a tree.

Special trains were sent from Salt Lake City to retrieve the injured and those whose bodies would be laid to rest elsewhere. William Sharp, the company manager, also came by train from Salt Lake City with several doctors to assist the injured. When President William McKinley received news of the explosion, he wired his condolences:

"I desire to express my intense sorrow upon learning of the terrible calamity which has occurred at Scofield, and my deep sympathy with the wives, children and friends of the unfortunate victims of the explosion."

The explosion affected everyone in Scofield. There was not a single family who did not have at least one loss. The Scofield mine disaster was the worst tragedy in American history up until that time. Four days after the incident, on May 5, two massive funerals were held in Scofield for the victims: one was a Lutheran service and the other was a Mormon service.

Harry Taylor, a lucky miner who survived with only injuries, recalls,

$Victims\' Coffins$ “I was repairing some track out on the dump when I started toward the mouth of the tunnel to get some tools. I got about fifty feet away from the tunnel mouth when suddenly there was an awful report and at the same time a black cloud, filled with rocks, bore down on me. I felt several small rocks strike me and then I felt a jolt on my side and then – then I came away.

“The next thing I knew I woke with a man pouring some brandy down my throat, and I saw the boys lying all around me moaning for help. We were fixed up and put on the train.”

Tagged as: Disasters, History, Mines, Utah No Comments

10May/080

Welcome to the New Website!

Welcome to the new location for History Rhymes!

Please update your RSS subscriptions to http://historyrhymes.alexseifert.com/?feed=rss2 and bookmarks to http://historyrhymes.alexseifert.com. Thank you!

-- Alex

Filed under: General No Comments

Older Entries »

Support History Rhymes!

Support History Rhymes by paying a visit to my store on Amazon.com. There you will find books and other materials that I recommend for furthering your knowledge of American history. Help support History Rhymes and treat yourself to something interesting!

History Rhymes Store