Every Tuesday, we release new local history books and today is no exception! We have six new books hitting the shelves covering a range of topics and locations.Â
So let's get reading.
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A chocolate mill opened in Boston in the late 1700s, setting the stage for New England’s enduring love affair with sweets. Over the following centuries, the region has become home to an extraordinary variety of baked, fried, dipped, sugared and frozen confections. Massachusetts gave us candy classics like Necco Wafers, Sky Bars and Junior Mints, and Connecticut claims lollipops and Almond Joy. New Hampshire boasts the world’s longest candy counter, and Maine puts a homespun twist on its doughnuts and chocolates by blending in a touch of potato. Rhode Islanders sip ice cream shakes called cabinets, while Vermonters prefer smooth maple creemees. From Fluffernutters to whoopie pies, Susan Mara Bregman explores this sugary legacy, uncovering the stories behind the treats that sweetened New England’s culinary landscape.
The April 1917 declaration of war on Germany hastened the need for US training camps. Camp Custer, named for Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, was established on July 18, 1917. Thousands of soldiers were inducted at Camp Custer, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers would start their military training at Camp and later Fort Custer, which became a permanent base in 1940. Images from Camp and Fort Custer gives the reader insight into camp life during both world wars, including the German prisoners of war experience. Images of America: Fort Custer in the World Wars features the influence Camp and Fort Custer had on military training. The young soldiers trained here served their country honorably and are deserving of gratitude.
by Keven McQueen
From a mayhem-filled day at the county fair in 1854 to the lynching of William Barker at the courthouse a few years later, old-timey Lexington was no place for the faint of heart. This was an age when Lexingtonians sought justice in extralegal ways and sometimes inspired mobs of fellow citizens to join in the villainy, like the assemblage that wreaked awful recompense on adulterous George Grigg for killing his lover’s husband. In 1873, Montgomery Hobbs Parker shot his young farmhand John Wills just outside city limits, but the details remain in dispute, just like the unsolved 1908 murder of traveling circus employee Stephen Diesback at the Bluegrass Fairgrounds.
Only here did the Confederates use Antietam Creek as a barrier, so it was the only place where Union troops had to force their way across. Here the Union army waged its final attack, and the Confederates launched their last counterattack led by A.P. Hill’s division. It might as well have been a different battle entirely from the more famed northern field.
Using dozens of journals, diaries, newspaper accounts and reports, author Robert M. Dunkerly examines the action in detail and explores the gradual preservation of this oft-neglected portion of America’s bloodiest battle.
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True Tales of Wentzville by Gerry Matlock, Lois Kessler and Kathy Weindel
Visionaries like Wentzville founder William Allen saw that the railroad not only would aid in the transportation of goods and people but also would be instrumental in the development of the interior of the county and state. Rugged pioneers like Catherine Thompson, Mary Louise Dalton and generations of the Cannon family infused the city with an enduring grit. From the men and women who helped Allen’s vision take shape to the Civil War skirmish at Wentzville and the postwar rise of tobacco and the great wealth it brought to some, a trio of Wentzville authors open a time capsule on the city’s fascinating early days.
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Craziest Cajun Football Tale by Gary Alipio
Hatcher has big football dreams. He wants to be a play-calling star. A legend. So, he joins a city youth team with the hopes of helping them design plays to win a championship. But when his inability to read plays correctly gets him cut to the B-team––a group of scrappy misfits––his dream of winning turns to surviving a season of Cajun craziness.Â
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And of course, if none of these are your cup of tea, we have an entire catalog of something for everyone!Â
