Avon, Connecticut's First Century
9781467170147
Regular price $24.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%Avon, Connecticut, has had a long history of people who challenged conventions and persevered through tragedy. There was the clock peddler’s encounter with Abraham Lincoln, a suffragist’s political showdown with her cousin Eleanor Roosevelt and a man who betrayed his brother-in-law, Thomas Edison. Before the Heublein Tower, art patron Daniel Wadsworth built the first of three viewing towers on Avon Mountain. Following the courage of local abolitionist David Bartlett, Black Civil War soldier Leverett Holden fought for emancipation. Shocking events included one of the first murder cases in America to test the insanity defense, homicides at a house doomed for bloodshed and the horrific factory fire that shattered the lives of immigrant families. Scott Lewis reveals the stories of the visionaries and victims who shaped the town of Avon’s future.
Hidden History of Eau Claire
9781467157193
Regular price $24.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%A colorful Midwestern city with a colorful past
Eau Claire’s history is a rich tapestry of tragedy, mystery, and everything in between. Time after time, a round-faced man with a bristly mustache appeared amongst loggers in late nineteenth-century photos, but who was this man? In 1903, residents were left stumped when a mysterious body arrived by train from Chicago. Thirty years later, Hollywood came to Eau Claire with a world premiere of Out All Night, a comedy starring Zasu Pitts and Slim Summerville. Facing a labor shortage during World War II, the city welcomed German POWs and often worked side by side with them in the corn and pea fields.
Local authors Jodi Kiffmeyer and Diana Peterson collect the humorous, heart-breaking, and utterly befuddling stories of the city’s past.
Kalamazoo County Characters
9781467155922
Regular price $24.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%Local Luminaries, Famous Passersby & Everyone in Between
Since its founding in the early 1800s, Kalamazoo has welcomed a variety of notable characters who have shaped the community’s legacy in their own special way. Some, like Orville Gibson and Derek Jeter, are nationally recognized, while others, such as Sue Hubbell or Donald Bonevich, may be lesser known. Abraham Lincoln and Flora Temple briefly passed through town, and Mary Jackson and Gwen Frostic were among those who came here to attend college. Others, like Darwin and Opal Brown (aka Santa and Mrs. Claus) or Gene Rhodes (aka Gene the Pumpkin Man), were lifetime residents.
From founding fathers to early innovators, groundbreakers to entrepreneurs, artists to authors and athletes to entertainers, author Dianna Higgs Stampfler celebrates fifty figures in Kalamazoo-area history.