1800s American history

Wealth Secrets from the Greatest Showman

After a wonderful career in which he made and lost fortunes, captivated Kings and Queens, and used his genius, wit and eloquence to entertain millions, P.T. Barnum wrote golden rules for making money. Published in 1880, the Greatest Showman’s The Art of Money Getting reveals his secrets for accumulating vast sums of wealth and issues a program anyone can follow to become rich. Join Barnum and discover a historical treasure of America’s unceasing chase for personal wealth. 

At the center of Indiana lies Boone County, a seemingly quiet place with a colorful past.

The stagecoach along the Michigan Road helped to start the county, then the railroad transformed it as new towns were created along the routes. Some of these towns are now gone, leaving behind a few buildings and a sign marking where they once existed. Local vagabond Thorntown Cyrus entertained area residents with his accordion, a couple touted his and hers tractors, and the Cragun twins met a tragic demise. Mysteries surround true stories such as a rogue monkey seen wandering a community and why a butcher attacked a prominent citizen.

Author Heather Phillips Lusk brings these stories and more to life to reveal what makes Boone County unique.

Explore Williston, a well-preserved historic village in the middle of Vermont’s most populous county, in this stunning collection of vintage photographs.

After it was chartered in 1763, Williston attracted settlers from southern New England and grew because of the rich farmland and abundant forests. Vermont’s first governor, Thomas Chittenden, settled here, and other families soon followed. The arrival of the railroad in 1849 brought new industries and prosperity. The Civil War and westward migration drew men and families away and impacted the town’s growth. During the first half of the 20th century, Williston was a small, rural town with an agricultural base. When the interstate highway opened and IBM established a major facility in nearby Essex, increased development brought about the need for modern municipal services. Today, Williston is a thriving commercial and residential town.

Richard H. Allen is a retired Williston teacher and the author of numerous books and articles on Vermont local history. The images presented here were gathered from the collections of the Williston Historical Society, the Vermont Historical Society, Silver Special Collections at the University of Vermont, and from Williston residents, past and present.

Visit a Louisiana landmark that tells a big piece of the American story.

Fort Jesup was founded two centuries ago, a bulwark on the youthful nation’s western frontier. During its long run as a military post, it was visited by over one thousand soldiers and officers, many of whom would make a lasting impact on American history. The long list of luminaries includes Presidents Zachary Taylor and Ulysses S. Grant, over forty officers who would become Civil War generals, and two Surgeons General, one of whom would treat Abraham Lincoln after he was shot. Thousands of settlers also passed through on their way to Texas, using the fort as a waypoint on their journey. As citadel and stopping post, Fort Jesup played a critical role during the nation’s formative years. Author Scott DeBose shares the sprawling story of this Louisiana icon.

Gone and not forgotten—strange ways Ohioans have met their maker.

Ohio has given us sports legends, world-changing inventors, icons of industry, a wealth of famous artists of all stripes, and eight presidents. It’s also given us ghosts, ghouls, grave robbers, the prematurely buried, historic murders, colorful demises (including death by defective outhouse), those who predicted their own deaths with uncanny accuracy, the violent Wayne County poltergeist, petrified bodies, the Seneca County exploding corpse, obsessive-compulsive Jonathan Ward’s murder-dismemberment of Mrs. Ward, and the faces of way too many dead people appearing in windows.

Light a candle, wrap yourself in a shawl, and join author Keven McQueen and illustrator Addy Atchity on a macabre tour of Ohioans who took a memorable exit. 

Today, Athens County is known for its peaceful and idyllic character, but in days gone by, the area was far less sedate.

Small towns like Redtown, Hebbardsville or Eclipse got their names from early settlers and coal barons who brought ambition and industry with them. The area’s deep history of coal mining is well known, but salt manufacturing, railroads and canals also thrived—for a time. Albany, Amesville and Athens all played a part in leading freedom seekers north on the Underground Railroad, and John Morgan Hunt set barns and bridges ablaze during his Civil War raid.

Athens County native and Local History Department Librarian Lorinda LeClain unearths these little-known stories and many more.

Author Keven McQueen proposes a new suspect in the famous 1904 attempted poisoning of local poet Judge Mulligan’s family. Join him on a sordid trip through the Horse Capital of the World. 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.

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. 

The village of Clinton and town of Kirkland are neighboring communities in central New York. Clinton was founded in 1787 and has served as an educational hub anchored by Hamilton College. Clara Barton, Grover Cleveland, and Leland Stanford were educated here, along with Elihu Root, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1912. The natural resources of Clinton and Kirkland, including Oriskany Creek and hematite ore, facilitated local prosperity.

Clinton native Zach Lewis, an educator, journalist, and photographer, explores the area’s heritage, highlighting the evolving landscape and why he believes that “all roads lead to Clinton.”

Experience the brilliant mind of a man who sacrificed his life for the people of Shreveport.

From 1854 to 1873, Servant of God Father Louis Gergaud, native of Heric, France, served as a dedicated missionary priest in northeast Louisiana. These years, often fraught with hardships, culminated in his decision to offer his own life for the people of Shreveport during the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1873. The narrative of his life during these years, drawn from his own letters and papers, provide insightful commentary on issues as diverse as Catholic-Protestant relations in the nineteenth century South, the economics of commerce in an expanding nation, and the social impacts of the Civil War. Most importantly, these papers provide context to understand the character of a man whose heroic virtue led him to the sacrifice of his own life for strangers.

Picking up where Rhode Island's Founders left off Dr. Patrick T. Conley, Rhode Island's preeminent historian and president of the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame, takes us through the Ocean State's history from 1790 to 1860.

Learn how Samuel Slater, the  Father of the Factory System, pioneered the making of modern Rhode Island, how Elizabeth Buffum Chace founded the Rhode Island Women's Suffrage Association and what political circumstances led Governor Thomas Wilson Dorr to the Dorr War in 1842.

This newly revised and updated edition includes colorful biographical sketches of fifty-six influential Rhode Islanders who helped shape the state's urban and industrial development into the modern Rhode Island of today, including  some lesser-known Rhode Islanders, including Eliza Jumel and Adin Ballou.

Experience the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of Hamtramck’s past

In the twentieth century, Hamtramck rapidly transformed from a gentle farming village into an industrial city. The large field at the south side of town developed into the Dodge Brothers auto plant, which became one of the biggest factories in the world. Virtually overnight, the sounds of farm animals gave way to the clanging of giant steel presses, and boards being hammered into new homes broke the silence of the countryside. The change was so dramatic and swift that it left town officials scrambling to cope and even drew national attention.

Tracking these changes and others decade by decade, author Greg Kowalski brings this story to life in extreme detail.

The waters of Lake Michigan are a calm and tranquil place--until they aren't

Lake Mishigami, as the Ojibwe referred to the big waters of Lake Michigan, has a violent side, especially when the winds roar, creating waves that are freshwater giants. These waves have mercilessly taken many ships—along with their crews and passengers—to the bottom. Many have paid a dear price for mistakenly thinking this massive lake is nothing but an oversized pond. A single monstrous storm in November 1880 sank or damaged north of one hundred ships and claimed nearly one hundred lives. But tragedy on the lake is so often met with heroism by those who brave carnage to save their fellow man. Lake Michigan can go from serene to devilish in less than an hour. Author Michael Passwater delves into these transformations and their aftermaths.

From the author of Murder in Victorian Western Michigan and Victorian Southwest Michigan True Crime comes more thrilling stories from the Wolverine State's past.

As the Michigan Central Railroad company became a juggernaut, the nineteenth-century rail line also devolved into a bastion for crime as morality was often set aside for profit. In 1850, a grand jury indicted fifty men in Jackson County for conspiracy to commit arson after a freight depot in Detroit was set ablaze. When two Grand Trunk locomotives collided in Battle Creek in 1893 killing twenty-seven people, a conductor and an engineer each accused the other, avoiding conviction. A Mineral Ridge train robbery of $70,000 in payroll money destined for miners on the Keweenaw Peninsula was exposed by a former railroad worker involved in the heist, allowing him to escape prosecution and sending four others to prison.

Author Michael Delaware unfolds dark stories of corruption and crime from Michigan’s Victorian age.

Facts, Fiction & Tales of the Town Too Tough to Die

The desert oasis of Tombstone has reinvented itself many times over the course of the last century. From the boomtown heyday in the 1880s to its decline and reinvention as an icon of the Wild West, its reputation was built on colorful characters and even more colorful stories.

At its height, Tombstone was a town full of swinging saloons, bawdy brothels, and miners hanging their futures on extracting silver from the unforgiving landscape. Following close behind them were cold-blooded outlaws like the Cowboy gang and the legendary lawman Wyatt Earp, whose exploits live on in both myth and memory.

Doc Holliday’s outsized reputation was forged in part by Tombstone and the iconic gunfight in which he took part, and beneath Big Nose Kate’s Saloon, the ghost of the Swamper, who secretly dug into the mine shafts to steal the silver for himself, still roams.

Even the naming of Tombstone is linked to the larger-than-life story of prospector Ed Schieffelin. A soldier once mocked him with the words "all you'll find out there is your tombstone,” but in 1877, when Ed struck it lucky in the Arizona desert, a legend was born.

Join author Richard Estep as he untangles the truth from fiction in Tombstone.

April 1861 marked the beginning of America’s darkest trial, and nowhere was its shadow more immediate than the waters of Hampton Roads and the Outer Banks. As President Lincoln faced the chaos of rebellion, Southern secessionists seized forts, arsenals, and naval yards throughout the South. Yet one stronghold refused to fall: Fortress Monroe, the “Gibraltar of the Chesapeake.” From this powerful bastion on Virginia’s coast, Union forces launched bold campaigns that would define the early course of the war. Their presence threatened Confederate supply lines and opened the way to North Carolina’s vulnerable shoreline. Across both regions, two vital canals linked the Confederate heartland to the coast, transforming Hampton Roads and the Outer Banks into a single, high-stakes theater of war. Historian Matthew Ericson unites these interconnected battles into one compelling narrative. Witness the Union buildup at Fortress Monroe, General Ambrose Burnside’s daring victories along the Carolina coast, and the legendary clash of ironclads that changed naval warfare forever. Richly detailed and deeply researched, these stories reveal how these coastal conflicts shaped the Union’s early strategy and turned the tide in a war for the nation’s very survival—a forgotten front that deserves its place in Civil War history.

Discover the rambunctious early history of Roanoke, a Wild West town in Virginia’s Blue Ridge.

During the 1880s, the new city of Roanoke attracted a large and diverse workforce and a multitude of merchants and investors. But like the Western cow towns and mining camps of the same period, the city also attracted sex workers, professional gamblers, charlatans, and common thieves. By the early 1900s, Roanoke had become well known for its brothels, saloons, gambling halls, and rampant lawlessness.

Despite a campaign to clean up the city, Roanoke was unable to shake its unsavory image. This was particularly true after Virginia went dry in 1916. With easy access to the moonshine whiskey that had long been produced in the surrounding mountains, bootleg kingpins boldly transported illegal liquor into the city and used violence to protect their operations.

Author Phillip Andrew Gibbs explores Roanoke’s early criminal underworld and how civic leaders and law enforcement struggled to free the city from its wild, wicked, and unrepentant reputation.

Ossining, one of Westchester County’s oldest communities, holds a legacy as deep and layered as that of the Hudson River it borders.

The first incorporated village in Westchester County, Ossining is defined by a history of remarkable firsts: the county’s first newspaper, first volunteer fire department, first childcare facility, and first official American casualty of World War I, Edmond C. Genet. One of its most enduring symbols is the infamous Sing Sing Prison, established in 1825. Although its presence has left an indelible mark on the village’s identity, the prison remains just one chapter in Ossining’s rich and textured story.

In a book packed with rare details and “Portal to the Past” entries, local authors Scott Craven and Caroline Ranald Curvan reveal the rich history of this unique community.

A work stoppage on the rails led to a fascinating moment in Ohio history.

As the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 made its way into Ohio, the state already had its share of problems. Tramps, men who’d taken to the road looking for work because of the economic depression of the 1870s, seemed to be overrunning the state. Railroads, one of Ohio’s biggest employers, cut jobs. Those not fired suffered from repeated cuts in wages and hours, making their already unsafe work conditions worse.

Strikes in neighboring states, instigated by another 10 percent wage cut on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, became violent and destructive. When they broke out in Ohio, something remarkable happened. Strikers remained mostly peaceful, avoiding the killing, looting, and vandalism seen elsewhere. Much of the credit for the path taken by Ohio must go to its level-headed governor, Thomas L. Young, who used the Ohio National Guard to great effect. 

From Scantily Clad Women to Impassioned Suffragist Speeches

Virginia City boomed in the nineteenth century, with thousands coming to try their luck in the mines. The entertainment industry boomed with it. Piper’s Opera House became one of the most well-known theaters in America, attracting actors from the East and West Coasts for lauded performances. The Alhambra Theater took a different approach, advertising acts with women in scanty clothing to bored, restless miners. The vibrant scene drew in big names like renowned actors John McCullough and Lawrence Barrett, William Cody (better known as Buffalo Bill) and even Mark Twain.

Author Carolyn Grattan Eichin takes a deep dive into Virginia City’s theatrical history and its importance for the stars of the day.

Stories from an Icon of the Oregon Trail

In 1852, Ezra Meeker, his wife, and baby traveled along the Oregon Trail by ox-cart from Iowa to Oregon. In 1906, he reversed his steps and went back to Iowa, and spent most of his ninety-eight years on earth traversing the route, promoting the Oregon Trail and founding the Oregon Trail Association. Published in 1822, his memoir Ox-Team Days remains a captivating account of his days along the trail and the harrowing adventures of a life devoted to its preservation. 

A Tumultuous Social Era 

The Victorian Era is usually thought of as a time of elegant formality, of stately mansions in the “upstairs/downstairs” tradition. But the era was rife with social issues. In January 1918, the Baroness von Zollner was released from custody and further investigation on charges of spying. She was never seen again in Tennessee. A Nashville newspaper story exposed the “trashy” literature that “boys read.” While the protest was real, nothing was done to curtail the accessibility of such dime novels due to the First Amendment right to free speech. A.K. Ward found his way to Central America “in a hilarious mood” before being returned to Tennessee to face charges of embezzlement and fraud. Historian James B. Jones details these stories and more. 

Sit down for a spell with the bevy of famed writers who’ve found inspiration in the Florida sun.

From the Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca to James Patterson, writers have found inspiration in the Florida sunshine. Ernest Hemingway met his future wife at Sloppy Joe's in Key West. John Kennedy recovered from back surgery in Palm Beach while working on his Pulitzer Prize winning book. James Weldon Johnson wrote what became The Negro National Anthem at the Stanton School in Jacksonville. And Edna St. Vincent Millay watched in shock as her manuscript went up in flames in Sanibel. Florida historian James Clark tells the stories of scores of writers including Robert Frost, Jack Kerouac, John D. MacDonald, and Stephen King. Hunter Thompson driving through the streets of Key West using a bullhorn to warn the citizens, Tennessee Williams partying with Truman Capote, Ring Lardner planning a get together with Al Capone—it’s all here.

The Monadnock Region has been referred to as New Hampshire’s “forgotten corner.” It is a quiet region known for its historic New England villages and beautiful natural landscape. Overlooked tales from the past prove that this has not always been a quiet place, however.

Mark Twain, Amelia Earhart, robber baron Jubilee Jim Fisk, infamous actress May Yohe, and miser Hetty Green, the richest woman in the United States, all spent time in the quiet corner.  Noteworthy inventors, outspoken women, military heroes, nationally prominent businessmen, and dastardly criminals all called the region home.

Local historian and author Alan F. Rumrill has compiled stories that reveal a region defined by its Yankee character – and filled with Yankee characters.

Since 1910, the Arbor Day Song has been a cherished part of Nebraska’s tree-planting holiday tradition. Its author, Carl Milton Aldrich, belonged to an exceptionally talented family that included his mother, a Woman’s Christian Temperance Union co-founder, and retail magnate Harry Selfridge. Born to pioneering associates of J. Sterling Morton, the Otoe County native became a leading meatpacking expert and prominent political activist who associated with some of the most powerful men in Gilded Age America. For thirty years, he expertly managed Nebraska City’s largest business, the Morton-Gregson Company, and was one of Arbor Day’s most influential promoters. Rachel Brupbacher, his great-great-granddaughter recounts the inspiring story of how he guided his hometown through both its golden years and darkest hours before selflessly working for the sake of its future.

Explore the delightful history of Rochester

Best known for the world-renowned Mayo Clinic, Rochester's rich history holds so much more beyond medical excellence. But why was the world's greatest medical center built virtually in the middle of a corn field in the first place? What happened to the Native Americans in the area? Were there ever bears in Bear Creek? Why are there so many geese at Silver Lake, and how did the Zumbro River get its name? What do the extinction of the dinosaurs and the passenger pigeon have to do with Rochester?

Retired Mayo Clinic doctor and Rochester native Paul Scanlon answers these questions and more in this collection of historic tales from Med City.

Explore the Rich History of the Hudson Valley

The Hudson Valley is more than just scenic vistas—it is the birthplace of American history. Go beyond the traditional guidebook to counties nestled along the east and west banks of the majestic Hudson River. From Native American settlements and Dutch colonial roots to the rise of the English, history unfolds at every turn in the river.

 Discover Newburgh, where Washington had his longest headquarters of the Revolution. Explore the quaint town of Kingston, home of the state’s first capital. Learn how the pivotal Battle of Saratoga turned the tide of the American Revolution. Admire the artistic heritage of Frederic Church’s Olana, the vast Gilded Age estates, and the nation’s first presidential library in Hyde Park. Enjoy a day exploring Kykuit, the Rockefeller Estate, in Tarrytown or the railroad depot in Peekskill where President-elect Lincoln stopped to speak on the way to his inauguration.

 Join local historian A.J. Schenkman as he traces the forgotten histories and vibrant heritage of one of America’s most historic regions.

Sift through nearly forgotten and altogether fascinating elements from two hundred years of Hoosier history.

A lost river flows in—and under—Southern Indiana. The ghostly remains of a defunct ordnance plant in LaPorte County bely the industriousness of the six thousand men and women who worked there at its height to support the home front effort during World War II. Balloonists delighted Hoosier crowds in the days before the airplane, and Studebakers roared along on the Studebaker proving grounds just west of South Bend.

From the long history of Indiana’s coal industry to the construction of the state’s first railroad, author Edward J. Fujawa offers a fresh angle on the well-known while unearthing remarkable and obscure tales from two centuries of Indiana history.

Lakeside Inn is the nucleus of Mount Dora that offers the legacy of frontier Florida. An adventurous and courageous team of pioneers formed a partnership to erect a hotel that was spearheaded by attorney Colonel John M. Alexander, who recruited newcomers to visit and relocate to Central Florida. The partnership of Alexander with Colonel MacDonald and Donnelly family contributed to the early vision of a Florida Inn.

The flourishing orange culture and the intellectual components of Chautauqua shaped the evolving communities and influenced the historic and artistic spirit of modern-day Mount Dora.

Traditionally a seasonal hotel, the recreational oasis is sought after year-round by visitors and organizations who can glimpse a hint of the Gilded age and marvel at the experiences of legendary guests.

Lover's of Ohio history and presidential history will love this exploration of William H. Taft, one of Cincinnati’s favorite sons.

Most Americans know that William Howard Taft was president of the United States and chief justice of the Supreme Court. But his life and legacy contain much beyond that, especially in his hometown.

He fought to put crooks away in court, and he fought for ethics and integrity. He made judgements that made him unpopular. Beyond the law, he and his wife, Nellie, were influential in the city’s arts and culture, including the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. For all of this and more, he is remembered today as one of the Queen City’s greatest citizens.

After years studying Taft’s career in Cincinnati, Brian Planitz brings to life Taft’s time in his birthplace and how it shaped his later career in Washington, D.C., and around the world.

Murder, Myth, and Memory in Cascadia.

Before the states of Oregon and Washington, the Pacific Northwest already had a reputation as a place with a dark and sometimes mysterious history. 

Whispers of strange noises, oddities, and sightings of the unnatural become part of the area's folklore, hoping to find meaning for the suffering of those who came before. More than two thousand ships have been lost off the coast, along with an untold number of lives, and the suffering of those on the Oregon Trail has been well recounted. The Columbia River, meandering through the heart of the territory, has been the site of countless disappearances and deaths. 

From the decimation of Native tribes to racist settlement laws and anti-Chinese sentiment, the Pacific Northwest has long struggled to reconcile the present with the past. 

Join author and historian Ira Wesley Kitmacher as he explores the dark history of Oregon and Washington and the stories that reverberate through time.

A complicated friendship blooms during a fated meeting in northern Michigan between two nineteenth-century women writers.

In the mid-1830s, the author Anna Brownell Jameson was called from Britain to Canada to see her husband. Before she returned back home, she embarked on a trip around the Great Lakes to gather material for a book on the “plight of the Indian woman.”

In a remarkable interaction on Mackinac Island, where the current-day lower peninsula of Michigan meets the upper peninsula, she met Jane Johnston Schoolcraft—an Ojibwe American poet and translator married to the geologist Henry Schoolcraft, who was working as an Indian agent for the United States government. The two women talked extensively, bonding over their interests and plights, and sharing private demons.

After their meeting, Anna continued to gain recognition for her writing and become a larger part of the literary scene in Britain and the Continent, entangling herself in the affairs of the likes of Elizabeth Barrett-Browning, Ottilie von Goethe, Lady Byron, and Ada Lovelace. Jane became sicker and less able to work.

In Andrew Wittkop’s sensitive, subtle retelling, complete with Anna's sketches and other historical images, the nuances of the relationship between the two women reveal much about the complicated nature of connection and disconnection and Anna’s blindnesses and missed opportunities. This inventive debut opens a window on two under-remembered writers. 

A curated collection of newsletter articles reveals some fascinating local history.

Packet boats were a critical lifeline for those who lived along the North River in Norwell, Massachusetts. At a time when roads were rough and unreliable, the river offered the surest passage for goods, mail, and travelers.

Like those packet boats of old, the Norwell Historical Society’s newsletter, North River Packet, makes important connections, linking us with our past. This curated collection of newsletter articles, oral histories, cemetery tour scripts, and even a play, reveals some fascinating local history.

Discover the sensational 1878 Otis Safe Robbery when Herbert Otis and a band of Boston rogues carted off a 600-pound safe from Pleasant Street, only to bungle their fortune. Walk alongside Juliette Hammond, the first woman to vote in Norwell. Read about everyday townspeople who recall tales of dairy farms on Cross Street and trips to the general store on “the Hill.” 

Across the high plains and rugged mountain passes of the Oregon Trail came thousands of settlers seeking a new life, and for many, the burgeoning city of Eugene became their new home.

The newcomers were fur traders and farmers, physicians and soldiers, teachers and hoteliers—each of them adding a new facet to the region’s character and identity. Among them were Norton E. Winnard, a frontier doctor and a founder of the Eugene Hospital, and Judge J.J. Walton, who helped establish the University of Oregon.

Many of them found their final resting place at the Eugene Pioneer Cemetery, a Civil War–era burial ground that stands as a testament to the time they lived in, and the lingering influence of those first arrivals. Set against the backdrop of the nineteenth century’s great upheavals, this collection brings to life the intertwined destinies of pioneers, immigrants and Native people in the Pacific Northwest.

Drawing from archival photographs, letters, and public records, author C.J. Lake illuminates the human stories behind Oregon’s extraordinary everyday pioneers.

From settlement to sediment 

Unlike the freedman communities in Spiro, Ft. Coffee and Poteau, the town of Skullyville faded into a forgotten ghost town. Dr. G. E. Hartshorne’s 1950 “Skullyville and Its People in 1889” chronicled the inhabitants’ lifestyle and culture. Yet he excluded many that arrived in the 1830s, having survived the long and arduous journey of the Trail of Tears. Enslaved people of African descent, arriving alongside their Choctaw masters, were seldom mentioned in contemporaneous accounts. They labored for decades without pay, or the comforts of freedom. Their tribal oppressors joined the Confederates, vowing to maintain their slaveholding lifestyle. Conversely, some from Skullyville resisted by joining the Union Army. Many lived to see freedom, and established livelihoods after abolition. In April of 1866, Choctaw leaders joined the Chickasaw at Fort Smith to sign a peace treaty that abolished slavery and promised citizenship and suffrage to those once enslaved by their nations. Freedman descendent Angela Walton-Raji resurrects the lost voices of Skullyville and champions a legacy that outlasted the town itself. 

Uncovering Uniquely Montanan Stories

More than steamboats and famous explorers, Great Falls’s history is colored with compelling episodes nearly lost to the ages. Glacial Lake Great Falls changed the course of the Missouri River while carving fascinating geological features like Lost Lake, the Big Sag, and Lewis and Clark’s Slaughter River. Copper from Butte mines, Anaconda smelters, and Great Falls refineries wired the world and helped win the World Wars. Landless Indigenous peoples sought refuge on a hill called 57. A local crusading editor became “Montana’s Conscience” and authored the revered Montana: High, Wide, and Handsome. A Civil War monument was raised to honor both the Blue and the Gray—the first in the nation to do so. Pathbreaking preservationists Charley and Sue Bovey saved acclaimed gold rush–era Virginia City before historic preservation was cool.

Award-winning historian Ken Robison brings to life little-known accounts from a storied past.

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.

Father Jean Pierre, a missionary priest from Brittany, France, answered a call to serve in sparsely populated Shreveport, where he chose to remain when a yellow fever epidemic struck in 1873. From a perspective told largely through his own words, Father Pierre provides the reader a glimpse of his “fearful steps strengthened by hope.” His unique insights extend even to the secular history, framing the development of Shreveport and the surrounding region in the middle of the nineteenth century. Gradually emerging as someone widely respected and admired for his intellect and ability, Father Pierre’s story culminated in a heroic choice to sacrifice his life in the service of strangers when the epidemic ravaged the city. A trio of authors celebrates the life of this Shreveport martyr.

Lamar advertises itself as the city "where legends begin," and the city of four thousand lives up to that slogan. It was the place where frontier lawman Wyatt Earp first wore a star and where President Harry S Truman was born. When Truman successfully brought World War II to an end, the submarine fleets in the Atlantic and Pacific were commanded by Lamar High School graduates. Lamar's legends, however, are not limited to those who found fame after they left the city. Lamar was home to the longest-serving mayor in Missouri history, a legendary newspaperman, a football team that captured seven straight state championships and an infamous killer whose life was ended by a lynch mob. Author Randy Turner details these stories and much more.

Breweries in the state of Kansas are opening at a fast pace, in communities from Council Grove to Olathe. As the industry grows, the opportunities for craft beer fans to enjoy the communities and beer abound. Check out Ryan Triggs and Nick Feightner at Tall Trellis Brew Co. where you can enjoy a pint while sitting next to hop bines. Visit Fields & Ivy Brewery, the only brewery in the state with an active grain silo. Author Michael Travis traveled for a year and visited every brewery, capturing the heartbeat and story behind the owners and head brewers who make the magic happen.

Present-day Fishers, Indiana, is one of the safest places to live in the U.S., but this respectable city has a rough and rowdy past.

Starting off as a small railroad community, Fishers attracted its fair share of drifters, and the whiskey flowed like water. It may have been small, but the lawless town made national headlines on more than one occasion. A two-day bar brawl led to one death and dozens of injuries and required the Sheriff to restore order. A sensational trial exposed mass grave robberies and led to legislative changes. James Redwine became the town's first homicide victim over a Christmas turkey shootout. Author Robert Bowling explores the history of this once small town and the misdeeds that thrust it into the national spotlight.