America in the Twentieth Century

This photographic history documents Cleveland's substantial contributions to the war effort at home and abroad during World War I.

Cleveland's contribution to the war front began on May 25, 1917, with the Lakeside Hospital Unit becoming the first American detachment to land in Europe. On the home front, the war accelerated the growth of Cleveland, which became the fifth-largest city in the nation by the end of the decade. When war broke out, Cleveland's growing industries could no longer depend on the labor emigrating from Europe. At the same time, 40,000 Clevelanders would eventually leave the workforce and serve in the military. Women replaced them in jobs that were not available in the past. Scores of African Americans left the South, and this Great Migration led to significant economic, social, and political developments in the coming years. Cleveland's ethnic neighborhoods included many who had come from the nations and regions of the Central Powers. Americanization programs taught immigrants English and patriotism.

Lovers of true crime and Ohio history will find themselves riveted by these crimes of passion.

There is a thin line between love and hate, and when intense passion threatens that border, blood will flow. Northern Ohio has had its share of people who felt that line snap. In Canton, the Phantom-Flapper Killer shot down her lover in cold blood after he threatened to expose her infidelity to the world. In Toledo, Dorothy Brown’s married boyfriend brutally attacked her when he learned that she was expecting. Max Amerman of Medina was willing to kill for the girl of his dreams, and when Cleveland’s Matilda Waldman believed that her husband was cursed by a witch, she took out the she-devil by way of a pistol.

Author Wendy Koile examines these relationships once bound by love, unraveled by lies, and cut off by murder.

Delve into ghost stories pulled from century-old headlines and reported anew with author and investigative historian William G. Krejci. There was a time when ink-stained scribes would head into the community to report on ghostly visitations—many of their stories have been forgotten until now. At a Lorain County farmhouse, spectral women were said to manifest in the darkness of night. A haunted mansion was replete with the unexplained in Akron’s North Hill neighborhood. Rumors of a haunting at Cleveland’s Grays Armory have long circulated. New evidence reveals the site to have been the scene of two mysterious deaths and possibly a haunted house. Does a peddler who went missing two centuries ago drag chains across the attic floor at a Portage Lakes tavern?

“I am a brother of the cornhuskers who say at sundown: To-morrow is a day.” -Carl Sandburg, “Prairie”

Winner of the 1919 Pulitzer Price in Poetry, Cornhuskers is an homage to America and the American midwest from one of the nation’s most acclaimed writers, Carl Sandburg. One hundred years after the book’s first publication, this 104-poem collection breathes life into our national past - honoring the prairie, the changing seasons, and the hard working people of the heartlands. 

Succinct and remarkably beautiful. These poems sing with a certain unencumbered honesty that both complicates and informs our understanding of the author’s midwestern wilderness. Sandburg, as the “poet of the people,” as he came to be so affectionately known, writes plainly and unpretentiously about the place that he had called home.

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.

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. 

More than a century later, a grisly Ohio cold case murder gets new life.

The night before Easter 1905, Miranda Bricker left her sister’s house and made her way through the darkness. Her destination was her living quarters and place of employment, the Maplehurst mansion, the home of Mount Vernon, Ohio’s leading industrialist. Within sight of her destination, an attacker emerged from the darkness, rushing her from behind. Their battle cut across the Maplehurst lawn, ending in Bricker’s death before witnesses could be sure what was happening. The killer melted away into the night. The hasty investigation that followed almost resulted in an innocent Black man’s lynching before the case went cold and was forgotten.

Mark Sebastian Jordan has uncovered the roots and ripples of a story that crosses the continent and points out the possibility of a suspect 120 years later.

The businesses are mostly gone, but these Indiana ads still beckon

Indiana’s vintage brick wall advertisements—also known as ghost signs—still cling to life in small towns like Redkey and Alexandria and big cities like Indianapolis and Fort Wayne. From tobacco ads to early automotive services, these fading layers of paint in Logansport, Gary, Terre Haute, South Bend, and beyond reveal a bygone era of local industry and bold graphic design. Through striking photographs and engaging commentary, author and photographer Joey B. Lax Salinas captures the artistry, history, and resilience of the slowly vanishing landmarks that continue to whisper Indiana’s commercial legacy from weathered walls across the state.

Author Jennifer Boresz Engelking explores the intriguing history of Lake Erie. What lies below the surface of Lake Erie? Gold coins from long-ago shipwrecks, like the tragic sinking of the G.P. Griffith. The menacing, mysterious Lake Erie Monster. How about a whiskey ship that vanished more than a century ago in the western basin? The lake is filled with little-known tales, including legends like Joe Root in Erie and legendary places like the Belle Isle Boathouse in Detroit. Tragedies, like the Ashtabula bridge disaster, and triumphs, like the day Niagara Falls was turned off, changed the way we live today.

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.

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. 

Through historic images, explore how Malvern, Ohio grew from an isolated area to a desirable destination in the Sandy Valley.

The first pioneers, Moses Porter and Richard Vaughn, arrived in this isolated area, now known as Malvern, Ohio, in 1806. Later, Rev. William Hardesty had a vision of a community at this spot, laying out the village of Troy in 1834. This was followed by the creation of another small community nearby named Lodi in 1836. By 1840, Troy was renamed as Malvern, and it was later incorporated in 1869. It is the birthplace of telephone industry pioneer Theodore Vail and nationally known artist Clyde Singer and home to early major-league baseball pitcher Edward Poole. As commerce developed here, a total of five clay product industries were delivering materials across the United States at approximately 1,000 tons daily. Paving brick, building brick, hollow building tile, sewer pipe, and fire brick from Malvern, Ohio, was widely recognized and desired. The superiority of the product from this small village earned gold medals at world fairs.

Author Jason N. Lombardi, former caretaker of the Hardesty family cemetery, previously served as historian for the Malvern United Methodist Church and cofounded the Malvern Historical Society. Photographs from the author’s personal collection and the archives of the Malvern Historical Society, along with images gathered from community members, have merged to produce the first formal publication of Malvern, Ohio, history in more than 50 years.

The Rotary Club of Plymouth, Michigan, founded on March 7, 1924, developed a long-standing tradition of fundraising through its popular annual chicken barbeque. / This event began in 1956 to raise funds to purchase playground equipment. Beneficiaries of monies raised are as far reaching as student scholarships and exchange programs, community park improvements, targeted special projects, and international humanitarian aid.

Author Elizabeth Kelley Kerstens is executive director of the Plymouth Historical Museum, a retired US Marine major, and author of four other Arcadia publications. Author Ellen Elliott, a local historian, is executive director of Friends of the Penn, manager of the Penn Theatre in Plymouth, and author of one other Arcadia publication.

The Quad Cities have a rich history of brewing that started with the influx of German citizens in the 1800s. Breweries were established on both sides of the Mississippi River. Some of these historic breweries managed to reopen after Prohibition, but national competition ultimately closed the last of these stalwarts in 1956. In 1989, Iowa created a special class “A” brewpub permit, and the first of many brewpubs in the area, Front Street Pub & Eatery, opened in 1992. Blue Cat Brew Pub, on the Illinois side of the river, opened shortly after. The brewing renaissance has helped to establish the Quad Cities as a craft beer destination. Join authors Michael McCarty and Kristin DeMarr as they celebrate the heady heritage of the region.

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.

Revisit a critical and little-known piece of WWII history that had a profound impact on Illinois and the nation.

During WWII, the United States was home to almost half a million POW's—German, Italian, and Japanese soldiers captured overseas and then brought to the United States. The POWs were housed in various large camps set up in forty-four of the nation's then forty-eight states. One of those states was Illinois. At its peak, Illinois housed three major base camps and twenty branch camps, stretching from the Rockford-Chicago area down to Camp Pomona, near Murphysboro. When not housed in these camps, POW's were put to work, on the state's farms and in its factories, to alleviate the country's serious wartime labor shortages. By the end of the war, there was no part of Illinois that was not touched by these prisoners of war.

Author Cary O'Dell sheds light on a largely forgotten element of home front WWII history. 

Indiana State Prison showcases the innerworkings of an institution that housed a variety of individuals for various reasons over centuries, much of which has been unknown to the public until now. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, officials at the Indiana State Prison worked as hard to keep prisoners locked in as they did to keep the public locked out. Consequently, for the average citizen, the prison was a mystery. This book chronicles what prison officials did and, more importantly, why they did it throughout the history of the prison. Three distinct penological theories informed everything done at the prison at different periods in its 165-year history. Changes at the prison over the years did not occur in a vacuum; they were deliberate and based on popular theories about why people committed crimes. This book on the history of the Indiana State Prison could be the last one written while the prison is still in use. The Indiana Department of Correction announced in 2024 that it would close the prison in 2027. Nearly all of the pictures in this book appear in print for the first time in history.

William G. Hinkle, PhD, worked for five years as a counselor and case manager at the Indiana State Prison and taught there for Ball State University for 12 years. Susan S. Garvey, PhD, is a community advocate involved with the prevention of child abuse/neglect and human trafficking. Patrick J. Hinkle, JD, lives in Mishawaka, Indiana. 

A century of blessings at a sacred site in Euclid, Ohio

Tucked away under stately trees in Euclid sits Our Lady of Lourdes National Shrine, a peaceful sanctuary steeped in history that draws thousands of people from around the world each year. The land was farmed by the Harms family, and in 1870, the Blessed Mother appeared to Julia Harms in the spot where a statue of Mary stands today. In 1926, a replica of the original Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine was built on the property, featuring a grotto with water flowing over a stone on which Mary stood when she appeared to St. Bernadette in Lourdes, France.

Join authors Joanne Boresz and Jennifer Boresz Engelking as they share stories of reported shrine healings, including a child regaining the ability to walk, and of the dedicated Sisters who have called the shrine home, including the Sisters of the Good Shepherd (1920–52) and the Sisters of the Most Holy Trinity (1952–present). 

Some notable Buckeyes approach life from a peculiar vantage

Ohio has produced more than its share of eccentric men and women, whose peculiar ideas, bizarre behaviors, and outlandish antics have served to make the world more interesting. Among them are a Native who accurately predicted a solar eclipse in 1806, a failed merchant who convinced many people that the Earth was hollow in 1818, sisters who fell out of favor with the women’s rights movement in the nineteenth century because they were too scandalous—or perhaps too progressive—and a minister who became convinced, in 1908, that the Garden of Eden was in southern Ohio. From John Chapman and Annie Oakley to Rahsaan Roland Kirk, authors David Meyers and Elise Meyers Walker illuminate Ohioans who took the road less traveled and, sometimes one that wasn’t even there.

Amidst the chaos and uncertainty of World War II, one soldier found solace and strength in letters from home.

An Army Air Corps serviceman from a prominent Madison family, Bob Gay paints a vivid picture of a young man's journey through a tumultuous era, revealing the profound love he held for his family. As Gay fulfills his duty on the frontlines, his mother's unwavering support shines through her involvement with the Red Cross, while his father's dedication as a ration board member and air raid warden mirrors a nation's collective sacrifice.

World War II Dispatches to Madison is a tribute to a humble and kind soul who never sought the spotlight. In honor of her ancestor Robert Gay, Dannelle’s book will benefit the Wounded Warrior Project.

World War II Indiana Landmarks features places throughout the state that played significant roles during World War II. Many of these locations memorialize those who fought as well as those who contributed to the war effort. These places of remembrance include historical sites, monuments, markers, museums, surviving buildings, a surviving Navy ship, a surviving plane, and more. Author Ronald P. May explores the rich historical backgrounds surrounding each location and tells the personal stories of veterans and civilians related to many of these locations.

Inside are views of Rockford's bustling downtown, including rare glimpses of long-gone landmarks like the Grand Opera House and Orpheum Theater. Witness history in the making with Rockford's first recorded airplane flights in 1911 and experience U.S. Army doughboy life at Rockford's Camp Grant. Be there for Teddy Roosevelt's historic visits to Rockford, and marvel at the intrepid companies that turned Rockford into a national manufacturing power.

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.

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.

Explore the true story of a famous crime that inspired Anatomy of a Murder

Just after midnight on July 31, 1952, Army Lieutenant Coleman A. Petersen walked into the Lumberjack Tavern in Big Bay, Michigan, and shot Mike Chenoweth in retaliation for an assault on his wife. This revenge killing rocked the small lumber town in the Upper Peninsula, and the trial that followed inspired a best-selling novel and an Academy Award–nominated motion picture, Anatomy of a Murder.

Using the testimony taken from trial transcripts, the police investigator, and the killer, author Patrick J. Baker shares the real story of a sensational murder trial that captivated the Midwest and the aftermath that drew the eyes of the nation.

An enduring feedback loop where belief masquerades as evidence and credibility becomes collateral damage.

In April 1966, police officers in rural Ohio and western Pennsylvania chased a glowing object across eighty miles of back roads. The encounter—silent, blinding, and seemingly intelligent—became one of the most famous UFO cases in American history and helped inspire the opening scenes of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. But the mystery didn’t end when the lights vanished. Drawing on primary sources, official records, and personal experience, this book traces how a single night’s events were transformed into lasting folklore—shaped not just by witnesses and the media, but by the U.S. military’s own investigative machinery. Rather than merely asking what the police chased, a more unsettling question is asked here: how did government involvement, belief, and mistrust combine to create a self-perpetuating legend that still echoes today?

Author Michael Kishbucher, a career Air Force and Defense Intelligence Agency officer, revisits this strange Appalachian legend from an uncommon perspective: from within the intelligence community itself.

Explore the true story of a famous crime that inspired Anatomy of a Murder

Just after midnight on July 31, 1952, U.S. Army Lieutenant Coleman A. Peterson walked into the Lumberjack Tavern in Big Bay, Michigan, and shot Mike Chenoweth in retaliation for an assault on his wife. This revenge killing rocked the small lumber town in the Upper Peninsula, and the trial that followed inspired a best-selling novel and an Academy Award–nominated motion picture, Anatomy of a Murder.

Using the testimony taken from trial transcripts, the police investigator, and the killer, author Patrick J. Baker shares the real story of a sensational murder trial that captivated the Midwest and the aftermath that drew the eyes of the nation.

An enduring feedback loop where belief masquerades as evidence and credibility becomes collateral damage.

In April 1966, police officers in rural Ohio and Western Pennsylvania chased a glowing object across eighty miles of back roads. The object—silent, blinding, and seemingly intelligent—became one of the most famous UFO cases in American history and helped inspire the opening scenes of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. But the mystery didn’t end when the lights vanished. Drawing on primary sources, official records, and personal experience, this book traces how a single night’s events were transformed into lasting folklore—shaped not just by witnesses and the media, but by the U.S. military’s own investigative machinery. Rather than merely asking what the police chased, a more unsettling question is asked here: how did government involvement, belief, and mistrust combine to create a self-perpetuating legend that still echoes today?

Author Michael Kishbucher, a career U.S. Air Force and Defense Intelligence Agency officer, revisits this strange Appalachian legend from an uncommon perspective: from within the intelligence community itself.

Ghostly reverberations pulse for eternity in the most haunted crime scenes in Chicago.

The rat-a-tat of machine guns echoes at the site of Al Capone's St. Valentine's Day Massacre. The ghost of Louisa Luetgert makes the occasional appearance on the grounds of the old Luetgert Sausage and Packing Company—her husband, the “Sausage King,” cooked her down in a vat of meat tenderizer in 1897. Ghostly screams ring out and dogs get their hackles up at the site of serial killer H.H. Holmes's “Murder Castle” on West 63rd Street. Hundreds died at the Iroquois Theatre fire in 1903—inspectors had overlooked violations that made the venue on West Randolph Street a veritable tinderbox. Today, passersby are greeted by cold spots and pleas for help from the long-dead and perpetually tortured. The City with Broad Shoulders is burdened by souls whose lives were stolen and are seemingly in pursuit of justice and comfort—or perhaps vengeance. Author Eva Pilch guides readers on a citywide tour of the most haunted crime scenes in Chicago.

Today, Ely and Winton are known as the end of the road in northeastern Minnesota. Originally settled by the Obijwe and mapped by the voyageurs, these two towns sat among some of the best timber and iron ore in America. 

Incorporated in 1888, the mines along the north end of Ely required hundreds of workers to extract the iron ore that the country needed for steel. At the same time, three miles away, the town of Winton grew around the shore of Fall Lake. By the end of the 19th century, the area was booming and neighborhoods were built around the mines and sawmills. Located in Ely and Winton’s backyard are the Boundary Waters, over 1,000 lakes on the border of Canada. Visitors soon discovered the appeal of a place in the woods on a lake or a canoe trip in the wilderness. Industry and recreation existed side by side, attracting different people from all over—outdoorsmen, nature lovers, businessmen, and students. 

Reed Petersen is a history instructor at Minnesota North College–Vermilion and gives tours at Soudan Underground Mine State Park. Born and raised in Ely, he lives there with his family and is active in the Ely-Winton Historical Society. The Ely-Winton Historical Society was officially formed in 1961 to preserve the legacy of the history of the area, centering on the area and its people. 

Savor the unexpected and altogether delectable history of Chinese food in the Queen City

While a smattering of chop suey houses were sprinkled around Cincinnati around the turn of the twentieth century, Wong Yie was the first to present the cuisine to non-Chinese Cincinnatians as a new, exotic, and upscale dining experience with his Gold Dragon in 1911. Despite challenges from the Chinese Exclusion Act, which exacerbated the already massive difficulties faced by Chinese immigrants, Yie’s restaurant spawned more than eighty Chinese restaurants in the city, famed spots such as the Canton, the Wah Mee, and the Fortune Kookie. Proprietors like Mike Wong of Oriental Wok and Johnny Chu of KungFood Chu’s AmerAsia keep our local Chinese food culture alive and evolving.

Author and food etymologist Dann Woellert delves into the fascinating and mouthwatering history of Chinese food in Cincinnati. 

The murders that shocked Michigan

In the early morning of Tuesday, August 11, 1931, a Washtenaw County farmer found the smoldering remains of a car. Inside were the bodies of four teens, burned almost beyond recognition. Police immediately began an investigation, even tapping Harry Bennett, head of the Ford Motor Company Service Department, for assistance. Three killers stood trial two days later as a mob gathered outside the Ann Arbor Courthouse clamoring for a lynching. With the mob held back by the Michigan National Guard, Bennett delivered the killers to Jackson Prison by midnight Thursday. At the time, the so-called Torch Murders were deemed the most gruesome act of homicide in Michigan’s history—and perhaps the nation’s.

Peeling away myth from truth, author James Mann tells the story in full for the first time ever.

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 of 1880 sank or damaged north of 100 ships and claimed nearly 100 lives. But tragedy on the lake is so often met with heroism, 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 aftermath.

Delve into ghost stories pulled from century-old headlines and reported anew with author and investigative historian William G. Krejci. There was a time when ink-stained scribes would head into the community to report on ghostly visitations—many of their stories have been forgotten until now. At a Lorain County farmhouse, spectral women were said to manifest in the darkness of night. A haunted mansion was replete with the unexplained in Akron’s North Hill neighborhood. Rumors of a haunting at Cleveland’s Grays Armory have long circulated. New evidence reveals the site to have been the scene of two mysterious deaths and possibly a haunted house. Does a peddler who went missing two centuries ago drag chains across the attic floor at a Portage Lakes tavern?

Authors Cary O’Dell and Richard L. Sprehe lead a literary investigation of a brutal cold-case murder. 

In May 1975, in the small Southern Illinois town of Centralia, the body of one of its best-known residents, John Shakespeare, was found nearly nude, bound, and shot, execution-style, in the basement of his home. Shakespeare, sixty-nine, was a wealthy bachelor, an eccentric, an heir to the Shakespeare fishing fortune, a world-renowned collector of vintage cars, and, maybe, a possessor of a few secrets.

Despite the victim being well liked in the community, state and local police, and eventually even the FBI and Interpol, found a plethora of suspects while investigating the crime. Could it have been his longtime business associate? Or the mysterious hitchhiker seen in town just days before his body was found? Or a long-ago name from his past?

Celebrate the ingenious, pioneering, and creative women who made the Circle City what it is today.

A diverse group of incredible women shaped Indianapolis as we know it today. But they’ve often been omitted from its history books—until now. These women include Civil War heroes, suffragist leaders, trailblazing educators like Eliza Blaker, famed entrepreneurs like Madam C.J. Walker and Christel DeHaan, and unsung heroes like Madge Oberholtzer. Women founded community cornerstones like the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the Children’s Museum. One Indianapolis woman was the “mother of science fiction,” one wrote every episode of I Love Lucy, and another was a palm reader with a celebrity clientele. Other women in the Circle City have been pioneering athletes, trend-setting artists, and fierce community organizers, including the woman who saved the Indiana Pacers.

Author and lifelong Hoosier Ashley Petry celebrates these amazing women.

Chippewa Falls' First World War II Casualty

Young Harry Wellington Kramer was looking for adventure and a leg up in Depression-era Wisconsin. He found both aboard the Navy battleship USS California. Traveling across the western United States and the Pacific Ocean, Harry was quick to share his experiences with family and friends in Chippewa Falls. As he realized his dreams and served his country, his parents anxiously followed the developments that would lead to America’s involvement in World War II. All of these events converged with the attack on Pearl Harbor, in which Harry was tragically killed fulfilling his duties. Though gone, Harry W. Kramer is not forgotten.

Compiling thirty-three letters between Harry and home, local author and history teacher John E. Kinville tells the story of a life cut short but well lived.

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.

A history of the Cream City's lost Black neighborhood told by the people who lived there

Some people don't have to imagine what Milwaukee's Bronzeville was like. They have only to remember. They recall Walnut Street alive with businesses serving a hard-working Black population making something out of the meager resources available to them. They describe religious establishments such as St. Marks Methodist Episcopal, St. Benedict the Moor, Calvary Baptist, and St. Matthews CME attending to the spiritual life and remember the Flame, the Metropole, and Satin Doll night clubs taking care of entertainment and secular needs. Above all, they recollect a people looking out for the well-being of all within its realm.

Gathering interviews with residents of the now vanished neighborhood, Dr. Sandra E. Jones reimagines Bronzeville not just as a place, but as a spirit engendered by a people determined to make a way out of no way.

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.