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Fort Hays, 1867
Chicago Tribune Saturday, 21 September 1867 Originally constructed in 1865 and named Fort Fletcher, Fort Hays occupied three sites on the Kansas Plains. The original Fort Fletcher was located south of the confluence of Big Creek and the North Fork of Big Creek in Western Kansas. Fort Fletcher was intended to protect the Butterfield Overland… Continue reading
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‘A Crackbrained Fellow”
I discovered this article in the Saturday, 24 May 1856, edition of the Southern Morning Herald, a newspaper published in Goulburn, New South Wales. FRIGHTFUL MURDERS BY A MANIAC The Newhaven (U.S.) Journal gives full particulars of a most frightful case of double murder at Woodbridge (Connecticut). It appears that a crackbrained fellow named Sanford,… Continue reading
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The Fate of the Emily Harris
The Vancouver Island-built steamer Emily Harris made a brief appearance in a previous post. In 1864, the craft had carried three labourers who had been engaged in the construction of a road through the Cariboo goldfields in the Colony of British Columbia, from Nanaimo to Victoria, after they had survived an attack on their camp… Continue reading
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‘Cold as a Hammer’: Gunfight at Myers’ Ravine
By Unknown author – http://www.legendsofamerica.com/photos-oldwest/Venard%20Gunfight.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12367272 Towards the end of April 1866, Samuel Henry of Moore’s Flat, California, was driving his wagon up Yuba Hill when he was stopped by two pistol-wielding robbers who ordered him down from his ‘sulky’. The two men carried out a systematic search of Henry’s wagon, finding only… Continue reading
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‘Grim Death Came and Took a Step’ : Mike Mitchell
In the years before his death on 13 January 1862, Mike Mitchell had gained a degree of fame and popularity in California and the Pacific Northwest ‘as the best jig dancer ever on this coast.’ On Saturday, 11 January 1862, Mitchell returned to his Portland, Oregon, lodging house, apparently drunk. He got into an argument… Continue reading
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Joseph Moses and the Serpentine’s Missing Swans
In early 1811, members of the local community noticed that the swans that populated the Serpentine, a 40-acre lake in Hyde Park, London, were missing. A search of the area commenced, and soon the bodies of the swans were discovered on the banks of the Serpentine. The Bow Street Runners investigated the scene and, in… Continue reading
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‘If She is a Dead Woman, I Shall Die Happy’: Richard and Ann Griffin
In September 1810, Richard Griffin, a 29-year-old journeyman blacksmith, from Saffron Hill, London was indicted at the Old Bailey for the ‘wilful murder’ of his 34-year-wife Ann. Ann Griffin had been absent from her home for a day and a half when she encountered her husband Richard at Bartholomew’s Fair on 4 September. Richard had been… Continue reading
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The Assault on Fort Seybert, April 1758
The palisaded stockade known as Fort Seybert was built atop a bluff on the South Branch of the South Fork of the Potomac River, in present-day West Virginia. , by Jacob Seybert, soon after he purchased the 210-acre plot of land on which it was constructed in May 1755. The French and Indian War (The… Continue reading
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‘Blood in the Snow”: The Wolves of Turku
By User:Mas3cf – This file was derived from: Eurasian wolf.JPG, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=95523086 Beginning in 1880, a series of wolf attacks brought terror to the countryside north of the city of Turku, in south-west Finland. Continuing into the latter part of the following year, reports suggest that 22 children were killed by a trio… Continue reading
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Dillie Welsh’s Four-Legged Saviour
The following collection of stories was published in Michigan’s Grand Rapid’s Press on Friday, 7 May 1886. Saved by a Calf A story comes from Alabama to the effect that Four-year-old Dillie Welsh, while playing with a pet calf, went to a well and peeped over the low curb. The calf caught her dress in… Continue reading
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Hellish Fiends, and Brutish Men 