history
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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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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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The Ordeal of George Elmes
Leavenworth Daily Commercial, Thursday, 15 July 1875. In the summer of 1875, George Elmes, a German-born resident of Hays City, Kansas, ‘an honest, hard working fellow,’ loaded up a wagon with goods purchased from a sutler’s store and started on a trek from Hays City to Trinidad, New Mexico, where he planned to sell his… Continue reading
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Resurrectionists at Merrion Churchyard
By Hablot Knight Browne – https://archive.org/stream/chroniclesofcri01pelh#page/n317/mode/2up, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24087051 On a Thursday evening early in December 1828, several men, including four brothers named Ryan, gathered at the Merrion churchyard, Dublin, to watch over the grave of the brothers’ recently deceased sister. Around the same time that Miss Ryan was buried, Arthur Flaherty, a painter of… Continue reading
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Robert Thorley and the Footpad
On a Saturday afternoon in November 1812, Robert Thorley was riding from London to his home at nearby Petersham, along the Wandsworth road, when he noticed a woman dressed like a Quaker. Following the woman along the footpath was a man with an apron folded round him in the style of a carpenter. As Thorley… Continue reading
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Turnip Theft
Published in Jackson’s Oxford Journal, Saturday, 13 January 1855 Sarah Field and Elizabeth Langford, both of the parish of Saint Thomas, Oxford, were convicted of stealing turnip greens, the property of William Carey Faulkner, and were fined the sum of 7s. each, including costs. A week was allowed for payment. © Mark Young 2026 source… Continue reading
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The Mysterious Case at Balby
On Tuesday, 22 March 1852, an inquest was held in the South Yorkshire village of Wadworth, on the body of 19-year-old Hannah Adams, ‘who had come to her death under circumstances of a very extraordinary and painful nature.’ Hannah Adams was employed as a housemaid by Mrs. Shepphard, in the village of Balby, a short… Continue reading
Hellish Fiends, and Brutish Men 