history
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Jocelin Harwood: ‘A Degenerate Plant from a Good Tree’
The image of a highwayman in the public imagination, as seen in innumerable novels and films, is a courteous, gallant gentleman of the road, perhaps a victim of injustice, a heroic equestrian seeking to outwit his usually corrupt opponents as the shadow of the gallows hangs over him. Jocelin Harwood, born in the village of… Continue reading
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The (Brief) Disappearance of Marjorie Hartzell
Marjorie Hartzell On Wednesday, 9 April 1919, Marjorie Hartzell, a fifteen-year-old student, disappeared while walking to class at New Trier High School in the village of Winnetka, Illinois. At about 8.30 am, Marjorie was following two of her friends as they reached the Hubbard Woods station when the ’southbound electric car’ that would ferry them… Continue reading
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The Blue Light Lady of Fort Hays
As the war between the Indigenous tribes and the men labouring on the Transcontinental Railroad continued to simmer away in the area around the Smoky Hills Trail, a second, more pernicious foe was beginning to make its presence felt. An article published in the Wednesday, 4 September 1867, issue of The Urbana Union reported that… Continue reading
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‘A More Mournful Cortege Was Never Seen’ : The Williamson Murders
The Caledonian Mercury (Edinburgh), Friday 2 April 1858 With the hyperbole common to Victorian-era newspapers, the Tuesday, 6 April 1858 edition of the Edinburgh newspaper The Caledonian Mercury published an item that had first been reported in the John o’Groats Journal ‘inhabitants…were startled by the announcement that during the previous night the house of one… Continue reading
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‘A Brother Brigand of the Mountains’
James Butler’Wild Bill’ Hickok By unattributed – Heritage Auctions, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33582655 The following article was published in the Telegraph Courier of Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Thursday, 24 August 1876. Trial and Acquittal of the Murderer of Wild Bill-a Characteristic Picture of Frontier Life-Colorado Charley Gives Wild Bill a Good send off-The Finest Funeral the Country… Continue reading
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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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‘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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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
