The Peshtigo Fire: You never heard of it?

By Lyn Horner

While living near Chicago years ago I became fascinated by the history of the Great Fire of 1871, which leveled most of the city. Prior to the fire, Chicago’s buildings, even the fine hotels and mercantile district, were built out of wood. That summer was hot and deadly dry. The city’s fire crews had their hands full fighting one fire after another, even managing to tame a vicious blaze the day before Mrs. O’Leary’s cow kicked over her lantern (so the legend goes.) But there was no stopping the wind-driven monster that sent Chicagoans running for their lives on the night of Sunday, October 8, 1871.

Chicago in Flames -- The Rush for Lives Over Randolph Street Bridge

Originally from Harper's Weekly, 1871 – in the Public Domain

What most people probably don’t know is that a forest fire driven by the same brutal winds that destroyed Chicago occurred on the very same night some 250 miles north in Peshtigo, Wisconsin. In those days small fires were often set to clear forest land for farming and railroad construction. On that day in 1871, a cold front swept in from the west, bringing strong winds that fanned the fires out of control, creating a massive firestorm. Flames of at least 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit swept on winds of 110 miles per hour or stronger obliterated Peshtigo and burned across 1,875 square miles (4,860 km² or 1.2 million acres) of forest – an area about twice the size of Rhode Island.

Extent of the Peshtigo Fire
GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2

 
The Peshtigo Fire is the deadliest in American history. An accurate death toll could not be determined because local records were destroyed in the fire. Between 1,200 and 2,500 people are believed to have died. A later report to the Wisconsin Legislature listed 1,182 deceased or missing residents. More than 350 unidentified bodies were buried in a mass grave, in what is now the Peshtigo Fire Cemetery.

Peshtigo Fire Cemetery -- Mass Grave
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic

 

Survivors reported that the firestorm produced a fire whirl (like a tornado) that tossed rail cars and houses into the air. Some survived by immersing themselves in the Peshtigo River, wells, or other nearby bodies of water. Some drowned while others died of hypothermia in the frigid waters.

At the same time, another fire burned parts of the Door Peninsula, leading to the incorrect assumption that the fire had jumped across the waters of Green Bay. In Robinsonville (now Champion) on the Peninsula, Sister Adele Brise and other nuns and residents fled to a local chapel. There they prayed to the Virgin Mary. Although surrounded by flames, the chapel did not burn. Those gathered inside called their survival a miracle.

On the same day as the Peshtigo and Chicago fires, other towns across Lake Michigan also burned, as did Port Huron at the southern end of Lake Huron.

The Peshtigo Fire Museum houses several items that survived the fire.

Charred wood from Peshtigo Fire
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic

 
If you would like to read a FREE fictional account of the Chicago Fire, based firmly on history, I invite you to try my novella, White Witch (Texas Devlins, Book One.) An introduction to the Texas Devlins series, it spotlights the heroine's ability to look into the future and sets up her adventures in search of the man of her dreams. For that story you'll need to read Darlin' Irish (Texas Devlins, Book Two.)

Amazon                                       Amazon

Find all of my books on my Amazon Author Page:

http://amzn.to/Y3aotC

website: http://lynhorner.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LynHornerAuthor

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lyn.horner.author

The First Congresswoman by Sarah J. McNeal

Since we’re in the middle of selecting candidates for president of our United States, I thought it would be interesting to write about the first congress woman, Jeannette Rankin, a Republican, who was elected in 1916 to the House of Representatives representing Montana’s District 1.

Rankin was born June 11, 1880 in Missoula County, Montana before it had become a state. Her parents were Olive Pickering and John Rankin, a Scottish-Canadian immigrant who worked as a carpenter and rancher. She was the eldest of six children which included five girls (one of whom died in childhood) and one brother, Wellington. Her brother would become Montana’s attorney general, and later, an associate justice of the Montana Supreme Court. Her parents were progressive thinkers who encouraged their children to believe they could do whatever they set their minds to without considering the narrow gender roles society had set for them.

After Rankin graduated from the University of Montana and the New York School of Philanthropy (now there’s a degree I never heard of.), she turned down three marriage proposals, worked for a short time as a social worker, dressmaker, and furniture designer before she became active in the national effort to win women the vote. In 1914, she returned to Montana to continue her efforts because she believed pioneer conditions had created greater respect for women’s work and abilities in the west which made it easier to convince men to grant women more equal status. Western states like Wyoming and Colorado had already approved women’s suffrage years before, and Rankin’s leadership helped Montana join them in 1914.

Once the vote for women was secured, Rankin put Montana’s new political climate to the test. She ran for one of Montana’s two seats in Congress as a Progressive Republican in 1916. With strong support from both women and men, Rankin became the first woman in history elected to congress. Her brother, Wellington, an influential Republican, financed her campaign and was her most avid supporter.

When she traveled to Washington, D.C. the following year, the nation watched to see if a woman could handle the responsibilities of high office. Rankin soon proved she could, but she also demonstrated that she would not betray her own strongly held political convictions. A dedicated pacifist, Rankin’s first vote as a U.S. congresswoman was to vote against the U.S. entry into World War I. Many supported her courageous stand, while others claimed her vote showed women were incapable of shouldering the difficult burdens of national leadership—despite the fact that 55 men had also voted against the war. Even President Woodrow Wilson had resisted involving the country in World War I. It is said, after delivering his speech to congress asking for a declaration of war, that he wept. And yet, a woman’s vote against the war was criticized.  

Rankin’s vote against WWI contributed to her defeat in her 1918 reelection bid. For the next 20 years, she continued to work for the cause of peace. Rankin remained active and committed to other issues of the day as well. On June 8, 1917, the Speculator Mine disaster in Butte left 168 miners dead, and a massive protest strike over working conditions followed. Rankin attempted to intervene, but mining companies refused to meet with her or the miners, and proposed legislation was unsuccessful.

By 1918, women had been granted some form of voting rights in about forty states, but Rankin became a driving force in the movement for unrestricted universal rights. In January 1918 she opened a congressional debate on a Constitutional amendment granting universal suffrage to women. The resolution passed in the House, but was defeated by the Senate. However, a similar resolution passed both chambers in 1919. After ratification by three-fourths of the states, it became the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Her affirmative vote on the original House resolution made Rankin, as she later noted, "... the only woman who ever voted to give women the right to vote."

During Rankin's term, the Montana state legislature voted to replace the state's two at-large seats with two separate districts. Rankin ended up in the overwhelmingly Democratic western district. With such a slim chance of retaining her House seat after the reapportionment, she opted to run for the Senate in 1918. After losing the Republican primary to Oscar M. Lanstrum, she accepted the nomination of the National Party, and finished third in the general election behind incumbent Democrat Thomas J. Walsh and Lanstrum.

In 1924, Rankin bought a small farm in Georgia where she lived a bare bones existence without electricity or plumbing. She continued to make frequent speeches around the country on behalf of the Women's Peace Union and the National Council for the Prevention of War. In 1928 she founded the Georgia Peace Society, which served as headquarters for her pacifism campaign until its demise in 1941, just before the United States entered into World War II.

She also worked as a field secretary for the National Consumers League, and as a lobbyist for various pacifist organizations. She supported and argued for the passage of a Constitutional amendment banning child labor. Rankin supported the Sheppard–Towner Act, the first federal social welfare program created explicitly for women and children. The legislation was enacted in 1921 but repealed just eight years later.

The irony cannot be missed that, when she again won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1940 at age 60, the nation was about to enter World War II. Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, Rankin became the only person in the history of Congress to vote against U.S. entry into both world wars. This time, though, the dedicated pacifist from Montana cast the sole dissenting vote. In what I am certain was a very heated debate, it must have been a courageous act for her to stay committed to her ideals. Rep. (later Senator) Everett Dirksen, urged her to change her vote to make the resolution unanimous—or at very least, to abstain—but she refused. "As a woman I can't go to war," she said, "and I refuse to send anyone else." I’m pretty sure she was not the most popular member of congress in that moment.

After the vote, a crowd of reporters pursued Rankin into a cloakroom, where she was forced to take refuge in a phone booth until Capitol Police arrived to escort her to her office. There, she was inundated with angry telegrams and phone calls, including one from her brother, who said, "Montana is 100 percent against you." A UPI photo of Rankin sequestered in the phone booth, calling for assistance, appeared the following day in newspapers across the country. While her action was widely ridiculed in the press, William Allen White, writing in the Kansas Emporia Gazette, acknowledged her courage in taking it:

Probably a hundred men in Congress would have liked to do what she did. Not one of them had the courage to do it. The Gazette entirely disagrees with the wisdom of her position. But Lord, it was a brave thing! And its bravery someway discounted its folly. When, in a hundred years from now, courage, sheer courage based upon moral indignation is celebrated in this country, the name of Jeannette Rankin, who stood firm in folly for her faith, will be written in monumental bronze, not for what she did, but for the way she did it.

Two days later, a similar war declaration against Germany and Italy came to a vote; Rankin abstained. Her political career effectively over, she retired in 1942 rather than face near-certain re-election defeat. Asked years later if she had ever regretted her action, Rankin replied, "Never. If you're against war, you're against war regardless of what happens. It's a wrong method of trying to settle a dispute."

In her later years Rankin traveled the world, frequently visiting India, where she studied the pacifist teachings of Mahatma Gandhi.

You can well imagine how the Vietnam War mobilized her once again in her antiwar efforts. This time, however, she was back by a tremendous movement in the country of pacifists, feminists, and civil rights advocates. In fact, the new generation found inspiration from her. In January 1968, the Jeannette Rankin Brigade, a coalition of women's peace groups, organized an anti-war march in Washington, D.C.—the largest march by women since the 1913 woman suffrage parade. Rankin led five thousand participants from Union Station to the steps of the Capitol Building, where they presented a peace petition to House Speaker John McCormack of Massachusetts. At the same time, another group of activists from the women's liberation movement created a protest within the Brigade's protest by staging a "Burial of True Womanhood" at Arlington National Cemetery to draw attention to the passive role allotted to women as wives and mothers. In 1972, Rankin who was in her nineties, considered a third House campaign to gain a wider audience for her opposition to the Vietnam War, but longstanding throat and heart ailments forced her to abandon that final project.

Rankin died on May 18, 1973, age 92, in Carmel, California. She bequeathed her estate, including the property in Watkinsville, Georgia, to help "mature, unemployed women workers". The Jeannette Rankin Foundation (now the Jeannette Rankin Women's Scholarship Fund), a nonprofit organization, awards annual educational scholarships to low-income women 35 and older across the United States. Beginning with a single 500-dollar scholarship in 1978, the fund has since awarded more than $1.8 million in scholarships to more than 700 women.

Rankin's monument in the National Statuary Hall, Washington, D.C.

Whether we agree with Rankin’s ideals or not, we have to admire the courage it took for her to remain true to her principles throughout her life.  

*All photographs from public domain Wikipedia.

Sarah J. McNeal is a multi-published author of several genres including time travel, paranormal, western and historical fiction. She is a retired ER and Critical Care nurse who lives in North Carolina with her four-legged children, Lily, the Golden Retriever and Liberty, the cat. Besides her devotion to writing, she also has a great love of music and plays several instruments including violin, bagpipes, guitar and harmonica. Her books and short stories may be found at Prairie Rose Publications and its imprints Painted Pony Books, and Fire Star Press. Some of her fantasy and paranormal books may also be found at Publishing by Rebecca Vickery and Victory Tales Press. She welcomes you to her website and social media:

Website 

My Amazon Author’s Page

Facebook

Twitter

The Wildings

Fantasy and Dreams Blog

Sweethearts of the West

Prairie Rose Publications Blog

New Release in Brides with Grit Series

Darcie Desires a Drover, book seven in the Brides with Grit series was just released so I'd like to tell you about it. 

This sweet wholesome romance series is set in 1873 near Ellsworth, Kansas.

Darcie Robbins is the sister to Millie Wilerson (Millie Marries a Marshal, book 2) and mother of Tate, the two-year old who has gotten his share of attention in the book series.

The “drover” is Reuben Shepard, all-around cowhand and cook at the Bar E Ranch. Reuben left the ranch during Cora Captures a Cowboy (book 4) to visit his family in New York. 

Here's the story line

Darcie Robbins fled St. Louis to protect her two children from their bad father. Now divorced, she’s temporarily working on the Bar E Ranch in central Kansas. She needs a permanent job—or a trustworthy husband—to help provide for her family.

Reuben Shepard went home to his family in New York after the Civil War, to find his wife had declared him dead—so she could wed another. In shock, Reuben didn’t contest her claim and wandered south, spending years as a cattle drover on western trails until settling down to work on the Bar E Ranch.

Spending time with Darcie’s toddler, Tate, makes Reuben miss his own son, Gabe. Reuben travels to New York, hoping to visit his son, and ends up bringing Gabe back to the Kansas because the boy’s step-father had just died.

When Reuben proposes marriage to Darcie for their children’s sake, the couple falls in love as they learn to trust and support each other while planning for their future. But their wedding is stalled when Reuben’s former wife arrives, stating she and Reuben are still married.

What’s the truth and what’s best for the children is their concern now instead of a wedding date. How can they clear the past so they can have a future together?

Here's the link's where the book is available. Please enjoy and share with others who like reading clean western romance books.

Amazon US   Amazon UK   Amazon CA    B&N    iTunes   Kobo    Scribd 

Also, please sign up for my newsletter on www.LindaHubalek.com to receive a free Brides with Grit short story, The Bridal Crown, and to hear about the release of future books, contests and more. And I love to connect with my readers, so please contact me through one of these social media sites, too. 

Thanks! Linda Hubalek

Author website | Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest | Amazon Author Page

Savvy Sayin’s: True Wisdom from The Real Wes

By Anna Kathryn Lanier

I found this treasure trove of cowboy wisdom a few years ago.  Savvy Sayin’s: True Wisdom from The Real West was collected by Ken Alstad and as the quote by American West Magazine says, they are “entertaining, pithy advice on how to get along in cowboy and Indian country.”  Here’s a few to amuse you.

• ·         Skill throws more weight than strength.
• ·         Second-hand gold is as good as new.
• ·         Teeth and memory weaken with age.
• ·         Set your pace by your distance
• ·         If you don’t buy what you only want, you’ll have money to buy what you really need.
• ·         Out west, every prairie dog hole is a gold mine, every hill is a mountain, every creek is a river, and every prospector is a liar.
• ·         A stone stops rollin’ when it finds the kind of moss it wants to gather.
• ·         If you live to be 29 and have made no enemies, you’re a failure.
• ·         Some men never reach a marriageable age.
• ·         Never approach a bull from the front, a horse from the rear or a fool from any direction.

I consider this book one of my ‘research books'.  If nothing else, it’s a fun a read.

Anna Kathryn Lanier
Romance Author, SALVATION BRIDE

http://aklanier.com/

Never let your memories be greater than your dreams. ~Doug Ivester 

From the Battlefield, with Love: Civil War Soldiers' Songs

Americans didn’t celebrate Valentine’s Day as we know it until the mid-1800s. By 1856, the practice of sending somewhat sappy cards had become so widespread that newspapers began to call the blossoming tradition a “social disease.” Conservative elements in society tried to stamp out the celebration because they considered such unvarnished expression of fondness evidence of “moral deterioration.” The February 1856 edition of Harper’s New Monthly Magazine included a cartoon depicting card-giving as crass and self-indulgent.

A "window" valentine, ca. 1864. Such cards were called
"window valentines" because front flaps opened to reveal
a hidden message or image.

A scant five years later, as the Civil War began, Valentine’s Day took on new significance. Cards often depicted sweethearts parting. Many incorporated flaps that opened to reveal soldiers standing in tents or couples at the altar. Some included a lock of the giver’s hair.

In addition to cards, songs of love and loss became popular with Civil War soldiers on the battlefields. At night, encamped on opposite sides of imaginary lines only hundreds of yards apart, men wearing blue and men wearing gray sang as one. Some of the songs were meant to keep sweet memories alive; many mourned happiness never to be.

The following are a few of the most popular love songs of the Civil War. All except “Just Before the Battle, Mother” and “The Yellow Rose of Texas” were performed by Tom Roush. (“Just Before the Battle” was performed by the 97th Regimental String Band, and “The Yellow Rose of Texas” was performed by Bobby Horton.)

The Yellow Rose of Texas

A popular marching tune all over the Confederacy, “The Yellow Rose of Texas” dates to the state's early colonial period. The first known transcribed version—handwritten on a piece of plain paper—appeared around the time of the Texian victory at San Jacinto in April 1836. In its original form, the song tells the story of a black man who has been separated from his sweetheart and longs to reunite with her. This YouTube video contains the modified version Texas troops actually sang during the Civil War, complete with references to “Bobby Lee” and Hood's Texas Brigade...with one exception. By the time of the war, the phrase “sweetest rose of color” had been replaced with “little flower” in order not to imply white soldiers were pining for a mulatto woman.

Aura Lea (also spelled “Aura Lee”)

Most people today recognize the melody to “Aura Lea” as “Love Me Tender,” which became an instant hit when Elvis Presley sang the song during his first appearance on the big screen in the 1956 movie of the same name. The original, composed in 1861 by W. W. Fosdick (words) and George R. Poulton (music), is one of the happier songs of the era.

Lorena

The Rev. Henry D. L. Webster wrote the words to one of the most popular love songs of the Civil War in 1856 after his intended broke off their engagement. His friend Joseph Philbrick Webster composed the music. Western Writers of America listed "Lorena" as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time; an instrumental version appears in the iconic film Gone with the Wind.

When I Saw Sweet Nellie Home

Also known as “Seeing Nellie Home” and “Aunt Dinah’s Quilting Party,” the original was composed by John Fletcher (music) and Frances Kyle (words) in 1859. In 1861, Otto W. Ludwig changed the words to create the strident Union ballad “Courage, Mother, I Am Going,” about a young man who believes he won’t return from a war he is morally obligated to fight. Needless to say, Confederates sang the original. The Union version faded into obscurity after the war.

Oh! Susanna

Published by Stephen Foster in 1848, "Oh! Susanna" was popular with both bluebellies and graybacks, who viewed the words through entirely different cultural lenses. This version contains the original second verse, which is controversial (and potentially offensive) because of the language.

My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night

Published by Stephen Foster in 1853, “My Old Kentucky Home” speaks of love for home and family. The song became enormously popular with both armies during the Civil War—which was odd in the case of the Confederacy, because Foster’s notes on the original handwritten sheet music clearly indicate he intended the song to be an abolitionist anthem inspired by Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. (Foster was a staunch abolitionist.)

Just Before the Battle, Mother

One of the saddest Civil War favorites speaks of love not for a sweetheart, but for a young’s man’s mother. With words and music (1862) by George F. Root, "Just Before the Battle, Mother" was strictly a Union song. (The lead-in on this one is long. The words start just before the one-minute mark.)

The Picture on the Wall

A sad song more popular among the folks at home than soldiers on the battlefield (for obvious reasons), Henry Clay Work’s “The Picture on the Wall” (1864) is almost unknown today. During the Civil War, it expressed tremendous grief about the loss of both sweethearts and sons.

Annie Laurie (also spelled “Annie Lawry”)

Brought to America from Scotland around 1832, authorship of the song is unknown. By the time of the Civil War, the words had changed from the original Scottish. Because the song was so well known, it was one of the most often sung across the lines, despite—or perhaps because of—the haunting chorus: “For bonnie Annie Laurie, I'd lay me down and die.”

Sweet Evelina

Composed in 1863 by Mrs. Parkhurst, the tune to “Sweet Evelina” is spritely even though the words come from the point of view of a young man fated never to marry the beautiful girl he loves. The song was incredibly popular among soldiers on both sides during the war but had all but disappeared by 1900.

Listen to the Mockingbird

Septimus Winner, using the name Alice Hawthorne, wrote the words to “Listen to the Mockingbird” in 1855 and set them to music composed by a guitarist friend. Despite the upbeat melody, the song tells the story of a man’s love for a young woman who has died. The tune was popular with both Billy Yanks and Johnny Rebs. As an aside: In 1862, Winner was arrested and charged with treason after he published “Give Us Back Our Old Commander: Little Mac, the People’s Pride.” The song protested Lincoln’s firing of Gen. George B. McClellan as commander of the Army of the Potomac. Federal authorities released Winner only after he promised to destroy all remaining copies of the sheet music...but calling back the 80,000 copies that sold in the first two days after the song's publication proved impossible. (McClellan was an exceptionally popular man.)



An excellent album called Songs of the Civil War contains renditions of some of these songs by artists including The United States Military Academy Band, Waylon Jennings, Richie Havens, Hoyt Axton, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Kathy Mattea, and Jay Ungar and Molly Mason (of “Ashokan Farewell” fame). It’s available from Amazon on CD and audio cassette, as well as in MP3 format and via Amazon’s PrimeMusic.

Right now, I'm finishing an "extra" story in the Dumont series, a trilogy about a Southeast Texas ranching dynasty. The first volume, The Dumont Brand, released last July. The two short novellas within tell the big-as-Texas stories of brothers Bennett and Amon Collier and the women who kept them going during and immediately after the Civil War, when the ranch nearly fell apart. Undoubtedly, the men who served under Bennett, a Confederate cavalry officer, sang some of the songs in this post. Watch for the "extra" story, The Trouble with Honey, from Prairie Rose Publications later this spring.

****

A Texan to the bone, Kathleen Rice Adams spends her days chasing news stories and her nights and weekends shooting it out with Wild West desperadoes. Leave the upstanding, law-abiding heroes to other folks. In Kathleen’s stories, even the good guys wear black hats.

Her short story “The Second-Best Ranger in Texas” won the coveted 2015 Peacemaker Award for Best Western Short Fiction. Her novel Prodigal Gun is the only western historical romance ever to receive a Peacemaker nomination in a book-length category.

Visit her hideout on the web at KathleenRiceAdams.com.

C.W. Post--A Great Man With a Tragic Life

I grew up in the Fifties in West Texas--on the South Plains of the Panhandle--in a small oil and farming community named Levelland. Seventy-one miles Southeast just below the majestic Caprock, lay another small community named Post, Texas. 

Somehow during my young years, I learned the Grape Nuts my daddy ate were invented by a man named Post—C. W. Post, as I now know. An author in a book titled “Tales From Out Yonder,” described Grape Nuts as “a cereal with the appearance of creek gravel.”

C.W. Post was an intriguing man, but not only for inventing Grape Nuts and Post Toasties. No. As a young man, his ability to invent and create was notable.
He was born on October 26, 1854, in Springfield, Illinois. After graduating from the Springfield public schools he entered Illinois Industrial University (now the University of Illinois) at Urbana. He remained only two years before abandoning school "for hard physical work."
At seventeen he went to Independence, Kansas, where he worked as a salesman, clerk, and store owner. He returned to Springfield in 1872 and worked for the next fourteen years as a salesman and manufacturer of agricultural machines.

SULKY PLOW-DRAWN BY ONE HORSE

During this period he invented and secured patents on such farm equipment as cultivators, a sulky plow, a harrow, and a haystacker.

On November 4, 1874, Post married Ella Letitia Merriweather of Battle Creek, Michigan but lived apart for several years before divorcing. They had one daughter named Marjorie Merriweather Post.

    After a nervous breakdown in November 1885 caused by strain and overwork, he moved to Fort Worth, Texas with his family.
    There, he became associated with a group of real estate men who were developing a 300-acre tract in the eastern part of the city, an area known today as Riverside. Other members of the family, including Post's brother Rollin, followed C. W. to Fort Worth.
In 1888 the Posts acquired a 200-acre ranch on the outskirts of the city and began the development of a subdivision on their property; they laid out streets and lots for homes and constructed a woolen mill and a paper mill.

However, only three years later, Post suffered a second breakdown and moved with his wife to Battle Creek, Michigan, where he entered a sanitarium. With rest came recuperation, and soon he was experimenting with a cereal drink he called Postum. Next, he developed Grape-Nuts and Post Toasties, breakfast foods that by the end of the century made him millions of dollars.

In 1906, as a result of a desire to own a farming community in Texas, he purchased some 225,000 acres of ranchland along the escarpment of the Caprock in Garza and Lynn counties.  He designated a central site as the location of his new town.
In 1907 Post City, as it was called until after the developer's death, was platted, farms of 160 acres were laid out, shade trees were planted, and a machine shop, a hotel, a school, churches, and a department store were constructed.
Post tried various forms of automatic machinery in developing dry-land farming techniques and introduced varieties of grain sorghums such as milo and kafir. One of his most spectacular experiments was his rain-making effort through dynamite explosions. From firing stations along the rim of the Caprock four-pound dynamite charges were detonated every four minutes for a period of several hours. Between 1911 and 1914 he spent thousands of dollars in this endeavor, which met with little success.

Post's main contribution to Texas was opening the plains region to agricultural development.

His health failed again in 1914. He passed away at age 59--presumably by taking his own life with a gunshot wound.

Post’s genius was clouded by mental problems his entire life. Before the psychological terms manic-depressive and bipolar disorder were tossed about, Post was merely considered peculiar, a gentleman with wild mood swings. From his psychological highs, Post’s inventive mind conjured up new products that made him a household name and launched wildly ambitious projects. His low points often terminated in a visit to a sanitarium, from which he would emerge many months later rejuvenated and would begin anew.

Note: To read about his daughter, Marjorie Merriweather Post, who inherited the company General Foods in Battle Creek Michigan—see Previous Posts titled “The Richest Woman in America.” January 8, 2016.
~~*~~*~~

Thank you for visiting Sweethearts of the West.

NEWEST RELEASE:

ALL MY HOPES AND DREAMS

PUBLISHER: PRAIRIE ROSE PUBLICATIONS

Now available on Amazon

Celia Yeary-Romance...and a little bit 'o Texas

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/celiayeary

 My Website

My Blog

Sweethearts of the West-Blog

My Facebook Page

SOURCES for C.W. Post:

The Handbook of Texas On-line: Texas State Historical Association
Wikipedia
Wikimedia
“Tales From Out Yonder”-Ross McSwain

RUSTLING UP HEARTS: A COWBOY'S VALENTINE

Seems I've been running a day behind since the new year began. So, I thought I'd drag this old blog out and dust it off since Valentine's Day is just around the corner. There are many things cowboy's do well and rustling a young lady's heart is one of them. It's why we all love reading about these knights on the plains.

After all the posts on ghosts and haunted habitats, I thought it would be nice to get back to what we all love...Romance and Cowboys! What’s romantic about the cowboy?  You might ask (if you’ve been under a rock for a hundred or so years).  What’s not romantic about the cowboy? Cowboys have been icons of hard work, hard play, and hard lovin’ since they shot onto the American landscape in the 19^th Century.

Below are just a samplin’ of songs, poems and letters showin’ the heart of the Cowboy, and just one of the many reasons we Western Romance writers fell in love with this particular breed of man.

If there’s one thing a cowboy knew it was loneliness on the trail, and the fear another might win his lady’s heart while he was gone for months on a cattle drive.  Some put their fears into lyrics, or wrote them in letters home.







LONELINESS
At nights I think of her a heap,
These quiet nights when shadows creep
Down thro' the sage, and ev'ry tree
Looks like a black hearse plume to me.
Oh, lonely land and lonely heart,
It surely seems when I 'm apart
From her I hain't the least excuse
Fer livin', and I sees no use
In even daylight comin', fer
It's always nighttime without her.

@Robert V. Carr, 1912

Fred and Mittie

Fred Tucker and George Oathanile Bacus both vied for Mittie Richardson’s attention. In 1902, Mittie was sent east to Boston apparently to resolve the situation. In correspondence from family members, it appears that Mittie's mother did not approve of either George or Fred. Mittie's mother referred to George as "Backhouse." In one letter, Mittie's mother wrote, "I sat there and looked at Fred while he was eating dinner and I though of the old saying that love would go where it is sent if it went into a dogs - - - and I just thought if anybody fell in love with that thing they aught to have him why he can't even talk I was pleasant to him but O dear." Both Fred and George wrote Mittie while she was in Boston, each expressing their love. After Mittie's return, in June 1903 things boiled over in the bunk house with Bacus shooting Fred (Fred survived but fled Wyoming). Bacus sent Mittie a letter of explanation (excuse George's spelling and grammar):


Casper Wyo
June 14, 1903
Miss Mittie Richardson
My Loved One, I sit down to drop you a few lines to let you know that I am on deck yet. I will be back soon to see my littel love again and se what they do weath me for what I have don. I see now where I was foolish for leaven Elmer [LaPash, Mittie's brother-in-law] toald me to give up and I am sorry I didnt. I took the horse exptoan [expecting] to go to town if I could of seen you before I left, I would not have left there. Now Darling, pleas donant let eny one out side of your folks see this letter I toald ProSiak that I was to blame for shooting and would not give up, but I gess I well now doant tell Fred I am coming back I donant want any more trubele weath anyone. Darling I would like to have a talk weath you. I was not to blame for what happened in the bunk house but had not [illegible] of shot atall but I was excited then and could not help it Well Dear this is cloast to your birth day and I will send you all I can from here that is thre of the pretest fours I can fiend I must close the tears will not lit me rite eny more best washes to you as ever your Love
G O Bacus

…These air sweet for get me nots [forget me nots] it is all I have and hoap they will be recped weath pleasher Hope to see you soon and Mittie when I am in Jale in Laramie Will you come and see me I would like to tell you all about every thing but can not rite it as I havent time no neather have I go paper this is all I have I will be back as soon as I can rais money anouff the countey would send for me but I doant want that I will come back weath out thair assistants if they will let me
P S I will be back to hay if thay will let me out in time

George Bacus

Mittie was not loyal to George or Fred and married another man altogether.

Of controversial origin and changing lyrics, a cowboy standard is a song known as the “Cowboy Love Song,” and reflects the sorrow of a cowboy whose sweetheart, unable to withstand the harsh conditions of the West, leaves him. We know this song as…

Red River Valley
From this valley they say you are going.
I will miss your bright eyes and sweet smile.
For they say you are taking the sunshine.
That has brightened our pathway awhile.
Come and sit by my side if you love me.
Do not hasten to bid me adieu.
But remember the Red River Valley
and the cowboy that loves you so true. (Chorus)
From this valley they say you are going.
I will miss your sweet face and your smile.
Just because you are weary and tired,
You are changing your range for awhile.
I've been waiting a long time my darling
For the sweet words you never say.
Now at last all my fond hopes have vanished.
For they say you are going away.
O there never could be such a longing
In the heart of a poor cowboy's breast.
That now dwell in the heart you are breaking.
As I wait in my home in the west.
Do you think of the valley you're leaving?
O how lonely and drear it will be!
Do you think of the kind heart you're breaking.
And the pain you are causing to me?
As you go to your home by the ocean,
May you never forget those sweet hours
That we spent in the Red River Valley,
And the love we exchanged mid the flowers.

Many early drovers who came up the Texas Trail were Confederate veterans. During the war one of the most popular songs with southern soldiers was the sad and haunting Lorena about a lost love, and it remained a favorite among cowboys.

Lorena
Words by the Reverend Henry DeL. Webster
Music by Joseph P. Webster

The years creep slowly by, Lorena,
The snow is on the grass again;
The sun's low down the sky Lorena,
The frost gleams where the flowers have been;
But the heart throbs on as lovely now,
As when the summer days were nigh;
Oh, the sun can never dip so low,
Adown affection's cloudless sky.

A hundred months have passed, Lorena,
Since last I held your hand in mine,
And felt that pulse beat fast, Lorena,
Though mine beat faster far than thine;
A hundred months -- 'twas flow'ry May,
When up the hilly slopes we climbed,
To watch the dying of the day,
And hear the distant church bells chimed.

We loved each other then, Lorena,
More than we ever dared to tell,
And what we might have been, Lorena,
Had but our loving prospered well --
But then, 'tis past, the years are gone,
I'll not call up their shadowy forms;
I'll say to them, "Lost years, sleep on,
Sleep on, nor heed life's pelting storms."

The story of the past, Lorena,
Alas, I care not to repeat,
The hopes that could not last, Lorena,
They lived, but only lived to cheat;
I would not cause e'en one regret,
To rankle in your bosom now;
For "if we try, we may forget,"
Were words of thine long years ago.

Yes, these were words of thine, Lorena,
They burn within my memory yet;
They touch some tender chords, Lorena,
Which thrill and tremble with regret;
'Twas not thy woman's heart that spoke;
Thy heart was always true to me --
A duty, stern and pressing, broke
The tie which linked my soul to thee.

It matters little now, Lorena,
The past -- is in eternal past,
Our heads will soon lie down, Lorena,
Life's tide is ebbing out so fast;
There is a future -- Oh, thank God --
Of life this is so small a part,
'Tis dust to dust beneath the sod,
But there, up there, 'tis heart to heart.

For some, love came hard. As was the case of Wyoming sheep rancher John Love in his pursuit of Ethel Waxham. For four years John sent letters that followed Ethel from Colorado to Wisconsin back to Colorado, until finally in June 1910, Ethel became John’s wife.

John Love

Muskrat, Wyoming
September 12th, 1906
Dear Miss Waxham,
Of course it will cause many a sharp twinge and heartache to have to take "no" for an answer, but I will never blame you for it in the least, and I will never be sorry that I met you. I will be better for having known you. I know the folly of hoping that your "no" is not final, but in spite of that knowledge... I know that I will hope until the day that you are married. Only then I will know that the sentence is irrevocable. Yours Sincerely,
John G. Love


November 12th, 1906
Dear Miss Waxham,
I know that you have not been brought up to cook and labor. I have never been on the lookout for a slave and would not utter a word of censure if you never learned, or if you got ambitious and made a "batch" of biscuits that proved fatal to my favorite dog... I will do my level best to win you and... If I fail, I will still want your friendship just the same.
Yours Sincerely,
John G. Love

April 3, 1909
Dear Mr. Love,
There are reasons galore why I should not write so often. I'm a beast to write at all. It makes you -- (maybe?) -- think that "no" is not "no," but "perhaps," or "yes," or anything else... Good wishes for your busy season
from E.W.
P.S. I like you very much.

October 25th, 1909
Dear Miss Waxham,
There is no use in my fixing up the house anymore, papering, etc., until I know how it should be done, and I won't know that until you see it and say how it ought to be fixed. If you never see it, I don't want it fixed, for I won't live here. We could live very comfortably in the wagon while our house was being fixed up to suit you, if you only would say yes.
John Love

Dear Mr. Love,
Suppose that you lost everything that you have and a little more; and suppose that for the  best reason in the world I wanted you to ask me to say "yes." What would you do?
E.

Ethel Waxham

For the lucky cowboys their true loves came without a fight and remained true to the end. These cowboys settled into lifetime partnerships, either building empires (both large and small) of their own, or seeking new adventures wherever the trail took them.
John and Eula Kendrick (John Kendrick was a Wyoming Cowboy, Governor, Senator with Eula his partner in ranching and politics)

Eula Kendrick

In 1889, following time at finishing schools in Boulder, Colorado, and Austin, Texas, seventeen-year-old Eula was reintroduced to one of her father's former employees, a cowboy named John B. Kendrick. She remembered meeting him before: at age seven she had climbed into the lanky cowboy's lap and announced that when she was old enough, she intended to marry him. In 1891, she did just that.

Following a church wedding in Greeley and a reception at the Wulfjen residence, the newlyweds left immediately for New York on the afternoon train. When their two-month wedding trip through the Eastern U. S. was over, Eula had to face the reality of her new home: a mud-chinked log cabin fifty miles from the nearest town.

It would be several months before Eula would get to live in that cabin, however. Upon their return from the East, Eula went back to her parents' home while John went to Montana to finish construction. He felt that the rough bachelor digs he'd left behind were not good enough for his cultured bride. It was a lonely time for both John and Eula and letters flew back and forth between them. For a man accustomed to solitude, separation from a loved one was a new thing for John and he expressed his loneliness eloquently and often during this period:

John Kendrick

Do you miss your old man? Not one half so much as I miss "the girl I left behind me."  Somehow the feeling of loneliness is inexplainable. Everything lacks interest: the scenes along the road, the different views of the snow peaks of the Big Horns, things that I used to enjoy so much. 

By the end of April 1891, the cabin was still not finished. Fed up with living apart, Eula announced to her husband that she was going to Montana, even if she had to sleep on the floor and cook for herself. This response delighted John to no end:

You can never know how many false notions you have driven from my mind in your proposal to come out and do your own cooking, not that I want you to do it, but I did want so much for you to show the spirit of a true little wife and helpmate and the one thing needed to fill my cup of happiness you have supplied. 

The OW Ranch in southeastern Montana was Eula's home for the next eighteen years. Though isolated and far from friends, she had no time to be bored: she cooked, cleaned, ironed, sewed and did all the bookkeeping for the ever-growing Kendrick Cattle Company.

To read more about the Kendricks go to: http://www.kirstenlynnwildwest.com/blog/?p=5



Frank Butler and Annie Oakley:

Frank and Annie

Frank Butler, an immigrant from Ireland, developed a shooting act, banking on the growing popularity of marksmanship displays in America in the 1870s. He and his partner would perform as one of up to 18 acts in a variety show, rattling off trick shots for about 20 minutes. Butler often issued a challenge to any local shooting champion. In November 1875, while he was performing in Cincinnati, someone took him up in it. There would be a match nearby, Butler was told, with a prize of $100. He accepted.

The last opponent Butler expected was a five-foot-tall 15-year old named Annie. "I was a beaten man the moment she appeared," Frank later said, "for I was taken off guard." His surprise continued when his young challenger scored 25 hits in 25 attempts -- Butler missed his last target and with it lost the match. But he recovered quickly enough to give Annie and her family free tickets to his show, and soon he began courting her. Butler was 10 years older, had been married and already fathered two children. He never drank, smoked, or gambled, traits that appealed to Annie's Quaker mother. The couple was married on August 23, 1876, although Butler would later claim June 20, 1882, as the date. Perhaps Butler was not yet divorced when he first met Annie, or maybe the later date was given because Annie had lopped six years off her actual age in the midst of her rivalry with the younger sharpshooter Lillian Smith. Either way, the marriage was a happy one, lasting for some 50 years.
Frank often included poetry in his letters to Annie.

“Her presence would remind you, Of an angel in the skies, And you bet I love this little girl, With the rain drops in her eyes."

After they were married Frank Butler continued to tour with his marksman act while Annie returned home to complete her schooling. On May 9, 1881, Frank sent Annie this poem outlining his plans for their future.

Some fine day I'll settle down
And stop this roving life;
With a cottage in the country
I will claim my little wife.
Then we will be happy and contented,
No quarrels shall arise
And I'll never leave my little girl
With the rain drops in her eyes.

The famous couple never really did settle down in a cottage in the country, but spent the majority of their years together traveling the world in various wild west shows.

Frank and Annie

Whether riding the range, building a ranching empire, or trailing an outlaw the cowboy’s mind often wondered…

To Her
Cut loose a hundred rivers,
Roaring across my trail,
Swift as the lightning quivers,
Loud as a mountain gale.
I build me a boat of slivers;
I weave me a sail of fur,
And ducks may founder and die
But I
Cross that river to her!
Bunch the deserts together,
Hang three suns in the vault;
Scorch the lizards to leather,
Strangle the springs with salt.
I fly with a buzzard feather,
I dig me wells with a spur,
And snakes may famish and fry
But I
Cross that desert to her!
Murder my sleep with revel;
Make me ride through the bogs
Knee to knee with the devil,
Just ahead of the dogs.
I harrow the Bad Lands level,
I teach the tiger to purr,
For saints may wallow and lie
But I
Go clean-hearted to her!

@Badger Clark

Wylie and the Wild West put some music behind “To Her,” and it’s a beautiful song! Take a listen!

TO HER by WYLIE AND THE WILD WEST



  

SOURCES:

http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/program/episodes/eight/psilikeyou.htm

http://www.wyomingtalesandtrails.com/cattle.html

http://www.trailend.org/

Chartier, JoAnn and Chris Enss.Love Untamed: Romances of the Old West. The Globe Pequot Press: Guilford, CT, 2002.

Kirsten Lynn is a Western and Military Historian. She worked six years with a Navy non-profit and continues to contract with the Marine Corps History Division for certain projects. Making her home where her roots were sewn in Wyoming, Kirsten also works as a local historian. She loves to use the history she has learned and add it to a great love story. She writes stories about men of uncommon valor...women with undaunted courage...love of unwavering devotion ...and romance with unending sizzle. When she's not writing, she finds inspiration in day trips through the Bighorn Mountains, binge reading and watching sappy old movies, or sappy new movies. Housework can always wait.