Fought by the Privates at Williamsburg Key Engagement
Veteran recounts a May 1862 clash near Williamsburg, detailing a chaotic march from Yorktown to Richmond, a brutal fight in dense timber with Seventeenth Virginia Infantry, heavy casualties, improvised hospital setup, and a late retreat as Pryor's Louisianians and Sickles' brigades pressed the Federal line.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Murray
Washington
Republican
Yorktown
Richmond
Williamsburg
Seventeenth Virginia Infantry
A. P. Hill
William and Mary College
Pryor
Excelsior
Nct
Rich
Tyranny of the Button Hook in a Midwestern Shoe Trade
A Chicago Ledger feature repurposes Milwau kee gossip to attack the button-hook as a malevolent relic. It mocks domestic distraction caused by women and praises male intellect while urging curb of clerks in shoe stores with button-hooks. The essay laments gender roles and envisions legislative action to curb the device.
You Darling at the Rink Notice
Fragmentary OCR describes a rink scene where a narrator spots the Darling after skating. The text mentions an old lady and a demon companion, with vigilant behavior as the performance ends and skates are removed. The fragment ends abruptly with unclear details.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Norristown
Fragmented reminiscence on dance halls and skating rinks
A ragged passage recalls romantic nights of perfume promises and social ruin. It contrasts lovers and the crowd, noting escapist fantasies of rolling on gold skates with the harsher return to ordinary life on a streetcar, hungry and bruised, hoping for another outing.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Nevel
Yonga
Mike
Numbers Revealed of Foot Sizes Among Opera Stars
Philadelphia North American notes foot size quirks of famed singers and actresses. Bessie Darling wears a number two for stage feet, while Adelina Patti and Sara Jewett also notable for small sizes. Mary Anderson once injured her foot during Parthenia, leaving a scar. Clara Louise Kellogg has a high arch and graceful steps, Maude Granger wears a number two.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Philadelphia North American
Bessie Darling
Grand Opera House
Adelina Patti
Songstress
Mary Anderson
Parthenia
Sara Jewett
Why He Disliked February
In Arkansas Traveller style a man explains February feels the most disagreeable month due to its shorter length. He dislikes the sudden end of the month when others discuss practical affairs, making him nervous as the first of the month arrives. He notes leap year’s length is not the issue.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Batchelder and Dorris
Batchelder
Providence
Seth Howe
Chicago
L. B. Lent
Howe
Lent
New York
Mr. Doris
Maginley
Madison Square
George 8. Knight
Baron Rudolph
Otto
George Thatcher
Primrose
West
Matt Wheeler
Charles Ellis
Harry Kernell
Tony Pastor
The Cat Sings on the Fence in Sad Song
A Minneapolis Tribune piece describes a sad cat that sings while a boy nearby is sorrowful. The boy, armed with a toy gun, fantasizes shooting the cat to ease its song but instead shoots his father, triggering a new round of wailing and fear.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Minneapolis Tribune
Texas peccaries Fight a Rail Way Train in Fort Worth Tale
A New York Sun correspondent recalls Texas peccaries blocking a railway through woods. A locomotive, driven by a bold engineer, barrels through a struggling drove, killing many hogs while the remaining herd awaits revenge at the next stop. The piece details hunting peccaries with rifles, tree ambushes, and a cyclone terrifying the herd.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
New York Sun
Erie
South America
Mexico
Central America
Erie Line
Texas
New Orleans
A Poor Man's Enjoyment in a New York Mercury Tale
Jopie Read narrates a comic Arkansas incident where Colonel Mortimer Chillings recruits immigration via a plug hat stunt. A poor man confronts the legislator about misfortune, leading to a chain of disrepair and threats to kill, triggered by insult and social envy, ending with a dramatic yet humorous street scene.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Mortimer Chillings
Putnam County
Arkansas
Sam Hines
Sam
Kuklux
Geesenheimer
Tam
A Baby in the Block Tribulations of a Peace-Loving Sufferer
A Pittsburg Dispatch reader laments living beside a crying baby and a noisy family. The piece recalls a sleepless routine with 2:30 to 3 a.m. cries, songs, and a plan to move next week, leaving anxious anticipation for new neighbors.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Pittsburg Dispatch
Charita
Wong
Mummie
Bad Men but Good Poets
A discussion of hymn writers who were not deeply religious or whose faith was marginal. Addison, Moore, Pope cited for writing enduring hymns like The Spacious Firmament, Come ye disconsolate, and Come Thou fount. Authors were good poets whose occasional genuine devotion shaped their sacred verses.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
St. Louis
Addison
Pope
Hadrian
Ice House Pitcher Plants Save Stranded Search Party
A year ago a pair of hunters stranded near a lake found ground covered with pitcher plants filled with ice. They built a fire, melted ice in a cup, and brewed tea, calling it the best thing they ever tested.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Harper's Young People
Your
Jones
Millionaire Showmen and the Rise of Circus Bosses
Indianapolis Journal recounts how showmen rose from nothing, tracing Dan Rice, Adam Forepaugh, Barnum, W. W. Cole, and others from candy stands to immense wealth. Doris explains Reuben binds showmen, details early careers, political dreams, and the three ring evolution, plus later stars linking to today’s touring acts.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Indianapolis Journal
Old Barnum
John B. Doris
Adam Forepaugh
Les Brothers
W. W. Cole
Rene
Fakir
Euben
Reuben
Doris
Freemasonry
Odd Fellowship
Dan Rice
America
All About Comets and Their Curious Ways
A humorous, informal essay on comets describing their tails and coma, periodicity, and historical observations. The author muses on Tycho Brahe, Encke, and celestial fears, joking about taxes, funerals, and paying worries while noting comets’ delicate nature and occasional aging.
Melancholy Figures in American Humor Jokes Analysis
A Philadelphia Record feature reports an analysis of 500 jokes by American press humorists over three weeks. It catalogs themes from roller skating to gossip, noting three of five jokes are machine-made and about forty recurring themes drive two thirds of comic material. It also recounts “How Bobby's Life Was Saved” from a San Francisco Ingleside, where a boy’s disobedience with a family Bible ends in a moral applause from the minister and a simple meal.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Philadelphia
Khartoum
Yseult Dudley
Roxsu
Milkman
Plummer
Hotel Clark
Sseccesee Sessevess Hebrew Clothier
Canada
Niagara
Chicago
Boston
Evarts
Mr. Hayes
Pittsburg
Bobby
San Francisco Ingleside
Priqien
Boston brakeman savaged after Beatrice joke riot
A passenger brakeman imported from Boston on the Burlington & Missouri River line in Nebraska enraged locals by shouting Bay-treet chee at Beatrice. Crowds mobbed him, and harsh weather helped preserve his remains as he was tragically attacked on a Tre spent street.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Burdette
Brooklyn Eagle
Burlington & Missouri River
Nebraska
Boston
Beatrice
A Lover of the Law
A humorous Chicago News vignette jokes about a courtroom ruling labeled as a deadly weapon. A father and son discuss garden time and avoiding weapon possession, reflecting playful legal satire with local color.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Lchicago News
Supreme Court
No More Wolves Needed
Somerville Journal notes wolves in Iowa have been reduced by winter fasting and can be chased down by horsemen or pedestrians. Anybody wanting a dozen wolves to keep through the summer is invited to take notice, as spring stock has been laid in.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
E. P. Brown
Chicago Ledger
Milwaukee
Custom House
Bedlam
Bangs
Will
Earth
Jasper
Elysium
Chicago
Texas
Winchester
Peralty
Trantuly
Somerville Journal
Iowa
Cane Dance in Florida’s Pine Barrens Sparks Night of Fire and Fiddles
In Macnotta Florida on March 7 a cane dance drew riders and townsfolk from fifteen sights. Dancers moved to a lone fiddle as lights burned in a pine house ten miles from civilization. Caldrons of cane juice, cane syrup, and skimmings fed the revelers until daybreak.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Cracker-Land
Twilight Dancers Wander Home Through Dark Pines
In the fading light the dancers leave the party and move along winding roads between pine trees and oaks. The narrative hints that an earlier start or brighter day would have spared some from wandering the wastes stretching toward the gulf.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Gulf of Mexico
Jersey
Gulf
Bric a Brac and Quips From Distant Pages
A collage of brief humorous snippets and quotations from multiple papers. Items include satire on wings and heaven, March poems, theatrical banter, proverbs about friendship, a Dorcas Club note on charity outfits, and a Burlington Free Press quip about metempsychosis.
Dark Eyed Maiden and Other Comic Verses Found
A mixed poetic fragment features a sultry request to a dusky mistress asking why she wears another's socks. It blends risqué verse with quips from columns on social manners, a lullaby, a brash fatherly joke, and a brief dialogue about a diamond ring and parental consent.
Winds Sing Of Spring And A Grim Recipe In One Fragment
A mixed fragment shows spring verses about winds and flowers, then shifts to a morbid, instructional joke about frying a beefsteak by hanging oneself with rope and an iron staple, presented in a brusque shop dialogue style.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Maria
Also Mentioned on This Page
Wheneral Hill
Linettle
North Carolina
Corse
Strick
Kemper
Virginia
Major Williams
Fairfaxes
Fairfax
Jopie P. Read
New York Mercury
Dudle
Dudie
Ludle
Dodie
Puppa
Pupa
United States
Spaulding & Rogers
Mississippi River
Dan
Rice
Congress
Erie Periparesis
Orepaugh
Forepaugh
California
John Robinson
Girard
Penn
Tristanioe
Cincinnati
John Butcher
Crawfordsville
Ind
John O'Brien
Brien
Jerry Mable
National Treasury
P. T. Barnum
Ridgeport
Jenny Lind
Tom Thum
Monsey
Barnum
Cole
Miss Cook
Des Moines
Illinois
Michigan
Cook County
Aye
Coup
Indiana
Dan Costello
Lake Superior
Joup
Barntum
Sells Brothers
Columbus
Sells
Adam
Wisconsin
Galileo
Detroit Free Press
Tycho Brahe
Caesar
Newton
Encke
Tee
Pine
Florida
Macnotta
Fla
William McGlory
Weiss
Cincinnati Enquirer
Robert
Bloomington
Bob Ingersoll
Talmage
Puck
Chicago News
Dorcas Club
Scott R. Sherwood
Burlington Free Press
Ohio
Big Wife
Toa Dusky Maiden
Cupid
Afric
Apollo
Doe
Fc. H. Turner
Binghamton
Papa
Tootsey
Kitty
This is just the beginning! Our collection holds over 300 years of history, including rare newspapers, obituaries, marriage records, birth records, and so much more—most of which you won’t find anywhere else!