All But a Heroine in Nashville Spy Escape Tale
A Confederate spy infiltrates Nashville under a farmer disguise and dodges capture by a widow aiding Union efforts. She confronts him with a revolver but faints, allowing the spy to slip away and discard the weapon as he finds a safe shelter and new disguise.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Detroit Free Press
Schofield
Nashville
Franklin
Hood
Grant
Thomas
General Hood
Bilin
Marm
John Svetson
Somever
No Paint Left to Decorate the Cow
Major Sidney Herbert currently in Maine recovers from illness. He once bought a cottage near Atlanta and spent days painting lattice porches fences and outbuildings with green paint until it ran out, joking he would have painted the town and calf if more paint remained.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Atlanta Constitution
Sidney Herbert
Maine
Atlanta
Poaer
Experimental Farm Tale From Georgia History
A fragment recalls Georgia’s abandoned experimental farm project. The narrative notes a commissioner of agriculture establishing a small test site with 2x2 boxes at the department and atop the Capitol boiler room collecting dirt from various places, planting seeds, and using fertilizer, but ends before a clear outcome.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Atlanta Constitution
Georgia
Commissioner of Agriculture
Capitol
Putin
Georgia Experimental Stations Suffer Heatset Backlash
A cold snap forced tightened collars at the capital and a boiler room heatup baked the infant experimental station overhead. The incident gave Georgia experimental stations a lasting black eye from which they have not yet recovered.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Capitol
Experimenta
Georgia
Witness Relies on Dog Story to Name Prisoner in Court
A combative witness flounders over recognizing the prisoner Bill Gimps. He swears he knows him well, even claiming a dog given years ago links them, while the judge orders focus, threatening contempt for delay.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Joe En
Sven
Bill Gimps
Jack
Wells
Boon Island
John
Train sparks Oregon salmon industry with lecture misfit tale
An Oregonian recalls George Francis Train turning a Portland lecture into a salmon canning prophecy. His improvised talk on salmon agriculture led locals to form a company, beginning Oregon's now vast canning trade, while Train gained a reputation for forecast but remained a curio.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
George Francis Train
Oregon
Chicago Tribune
Train
Portland
Omaha
Mark Twain the literary Midas of the United States
A Cleveland Leader profile portrays Mark Twain as a steady riches maker whose profits from readings and memoirs reach tens of thousands yearly. It notes his age, Hartford home, and a famed billiards habit as he remains calm and calculating in business and public life.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
T Carp
Cleveland Leader
Mark Twain
Midas
United States
Twain
Rk Twain
Washington
Hartford
Conn
L'Wain
Fishermen Speak of Dogfish Plague Hitting Maine Waters
Wells, Maine fishermen report dogfish swarms wrecking sails and lines, and devouring catches. They describe enormous, aggressive sharks tearing gear, laboring through long baiting and hauling, with lines of thousands of hooks and vast quantities of fish turned to fertilizer.
Evarts Missed By Mrs Donkey
A whimsical tale from Windsor Vermont recalls Senator W. M. Evarts of New York sending a donkey to his farm and receiving a grandchild’s letter noting the gentle creature’s nightly noise and longing for the senator, with plans for a visit.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Evarts
Donkey
W. M. Evarts
New York
Windsor
Deak Grandpa
Minxik
Hand Organs and Their Travelers
In a Chatham Square workshop a hand organ maker recalls twenty five years in the trade. He notes erratic demand, high weight burdens on carriers, popular tunes, and a remarkable self-made traveler who walked to California with his organ. Prices range from 50 to 250 dollars for new and second hand instruments, with sideshow models and automatic figure organs listed.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Chatham Square
Harrigan
Tom
California
Rocky Mountains
Romance of a Rose and the Grant rose legend
In Jefferson county Florida a remarkable rose named the Grant rose grows. its pink dew and blood colored petals mystify observers. The tale centers on John Grant and Nellie Lowry who married in 1834 and settled near the Ancilla river. in 1835 Seminole conflicts erupt, Grant is killed, Nellie and child perish, and the rose reportedly arises from the original site years later, linking tragedy to the plant's history.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Atlanta Constitution
Jefferson County
Florida
Grant
John Grant
Nellie Lowry
John
Nellie
Leasant
Young Corve
Ancilla
Osceola
Charley Omathla
Omathla
Cmes
Trials of a Schoolmistress and a Peach Puzzle
Philadelphia readers hear a classroom riddle in which a teacher asks about three peaches on a table and a sister who eats one. Johnny offers humorous refusals as the dialog explores the arithmetic and the imagined scenario.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Philadelphia News
Johnny
Teacher
Liseuapod
John
Within an Area Five Miles The Rose Still Found
The passage notes that within five miles from the doleful pagedy the rose persists with strong stock pale green leaves and in-curved crimson petals and its bloody dew despite widespread failure of success.
Heroic Pig Rescued From Narrow Cell in South B Street
A ninety pound pig wedged between two houses on South B street kept squealing for hours as firemen and residents attempted to free it. After failed hoists and rope traps a stranger pulled a beam and wrenching the animal free, the pig escaped into the street in search of food.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Boston
South B Street
Tom Clarke
Ord
Corporation House
Chief Pennison
Fire Department
Pete Fitzgerald
Bill Flaherty
Chronicle
C. Hampton
Joseph Douglas
Sam Jones
Bimeel
Jake Steffan
Drake Dream of Fire in a Blizzard Tale
A nostalgic Blizard column recounts Edwin Drake's boyhood dream of setting a field ablaze and his mother’s remark that he had “set the world on fire.” Decades later oil tanks burned, echoing the vision, as a geography gag from a legislative scene adds rural humor to the piece.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
E. L. Drake
Mr. Drake
Edwin
Chicago Ledger
Calabash
Blossom County
North
South
East
West
Hayseed
San Joaquin Mystery Fearful Dead Trail of Peg Leg Negly
Captain John A. Gwynn of Merced recalls the San Joaquin mystery and the Peg Leg Negly murder saga. A shootout hunt for Chinamen, a desert trek to Sacramento, a mass odyssey of miners, and a later confession reveal a double murder by Whiskey Pete and an accomplice.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
John A. Gwynn
Merced
Cal
Aga
Maxwell
San Joaquin
Sutterville
Negly
Peg-Leg Negly
Frisco
Bay
Sacramento
Peg-Log
State Agricultural Society
Peg-Leg
Roening
Peg-Leg Negl
Oregon
Old Merced
Cap'n
John
Cap’n John
Whiskey Pete
Pye Rees
North Mountain Gulches
Second Childhood Tales From Siftings Nigeria?
An elderly colored woman Malvina seeks work as a nurse in Mrs. Yerger’s home. She claims decades of experience caring for children, insisting the infant’s parents once praised her, and asserts she could care for a child for twenty years.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
USA
Wells
York
Boon Island
John
Nellie
Texas
Malvina
Jess
Camp meeting speaker prompts interruptions during address
The Pittsburg Commercial reports a camp meeting orator urging care in speech. After a pause caused by late arrivals, he repeats the phrase in the second place as a boy cries out, and references the Alleghenies and Cincinnati in an unclear exchange.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Pittsburg
Alleghenies Ft. JB
Cincinnati
Witling and Gibe Across Verse and Prose in Washington
A collage of humor and satire from a 19th century newspaper, featuring a Washington physician’s boastful defense in Judge Mackey’s office, a quip about dead men telling no tales, a boy’s cigar mishap described with comic whimsy, dialect skits, a river of puns, and verses on love, misers, and adulteration of food.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Washington Hatchet
Washington
Judge Mackey
eNom
Prepared for School in Paris Morning News
A Street scene at Drury Lane shows glass hand grenades used as water bottles for fainting ladies. An attendant corrects them, joking that the bottles are fire extinguishers and will put out any fire big or small.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Paris Morning News
Drury Lane
September ballads of autumn and politics at the shore
A playful verse sketches September’s arrival with autumnal images the duck and nest a coal price note and crowds of strikers politics and beer. The seaside hotelier watches the hungry shark while a poet in a saloon croons about September's approach and the nation's mood.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Bowery
Diary romance ends in bank withdrawal
In Detroit a woman asks to draw ten dollars from a savina bank window. A cashier audits the pocket diary and, after a brief moment, returns the book. She rushes to the door and never returns, leaving a July entry about a rejected proposal.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Detroit Free Press
Freai
Also Mentioned on This Page
iChicago Ledeer
New York Times
Georges
Eagin
Massachusetts
New York Mail and Express
Florida Glades
Virginia Chronicle
Drake
Pag-Leg Negly
St. Louis
San Francisco News-Letter
Webster
Temple Bar
Philadelphia Times
Walnut Street
She
Love
Tate
Robert J. Burdette
Newark
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!