 Civil War and Reconstruction: 1855-1890 ROBBED. Train heading West, 1873, by Jesse James and a gang of men. James and his cohorts loosened a piece of track and tied a rope to it. When they heard the train coming, they yanked on the rope, pulling apart the track. The hit the empty space and flew off the track, crashing on its side and killing the conductor. James and his men held up the passengers and disappeared into the hills on horseback. Will they strike again? INVENTED. Wire fencing called "barbed wire" by DeKalb, Illinois farmer, Joseph F. Glidden. The new homesteaders don't have enough stones or wood to make adequate fencing for their many-acre homes. Thinking his barbed wire will revolutionize fencing, Glidden plans to start manufacturing it in 1874. SIGNED UP. Sharpshooter ANNIE OAKLEY to Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in 1885. Some report that she's "quick on the trigger with targets not much bigger than a pinpoint on a number one." KILLED. William H. Bonney, also known as BILLY THE KID, 1881, by his one-time friend Sheriff Pat Garrett. Just 21-years-old, it's believed this young man killed about 21 people — the first of which he murdered when he was just 12-years-old. RELEASED. A group of tourists in the new Yellowstone National Park, 1877, by the fleeing Nez Perce Indians. The sightseeing group was captured by the Nez Perce as the Indians trekked toward the freedom of Canada led by Chief Joseph. The U.S. Army is in hot pursuit. Early reports indicate — that thanks to Joseph — the tourists were treated well and with respect. Acre Takers: The Oklahoma Land Rush Hamilton S. Wicks was one of 50,000 people waiting along the Oklahoma Border on April 22, 1889. The would-be landowners were waiting for the signal of bugles and gun blasts that would let them rush in and claim land newly opened for settlement by the US government. Not many cared that the land had previous owners — known as the Indians. Here's what Wicks wrote about that day: "Suddenly the air was pierced with the blast of a bugle. Hundreds of throats echoed the sound with shouts of exultation. The quivering limbs of saddled steeds, no longer restrained by the hands that held their bridles, bounded forward simultaneously in the ‘beautiful land' of Oklahoma; and wagons and carriages and buggies and prairie schooners and a whole congregation of curious equipages joined in this unparalleled race, where every starter is bound to win a prize–the ‘Realization States' of home and prosperity....Away dashed the thoroughbreds, the broncos, the pintos, and the mustangs at a breakneck pace across the uneven surface of the prairie. It was amazing to witness the recklessness of those cowboy riders. They jumped obstacles, they leaped ditches; they cantered with no diminution of speed through water pools; and when they came to a ravine too wide to leap, down they would go with a rush and up the other side with a spurt of energy, to scurry once more like mad over the level plain.... The race was not over when you reached the particular lot you were content to select for your possession. The contest still was who should drive their stakes first, who would erect their little tents soonest, and then, who would quickest build a wooden shanty." Word Play BOOMERS. The Oklahoma settlers who waited for the boom of the guns to rush in and claim land. SOONERS. Settlers who sneaked in the night before — sooner than allowed — to stake their claims to land. Verbatim "If I had another face, do you think I'd wear this one?" "She stuns me with her low-necked dresses and the flower beds which she carries on top of her head." Spy vs. Spy ROSE GREENHOW
BELLE BOYD
A Day of Mourning Washington seamstress Elizabeth Keckley received an invitation to the White House just hours after President Lincoln died. Born a slave, Keckley was one of Mrs. Lincoln's good friends and visited the White House almost daily. Here's what Keckley writes about her visit that horrible day: "When [Mrs. Lincoln] became a little quiet, I asked and received permission to go into the Guests' Room, where the body of the President lay in state. When I crossed the threshold of the room, I could not help recalling the day on which I had seen little Willie lying in his coffin where the body of his father now lay. I remembered how the President had wept over the pale beautiful face of his gifted boy and now the President himself was dead. The last time I saw him he spoke kindly to me, but alas! The lips would never move again. The light had faded from his eyes, and when the light went out the soul went with it! What a noble soul was his–noble in all the noble attributes of God. Never did I enter the solemn chamber of death with such palpitating heart and trembling footsteps as I entered it that day. No common mortal had died. The Moses of my people had fallen in his hour of triumph...When I entered the room, the members of the Cabinet and many distinguishing people were grouped around the body of their fallen chief. They made room for me, and approaching the body, I lifted the white cloth from the white face of the man I had worshipped as an idol...There lurked the sweetness and gentleness of childhood, and the stately grandeur of godlike intellect. I gazed long at the face and turned away with tears in my eyes and a choking sensation in my throat. Ah! never was a man so widely mourned before. The whole world bowed their heads in grief when Abraham Lincoln died." |