i've just read Andrew Jackson by H.W. Brands. Jackson was known for his military and Indian fighting as well as toughness. He was quick to use his cane on someone who defamed him and was in more then one duel. Nicknamed "Old Hickory" he was associated with the American frontier. The seventh president of the United States, Jackson's portrait appears on the twenty dollar bill. When he became a lawyer and entered practice of law wrote a statement of principles….
I was at Gonzaga a week ago for a class reunion. The Spokane Coeur d’ Alene Living magazine (http://www.spokanecda.com/)had an article by Joe Kamps about James Capone, eldest brother of the notorious Al Capone. In his well written article, Kamps described the life of Chicago’s Al Capone's eldest brother who spent his life in the West under an assumed name. Kamps writes that James Vincenzo Capone was born near Naples, Italy in 1892 as the eldest of the seven boys in…
Charles Slack has written a book Hetty about Hetty Green who, in the 1900's, was the world’s richest woman. At the time of her death in 1916 her personal fortune was estimated at $100 Million dollars or $1.6 Billion in today’s dollars. History has treated her as an eccentric miser, but this book gives the full picture of this amazing Massachusetts multi millionaire. Hetty’s fortune passed intact in equal shares to her daughter and son which was due to the…
While the economy began to suffer earlier, the great depression became a national reality with the stock market crash on October 29, 1929, "Black Tuesday,"and lasted until the start of World War II in 1941. During the depression in 1930 the average income was about $1,800 a year and you could buy a new Model T Ford for around $520.00. Driving was cheap. A gallon of gas cost ten cents. Houses could be bought new for under $2,000 and the average…
Doug Stanton has written a compelling book In Harm’s Way which I have just finished. It is the story of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis during the final days of World War II. It was the Indianapolis that secretly carried parts of the atom bomb to the island of Tinian. This is the island where the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress bomber that dropped "Little Boy", the first of the atomic bombs used, flew from on its way to…
The National Catholic Reporter (http://ncronline3.org/drupal/ on December 12th had an article by Margot Patterson about the Trappist Monks who are rebuilding a Spanish abbey stone by Stone in Vina, California. The unusual part of the story is that it involves the reconstruction of the Cistercian abbey which had been located near Madrid, Spain at Santa Maria de Ovila and which was purchased by William Randolph Hearst. This abbey was built between 1190 and 1210. The monks carved the stone and built the abbey in Moorish Spain….
The Seattle PI reports that Ken Burns, the documentary film maker, is planning a documentary film on Seattle bootlegger Roy Olmstead (1886 – 1966). From 1920 to 1933 the sale and distribution of alcoholic beverages was illegal in the United States under prohibition. However, Olmstead became Washington’s biggest bootleggers’s even before that time. On November 1, 1914 by a margin of 52% Washington voters passed an initiative making this state one of 23 other "dry" states which prohibited the sale…
Gavin Menzies has written a book, 1434 The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet sailed to Italy and ignited by Renaissance (Harper Collins 2008) The premise of the book is that in 1434 the Chinese sailed to Europe bringing with them knowledge of navigation, astronomy, maps of the world and knowledge unknown to Europe. The Chinese were master boat builders. In 1434 the fleet sailed from China to Cairo and Florence and then back across the world using devices they had…
The hieroglyphic words pictures painted on Egyptian ruins were a mystery for many centuries. No one could translate them. That was true until a lucky discovery in 1799 when French soldiers were digging the foundation for an addition to a fort in the Egyptian town of el-Rashid or Rosetta. The soldiers found a large stone weighing some 1,676 pounds. It had gray, blue and pink hues to it and was inscribed with writing along with hieroglyphics. Napoleon took possession of…
I recently read Peter Aleshire’s book The Fox and The Whirlwind about General George Crook and Geronimo. Geronimo was an Apache born in the modern day state of Arizona. George Crook was an U.S. Army General who, in 1875, was given responsibility of an area that stretched from Missouri to the western shore of the Great Salt Lake. It included Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah and apart of Idaho. His area of responsibility was expanded as he was given the job of putting a…
