Halloween Art

The witch is astride this night for a ride,
Old Satan and she together;
Now out and now in,
Thru thick and thru thin,
No matter what be the weather.

— Robt. Herrick

The Herald – Junior Section (Los Angeles, California) Oct 31, 1909

Pioneers Frightening the Indians With Hallowe’en Tricks

— Hazel Cox

The Herald – Junior Section (Los Angeles, California) Oct 31, 1909

In the Houses of Rich and Poor Alike, Its Joyful Customs will be Observed

The Herald (Los Angeles, California) Oct 31, 1897

Halloween

— Helen Knecht

Los Angeles Herald (Los Angeles, California) Oct 30, 1910

National Read-A-Book Day

Image from Flavorwire

It’s National Read-A-Book Day

Click Orlando: 20(things to  know about) Books Everyone Should Read

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Check out what folks were reading back in the day – New Books at the Library:

Lima News (Lima,Ohio) May 22, 1954

Council Bluffs Nonpareil (Council Bluffs, Iowa) Jul 25, 1953

Bismarck Tribune (Bismarck, North Dakota) Jan 17, 1944

Sheboygan Press (Sheboygan, Wisconsin) Mar 30, 1929

Edwardsville Intelligencer (Edwardsville, Illinois) Nov 30, 1921

Nebraska State Journal (Lincoln, Nebraska) Oct 20, 1909

North Adams Transcript (North Adams, Massachusetts) Jul 30, 1895

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From the Dracut Library Blog:

WHY SHOULD YOU READ??

People learn to read by reading. Skill building is important, but without practice putting all the skills together, learning is slowed down. Quantity and intensity matter.

Frequent practice reading for longer periods of time pays off in fluency and ability to use skills automatically.

Increasing competence is motivating and increased motivation leads to more reading. When students can see their own progress, they want to read more.

Pleasure reading has cognitive benefits. It improves skill and strategy use, builds fluency, enlarges vocabulary, and builds a student’s knowledge of the world.

Children learn by example. Set aside 5 minutes of time where both you and your child read. Make it an important aspect of your day. As your child gets older, just doing the same activity can be a bonding experience – reinforcing the value of education. Whether it’s a magazine, newspaper, eReader or iPad, the important thing is Just do It!

The Most Beautiful Suffragette

Miss Inez Milholland, whose picture is here shown is the daughter of J.E. Milholland, the millionaire pneumatic tube system man. She is now in the Junior class in Vassar and announces her intention of becoming a truant officer so that she may pursue the work of reforming bad boys. Miss Milholland is an athlete of note in the college games, and has had great success in reclaiming bad boys.

Coshocton Daily Times (Coshocton, Ohio) Feb 25, 1908

AWAKENED BY YANKEE GIRL

Miss Inez Milholland, Who Wants to Vote, Roused Oxford and Cambridge.

After trying with vigor, but in vain, to  convince the authorities of Oxford and Cambridge universities in England that she should be permitted to study law at one of the two venerable institutions Miss Inez Milholland of New York sailed for America to try her persuasive powers at Harvard.

Miss Milholland has won fame as a young leader of the suffragists. She was recently graduated from Vassar, where she conducted a vigorous campaign in favor of women’s votes.

She is the daughter of John E. Milholland of New York and London, and a background of wealth has not lessened her charm. Her bronze hair, large blue eyes and well modeled features make her a classic type.

At Vassar Miss Milholland kept President Taylor on the rack, inciting miniature equal rights resolutions among the students. When the suffragists of the state journeyed to the capitol at Albany for their annual hearing on woman and the vote the president peremptorily forbade Miss Milholland to accompany them, fearing her presence would accentuate the rumor that the college was a center of the woman’s rights campaign.

Aside from her political tendencies, Miss Milholland made no mean record at Vassar. Her scholarship put her well in the fore, and her athletic prowess was the boast of her associates. As captain of the hockey team she led her players to a victory that captured the interclass championship. She was conspicuous on field day and champion in putting the eight pound shot.

Coshocton Daily Times (Coshocton, Ohio) Oct 9, 1909

There was as much excitement in suffragette headquarters Thursday as if the New York legislature were about to grant women the right to vote. It was not joyful excitement, however, because the rumor spread that Inez Milholland, vivacious, bronze-haired, and clever suffragette, was engaged to be married to Sydney Smith. In other words, the rumor had it that Miss Milholland and Mr. Smith, both warm friends of Mrs. O.H.P. Belmont, had formed a friendship under the guiding influence of Mrs. Belmont, and that perhaps the energy and enthusiasm of the most picturesque suffragette would be lost.

There was a jingle of telephone bells as suffragettes hunted for Miss Milholland. There was suppressed grief and an occasional sob over the thought the young woman might give up law, forsake the cause of woman suffrage, and become an ordinary housewife or a society matron. Miss Milholland was not in the Hotel Manhattan. She was in the New York University Law School, digging out cases and hunting for points that would prove the right of women to vote. At least her mother thought so.

Mrs. John E. Milholland was likewise frantic over the rumor of the reported engagement.

“No, it was not true. It could not be true,” she said.

But the fearful mother quickly put in a hurry telephone call for the university. Miss Milholland was found finally in the law library poring over a musty tome and racing to get our her lesson, as she was planning a suffragette meeting for the young men of the law school in the evening. When the young woman was reached she listened calmly as her mother recited the details of the alleged engagement.

“What does all this mean?” asked the excited mother.

“Nothing, mama,” answered the modern Portia. “Mother, don’t you know I am too busy to think of such things? I have my law, the cause, and, what’s more, I have a woman’s suffrage meeting right here in the university tonight and I haven’t time to discuss such things.”

Miss Milholland, who is a daughter of John E. Milholland, one time politician and now a millionaire promoter, with headquarters in London, is an alumna of Vassar. She stood near the head of her class, was a star debater in college, and always an advocate of woman suffrage. She kept things lively in college with her organizations and her fights for her rights. She passes much of her time in England, where she is regarded as the most beautiful suffragette. Her advocacy of woman suffrage, her skill and eloquence as a speaker, won her the admiration of Mrs. Belmont, and the two have become almost inseparable.

The Washington Post (Washington, D.C.) Dec 10, 1910

Image from Everyday Dutch Oven

SUFFRAGETTES AND THE HENS

The suffragettes who have been marching on Washington already had their troubles. I understand that when they left one place the hens quit the coops and started to follow them. And a rooster flew in front of a speckled hen and asked her for heaven’s sake to go back, and she crowed in his face.

I recollect hearing about a suffragette who was making a speech. She said: “I pant for the right to vote. I pant for the right to exercise my political rights.” And some one in the audience spoke up and said: “Lady, you pant for a pair of pants.” — Representative Heflin, on the floor of the House.

The Washington Post (Washington, D.C.) Mar 2, 1913

Miss Inez Milholland.

NEW YORK, March 21. — Miss Inez Milholland, known as the most beautiful suffragette in New York, who has just been admitted to the New York bar, is working on her first case as associate counsel to James W. Osborne, defending Gee Doy Young, a Chinatown gunman, who is charged with having started the last Tong war that resulted in five killings.

New Castle News (New Castle, Pennsylvania) Mar 21, 1913

The Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, Indiana) Mar 15, 1913

Miss Inez Milholland, the handsome New York suffragette, was married in the Kensington registry office, London, to Eugene Boissevain, a wealthy Dutchman of Amsterdam. The bridegroom, who is 33 years old, is engaged in the wireless business and was introduced to Miss Milholland in New York a few weeks ago by Signor Meroni. His father, Charles Boissevain, of Amsterdam, is the owner of rich plantations in Java. He is also the principal owner of the foremost newspaper in Amsterdam. The couple will spend their honeymoon in a cruise on the North sea and will sail for New York in August. Miss Milholland was graduated from Vassar in 1909, and while there she kept the faculty on pins and needles with her advanced views on feminism and socialism. It was she who started the suffrage movement in Vassar, enrolling two-thirds of the students in the cause and then proceeding to teach them the meaning of socialism. She held a record for throwing the basketball. The bride will continue her law practice when she returns to New York.

The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) Jul 21, 1913

Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) Apr 05, 1914

Inez Milholland Admits Proposing

NEW YORK, Nov. 27. — Inez Milholland Boissevain, lawyer and suffragist, advocated yesterday that women should have the right to propose. She said:

“Certainly women should have the right to propose — I did it myself.”

Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) Nov 27, 1915

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 27. — Mrs. Inez Milholland Boissevain, widely-known suffragist and welfare worker, died in a hospital here shortly before midnight Saturday night after an illness of 10 weeks. She was 30 years old.

Mrs. Boissevain was stricken suddenly while addressing the recent political campaign and fainted on the platform at the meeting. She was removed to a hospital and her husband and parents rushed from New York to join her here. Miss Vida Milholland, her sister, was with her when she was stricken and has been in constant attendance since that time.

Inez Milholland Boissevain had been for many years well known for her activity as a woman suffragist, a social welfare worker, an advocate of socialism and as a practising lawyer.

During the 1908 Presidential campaign she won new fame as “the girl who broke up the Taft parade.”

Following her graduation from Vassar College, she attempted to enter Harvard Law School, but this permission was denied her on the ground that it was not a co-educational institution. Miss Milholland finally received her degree in law at the New York University Law School in 1912, and during this time she was active as a suffrage worker and speaker and organizer of woman’s parades, being featured in them both in New York, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere as “the most beautiful suffragette.”

In July, 1913, she married by a civil ceremony in London, Eugene Boissevain, a wealthy Hollander. In 1916 she went as a delegate on the Ford Pence Ship, but left the party at Stockholm, because, as she said in a statement, “the undemocratic methods employed by the managers are repugnant to my principles.” Mrs. Boissevain was born in New York, August 6, 1886, receiving her early education in New York, London and Berlin.

The Daily Courier (Connellsville, Pennsylvania) Nov 27, 1916

Strain of Campaign … Caused Her Death.
[Excerpts]

Mrs. Boissevain’s illness was diagnosed as aplastic anemia and blood transfusion was resorted to in attempts to improve her condition. Miss Vida Milholland twice gave blood for this purpose and on four other occasions friends submitted to the ordeal in hope that benefit would result. After each transfusion temporary improvement was followed by relapse….

It was stated that Mrs. Boissevain’s trouble originated in her tonsils, which became inflamed as the result of too constant speaking during the campaign. She had been weakened by overexertion and when she became ill her system failed to resist the advance of the disease….

As a student at Vassar college, 1905-9, although known as the college beauty and possessed of wealth and position, she shunned society as such and shocked the more conservative college opinion by her radical social views….

Later the same year [1915] she went to Italy as a war correspondent and was forced to leave Italy by the authorities there because of her pacifist writings….

She was a member of the Political Equality League, Women’s Political Union, national child labor committee, Woman’s Social and Political Union of England and the Fabian Society, England.

The Newark Advocate (Newark, Ohio) Nov 27, 1916

BEAUTIFUL SUFFRAGIST LEADER TO BE BURIED IN ADIRONDACKS
[Excerpts]

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 27. — Preparations were being made today to take the body of Mrs. Inez Milholland Boissevain, who died here Saturday night, to New York City for funeral services and thence to Meadowmount, in the Adirondacks, the old family home of the Milhollands, where the burial will take place….

Aside from her college activities, she worked among the poor children in the city of Poughkeepsie, and had herself appointed probation officer. During her first college vacation she visited London and there joined the Pankhurst suffragettes, making several speeches and being once arrested….

Following her graduation from Vassar College, she attempted to enter Harvard Law School, but his permission was denied her on the ground that it was not a coeducational institution.  The incident gave rise to a heated newspaper controversy in which Inez Milholland and other prominent feminists took part. She also became active about this time in the working girls’ cause, taking part in the shirt waist makers’ strike. In the clash of the strikers with the police she was arrested and locked up, but after a controversy of several weeks the charge against her of leading an unlawful assembly was finally dropped….

She began the practice of law in 1912 as a clerk in the offices of James W. Osborne, her first case being the defense of “Red Phil” Davidson, charged with murder of “Big Jack” Zelig. Her next case was the defense of Gee Doy Yung, accused of murder in a Chinatown tong war, and she was successful in obtaining his acquittal….

Reno Evening Gazette (Reno, Nevada) Nov 27, 1916

Sheboygan Press (Sheboygan, Wisconsin) Dec 30, 1916

Her mother was Jean (Torrey) Milholland: Talks About Women

Her father, John E. Milholland: Racist Issue Hits Feminist Party

Spring’s Offering

The Dawn of Spring

By OLIVER RUTTER

There’s a swish, there’s a whirr —
A bright flashing of wings!
There’s a sweet woodland myrrh,
That caressingly clings,
and the oriole signals love’s tenderest call,
Delightfully increasing Spring’s charm over all.

Now down where rushes grow,
Thrilling blackbirds are heard;
And soft, while the winds blow,
An overture is allured,
Till our troubles vanish, when the song sparrow sings,
As we gather violets like the blue-bird’s wings.

In the morning or noon,
Where the bushes swing low,
Pretty pictures are strewn
On the brook’s mirrored flow,
If, dreamily, we wander in love’s tender plight,
Through the thorn-bushes blossoming, of pink and white.

Over here, over there,
The rivalry is keen,
Though the bidding seems fair,
There is beauty unseen.
Low ‘neath the brambles, near the sweet smelling sod,
Are beauties we may liken to the smile of God.

Far away, far away,
Through a dim, purpled haze,
Taunting clouds are at play,
With the sun’s warming rays,
Ah! what seems as pleasant as the years that are gone,
When the charms of Springtime we are gazing upon?

Life is dear, life is queer,
Life is stubbornly wrong;
Life is sere, life is drear,
When it might be a song!
Ah! who paints the flowers, and the beautiful skies?
Who causes the dead, in new glory to rise?

Morning Herald (Uniontown, Pennsylvania) Feb 28, 1936

Old Sol the Magician.

When April’s tears turn into snow
And nip spring in the bud,
Old Sol is anything but slow,
And soon its name is mud.

New Castle News (New Castle, Pennsylvania) Apr 3, 1912

Springs’s Offering.

We sweetly sing
The new laid egg.
Your fond attention
We would beg
As in a lay
Of praise we greet
The finest thing
On earth to eat.

Behold the modest
Little hen
That’s getting in
Its work again,
And making up
For what we lost
In days of laziness
And frost.

The days when all
There was on hand
Was the suspicious
Storage brand,
That, in responding
To our call,
Came scrambled if they came at all.

Now, wholesome, fresh
And at our taste,
We have them on
The table placed.
The number that
We eat unnamed,
So many, though
We are ashamed.

— Duncan M. Smith.

New Castle News (New Castle, Pennsylvania) Apr 6, 1909

It’s Curious!

It’s curious kind o’ weather when you come to make it out;
One minute winds is blowin’ all the blossoms roundabout,
An’ sunshine’s jes’ a-streamin’ from the blue and bendin’ skies,
An’ dreamin’ — jes’ a-dreamin’, like the light in woman’s eyes!

But jes’ when all is lovely, an’ the wind with music floats;
When the birds is makin’ merry an’ a-strainin’ of their throats;
An’ the sunshine’s like a picnic in the blossmes, pink an’ white,
A cyclone strikes the country an’ jes’ swallers all in sight!

It’s curious kind o’ weather — jes’ the worst you ever felt;
You don’t half git through freezin’ ‘fore the orler comes to melt!
An’ you can’t quite say it’s winter, an’ you ain’t half sure it’s spring;
So’ keep on with the whistlin’ an’ thank God for everything!

The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) May 13, 1893

Spring Fever.

The time of year
Again is here
When wifey aims to make home neater,
And hubby knows,
When home he goes,
He’ll have to wield the carpet-beater.
With leaden feet

Along the street
He plods his way, sad-hearted, weary.
Well he doth know
That tale of woe
With wife’s n. g. — of such she’s leary.
Useless for him

A yarn to spin,
Pretending illness — can’t deceive her.
To him she’ll say,
In heartless way,
“Come off — it’s nothing but spring fever.”

New Castle News (New Castle, Pennsylvania) Mar 13, 1908

No Doubt About It Now.

Sunshine on the river —
Bird songs in the air!
Green leaves all a-quiver —
(Spring is mighty near!)

Reckless roses springing —
Brown bees here and there;
Lazy plowboy singing —
(Spring is mighty near!)

Easy to detect her —
Stormy skies or clear;
Easter bill collector —
(Certain spring is near!)

The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) May 9, 1895

The Spring Affliction.

Oh, that blessed tired feeling
Which about the first of May
O’er the soul of man comes stealing
Like a burglar in a play,
Making him so fine and laze,
Kin almost to pure delight,
Calling up a vision hazy
Of a lake where fishes bite.

Winter with its weather bracing
Gave him energy and vim,
But spring has no trouble chasing
All those notions out of him.
When the birds begin to twitter,
Then in chaste and classic slang
He desires to be a quitter
And to let the work go hang.

He has tugged away like fury,
Buckled to it every day.
Now he things the judge and jury
Would prescribe a spell of play,
Would encourage him in slipping
From the busy haunts of men
And across the fields go tripping
Feeling almost young again.

Trading off the tired feeling
For the springy step of youth,
Finding nature’s gentle healing
More than advertised in truth,
Giving him an added vigor,
Keyed just right, not overdone,
Like the delicate hair trigger
On a forty dollar gun.

— Duncan M. Smith

New Castle News (New Castle, Pennsylvania) May 15, 1914

SPORT

The merry waves dance up and down and play,
Sport is granted to the sea;
Birds are the quiristers of the empty air,
Sport is never wanting there;
The ground doth smile at the spring’s flowery birth.
Sport is granted to the earth;
The fire its cheering flame on high doth rear,
Sport is never wanting there.
If all the elements, the earth, the sea,
Air, and firs, so merry be,
Why is man’s mirth so seldom and so small,
Who is compounded of them all?

— Abraham Cowley

The Oshkosh Northwestern (Oshkosh, Wisconsin) Mar 27, 1936

SPRINGTIME

One cloud a hue of lazylite
Flanked by spray of misty white
Gave way to sublimate of gray
A storm cloud hovered on the way.

Springtime, blythe and very gay,
Her banner throws athwart the sky
That she will not her claim deny
Cold winter must vacate and fly.

— M.W. Beebe, Black Wolf Point.

The Oshkosh Northwestern (Oshkosh, Wisconsin) Apr 1, 1938

Let Them Come Here and Dig Up My Garden

WOMAN DEFIES HEALTH BOARD

Mrs. Selden S. Wright Moves Into Home on Cliff and Issues Proclamation

With her fighting southern blood thoroughly aroused Mrs. Selden S. Wright, widow of the late Superior Judge Wright, president of the Albert Sidney Johnston chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy, and mother of Attorneys George T. and S.S. Wright, is defying the board of health, which attempted to restrain her from moving into her beautiful new residence on Russian Hill by determinedly taking up her home in the dwelling and inviting the shaking health board to dispossess her.

And the board has neglected to pick up the gage of defiance hurled at them from the cliff upon which the house perches. The members are trying to forget all about it.

No Heed for Notice

A notice was boldly served on Mrs. Wright January 30 by the health department at her home 910 Lombard street, telling her that her house had been built on sand or something approaching that sort of soil, and that she could not move into the new dwelling until she had, in accordance with the provisions of an act of the supervisors, cemented over the ground upon which the house stands.

Mrs. Wright answered this notice by promptly moving into the forbidden residence, and then, safely ensconsed there, she turned to the health inspectors, who by its maneuver were placed on the outside looking in, and pointed out that there was a clause in the city ordinance which allows a house to be constructed on a solid rock foundation without the necessity of putting down the cement.

Invites Board to Dig

“And if the board of health does not believe that this house is built on solid rock,” Mrs. Wright said yesterday in a decided way, “then let them come here and dig up my garden for me. I must have that done, anyhow. Why, in placing the foundation for this house the workmen were compelled to use drills and sledge hammers to worry out a trench for the bricks to lie in. and in planting our garden we were compelled to have earth brought up and strewn over the bare rocks. This house is built on rock, and according to the saying in regard to such houses, is going to stand firmly. So am I.”

Willis Polk, who designed the dwelling, may be called into the discussion before it finally is settled, and already he has signified that he stands with Mrs. Wright, whatever occurs.

The San Francisco Call (San Francisco, California) Feb 11, 1909

Charming Oakland

CHARMING OAKLAND.

If you’re weary of a region
Where the blinding blizzards blow,
And are looking for a refuge
From the chilling frosts and snow,
If you’re tired of deadly cyclones,
Tired of lightning’s lurid glare,
Hurricanes and wild tornadoes,
Dealing death and dire despair,

If you seek a home where songbirds
Sing sweet carols all the day,
Where the climbing roses blossom
In December and in May —
Seek a home where balmy breezes
Gently blow, and skies are clear,
Where the springtime verdure fades not
All throughout the livelong year,

Where the silvery waves of ocean
Gently kiss the golden sands,
And where kindly heaven dispenses
Choicest gifts with lavish hands?
Words must fail, and fancy falters,
Vain are efforts to convey
Thoughts that far transcend description,
Scenes no language can portray.

Come to sunny California,
Come at once — make no delay.
Build your homes in charming Oakland,
Gem of San Francisco bay.
When you’re come you’ll join with Sheba’s
Far-famed royal queen of old
And proclaim in words of rapture
That the half has not been told.

— J.W. DUTTON.

Oakland Tribune (Oakland, Califorina) May 1, 1907

Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) Apr 18, 1907

OAKLAND GOOD ENOUGH.

EDITOR TRIBUNE: I have read with interest many of the arguments for and against the changing of the name of Oakland, and many of them carried weight, but the “againsts” more when I listened to this one advanced by W.C. Moody of the State Savings Bank of your city:

“If we had spent,” said he, “twenty million dollars in advertising the name of Oakland we could not then have accomplished what has been accomplished by the free advertising we have received as a result of the fire and earthquake. Fancy spending twenty million to advertise a name and then changing it.

“The people of the world know that it was Oakland that saved the day. Most of them do not know that beautiful Berkeley is on the map.”

Don’t you think this a good one?

Add this to the “againsts” and convince others as I was convinced.

A FORMER RESIDENT.

Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) Apr 25, 1907

Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) May 1, 1907

OBJECTS TO RENAMING THE CITY.

EDITOR TRIBUNE: I read with much interest the view of the “Former Oaklander” in regard to keeping the name of Oakland as it is. I heartily approve of retaining it.

When those busy banqueters in the town to our north emerged from the hall with rosy beaks from the over-indulgence in cork-popping, smoke and torrid atmosphere they firmly believed that annexation of their southern suburb would be accomplished and their stock would soar like some Tonopah stock. Nay, nay, Berkeley! Nip it while in its infancy.

My estimate of the weight of reasons pro and con are as follows:

Alameda — On the fence with a hankering for Alameda for head and front as a name.

Berkeley — Sober citizens for Berkeley and Oakland as second choice; banqueters of Berkeley, blind pig patrons, pinheads, crack brained politicians afraid of missing a political plum, the kind which Francis J. Heney is using to stuff San Quentin, and lastly those Berkeleyans who will be haunted in their padded cell to their last faint breath with “name it Berkeley.”

Emeryville — Any old name so long as we can have our race track and saloons with no keys to their doors.

Fruitvale — Would like to annex, but shy at the thought of politics which would go with it.

Piedmont — Assure the politically ambitious that they can have a plum now and then or a bit of pie and they will say, “Annex by all means.”

Oakland — Retain the name of Oakland because you will find in the records at Washington and Sacramento the name in connection with important matters — past, present and for the future — which are yet to be solved. Other reasons are many and equally weighty.

Yours truly, AN OAKLAND CITIZEN.

Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) May 2, 1907

Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) Apr 19, 1907

A NEW COMBINATION IN NAMES.

EDITOR TRIBUNE” The discussion as to the name of our rejuvenated city is entertaining, and as a matter of pure sentiment may in time lead to something beneficial. May I venture to suggest, in behalf of the self-constituted Committee on a Name, that the possibilities of acceptable nomenclature are not yet exhausted, and to recommend the consideration of such designations as Al-ber-oak, which is made up of the first (and therefore the most worthy) syllables of the names of the three towns which it is sought to combine (or embroil) together? If it becomes a matter of doing honor to the most deserving we can give the muse still freer play. To render immortal the names at once of him whom we revere as the father of his city, and of him to whom our town owes doubtless more than to any one else of its past or present inhabitants, I suggest the name of Motthaven — a designation not new among American towns, but none the less fitting for all all that.

While we are about it and in the mood for poetical invention, why not combine the names of some of our foremost citizens, all of whom are hungry, no doubt, for fame that costs nothing. Let us bestow, without further discussion, the title Rick-mott-ford upon the new triple city. Nothing could be more harmonious, naught more appropriate. This felicitous cognomen is quite the thing, embracing, as it does, the essential part of the names of the mayors (or perhaps the ex-mayors) of the three places, namely, Mr. Rickard of Berkeley, Mr. Mott of Oakland, Mr. Forderer of Alameda. How could we do greater or more deserved honor to three men who we all esteem? Net to their present suite of names I prefer Rickmottford.

Yours, S.A. RALPH.

Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) May 3, 1907

Oakland Takes Another Step in Advance

San Francisco Call, November 18.

Oakland has taken one more long step forward, following up the line of progress indicated by the virtually unanimous vote to borrow large sums of money for the improvement of its water front, the erection of public buildings and the installation of modern municipal apparatus.

Things are moving at a rapid pace in Oakland and the impetus inspires admiration as well as confidence. The united spirit of the citizens moves with tremendous force on the goal. The city has now by the vote of Tuesday added an impressive area of valuable territory to its charter limits with a corresponding gain of population and taxable property.

Oakland thus becomes a city of the very first rank in name as well as in fact. Of course, this is only the natural accretion of affiliated territory. The real Oakland was just as big in point of population as it is today by reason of the annexations. The extension of the charter line only includes communities that naturally and geographically have belonged to Oakland from the beginning. The extensive annexations are merely a phase of legitimate municipal evolution.

Again The Call offers congratulations to the people of Greater Oakland for the united spirit of progress of which this week’s elections have given such striking evidence.

Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) Nov 18, 1909

Mrs. Sarah Inman Roberts, A Pioneer

OUR NONAGENARIANS
—–
Short Sketch of Adams County Citizens of Advanced Age.
—–
MRS. SARAH ROBERTS, A PIONEER
—–
A Resident of Adams County for Fifty Years, This Good Woman Has Seen Many Changes.
—–

Mrs. Sarah Roberts, whose picture we give below, was born in Jefferson county, Ohio, August 3, 1819, and is therefore a trifle under 90 years of age. She was the daughter of Pamela J. and Arnold Inman, and at the age of 12 years moved with her parents to Washington county, near the town of Marietta, on the Ohio river. Here she grew to womanhood, amid the privations of pioneers in a timber country. On September 20, 1839, she was married to Daniel Roberts, in Muskingham county, Ohio, where they resided until 1850, when they removed to Henry county, Illinois, locating on the prairie near where the town of Kewanee now stands.

1850 Census - Muskingham Co., Ohio

Here they resided for two years, and then returned to Ohio, remaining in Muskingham county until August, 1959, when in company with Messrs. Alfred and John White, Mr. and Mrs. Roberts started overland in covered wagons for Adams county, Iowa, arriving in Quincy the latter part of October. Mr. Roberts rented a log cabin of Zachariah Lawrence and moved into it for the winter. This cabin stood on the prairie north of Carbon, near where the Houck school house now stands, and was twelve by fourteen feet in size. The Roberts family, being acquainted with the Lawrences and the Registers, old settlers in this county who had preceded them from Ohio to Iowa, enjoyed the winter very much, notwithstanding the hardships of a new country. In the spring of 1860 the Roberts family moved to the Sprague farm, now owned by C.A. Foote, and here they had a log cabin with a fire place and a sod chimney to do cooking. Mrs. Roberts remembers that they went with one of their neighbors to Des Moines to secure a plow to till Iowa soil, Des Moines being about the nearest point where a plow might be secured in those days. In the spring of 1861 Mr. Roberts moved to Mt. Etna, at that time a thriving metropolis with three frame buildings and two cabins. In the same year, he purchased some Adams county soil of Morgan Warren, the purchase price being $5 per acre, and in part payment Mr. Roberts traded a land warrant issued soldiers of the Mexican war. There are many other interesting incidents that have occurred in the life of this good woman that would be very entertaining to our readers, if we but had space to tell of them.

1860 Census - Adams Co., Iowa

Of the Inman family, to which Mrs. Roberts belonged, there are now living beside the subject of this sketch, Mrs. Marguerite Thompson, of Corning, aged 83 years; Hamilton Inman, Bigelow, Kansas, aged 78; Felix R. Inman, Antler, North Dakota, aged 73. Mrs. Polly Carlow, of Gross, Nebraska, died only a short time ago and her remains were brought to this city for interment, as our readers will remember. Of the immediate family of Mrs. Roberts, two sons are living, W.W., of Gove county, Kansas, and L.D. Roberts, residing near Mt. Etna, with whom Grandma Roberts makes her home. Her husband died about 20 years ago.

Adams County Free Press (Corning, Iowa) Apr 14, 1909

Lewis W. Homan, an Early Iowa Pioneer

OUR NONAGENARIANS

Short Sketch of Adams County Citizens of Advanced Age.

LEWIS W. HOMAN, MT. ETNA.

One of the Early Pioneers in Iowa, an Ex-County Judge and an Exemplary Citizen.

Lewis W. Homan, the subject of this sketch, was born January 26, 1818, and is now 91 years old. His father and mother were citizens of Virginia at the time of their marriage, in 1816, but soon after moved into Kentucky. Mark Homan, father of Lewis W., was born in Virginia near the Potomac river, about 40 miles above the city of Washington, in the year 1789, the year that George Washington was first elected president. When Mark Homan was 13 years old he moved with his mother to what is now West Virginia, where he lived until he attained the age of 27 years, and where he met and married Miss Nancy Burson, in 1816. Soon after their marriage they moved across the Cumberland mountains into Kentucky, crossing the mountains on horseback. In 1818 their son, Lewis W., whose picture we this week present to our readers, was born, on the banks of Salt river, in Kentucky. When Lewis was about eight years old his grandmother, Elizabeth Homan, entered land in Putnam county, Indiana, which she deeded to her son Mark, and to which Lewis W. came with his father and mother in the fall of 1827, and where his father made his home until the time of his death in 1874, the mother dying in 1837. Here Lewis grew to manhood and in 1838 was married to Miss Temperance M. McClain.

Image from Legends of America

In 1843 with his wife and three children he moved to Jones county, Iowa, coming through from Indiana with an ox team and in the old fashioned prairie schooner. Jones county was then mostly unfenced, raw prairie, and its county seat was but a very small village. However, its people were open hearted and kind to all newcomers, and the family was soon among kind and sociable friends. They resided in Jones county until the year 1856, when they came to Adams county, where they again went through the experiences of making a home on the frontier of a new country. It was not long, however, until they were surrounded with friends and helpful neighbors, and the exemplary life of the old gentleman has retained the respect and esteem of all his acquaintances down through the years. Mr. Homan was married but once, his wife living with him to old age. At the time of her death, about eight years ago, they had been living together 63 years. On the occasion of their fifty-seventh wedding anniversary a large number of their relatives and friends met to assist in celebrating the event. Mr. and Mrs. Homan were the parents of 12 children and number among their progeny 51 grandchildren, most of whom are living, and 44 great grandchildren, a record that scarcely finds an equal in Adams county.

Lewis Homan and wife passed a few years in Corning, the rest of their lives they spent on the farm, where they raised their large family. Under the old law, Mr. Homan served a term as county judge of Adams county, and thus it will be seen that his friends and neighbors delighted to honor him with a high position in their midst. He and his brother Westley were the founders of the First Baptist church of Adams county, which was organized in 1858, and of which he is the only charter member. It stands as a splendid monument to his religious zeal and fidelity in days when the support of a church meant more than it does now, from a financial standpoint at least. After the organization of this church he was made superintendent of its Sunday school, a position he held for 17 years, and until old age forbade he was one of the deacons of the church. He and his wife early in life identified themselves with church and Sunday school work, also with the cause of temperance. In an early day, while still living in Jones county, they signed a pledge of total abstinence from intoxicants, and faithfully adhered to it all their lives. Mr. Homan is now living in the joy of a well spent life, and the hope of a glorious eternity. Time has been good to Mr. Homan, and left him the use of a sound mind, and some degree of health. He has a good appetite for food and enjoys the eating, but has not strength enough in his limbs to walk, and is unable to leave his room. He generally sleeps well and sits in his rocker most of the day. He is cheerful with the friends who call to see him, and greatly enjoys their visits.

Mark Homan, father of the subject of this article, was a soldier of the war of 1812, and Lewis W. had two sons in the military service of the United States in the war for the preservation of the union.

Adams County Free Press (Corning, Iowa) apr 7, 1909

Rebecca Ann Dillon – Wife of a Forty-Niner

OUR NONAGENARIANS
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Short Sketch of Adams County Citizens of Advanced Age.
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MRS. REBECCA ANN DILLON
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This Aged Lady Now Makes Her Home With Mrs. R.J. Bohanan in Corning, Iowa.
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Mrs. Rebecca Ann Dillon, whose picture we present this week, was born in Guernsey county, Ohio, August 26, 1815, and is therefore about 93 and a half years of age. Her maiden name was Pulley. She resided in the county of her nativity for several years and on February 11, 1836, was married to James Dillon.

In 1849, at the time of the gold excitement in California, her husband, in company with relatives and friends, went across the great plains to the golden state to seek his fortune. He was gone fifteen months and returned by water. Mr. Dillon was more fortunate than any of the rest of his company, and returned with more gold than they. However, during his absence all the children of the family, five in number, had scarlet fever, and the eldest daughter died. Mrs. Dillon did not inform her husband of her trials during this absence, and he knew nothing of the death of his daughter until his return home.

In the fall of the same year Mr. and Mrs. Dillon moved Grant county, Indiana, where they erected a house in the woods and cleared off the timber for a farm, a no small undertaking in those days, as the timber on the land in that vicinity was very heavy. On this farm they made their home and helped their children get a start in life. One son was born there. When not engaged with his duties on the farm, Mr. Dillon worked at the gunsmith trade. In the spring of 1872 he died, and Mrs. Dillon remained on the home place until 1874, when, in company with her two daughters and their families, she came to Adams county. Her three sons were already here, and she made her home with her children until the daughters returned to Indiana, when she accompanied them, making her home mostly with her daughter, Mrs. Susan Veach. The latter died about two years ago, since which time Grandma Dillon has depended upon her grandchildren for care.

Image from Bygone Places Along the Hoosier Line

Mrs. Dillon’s mental qualities are better than her physical strength, although she last fall made the trip from Hamlet, Indiana, to Corning unattended. Previous to the world’s fair in Chicago she made a visit to this city along, returning to her home alone in September of the same year. Even as late as last summer Mrs. Dillon visited with friends and relatives in Grant county, Indiana; but at present she has not the strength to walk alone, and is cared for by her grand-daughter, Mrs. R.J. Bohanan, of this city.

Mrs. Dillon has three brothers living, Jonathan Pulley, of Chariton, Iowa; Jackson and Samuel Pulley, both living near Marion, Grant county, Ind. Two sons and one daughter are living. They are Mrs. Mollie Bowman, at the soldiers’ home in Lafayette, Indiana; Martin Dillon of Grant county, Indiana, and J.W. Dillon of Seattle, Washington state.

Adams County Free Press (Corning, Iowa) Mar 10, 1909

DIED.

[Excerpt: some of the bio was repeated in the obituary]

Mrs. Rebecca Ann Dillon died at the home of her granddaughter, Mrs. J.A. Bohanan, in Corning, on Saturday, October 7, 1911. Her death was due to old age, she being aged 96 years, 1 month and 11 days.
….
To Mr. and Mrs. Dillon six children were born, three sons and three daughter. Mrs. Mollie Bowman and W.M. Dillon, both of Gas City, Ind., and J.W. Dillon, of Seattle, Wash., survive their parents, while Elizabeth Dillon, S.B. Dillon and Mrs. Susan Veach, preceded the parents in death.
….

After the death of her youngest daughter Mrs. Dillon made her home with her granddaughters, spending some time with Mrs. Jennie Barker and Mrs. Ida Roose, of Hamlet, Indiana, and nearly three years with Mrs. Emma Bohanan in our city. Beside the children Mrs. Dillon is survived by one brother, Jonathan Pulley, of Chariton, Iowa, and a number of other relatives. She has had thirty-five grandchildren, most of whom are living; several great grandchldren and one great great grandson.

Mrs. Dillon was  devoted Christian, joining the church at the age of 14 years. She desired that she might pass from from this life as a candle going out and her wish was granted. The funeral services were held in the Christian church Monday afternoon, at 1:30 o’clock, conducted by Rev. J.C. Hanna, and the body was laid to rest in the First Baptist church cemetery, eight miles north of Corning. The relatives from out of town Mrs. Addie Williams and two children, of Greenfield; J.F. Dillon and Miss Ruth, of Carl, and other relatives met the funeral party at the cemetery.

Adams County Free Press (Corning, Iowa) Oct 11, 1911

Haunted?

Image from The Dead End Hayride website

A Hallowe’en party was fired into in a cornfield at Newark, New Jersey, by a farmer, and a seventeen-year-old boy was killed. The farmer gave himself up and is nearly crazy. The party frightened him.

The Mountain Democrat (Placerville, California) Nov 19, 1898

I heard of some musical mice the other day that had so “hoodooed” a cottage that the people living near moved away and told wondrous uncanny stories of the pretty little house. It was the country home of some wealthy San Francisco people. Soon after their return to their city home for the winter a couple of years ago, their sixteen-year-old daughter died.

Then the neighbors commenced hearing all sorts of mysterious sounds. They even declared the spirit of the girl wandered through the house and then finally sat down to the piano and played some of the tunes she had loved in life. They could hear them distinctly and recognized the old songs. After a time the music ceased, but the restless spirit still continued to wander through the cottage and the same terrifying and ghostly sounds were heard. So much for imagination.

The following summer the family returned and threw wide the doors of the haunted cottage and let the sunshine in. Then the piano cover was lifted and the mystery was solved. Out scampered a score of mice. The piano was ruined. They took from it a number of nests of whole families of baby mice and an even one hundred pounds, actual weight, of maccaroni, vermacelli, rice, wheat, corn, potatoes, and scores of other things. The piano was crammed full. No wonder it gave forth no sound. The only mystery to the family about their haunted cottage was how in the world the mice managed to squeeze into the piano their family larder, having been so excellently provided for.

The Mountain Democrat (Placerville, California) Nov 19, 1898

Spooks Take House; 8 Policemen Quail

Moans, Raps and Other Mysterious Noises Startle Bluecoats Who Stay in Haunted Cottage.

Gary, Ind., Jan. 18. Eight policemen of this place are convinced, after having made a personal investigation, that a certain small cottage a mile from Toliston, near here, is the abiding place of a genuine ghost. The squad of officers came to this decision this morning after having spent a night of terror in the haunted house.

Moans, raps and other sounds continued in a mysterious manner throughout the night, the officers say. Until two months ago the house was vacant. Then a family moved in. Wails and sounds of a struggle have nightly disturbed the new tenants and they called upon the police to investigate.

Several years ago a farm hand committed suicide in the cottage.

San Antonio Light (San Antonio, Texas) Jan 18, 1909

“GHOST” IS WOODPECKED

BROOKFIELD, Mo. — A new variety of “ghost” was revealed at the Country club here when some-one screwed up enough courage to go into an unoccupied “haunted” cottage. Investigation proved that a woodpecker had been the cause of all the alarm. The bird had died of starvation but the evidence indicated he had fallen into the chimney and then worked his way into the stove thru the stove-pipe. After days of pecking he had worked his way out of the stove.

Lima News (Lima, Ohio) Aug 15, 1928