George Smith Blake When the Civil War erupted in April 1861, Captain George S. Blake studied the position of the U.S. Naval Academy (USNA) in Annapolis, MD, and quickly realized that the school was indefensible should the rebels attack it. According to a New York Times article “Early Days of…
Charles Gordon Curtis (1860-1953) Charles Curtis crosses our path again, but this is not the Native American Vice President I wrote about last month. This time, it’s Charles Gordon Curtis, who must have been camera-shy, for I find only a couple of photographs of him available online. Charles Gordon Curtis…
Early last evening, Easter Sunday, Charlie Grant, fifer and WWII veteran (among other things), went to his great reward, quietly and peacefully. I had visited with him a week ago Saturday, and found him ready to go, whenever the Lord decided to call him. He undoubtedly had a grand reunion…
USACE Logo On March 16, 1802, President Thomas Jefferson authorized the establishment of a military corps of engineers, which became the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers we know today. This was the second time that this corps was established. The first idea for the army to have organized engineers…
Charles Curtis (1860-1939) On March 4, 1929, a Native American was inaugurated as Vice President of the United States. Charles Curtis served one term with President Herbert Hoover. Curtis was born on January 25, 1860, in North Topeka, in what was then the Kansas Territory. His mother was three-quarters Native…
I’m back again, finally, after a promise of more regular posts. I actually have something of an excuse this time, though, which might qualify as valid. (If it doesn’t, well, that’s too bad. It’s the only one I have.) I was hired to do five months of at-home work, but…
The sail-driven maritime freight trade was entering the autumn of its era when the Dirigo slid down the ways on February 10, 1894. Three hundred and fourteen feet long, built to carry four masts that reached 200 feet above her decks, weighing in at 3005 tons, she made a spectacular…
Edward Baker Lincoln (1846-1850) On February 2, 1850, Abraham and Mary Lincoln stood in Hutchinson Cemetery in Springfield, IL, and bade farewell to the younger of their “dear codgers,” 3-year-old Eddy, who had died the day before after a 52-day struggle with an illness. As the small coffin sank into…
White House, north face, 1901 Twelve babies have been born in the White House. Only one has been the child of a sitting president; all of the rest (except for one slave baby) have been either grandchildren or the children of sitting presidents’ nephews or nieces. In the early decades…
“Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion” – Nast, 1/15/1870 One hundred forty-two years ago today, Thomas Nast published a political cartoon in Harper’s Weekly, the first depiction of the Democratic Party as a donkey, kicking the stuffing out of a dead lion. The lion represented the recently deceased Edwin Stanton,…
