Black History day Larry Lapsley was a humble, unassuming man, and lived the life of a Kansas farmer. Few who knew him thought him unusual – but they didn’t know his story. Larry was born in Danville, Kentucky on the … Continued
Did you know… Mary Ellen Pleasant (19 August 1814 – 4 January 1904)? Black history day Mary Ellen’s origins have conflicting sources and birth dates. In one version of her memoirs dictated to her god-daughter Charlotte Downs, she claimed she … Continued
Tales of WW2… How a homeless vagrant corpse contributed to the British war effort In 1939, British intelligence wrote a memo popularly known as “the Trout memo”, about how to deceive the enemy. It said in part: “The memo reads, … Continued
Tales of the Old West In the mid seventeenth century, a large group of Native Americans began a westward migration. The exact reason for the move is not known – some say it was to escape pressure from the Europeans … Continued
John Letterman was born in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, son of a surgeon. He quickly followed in his father’s footsteps, graduating from Jefferson Medical College in 1849. He joined the Army as an assistant surgeon and served in Florida during the Seminole … Continued
Tales of the Old West When you think of Gary Cooper in the old Western movies, the strong silent type who got the job done, the real-life version was John Slaughter. John was born in western Louisiana, and grew up … Continued
Dora Hand( (c. 1843 – October 4, 1878) Tales of the Old West Dora was talented and beautiful. Born in 1843 in Boston, she had a musical education in Europe and sang opera in New York. There’s some doubt historically … Continued
Maggie Lena Walker (July 15, 1864 – December 15, 1934) was born just after the end of the Civil War. She was the first female bank president in the United States. Her mother was one of the emancipated slaves in … Continued
Kate Cumming was a proper Southern belle but bridled at the strictures placed upon women of her time, when nursing was not considered a respectable occupation for a woman. Kate was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1830. Her family emigrated … Continued
Hannah Anderson Chandler was born on June 13, 1809, in New Gloucester, Maine. Hannah’s father was a wealthy attorney. She received an unusually good education for the times and learned from her parents that women were the equals of men. … Continued