Mary Trotter Kion's Blog
Posted by Mary Trotter Kion
In the Fur Trading Business saw changes coming and competition growing during the 1832 Mountain Man Rendezvous. The Rocky Mountain Fur Company, up until now, had held a monopoly. Now the American Fur Company was giving them greater competition. Of a lesser concern, the British held Hudson's Bay Company, as well as even smaller groups were also sending out fur trapping brigades in the Rocky Mountains. On top of all of this competition, the Blackfoot Indians were causing considerable trouble for the white trappers.
Posted by Mary Trotter Kion
Henry Fraeb and Milton Sublette, with a group of some 100 trappers including Nathaniel Wyeth and Captain Bonneville, are camped after leaving the 1832 Mountain Man Rendezvous. A large party of Gros Ventres approaches. One of the white trappers, Antoine Godin, and a Flathead Indian ride out to greet the Gros Ventres chief who is approaching alone, holding high his peace pipe. Godin and the Flathead kill the chief, instigating the Battle of Pierre's Hole.
Posted by Mary Trotter Kion
Prior to the start of the Civil War, a bloody revolt raged between Free-soil and proslavery settlers who fought to decide whether Kansas Territory would enter the Union as a free or slave state. This pre-Civil War unrest created what has historically come to be called Bleeding Kansas. The battle continued throughout the Civil War.
Posted by Mary Trotter Kion
In 1861, President Lincoln made it clear that the Union would hold Fort Sumter, situated in the harbor at Charleston, South Carolina, as well as all other Federal installation situated in the South. South Carolina leaves the Union and attacks Federal troops at Fort Sumter in a bombardment that lasted 34-hour until the Northern troops surrendered, returning the fort to the Confederacy. The American Civil War had begun.
Posted by Mary Trotter Kion
San Francisco, California, in 1906, was brought to destruction and death when the San Andreas Fault slippage instigated what has become known as the San Francisco Earthquake. Broken gas mains, ignited by falling lanterns and burning candles, brought to life more than fifty fires whose destruction was far more deadly than the earthquake its self and its some two hundred after shocks.
Posted by Mary Trotter Kion
Moses Austin in 1796, begins looking for new lead mines. He finds them in Spanish held Missouri and acquires a land grant to work the mines and create a colony. Later, he acquires a land grant in Texas in which to begin a colony.
Posted by Mary Trotter Kion
John Brown, taking after his abolitionist father Owen Brown, sets out to ensure that Kansas Territory does not become a slave state. At Pottawatomie, Kansas, he and his sons, with other abolitionists, set out to revenge the sacking of Lawrence, Kansas by murdering several pro-slavery men.
Posted by Mary Trotter Kion
For the men who spent their time in the mountains, trapping beaver and other critters, in the early 1800s, rendezvous was a yearly event that was much looked forward to. The Mountain Man rendezvous of 1832 was no different. After the furs were cashed in the fun began, consisting of whiskey drinking, gambling, horse racing, telling tall tales around a campfire, and getting an Indian maiden to spend the night with.
Posted by Mary Trotter Kion
Would you believe that one of the first causes for the American Civil War occurred in the early 1600s? It was in 1619 that some Jamestown, Virginia settlers purchased the first Africans, starting the situation of Slavery as an Issue for War that would come to a head some two hundred years later. These first black slaves were considered indentured servants but soon came to be regarded as slaves-for life! Years later, the big question arose over which territories and which states would allow slavery and which ones would be considered free soil, or no slavery allowed.
Posted by Mary Trotter Kion
Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, a Confederate general during the American Civil War, was appointed the first brigadier general in the Confederate army. He commanded the southern troops that took over Fort Sumter that was located in Charleston harbor in South Carolina. This bombardment, in April of 1861, was the first action of the Civil War. Because of this action, Beauregard is considered the first hero of the Confederacy. During this war he saw action at the battles of First Manassa, First Bull Run, Shiloh, Corinth, and the 1863 attack by the Union navy on Charleston, South Carolina, as well as other battles.
Posted by Mary Trotter Kion
The Kansas-Nebraska Act creates Kansas Territory as a proslavery territory and Nebraska as a free soil territory. Northern abolitionists are determined that Kansas will become a free-soil state. Henry Ward Beecher arms Kansas farmers to fight against proslavery people. Border Ruffians cross the state line from Missouri into Kansas and stuff ballot boxes causing election to be concluded in favor of proslavery people.
Posted by Mary Trotter Kion
William Sublette, Mountain Man, Indian fighter, and eventually successful business man, becomes a Mountain Man in 1822. In that year, with Jedediah S. Smith and David E. Jackson, he joins William Ashley's fur trapping company. His adventures lead him to joining in the fight against Blackfeet after the 1832 Mountain Man rendezvous.
Posted by Mary Trotter Kion
Back in ancient times, as one Hawaiian legend goes, Irishmen visited Hawaii. They decided to stay in the Islands and eventually intermarried with the Hawaiian people. The descendents of these two races are the Menehunes, the wee folk of the Hawaiian Islands.
Posted by Mary Trotter Kion
Wealthy Lillie Hitchcock Coit of San Francisco is saved from a fire as a child. She later is made America's first honorary woman fire fighter. Her daring and unladylike exploits amuse San Francisco society for many years. When a man is shot attempting to save her life, San Francisco finally turns its back on her. Lillie, however, on her death leaves thousands of dollars to the city.
Posted by Mary Trotter Kion
When California seeks statehood, in 1850, as a free state without slavery the Compromise of 1850 is put into effect, allowing new fugitive slave laws in order to placate the southern states. In addition, the North would allow New Mexico and Utah to organize as territories with no mention of slavery. The compromise forestalled the American Civil War for another ten years.
Posted by Mary Trotter Kion
Will new territories be Free Soil or Slave States? This is the national argument after the United States, at the conclusion of the Mexican War, gains the areas that include present-day New Mexico, California, and Arizona on February 2, 1848. Adding to the contention that same year, gold is discovered in California and California desires to become a state. In support of the Mexican War, the South had looked toward the new territories acquired being slave states.
Posted by Mary Trotter Kion
Missouri, in 1819, seeks statehood as a slave state. The Missouri Compromise allows for Maine to come in as a free state. The compromise includes a new Fugitive Slave Law that would compel northern law enforcement agents and officials to aid in the capture and return of runaway slaves. However, this condition strongly enrages antislavery northerners who resent the invasion of slave catchers into their sector of the country. The Missouri state legislature passes a law prohibiting the entrance of free black people into the state.
Posted by Mary Trotter Kion
Captain Benjamin Bonneville, using wagons, managed in 1832 to transport a large enough stock of goods to the Rocky Mountains for trade to last for two full years. He erects Fort Bonneville, often called Fort Nonsense by other Mountain Men, near Green River in present-day Wyoming. The question still exists today as to whether Bonneville was, in addition to being funded by Astor, scooping out the best tactics for the military to use to prevent the British from advancing eastward into the Rocky Mountains and taking over the fur trade of the Americans.
Posted by Mary Trotter Kion
Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States, was the grandson of Samuel Lincoln who migrated to America and settled in Massachusetts before moving to Virginia where Abraham's father, Thomas, was born. After Thomas Lincoln marries Nancy Hanks of Virginia a move is made to Kentucky where Abraham Lincoln was born.
Posted by Mary Trotter Kion
If it were not for the Chinese the Transcontinental Railroad might never have been completed in the west, or at least not nearly as quickly as it was. The Chinese workers, many of whom came to America during the California Gold Rush, virtually blasted their way through deep snows and walls of granite in the Sierra Mountains in order to lay tracks.
Posted by Mary Trotter Kion
The Blackfeet, consisting of not only the Blackfoot but also the Blood, Piegan, Gros Ventres and Sarcees bands, ruled not only present-day Montana but lands far-reaching beyond that state's borders. This dynasty came to a final conclusion after the Blackfeet suffered several attacks of smallpox, the signing of treaties, and ultimately being resigned to a reservation.
Posted by Mary Trotter Kion
Ma Rainey, called the "Mother of the Blues," was as equally a part of Black History as she was of the history of jazz and the blues. Growing up in Columbus, Georgia, she heard folk music as well as that sung and played in church. Later she made records with such greats as Joe "King" Oliver and Louis Armstrong.
Posted by Mary Trotter Kion
With February being designated as Black History Month, the proposal is brought up that all other nationalities, besides Black Americans, that have made America their homeland should have a month designated to their native history. Read it here: Why Just Black History Month: What About the Native Americans and Chinese? Join in a discussion on this subject then take the pole and let your opinion be counted.
Posted by Mary Trotter Kion
Nancy Randolph, a relative of Thomas Jefferson, was accused of murdering her infant newborn. The infant's father, Richard Randolph, was her sister's husband. After she was acquitted, Nancy, her sister, her sister's husband, and a brother all lived together on a Virginia plantation. That ended when Richard died mysteriously and Nancy was accused of having sexual relations with a male slave.
Posted by Mary Trotter Kion
Martin Luther King, Jr. believed that love and peaceful protest could eliminate social injustice. He became one of the outstanding Black leaders in America. His words and actions served to arouse both whites and Blacks to protest racial discrimination as well as poverty and war.