Archives for “19th Century Railroads”
In my latest release, BRIDE OF THE HIGH COUNTRY, I had to get my main characters from NY to Heartbreak Creek, CO. Since the Transcontinental had been finished the previous year (1869), I picked the train. Oops. Even though train travel had been available in the east for three decades, cross-country hauls were rare. [...]
How much do I love SuperChannel? A friend mentioned that I would probably like a new series called Hell On Wheels. I checked it out (On Demand) and the husband and I watched the first episode and LOVED it. It all starts with a Union Soldier in a confessional, seeking absolution for things he [...]
Harlequin Historical Western Christmas anthology The Cowboy’s Christmas Miracle by Jillian Hart Wrongly imprisoned, Caleb McGraw is finally free—but the bitterness he holds still makes him feel trapped. Until he sees the beautiful Caroline holding a little boy with eyes just like his own. Discovering his long-lost son is just the start of Caleb’s Christmas [...]
Before I bought a book about early railroad travel in order to research a Christmas story I’m writing for another anthology I never considered what life was like before a national standard time was implemented. Each community set their own time, usually by the position of the sun. The time of day was simply a [...]
When I went into the bank yesterday the gals seemed a tad extra cheerful and there was excited chatter about plans for the three-day weekend. It is, after all, their holiday, a day of recognition and appreciation for the American work force. That got me to thinking about the origins of Labor Day, a movement [...]
Best known as the place where the Pony Express began in 1860, and where Jesse James met his end in 1882, St. Joseph, Missouri, holds a place of honor in the history of westward expansion. Situated on the bluffs of the Missouri River, St Joseph began life in 1826 as Joseph Robidoux’s first trading [...]
I was watching a History Channel documentary the other night on the Chicago Union Stock Yards. In 1848, when Chicago was only a hub for transporting livestock from the West to the rest of the country, small stockyards such as Lake Shore Yard and Cottage Grove Yard, were scattered throughout the city [...]
There are headlines aplenty these days around the topic of health care, but would it surprise you to learn that one of the early adopters of employer-based health care was the railroads? While the vast majority of nineteenth century workers had to find and pay for their own medical care, the railroads were developing [...]
In trying to come up with a topic for today’s post I pulled up my lagniappe file. That’s the folder where I stash all the interesting stories and factoids I come across during research – the unexpected little tidbits that have nothing whatsoever to do with my actual story need, but that spark my imagination and get my ‘what [...]
It started as a publicity stunt. Crash two locomotives together and sell tickets. It had been done in Ohio to the cheers of delighted spectators. William G. Crush, agent for The Missouri-Kansas-Texas “Katy” (MKT) Railroad knew that the public was fascinated by train wrecks. People [...]
