Archives for “History – General”
The American frontier, or the Old West, as it came to be known, drew adventurers from all over the world. They came hoping to find a new life, whether that meant staking out a homestead, mining for gold, finding a husband, or starting a business. Whether it was families, single men or women, miners, gamblers, [...]
Hello – Winnie Griggs here. I saw an interesting little segment on a Sunday morning program that discussed the history of the corn flake. It intrigued me so I decided to do a little follow-up research. The cornflake was invented quite by accident. The Seventh Day Adventists were very health conscious as a group and [...]
Just when we think we couldn’t possibly see any more reality shows, more pop up every season. And some of them have lasted for years. Because I sometimes wonder about really weird and often pointless things, I recently googled the most-watched reality shows. I shouldn’t have been surprised to see Judge Judy on the list. [...]
There’s something humbling about standing in a place where history was made. I’ve had that experience a few times, but nothing has ever compared to standing in San Francisquito Canyon in the exact spot where the St. Francis Dam catastrophically failed at three minutes to midnight on March 12, 1928. San Francisquito Canyon is located [...]
Now that I’ve met my latest deadline (PHEW) I’m coming up for air. During my free time this week I’ve addressed all those pesky little life details I let get away from me. I’ve attempted to clean house, organize tax papers, cleaned the inside of my car and scaled Mt. Laundry. I’ve also put some [...]
With several deadlines looming (and panic setting in) I’ve been immersed in the 1800s all month. Thanks to my ongoing series of books set during this fascinating century, I’ve been jumping around the various decades during my research. I’ve come across some fascinating information, discoveries really, about the “good old days.” So, what were the [...]
In light of the computer age and my very first personal computer with internet dial-up, I remember my father asking me one very simple question that spun my mind and really knocked into my head how far we’ve come in today’s world. Now, first you have to know my father was not sheltered. He was [...]
Hi. Winnie Griggs here. I came across an interesting book the other day titled Feminine Ingenuity, How Women Inventors Changed America. Based on the title alone I couldn’t resist purchasing a copy to check it out. And if that wasn’t enough, the following blurb from the New York Times Book Review cinched it [...]
As authors a really common question we get asked is, “Where do you get your ideas?” Never has that answer come so easily as this series. The Trouble in Texas Series. Swept Away, Book #1 of the Trouble in Texas series releases in February. I got the idea for this series while researching Andersonville Prison [...]
Few things made such a huge difference in an 1800’s woman’s life than the sewing machine. But the price in the beginning put it out of reach of most. Hand sewing has been around for over 20,000 years, probably since Adam and Eve’s day when they had to make clothes out of leaves [...]
This last summer I was lucky enough to travel to Silverton, Colorado. My husband, Steve, and I took the 47 mile, three-hour trip on the old narrow gauge train just like people had done a hundred years ago. We also took along two of our grandsons, Connor and Finley. I love seeing things through the [...]
I wrote this blog a couple of years back to commemorate what President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared “a day that will live in infamy”–December 7, 1941. I won’t be blogging here again until December 28, and I know this is early, but I wanted to share it with everyone so that we will never forget. [...]
Here we are – the day after Thanksgiving. Black Friday. The day thousands of Americans hit the malls and retail stores searching for the perfect sale to make all their Christmas gift-giving dreams come true. For some, this is the first Christmas tradition to engage in every year. They wake up early, brave the cold, and set out [...]
Stagecoaches figure prominently in the current book I’m working on so I thought it would be fun to look at some of my research. In 1827 two wheelwrights, JS Abbott and Lewis Downing, formed the Abbott Downing Company in Concord, New Hampshire. They manufactured 40 different kinds of carriages and wagons but the most [...]
The Springfield 1873 Trapdoor Rifle is one we’ve probably seen in photographs and in Hollywood movies, but I doubt many of us realized the impact this rifle had on warfare of the period. A redesign of an earlier trapdoor system, the Springfield 1873 was the first standard-issue breech-loading rifle adopted by the US Army. It [...]
Hi! Winnie Griggs here. Later this month, members of my extended family and I (about 12 of us in all) are taking a family vacation, and one of the places we plan to visit is the Grand Canyon. I’m soooooo excited!! That’s one of the top places on my wish list of places to visit ‘one [...]
Getting a letter out on the frontier was a rare and very precious thing. Those messages from home were treasured and read over and over until sometimes the paper was so thin and the words illegible. But today they’ve become practically non-existent with email and the Internet. We’re all familiar with postage stamps and [...]
During my college days in Nebraska, a favorite pastime was picking up treasures at farm auctions. Upon opening one such bargain, an antique trunk, I found a spelling book a little girl had scribbled in many years ago. Her spelling book, The Graded World Class Speller was written by Mortimer A. Warren and published by [...]
While seeking an interesting topic for schooldays and teachers, I googled movies about teachers. I found a lot of them I liked, but one in particular resonates with me because the story is profound and amazing and true. The Miracle Worker is based on Helen Keller’s autobiography, The Story of My Life (1903). American [...]
A couple weeks ago, I posted a bit about the history surrounded Abilene, TX – the city where I live. As I started overturning research rocks, I ran across a gem that sparked excitemenet in my western-loving soul. A real-life shootout. As with many railroad towns, the population boom outpaced the town’s ability to organize necessary [...]
A fiction writer is always looking for wonderful people in life to pattern characters after. As I researched Alaska where much of my new release, Cold Justice, is set, I found a wonderful character in Klondike Kate aka Kathleen Rockwell. While none of the characters in my novel were patterned after Kate, I think my [...]
Holcomb Valley, the richest gold mining area in Southern California, is a quiet, lonely place these days. Hard to imagine 2,000 folks lived here in the early 1860’s. This sleepy mountain meadow was once the site of bustling, somewhat slapdash Belleville. The largest bunch of prospectors gathered right here, just east of Bill Holcomb’s original [...]
You probably don’t realize it but the Old Farmer’s Almanac goes on sale today, each 2nd Tuesday of September. This is the oldest continuously published periodical in the U. S. It was first published in 1792 during George Washington’s first term as president. The editor was Robert B. Thomas. It sold for six pence [...]
What do you call it when two events, totally unrelated in time and place, come together in a surprising way? The word escapes me. But here’s the story of one such pairing. 1872, Joe Smith’s Saloon in Manhattan is where the first event supposedly took place. Nobody knows whether the story is true, but it was [...]
