Hi! Winnie Griggs here. (pssst - look for giveaway info at the bottom of this post) I was thumbing through one of those 'infamous women of the old west' type books the other day and  came across a listing for a woman named Pearl Hart. The heading of First Female Captured Stagecoach Robber caught my eye. And the more I read about this woman, the more fascinated I became with her story. I did some additional research and found a number of different, sometimes contradictory, accounts of her life. I’ll stitch together my favorites here. While there is very little know about her early life, we do know that she was born Pearl Taylor in 1871 and lived the early part of her life in Ontario, Canada. She was one of several children born into an upper middle-class, church going family. At age sixteen she was sent to a boarding school, but she had an adventurous spirit that couldn’t be contained. That, combined with her attractiveness and wit made her quite popular with the men of her acquaintance. While at school Pearl became infatuated with a young man named Hart and eloped at about age 17. Hart has variously been described as a rake, a drunk and a gambler. Far from this being the romantic adventure Pearl had hoped for, it turned out Hart was also abusive. She left him and then returned to him several times and it is reported they had two children together. During their last reconciliation, the couple worked odd jobs the Chicago World’s Fair. There Pearl saw Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and developed a fascination for the cowboy life that would stay with her her entire life. She also visited the Women’s Pavilion where she heard speeches by prominent women’s activists such as Julia Ward Howe. Finally leaving Hart for good, Pearl placed the children in the care of her mother and took up with a man named Dan Bandman, a gambler and dance-hall musician. The two eventually moved to Colorado. Later, when Dan left to fight in the Spanish-American War, Pearl moved to Globe Arizona, a mining town. There are various reports that she may have worked as a cook, a singer, a laundress and/or opened a tent brothel. It is also said that she developed a fondness for cigar and liquor at this time. Pearl described her life at this time in these words: "I was only twenty-two years old. I was good-looking, desperate, discouraged, and ready for anything that might come. I do not care to dwell on this period of my life. It is sufficient to say that I went from one city to another..." Whatever her employment, Pearl’s finances hit bottom when the mine closed. Trying to find a way to earn money, she took up with a man named Joe Boot and together they tried to work an old mine claim he owned. But by 1899 the pair found themselves short on cash and decided to rob a stage, though it appears neither had done anything like this before. One account claims they took this desperate measure because Pearl had gotten word that her mother was ill and needed money, though there is little to substantiate this claim. Pearl cut her hair and dressed up like a man. Both armed with revolvers, they stopped a stage running between Florence and Globe at the Cane Springs Canyon watering point. They collected $421 from the three passengers on board. Pearl then reportedly took pity on them and gave them back each $1.00 so they could buy a meal at the next stop. But their lack of experience did them in. They did a poor job of covering their tracks and within six days the law had caught up with them. One account states that they were sleeping when the posses caught up with them and that while Joe surrendered quickly but Pearl tried, unsuccessfully, to fight her way out. Joe and Pearl were locked in the local jail. But the notoriety and attention Pearl received as a female bandit, coupled with the lack of proper facilities, caused the sheriff to throw up his hands and send her to the jail in Tucson. Pearl’s notoriety grew, and she did all she could to fuel it. Her story about her reason for the robbery (her ailing mother) gained her sympathy, and her avowal that she "would never consent to be tried under a law she or her sex had no voice in making, or to which a woman had no power under the law to give her consent" gained her a whole new level of attention. Never one to give up on her options, within a matter of days Pearl had charmed some of the men at the Tucson prison and managed to escape. Unfortunately for her, a New Mexico lawman recognized her and sent her back to the Tucson prison.   Joe Boot was eventually sentenced to 30 years in jail and Pearl to five. Pearl was given the dubious honor of being the first woman incarcerated into the Yuma Territorial Prison. But neither Pearl nor Joe served their full terms. Joe, apparently due to a show of good behavior, was given trustee status. He walked off while working outside the gates less than two years into his term and was never heard from again. Pearl, on the other hand, gained her freedom legitimately, well, sort of. The warden of the jail where Pearl was imprisoned like all the attention she was attracting from the public and the media. He provided her with a roomy 8 x10 cell as well as a small yard which gave her a space to entertain reporters, photographers and other guests. Pearl, who was the only female incarcerated in the facility, was not above using her wiles to play guards and trustees off of each other to improve her situation. In December of 1902, Pearl received a pardon from the governor and was released free and clear. The official reason for the pardon remains unclear, but it was given on condition that she leave the Arizona territory. Pearl herself claimed that she had been invited to play the lead in a play her sister had penned based on her life and this had played into her release. However, a later rumor emerged that she had became pregnant. The governor, wanting to spare the Arizona Territory the embarrassment of explaining how this could possibly have happened while she was imprisoned, pardoned her and set her free. While there is no proof that Pearl ever bore a third child, this doesn’t mean the wily woman didn’t use this as a ploy to secure her freedom. There are varying accounts of what happened to Pearl after she was released. Some say she parlayed her notoriety into a show business career, billing herself as “The Arizona Bandit.” One account says she traveled for a while with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. A less colorful theory is that she married a rancher named Calvin Bywater and settled down into a quite but happier life. If that last is true, then perhaps Pearl got her “happily ever after” after all. Folks who knew Mrs. Bywater described her as “soft spoken, kind, and a good citizen in all respects.” Mrs. Calvin Bywater lived well into her 80s. As I said earlier, there are a number of different accounts of Pearl’s life and this is only one of them. Her exploits have been featured in theater, film and pulp fiction. There was even a musical called The Legend Of Pearl Hart. And while we may never know the full true story of her life, there is no doubt that she lived it on her own terms.   And, as promised I'm doing a giveaway today.  In honor of my upcoming June release, A Baby Between Them, I'm giving away an advanced copy to one person who leaves a comment today.  Here's a little about this book: For two months, Nora Murphy has cared for the abandoned infant she found on their Boston-bound ship.  Settled now in Faith Glen, Nora tells herself she’s happy.  She has little Grace, and a good job as housekeeper to Sheriff Cameron Long.  She doesn’t need anything more - not the big family she always wanted, or Cam’s love...  A traumatic childhood closed Cam off  to any dreams of family life.  Yet somehow his lovely housekeeper and her child have opened his heart again.  When the unthinkable occurs, it will take all their faith to reach a new future together. Now avaiable for pre-order HERE

With a need to eat more wisely as I age, I spend a lot of time in the grocery store reading labels. While I have eliminated some foods from my shopping list that used to be standards, one staple I still insist on having is ketchup. However, when I realized how much sugar and salt go into my favorite condiment, I wondered if I could make it at home. And because I love history—and the history of the American west in particular--the next thought was ‘where was ketchup created’ and did they have it in the old west? The origins of ketchup are thought to be in a Chinese pickled fish sauce or brine made in the late 1600s. The British brought the table sauce back from their explorations of Malay states—present day Malaysia and Singapore—and by 1740 it was a staple in their cuisine. The Malay word for the sauce was k?chap, which evolved into “ketchup” and became “catchup” and “catsup” in America. Original versions of “ketchup” were made from lots of different savory items. One very popular one in America was mushrooms. The 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary defines catchup as “a table sauce made from mushrooms, tomatoes, walnuts, etc.” Tomatoes weren’t used in making the sauce until the early 1800s. A recipe published in 1801 seems to be the first making what you and I would recognize as ketchup—although I doubt it would taste the same. Cooks didn’t begin adding sugar to the mixture until later in the century. Most families made their own ketchup. In 1837, a man named Jonas Yerks is credited with making tomato ketchup a national food by producing and distributing his product across the U.S. It wasn’t long before other companies joined the rush, including H.J. Heinz, who launched their brand of ketchup in 1869. Early versions were thin and watery, more like the fish sauce than the thick tomato product we’re accustomed to, but had less vinegar than the modern recipe. In fact, I doubt we’d recognize the jar of ketchup served by a Harvey Girl in a Harvey House Restaurant in the 1880s as the same product Americans have come to love--but it’s fun to know it was there.

  Hi! Winnie Griggs here. A little over a week ago we marked the 100^th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.   It got me to thinking about its most famous tie to the American west, the “Unsinkable Molly Brown”. The only things I knew about her were fuzzily remembered scenes from the movie so I figured I’d do a little quick research to find out more. I learned she was born in Hannibal,Missouri on July 18, 1867 and christened Margaret Tobin.  Her father was an Irish immigrant employed as a ditch-digger and the family was on the very low end of the social and financial spectrum. As a teenager she followed one of her brothers to Leadville, Colorado where he hoped to make his fortune in the silver mines there.  She served as cook for her brother and found work as a seamstress in a local store. Eventually she met J.J.Brown, a mining superintendent and the two were soon an item.  Of the courtship, one source credits Margaret as saying

“I wanted a rich man, but I loved Jim Brown. I thought about how I wanted comfort for my father and how I had determined to stay single until a man presented himself who could give to the tired old man the things I longed for him. Jim was as poor as we were, and had no better chance in life. I struggled hard with myself in those days. I loved Jim, but he was poor. Finally, I decided that I'd be better off with a poor man whom I loved than with a wealthy one whose money had attracted me. So I married Jim Brown.”  

They were wed in 1886.  They had a son, Lawrence, in 1887 and their daughter Catherine  made her appearance two years later.  In the early years, Margaret and J.J. struggled financially.  But J.J.’s instrumental involvement in a silver strike in his employer’s mine changed all of that and the Browns became very wealthy indeed.  The family eventually moved to Denver where Margaret, in a nod to the societal conventions, familiarized herself with the arts and became fluent in several foreign languages. Alas, their love match did not last forever.  In 1909, after 23 years of marriage, J.J. and Margaret separated, though they never divorced and it appears they remained amicable for the remainder of their days.   As part of the separation agreement, Margaret received a very generous settlement and allowance, which allowed her to continue her travels and social work. Which brings us to her being aboard the ill-fated Titanic.  Margaret was one of the lucky ones who made it aboard a lifeboat.  It is said she helped in the evacuation and that she took up an oar herself to help row the boat away from the wreckage.  She also strongly urged the crewman in charge of the lifeboat to go back to try to see if more people could be saved.  Her exhortations were met with strong opposition due to fears that the boat would be swamped by desperate swimmers.  Reports vary as to whether they did in fact eventually go back and whether or not anyone was rescued. What’s not in doubt, however, is that when the survivors were rescued by the crew of the Carpathia, she worked tirelessly to help provide physical and emotional comfort to the other survivors.  By the time the ship reached New York, Margaret had established the Survivor’s Committee and raised nearly $10,000 for those survivors who lost everything.  She helped erect the Titanic Memorial in Washington D.C but to her annoyance found that as a woman she was barred from participation in the Titanic hearings. Margaret was also a philanthropist and activist in other areas.  Some of her more notable contributions:

• Helped establish the Colorado chapter of the National American Woman Suffrage Association
• She worked in soup kitchens to help the families of miners
• Was a charter member of the Denver Woman’s Club
• Assisted in the fund raising for Denver’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception
• Worked with a  judge to come to the aid of indigent children and to establish the nation’s first juvenile court - this helped form the basis of the current day U.S juvenile court system
• She twice ran for the U.S Senate
• During WW I she worked with the American Committee for Devastated France,  helping to establish a relief station for soldiers.  She was later awarded the French Legion Of  Honor.

Oh, and one last interesting fact that I learned - during her lifetime she was called Margaret, Margie and Maggie, but never Molly!

  Spring is definitely in the air and on the ground with green grasses coming back to life and vibrant flowers bursting through. The orchards around my place are gorgeous with miles of trees in full bloom with pink and white blossoms.  The colors of spring brings Easter eggs to mind, which are a symbol of new life, fertility and rebirth. The tradition of painting hard boiled eggs in the spring dates back to the Saxons, who regarded the egg as proof of the renewal of life, used eggs in festivals dedicated to Eastre, the goddess of fertility. Easter wasn't widley practiced in the US until after the Civil War. Churches and commmunities were moving on with a rebirth of their nation and Easter parades were held, and I've read that egg decorating was a tradition introduced by German immigrants. There are many other decorating techniques and numerous traditions of giving them as a token of friendship, love or good wishes. In the Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, Easter eggs are dyed red to represent the blood of Christ, shed on the Cross, and the hard shell of the egg symbolized the sealed Tomb of Christ — the cracking of which symbolized His resurrection from the dead. Easter eggs are a widely popular symbol of new life in Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Russia, Ukraine. A batik (wax resist) process is used to create intricate, brilliantly colored eggs, the best-known of which is the Ukrainian pysanka and the Polish pisanka. I loved dying eggs as a kid. Though, compared to the coloring kits available today, ours was pretty basic. Six cups of vinegar, six colored tablets, one clear wax crayon we'd all fight over, along with the one egg dipper ;-)   My boys got far more creative with tie-die kits, markers, shaker bags and glitter. An option I didn't care for then and now are those plastic covers that slip on the egg and shrink in hot water--they're impossible to peel for those who like to eat the eggs. This is the first year my kids, well, young men as they are, won't be coloring eggs. The only eggs I'll be making are deviled egss. I'll be looking forward to seeing what the younger neices and nephews have created this year. Here's some cool eggs and a great way to use old wire hangers to display them ;-) Will you be coloring eggs this year? Have any decorating tips or stories to share?  

 

  So, I was at Bunco on Sunday, my once-a-month dose of social activity and one of my favorite days of the month because I get to spend time with my mom, mom-in-law and the best bunco bunch around. There's lots of laughter, dice rolling, and quite a bit of teasing the local rooomance writer and much-appreciated prodding about the new series I'm working on. The question came up of whether I'd have bunco in the new series and that got us to talking about how long bunco has been around. Some gals remember their mom's moms' being bunco players. Of course, I had to do some digging---was there bunco in the old west? Indeed, Bunco was played in the old west! In fact, the dice game was introduced in the United States during the Gold Rush! Seems a shady fellow making his way from the east to west coast in 1855 brought a dice game from England he called "Banco" into gambling parlors as he made his way to California gold fields. The game originating in England was called 8-dice cloth, though our English traveler, also known as a crooked gambler, had made several changes to the game. As its popularity spread across San Francisco, Banco became known as Bunco. According to the World Bunco Association (that was news to me too!), bunco was also played by groups of women, school children and couples throughout the 1800's.   The game was repopularized in the 1920's during Prohibition, Bunco often being associated with those notorious speakeasies--so much so that the law enforcement squads sent to raid these clubs became known as "Bunco Squads". This movie poster on the right is from a 1950's film. Quite the rip-roaring start for what I always thought of as a rather innocuous ladies game--though I will admit we might tend to spike the punch ;-) These days bunco isn't limited to living-rooms and club rooms, there are Bunco Cruises! There's even a bunco app for iPhones. I think I'll be sticking with my monthly gathering of friends. How about the rest of y'all? Ever been part of a bunco bunch? Any bunco cruises in your past or future?  

Yosemite is one of the places you MUST see before you die. And I can honestly tell you my first time seeing  Half Dome from Glacier Point truly took my breath away.  And to think the Ahwaneechee got to LIVE here. Well, after gold seekers about 1850 revealed the wonders of Yosemite to "civilization,"  the U.S. Military ousted the native Ahwaneenechee in 1851 (another whole sad story), setting the stage for the area to teem with homesteaders, tourists, entrepreneurs, stagecoaches, inns, lodging, orchards, and livestock. Many people were already concerned that the groves of Giant Sequoia would fall victim to loggers (sadly, many did), so President Lincoln took time during the raging Civil War to sign the Yosemite Grant, protecting the valley and the Mariposa Grove. This was the first territory ever set aside by Congress for public use and preservation. The glory of Yosemite laid firm foundations in such notables as photographer Ansel Adams and naturalist John Muir. So it’s fitting that one of Glacier Point’s claims to fame, the controversial Fire Fall, ended as it did. My hubby remembers seeing this man-made phenomenon when he was a little boy, but envirnomentalists halted the show in 1973. Here’s the story.  The “Fire Fall” was started in 1872 by James MacCauley, owner of the Glacier Point Mountain House Hotel, for the entertainment of his guests. Every summer night, he built a roaring campfire at the edge of Glacier Point, and at evening’s end, kicked the embers over the edge of the cliff. They’d tumble some 3,200 feet to the valley floor. Visitors down in the valley began to clamor for more, and MacCauley and his family sensed an opportunity. Requesting donations, they were able to haul in more wood to the Point and produce more dramatic fire falls. After 25 years of “performances,” though, MacCauley was evicted, and the nightly spectacles came to a screeching halt. After a few false starts, the Fire Fall was reinstated in 1917. At nine p.m. each summer night, the ritual began. A master of ceremonies at Camp Curry on the Valley floor would have the following exchange with the firemaster up at Glacier Point.   MC:  Hello, Glacier Point? Firemaster:  Hello Camp Curry. MC:  Is the fire ready? Firemaster:  The fire is ready. MC:  Let the fire fall. Firemaster:  The fire falls!   At that moment, the enormous pile of embers from a fire started hours earlier was slowly and rhythmically pushed over the edge of Glacier Point, resulting in a flowing, glowing cascade. The golden site reminded spectators of Yosemite’s magnificent natural waterfalls. Down in Camp Curry, the visitors would break out in the song, Indian Love Call. The Fire fall was temporarily halted during World War 11, with many wishing it would permanently end. Environmental consciousness was already brewing, as was the “hypocrisy” of cheering on something artificial in the realm of such natural splendor. Furthermore, huge crowds on the valley floor were damaging meadows and vegetation and bothering wildlife. However, public outcry was intense. Despite protests from the National Park Service, the fire falls soon commenced. However, in 1968, George Hertzog, director of the National Park Services, ended the Fire Fall permanently. A ceremonial final fall was held on January 25 that year. It was said to have ended in a glorious, dramatic spurt with an attendance of only 50 people. Not the thousands of a summer night.   Three fun bits of trivia about The Fire Fall: 1.   Red fir bark resulted in the best embers, and after 1920, only red fire bark was used. 2.   The Firefall is featured in a scene in the 1954 movie, The Caine Mutiny. 3.   The only time the Fire Fall did not start promptly at 9 p.m. occurred with good reason.  When President Kennedy visited the park in 1960, he was taking an important phone call, so the Fire Fall started thirty minutes late that night.   Well, amazingly, in 1973, just a few months past the 100 year anniversary of the original unnatural fire fall, photographer Galen Rowel “discovered” Yosemite’s true and natural fire fall. Seems every February, the fire fall returns to Yosemite at sunset. The setting sun illuminates one of Yosemite’s lesser known waterfalls, Horsetail Falls, so that it looks like a fire fall flowing over El Capitan.  It’s tricky, though. Horsetail is so scant it’s often not even marked on maps. During the last two weeks of February, IF there is water coming off El Capitan, and IF it is clear at sunset –often it isn’t due to storms, the rays of the setting sun illuminate the falls for a short time to appear as a stream of golden fire. Photographers sometimes wait two or three days, often waist deep in snow, to catch the elusive, ethereal moment. How about you? Did you ever see the Fire Fall? How about something that literally took your breath away? (Book Five in the Hearts Crossing Ranch series is coming soon!)

Did you know that, without Eli Whitney, extraordinary mechanical engineer and inventor of the cotton gin, there would be no Colt “Walker” revolvers. In fact, there’d probably be no Colt firearms at all. From a young age, Whitney showed an amazing aptitude for all things mechanical. That’s how he paid for his Yale education--by fixing machines. After graduation, he planned to teach in order to pay for law school. Instead, he ended up working for the widow of Revolutionary War general Nathanael Green, fixing things on her Georgia plantation and creating a mechanized way to remove the seeds from cotton--the cotton gin for which he is so famous. Because of widespread pirating of his design and the costly court battles to protect his patent, Whitney never profited from his invention. Discouraged, Whitney turned his amazing mind to the manufacture of firearms, specifically muskets. Up until Whitney, muskets were hand-crafted, made one at a time, each weapon totally unique. That meant if something broke in a gun, the replacement parts had to be handmade to fit that gun. Whitney invented the method by which gun parts were so precisely made that they were interchangeable–and could be mass-produced. In a demonstration to prove the interchangeability of the gun parts he manufactured, Whitney is said to have put the parts needed to build ten muskets into a pile. When government officials were successful, Whitney, and arms manufacturing, would never be the same. Whitney is credited with pioneering the assembly production line. In 1841, Whitney Arms Company was placed under the control of Eli Whitney, Jr. Arms making was a competitive business in the United States in the 1840s and success required both technological efficiency and strong entrepreneurial instincts. With the rapid westward movement of the population in the 1830s, the market for firearms grew, a demand which couldn’t be supplied by gun-smiths—craftsmen--who operated on a small scale. In addition, the rise of the urban middle classes in the great eastern cities meant a market was developing for sporting arms, guns used for target-shooting and hunting. In the 1830s, Samuel Colt had tried his hand at manufacturing, producing around 3000 of his new revolver-style handgun before creditors shut down the Patent Arms Company. Though he lost his factory, Colt still controlled his patents and, in 1846, succeeded in selling a contract for 1,000 revolvers to Captain Samuel H. Walker of the Texas Rangers. Having only six months to deliver on the contract and no factory in which to build them, Colt turned to Eli Whitney, Jr. On July 7, 1843, Colt and Whitney concluded a contract for the production of the Whitneyville Colt—a weapon that would revolutionize the handgun and become famous as the Colt “Walker.”

The other day I was doing a bit of research into ferry travel in the nineteenth century and came across a little snippet of information that immediately sent me down a rabbit trail to find out more.  Did you know that ferry boats were powered by horses at one time?  I didn’t.  Of course I knew about the horses and mules that walked along the banks of the Erie canal, tethered to barges that they pulled along.   But this is something entirely different.  These boats had either a turntable or treadmill type device mounted on or below the deck of the ship.  These platforms were connected to a gear which was in turn connected to the paddle wheels that propelled the boat forward.  When horses walked on the platforms of these mechanisms it set the whole thing in motion.  A number of these horse-powered boats, of several different designs, could be found on the waterways of North America starting in the late eighteenth century and continuing through the early years of the twentieth century.  They reached their heyday in the 1840s and 1850s.  During the early years of our country they were used on any number of rivers and lakes in the northeast, especially Lake Champlain and the Hudson River.  From there their use spread west to the Great Lakes, to the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers as well as other waterways that fed from these.  Of course they were generally only used for journeys of a few miles.  These boats came in various sizes.  One of the largest was powered by eight horse and could carry 200-plus passengers at about the same speed as a steamboat of its day.  There were a number of factors that led to the decline in the use of horseferrys, most notably the industrialization that occurred in America during the latter part of the nineteenth century.  With the expansion of bridge construction and railroad networks, there was less need for ferrys of any sort.  And when the internal combustion engine came along the death knell was finally sounded.  The only known surviving example of one of these horseferrys sits beneath the murky waters of Burlington Bay on Lake Champlain.  It was discovered during an underwater archaeological expedition in 1894 and today is part of Vermont’s Underwater Historical Preserve System.  It has also been added to the national Park Service’s National Register of Historical Places.  So is this something you already knew about, or was it as new to you as it was to me?  And are there other unusual ways you’ve heard of animals being used to power manmade devices that you’d like to share?  

Tomorrow will be Valentine’s Day.  For many folks that means roses and heart-shaped cards inscribed with sweet sentiments.  Not me.  I go for the good stuff...chocolate! Humankind’s love affair with chocolate goes way back.  In the early 1500’s, the first Spanish conquistadores to arrive in Mexico discovered the Aztecs enjoying chocolate as a beverage.  They called it the drink of the gods—they had the right idea.  But today I want to tell you about the chocolate that became part of Western history. Domenico Ghirardelli was born in Italy in 1817.  His merchant father apprenticed his son to a confectioner and spice importer.  At the age of 20, Domenico moved to South America, changed his name to Domingo and went into business for himself.  In Peru he opened a chocolate shop next door to an American piano maker named James Lick.  Lick decided to leave Peru for California, arriving in San Francisco on January 11, 1848, just 13 days before gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill. Lick had brought with him 600 pounds of Ghirardelli’s chocolate.  Soon he wrote Ghirardelli that he’d sold all the chocolate and there was a big demand for more.  Ghirardelli packed up and followed his friend to San Francisco. Arriving in 1849, he prospected a while, then owned a general store.  In 1852 he opened his confectionery now known as the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company.  Early business was up and down, but by 1885 the company was importing 450,000 pounds of cocoa beans a year, as well as grinding spices and selling coffee, wine and liquor. Chocolate was the mainstay of the business.  The equipment to process the cocoa beans took up so much space that the business needed bigger quarters.  After Ghirardelli retired in 1892, his sons purchased the square block in San Francisco presently known as Ghirardelli Square.  Luckily it survived the 1906 earthquake and fire.  It remains a major tourist attraction today, even though the chocolates are now made at a modern factory in San Leandro. There’s no reference to chocolate in my March 2012 historical, THE LAWMAN’S VOW.  But it does take place in northern California at the time Mr. Ghirardelli was starting up his business.  Another connection—I fuel my writing brain by nibbling Ghirardelli’s bittersweet chocolate chips, so there’s a bit of Ghirardelli chocolate in every line of the book. Here’s a blurb for you. A MAN WITH A MISSION... San Francisco Lawman Flynn O’Rourke swore he’d bring his sister’s killer to justice.  So when suspect Aaron Cragun is identified, Flynn will do anything, even rent a boat and sail to Cragun’s remote home to find him.  But Flynn doesn’t anticipate the storm that wrecks his boat, the injury that erases his memory...or the beautiful woman who rescues him. Sweet Sylvie is loving and kind—and Aaron Cragun’s daughter.  As Flynn’s memory returns, will the lawman keep his vow or allow himself to fall for the one woman forbidden to him?    What’s your favorite kind of chocolate?  Today’s posts will be entered in a drawing for an autographed copy of THE LAWMAN’S VOW, and a special treat from Mr. Ghirardelli’s establishment.

I want to welcome my good friend Paisley Kirkpatrick to Wildflower Junction. Paisley is one of the first writers I met when starting on my quest for publication and has become a beloved friend and critique partner :) I'm thrilled to say her first western historical NIGHT ANGEL will be hitting bookstores this August, with many more to follow in her Paradise Pines western series. She's graciously agreed to fill in for me today and tonight we will give away reader's-choice of my e-books to one comment poster ~Stacey Kayne       My Mother gave me a great gift -- five, three-inch binders full of the history of my family. Apparently I come from a group with a colorful past and have used some of their activities in my stories. She often spoke of the ranch at La Honda and I treasure some items that belonged to my grandfather while he lived there. When I first started blogging, I found this great story and love to share it with others.   The following accounting was obtained from Roscoe Wyatt, Oscar John and Walter Ray.  Oscar and Walter both remember the Younger brothers in person.  Wyatt was a conscientious historian.  Personal interviews included two of my family members:  Emma John Weeks and Percy Weeks.  Oscar John (87 at the time of the interview) worked on the Bandit Built Store.  He knew the Younger brothers from when they hid out on his La Honda ranch.     Among the men hired to build John Sears’ store, referred to as the ‘Bandit-Built Store’ in 1877 were the Younger brothers from Forsyth, Kansas.   At that time no one in La Honda, CA, knew them as the Younger brothers, because they were posing as cousins to Oscar John and Walter Ray.  Jim Younger actually lived behind the Redwood City Court House for one year using the name of Joe Hardin.   [caption id="attachment_30047" align="alignleft" width="191" caption="Three Younger brothers and their sister"][/caption] Cole, Jim, Bob and John Younger lived in Forsyth, Kansas on their father’s ranch in May, 1861, when the Civil War broke out.  Cole, the youngest son, joined the Confederate Army and became a colonel.  In November of that year, a short leave gave him a chance to visit his parents.  As he approached the ranch, he found the place engulfed in flames.  A band of Union troops and local Northern sympathizers reached the ranch before him and stole all of the stock before burning the grain, corn, and feed.  They also threw his youngest sister, who suffered from tuberculosis, out on the cold ground, causing her death.  When their father discovered what had happened and put up a fight, they hung him from a tree on the ranch.  This left their mother, oldest sister, Molly, and three younger brothers homeless.   Within hours Cole, along with a friend, organized local Southern sympathizers and within a few hours they started wiping out their enemies.  It’s reported that Cole alone killed one hundred men that he knew had something to do with his father’s and sister’s death.  By the end of the war, Cole had a price on his head for desertion, killing for revenge, and a long list of other charges.  He left his family in the care of his cousin, John Jarret’s parents.  He, John Jarret and a few friends left for California where they hoped to find sanctuary at his uncle’s ranch in San Jose, but ended up using a ranch in La Honda as their hideout.   Oscar John and his stepfather met the gang as they rode onto the ranch.  Oscar was ten years old at the time.  He recalls unsaddling ten horses.  Everyone but Cole Younger and John Jarret left the ranch.  They helped build the lakeside Ray ranch into a large two-story building.  Cole and John traveled back to Kansas in order to bring the rest of their family west.  They learned their mother had died and that Jim and Bob Younger had been accomplices to the James gang robberies.  Cole was convinced the Ray ranch was the best place for the remainder of his family until everything blew over.   They arrived back in La Honda August, 1876, when big changes were happening.   A new sawmill belonging to R.J. Weeks (my ancestor) opened and John Sears just started clearing an old bear pit site for his store and hotel.  At last luck was with the Younger family.  Oscar John talked John Sears into hiring his cousins from the east, no questions asked.  The three brothers and John Jarret went to work on the store.  Oscar John recalls seeing Cole shingling the roof of the store.  When the store was finished, the men returned to the Ray ranch to work the harvest.   John Jarret spent that season at the Ray ranch, one season in Redwood City and then went back east.  He returned the next year and started work on my family’s ranch.  While he was there, he married Molly Younger, thereby becoming Cole’s brother-in-law as well as cousin.   The James Brothers were planning to rob the Northfield Bank in Minnesota.  They couldn’t pull the job by themselves and no longer trusted their gang.  They sent a message to Cole by a man named Giles.  Since the Youngers knew Northfield, they expected them to participate in the robbery.  Frank and Jesse James sent a message stating that if the Youngers refused to come, they would have them exposed to the law.  Cole decided to participate to save his sister and brother-in-law.  He left a rare set of pearl handled pistols with Jarret at the Weeks Ranch.  He realized if he got caught with them, they’d be a dead giveaway as to his identity.   [caption id="attachment_30048" align="alignleft" width="204" caption="Cole Younger Gang"][/caption] Cole had an agreement with Jesse James that this bank robbery would be their last appearance in the mid-west.  Jesse assured Cole that after this job, they would never have to worry about money again.   Unfortunately, the robbery went wrong.  During their escape Jim Younger was shot in the jaw.  Jesse wanted to kill Jim because it would hinder to their escape.  Cole absolutely refused.  So, while Jim lay bleeding in a wet creek bottom, the James brothers made a clean getaway.  The Younger brothers gave themselves up to the law to save Jim from bleeding to death.  Cole, Jim and Bob Younger were sentenced to serve terms in the Minnesota Penitentiary.   When John Jarret learned what had happened to his brothers-in-law, he happened to be working away from the Weeks ranch and only coming home on the weekends.   Giles showed up at the ranch with a forged note from Cole.  Molly wasn’t home so he gave the note to their housekeeper.  It was written to Molly and asked that she give Giles the two rare guns.  The note stated that Cole’s prison term was just about up and that he wanted to sell the guns so he could get a new start in life.  The housekeeper, remembering Giles from his first trip, thought he was on the level and handed over the guns.  Jarret, for some unknown reason, came home that night and found Giles there with the guns in his possession.  After he read the letter, he knew it was forged because Cole always wrote in of care of him, not Molly.  Giles confessed that he had a chance to sell the guns to an Illinois museum.   Jim Bartley, La Honda rancher and teamster, visited the Younger brothers at the Northfield, Minnesota Penitentiary.  He learned that an old sweetheart of Jim Younger visited him regularly.  She promised to marry him when he got out of prison.  Jim looked forward to that day, planning once more to start life anew.  However, the woman turned him down when he got out.  His heart was broken.  Having nothing to live for, he rented a room at a cheap boarding house and shot himself through the head.   Cole and Bob dropped into obscurity after serving their terms.   There was a lot of unjustified killing and bad deeds that happened during the Civil War. I know what the brothers did was not right, but maybe they thought it was the only way to get justice. I don't know how I would have reacted if I'd come upon the slaughter of my family members. It was a rough time in our history. Do you think they overreacted or that maybe hunting down the killers was justified?