Little Maude and the Poem
On Friday, May 2 of 1919, little Maude arrived at the Union Protestant Infirmary, part of Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore Maryland. She was only twelve years old and had never been so far from her Tennessee home. Maude would spend the next nine months in the care of the Johns Hopkins medical team with…
Eva and the deer keeper’s lodge: Part One
Who has two clues and loves a mystery? This girl. I’ve got a two-parter for this family story, in which we’ll look into the 200 year-old question: was Eva Wampler Kinsey buried in an unmarked family plot on the grounds at the Dayton National Cemetery — a half century before the first civil war soldier…
Johnny and his dog
This bit of Dayton history is a reblog from a post on our sister site, Raising a Super Dog, that I published a while back. And by a while back, it’s possible I may mean about ten years ago or so. I’ll publish the story as it happened back then, complete with photos. At the…
Clara and the Language of Stamps
Clara was missing her friend, Elizabeth, who might as well have been a thousand miles away. Though Elizabeth was living in nearby Piqua, a stretch of about thirty miles from Dayton, the trip by Western Ohio’s interurban trolley would be an all day affair in 1907. Besides there were so many chores at hand and…
The Grass Widow Scandal
I know, I know. This is a bit of a downer story. But take a moment to read through this article, won’t you? Because I wanna talk about it. Ok, first of all. OMG. A horrific tale of a child possibly murdered by his own mother. But you know, this also is sensational journalism at…
The Lady and her Deutsche Dogge
I once asked a friend, a professional dog handler, for some advice about training tools. She told me that it doesn’t matter how heavy the leash is, it’s all about how much control you have over your dog. A thin leather leash is all that’s needed for a well-mannered canine companion. At the time I…
Benjamin and the Night the Stars Fell
Chances are, if you look up at a clear night sky from your backyard tonight, you’ll see the twinkle of merely a few stars. And I’ll remind you of a weirdly uncomfortable fact … you might notice that some of those are actually satellites. Depending on where you live, the degree of light pollution from…
Daisy and the Mustard Jar
There are solid ways of identifying the time period of vintage photographs and good lawdy I wish I knew about them when I started on this genealogical journey. It’s easy enough, though, to find plenty of websites to help with dating those images of yesteryear. The Photo Detective’s blog is full of info you didn’t…
Mystery Photo: Massillon Bicycle Repair
This cabinet card was found in our inherited collection of Sword Family photos and documents. It’s been bugging me. As far I I’ve researched, we don’t have any connections to Massillon, Ohio. I don’t recognize these two gentlemen from any other photos in our newfound collection. Why were these two bowler-capped fellows so important as…
Otto and his German Language Newspaper: Part Two
[Continued from Otto and his German Language Newspaper: Part 1] It was time for a new plan. Otto canvassed the German neighborhoods. Promising a quality newspaper, he collected several hundred subscriptions before even publishing the first issue. Otto partnered with Charles Schenk, an old friend from Frankfort that arrived in Dayton a couple of years…
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