Duchess of Weaselskin

Bayfield, CO - The last few days we have been experiencing an early monsoon weather in Southwest Colorado, where the afternoons are formed, filled with much needed rain showers around this neck of the woods.




My buddy, Robert, is getting good at this rappelling mountain stuff, testing his skills and trusting in himself, equipment and ropes. That is him in the photo on the left and the video above, rappelling the mountain at our place here in southwest Colorado. We are so proud of him!

Where are the Jobs, Boehner? Stop the Obstructionism of the GOP Congress!

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100 Years Ago Today - 9 July 1912

Banner, Ohio - One hundred years ago today, in The Democratic Banner, Mt. Vernon, Ohio, Tuesday, July 9, 1912, we find the headlines, August 5 Is The Date for the "Bull Moose" convention in Chicago, Illinois. Back one hundred years ago political issues were calling for a third party convention as the doors were thrown open to all.

This was a time when voters of country, without regard to previous party affiliations, who believed time for retirement of political boss was at hand, when all were invited to attend gathering in Chicago, August 5, 1912. James R. Garfield signed the call for the Roosevelt following in Ohio.

New York, July 8, 1912 -- "signed by (Teddy) Roosevelt leaders in 40 states and addressed To the people of the United States, without regard to past political differences, the call for the Roosevelt third party to a convention to be held in Chicago, Aug. 5, 1912) was issued through Senator Joseph M. Dixon of Montana.

"The party will probably be called the Progressive National party. The convention will decide as to that. Eight states -- Maine, North Carolina, Delaware, South Carolina, aRkansas, Mississipi, Idaho and Nevada -- are pot represented in the provisional committee which signed the call for the convention. Senator Dixon explained that in all these states the Roosevelt faction controls or has a chance to control the regular Republican organization, hence the omission. The call is as follows:

Addressed To People

"To the people of the United States, without regard to past political differences, who through repeated betrayals realize that today the power of the crooked political bosses and of the privileged classes behind them is so strong in the two old party organizations that no helpful government in the real interests of our county can come out of either;

"Who believe that the time has come for a national progressive movement, a nation-wide movement, on non sectional lines, so that the people may be served in sincerity and truth by an organization unfettered by obligation to conflicting interests;

"Who believe that the government by the few tends to become and has in fact become government by the sordid influences that control the few;

"Who believe that only through the movement proposed can we obtain in the nation and the several states the legislation demanded by the modern industrial evolution; legislation which shall favor honest business and yet control the great agencies of modern business so as to insure their being used int he interest of the whole people; legislation which shall promote prosperity and at the same time secure the better and more equitable diffusion of prosperity; legislation which shall promote the economic well being of the honest farmer, wage worker, professional man and business man alike, but which shall at the same time strike in efficient fashion -- and not merely pretend to strike -- at the roots of privilege in the world of industry no less than in the world of politics;

"Who believe that only this type of wise industrial evolution will avert industrial revolution;

To Favor Honest Business

"Who believe that wholesome party government can come only if there is wholesome party management in a spirit of service tot he whole county, and who hold that the commandment delivered at Sinai, 'Thou shalt not steal,' applies to politics as well as to business. "To all in accord with these views a call is hereby issued by the provisional committee under the resolution of the mass meeting held in Chicago on June 22, 1912, last to send from each state a number of delegates, whose votes in the convention shall count for as many votes as the state shall have senators and representatives in congress, to meet in mass convention at Chicago on the fifth day of August, 1912, for the purpose of nominating candidates to be supported for the positions of president and vice president of the United States." View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

NW Okie's Corner

Bayfield, CO - The day after the 4th of July, we set our video camera on time-lapse to capture the hummingbirds who were taking in sweet nectar from the hummingbird feeder outside our living room window, Thursday morning.



HOHL/ WARWICK Ancestry

While doing some genealogy research on Ancestry.com we found a story concerning our 5th Great Grandfather, Peter Thomas Hohl (1706-1776). But we will get to that later down the page.

Peter Thomas HOHL/HULL was born in Desloch, Worms, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany. In 1741 he immigrated to the New World and settling around Crabbottom, Augusta, Virginia. Peter married Susannah Margaretha Dieffenbacher, 25 November 1750, in the Trinity Lutheran Church, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Peter and Susannah's children were: Catherine, Margaret, Peter Jr., Adam (our 4th great grandfather, born 1754 in Augusta, Virginia; married Esther Keister (1767-1825), died Jun 1836, in Pendleton County, Virginia), George Sr., Jacob, Phebe Anistasia.

My HOHL/HULL ancestors married into the Warwick family. Adam & Esther HOHL/HULL had a daughter Esther (1804-1853), who married Robert Craig Warwick (1801-1845). Robert Craig Warwick & Esther HOHL/HULL had a son William Fechtig Warwick (1822-1902), who married Phebe Anthea Pray (1833-1905). Wm Fechtig & Phebe Anthea Pray Warwick were our 2nd great grandparents. And that leads us to our great grandfather, John Robert Warwick (1857-1937), who married Signora Belle Gwin. John & Signora's childred were Constance Estella, Robert Lee and Wilbur (died in infancy).

Story of Peter Hull/Hohl

In 1753, part of the tract on the Shenandoah River, purchased by Peter HOHL/HULL in 1752, was delivered to a Nicholas TROUT on 3 January 1753. Nicholas TROUT was a friend and neighbor of Peter HOHL/HULL. Not long after this land transaction between HOHL/HULL and TROUT, they were (as it is told) having a friendly conversation, during which TROUT playfully pulled a gun from HULL's hand, pulling the muzzle toward him.

According to witnesses and court records, the gun accidentally discharged, instantly killing TROUT. An inquest was held, and Peter HOHL/HULL (an influential person in the settlement) was found blameless. The gun was found guilty.

From the Original Petitions and Papers filed in Augusta County Court - 1753-54, Part I, we find the following: "Inquisition on the body of Nicholas TROUT, 17 July 1753. Jurors do say that the said Nicholas TROUT, in simplicity, without malice, playing with Peter HOHL/HULL and seizing a gun in said HULL's hands and pulling its' muzzle towards him 'she' accidentally went off without any act or knowledge of the said HULL and discharged herself with a ball and two great shots into ye breast of said TROUT, of which he died immediately on ye spot, and quit ye gun wherewith ye same was done was entirely in fault for not keeping her bounds, but going off without force or consent." In teste: Peter SCHOLL, Coroner; John STEVENSON, Ledwick FRANCISCO, John MacMICHEL, James BRUSTER, Thomas WATS, Thomas CRAWFORD, Patrick MILICAN, John WILSON, Jacob HARMAN, Niclas NOLL, Hennery DALY, Jacob NICHOLAS. - Augusta County, Virginia, Court Records, v.I, p.440.

Since our pioneer ancestors settled in the Valley of Virginia by way of Pennsylvania after immigrating from Germany, we continue our reading of the history of Virginia by learning some history of Pendleton county, on the western side of West Virginia.

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Pendleton County, (West) Virginia - Before White Man Came

Pendleton County, VA - This week we continue our history of Virginia by moving to Pendleton county, West Virginia. The History of Pendleton County, Virginia is written in 1917 or around there by Oren Frederic Morton, the author of the History of Highland County Virginia. The image on the left shows the county of Pendleton, West Virginia highlighted in red. Pendleton county was thought to have been named for Edmund Pendleton, a Virginia statesmen and jurist.

It was before the white man, when the Valley of Virginia became known to the white immigrants. The Valley of Virginia was an almost uninhabited land. On the South branch of the Potomac was a clan of the Shawnees, only about 150 strong. In Berkeley county were a few of the Tuscaroras. On the Susquehanna, a hundred miles to the northeast, was the Mingo tribe. Much farther to the south was the Catawbas, dwelling on the river in North Carolina which bears their name. The long intervening distance did not keep these red men from warring upon one another, though. They made of the valley a military highway, their trails taking advantage of its leading watercourses. The weak tribe of the Senedos, living near the forks of the Shenandoah, had lately been crushed between these upper and nether millstones. Westward of the Alleghanies was an unoccupied forest reaching to the very banks of the Ohio.

The whole Shawnee tribe, which committed so much havoc for half a century, counted only a thousand souls. To the red man in 1725 the valley of the Shenandoah and the intricate hills of West Virginia were little else than one immense game preserve. The lowlands of the Shenandoah, a region which takes naturally to a forest growth, were then an open prairie, the result of buying the grass at the end of each hunting season. The "indian old field" in Hardy was another of these prairies.

The word "Shawanogi" means "Southerners." In the mouth of the white immigrants the word became "Shawanoes," or "Shawnees." These Indians were of Algonquin stock and therefore related to the tribes of New England and the Middle States. They had pushed southward from their early home in the far North, until turned back by the Catawbas and other tribes in the South Atlantic region. In the eighteenth century they claimed ownership of the valleys of Pendleton. In mental attributes and general ability, the Shawnees stood above the average of the Indian race. In the person of Tecumseh they gave the world one of the ablest Indians known to history. They could very often converse in several tongues, and before they left the South Branch they could generally talk with the pioneers.

The Shawnee were active, sensible, manly and high-spirited. They were cheerful and full of jokes and laughter, but in deceit and treachery they were not outclassed by any tribe. They despised the prowess of other Indians, and ti became their boast that they killed for carried into captivity ten white persons for every warrior that they lost. According to the Indian standard, the Shawnees were generous livers and their women were superior housekeepers.

No tribe was more restless than the Shawnee, yet it was not correct to suppose it was in the nature of the red man tone ever on the go. His sense of inhabitiveness was strong. He would make a long and even dangerous journey to see the place where his tribe used to live and to gaze upon the graves of his forefathers. The roving of the Indian was only in response to pressure from without.

Each tribe claimed a definite territory, and for another people to disregard the boundary line was a cause of war. Nevertheless, he had no knowledge of territorial citizenship. He always thought of himself as a member of his tribe, wherever that tribe might chance to dwell. Consequently it never occurred to a Shawnee to speak of himself as a Virginian or an Ohian. As a natural result there was no such thing as individual ownership of the soil. The land of the tribe belonged to the tribe as a people and could be sold only by the rice. The right of the individual to his truck patch was respected, but his claim ceased when he quit using the ground.

The Indian never counted relationships as we do. The tribe was made up of clans, or groups, each with its own distinctive name, and each living in a village by itself. The members of a clan counted themselves as brothers and sisters, and the Indian no more thought of marrying within his clan than of marrying his blood sister. The clan looking upon itself as a family, an injury to a member thereof was held as an injury to the family as a whole, and any warrior thought it his duty to avenge the hurt. If the injure came from another time, vengeance was inflicted upon any member of that tribe. There was no thought of punishing the innocent for the guilty, since the members of the offending clan were likewise brothers and sisters. And as the Indian meted out redress against people of his won race, so did he meet it out upon the white immigrant.

Because the people of his tribe were brothers he thought the whites were brothers among themselves. He could not at first comprehend customs or thought which were unlike his own. He judged the white immigrant by his own measuring stick.

The families of a clan never lived in isolated homes but always in a single village. A limited agriculture was carried on in an open space around the village. Subsistence however was mainly upon game and fish. A people living in this manner required a very large area from which to draw its support. Asa natural result the Indian never butchered game out of sheer wantonness, after the manner of some people who style themselves civilized.

A shawnee hut was made of long poles bent together and fastened at the top and a covering of bark laid on. The only openings were a place to go in or out and a crevice for the smoke. The art of weaving was unknown to this tribe. clothing was made of skins tanned by a simple process. Until there was contact with white traders the only aspens or other implements were of stone or bone. There were baskets, but the pottery was not fireproof, water being boiled by dropping heated stones into a vessel.

Custom took the place of law and was rigidly enforced. An offense against custom was punished by a boycott. Government was nearly a pure democracy. Matters of public interest were settled in a council, where there was a general right to speak and to vote. The speeches were often eloquent, but the long winded orator was not tolerated. Men of address and daring were of course influential, and without uncommon ability no person might be a chief or military leader.

In his own way and to the extent of the light given him the Indian was religious. After death he believed the soul of the warrior took its flight to a happy hunting ground in the region beyond the setting sun. Here the departed one followed the chase without limit of days. But no coward and no deformed person might enter this abode of bliss. In mutilating a slain enemy he was simply following out this belief.

The Indian commonly had but one wife. Children were treated with kindness. They belonged to the clan of the mother, and were under authority of the chief of that clan.The father had particular authority over his own children, yet exercised control over the children of sisters. The red man was called lazy because his wife cared for the truck patch as well as the cabin. This charge was not altogether just. The braves spent many long and toilsome hours in making their weapons and in stalking game. To pursue wild animals and follow the warpath requires supple limbs, and supple limbs do not go with hard labor.

The Indians large fund of folklore and tribal history was passed down from father to son in the form of oral tradition. The Indian had a keen sense of humor, as his proverbs bear witness. The following are some of these:

1. No Indian ever sold his daughter for a name.
2. A squaw's tongue runs faster than the wind's legs.
3. The indian scalps his enemy; the paleface skins his friends.
4. Before the paleface came, there was no poison in the Indian's corn.There will be hungry palefaces so long as there is any Indian land to swallow.
5. There are three things it takes a strong man to hold; a young warrior, a wild horse, and a handsome squaw.

Thomas Riley Marshall (1854-1925)

Indiana - Who was Thomas Riley Marshall besides being an American Democratic politician who served as the 28th Vice President of the United States under President Woodrow Wilson?

In the July 9, 1912, newspaper, The Democratic Banner, page 2, we find a feature concerning Thomas Riley Marshall, the Democratic candidate for vice president. Marshall was born at North Manchester, Indiana, March 4, 1854. His father was Daniel M. Marshall and his mother was Martha A. Patterson.

Thomas Riley Marshall graduated from Wabash college in 1873, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1875. The following year he received his master's degree from Wabash. The same institution later gave him the honorary degree of L.L. D. in 1909. Notre Dame also gave him its L.L. D. in 1910, and the University of Pennsylvania bestowed the same degree upon him in 1911.

Governor Marshall's entry into the law profession was as senior member of the firm of Marshall & McNagny, which was formed in 1876. This firm had its office at Columbia City, Indiana, which ever since has been Governor Marshall's home. The firm name of Marshall & McNagny was changed in 1892 to marshall, McNagny & Clugston. Governor Marshall continued in this firm until 1909, when he took office as governor of Indiana. The governor married on October 2, 1895, to Lois I. Kimsey of Angola, Indiana. He was a trustee of Wabash College. In religious matters he was a Presbyterian. Fraternally he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and of Phi Gamma Delta and was a thirty-third degree Mason. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

1912 - Teddy Roosevelt Denounces Anti-Trust Law

Oyster Bay, NY - It was in Oyster Bay, New York, 6 July 1912, that Theodore Roosevelt repeated his attack upon the platforms of the two great parties, which he considered radically wrong. What his own platform was to be in the 1912 campaign, he said he hopes to be able to announce within a week or two. Roosevelt's utterance indicated a tentative return to "the new nationalism" and the familiar gospel preached at Osawatomie, Kansas, in 1910.

In calling for a rigid enforcement of the Sherman anti-trust law, Colonel Roosevelt took the Democratic and Republican parties severely to task. For his part, he said that he believed the law an unjust one, and one never meant to be enforced literally. Any endeavor to redeem their platform pledges by enforcing this law would end disastrously, damaging principally the farmer and other members of co-operative associations.

That law was on the books for years and although Teddy Roosevelt denounced it in messages and speeches, he was the first president to enforce it because it was a law. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Bryan Back Home and Makes Speech (1912)

Lincoln, Neb - In that same newspaper, The Democratic Banner, dated 9 July 1912, page 2, we found this article concerning William Jennings Bryan made in Lincoln, Nebraska, July 6, 1912, concerning Bryan being back home and making speeches about the Republican convention.

Lincoln, Neb., July 6, 1912 -- "Three thousand Lincoln people joined in a homecoming reception to Colonel Bryan, who told them all about the Baltimore convention in a three quarters of an hour speech.

Bryan said, "I never deluged myself into believing that I could be nominated at Baltimore. In fact, I could have come nearer to being nominated at Chicago. At the national convention I tried to be a harmonizer, always insisting that compromise should be so the side of the progressives.

"After Taft had been named by means I will not describe and after Roosevelt's followers ahd placed him in nomination as their leader, I received that the only thing for the Democrats to do was to write a platform so progressive at Baltimore and to nominate a candidate so progressive that Mr. Roosevelt could find o excuse for running.

"Any other progressive than Wilson would have suited me just as well. But under the prevailing circumstances I do not believe that any other progressive could poll so many votes as would he. But if anyone thinks that I wanted the nomination, let him explain why it is that I am happier in supporting Mr. Wilson for that place than in making the race myself." View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

1900 - Muskogee People Think Dennis Flynn Is Looking For Trouble

Muskogee, OK - On 7 August 1900, page 8, of The Guthrie Daily Leader, there was a story that proclaimed that the honorable Dennis Flynn of Oklahoma was looking for trouble. What was this trouble Flynn was looking for?

The Muskogee Times said, Hon. Dennis Flynn, of Oklahoma was in town for a few hours today. He was largely interested in mining property in the northwestern part of the territory. It was stated however that his business had no relation to mining property and that he was getting data for a little investigation of federal officers in the territory. Mr Flynn had always aimed high and the game he was looking for was, if reports were true "some of the finest." Several people were standing on the "tiptoe of expectancy" waiting to see the outcome of his visit.

Mr. Flynn believed the future of this territory was rather uncertain. There seems to be no way, no satisfactory way out of the dilemma. Annexation to Oklahoma as the different sections in the territory were ready. This was Dennis Flynn's ultimatum, and if the Republican party remains in power it will come pretty near following out the suggestion. There is hardly a conceivable condition worse than the present of 1900 and from very despair the people would be driven to join Oklahoma. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

1920 Meal Ticket Patriots of Oklahoma Politics

Durant, OK - Have you ever heard of the "Meal Ticket Patriots" of the 1920's of Oklahoma Politics? Who were they and how did they influence Oklahoma politics? This article was found in the Durant Weekly News, dated 24 September 1920, page 11, Durant, Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory (Oklahoma).

As the story was reported by Luther Harrison, under the headlines "Meal Ticket Patriots," ten years in Oklahoma politics and several campaigns in the State political headquarters had given Harrison a line on meal ticket patriots of Oklahoma.

It was not easy for Luther Harrison to get the names of all of those for their name was Legion, but in ten years' time the reporter had become acquainted with an entire battalion of public spirited citizens who will support any candidate or any ticket for a cash consideration. It may be said that a campaign was formally open when the meal ticket brigade began to knock at the door of political headquarters.

All of them had an exalted idea of their own importance. All of them could deliver the solid vote of a township, a county or a congressional district. If the organization is interested in a township, the meal ticket patriot is ready to convince you that the township in question is his pet stock in trade. If a congressional district was deemed doubtful, the meal ticket man was ready to carry that district horse, foot and dragoon.

The political gyrations of these meal ticket patriots furnishes the comedy of every political struggle. The case with which they reconcile their ability to deliver a thousand votes with their urgent need of a dollar and a quarter is more comic than anything that ever came from the pen of the world's greatest comedian.

The recommendations they gave themselves and the eulogies they pronounced on their own oratorical ability would be astounding if one didn't know the chief characteristic of the meal ticket men. And thus it was that campaigns came and went, issues were agitated but rarely settled, the great game of American politics was played to its frazzled close, but the meal ticket patriot, like a certain famous brooklet, went on forever. In the humid autumn days he was still going good and before the idea of November came you would have seen him in your own bailiwick preaching a gospel that placed money in his purse and a meal ticket in his pocket, and for that reason he was more than satisfied. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe