Tunnels Uncovered in St Catherines

I know this piece of history is actually Canadian, but they have given us a few things worth mentioning. Okay.One. Ice Hockey. But once upon a time, really cool things happened in Canada. Here's a story from St Catherines about tunnels that were uncovered. Were they part of the Underground Railroad? Were they part of Prohibition? Or is there a simpler answer for all of it?

Photo courtesy News Talk 610 CKTB

As an historian, we hear all the time about this Underground Railroad site or that Underground Railroad site. One time, I even read an article in a national magazine that told about an Underground Railroad site in Minnesota where "one could still see the old tracks." Far too often bad history is repeated because it seems "sexier" than what actually happened. Unfortunately, this new, sexy history generally detracts from the richness of actual events.

So, what are these tunnels in Canada? Before everyone jumps to conclusions, I would suggest we let historians do their jobs and do due-dilgence research. Then we can make an educated guess. Simply saying it's part of something so that it fits into a preconceived notion is dangerous to all history everywhere.

In the meantime, check out this story from St Catherines:

http://www.610cktb.com/news/2015/10/21/underground-tunnel-discovered-in-stcatharines

As a side note: the title of the news article is "Underground Tunnel Discovered in St Catherines." Isn't the 'underground' part kinda redundant?

Book Review: The Sage of Waterloo

This post originally appeared on East Niagara Post at:

 http://www.eastniagarapost.com/2015/10/its-novel-idea-sage-of-waterloo.html

Sometimes when I’m looking for books at the library, I search for books that I may review for East Niagara Post which fall outside my normal reading genres. The review this week is of a book that I wouldn’t normally read. In my ongoing efforts to bring you the best product I can, I will occasionally grab those odd books. This week’s selection, The Sage of Waterloo by Leona Francombe, is one of those books that is outside my comfort zone.

The Sage of Waterloo is a mixed historical fiction and modern parable. William is a modern-day, white rabbit living on the site of the Battle of Waterloo from 1815. Echoes from that great battle still reverberate across the hallowed ground, to be picked up by attuned senses of the animals currently living there.

Memories of the battle are passed down through the collective memories of the elders of the rabbit hutch. William’s grandmother, Old Lavender, teaches her protege how to decipher the ghosts roaming across the rolling hills of Belgium. After two hundred years, the impact of the battle can be relived through a set of adventures by a curious rabbit.

Flashes of the 1815 action are intermixed with adventures by rabbits over the same area. The memories passed down from rabbit to rabbit deliver an historical record from a unique point of view. When William is adopted by a family in a nearby village he gains a whole new perspective on life and the battle. He gains a new understanding of human nature and how the humans have distanced themselves from the very nature they live in. William and his clan are finely attuned to the changes in their environment, even to the atrocities of that nature from two centuries earlier.

While I thought that the premise of this book could have been interesting, I felt that the rabbit aspect of the book detracted from some otherwise impeccable historical research. The author’s grasp of the background of the Battle of Waterloo is very well done. The rabbit angle had the possibility of adding a unique look at the two hundred year old event. Instead, it took away from what could have been an extremely well done piece of historical fiction.

Pontificating rabbits with a paw on the pulse of human nature had the potential to be great. What we’re treated to was somewhat disjointed. I liked the idea that there was a collective memory for these animals. It reminded me of the how traditions were handed down orally generation after generation to preserve the ancient past. It is not too far fetched that a group of animals might have a similar ability.

The Sage of Waterloo is Leona Francombe’s first novel. While I was not sold on the rabbit aspect, I did find her attention to the historic detail to be wonderful. She puts a lot of time into her research, and that quality shines through the narrative. I hope that her next novel is another piece of historical fiction with just as much effort put into creating an accurate rendition of some event. It would be a fantastic read.

Craig Bacon thinks most animals know more than they let on. Follow him on Twitter at @hippieboy73 to see what the neighborhood cat forces him to write. Cats rule the universe.

A Death-Defying Job

When I worked running phone cables, there were several places that I had to leave my fear of heights at the door. I got over them mostly, but I still won't climb on the roof of my house. These guys in the following video, however, have taken working in heights to a whole new level. I know for sure that I would never be able to do the job you're about to see.

These guys are repairing the lightning rods on the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I never knew the statue was that big.

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/VxlKZereog0?rel=0

MUDDIED ROOTS: Sarah Allen's Parents

In this edition of Muddied Roots I will regale you with the investigation behind the parentage of Sarah Allen, my paternal great-great-great grandmother. Last week's inaugural edition told you of a continuing mystery. This week's will tell you the story a mystery solved. It took a long time and a lot of hands on research, but finally the deep, dark secrets were revealed.

About 15 years ago I decided that I should start researching my Dad's side of the family. My grandmother had tackled a good portion of my Mom's side. Now it was time to start compiling Dad's family. This research would be all new and fresh. I had to ask questions of my Dad and his aunt to get started.

With the internet, it became easier to get started. Especially helpful was the Orleans County Gen Web site (http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nyorlean/). This site, in its infancy at the time, had a nearly complete listing of cemetery records from all across the county. I was able to compile a great deal of information in a short period of time. The next step was to verify the data. (Sources are critical in genealogical research -- this will be an upcoming edition).

Once I started filling names into the family tree, I checked additional records to nail down immigration dates, marriages, and occupations. A unique source for me was a series of family trees that were included in 1976 history of the Town of Yates where my family was from.

I had traced my family back to a John Jacobs who had married a Sarah Allen. The Allen surname is a fairly common one which could be an insurmountable task for a novice researcher like me. I dove in and plowed ahead. Initially, I looked at family trees included in the 1976 book.

There was an Allen family in the book whose patriarch was Simon Allen. Simon was born in 1799 and was married to Elizabeth. According to the notes, there were 7 children born to this couple. Between child #1 and child #2, there is a gap that could have been filled with a missing child. The years were perfect for Sarah Allen to fit neatly into that gap. However, she was not listed as a child.

The next piece of data was that Sarah declared she had been born in Herkimer County in the 1855 NYS Census. Additionally, Child #1 and Child #2 on the list were stated to have been born in Little Falls, Herkimer County, New York. I started to believe I had found a connection.

On the Orleans site, there used to be a section where you could connect with someone who was researching the same surnames you were. Of course I sent an email to the man working on the Allen family. His reply was short and blunt -- "Sarah Allen is not a part of this family." That was it. All my research seemed to have been for naught. I tried to pick up other threads to lead me to the parents of Sarah Allen. No matter where I looked, it appeared that Simon and Elizabeth were definitely the right avenue. Now, how could I prove it?

The Orleans County Gen Web had a transcribed listing of the censuses. I poured through them looking for answers. Nothing jumped out at me. I took a break from researching this particular line for what ended up being a couple years.

Finally, several years ago Family Search (https://familysearch.org/) started posting actual photos of the censuses. Ancestry did the same. I decided to look at the real census rather than the alphabetical, transcribed lists. Once I found John Jacobs with his new bride in the 1850 census, I finally had my answer.

In the 1850 census, John Jacobs and his wife Sarah were listed in the Town of Yates as living next door to Simon Allen. The value of the land was listed as $0 with the land being a gift from S. Allen. There was my answer. Once Simon's daughter, Sarah, was married, she was given a small piece of land as a wedding gift. As to why Sarah is not listed in the family tree for Simon and Elizabeth, it is unknown.

Interestingly, John and Sarah's daughter-in-law, Sarah Russell was quite a bit of a mystery as to her date of death. For some reason, the Sarahs wanted to be mysterious. Thanks to so much data being out there waiting to be culled, the answers can sometimes be found a lot easier than they used to.

My biggest pieces of advice? Don't give up. And don't leave any stone unturned. You never know what secrets are lurking beneath.

Shipwreck Discovered in Lake Ontario

That big body of water to the north of us, Lake Ontario, has been giving up a few of its secrets lately. The Bay State, was one of the first propeller-driven ships on the lake. It disappeared in 1862 during a storm that November.

Jim Kennard and Roger Pawlowski, shipwreck hunters, made the discovery in deep water about 7 miles off of Fair Haven.  Fair Haven is near Sodus Point in Central New York.

Kennard and Pawlowski have discovered the resting spots of nearly a dozen shipwrecks on Lake Ontario, including the British warship from the Revolution, HMS Ontario.

Check out the link below for some awesome information about their discovery.

http://www.startribune.com/shipwreck-hunters-find-wreck-of-steamer-lost-in-1862-storm/334675241/

A Look Back at My 16 Year Old Self

I was trying to organize my work area (a laughable concept according to my wife) when I found a couple of old notebooks containing a novel I attempted to write when I was a sophomore in high school. It is a glimpse into what seems to be the distant past. It also is exquisitely bad. Terrible, in fact, but it is a first step as a writer.

As many of you know, I have always been an avid reader. I had an idea that I would like to write, but never really acted upon it until a friend showed me a novel he had written. Dan Forsyth had written a terrific horror novel that piqued my imagination. I immediately began my own novel, Electric Land. In addition to awful writing, it had an awful title to boot.

I was 16 years old when I wrote this novel. In the intervening 26 years, I have greatly improved. At least I hope I have. I re-read parts of this writing to see where my mind was back in high school. I was a big fan of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Robert McCammon. That likely showed through in what I was trying to accomplish. For giggles, I've decided to include a snippet from the beginning of the book.

This is how we wrote in the days before there was a computer in every home.

So, if you're brave and can hold in the laughter here it is:

The lightning ripped through the darkness with the following thunder rolling across the night sky. A heavy downpour threw itself from the clouds and pelted the ground with its fury. Trees bent at crazy angles as the wind fought to topple them.

From inside the old cabin at the base of the mountain, they were safe until the storm ended. The group of high school seniors were having a party earlier in the day when the storm hit. The sudden downpour washed out the road back to town, and they took refuge in the cabin.

The cabin itself was a piece of work. It had been built back in the late 1800s by Clarkston's only millionaire in its history. He had it built for a young woman he was having an affair with. She became pregnant and his wife said he must take care of the girl.

For nearly nine months, Mr. James Clark hid his girl in the cabin. He owned most of the land in the mountains and had the area posted so no outsiders would discover her. Clark's visits to the cabin were frequent and often at night so as to not arouse suspicion in the village.

As local story goes, the baby was stillborn and Clark killed the girl. He went back to his mansion in town and withdrew all his money from the banks and disappeared. Somewhere in those mountains were the graves of a mother and her stillborn son.

Seventeen-year-old Eric Whire told the story while he and the other group of teenagers sat around the fireplace. Outside the cabin, the storm blew its fury. In several spots, rain seeped in through the roof and the cabin floor was gradually getting waterlogged. After being in disuse for some time, the cabin leaked like a sieve.

The whole group had heard the story. In fact, the whole town knew the story, but they all still liked to hear about it. Each time it was told, it got bigger and better. Every time it was told to an out-of-towner, a group of tourists would scour the area looking for Clark's long-gone money.

Okay. There's a tiny snippet from the very beginning of my grand masterpiece. Believe me, it gets much worse. I had no idea how to develop a plot or characters. The plot is thin to the point of having huge holes in it. As for the characters, they have no depth and do not grow throughout the story. Despite how bad it was, I still want to thank Dan for giving me that extra push to try my hand at writing.

I have two full notebooks of this nonsense. All of it is written in longhand. That's how we did it before there were computers in every pocket. Sure there were typewriters, but we didn't carry them around to study hall. It would take awhile to type all that into the computer. I'm not sure it's really worth it.

Forgotten History

Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father, author of the Declaration of Independence, and third President of the United States, also founded the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. While mired in controversy over slavery by revisionists, Jefferson was a man who embraced enlightenment. He was a man whose talents encompassed the arts, science, politics, architecture, religion and philosophy.

Official Presidential Portrait of Thomas Jefferson
by Rembrandt Peale

His intense desire for learning and passing on that knowledge was evident from his establishment of the University of Virginia, an institution of "higher learning free of church influences." At the age of 76, with the assistance of Edward Bacon, Jefferson chose the site for the new university and was the principal designer for most of the buildings. It was noted at the time that the university was centered around a grand library rather than a chapel.

As part of this design, Jefferson also included an advanced chemistry lab  This lab was state of the art for the time, and wholly designed by the former President with him leaning on previous British designs to aid his work. The lab fell into disuse two decades later and was bricked up to lie virtually forgotten behind brick walls.

A fire in 1895 as well as a gutting to "restore" the interior of the building in 1976 to Jeffersonian design was thought to have destroyed any traces of the chemistry lab. In February 2013, an architectural firm working on renovations discovered the long forgotten lab. There, another piece of history, forged from the mind of Thomas Jefferson, was uncovered and drawn into the light.

This articles explain in a bit more detail of what exactly was discovered and more of the background. I love it when history is preserved (even accidentally) rather than destroyed in programs designed to "modernize" our lives (see Urban Renewal). Considering the provenance of its creation, this discovery is a significant piece of history from one of our Founding Fathers.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/10/18/449729576/historic-chemistry-lab-with-links-to-thomas-jefferson-discovered-behind-wall

http://news.yahoo.com/what-we-can-learn-about-the-discovery-of-thomas-jefferson-s-chemistry-lab-at-university-of-virginia-194302159.html