Her rose-colored headstone bears a single, tantalizing line: “OSS Veteran.” But her life? Well, that’s something of a mystery.
Searching for Meaning After the Civil War
Searching for Meaning After the Civil War When the bitter, painful Civil War finally drew to a close, oddly enough, it was white Southern women – not Southern men – who began quietly leaving their unique mark on history. Their activities weren’t overtly political. They weren’t trying to make a big splash. […]
Pioneers of Ft. Lauderdale
Think back, to a time before Ft. Lauderdale was the world’s cruise ship capital and the epitome of spring-break cool. Back before freeways. Before air conditioning. Back even before 1838, when the town’s first “tourist” — Maj. William Lauderdale – threw up a hastily-built fort beside the Rio Nuevo, hanging around for only […]
Harriet Walley, a Hidden Heroine
A TALE OF A HIDDEN HEROINE: Just a few days from now would be Harriet Walley’s 210th birthday — April 19th to be precise. But unlike her famous husband, David Walley, Harriet’s name has been largely forgotten. Born Harriet Jane Talmadge, she entered the world in 1815 in the scenic Berkshire mountains […]
The Slough House Cemetery: From Walking the Plank to Finding Gold
It started with a near-murder. . . The Slough House Pioneer cemetery is a tiny gem in Cosumnes Valley, just over an acre and a half in size. Dating back to 1850, it’s one of the oldest pioneer cemeteries in Northern California. So how did this little cemetery come to be? […]
A Lifetime of Service: Dr. Eliza Cook
Was Eliza Cook really Nevada’s first woman doctor? Despite what you may have heard, the answer seems to be no. None other than legendary Nevada historian Guy Rocha debunked that common myth, pointing out that other female physicians were already in practice more than a decade before Eliza received her medical degree in 1884. […]
Memoir Writing Tips from Margaret Agard
From High-Tech to Arctic Circle – and Peacocks Too! Margaret Agard is right up there among my memoir-writing heroes –with not just one memoir, but two and a half under her belt. (Number Three is currently in the works, and she’s contemplating a possible Book Four!) Her life has included plenty of […]
Three Bullets, Two Julias: Where Everyone Wound Up (Part 4)
Julia Lake’s wasn’t the only life snuffed out by those three bullets fired by an irate wife. (And in case you missed the earlier parts of this story, here’s where you can find Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3!) No, when Julia breathed her last on August 2, 1871, […]
Three Bullets, Two Julias (Part 2)
When we left off last time, Julia Savier had tracked her philandering husband all the way from Carson City to Stockton. Finding her husband’s mistress ensconced at the Grand Hotel, Julia knocked at the door, pulled the trigger three times, and watched her rival fall. “There,” she declared with satisfaction. […]
Three Bullets, Two Julias, & One Philandering Husband
A Family Affair . . . . Like all good mysteries, this one began with a tiny clue. An old newspaper from August, 1880 happened to mention a man who’d breathed his last at Walley’s Hot Springs. His name, we discovered, was Benjamin F. Seely. But who was Seely? Ah, and that’s where the twisting […]
Mrs. Pitts’ Maternity Home
This year, a modest house on Centerville Lane will celebrate its 100th birthday (or so the assessment records say). And ironically, the word “birthday” holds a very special meaning for this old home. Think 159 of them . . . . Options for pregnant mothers were limited in Gardnerville during the World War II years. You could have your baby the […]
GUEST BLOG: Memoir Author Sally Bailey Jasperson
Sally Bailey has danced with some of the biggest names in professional ballet. Think Rudolph Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn. She became a professional ballerina with the San Francisco Ballet at the age of 19, and spent the next 16 years on a whirlwind of stages: from New York to Ecuador, Istanbul to Cairo, Egypt to […]