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Insula Tiberina- The Island in the Middle of the Tiber
In the center of the Tiber River, the Tiber Island, or Insula Tiberina in Latin, has always been a place connected to the founding of Rome. Legend says that it was created when Roman citizens expelled Tarquinius Superbus , or Tarquin the Proud in Latin. Citizens through the wheat sheaves they had stolen from the the king into the river. Supposedly, the dirt and the silt accumulated around the wheat in the river and formed the island. Another legend says it was built on the ruins of an ancient ship. However, these are just legends as the island was present as a crossing place for the Tiber since prehistoric times.…
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A German Texas- Mainzer Adelsverein
When most people think of Texas they think of wide open spaces, cowboys and oil rigs. They do not think of oompah bands. However, that is what you will find in the German Belt of Texas. This is an area of towns founded by the The Mainzer Adelsverein at Beibrich am Rhein or Adelsverein for short. This was a society set up to fund the immigration of Germans to Texas to start a New Germany. Wait, Germans in Texas? How does this work? Germany in the 19th century was divided into more than thirty independent kingdoms, principalities, and free cities. Adding to this chaos was the birth of the industrial…
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RAF Melton Mowbray
Melton Mowbray is a small market town nestling on the edge of Leicestershire. Famous for its racehorses, pork pies and stilton cheese, and certain buildings being part of the divorce settlement of Anne of Cleves when she managed to pick her way out of her marriage to Henry VIII with her head intact, Melton Mowbray also has a plethora of prominent military installations in the vicinity, both in use and no longer operational. One such place is RAF Melton Mowbray. Now the site of a small industrial centre, a lorry park and occasional Bank Holiday Market, near to and on the old airfield, RAF Melton Mowbray was opened in 1942…
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Historical Towns USA- Ste. Genevieve, Missouri
Ste. Genevieve is the first permanent settlement on the Western bank of the Mississippi River. It was founded in the 18th century by immigrants from Arcadia and migrants from Illinois Territory. Census records state that Ste. Genevieve was permanently settled by 1752 with some accounts placing the settlement there as early as 1722. On the other side of the river was Fort de Chartres about five miles northeast and Kaskaskia, the capitol of Illinois Territory, was five miles southeast. The village was named after a French saint from the 5th century. In 449, Genevieve led an expedition to relieve the citizens of Paris during a siege, and in 451 the…
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Lawrence, Kansas
Prior to 1854, much of Kansas was part of the Shawnee Indian reservation. Kansas territory was open for settlement in 1854 and with that pronouncement all the trouble began. The country was embroiled in a debate about whether the future states would be slave or free. The Missouri Compromise had declared that all new territories north of latitude 36°30′. The Kansas Nebraska Act spearheaded by Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois introduced the concept of popular sovereignty. Let the people of the territory decide whether they would be a slave state or a free state. Sounds good and logical, right? Well, in practice it did not turn out that…
