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Christmas massacre in North Carolina
It was Christmas Day, 1929 in Germanton, Stokes County, North Carolina and a father of seven was out with his eldest son, shooting rabbits near their home just outside of town in Walnut Cove. At some point during the hunt, Arthur Lawson, then aged sixteen ran out of ammunition for his rifle. He asked his father if he could spare some, but Charles replied that he too was getting low, and gave his son some money, asking that he go into town and buy more for further shooting planned for that afternoon. Arthur set off for the walk into town from near their home at 2890 Brook Cove Road. There…
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The Ghost Girls
From its discovery in 1898, radium was considered a wonder of science. It glowed with an unearthly beauty. It delighted its discoverers, Marie Sklodowska Curie and her husband Pierre, who called it “My beautiful radium”. It was used in spas and clinics as a cure for everything from cancer to constipation. It was used in makeup, jewelry and paints. At the height of World War I, it was used to make the hands and dials of wristwatches glow in the dark. Girls all over the country flocked to make these watches as they paid up to three times what they could have been paid at any other wartime factory.…
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The Straw Hat Riots of 1922
People take their clothes very seriously. Ask any teenager trying to decide what to wear in the morning. We devote magazines to what to wear and more importantly what not wear. We make jokes about the fashion police. However, those involved in the Straw Hat Riots of 1922 took it to extremes. There was a strict tradition among men at the end of the 19th century and into the beginning of the 20th century about what was appropriate for the various seasons. Because of the lack of air conditioning and central heating, men’s wear changed over to lighter fabrics in the summer and heavier fabrics in the winter. Seersucker suits…
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Edith Wilson and the Secret Presidency
Woodrow Wilson was tired. He had been negotiating the Treaty of Versailles, planning for the League of Nations, campaigning for the US inclusion into said League of Nations and planned a speaking tour of the United States in support of this effort. He had suffered from a terrible bout with influenza in April 1919, and had not allowed himself the opportunity to rest. By September of the same year, Wilson was noticeably thinner and paler and his asthma was growing worse. He also complained of terrible headaches. Instead of taking the rest that he obviously needed, Wilson pushed on. On the evening of September 25, 1919, Wilson collapsed after speaking…
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Osage Reign of Terror
The early 1920’s looked like a good time for the Osage tribe. They were in the midst of an oil boom as large deposits of oil were found on tribal land in north central Oklahoma. Many members of the Osage tribe were becoming wealthy. Unlike other Native Americans, the Osage had deeds to their land, unlike other tribes forced onto a reservation. Under the 1906 Osage Allotment Act all subsurface minerals were tribally owned and held in trust by the United States government. Revenues from the mineral leases paid the tribe over 30 million dollars. Each member of the tribe received one share, called a headright, which could be passed…
