Fighting ignorance: Share some local history.

[wolfman]

I have always loved the story of Portugee Phillips, and assumed it was fairly well known. I have no idea when I first heard it, but as of yet I have never met anyone else who was heard of him. Yesterday I was talking to a chick who was a western history major and had never heard of him. So I’m starting this thread for any body interested to expose the rest of us to people you think we should know about but probably don’t.

To get the ball rolling a short story of Portugee Phillips.

(As with most local history, the legends and facts get a little twisted together, but accepting the usual story fo the moment)

The was an idiot leader at Fort Kearny, He led a huge group of soldiers out to attack Indians(the Lakota I believe). He got drawn into an ambush and got slaughtered. The Fort commander realized that there was a huge force near, and the Fort was now undermanned. Portugee Phillips was a scout in the Fort, and went for help. After riding for three days straight through a horrible freezing blizzard he reached Fort Laramie. His horse died as soon as he arrived(and some versions say it was eaten). He walked to the Fort Commander, gave his message, and collapsed, (just like the Marathon guy except Phillips didn’t die. He was just was badly frostbit and in serious shock). The troops made it to the other fort before any attack(which there may not have been in any case). But he always seemed like a pretty heroic guy to be forgotten so soon.

[Bishamon]

Wow, I’ve lived fairly close to Fort Laramie for most of my life and I’ve never heard that story even. Lessened my ignorance quite a bit there. Thanks!

Well my contribution then would be the naming of the Rawhide Buttes just south of Lusk, Wyoming then. In 1849 a wagon train stopped for the night near the Buttes. During the night, one of the men on guard duty, I believe his name was Clyde, shot an Indian woman who happened to be wandering by. The next morning the local Indians descended upon the wagon train saying that somebody from the train killed the Chief’s daughter and if they turned him over, the train will be left alone. Nobody believed that it happened, so they didn’t turn anybody over and a fight broke out. During the fighting Clyde turned himself over to the Indians who then called off the attack. Back at their camp he was skinned alive, thus giving the Buttes their name. Of course this is all hypocraphal. But it doesn’t keep the town from re-enacting the event every year. I think the real reason had to do with Beaver pelts or something. Not nearly as interesting and lends itself to no parades or a week long excuse to get loaded.

[lawoot]

Seattle had a well known businessman back in its early days by the name of Yesler (has a street named after him now) who was famously litigious. He once sued the city over sidewalk rights (one of the factors that lead to the famous Seattle Underground, but that’s another story). Basically, the City wanted his sidewalk to widen an intersection, and he refused. The case was finally settled out of court after Yesler came to an agreement with the Mayor - who ALSO happened to be, you guessed it, Yesler.

[Sublight]

Almost every foreigner in Tokyo knows the Kinokuniya chain of department stores, since they have one of the best selections of English books in the city. How Kinokuniya got started is an interesting story.

In the 1670’s there was an obscure merchant named Bunzaemon living in a poor section of Edo. One year, he acquired a quantity of vegetables which he had pickled and stored away. That year, a huge fire broke out in the city, causing a huge run in food prices, allowing Bunzaemon to sell his merchandise at a large profit. With this modest sum, he pulled off a stunt that made him one of the wealthiest men in Japan.

While the fire was still burning, he took off for Kiso in Shinano province (near modern-day Nagano), which is where most of the city’s lumber came from. On the way, he spent almost every penny he had on fine clothes, attenders, musicians, dancing girls, and so on. When he arrived in Kiso, he put on a big show of being fabulously wealthy, spending lavishly and giving away gold coins to passing children. Having convinced the locals that he was rich, he was able to get them to sell not only their entire stocks of lumber, but also most of the timberland itself, all on his promise to pay them later.

A few weeks later, the timber merchants of Edo arrived in town to refill their warehouses, which had been emptied by the huge demands of rebuilding after the great fire. They discovered that the entire supply had been cornered by Bunzaemon, who transported his stock back to Edo to sell at the price of his choosing. Because of the control he exerted over the timber supply, he was also awarded contracts to rebuild many of the destroyed government buildings, shrines, and nobles’ homes.

In less than a year, he had gone from obscurity to one of the most powerful merchants in Japan. He renamed his business the Kinokuniya trading firm, and he himself became known as Kinokuniya Bunzaemon. 300 years later, the company is still going strong.

[kniz]

I won’t bore you with Elvis’ birth in Tupelo. Instead I’ll bore you with a couple of other facts.

The community of Pratts, used to be Frog Level.

And now the best for last, concerning a place just a little north of here.

here
The name chosen for the County Seat was “Cincinnati” and as the name became generally known, considerable complaint was made. Everyone in the County expected the Capital of Tishomingo to develop into one of the largest cities in the United States and seriously objected to the Northern name. After considerable persuasion, the people decided on the new name of Jacinto. Jacinto was chosen for the battle of San Jacinto, in which Gen. Sam Houston led Texas forces to an important victory over the Mexican army. Jacinto was located near near the geographic center of the county and soon public roads were established from Jacinto to the county settlements.

[ul] [sup]For those interested in Portugee Phillips story, follow thislink[/sup][/ul]

[casdave]

Not much going on around here.

Battle of Whimoor AD633 - King Penda, who was around 70 at the time, was defeated by the Northumbrian King Oswin.
This halted the advance of the pagan kings, and in the end was the breaking of paganism in England, which turned toward Christianity right up to the pesent day.

http://www.oldtykes.co.uk/dabatt.htm

Bramham Moor, 19 February 1408
Bramham Moor saw the death of Henry Percy, earl of Northumberland. Percy had been a key ally of Owen Glen Dwr in his rebellion against Henry IV. He had been in exile in Scotland, but changes in Scotland made him feel unsafe, and having spent time in Wales and then France, he returned to Scotland, raised a small force, and invaded England, where he was defeated and killed by Yorkshire knights led by the sheriff of York. The death of Percy removed the threat of rebellion in the North of England, and allowed Henry to focus more fully on Wales

http://www.rickard.karoo.net/battlesmain.html#bramham

n March 28th the great Battle of Towton, the bloodiest battle ever fought on British soil, resulted in the decisive defeat of the Lancastrians. The Earl of Northumberland commanded the vanguard which, harassed by a blinding snowstorm and the enemy’s arrows, received orders from him to charge, whereupon a fierce hand-to-hand conflict ensued.This ended in the complete rout of the attacking force. The Earl was among the 38,000 who are said to have fallen on that “evil Palm Sunday”.

http://www.alnwickcastle.com/alnwickcastle/staticpages.nsf/web\staticpages/family2?OpenDocument

http://www.castleford.org/history/cas015.html

The battle of Ferrybridge.

Ferrybridge was a small engagement before the larger battle of Towton. After proclaiming himself king, Edward IV gathered together a large force and marched north toward the Lancastrian position behind the Aire River. On March 28 the forces engaged and the Yorkist army was pushed back and their leader, Lord Fitzwalter, was killed. However, more Yorkist forces arrived later on in the day and beat back the Lancastrians

http://www.ehistory.com/world/BattleView.cfm?BID=8&WID=1

Then there was the battle of Leodis, which is now called Leeds, my home town…

http://www.leodis.cwc.net/civilwar.html

Then the Battle of Marston Moor 1644, a turning point in the English Civil War

The Battle of Marston Moor

Its about three or four miles from where I work.
Just yards from my house, the Battle of Castleford

Castleford, situated on the Ermine Street, near the confluence of the rivers Aire and Calder, is called by Marianus, Casterford. Here was a Roman station, named Legeolium, by Antoninus; and which Hovedon, the historian, expressly calls a city. Here many Roman ruins, and other antiquities have been frequently found; and at this place a battle was fought, between the Danes and Saxons, under Edred, in 950, in which the former were entirely defeated. The Danes, after having experienced the clemency of Edred at York, followed the Saxons from that city to Castleford, unnoticed, where they fell upon his rear with great fury; but such was the invincible valour of Edred, that he completely defeated them, and severely punished them for their ingratitude

http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/WRY3/Castleford/

Its usually pretty quiet round here, this area seems to have been bypassed somewhat by history.

[japatlgt]

The city of Nashville was a Union garrison during the American Civil War even though it was a Southern town. Very large population of Union soldiers. Consequently, the prostitution trade became rampant with “ladies” from all around clamoring to this hotbed of commerce. After the military governor had many of the ladies deported to curb a venereal disease epidemic only to have them catch the next train back to Nashville he legalized prostitution in Nashville in order to control it thereby making Nashville, Tn the first city in the U.S. to legalize prostitution. Desperate men take desperate measures. No cite for IMHO but you may google to your heart’s content.

[racinchikki]

According to local historians, Washington Irving’s famous story The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow is based upon real people, if not real events, from this area. Ichabod Crane (the name of the school I attended, as well) was based on Jesse Merwin, a schoolmaster in Kinderhook; Katrina Van Tassel was a daughter of the locally-prominent Van Allen family; Brom Bones was one of the Van Alstynes.

http://www.cocomysteries.com/articles/KINDERHOOK/sleepyhollow/sleepy_hollow.htm

[SciFiSam]

Thurrock is a suburban commuter town in Essex. It has no personality, boring architecture and little culture.

It’s also where Elizabeth the 1st set off the Armada with her ‘weak and feeble woman’ speech.

It’s also the first place Dracula fictionally came to stay (Purfleet is part of Thurrock), and where Joseph Conrad wrote Heart of Darkness, and the location for the original Poll Tax Riots which were the start of the Peasants’ Revolt. There are archaeological sites here of settlements back to the Bronze age, and the Romans kept a ‘Hundred’ here. Just today I was in a remarkably well-preserved 17th-century pub where my brother told me Catholics had been martyred in the car park (and that was only last weeek… ;)) But I guess that’s nothing unusual in England.

‘Thurrock’ also means ‘bilge or sump,’ ie the dirty bit at the bottom of the water. Anyone who’s seen the Thames down here would understand that straight away.

[Captain_Amazing]

Well, a lot of people probably know of him, but for those of you who don’t, here’s a story about someone who lived in a town near mine. His name was Elmer Elsworth, and he was born in Malta, NY. Time passed, and he became a businessman and a lawyer, and a friend of Abraham Lincoln’s, actually. By the time Lincoln was elected, he was living in Chicago. Lincoln took him to Washington with him, to make him chief clerk at the War Department, but that fell through.

When the Civil War started, Elsworth went to New York, and organized a volunteer unit called the First New York Zouves. One of their first orders was to secure the city of Alexandria, VA (where I live now, coincidentally), just south of Washington, DC, for the Union.

They took the city, but then Ellsworth saw a Confederate flag hanging outside the window of a house. He went into the house, with the intention of tearing the flag down, and the owner shot him dead, making him the first soldier to die in the Civil War.

The town I grew up in also has an old 19th century hotel, with the town line running right down the middle of the hotel lounge. The lounge had a bar on each end, and whenever one of the towns would declare itself dry, it would just move the liquor to the other bar.

[Wolfian]

Mount Laurel, New Jersey. A man named Evans bought 300 acres of land in the middle 17th century. At the center of it was a mount, a parting gift of a glacier. On the top of his mount he found many laurel trees growing. Being a very creative man he dubbed the area “Mount Laurel.” He then settled down with his wife in a cave on the mount.

General Clinton stayed here though a winter during the Revolutionary War.

[Skywatcher]

Ballston Common Mall was built on the site of a small shopping center and a football field. Forrest “Sgt. O’Rourke” Tucker played semi-pro football in Arlington and it’s likely that some of his games took place on that field.

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

During the Battle of Stone’s River (December, 1862) http://www.civilwarhome.com/stones.htm a small contingent of Artillery, with a light Infantry screen, were sent to hold McFadden’s Ford. Wave after wave of Confederate Cavalry & mounted Infantry threw themselves at the position, only to suffer terrible losses.

The Battle Of Stone’s River marks the turning point. From this day onward, the fate of the horse on the battlfield was sealed. Horse cavalry was doomed, although this would not be realized for years. After this, cavalry was only useful in suppressing technologicaly primative peoples.

And artillery became king of the battlefield, & the principle killer of troops on the field.