History Books

CHAPTER I.DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY."Greek phrase[—]"—HEROD. i. 192. The site of the second—or great Assyrian-monarchy was the upper portion of the Mesopotamian valley. The cities which successively formed its capitals lay, all of them, upon the middle Tigris; and the heart of the country was a district on either side that river, enclosed within the thirty-fifth and thirty-seventh... more...

Seventy-five years have passed since Lingard completed his History of England, which ends with the Revolution of 1688. During that period historical study has made a great advance. Year after year the mass of materials for a new History of England has increased; new lights have been thrown on events and characters, and old errors have been corrected. Many notable works have been written on various... more...

A SHACK ON THE PRAIRIE At sunset we came up out of the draw to the crest of the ridge. Perched on the high seat of the old spring wagon, we looked into a desolate land which reached to the horizon on every side. Prairie which had lain untouched since the Creation save for buffalo and roving bands of Indians, its brown grass scorched and crackling from the sun. No trees to break the endless monotony or... more...

CHAPTER I. TALKING OF MICHIGAN. My father was born in 1793, and my mother in 1802, in Putnam County, State of New York. Their names were John and Melinda Nowlin. Mother's maiden name was Light. My father owned a small farm of twenty-five acres, in the town of Kent, Putnam County, New York, about sixty miles from New York City. We had plenty of fruit, apples, pears, quinces and so forth, also a... more...

California Romantic and Resourceful One of the most important acts of the Grand Parlor of the Native Sons of the Golden West which met at Lake Tahoe in 1910 was the appropriation of approximately fifteen hundred dollars for the creation of a traveling fellowship in Pacific Coast history at the State University. In pursuance of the resolution adopted, a committee of five was appointed by the head of the... more...

Gentle Reader, If you look to move through this little volume in a direct line, after the present fashion of Railway Travelling, you will be signally disappointed.  Nothing can well be more circuitous than the route proposed to you, nor more eccentric than your present guide.  This book aspires to the precision of neither Patterson nor Bradshaw.  Let men “bloody with spurring, fiery hot with... more...

PREFACE. Comrades of Battery A:—The time for the fulfilment of my promise to you, has arrived. The days of our trials, hardships and sufferings are past, and it but remains to memorize the period during which we were battling for the sacred cause of the Union. Although we have not seen the closing contest of this sanguinary strife, yet I feel confident that we have done our share towards securing a... more...

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. There is still preserved a letter from England, written in a fine hand, with red ink, dated Obeydon? Feb. 5, 1641, and directed, “to her very loveing sonneSamuel Boreman,Ipswich in New Englandgive this withhaste.” The letter is as follows: “Good sonne, I have receaved your letter: whereby I understand that you are in good health, for which I give God thanks, as we are... more...

BACON'S REBELLION, 1676 The months just preceding the year 1676 were marked in Virginia by ominous signs of disaster. A great comet streamed through the sky "like a horsetail," and it was well known that that meant pestilence or war. Then came tens of thousands of pigeons, stretching across the sky as far as the eye could see. They were followed by vast swarms of what seem to have been... more...

As the earthquake and the great fire in San Francisco in the year 1906 were events of such unusual interest, and realizing how faulty is man's memory after time passes, I have here jotted down a few incidents which I personally observed, and shall lay them away, so that if in the future I should desire I can refer to these notes, made while the events were new and fresh in my mind, with some... more...