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In the 1880s, the Ozark hills around Taney County, Missouri, echoed with the sound of Winchester rifles. Men were lynched from tree limbs by masked night riders. Bundles of switches were tossed on the porches of “loose” men and women as a grim warning to reform or leave the area. This is the ePub/eBook version of this title. This is not the print edition.
In this fascinating look at an often overlooked subject, historian Larry Wood delves into the hidden lives of the brave belles of Missouri. Sometimes connected by blood but always united in purpose, these wives, sisters, daughters, lovers, friends, and mothers risked their lives and their freedom to give aid and comfort to their menfolk.
In 1884, Cincinnati was wracked by three days of violence in one of the most destructive riots in American history. Nurtured by natural disasters, overtly corrupt governments, and politicians jockeying for power and sparked by murder and massive miscarriage of justice, the 10,000-person strong riot left more than fifty dead, hundreds injured, and the courthouse burned to the ground.
Capt. Grant Marsh was one of the river pilots who navigated the shoals and rapids of the Missouri River. Captain Marsh watched Jackson’s sense of American Manifest Destiny unfold. He helped survey the upper reaches of the Missouri, he took his steamer to the shallows of Little Bighorn to return battle-weary soldiers to their homes, and he watched as the region was transformed from a lonesome wilderness to a region of agriculture, commerce, and industry. Paperback.
This collection of events carries readers through an era of bootlegging, highway robbery, and vigilante courts. From the cow town of Baxter Springs, Kansas, to the booming mining camp of Granby, Missouri, the Ozarks were a magnet for lawlessness. Though some stories contain gory details, the author’s intention in narrating these events is not to pay tribute to the likes of the Tri-State Terror, Bloody Britton, or the Missouri Kid. Instead Larry Wood aspires to come to terms with the region’s violent past, learn from it, and move forward.
This is the ePub/eBook version of this title. This is not the print edition.
The depiction of the paranormal has become prevalent in television and movies in recent years. This intriguing account by ghost hunters Lorri Sankowsky and Keri Young covers everything from high-tech gadgets, to inborn psychic abilities, while instructing readers on how to locate friendly or not so friendly apparitions.
Volume 2 of this valuable publication provides detailed portraits of Pike County’s prominent citizens and gives focus as to how they worked to establish a blueprint for a respectable society. The history of townships continues along with information on the evolution of the press, the organization of this region’s county courts and judicial system, and a digest of the common state laws.
An historic treasure, this volume provides the story of the sturdy pioneers of Pike County who inhabited the Military Tract, a section of bounty land set aside by an act of Congress as payment to volunteer soldiers of the War of 1812. These counties, among the first settled in Illinois, were located in the western part of the state between the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. This land includes the present counties of Adams, Brown, Calhoun, Fulton, Hancock, Henderson, Knox, McDonough, Mercer, Peoria, Schuyler, Stark, and Warren.
The Ozarks region—spanning parts of Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma—overflows with visible fragments of the past. A Living History of the Ozarks is a guide to the region through landmarks and sites which offer clues to its intriguing history. This splendorous land inspired Phyllis Rossiter, a native of the Ozarks, to write about the area to help people learn to appreciate its beauty and to recognize our dependence upon nature. “I feel that it’s important to safeguard what we have left,” says Rossiter. “In my writing, if I can help achieve that, then that’s what I want to do—to help people acquire an appreciation for nature.”
The battle between the Blue and Gray had ended, but the Ozarks were still witnessing a war. Divided loyalties gave rise to rampant lawlessness and debauchery, plaguing this region with robberies, shootouts, and showdowns. In twenty-five compelling chapters, Larry Wood meticulously compiles his research from the shocking incidents that took place in the Ozarks during the late 1860s through the 1950s. The author includes haunting portraits of the corrupt criminals, snapshots of Western towns where the events took place, and excerpts from previously published magazine articles.
In the lore of the Wild West, the Younger brothers have been glorified as heroes and outlaws. Like Jesse and Frank James, with whom the Youngers once rode, these men are remembered for bank robberies, the Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid, and their hooliganism. Ride the Razor’s Edge dramatically describes their adventures, while also placing their actions in the wider perspective of the times in which they lived.
In 1870, the famous gambler and gunslinger Wyatt Earp began his career in a small town known as Lamar, Missouri. The Ozark Mountains town was also the birthplace of the thirty-third president, Harry S Truman, in 1884. Reba Earp Young’s book Truman’s Birthplace details the lives and rituals of her hometown in the early part of the twentieth century. Paperback.