William H. Carney was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He was a member of Company C, 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry. On July 18, 1863, during the Battle of Fort Wagner, South Carolina, he was cited for military valor. During the engagement by the all-Black 54th and 55th Massachusetts Colored Regiments, Commander Robert G. Shaw was shot down. A few feet from where he fell laid Sergeant Carney. Summoning all of his strength, Carney held aloft the colors and continued the charge. Having been shot several times, he kept the colors flying high, and miraculously retreated his regiments. Although he survived, many of his comrades did not for in the deadly battle, over 1,500 Black troops died. On July 18, 1900, 37 years after the Battle of Fort Wagner, Sergeant William H. Carney was issued the Congressional Medal of Honor, making him the first Black to ever win the coveted award. It should be noted that sixteen other Black soldiers and four Black sailors eventually received the Congressional Medal of Honor for their heroics during the Civil War.
Nearly sixteen months after the end of the Civil War, Section 3 of an Act of Congress entitled "An Act to Increase and Fix the Military Peace Establishment of the United States" authorized the formation of two regiments of cavalry composed of "colored" men. The act was approved on July 28, 1866. On September 21, 1866, the 9th Cavalry Regiment was activated at Greenville, Louisiana, and the 10th Cavalry Regiment was activated at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Under the competent leadership of Colonel Edward Hatch and Colonel Benjamin Grierson, first Regimental Commanders of the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments, respectively, both regiments were trained and equipped and began a long and proud history. For over two decades, the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments conducted campaigns against American Indian tribes on a western frontier that extended from Montana in the northwest to Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona in the southwest. They engaged in several skirmishes against such great Indian Chiefs as Victorio, Geronimo, and Nana. "Buffalo Soldiers" was the name given the black cavalrymen by the Plains Indians. Reason for the name is uncertain. One view is that the Indians saw a resemblance between the black man's hair and the mane of a buffalo. Another view is that when a buffalo was wounded or cornered, it fought ferociously, displaying unusual stamina and courage. This was the same fighting spirit Indians saw in combat with black cavalrymen. Since Indians held the buffalo in such high regard, it was felt that the name was not given in contempt. When not engaged in combat with Indians, both regiments built forts and roads, installed telegraph lines, located water holes, escorted wagon trains and cattle drives, rode shotgun on stagecoach and mail runs, and protected settlers from renegade Indians, outlaws, and Mexican revolutionaries. Elements of both regiments fought in Cuba during the War with Spain and participated in the famous charge on San Juan Hill. Troopers of the 10th Cavalry Regiment rode with General John J. Pershing during the Punitive Expedition in Mexico in search of Pancho Villa. In 1941, the two regiments formed the 4th Cavalry Brigade, commanded by General Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., at Camp Funston, Kansas. In 1944, the end came to the horse cavalry regiments and the curtain was lowered on the long and glorious past of The Buffalo Soldiers.
The Mountain Meadows Massacre, located about 35 miles southwest of Cedar City, Utah, was the killing on September 11, 1857, of roughly 120 emigrants who were passing through Southern Utah. The emigrants--men, women, and children--were traveling from Arkansas to California, part of the Baker-Fancher wagon train. They were killed by a group of Mormons with the help of local Paiute Indians. After leaving Arkansas, the Fancher party traveled west through Kansas and Nebraska territories before entering Utah territory. In Utah, the party passed Fort Bridger and Salt Lake City, traveling southwest until reaching Cedar City. Cedar City was the last stop before California. In Cedar City, the Fancher party attempted to buy grain and supplies but was refused by the local Mormons due to the Mormons' suspicion of aiding potential enemies. After the Fancher party left Cedar City, frustrated with the refusal of local Mormons to sell them needed goods, they continued southwest through the mountain pass called Mountain Meadows. There they were attacked by Mormon assailants, some of them killed. The remaining emigrants pulled their wagons into a tight circle for protection. Over the next five days, the emigrants were held at siege in their wagon circle. During this period they were attacked two more times. On September 11, 1857, John D. Lee entered the wagon circle with a white flag, convincing the emigrants to surrender peacefully. Required to put down their guns, the women and children were escorted out first, then the men and boys. Each man and boy was escorted by an armed militiaman. They walked about a mile when, upon a predetermined signal, the militiamen turned and fired on each man and boy. Indians who had been convinced to participate in the massacre came out from their hiding places to attack the women and children. While most of the Fancher party was killed (about 120 people) there were 17 young children who survived. These 17 children were adopted by local families. Two years later in 1859, the U.S. government reunited the children with their extended families in Arkansas.
Alvin Cullum York ended the First World War as one of America's most famous soldiers, with fame and popular recognition assured following a remarkable act of courage and coolness in October 1918. Having grown up in poverty in rural Tennessee, York honed his skills as a crack marksman, a useful talent for use in hunting food for himself and his family and one put to high effect during the war. Despite his remarkable reputation for bravery and the win-at-all-costs attitude displayed during his wartime service York was and remained a pacifist. Following a religious conversion in 1911 he became lay deacon of a local pacifist sect and declared himself a convinced pacifist. Consequently, with the U.S. entry into World War I, York initially returned his draft papers before they were summarily resent to him by the draft board at which stage he was drafted into 328th Regiment, 82nd Infantry. During training however he was convinced by his battalion commander, Gonzalo Edward Buxton, a fellow Bible student, that the Bible sanctioned active service. Once in France the semi-literate York earned lifetime fame for his part in an attack in the Argonne Forest against German machine gun positions on 8 October 1918. York, an acting Corporal, led 17 men in action against a German stronghold, the aim being to secure the position and return with German prisoners. Initially successful without coming under fire, the small expedition took a number of prisoners before the Germans launched a heavy counterattack. With 11 of York's men guarding the captured prisoners (and with the other six killed) York resolved to proceed alone and tackle the German gunners ranged against them. Having shot some 17 gunners via sniping, York was charged by seven German soldiers who realized that he was operating on his own. He killed them all with his pistol. With the aid of a German Major captured earlier, York brought in a total of 132 German prisoners. He received lavish press coverage at home and the Congressional Medal of Honor, in addition to the French Croix de Guerre (and a fulsome citation from Supreme Allied Commander Ferdinand Foch). Returning home to a New York City parade, York was awarded a gift of a farm by his home state of Tennessee. In the 1920s, York formed the Alvin C. York Foundation with the mission of increasing education opportunities in his region of Tennessee. Plans called for a non-sectarian institution providing vocational training to be called the York Agricultural Institute. York suffered from health problems throughout his life. He had gall bladder surgery in the 1920s and suffered from pneumonia in 1942. By 1945 he weighed 250 pounds and in 1948 he had a stroke. More strokes and another case of pneumonia followed and he was confined to bed from 1954, further handicapped by failing eyesight. He was hospitalized several times during his last two years. Alvin York died at the Veterans Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, on September 2, 1964, of a cerebral hemorrhage.
Francis H. Pierpont was a lawyer, early coal industrialist, governor of the Restored government of Virginia during the Civil War, governor of Virginia during the first years of Reconstruction, and a state senator representing Marion County, West Virginia. Pierpont was an antislavery member of the Whig Party and delegate to the First and Second Wheeling Conventions in 1861, during which Unionist politicians in western Virginia resisted the state's vote to secede by establishing the Restored government of Virginia. The second convention unanimously elected him governor. Although never actually governor of West Virginia, he is still remembered as one of the state's founding fathers. Francis Harrison Pierpont was born in Monongalia County, Virginia (now West Virginia), in 1814. He spent his youth in Fairmont, Virginia, and attended Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania. After a brief stint as a teacher, Pierpont began his legal career in trans-Allegheny Virginia representing such influential clients as the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Pierpont, along with partner James Otis Watson, became one of Virginia's earliest coal operators. Pierpont's political career began in 1840 when he made speeches across western Virginia in support of Whig presidential nominees William Henry Harrison of Ohio and fellow Virginian John Tyler. During the secession crisis of 1860 and 1861, Pierpont delivered pro-Union, anti-slavery addresses to large crowds across northwestern Virginia. After meeting since February 1861, the Convention in Richmond voted to secede from the union in April 1861. This prompted the still-Unionist western delegates of the state to organize the First Wheeling Convention from May 13–15, 1861. During the meeting, Pierpont promoted the reorganization of the state government and following the passage of the Virginia Ordinance of Secession by statewide referendum on May 23 Pierpont was elected to attend the Second Wheeling Convention from June 11–25, 1861. On June 20, he was unanimously elected governor of the Restored government of Virginia.
The city of Wheeling initially served as the headquarters of the Restored government of Virginia, but after the formation of West Virginia on June 20, 1863, and Pierpont's reelection as governor that December (governor, that is, of the Restored government and not of West Virginia), the reorganized state government relocated to Alexandria. Pierpont dedicated his energies to raising troops and funds for the Union war effort, coordinating with President Abraham Lincoln's administration, combating Confederate sympathizers, and working to return Virginia to the Union. Pierpont promoted the creation of "free schools," the extension of constitutional rights to freedmen, and in 1864 the convening of a state constitutional convention aimed at abolishing slavery. After the conclusion of the Civil War, the Alexandria government moved to Richmond, where Pierpont began the process of reconstructing Virginia. Pierpont and his civilian administration oversaw local and state elections, promoted the rights of freedmen, and worked to rebuild the state's economy. Due to his conciliatory policies toward ex-Confederates, Pierpont was criticized by Radical Republicans. In March 1867, the United States Congress, as part of its new Reconstruction policy, placed Virginia under the military command of General John M. Schofield. Despite his protestations, Pierpont was removed from office on April 4, 1868. After his ouster, Pierpont quietly returned to Fairmont, where his support for the statehood movement earned him election by Marion County voters to the West Virginia state senate in 1869. Due to the increasing Democratic control of the state government, he was not reelected in 1870 and subsequently retired from politics. Pierpont spent the final years of his life as a founder and member of the West Virginia Historical Society. He died in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on March 24, 1899.
Meyer Lansky is one of the legendary figures of 20th century organized crime in America. Lansky was born Meyer Suchowljansky in 1902 in Grodno, Russia. He came to America in 1911 where his father found work as a garment presser in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, New York. In 1914 financial hardship forced the family to move to Manhattan's Lower East Side where Lansky got involved in street-corner craps games and teamed up with other boys to form a juvenile gang that included Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel and Joseph "Doc" Stacher. Eventually he also met Charles "Lucky" Luciano, then the leader of a gang of Sicilian immigrant boys who ran an extortion racket preying on Jewish children. Lansky and Lucky Luciano immediately had a liking for each other. After graduating from 8th grade, Lansky took his first job at a tool-and-die shop. After work, despite his small stature of about five foot four, he served as a strong-arm man for a gambling establishment and in this capacity he was also hired by a union to help solve a labor dispute. Meyer Lansky turned into a full-time gangster with the advent of Prohibition. He went into bootlegging under the protection of underworld kingpin Arnold Rothstein, whom he had previously met at the Bar Mitzvah of the son of mutual friends. Lansky's front was a car and truck rental business he ran with Bugsy Siegel as one of his partners. Numerous ventures involved cooperation with Lucky Luciano. In addition to his bootlegging, Meyer Lansky extended his involvement in gambling to operating and owning craps games, a line of business he expanded after Prohibition was repealed.
Lansky excelled in the world of crime not only because he was bright and tough but also because he was honest and reliable. He operated gambling as he had his bootlegging, in joint-venture partnerships in which his main role was to organize the money and the share-out. His first great project, launched in partnership with Frank Costello and Joe Adonis, involved a casino in Saratoga Springs, New York, the Piping Rock, which enjoyed the protection of local politicians. This was followed by the opening of a string of gambling establishments in Hallendale and other communities in Florida and a nightclub outside New Orleans. In Hallendale, gambling was conducted on a grand scale with the tacit agreement of the local government. Mutually beneficial, gambling was tolerated in exchange for covert taxation in the form of forfeited bonds and fines which by the mid 1940s had developed into a major source of income for the municipality. In 1941, Lansky and a partner, Bill Syms, were officially invited to operate greyhound racing in Council Bluffs, Iowa, to help repay a municipal debt from a failed fairground project. Three years earlier, Lansky had begun to work on rebuilding Cuba's ailing gambling business. Along with racetrack owner Lou Smith, who had a contract with the Cuban government to clean up and operate the racing on the island, Lansky reorganized casino gambling with personnel brought over from New York. It was the first time Lansky could work as a gambling entrepreneur in an open and legal fashion and without the need for protection. During WW II, Lansky contributed to the war effort in various ways, including a part in the cooperation between naval intelligence and underworld to expose German spies and saboteurs. Toward the end of the 1940s the climate for illegal gambling changed. Citizens' crime commissions and the press began to expose "wide open" gambling and corruption. Meyer Lansky for the first time received media attention and his name and picture began to appear in the papers. In 1950 he was called before the Kefauver committee to testify on his relationship with Frank Costello and other underworld figures. During the same year he pleaded guilty to felony gambling charges in Hallendale, where two of his co-owned clubs had to be closed down, and in 1952, following a grand jury investigation, he was sentenced to three months in jail for his gambling activities in Saratoga Springs. Lansky's luck changed when Cuban President Fulgencio Batista invited him to become adviser on gambling reform and to carry out a cleanup job like the one he had performed in the late 1930s. Lansky himself took over as operator of a newly established casino at the Hotel Nacional which was managed by International Hotels, Inc., a subsidiary of Pan Am, and a year later, in 1956, he started work on his own hotel-casino, the Riviera. The Riviera Hotel opened in December 1957 with a floor show headed by Ginger Rogers that was carried in part on American network television. The hotel-casino turned out to be an immense success. Asked why all the gangsters were tolerated in Cuban casinos, the U.S. ambassador Earl Smith reportedly explained, "it seems to be the only way to get honest casinos". Lansky's days in Cuba, however, were numbered when Fidel Castro took power. In October 1960 the Riviera Hotel and 165 other American enterprises were confiscated and nationalized. Back in the states Lansky became the target of FBI surveillance. In a bugged hotel room he was overheard commenting on a televised discussion on organized crime. The FBI report notes that when a panelist referred to organized crime as only being second in size to the government, Lansky remarked to his wife that organized crime was bigger than U.S. Steel. In the 1960s, what Lansky had left were his gambling interests in Nevada. He had invested in Bugsy Siegel's Flamingo Hotel Casino but had never been actively involved with the management and had visited Las Vegas only infrequently, making his last visit ever in 1956. Nevertheless, Lansky held a crucial position as the conduit for Las Vegas casino investments. With media and law enforcement attention increasing, Lansky sought to take refuge in Israel but his application for Israeli citizenship was denied on grounds that because of his criminal past he would be likely to endanger the public welfare. Once again returning to the states, Lansky faced a series of indictments, one for tax evasion based on testimony provided by Mafia informer Vincent "Fat Vinnie" Teresa who claimed to have delivered profits from gambling directly to Lansky in Florida at times when Lansky was obviously at other places. Consequently, the jury found him not guilty. The last case brought against Lansky, which pertained to the skimming of Las Vegas casino profits, was dismissed by the judge because of Lansky's poor health and age in 1976. Lansky died from cancer some six years later, on January 15, 1983, in a Miami hospital.
Alexander Cartwright was born in New York City in 1820 and invented the modern baseball field in 1845. Cartwright and the members of his New York Knickerbocker Base Ball Club devised the first rules and regulations that were accepted for the modern game of baseball. Alexander "Alick" Cartwright worked as a clerk for a broker and later for a bank, and, weather permitting, played variations of cricket and rounders in the vacant lots of New York City after the bank closed each day. In 1845 he joined the New York Knickerbockers, a club that played under what were called "New York rules", as distinguished from other clubs that played a similar game called town ball under "Massachusetts rules". Cartwright organized the team with a constitution and bylaws and suggested that they could arrange more games and the sport would be more widely played if it had a single set of agreed-upon "Knickerbocker rules". Cartwright chaired a committee of four Knickerbocker players that drew up a set of rules generally seen as the founding moment for modern baseball. The changes in these new rules included the distinction between fair and foul territory and the requirement that runners be put out by being tagged with a ball in a fielder's control. Previously runners could be tagged by being hit with a thrown ball which sometimes left runners not just out but out cold. Knickerbocker rules also stipulated that the bases be laid out in a diamond array with 42 paces between home plate and second base and the same distance between first and third bases, which works out to bases about 90 feet apart, the same distance as in today's game. The first recorded baseball game was held in 1846 when Alexander Cartwright's Knickerbockers lost to the New York Baseball Club. The game was held at the Elysian Fields, in Hoboken, New Jersey. Cartwright left the Knickerbockers to follow the California gold rush in March 1849 and took with him his ball and rulebook. In his letters from the cross-country trip he wrote of playing baseball games with locals as he journeyed west. He made a small gold strike in California and used his earnings to pay passage to Hawaii where he worked as a bookkeeper for a ship chandlery business and introduced baseball to other settlers. Cartwright had been a volunteer firefighter in New York City and was appointed Honolulu's Fire Chief in 1851 by King Kamehameha III. A prolific reader, he was a co-founder of the Honolulu Library and Reading Room, forerunner of Hawaii's present-day state library system. He successfully fought to block a rule that would have prohibited women and children from becoming library members. Alexander Cartwright died in 1892 in Honolulu from blood poisoning. He was buried in Oahu Cemetery in Honolulu where baseballs and gloves are often laid at his gravesite.
Slaves did not accept their fate without protest. Many instances of rebellion were known to Americans, even in colonial times and these rebellions were not confined to the South. In fact, one of the earliest examples of a slave uprising was in 1712 in Manhattan. As African Americans in the colonies grew greater and greater in number, there was a justifiable paranoia on the part of the white settlers that a violent rebellion could occur in one's own neighborhood. It was this fear of rebellion that led each colony to pass a series of laws restricting slaves' behaviors. The laws were known as Slave Codes. Although each colony had differing ideas about the rights of slaves, there were some common threads in slave codes across areas where slavery was common. Legally considered property, slaves were not allowed to own property of their own. They were not allowed to assemble without the presence of a white person. Slaves that lived off the plantation were subject to special curfews. In the courts, a slave accused of any crime against a white person was doomed. No testimony could be made by a slave against a white person. Therefore, the slave's side of the story could never be told in a court of law. Of course, slaves were conspicuously absent from juries as well. Slave codes had ruinous effects on African American society. It was illegal to teach a slave to read or write. Religious motives sometimes prevailed, however, as many devout white Christians educated slaves to enable the reading of the Bible. These same Christians did not recognize marriage between slaves in their laws. This made it easier to justify the breakup of families by selling one if its members to another owner.
As time passed and the numbers of African Americans in the New World increased, so did the fears of their white captors. With each new rebellion, the slave codes became ever more strict, further abridging the already limited rights and privileges this oppressed people might hope to enjoy.
Tom Pendergast was the leader, or boss, of a Kansas City, Missouri, political organization. The organization, or "machine," guaranteed high voter turnout for hand-picked political candidates by cheating, bribing, or threatening citizens. Only the machine's supporters received jobs with the city and county governments. The Pendergast machine controlled local government and the Democratic Party in Kansas City. It provided jobs and services to the people and in return expected the people to vote for its candidates. Contracts were given to its supporters along with jobs and business licenses. The machine also provided food for the poor. Thomas J. Pendergast was born in St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1872. In 1886 he was hired by the Burlington Railroad in a clerical position. He came to Kansas City in 1888 while in the employ of the Burlington and remained with the railroad for eight years, advancing to better positions. In 1896 Pendergast accepted the position of Deputy County Marshal and held that position until 1900 when he was appointed Superintendent of City Streets by Mayor James A. Reed. In the 1890s he worked in his brother James Pendergast's saloon in the West Bottoms. Here, his older brother, a member of Kansas City, Missouri's city council, taught him about the city's political system and the advantages of controlling blocs of voters. Jim retired in 1910 and died the next year, naming Tom his successor. Following his brother's death, Pendergast served in the city council until stepping down in 1916 to focus on consolidating the faction of the Jackson County Democratic Party. After a new city charter, passed in 1925, placed the city under the auspices of a city manager picked by a smaller council, Pendergast easily gained control of the government. Harry S. Truman had served in the army with Tom Pendergast's nephew, Jim Pendergast. When Truman's haberdashery failed, the Pendergasts asked him to run for eastern district judge. The Pendergast machine supported Truman in subsequent Jackson County elections as well as when he ran for the United States Senate. This connection initially tarnished Truman's reputation as a senator. Truman, however, ultimately gained recognition for honesty and hard work in Washington, DC. During Truman's time in Washington, the Pendergast machine started to lose influence. Former Pendergast candidates and supporters cooperated with law enforcement officials to bring election fraud charges against Pendergast. In 1939 Pendergast was arraigned for failing to pay taxes on a bribe received to pay off gambling debts. After serving 15 months in prison at the nearby United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas, he lived quietly at his Kansas City home until his death in 1945. Truman shocked many when, a few days after being sworn in as vice-president and a few weeks before succeeding Franklin D. Roosevelt as President, he attended the Pendergast funeral. Truman was reportedly the only elected official who attended the funeral. Truman brushed aside the criticism, saying simply, "He was always my friend and I have always been his."
Lewis Wickes Hine was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in 1874. After graduating from high school, he worked at various jobs before enrolling at the University of Chicago in 1900. While at the University of Chicago, Hine met Frank E. Manny, Professor of Education at the State Normal School who had recently been appointed superintendent of the Ethical Culture School in New York. In 1901, at the invitation of Manning, Hine moved to New York City and accepted a position as an assistant teacher at the ECS. Hine began at this time to use a camera as an educational tool and to photograph school events. Hine also began to attend the School of Education at New York University. In 1904, Hine, newly married to Sara Ann Rich, became involved in a project to photograph Ellis Island. Anti Immigrant sentiment was pervasive and Manny encouraged Hine to portray the newly arrived with the same dignity and respect as those immigrants who landed at Plymouth Rock. By 1905, Hine had received his degree from New York University. Continuing to photograph for the ECS, he met Paul Strand. By 1906 Hine was considering a career in Sociological Photography and began to pursue freelance work with the National Child Labor Committee. In 1907, the NCLC gave Hine his first assigned project; Hine was to photograph New York tenements. Later that year after enrolling at the graduate school of Columbia University to study sociology, Paul Kellogg assigned Hine to a pioneering sociological project, The Pittsburgh Survey. This survey was to be an all encompassing detailed view of a typical industrial city. The survey showed the gap between the largely unskilled immigrant workers and the comfortable middle class of managers, executives, and politicians. The goal of the survey was to promote a rational understanding of the social and economic inequities. It was believed that a greater public awareness would result in corrective social action. In 1908, the NCLC provided Hine with a monthly salary and assigned him to photograph child labor practices. For the next several years, Hine traveled extensively, photographing children in mines, factories, canneries, textile mills, street trades, and assorted agricultural industries. Hine’s photographs alerted the public to the fact that child labor deprived children of childhood, health, education, and the chance of a future. His work on this project was the driving force behind changing the public's attitude and was instrumental in the fight for stricter child labor laws. By 1913, Hine had established himself as perhaps the most successful social welfare photographer. For the next several years, he continued to travel as well as lecture for the NCLC. Several exhibits, particularly in San Diego and San Francisco, further established his reputation. In 1917, after his salary at the NCLC was reduced, Hine accepted a position with the American Red Cross. During the next couple of years, Hine photographed refugees and displaced civilians in war torn Europe. Hine returned to New York City in 1920 and was assigned to the American Red Cross National Headquarters. During the 1920’s, Hine returned to Ellis Island, doing assignments for various agencies and publications. He also undertook various commercial assignments and in 1924 the Art Directors Club of New York awarded him a medal at the Exhibition of Advertising Arts.
In spite of the fame and recognition he received, Hine found difficulty making a living at photography. In 1930 Hine was hired to photograph the construction of the Empire State Building. Where much of Hine’s previous work had documented the dark side of labor and progress, the Empire State Building photographs celebrated the dignity and productivity of a proud post war American labor force. In 1931, the largest exhibit yet of Hine’s work took place at the Yonkers Art Museum. Shortly afterward in 1932 Hine’s book "Men at Work" was published. In the 1930’s Hine printed several portfolios, including "Through The Loom" which was obtained by the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum and was exhibited at the 1933 Worlds Fair. In 1936, Hine was appointed head photographer for the National Research Project of the Works Progress Administration. The last years of his life were filled with professional struggles due to loss of government and corporate patronage. Few people were interested in his work, past or present, and Hine lost his house and applied for welfare. He died at age 66 on November 3, 1940 at Dobbs Ferry Hospital in Dobbs Ferry, New York, after an operation. After Lewis Hine's death his son Corydon donated his prints and negatives to the Photo League, which was dismantled in 1951. The Museum of Modern Art was offered his pictures but did not accept them; but the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, did.
In the centuries that led to the year 1000, Europe was emerging from chaos. Tribes roamed the countryside evoking fear from luckless peasants. The grandeur that was Rome had long passed. Across the Atlantic, the North American continent was also inhabited by tribes. The Anasazi managed to build glorious cities in the cliffs of the modern Southwest. Their rise and fall mark one of the greatest stories of pre-Columbian American history. Anasazi means "ancient outsiders." Like many peoples during the agricultural era, the Anasazi employed a wide variety of means to grow high-yield crops in areas of low rainfall. Their baskets and pottery are highly admired by collectors and are still produced by their descendants for trade. It is their cliff dwellings, however, that captivate the modern archæologist, historian, and tourist. The famed cliff dwellings were built into the mountainsides with but one exit for the sake of defense. With the exception of hunting and growing food, all aspects of living could be performed within the dwelling. Deep pits, called kivas, were periodically dug within the living quarters and served as religious temples for the ancient Anasazi. Sleeping areas were built into the sides of the cliffs. Even water could be gathered between the porous cracks in the walls — all by clever design, of course. Historians can only theorize why the Anasazi civilization declined. One explanation is attack by hostile tribes. Others believe the resources of the area were exhausted. The durability of their structures has proven remarkable. The cliff dwellings have endured over eight hundred years of exposure to the elements and still stand proud. Modern day visitors can marvel at Anasazi accomplishments at Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado or Canyon de Chelley National Monument in eastern Arizona.
Elijah McCoy made important contributions to the design of railroad locomotives after the Civil War. He kept pace with the progress of locomotive design, devising new lubricating systems that served the steam engines of the early twentieth century. McCoy was born in 1844 in Canada. His parents were fugitive slaves who had escaped to Canada from Kentucky. As a boy he was fascinated with tools and machines. At the age of 16, he traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland, to serve an apprenticeship in mechanical engineering. In Edinburgh, McCoy won the credentials of a master mechanic and engineer. Following the Civil War, the family returned to the United States and settled near Ypsilanti, Michigan, where young Elijah sought work as an engineer but met with defeat due to racial prejudice. Nevertheless, he obtained a job as a fireman and oiler on the Michigan Central Railroad in 1870. As a fireman, McCoy had to shovel coal into the firebox of his locomotive at the rate of two tons per hour. He also had to walk around the locomotive and lubricate its moving parts using an oilcan during frequent stops, while it took on water. Locomotives were heavy and subjected their moving parts to considerable wear. Lubrication was essential for these parts--many of which were applied to railroad axles. These axles carried the full weight of locomotives and railroad cars and were particularly subject to wear. But engineers had arranged for them to rotate within oil-filled chambers. The rotation of the axle carried oil into its bearing and the oiled bearing allowed the axle to turn freely while reducing wear to a minimum. However, the direct use of oil-filled chambers did not apply to a locomotive's steam engine which provided its power. Many parts of this engine operated under the pressure of steam which acted to push oil away from the moving parts. This made it necessary to stop the engine when oiling it. McCoy saw that he could keep the engine running by using steam pressure to pump the oil where it was needed. Working in a home-built machine shop in Ypsilanti, McCoy devised an invention that became known as the lubricating cup. It relied on a piston set within an oil-filled container. Steam pressure pushed on the piston and thereby drove the oil into channels that carried it to the engine's operating parts. McCoy received a United States patent for this device on June 23, 1872. He took his invention to officials of the Michigan Central Railroad and received their support. Installed on operating locomotives, it provided lubrication that was more regular and even than could be achieved by the old method of using an oilcan during intermittent stops. This proved to be quite useful; locomotives lasted longer and needed less maintenance. McCoy's lubricating cup proved adaptable to other types of steam engines which were used in factories and at sea. Versions of this cup became standard components on many types of heavy machinery, on railways of the West, on Great Lakes steamships, and even on transatlantic liners. McCoy left the Michigan Central in 1882 and moved to Detroit, where he devoted a great deal of time to his inventions. He also worked as an industrial consultant, assisting the Detroit Lubricator Company and other firms. The technical demands of railroads soon provided him with further challenges. With the increase of industry and passenger travel, railroad companies needed larger locomotives. James J. Hill, builder of the Great Northern Railroad, introduced locomotives that were up to four times larger than their predecessors, along with large-capacity freight cars. Such locomotives burned coal in large amounts and demanded high horsepower while using less coal. The solution lay in the use of superheated steam with high temperature and pressure. Superheating boosted the engines' efficiency, allowing a locomotive to get more miles per ton of coal. It also brought new problems in lubrication. Rather than use oil alone as a lubricant, designers preferred to mix the oil with powdered graphite, a form of carbon. Powdered graphite is soft and greasy and easily withstands high temperatures. However, because it is a powder rather than a liquid, it can clog an engine. In April 1915, McCoy received a patent for what he called a "Locomotive Lubricator". Within his patent application, he claimed that this invention would permit the use of graphite without the danger of clogging.
Writers and essayists often note that railroad purchasing agents commonly insisted on buying "the real McCoy." Other inventors were offering lubricators that competed with those of McCoy but these agents would accept no substitutes. Many of these authors assert that the phrase "real McCoy" passed out of the specialized world of railroad engineering and entered general usage, where it came to mean "the genuine article." While McCoy's inventions made millions of dollars, little of this money reached his pockets. Lacking the capital with which to build his lubricators in large numbers, he sold many of his patent rights to well-heeled investors. In return, he was given only the modest sums that allowed him to continue his work. McCoy received at least 72 patents during his lifetime, most of which dealt with lubricating devices, but retained ownership of only a few of them. In 1920, at the age of 77, McCoy joined with investors and founded the Elijah McCoy Manufacturing Company in Detroit, serving as vice-president. The firm manufactured and sold his graphite lubricators, including an advanced version that also lubricated a railroad train's air brakes. Soon afterward, he and his wife were involved in a traffic accident. She received injuries from which she never fully recovered and which hastened her death in 1923. For McCoy, the end now approached as well. His health deteriorated and in 1928 he entered an infirmary. Suffering from hypertension and senile dementia, McCoy died on October 10, 1929 in Eloise, Michigan.
From 1810 through the mid-1800's, New York City's population increased, on average, 58% each decade. Amid this dramatic population increase it was jokingly said that one could travel halfway from New York to Philadelphia quicker than one could travel the length of Broadway. This Manhattan boulevard was often in such a state of chaos that it required the forceful presence of police officers to maintain order. The dire situation of New York's streets prompted publisher Alfred Ely Beach to search for an alternative mode of transportation. In February 1870, Beach opened a below-ground transportation system that set a precedent in subterranean travel.
"Pneumatic Transit", as the system was known, consisted of a 312-foot wind tunnel and a 22-passenger car propelled over the tracks by a 100-horsepower fan. While this curious solution to urban transport was not the wave of the future it paved the way for the American subway. Toward the end of the 19th century, Boston found itself in a similar situation to New York City. Rapid population growth caused an enormous strain on traffic in the downtown area and many commuters began to rely extensively on the street-level trolley system. Owned and operated by the West End Company, these electric-powered trolleys contended with the large number of cars and pedestrians also crowding Boston's streets. Under increasing public pressure, West End partnered with the Boston Transit Commission to fund the excavation and construction of America's first subway. This underground system, nicknamed "The T", opened on September 1, 1897. This precedent was soon surpassed by other American cities. New York opened its first subway - merely 9 miles long - in October 1904. Philadelphia constructed a system combining subway lines with above-ground and elevated trolley lines, much like the one in use in Boston, between 1905 and 1908. These subways were well-received and expanded soon after their inception. Subways continued to grow in number and usage through the first half of the twentieth century. Despite a short pause during World War I and II, a post-war optimism spurred growth for subways. In 1926 the average American took 162.7 transit trips a year. In 1946, this number reached 177.7. After 1946, however, Americans turned to the automobile in droves and subway ridership decreased for the next 25 years - until the early 1970's. The building of San Francisco's BART system marked the beginning of a revival period for subways. In addition to 71 miles of track, BART was the first centrally-operated rapid transit system in American history. On the heels of BART's success, Baltimore, Miami, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C. opened or revamped their underground railway systems. Even expansive, car-dominated Los Angeles made plans for a new subway, sections of which opened in 1998.
Meanwhile, the older rail lines in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia made plans for improvements to their well-worn systems.
The Battle of Wilson's Creek was one of the minor engagements of the Civil War that sent a clear message to both parties. This would not be over anytime soon. The Confederates were faced with the problem of respecting the state of Kentucky's right to neutrality. They needed to get to St. Louis, Missouri, but had to go around neighboring Kentucky to get there. A plan was hatched and the Confederates mustered an army of about 10,000 men from a volunteer force of southerners from the states of Arkansas, Missouri, and Louisiana, including the infamous "Muskrats" from Mizzou and the tough Louisiana fellows under the leadership of General Gideon Pillow. General Benjamin McCulloch was selected as the commander of the Confederate forces and immediately he put together an attack plan. The Union was lead by General Nathaniel Lyon and General Franz Sigel; both would have their metals tested in this battle. Lyon attacked the Confederates at Wilson's Creek from the north, while his counter part, Sigel, attacked from the south. Both attacking parties found no Confederates so they both joined forces a short distance from the still unsuspecting Rebels. The attack transpired and for the better part of a day the fighting continued from farmhouses to creek beds. After a few hours in the early afternoon, General Sigel was forced out of the battle. This left only General Lyons to fight the Confederates and being outnumbered two to one did not help the fight. The defeat of Sigel's troops permanently stained the reputation of this fiery northern commander. The fighting continued with the Confederates driving the Union forces out of the creek area and captured the city of Springfield, Missouri. During the fighting, General Lyons was killed. This spurned the Federals to leave the fight and are considered the loser. This was not a giant battle nor was it particularly important to the overall outcome of the war; it did serve as a reminder that war is hell and men die.
The final numbers showed that although the North was outnumbered and out fought, they still were able to inflict heavy losses onto the Confederates and leave a bloody nose to the cause of the South. The battle was considered one of the most fiercely contested of the war. The federals lost 1,200 men while the Confederates had 1,400 casualties. If not for Lyon's demise, the North could have routed the South and kept Springfield in the clutches of the union. Sigel's performance was rated so low that his tactical abilities as a leading Union commander were questioned for the rest of the war. General McCulloch would not pursue the retreating Federals, since he had achieved his objective with the sacking of Springfield. The retreating Union forces settled in Rolla, Missouri, while the Confederates enjoyed the bounties of war with Springfield and an added captured bonus, a brigade of Federals at Lexington. The war would seem to be at a stalemate with the battle being won by the Confederates, yet the truth would be just the opposite as Lincoln began his splintering of the South campaign.
The 1930s were known as the Dirty Thirties because of a severe drought that affected the plains in the United States and Canada. Worst hit were New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas and Montana, and the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there was an influx of settlers to the plains. They set up ranches and farms in order to support the increasing demand for agricultural products. By the time the drought hit in the 1930s, the damage had been done due to over-farming the land. The natural grasses that held the soil in place and retained moisture in the ground were being overtaken by crops. Farmers were not rotating their crops, thus causing the soil to erode. Crops were failing and farmers left the fields empty. Topsoil from the exposed fields was being carried away by the winds and creating dense clouds of dust. The plains became a barren wasteland and dust storms became more frequent.In 1932, 14 dust storms were recorded on the Plains. In 1933, there were 38 storms. By 1934, it was estimated that 100 million acres of farmland had lost all or most of the topsoil to the winds. The day started out sunny on April 14, 1935, and people were relieved to see sunshine after weeks of dust storms. In the mid-afternoon, the temperature dropped and a huge black cloud appeared on the horizon. The cloud approached quickly and with a thunderous roar. The winds were clocked at 60 mph. As the large wall of dust clouds roared through the Dust Bowl, the light of day instantly turned into the darkness of night. Residents described the dust storm as a black blizzard; one man compared it to the feeling of getting a shovel of sand thrown in the face. People scrambled indoors or into their storm cellars. Cars were stranded on the roads due to poor visibility or dust smothering the engines. Some people who were caught outside could not see in front of them and became disorientated. Residents used towels and blankets to stop the fine dust from blowing through cracks of their homes. They covered their noses and mouths with handkerchiefs. After the Black Sunday Dust Storm, a reporter for the Associated Press described the southern plains as a Dust Bowl and this is how the name originated. The storm blew away the topsoil from empty fields. It ruined the livelihood of many struggling farmers. They were forced to abandon their land and travel to other states. Others would have stayed but were forced out when they lost their land in bank foreclosures. The Dust Bowl exodus was the largest migration in American history. By 1940, 2.5 million people had moved out of the Plains states; of those, 200,000 moved to California. When the Black Sunday cloud reached the east coast it made the American government more aware of the soil erosion problem. As a result the Soil Conservation Act was passed the same year, 1935. Government programs were implemented to educate farmers on soil conservation. This included the practice of strip farming, terracing, contour plowing, and crop rotating. Farmers were paid incentives to use the new techniques. The Civilian Conservation Corps planted more than 200 million trees to serve as windbreaks and to allow water to penetrate the soil. As a result, the amount of blowing soil began to reduce. After 1939, normal amounts of rainfall returned to the plains and the drought ended. Periods of drought have occurred since the 1930s but the damage has not been as severe due to the soil conservation practices established in Dust Bowl years.
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was an unsuccessful attempt by United States-backed Cuban exiles to overthrow the government of the Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Increasing friction between the U.S. government and Castro's leftist regime led President Dwight D. Eisenhower to break off diplomatic relations with Cuba in January 1961. Even before that, however, the Central Intelligence Agency had been training anti-revolutionary Cuban exiles for a possible invasion of the island. The invasion plan was approved by Eisenhower's successor, John F. Kennedy. On April 17, 1961, about 1300 exiles, armed with U.S. weapons, landed at the Bahía de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) on the southern coast of Cuba. Hoping to find support from the local population, they intended to cross the island to Havana. It was evident from the first hours of fighting, however, that the exiles were likely to lose. President Kennedy had the option of using the U.S. Air Force against the Cubans but decided against it. Consequently, the invasion was stopped by Castro's army. By the time the fighting ended on April 19, 90 exiles had been killed and the rest had been taken as prisoners. The failure of the invasion seriously embarrassed the young Kennedy administration. Some critics blamed Kennedy for not giving it adequate support and others for allowing it to take place at all. The captured exiles were later ransomed by private groups in the U.S. The invasion made Castro wary of the United States. He was convinced that the Americans would try to take over the island again. From the Bay of Pigs on, Castro had an increased fear of a U.S. incursion on Cuban soil.
In October 1880, Virgil Earp became city marshal of Tombstone, Arizona. Soon afterward he recruited brothers Wyatt Earp and Morgan Earp as special deputy policemen. The following year the Earp family came into conflict with two families, the Clantons and the McLaurys. Ike Clanton, Phineas Clanton, Billy Clanton, Tom McLaury and Frank McLaury sold livestock to Tombstone. Virgil Earp believed that some of these animals had been stolen from farmers in Mexico. Wyatt Earp was also convinced that the Clanton brothers had taken one of his prize horses. Wyatt Earp also came into conflict with John Behan, the sheriff of Cochise County. Their quarrel started over a woman, Josephine Sarah Marcus. She had lived with Behan before becoming Earp's third wife. Earp also wanted Behan's job and planned to run against him in the next election. The two men also clashed over the decision by Behan to arrest Doc Holliday on suspicion of killing a stagecoach driver during an attempted hold-up outside of town. Holliday protested his innocence and he was eventually released. In September 1881, Virgil Earp retaliated by arresting one of Behan's deputies, Frank Stilwell, for holding up a stagecoach. On October 25, 1881, Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury arrived in Tombstone. Later that day Doc Holliday got into a fight with Ike Clanton in the Alhambra Saloon. Holliday wanted a gunfight with Clanton but he declined the offer and walked off. The following day Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury were arrested by Virgil Earp and charged with carrying firearms within the city limits. After they were disarmed and released the two men joined Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury, who had just arrived in town. The men gathered at a place called the OK Corral in Fremont Street. Virgil Earp now decided to disarm Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury and recruited Wyatt Earp, Morgan Earp, and Doc Holliday to help him in this dangerous task. Sheriff John Behan was in town and when he heard what was happening he raced to Fremont Street and urged Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury to hand over their guns to him. They replied: "Not unless you first disarm the Earps". Behan now headed towards the advancing group of men. He pleaded for Virgil Earp not to get involved in a shoot-out but he was brushed aside as the four men continued walking toward the OK Corral. When they reached the four men, Virgil Earp said: "I want your guns". Billy Clanton responded by firing at Wyatt Earp. He missed and Morgan Earp successfully fired two bullets at Billy Clanton and he fell back against a wall. Meanwhile Wyatt Earp fired at Frank McLaury. The bullet hit him in the stomach and he fell to the ground. Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury were both unarmed and tried to run away. Clanton was successful but Doc Holliday shot McLaury in the back. Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury, although seriously wounded, continued to fire their guns and in the next couple of seconds Virgil Earp, Morgan Earp, and Doc Holliday were all wounded. Wyatt Earp was unscathed and he managed to finish off Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury. Sheriff John Behan arrested Virgil Earp, Wyatt Earp, Morgan Earp, and Doc Holliday for the murder of Billy Clanton, Tom McLaury, and Frank McLaury. However, after a 30 day trial Judge Wells Spicer, who was related to the Earps, decided that the defendants had been justified in their actions. Over the next few months the Earp brothers struggled to retain hold control over Tombstone. Virgil Earp was seriously wounded by an assassination attempt and Morgan Earp was killed when he was playing billiards with Wyatt Earp on March 18, 1882. Eyewitnesses claimed that Frank Stilwell was seen running from the scene of the crime. Three days later, Stilwell was found dead. A Mexican who was also implicated in the crime was also found murdered in a lumber camp. It is believed that Wyatt Earp was responsible for killing both men.
