Wednesday, October 15, 2014

1882 - Clever Woman

Mrs. Stewart was alone and unarmed when two tramps took forcible possession of her house, at New Vineyard, Me.  While they were eating and drinking in the kitchen, she whittled a stick into the shape of a pistol, blackened it with soot, then made a fierce onslaught on the rascals, who fled precipitately.

The Lafayette Adviser
Lafayette, Louisiana
February 25, 1882

1890 - Stationary Traveling

Thoreau believed, or sometimes talked as if he believed, that everything was to be found in  Concord. There was no great occasion for traveling, he thought. If you really needed to see anything, you had only to stay at home, and in due time it would come to you.

This was somewhat whimsical, and no one was better aware of the fact than Thoreau himself, who loved a paradox as other men love a dinner. But one of our exchanges knows of a man who seems to have been a pretty wide traveler without ever having been away from home.

He has lived in two states, in three counties and in three towns, and yet he has always lived where he was born. The facts of the case are these:

Charles Graham was born in the state of Massachusetts, town of New Vineyard, and county of Kennebec, the 28th day of May, 1819. In 1820 that part of Massachusetts was incorporated or set off as Maine. He still lived in New Vineyard, Kennebec county, but in Maine instead of Massachusetts.

The his part of New Vineyard was set off into the town of Industry, Somerset county. When Franklin county was incorporated, Industry was set off as a part of it. In 1850 the part of Industry where he lived was again set off into the town of  Farmington. So Mr. Graham, who is 70 years old, has lived successively in Massachusetts and in Maine, in Kennebec, Somerset and Franklin counties, and in the towns of New Vineyard, Industry and Farmington, and all the time on the same farm. - Youth's Companion.

The News-Herald
Hillsboro, Ohio
August 7, 1890