Thursday, August 30, 2012

September 1 looms..is it the END OF THE WORLD 116 days early!!!

Okay....I have this weird feeling that something terrible is going to happen on September 1....Okay I know Labor Day Storm of years gone by...but think about it.  Friday August 31 there is going to be a rare Blue Moon..on the same day as they are burying our Moon Astronaut Armstrong......hmmm...and at midnight it will be "SEPTEMBER 1"!!!

So off to my little hand held computer like thingy I went and guess what...did you know that many of our ancient civilizations built their sites so that they would line up with a specific constellation that computers say would have appeared for them on September 1, 10,500 BC?????

Something strange there right...there are hundreds of websites devoted to this year and date in civilization..........

So I tried to figure out what big thing could happen...hurricane..already on.....tornados..already going on 'cause of hurricane....earthquakes..ditto going on.........volcanic eruptions....hmmm but in Central NY??

September 11 perhaps was a wake up call done to seem like and emergency call..but that was 10 days late for a cosmic event to be recorded on September 1....so what could it be?????

My advice is beware of September 1st.....look at the moon on Friday at midnight and wink for Neil...remember the now defunct civilizations.....or is that it....maybe because of our crazy politicos we are going to become one of those lost civilizations beginning on September 1!!!!!!!

Of course this feeling could be because I have been over eating for the past week...I hope it is just that really!


Thursday, August 23, 2012

Happy Birthday Emily Chubbuck...local girl makes good!


Well depending on where you read or get your information, today is Emily Chubbuck's birthday.  Of course Emily also has three very famous names and was born in 1818, which might account for any discrepancies.

Emily was born in Eaton, New York, and lived as a child in a cabin (Underhill Cottage)  built by her grandfather Simeon Chubbuck a Revolutionary War soldier.  The rustic cabin was located just off today's route 26 and the spot now sports a historic marker, though the cabin is long gone.

Emily's father never had much money and worked at a number of jobs including being a postman.  Her mother came from a fine family that most likely thought she had married beneath her.  So to help the family finances Emily was sent to work at a young age working for a woolen business, a silk thread business, and through need had to educate her self.

At 16 she walked to Nelson seeking the man who could hire her as a teacher, something that she did well, though in reality she made far less money as a teacher than as a worker. 

Emily managed to start writing little books of a religious nature.  Her mother, father & sister became stayed members of the Eaton 2nd Baptist Church thats pastor was Nathaniel Kendrick who became head of Madison University, today's Colgate. It is interesting to note however, that Emily did not join a church until later and she was chided by the locals who asked her, "When are you going to be saved?"

She eventually got a job at the Utica Seminary for woman where she bartered her education for teaching and made friends with the owners.  Taking a trip to New York with a friend she was struck by the difference and glamorousness of the city and wrote a tongue and check letter to N P Willis, editor of the New York Mirror - asking if he would hire her.  The letter was signed "Fanny Forester", which became a sensation for its day.  Willis never paid her for her writings, but he did make her famous, and her many articles about her hometown and life on the Eatonbrook became a book entitled Alderbrook Tales. or Musings and Trippings in Authorland.  These and her humorous pieces for the Mirror made Fanny Forester a well known name.

Fame did go to her head a bit, and she started enjoying spending time with friends in Philadelphia. It is there that she was introduced to a man 30 years her junior who was looking for someone to write a biography of his dead wife. The gentleman's name was Adoniram Judson, one of America's first Baptist Missionaries to Burma - a man who became a star in the Baptist circles that supported him. Emily ends up marrying him.

After the marriage she went back to Burma with Judson and becomes the missionary Emily C. Judson.  Emily bore Judson two children, a girl who lived and a boy that died at the same time as her husband.  After his death Emily returned to America and started writing poetry and pieces for  the missions.

Sick with Tuberculous, Emily died a short time later - after having been three famous people... teacher Emily Chubbuck, writer Fanny Forester, and the missionary  Emily C. Judson.

Her age at her death was only 37 years old... an interesting hometown woman that had been around the world and was an early woman writer of note!

For more history stories on Eaton go to www. HistoryStarProductions.com.



Here is a short on Adoniram Judson.....

Sunday, August 19, 2012

An election with many local ties to the phrase Rum, Romanism & Rebellion!

Well... is anyone tired of the election yet?????  

I am!  This whole thing has gotten out of hand..and this back and forth, back and forth, without any real information or with information that changes depending on the day.... has really got me.

I remember an interesting story that I was spouting at dinner last week about the R & R thing..I remembered a Republican minister with local ties who went to fill a speaking engagement for another person who had to cancel.  His name was Dr. Samuel Dickenson Burchard  and he got up and gave the usual preacher long winded speech.. in - part off the cuff ..when he interjected the words...an alliteration actually...Rum, Romanism & Rebellion!

A reporter who was half asleep pick up on it..and the rest is history!!!!  I quote here from the website Rum, Romanism and Rebellion...


"Days before the election, James Blaine visited the crucial swing state of New York, attending a morning meeting in a New York City hotel. During a speech made by Presbyterian minister Samuel Burchard, the Democratic Party was assailed as the party of “Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion.” In many ways, this phrase singled out Irish Catholics, many of whom lived in the large urban centers like New York and Boston. The phrase catered to the stereotype of the drunken Irishman and demeaned the Catholic faith. Most all Irish were Roman Catholic."

"The term “Rebellion” was a typical post Civil War Republican ploy of “waving the bloody shirt,” reminding voters that it had been the Democrats who were responsible for the great bloodshed and connecting them to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. "

"Catholic priests took to the pulpit the weekend before the election and urged church members to vote against the Republicans. When it was all over, Cleveland carried the state."

Well Dr. Samuel Dickenson Burchard was from the famous Burchard family of Pecksport in Eaton.   His brother was the famous Sylvester Burchard who brought the first breeding herd of Holsteins to the USA and who was also a  famous judge of the breed.  Sylvester was married to Ali Morse of the famous Morse family of Eaton. 

What is interesting is that I have some things of Dr. Burchard's in the Old Town of Eaton Museum.  One is the story told by his niece that after the election Grover Cleveland (who also had ties to Eaton - his brother was the minister of the Eaton Congregational Church)- invited Burchard to the White House to thank him for his remarks and laugh..Burchard said he didn't want to be seen doing it for obvious reasons, so the President sent a coach with curtains drawn for him and brought him to the White House in secret!

In fact though..Blaine also lost that election because of Republicans who jumped sides and became known as "Mug Wumps"!

A humorous side note!!!!

When asked about the loss, James Blaine was reported to have said: “I should have carried New York by 10,000 votes if the weather had been clear and Dr. Burchard had been doing missionary work in Asia Minor or China.” Blaine’s great mistake had been not distancing himself from Burchard’s comments."


Cleveland was an honest man...view short biography!



Saturday, August 11, 2012

Thoughts of Eleanor Roosevelt and the end of the war with Japan!


I had a number of people email me about my blog on Eleanor Roosevelt this week and on my blog on the anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki.  As I rested last night I wondered what Eleanor thought about the end of the war with Japan, a war that ended on August 14, 1945.

Luckily I had been to Val-Kill and Hyde Park as well as the FDR Library, and figured correctly that her many columns must be preserved and available on line….they are!

So here is her released statement on the ending of the War with Japan published on the “day after” ..August 15, 1945 held via her request.

ER……When word was flashed that peace had come to the world again, I found myself filled with very curious sensations. I had no desire to go out and celebrate. I remembered the way the people demonstrated when the last war ended, but I felt this time that the weight of suffering which has engulfed the world during so many years could not so quickly be wiped out. There is a quiet rejoicing that men are no longer bringing death to each other throughout the world. There is great happiness, too, in the knowledge that someday, soon, many of those we love will be at home again to give all they have to the rebuilding of a peaceful world.

One cannot forget, however, the many, many people to whom this day will bring only a keener sense of loss, for, as others come home, their loved ones will not return.

In every community, if we have eyes to see and hearts to feel, we will for many years see evidences of the period of war, which we have been through. There will be men among us who all their lives, both physically and mentally, will carry the marks of war; and there will be women who mourn all the days of their lives. Yet there must be an undercurrent of deep joy in every human heart, and great thankfulness that we have world peace again.

Sadly, we never really have had “world peace” again….and now the wars…. though just as horrible…the impact of them like Iraq and Afghanistan”….are really only felt by those who have lost someone or have someone fighting there.

The wars no longer are in our thoughts daily, and most of us have given little up nor thought much about them except for the jiber-jaber in the news about the tight US budget or the cost in terms of $$$ that our taxes must pay!  Only saddened when a local soldier is lost….

Take a trip to Hyde Park and the FDR Library as well as Val-Kill, and realize that we were lucky to have these elected people in power at that time….

We had the right choice for President of the United States and for Vice President….though we couldn’t choose the right First Lady....We got her anyway she was the best part of the deal!

A Trip to Hyde Park..Springwood



Thursday, August 9, 2012

The world's worst day in modern time

Today has a dubious place in the history of not only the United States... but of the world.  On this date in 1945, the last nuclear bombed to be dropped in war was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.  It is estimated that over 60,000 - 80,000 people died immediately and thousands more followed from related injuries and radiation.

Today we are willing to go to war to prevent "suspicious-hostile" countries from getting the bomb...but really...would any country drop a bomb on another knowing that in a few minutes the retaliation will wipe their country off the face of the earth..and them too I might add ..????

We now have many people who believe that dropping the bomb was not necessary..but it took two such bombs to get Japan to surrender!  Though we hate to think about the horror this act caused it might also be good for us to reflect on the outcome over all....there has never been another dropped!

Fat Man, as the bomb was named, started an era of negotiation and fear that has managed to keep nuclear weapons at bay...tho..the terribleness of war has pervaded every continent except our own....

As we look back we must wonder at the decision of Truman's to do this and the fact that he said he never regretted doing it!

***It is interesting to note that the energy released from the tsunami that hit Indonesia in 2004 was 1500 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and the energy released from the   tsunami that hit Japan in 2011 was 600 million times more powerful that that bomb.


Sunday, August 5, 2012

Eleanor Roosevelt - a rose of a different color!


With my new company History Star Productions I have been lucky enough to travel around New York State…see beautiful scenery…learn interesting history…and get to know people from the past.  This year’s travels brought me a re-introduction of a sort to a grand lady of note, Eleanor Roosevelt.  On a visit to Hyde Park and her home Val Kill, I was treated to a new video documentary on her life..and what a life it was.

Just this past week I received a card with one of Eleanor’s quotes on it...not the kind of quote you would expect, but for Eleanor Roosevelt one cannot expect the normal -just the truthful, and in some cases humorous.

The card came with this quote from Eleanor - it read:  “I had a rose named after me and I was very flattered.  But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalog: ‘NO good in a bed, but fine against a wall.’”

The grand dame of the democrats was a self-made person of sorts - putting herself into the role of First Lady as no other had done before her.  She was a politician who stumped for her husband and an activist who worked diligently for the United Nations and for human rights...in fact she was a person who understood more than any of her collogues then… that “women’s rights” were a necessity in the modern world and in America.

More than ever we need a person like Eleanor to guide us through the political muckery of today, a person who has the ability to show the world that human rights are needed by all people, especially in this world that is becoming smaller each and every day.

Perhaps she was successful because she was no beauty queen - only a woman of many faces…. mother...wife…friend...writer...activist….

They called her the “first lady (citizen) of the world”...and that she was…and she was a "rose of a different color!"


Watch and learn more about this great woman.....for a trip to Val-kill via my video..watch