Snippets of: Imboden, Arkansas

The city of Imboden, in Arkansas, was named after the family of Swiss settlers who founded the town. The city was established in the early 1830s. Benjamin Imboden was a man with a good reputation. The city was named after him for his outstanding work in transforming the area from canebrake and trees to habitable land, but no less for his sterling character as a supporter of the church and the law. His son, John Imboden, was a Confederate brigadier general during the Civil War.
The city has claims to several distinctions: Youngest mayor in the U.S. at that time, a polar bear in their cemetery, and a large fire resulting in the destruction of most of their businesses caused by thoughtless human beings.
The incident with the polar bear was a bit trivial, but wouldn't you be proud if you had a dead polar bear in your backyard. The polar bear came from a circus. It died while the circus was in Imboden. Fascinating, isn't it?
The large fire occurred in 1893. It was caused by a firecracker fight. Not knowing exactly what that was, I looked it up. Talk about the stupidity of humans! A firecracker fight means throwing lighted firecrackers at each other. It is very dangerous, and the goal is to throw it before it explodes in your hand and to avoid those thrown at you. It really isn't surprising that a fire started. What is interesting however, is the fact that the fire was on Christmas Eve. It's interesting, because for several years in a row, the city was plagued by fires on that same date.
In 1912, Joe Sullivan was elected Mayor of Imboden. He was only 21 years old. Not only that, but he was a paralytic who made his way around town in a goat-driven cart. He is quoted as saying, "For myself, I am going to use three essentials to success, Faith, Prayer, and Perseverance. They never fail you if you are in the right, and you are already a failure if you are in the wrong." The latter half of the second half of the quote, by the way, is not strictly true. Being wrong does not make you a failure.
5 pieces of random information: 1. Imboden's population is just under 700. 2. The Jones family is predominant in the city leadership, fire department, and water department. (In case that interests you. It did me. It's rather unusual to have a family-run town. Oh, and there is only one female in all those departments! Good for them from a Biblical standpoint!) 3. The city is also very proud of it's first and only brand-new fire engine. I assume this means that they have since purchased only used fire engines since they have retired the one they're so proud of. They were one of the last older cities in the U.S to establish a fire department. (1959) 4. Saloons were voted out in 1889. To the best of my knowledge, they have not been voted back in. 5. The town's first theater was a drive-in, outdoor theater. Children who didn't want to pay the dime admittance climbed on the roof of the building across the street and watched from there.
(This has been: Snippets of: Imboden, Arkansas. Look in next time to read: Stories of My Life:_)

Snippets: New York New Year's

New Years' Day has passed already, but it wasn't that long ago, so talking about New York New Year's (say that five times fast) traditions still counts.

New York is the largest city in the United States. It is known as the 'gateway of immigration' and the Big Apple state. It's location on the waterfront is the basis of one of New York's most long-standing New Year's traditions.

The time-ball drop, or the ball-drop occurs at 11:59 p.m. on New Years' Eve. A large lit-up ball is placed on a tall pole located in Times Square. At the appointed time, the ball is lowered until it reaches the bottom of the pole precisely at midnight. In this one short minute, the ball drops over 75 feet. Millions of people gather to watch this short event. And it's probably a good thing that it's short. The average temperature is only one degree above freezing.

The time ball was used in the past to help sailors in the harbor synchronize their chronometers to the correct time. In those days accurate time-keeping was crucial for ocean navigation. At a set time, noon in the U.S., the ball would drop. Five minutes before noon, the ball would be raised half-way up it's pole to alert the sailors that it was almost time. It was raised all the way when there were only two or three minutes remaining. The time was carefully recorded the second the ball began to fall. In this manner, ships would be able to set their chronometers correctly. Time balls were in use for 80 years until the invention of radio time signals in 1924. Nevertheless, the time ball is used in New York each New Year. In keeping with their name as the Big Apple state, the time ball is occasionally not a ball but rather an apple. If you don't want to fight the crowds and pay transportation costs, next year, you can look it up on the Internet and watch it there.

Other New York traditions include the showering of confetti from tall buildings, fireworks, and the singing of Auld Lang Syne. New York is a city rich with history. Perhaps some other time you'll hear some more about it here.

Happy New Year!

(This has been: Snippets of New York. Look in next time to read: Stories of My Life:__)

Snippets of: Seattle, Part 2

The fire of 1889, recorded in Part 1 destroyed almost the entire city of Seattle. Thirty blocks were utterly demolished.Afterwards, wooden buildings were banned in favor of brick, stone, and iron. One would expect everyone to be unhappy about this devastation, and I am sure they were to some extent. However, the authorities didn’t seem to mind too much.

Now that the city is burned, they said, let’s build it higher. It will solve the sewage problems, of which there are many, and the city will stop flooding every time the tide comes in.

The merchants however, had lost all of their things in the fire. We can’t wait to build the city up, they said, we need to build our buildings now so that we can have money.

Well, said those in charge of the city, we are going to raise the city fifteen feet whether you like it or not. We own the streets.

You may own the streets, said the merchants, but we own the sidewalks, so we are building now.

The result of this was that the city built the streets fifteen feet higher and the sidewalks stayed where they were, fifteen feet below. For the customers who wanted to get to the other side of the streets, ladders were built. No guard-rails were used on the roads, so coaches and people sometimes fell. Sometimes, people fell off the ladders too. These deaths, the court ruled as involuntary suicides.

When the city built the streets higher, they used more dirt than it took to build the Panama Canal. But they still didn’t have enough, so they used, as Northwestcharm.com tells us, “Rubbish from the fire, sawdust, soil, and even carcasses of dead horses.” (Goller) In doing this, they made an insecure foundation.

Just for a minute, let’s look at Seattle as we see it today. Today downtown Seattle’s foundation is still made of this rubbish from the 19th century. The sawdust and other materials that were used in the past cause many of the pothole problems in the streets of Seattle.

The sidewalks were also raised to street level, creating what is now known as Underground Seattle. A few years after the fire, this area, which had only recently been constructed, was condemned due to a bubonic plague which swept the city. This was due to the large amount of rats that lived underneath. A bounty of ten cents was put on the tail of the rat. This, alas, was another mistake.

Rats are hard to catch, especially in the dark. This bounty that was put on rat tails caused people to raise rats to make things easier. They could cut off their tails and still receive the bounty. The rat problem took a long time to get rid of.

And now, in order to round out this history of Seattle’s folly and the era surrounding the Great Fire, let me tell you about one of the first leaders of Seattle.

Seattle has had many corrupted leaders. Of these, many of the crimes committed by the early leaders are now outlawed. This particular leader however however, did not have these laws.

(I once thought that this fallen man was the first mayor of Seattle, Henry Atkins. When I actually went on the Seattle Underground Tour however, it turned out it was someone else. Unfortunately, I can not remember or discover the man's real name and position. It might have been the Seattle Treasurer). Anyway, this man made many errors and he was a man in the position to do the following: It so happened that being a major town leader, he was also a private citizen. In his role as private citizen he sued the city. That is, he sued the town leaders, a prominent one of which just happened to be himself. Then, the town leader, himself, gave the private citizen, also himself, a whole bunch of money straight from the city treasury. This of course, is very wrong to do and there are laws against it.

The city has made some pretty silly mistakes in my opinion. Jesus once told a parable about the spiritual life. He told of a man who built his house on the sand, sawdust in this case, whose house fell down. And then He told the flip side of the story by telling about another man who built his house on the rock, whose house was beaten against, but did not fall. (Matt. 24-27) The example of the town leader's corruptness is just one. The city has always been pretty corrupted. Skid Row for instance. So I guess that, for the most part, the lives of the citizens are made of the same stuff they build the town on. It’s really kinda funny how people build things to look like themselves, (just look at the King of Babylon, he built a statue of himself.) However, Seattle is doomed! Spiritually, it’s corrupt. Physically, its foundation is (very) unsound. And I think Seattle could cave in at any time.

(P.S. Subsequent recent events have taken place. The city of Seattle is about to build a tunnel underneath the city. I hate to think of what will happen when they try to build it in the midst of that weak foundation. Downtown Seattle really could collapse even without an earthquake!)

(This has been: Snippets of: Seattle, Part 2. Look in next time to read: Stories of My Life:__)

Snippets of: Seattle, Part 1

Seattle is doomed! But in order for you to understand this, you need some basic Seattle history. This story is actually something I wrote for something else some other time, so it may not sound quite the same as I normally write for this blog. Let's just say that by studying Seattle, we are studying a city built on folly

Underground Seattle is a complex maze of passageways and basements in downtown Seattle. In the mid-1800s, when Seattle was just beginning, Underground Seattle was really the ground level. The city was built on the tide flats of the Puget Sound and thus flooded frequently.
The original buildings of Seattle were made of wood, and as the University of Washington Library states, the floors of the buildings were made of “wood chips and turpentine.” (University of Washington Libraries) The streets were muddy, and the people were coarse lumberjacks who seldom took baths.
Seattle was founded on November 13, 1851. A party of settlers led by a man named Arthur Denny landed on Alki Beach in November. (I may do another story on Seattle some other time. If I do, there will be more about the folly of his early settlement.) A man who was interested in the Northwest since an early time in his life, Arthur Denny seized the chance to go west when it came. He was partly influenced by his wife Mary. The city was also founded by the Terry group, and the Hines group. Little is known about these groups, but it’s better not to give all the credit to Arthur Denny.
When the Denny party landed on Alki Beach, now in downtown Seattle they named the place New York and then added bye and bye. Bye and bye became the Washington state motto. Part of the reason that Seattle was once named New York may have been because the biggest city, New York City, New York, where most of the Denny party had come from, was a three month journey. The Denny party hoped that Seattle would be able to take New York’s place as a large social center. Later the city was named Seattle after explorers met the powerful local Indian chief, Chief Sealth, or, Seattle, as we Americans called him.
This story was intended to be mainly about why Seattle is doomed so, enough of Seattle’s background. Let us instead skip to one of Seattle’s first mistakes: the Great Fire of Seattle. It started on June 6th, 1889, at 2:15 p.m., just after a beautiful spring.
The Great Fire started in a carpenters shop when a pot of glue, which was put on the stove by John Back, boiled over onto the sawdust and turpentine floor. The floor, of course, caught fire. When it was noticed, it was already too late to stop it. The fire soon ignited the liquor store on the one side, and a hardware store on the other side. Because of the massive logging industry of the time, all of the hardware stores carried dynamite, while everyone knows that alcohol is highly combustible. You can well imagine the result.
An equally important contribution to the greatness of the fire is Skid Row. The term Skid Row started in Seattle. It was really called Skid Road at first. The lumberjacks would skid the logs down the steep hill behind Seattle to the Puget Sound. After the logs had been put into the Sound, the lumberjacks would enter the bars. Thus, Skid Row was born.
At the time of the fire, drunken teenagers and men set fire to other buildings thinking that it was all in fun. Amazingly, no lives were lost in the fire. An article titled the Great Seattle Fire of June 6, 1889 tells us of the devastation caused by the fire. It says, and I quote, “Thousands of people were homeless, and 5,000 men were without jobs. The city estimated losses at more than $8 million, and that did not include personal property losses.” (U-S, comp.)
Where was the fire department all this time? Unfortunately, the fire Chief was out of town at a fire prevention conference! No one seemed to mind that. After all, they had two brand-new fire engines that would fix the problem in no time. However, they neglected to see if the fire engines were filled with water. Of course they weren't. No problem, said the city’s government, there’s the Sound just a hop, skip, and a jump away. So, they drove the fire engines over to the water. At least, they tried to. Un-happily, the tide was out causing the beach to be muddy. The engines got stuck and the people were forced to put out the fire in the old fashioned and unconventional way. A line of men passing buckets back and forth. The city of Tacoma, about half a day away, did send over their fire engines in time to help put out the fire, but it wasn’t enough to save Seattle.The fire destroyed almost the entire city. Thirty blocks were utterly demolished.

(It sounds like Seattle has already gone through its doom-edness. But this is only the beginning. Other, more terrible things are to come in Snippets of: Seattle, Part 2. However, Part 2 must wait it's turn. Next up is: Stories of My Life:__)

Snippets of: Nome, Alaska Part 1

In Sweden, 1857, a little boy was born into poverty. Sweden sounds very far from Nome, Alaska, and a poor boy being born seems to have nothing to do with Nome, however, Eric Lindblom was pivotal in the history both of Nome, and the United States.

I seriously doubt that anyone has ever heard of him before. His mother was a beggar, his father died early in Eric's life. Eric became apprenticed to a tailor in Stockholm, Sweden. A tailor is often recognized as a very poor trade, but in spite of this, Eric was able to lift himself and his mother out of poverty through it. His work carried him to many countries including, but not limited to, France, Russia, Germany, and England. In England, he met and married Miss Mary Ann Smith, herself a daughter of a tailor.

The Lindbloms traveled to the U.S. shortly after their marriage. Incidently, their marriage anniversary is coming up on August 2ND. They traveled west. In Montana, they became American citizens. In Idaho, on an Indian Reservation, their son, Olof, was born. Their daughter, Brita, was born before they reached California.

In California, Eric took courses in mining. It was only a short time later when gold fever struck. Drawn by rumors of riches in Alaska, Eric joined a ship as a sailor and traveled to Kotzebue in 1897. From that time forth, Eric became a legendary figure. While this was the case however, the sources of his adventures are credible.

Eric found the rumors to be false. Naturally he was disappointed. He decided to board another ship and go somewhere else. Near Teller, Alaska, the ship became nearly ice-bound. Lindblom deserted his post on the ship. Technically, Lindblom, with the other people on board the ship, were supposed to be getting freshwater, instead, Lindblom landed and hid in a snow cavern. After three days, he left and began his travels. On the way, he met a prospector. Hiding under the prospector's load of furs, Lindblom went to Golovin, nearly suffocating on the way. There, he traveled to the mouth of the Snake River, or, present-day Nome. With two other men, Jafet Lindeberg, and John Brynteson, they panned the river for gold. The three of them were the founders of Nome, though Lindeberg is usually credited with it.

So much for Eric's pivotal part in the history of Nome. His part in the history of the U.S. has to do with the fact that he struck it rich, very rich. Eric's single gold strike began what we know today as the Klondike Gold Rush. The Gold Rush involved hundreds of thousands of people. It helped Alaska become populated, and it helped America's reputation as a place of opportunity.

(This has been: Snippets of Nome, Alaska, Part 1. Look in next time to read: Stories of my Life:_)

Snippets: Baltimore

In the gathering gloom of dusk, in the year 1812, a British peace ship sailed down the Patapsco River near Baltimore. It trailed 19 other ships that were, perhaps, not so peaceful. On board the peace ship were the temporary prisoners, Dr. Beanes and an American lawyer. The fleet of war ships gathered in the ocean within range of Baltimore and their object: Fort McHenry.

Meanwhile, in Baltimore, a seamstress named Betsy Ross, sat in her home sewing furiously. As the British fleet began to bombard Fort McHenry on September 13, Betsy finished her work. As darkness began to fall, Betsy hung her flag outside.

Watching the attack from the peace ship, Dr. Beanes and the American lawyer saw the flag slowly unfurl under the light of the rockets and mortars of the British fleet. The American lawyer watched a moment and then hurried to his cabin. There, on an envelope under his swiftly moving pen, words began to appear. "O! say can you see by the dawn's early light..."

Francis Scott Key was detained on board the peace ship until after the battle, (which the Americans won). In his later life, Key served as Vice President of the American Bible Assocation. The association is best known for its Good New Bible translation. Key's grandson was later held prisoner in Fort McHenry for being a suspected Confederate sympathizer. It is ironic that the National Anthem of America, written at a time of war with Britain, is set to a British tune.

Baltimore is the 20th largest city in the U.S. The name means "Town of the Big House" from the Irish. Baltimore was named after Lord Baltimore, of the Irish House of Lords. It was nicknamed "The Monumental City" by President John Quincy Adams because of the skyline of large churches, edifices, and monuments.

Not only did some of Americas finest history take place in Baltimore, but the traditional American boardgame, Monopoly, can also claim it's share in Baltimore. The B&O railroad (Baltimore & Ohio) began in Baltimore. It was privately owned, (in other words, a Monopoly) for many years, and made Baltimore a key shipping and industrial city. The B&O company suffered what is known as The Great Railroad Strike in 1877.

In 1904, a blessing in disguise was granted to Baltimore in the form of the Great Baltimore Fire. The fire burned most of the city (the disguise), and forced it to rebuild. The new buildings and layout made the city even bigger (the blessing).

It's almost the Fourth of July and most people have probably forgotten, or never heard, the story of the Star-Spangled Banner. America has mainly forgotton the price paid for her freedom and the bravery of the "primitive" colonists. Our country was founded on God and patriotism, it is my prayer that our country will turn back to God and patriotism and that we can, from the heart and with truth, say "God Bless America!

(This has been: Snippets: Baltimore. Tune in next time to read: Stories of my Life).