Mago Bill Inspired History

History With RCS: Inspired by Mago Bill               

              Mago Bill is a nickname which I choose to give my paternal great grand father. I have used the name Mago Bill on several blogs because it names a source of inspiration for me. It has inspired me to write a variety of history posts for you; most recently here, and my Ireland and the Irish Blog. Nearly all of these inspired post are of history, prehistory, and a bit more.

                This blog is new and does not have a Mago Bill title. However, because Mago inspires: this history blog, a number history and prehistory timelines, because my vision of him inspires many of my thoughts on history, and much of my historic and prehistoric research, it seems appropriate to mention him here.

                My sister, the family genealogist, discovered ample documentation of his existence and that the name he most often used in the United States was M.William Sheehan. Soon we discovered evidence that the "M" was for Mago; a name even more unusually in the US then than it is now.

                In Ireland Mago, as a given name, has had several periods of some popularity. For me, William became Bill. Thus the name Mago Bill came to personify my inspiration for several blogs and much research.

                Spanish speaking friends of mine told me that the Spanish word "mago" means magician in English. Some of the same friends tell me that the Three Kings or Three Wise Men, we are told brought gifts to the baby Jesus, were called magos and that each one may be called mago.

                I have learned that the name Mago was an important family name among Carthaginian Phoenicians while Rome was young. Later some of the family Mago were close to Hannibal, a name you may recognize. 

                Carthaginian traders and navigators came to Ireland to trade for tin and other goods. They they brought so much knowledge and talk of the name Mago with them that it so impressed some individuals, that they named their male offspring Mago.

                "Mago" has more history to be told and I may very well tell some of it here on this history blog. You may have already found that this blog contains prehistory, archaeology, geological history, and a bit more, in addition to my idea of normal history.

                 Thank you for your visit and for reading this Page. For your pleasure, make some time to review the Posts on this blog.

                For now, bye.

 

 

                                            RCS

 

 

Amateurs Can Inform Us

Amateur archaeology on the California desert.

Blackrock Well in the California Desert. There are still mountain sheep in them there hills. A nice variety of petroglyphs are shown. Amateurs can show us much and teach us a few things. The people who made the glyphs are surely experienced some climate change too. The atlatl may have come to the are very, very long ago. Some knowledgeable attempts have been made to interpret them. If you know anything about the  glyphs of Southern California, please comment about them here. The gentleman presenting this video has a lot of similar videos on YouTube. check them out.

The Looting Of Ameican Prehistoric Sites

 History of mound robbing and looting in the U.S. Bad archaeology at the Spiro Mounds Complex in Oklahoma. The history of this site looting has been largely recovered thanks to the people of the great state of Oklahoma (Way down yonder in the Indian nation). This site was such a treasure trove that it was call the King Tuts Tomb of the Arkansas Valley.

 

Mound Builders of the Middle Archaic Period of North America

 History With RCS: Great Piles of Dirt            

 

                By 1776 most mounds looked like great piles of dirt. Even so, they drew the attention of Washington, Jefferson, and others. In much earlier days when Spanish explorers first saw them they drew stronger attention and wonder. In those days a considerable number of of mounds were used and maintained by the people of the land. Later, when French traders and trappers saw those mounds of the Mississippi river drainage area more mounds were neglected and grown over with grass. By the time Dutch, English, and other settlers were arriving, the culture of the native people and been greatly disrupted and damaged. Nearly all mounds were grown over with brush and trees. most of the mounds and other earth works had been abandoned.

            Abandoned, but not forgotten. Native peoples had memories and stories of them and some the new comers had curiosity about them. A few, but perhaps to many, of those new-comers mined the mounds for saleable material and items. The interest in the remains of those earthworks and mounds has grown in recent decades. Historians and archaeologists have taken an interest. Tourists and others visit those remains. They are mentioned in a few text books. Modern archaeologists continue to develop our knowledge of the earthen  mounds on our land with their research.

                Historians are still learning from the writings of Spanish explorers, conquerors, and colonists. We still have more to learn from observers traveling with people like Hernando de Soto on his 1540 through 1542 traverse of what is now the U.S. Southeast. And also from the many other Spanish explorers, colonists, and others observing North America in the 1500s. 

                We have more to learn from the journals of French voyageurs and priests. Artists can be a source of information. One French painter was observing Indian activity in northeast Florida before 1590. A caption on one of his paintings reads in translation, "Sometimes the deceased king of the province is buried with great solemnity, and the cup from which he was accustomed to drink is placed on a tumulus with many arrows set about it."  His interpretation of what he probably saw may be somewhat ironic and with less than perfect understanding of the situation, but his words and painting may still inform us.

                One may suspect that there is still information to be found about this period in North America, in European Archives. In those archives productive information about the native population of the area from the very early days of European exploration and occupation may be found. 

                From such early writings, we find that priests and others visiting the Mississippi river area by about 1679 were grown over with brush and large trees. Even so, they found some of them still impressive. Notable among them were those found at the present site of Saint Louis city, Missouri. The ones at Natchez city were still occupied by native people and the French found it necessary to drive them out by force.

                As I continue to learn more from the work of archaeologists in the area, I have come to learn of peoples named by them such as: Adena, Hopewell, Kame transitional, Red Ocher, Old Copper, Fort Ancient, Poverty Point, and Watson break. I learned that culture, trade and interactions in general of some of them extended from Labrador to the tip of Florida and beyond. Those interactions from the beginning of the Mississippi near the Great Lakes to its delta at on the Gulf of Mexico, from the western extremes of the Missouri river to the eastern extremes of the Ohio river. from the Great Lakes to the mouth of the Saint Laurence river.

                These forerunners of what have been called the civilized tribes, were found in the areas noted above and also thrived along the Gulf  coast to perhaps as far as the present boarder with Mexico and east to the west coast of Florida and then up east coast of the present state. Some had sea going vessels to take them to Cuba and farther south into the Caribbean. We are learning a lot and have much more to learn of these and perhaps to their descendants of today. It might be profitable to begin with their use of wetland and their agricultural practices.

                I found that these mound builder culture people had lived and learned in North America for 5,000 years and perhaps twice that long.

                Many tribes of North American Indians are closely related to the people I am writing about here. American Indians have culture memories of them preserved in chants and stories. Among these Americans are preserved  details  and attitudes of a culture which had diminished greatly by 400 BC. There is still that of value which we can all learn from and about the experience of the people of that culture.

                We seem to be looking at a wide spread, long lasting cultural tradition. That culture seems to have lasted for thousands of years and adapting successfully to climate and other major changes on Earth. They lived and thrived before and through time of mega-fauna. I remember being a "stomp dance" in the U.S. at which I heard a chant which feature the atlatl and its use. Later I spoke with a person who knew about that song/chant. He said it was about hunting a large animal which seems to have been a giant ground sloth. I understand that this giant sloth was one of the giant animals to become extinct. I like the evidence that a tribal people, not long out of their oral tradition, kept their history in song and still sang it while I was a young man.

                The Kame people may be of a tradition different from the one on which I have intended to focus, but they did become mound builders. A kame is a sort of long slender berm of earth left by a retreating glacier.  A people used them as a place to bury their dead. As time went on the people came to remain in the same area for longer periods of time. In time they ran out of natural kame and so began to create their own. As time went on their kame came to look more mound-like.

                I mentioned a Red Ocher people earlier. They came from a different tradition and we have much yet to learn about them. They were early in the New World. They were a sea going people of some sophistication. Evidence of their culture is found along the western shores of Europe! It it is also found on the eastern shores of North America and down the the Saint Laurence river to the Great Lakes. Their markers are advanced fishing gear and for the hunting of sea mammals. Another marker is their abundant use of red ocher, most noted in their burial sites. Could they have been the source of reskins, the original red Indians?

                More than once I heard an old aunt of mine say that an excellent place to start is at the beginning and that a good place to stop is when it is over. However, for me this story is not over it continues today. I have looked far back into the past and have little hope of finding a beginning. Still I will continue to look as far as I can into the far reaches of time.

                 So, for now, in will start at about 4,000 BC with the "Mound Builders" of North America and from there work back toward the present and forward into the past. Here I will end at the beginning, with the Watson Break people.

                We often think of the past as a sort of line extending back into the past in a year by year, decade by decade, century by century, millennium by millennium order. People of other cultures seem to remember it as like a lake of happenings, doings, lessons and learnings of the past quite well. I do try to use chronological order, but have some "primitive" tendencies. Check my timeline blogs for a better chronology.

                Watson Break site in Louisiana is my archaeological starting point. This look into this Middle Archaic Mound site of North America is arbitrary, but is a fairly solid place to begin. The Mounds at this large site are more securely dated them most similar mounds thanks to the work by Sanders and others. It has also been less seriously disturbed than many others. So, from this period in North America I can move toward toward the moving target of the future and into the past with no end in sight.             

                The Watson Break site is in the U.S. state of Louisiana, located at the edge of a Holocene floodplain of the Ouachita river. It's in northeast Louisiana and about 20 miles south of Monroe, Louisiana. In southern Louisiana is where the Mississippi river enters the Gulf of Mexico. so, from Watson Break one could explore mound sites up the Mississippi and up both Ohio river and Missouri river and then further up the Mississippi to very near the Great Lakes and even through the Lakes to the St. Lawrence river to the Atlantic ocean. And, in that process visit Kame and Red Ocher sites. The rivers were roads for many and for some the Ocean a highway.

            We could then explore down the Mississippi from near Watson Break to the Gulf of Mexico and out and west along the Gulf coast. We could also choose to travel east from the delta and around the Florida peninsula and up the Atlantic coast a ways. Up and down the river and along the coast we can find Mound Builder sites or sites of their relatives.

                In 1997 the archaeologist Joe Sanders and an interdisciplinary team of scientists published important findings about Watson Break in Science. They presented solid evidence that Middle Archaic "hunter-gathers constructed monumental earthworks at WB and lived there on a seasonal basis. This Middle Archaic period is often measure from about 8,000 BC to about 1,000 BC.

                These Watson Break mounds are among the oldest of their kind and the more elaborate. Copper items were around there which very likely have their origin in the Great Lakes area and probably arrived before 2,000 BC. An item found their which I find strikingly noble and well proportioned human hand fashioned from mica. Mica is delicate and subject to damage. It is also fireproof and translucent.

                Other sites identified as closely related to WB tradition have been found mostly in in Louisiana, but others have been found elsewhere, notably in the adjacent state of Mississippi. One such mound was located in downtown Pascagoula in  Lincoln county, Mississippi. It has been dated to between 3,600 BC and 3,300 BC by radiocarbon dating. There is another site in Lowndes county, Miss. It has been dated to between 4,600 and 3,800 BC.

                    Enough of Watson  Break for now. But from here at WB we might be able to take up a thread that that we can follow back to a time of "Noah's Flood." Archaeologist are clarifying our history more and more. This ramble could lead to exploring to before "the flood." and forward to our future.

                We have lightly touched a time nearly 10,000 BC an and forward and up to about. There is a lot to fill in, but we've made a start. You can add to the story in the "comments" section just below. Click on "comments."

                I have begun building prehistory timeline blogs which you can access from this blog. Check out the dates from this piece there or on other online sites.

                More to come.

                Thank you for reading!

                                                                                                                    RCS

'A World Archaeology

History With RCS: Ice Age Islands: Early humans and long-term climate change.   

 A world archaeology leads to our much greater understanding.                                            rcs                

History and Historians: First Thoughts

             My first thought was that history not presented by a historian is a story.  Then think that any true story is a history! Then again, some historians are falsifiers and each has her bias. I felt the need to begin somewhere! 

            My next thought is, that which happened this morning is history. That is, it is history when someone tells me about what he has witnessed or, when I witness it and then tell you about it. it seems that history is told about that which has happened or been done. The quality of the witness and teller must be important.

            History is beginning to seem important. It can be about all that has been done, made, or happened, and all that we have noted about our experience! By attending to such telling, one may nor only learn about our about what happened, but also about how it happened or was done, and also why and a lot what can be very interesting information. Even when history is seen, as just a good story, it can be a joyful learning experience.

            Ah, let me add that dates can be important to history, but not necessary to to it. Chronological order can be very useful in historical accounts.

            History is about human experience. I Believe that my experience can be my great teacher. I can also learn a lot through accounts of the experience of others. Good history is a useful interpretation of the experiences of others. Historians record and publish the doings and happening of societies and cultures and individuals. We are free to learn from their work. We may come to more useful understanding of many affairs.

            Historians interpret and record in accord with their own world-views and perspectives. Most publish as they see it. Some record it as they would have us see it.. Many naturally embrace truth and realty with their own views and perspectives. Some learn to. Most are honest most of the time, some are not. One relies on one's own analysis and judgement in interpreting their work. All historians whom I know of are human and each human has her own history and writes from that perspective.We can benefit from honing our own judgement.

            I believe that you can be a historian. When you value evidence, know a true story, and have a realistic imagination you may become a very good one. However, many will call you a story teller, rather than a historian, unless you use good documentation.

            Historians often examine happenings, doings, changes, and may discover processes.

            History is not a science. It has an immense number of variables and practically no laboratories. For many it has become an exacting art and craft. It has become humanities great memory of important experience. It is an important part of that which supports our culture.

            Historians do have the advantage of hindsight. The may ask an try to answer such questions as: How did we get here? and How did that happen? At times they may sus pend judgement and try to place themselves in the context of a given moment. They have considered that man may be the measure of man.

            I most enjoy history when it is told as a story. I also like historical writing which is the result of an effort to honestly and factually presents the workings of a process.

            As you continue to explore you will find that there are a great many kinds of history, presented in a variety of ways. More and more of it is written or produced in  a non academic way for the general public. History is of many kinds and sorts. There is history of motorcycles and motherhood, science and economics, comedy and pop music.

            As I think about it, there seems to be lot to this history business. There is a lot to learn about the doing of it; a lot to learn about historical research; a lot to learn about its presentation; a lot to learn about the kind of history one really enjoys; a lot.

            More to come, more history, more prehistory, more archaeology and even what one might call geological history. 

            For those who like dates, I have begun a set of history timeline blogs.

                                                        RCS

            

Native Americans of 400 AD and Earlier

History With RCS: People of the the Hopewell tradition were ancestral to many modern Indian Nations.    

                 They may also represent an important tradition extending back in what seems a continuous line, to a time of the mega Fauna. They may even have used the atlatl as early as that. They had certainly maintained a recognizable way of living extending hundreds of years into the past.

                The Hopewell people, like many other Native American people, were matrilineal. In such cultures a man and a woman may have joined under the name of the woman's family. The children of such union may have had the responsibilities and privileges of the female line. If I, as a male, were a member of the culture, my "surname" would become that of my wife's mother, grand mother, and great grandmother. My children would bear that name. I might become known for the doings of my wife's family. 

                I am far from sure of the ways matrilineality effected their culture. However even the little we can learn may help us to better consider how Patrilineality may effect a culture. 

                The Hopewell have been called Mound Builders and came from a long line of such builders. They built more than complex mounds; they built a variety of interesting earthworks. They also made tools and artworks of stone, mica, copper, bone, wood, and much else.

                A work of theirs is called the Newark Earthworks and is located near Newark and Heath, Ohio in what is now the U.S.A. Three sections of this work have been identified and called: the Great Circle, the Octagonal, and the Wright Earthworks. As you may guess the complex was built by people we call Hopewell, The work was done between 100 BC and 500 AD. The Hopewell may have begun a decline as early as 400 AD. The Great Circle has called the biggest earthwork circle in the world or in the U.S. It is very big. It is believed to have been used as a place of ceremony, social gatherings, trade, worship, and honoring the dead. 

                Scholars have demonstrated that the Octagonal Earthwork was used as a lunar observatory for tracking the moon's orbit during its 18.6 year cycle.

                Trade: Evidence of their work and commerce has been found from south Florida and near the mouth of the Mississippi to the Great Lakes, and from the Rocky mountains to the Appalachian mountains. and some say, to the Atlantic coast of North America. Much of such evidence is concentrated in the drainage areas of the Mississippi, Ohio, and Missouri rivers.

                After 1500 Europeans were becoming aware of the earthworks of the Hopewell and Adena people. First the Spanish and latter the French commented on some of the mounds being abandoned and over grown with grass, brush, and trees. The English and American colonists became curious of mounds at an even latter date, They dug into them. They found goods; goods of many kinds from pottery to gold. Some of their finds were wonders. Including skeletal remains of persons of a bigger of a size than any of the finders.

                Some of the finders were interested in that which could be sold. Others wondered who the builders could be. Certainly not the few sad Indians they saw around them. The Indians they saw around them were the children who's families had been diseased and cruelly exploited  by Europeans for over 300 years. What you see is what you get. They were not seeing the "noble redman." We are still learning about who those builders were. We still have much to learn. Most of the evidence points tot  the Native people living near us today.

                For now, I will say that it has seemed reasonable to believe that the Hopewell people experienced a peak in their culture from about 200 BC to about 400 AD. They were proceeded by an interesting and long lived culture called the Adena. Like the Hopewell they traded from the Gulf of Mexico to a bit beyond the Great Lakes and all along the Mississippi Drainage system, including the Ohio and Missouri rivers. There is much evidence that the Adena were active from about 1,000 BC to about 200 BC.

                Experienced ones say that we have much of value to learn from the signs left by our Native predecessors, if we would dig carefully.

                                                                                            RCS

 

Ancient Mining

  How do miners become alchemists? Suggestive evidence does make one think a bit. We have a lot to learn. We can learn from anyone. Still most of what they say may be poorly thought out. He may be even more poorly educated than we are. 

When DID ancients begin systematically taking metals from the stone? Was it in the Stone Age?

Evidence of block cave mining is certainly old, but the evidence is only of several hundred years. There is much research to be done.



selected by Richard
for Mago Bill

Back to the Adena Culture

History With RCS, archaeology: People of the the Hopewell tradition were ancestral to many modern Indian Nations. 

                They may also represent an important tradition extending back in what seems a continuous line, to a time of the mega Fauna. They may even have used the atlatl as early as that. They had certainly maintained a recognizable way of living extending hundreds of years into the past.

                 The Hopewell people, like many other Native American people, were matrilineal. In such cultures a man and a woman may have joined under the name of the woman's family. The children of such union may have had the responsibilities and privileges of the female line. If I, as a male, were a member of the culture, my "surname" would become that of my wife's mother, grand mother, and great grandmother. My children would bear that name. I might become known for the doings of my wife's family. 

                I am far from sure of the ways matrilineality effected their culture. However even the little we can learn may help us to better consider how Patrilineality may effect a culture. 

                The Hopewell have been called Mound Builders and came from a long line of such builders. They built more than complex mounds; they built a variety of interesting earthworks. They also made tools and artworks of stone, mica, copper, bone, wood, and much else.

                A work of theirs is called the Newark Earthworks and is located near Newark and Heath, Ohio in what is now the U.S.A. Three sections of this work have been identified and called: the Great Circle, the Octagonal, and the Wright Earthworks. As you may guess the complex was built by people we call Hopewell, The work was done between 100 BC and 500 AD. The Hopewell may have begun a decline as early as 400 AD. The Great Circle has called the biggest earthwork circle in the world or in the U.S. It is very big. It is believed to have been used as a place of ceremony, social gatherings, trade, worship, and honoring the dead. 

                Scholars have demonstrated that the Octagonal Earthwork was used as a lunar observatory for tracking the moon's orbit during its 18.6 year cycle.

                Trade: Evidence of their work and commerce has been found from south Florida and near the mouth of the Mississippi to the Great Lakes, and from the Rocky mountains to the Appalachian mountains. and some say, to the Atlantic coast of North America. Much of such evidence is concentrated in the drainage areas of the Mississippi, Ohio, and Missouri rivers.

                After 1492 Europeans were becoming aware of the earthworks of the Hopewell and Adena people. First the Spanish and latter the French commented on some of the mounds being abandoned and over grown with grass, brush, and trees. The English and American colonists became curious of mounds at an even latter date, They dug into them. They found goods; goods of many kinds from pottery to gold. Some of their finds were wonders. Including skeletal remains of persons of a bigger of a size than any of the finders.

                Some of the finders were interested in that which could be sold. Others wondered who the builders could be. Certainly not the few sad Indians they saw around them. The Indians they saw around them were the children who's families had been diseased and cruelly exploited  by Europeans for over 300 years. What you see is what you get. They were not seeing the "noble redman." We are still learning about who those builders were. We still have much to learn. Most of the evidence points tot  the Native people living near us today.

                For now, I will say that it has seemed reasonable to believe that the Hopewell people experienced a peak in their culture from about 200 BC to about 400 AD. They were proceeded by an interesting and long lived culture called the Adena. Like the Hopewell they traded from the Gulf of Mexico to a bit beyond the Great Lakes and all along the Mississippi Drainage system, including the Ohio and Missouri rivers. There is much evidence that the Adena were active from about 1,000 BC to about 200 BC.

                I hope to post about the Adena When I believe there is interest among my readers.

                Experienced ones say that we have much of value to learn from the signs left by our Native predecessors, when we would dig carefully.

RCS

 

History of Mound Robbing and Looting in the U.S.

  History of mound robbing and looting in the U.S. Bad archaeology at the Spiro Mounds Complex in Oklahoma. The history of this site looting has been largely recovered thanks to the people of the great state of Oklahoma (Way down yonder in the Indian nation). This site was such a treasure trove that it was call the King Tuts Tomb of the Arkansas Valley.

A Fireplug: we could say that its about plumbing

History With RCS: From fireplug to fire hydrant    

                 You may know a fireplug as a place often found at the corner of a city street. A dog may urinate there. A fireplug has been called a fire hydrant. 

                Reminiscing, it comes to me that the justly famous US judge, Learned Hand, was once figuratively associated with the term, fireplug. I have forgotten the story, but am pretty sure that it included a dog.  Read on and you will be able to make an educated guess as to the origin of the word "fireplug" before reaching the climax of this post. You might find useful information in the historical section at www.theplumber.com

                In the early US trunks  and limbs of hemlock and elm trees were used to make piping to carry water from one place to another. Logs from 9 -  10" thick might be cut into 7 - 9' lengths for this purpose. Not an easy piping to use.  
                

                The men who made and laid this piping were called borers. They were named for their use of the five foot steel auger they carried with them. In those days of 1600 - 1700s these men attracted a great deal of curious attention as they traveled from town to town to carry out their unusual craft. They also brought welcome news and gossip with them. No TV or radio in those days. Up the www!

                Borers bored and formed sections of trunk so that they could tightly ram log sections together to form a series. The joints were usually sealed with pitch or tar. Sometimes a log might b split, hollowed out, bound with metal hoops, and caulked with lead with the help of a blacksmith. Plumbers were later named for their use of lead. Blacksmiths was the name for iron workers to distinguish them from goldsmiths, silversmiths, bronze smiths, etc. 

                Most water systems were gravity flow outfits. They would start at perhaps a spring or stream on high ground and allow the water to flow downhill to, say, a farm house. The line might lead to the back of the house, then on to the barn, and from there on to a catch basin.

                Water was tapped by a smaller ole bored into the log and stopped with a wooden plug.

                The city of Boston was one of the earliest places in the country to have a real waterworks. It probably first went online about 1652. In those days nearly every house was of wood and had an open hearth fireplace. Fire was a major danger. So, the first water works was for both domestic and fire fighting use.

                It was comprised of a hole drilled into the side of one of those log pipes at a strategic spot and a wooden plug used to stop that hole. A fireman could then remove the plug when and where water was needed to fight a fire. Thus fireplug!

                Let me add a bit. The line supplying water to Boston's wharves and other buildings ran from Jamaica Pond to the Faneuil Hall area, the meeting place for the Massachusetts rebels who held their Boston Tea Party in the nearby harbor on Dec. 16 1773. Not so long ago a section of a wooden water main was removed from that same vicinity. The log measure 22 feet long, the bore  4"  in diameter for the lower half of the tree, and 2-1/2 in the upper. Common with early wood pipe, the trees natural forks branched out in wyes and tees.

                In 1795, The Jamaica Pond Aqueduct Corp. followed through with 15 miles more of 3" and 5" wooden water pipe of bore logs, again using hemlock trees for construction. Since open wells provided easy prey to contamination from nearby privies, the new supply of fresh water contributed to a lower death rate.

           

                 These rustic new pipelines were valuable to firefighters. They would bore a hole into the side of the wooden pipe along the edge of the street, insert a smaller pipe, and connect the hose of their fire wagon, a two man pumper. The fire out, they would plug up the hole again with a wooden plug. A fireplug.

                                                                                                                                RCS

Peasants' Revolt of 1381 AD

   Some doings and

happenings can be taxing and humiliating. Humiliation of certain people can be dangerous. Successful conscious social change takes careful organization and planning.

Snake War: short version

 

The people of the United States have warred a lot (as have other peoples)

They seemed to have been easily led to it. During their Civil War(1861 to 1865)they found time and resources to drive a lot of Indians off their lands. At the end of that Civil War they began to "pacify" Indians from the Mississippi river to the Pacific Coast.

By 1850 powerful and influential men  from around the world became interested in the American West. We might blame that on the Fortyniners and gold fever. The name, California became a sort of magnet which drew men from from east of the the Mississippi and the Pacific coast. That same magnet drew men around the Horn and through the Straights of Magellan: some crossed the Pacific ocean from the Far East to get to California. That magnet drew men and their capital and during the Civil War and drew them even more strongly after that war of Americans against Americans.

In 1864 the Snake War began and then continued until 1868. Their were other U.S. wars (from about 1861 to 1868) during this same time. There were: Texas-Indian wars, a Colorado war, Apache wars, California Indian wars, and a Cheyenne Campaign! Many were sure that "good Indians were dead Indians." Indians were to put their heads down, in a dirty corner of what had once been their America the Beautiful, or die.

Historians called the Snake War an irregular war which Americans fought against the Northern Paiute, the Bannock,
and the Western Shoshone. Some of that fighting was done along the Snake river. When historians used the word "irregular" they were being diplomatic. This war took place in what became the states of Oregon, Nevada, California, and Idaho. The U.S. Won.

The war began when many small bands of the tribes mentioned above were disturbed by the activities of people of the mining interests and the new road building interests digging in the lands from which those Indians were accustomed to take their sustenance. Significant numbers of those Indians were made "good." Some Indians were able to make a few interlopers "good" too.

Powerful and influential persons were interested in the undeveloped lands of the U.S. Monied people in California,  on the US. East Coast. and elsewhere were interested in the lead, copper, gold, and silver. They were interested in the prime lands of the Far west of what was becoming the U.S.
The were interested in the resources the Mississippi and the Pacific Ocean. They saw an access to a toad to greater wealth.

There were those who had the the resources to apply pressure where needed to see that the natives of the land did not hinder their plans. California interests brought pressure to bear on' general George Wright, commander of the department of the Pacific, to provide better protection for those building the new roads from from Red Bluff and Chico to Silver City and Boise. "Do something about those Indians," they were demanding. It would take a book to cover all the powerful pressures brought to bear to clear the way to wealth. Still we can stay that much of those pressures had to do with money, wealth, power, and the growing craft of Public Relations, the selling of ideas which move the public.

In the States, a growing number of strong pressures were being felt by men in positions to act on the will of the men with the power to put effective power on them. Pressures acted on Congressmen, large contractors, railroad men, world wide mining interests: capitalists from the
East Coast, the West Coast, and around our world. There were high hopes and a great deal of pushing and shoving. The people felt these activities. 

The War consisted mostly of hunting Indians. Volunteers hunted Indians, interested citizens hunted Indians, immigrants hunted Indians, the Army hunted Indians. Some said that the Indians were in the way of destiny.     




by Richard Sheehan



Should I start to think of learning to copyright my work?

I look forward to your comments, questions, additions corrections, criticisms, and praise. 

How Our Understanding of Neanderthals Changed in the Last Few Years

Boulder Dam

History With RCS:  Two Dam Good Presidents and a Little Boy

                 This memory begins with my father driving us around some of the U.S. Southwest during WWII. It was a big deal for several reasons, but for some reason I am remembering that gas, oil, tires, and tubes were all rationed as an important part of the war effort. Lots of memories are coming up. Many things were rationed and the lines were long. We stood in line for meat, butter, and nylons. I think that my father may have been combining the trip with looking into new work. On to the Dam story.

                Soon we were at the Dam, with the car parked right on it. Then we were going down inside the dam on an elevator to below water level. I may have been as much as six years old. I was wide eyed, looking, listening, and, I with suspect, with my heart beating a bit faster than usual. On the big elevator were some workmen who were still working on the dam. My father was talking with them. I think that they were talking more about the war, the depression, and the president than about the dam. For the times a great new dam. 

                It seems we had seen some plaques telling of the great Hoover Dam. The workmen were telling my father that they called the the dam Boulder Dam. They were telling my father that they called it Boulder Dam because of the great boulders they had seen moved or blown up during construction, and because they though that President Hoover didn't deserve to have the dam named after him. The reason they didn't want the dam named after him seemed to be something about the Depression. 

                President Hoover was of the Republican party. The president at the time of our visit was FDR of the Democratic party. Both parties were different then from how they are now. FDR, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, is the first president I remember in my life-time.
    

                In an old newspaper, dated March 4th 1929, I read this: "Herbert Clark Hoover is inaugurated as President of the United States." A bit farther along it continues, "He announces that the government should assist and encourage these movements of collective self-help." That announcement makes me thing that he deserves to have the great dam named after him.

                I do not remember those "movements of collective self-help." They are before my birth. Still they have a nice ring to them.
At the time of this first visit to Boulder Dam on the Colorado river, Franklin Roosevelt was president and it seemed most Americans were pleased with him. As we walked through the inside of the dam, I remember the workmen saying that they were proud of their work on the dam. It seems that they were pleased with FDR, but they did not mention his name as an appropriate name for the dam.

                President Hoover was born in 1874 and died in 1964. Strange, I felt a downturn in the quality of US citizenship and US government beginning in 1964. Memories.

                The year 1964 felt like a a turning point to me. A turning point for our nation too. A turning for the worse. It does seem like since then the money earned per week, month and year bought less and less by the year. It was at about this time that I began to note most people referring to our government as "they" and "them" rather than as "we" and "us." It somehow seemed that we were worth more in the 50s than we have been in too many years. I felt a bit of turn for the better in 2020 and feel it still in 2021.

                Anyway, president Hoover was a Progressive Republican and raised a Quaker; all to the good. He was interested in efficiency in business and government. That sounds good. He was president as our country fell into economic depression. Tough on him and nearly everyone else. He lost some points because he supported the unpopular Prohibition of the use of drinking alcohol.

                The task of writing this informal little essay brings many memories to my awareness. I remember much of the dramatic beauty of our countryside, of our country. I remember awful and great Word War Two, and much more.

                There is a lot that is happening and being done now to write about. We are learning more of the story of humanity and about much else. We may be learning to communicate better. We may be learning that democracy consists of participation. 

                Maybe I will write more about our learning.

                                                                            

                                                                                                                        RCS
 
         

Mago Bill: One

 Mago Bill is a nickname I have given my paternal great grandfather

                                

                I have used the name Mago Bill in recent blogs because I believe that it inspires me to give you some unusual and interesting backstories and histories in a variety of posts.

                My sister, the genealogist of our family, introduced me to existence of documentation of the life pf M. William Sheehan. His existence had not been known to us. We had not known his name nor that he had been our paternal great grandfather. As I remember, my sister showed me that he had probably been born in the far south of Ireland and that his parents had brought to the United States when he was very young. We soon discovered that the M in his name probably stood for Mago. to me he promptly became Mago Bill, my inspiration.

                Spanish speaking friend tell me that "mago" means magician. Some of the same friends tell me that the three kings or three wise men of Christmas who brought gifts to the infant Christ were call "magos." I have found that  Mago was an important name among the Carthaginian Phoenicians before Rome came of age. Some of that name knew Hannibal well.

                Carthaginian traders and traders and navigators came to Ireland to trade for tin an other commodities. They brought so much knowledge of the name Mago with them that it impressed some of the people there. So much that they used it. For hundreds of years the name Mago has experienced some on an off popularity in Ireland.

                You may have read before that my paternal great grandfather was named and called Mago William Sheehan and that I have called him Mago Bill. You have even read that he, as many and Irish lad from time to time, was named after a famous Carthaginian. However, have you remembered me writing of Mago Barca?

    

                Barca could have been that famous Carthaginian Phoenician of the late third century BC, or not. Mago Barca was Hannibal's (yes, that Hannibal) brother. He may well have been a navigator and also have fought Roman legions in Iberia accompanied by Irish and Dan. He was the youngest son of Hamilcar of the Barcids.

                The above has prompted my to think of the Balearic Islands and food. The   Balearics seem to have an Irish connection of a sort. On Menorca, Mago Barca lent his name to the port city there which is still called Port Mahon. Mago and Mahon much alike to us today, but the history of language is one of change.

                Does not Mahon seem to have a bit of an Irish ring. I remember seeing  photos of Balearic ladies long ago. They looked very much like my aunt Eleanor and sister Geraldine. My sister would probably agree that she was and is better looking than was my aunt. The Balearic ladies of the photos were all attractive and I was struck by their similarity to Eleanor and Gerry.

                Ah, yes, food! Mahon, the typical Mahon egg sauce of the island, that has conquered the world, is Mayonnaise! On a visit to Ireland, I found mayonnaise still moderately appreciated. Still isn't there another mayo something or other on the old sod. Do not think me capable of a nasty thought. You may have heard of Mayo County, Ireland.

                I seem to be on a bit of a roll. I thought of another couple of miscellaneous bits to add here. Gilli, gilly, ghilli, and ghilly is only one of them. I've searched for each online with no luck. I had a friend who's Irish mother spoke of having a gilli in the family. This was many years ago and I had heard of ghilly long before that. A ghilly is an Irishman, across centuries he has been one of particular talents. He can be one especially familiar with the Irish countryside. He might act as a guide. He might help one to catch a trout or salmon by hand. In amore distant time he may have been the right hand man of noble warrior. He might have been a sort of Irish Ninja and expert in the use of camouflage. He might have been expert in a martial art. He would have the skills and talents of a huntsman. If  you have heard more of ghilly tell us a bit. This is supposed to be an interactive site.

                There are still those in Ireland who know the term and there were those who used it hundreds of years ago. The gilli I speak of is unlikely t have been a Norwegian dancer. I have heard that there may have been a similar word with a similar pronunciation and, perhaps, meaning.

                I may have heard more than I know.

                The Irish whistle comes to mind and reminds me that  there is also an Irish bagpipe. Could the bagpipe have also been a Fir Bolg instrument? I have been told that when it comes to men before a battle, that an Irish whistle can get them on their feet as little else can.. But to keep them moving forward to battle, victory, death, or hell, it takes a good pipe and a good piper, even if it be a Scot.

                I am pleased that you did not miss this addition to this piece. Thanks for reading.

                

                                                                                RCS 

Early Waterwworks in the U.S.A.

  History With RCS: If the Water doesn't work,we don't work, and don't play much either  

                You may know a fireplug as a place often found at the corner of a city street. A dog may urinate there. A fireplug has been called a fire hydrant.  

                Reminiscing, it comes to me that the justly famous US judge, Learned Hand, was once figuratively associated with the term, fireplug. I have forgotten the story, but am pretty sure that it included a dog.  Read on and you will be able to make an educated guess as to the origin of the word "fireplug" before reaching the climax of this post.

                In the early US trunks  and limbs of hemlock and elm trees were used to make piping to carry water from one place to another.Logs from 9 -  10" thick might be cut into 7 - 9' lengths for this purpose. Not an easy piping to use.  

                The men who made and laid this piping were called borers. They were named for their use of the five foot steel auger they carried with them. In those days of 1600 - 1700s these men attracted a great deal of curious attention as they traveled from town to town to carry out their unusual craft. They also brought welcome news and gossip with them. No TV or radio in those days. Up the www!

                Borers bored and formed sections of trunk so that they could tightly ram log sections together to form a series. The joints were usually sealed with pitch, tar or resin. Sometimes a log might b split, hollowed out, bound with metal hoops, and caulked with lead with the help of a blacksmith. Plumbers were later named for their use of lead. Blacksmiths was the name for iron workers to distinguish them from goldsmiths, silversmiths, bronze smiths, etc. 

                Most water systems were gravity flow outfits. They would start at perhaps a spring or stream on high ground and allow the water to flow downhill to, say, a farm house. The line might lead to the back of the house, then on to the barn, and from there on to a catch basin.

                Water was tapped by a smaller hole bored into the log and stopped with a wooden plug.

                The city of Boston was one of the earliest places in the country to have a real waterworks. It probably first went online about 1652.
In those days nearly every house was of wood and had an open hearth fireplace. Fire was a major danger. So, the first water works was for both domestic and fire fighting use.

                Have you guessed the origin of the word fireplug? 
It was comprised of a hole drilled into the side of one of those log pipes at a strategic spot and a wooden plug used to stop that hole. A fireman could then remove the plug when and where water was needed to fight a fire. Thus fireplug!

     

 

                                                                                    RCS