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I never knew that Abraham
Lincoln almost fought a duel until I ran across a little paragraph about
Sunflower Island.
Sunflower Island, in the Mississippi River just off the coast of Missouri
and across from Alto, Illinois, was where Abraham Lincoln rowed in the
fall of 1842 to fight a duel with James Shields, state Auditor of
Illinois. The duel never took place as Lincoln chose swords as the weapon
and the much shorter Shields saw his disadvantage and called the battle
off.
The island was later known as Small Pox Island after Union and Confederate
soldiers and civilian prisoners died from that disease and their bodies
were taken to the island and buried side-by-side in trenches.
By now, you all know how much I love browsing in the pages of old
newspapers and magazines! I was looking through some old papers this
morning - after coming in from my morning "run," and looking at all of the
tall grass everywhere in this lovely spring. I thought of the farmers
getting ready to plant and of how their labor is easier today because of
tractors and modern farming equipment.
So, when I was the ad for the "Brinly Rastus," I had to smile. The ad
reads, "No sir! No weeds there. Lots of satisfaction to look over a clean
field of tobacco and know tht you used a tool that made your work count.
Thousands say it is the best cultivator they ever took to a tobacco patch.
Brinly Rastus, The Weed Killer. One minute's plowing will make you its
friend for life. Gets right up to the plants without injuring them.
Shovels throw weeds to the center of the row and put a fine dust mulch to
the plants. Leaves a smooth furrow bottom. Easy on man and horse. Brinly
Rastus is sold under a positive guarantee from your dealer to give full
satisfaction or your money refunded. $8.00, POB, Louisville, KY. Either
wood or steel beam with shovels and fender as shown."
This ad was in the June 1925 edition of The Tobacco Planter magazine.
Wonder if any of our Colquitt County farmers enjoyed the wonders of this
wondrous invention?
Browsing amongst old papers brought treasure just now in the form of a
recipe for Jam Cake that is more than 100 years old. Let's not let this
get lost.
You take one cup of shortening and two cups of sugar with five cups of
flour sifted four times and add two teaspoons of nutmeg and two teaspoons
of cinnamon and two teaspoons of clove. Also add two teaspoons of allspice
and two cups of jam along with six eggs, beaten separately, and one cup of
buttermilk, one cup of broken nutmeats; one pound of raisins and two
teaspoons of soda.
Mix soda in the buttermilk and let stand while mixing the rest of the
batter.
Sift all of the dry ingredients together.
Bake in a moderate 300-degree oven, increasing to 350 degrees the last
half-hour. (The recipe didn't say how long to bake the cake entirely.) Add
small amounts of preserves to the cake.
This recipe will make a large cake and two small cakes.
Here's an interesting article that says that Abraham Lincoln and Robert E.
Lee were cousins! William E. Barton, the famous Lincoln biographer, has
traced the families of the two leaders of opposing forces in the Civil War
to the same distinguished ancestor, Colonel Richard Lee who arrived in
Virginia in 1642 and died in 1664.
The genealogy of Col. Richard Lee's descendants is given as follows:
Abraham Lincoln, son of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, daughter of Lucy Hanks,
daughter of Anne Lee Hanks, daughter of William Lee, son of William Lee,
son of William Lee, son of Colonel Richard Lee.
To trace the Lee side: Robert E. Lee, son of General Henry Lee, son of
Henry Lee, son of Henry Lee, son of Richard Lee, son of Richard Lee, son
of Colonel Richard Lee. |
