(Revamping the blog. Please excuse the odd headings. Working on it!)

Writing History & Mysteries

When I'm not delving into historical research, I'm planning a character's demise.

The blog of Cindy Amrhein

Historian - Author - Abstractor

Silver Lake, NY at Sunset

Photo by Zach Amrhein

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Sunday, November 13, 2016

A Book to Die For - 11

It's time again for Weekend Writing Warriors where we post 10 sentences from one of our works in progress or a book we have written. This week, the investigation continues after Margie is found dead, beheaded, along a hedgerow in a farmer's field. Her death has something to do with the odd book club run by Malcolm Sinclair at his estate on the lake. Pepper picks up a Hemingway book like Margie's, which she assumes the club has been reading. Pepper goes over the plan to infiltrate the book club with Sheriff Clayton Nazzaro as she gets ready.

A farm field in Wyoming County, NY.

And now the snippet:
“The guy is a bit peculiar from what I was told, and I’m not talking about a minor foible or two,” said Clayton, “Mostly keeps to himself except the book club and who knows how he gets a hold of the bookies, as you call them.”

“The problem is how much of what you heard is true and how much is small town busybody gossip?” Pepper picked up a book of Hemingway’s poems similar to Margie’s. “Got it at a bookstore a couple counties over—in case you’re wondering,” said Pepper. “It’s not exactly the same, but it’ll work.”

Clayton stood up to walk Pepper out. “Got one of the department’s unmarked vehicles for you to use--still wouldn’t park near the house though, go a ways down the road. Any ideas how you’re going to justify being there seeing as no one knows how to get into the group?”

“Sure,” she said, taking the keys. “I’ll say Margie invited me and told me to meet her there. It’s not like Malcolm can ask her, right?”


***

If you've liked my posts of The Milk Carton Murders, you should like this tale too. It was written to predate MCM and includes Sheriff Nazzaro and Pepper Black as well as other characters, from MCM.


Check out the other Weekend Writing Warriors---where a sampling of a variety of great writers is only a click away!
 
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Sunday, October 23, 2016

10 - A Book to Die For

(Fictitious) home of Malcolm Sinclair.

Welcome to WeWriWa! I'm back with an excerpt of a finished mystery.

The setup:
 

Margie is found dead, beheaded, along a hedgerow in a farmer's field. Her death has something to do with the odd book club run by Malcolm Sinclair at his estate on the lake. Inv. Pepper Black is retracing Margie's steps and stops at the girl's job, McCormick's Boat Rental, the last place Margie was seen before she went to the book club. The owner said Margie seemed upset she couldn't find her book.

Now the snippet:

Steve extended the book to Pepper--Complete Poems, Ernest Hemingway. She opened the ragged cover and turned to the copyright page. The 1983 date justified the wear. She riffled the pages with her thumb until she arrived at a page with the corner turned over. There were markings in the margins. She read to herself the short verse called, Chapter Heading.

  For we have thought the longer thoughts
    And gone the shorter way.
And we have danced to devils’ tunes,
    Shivering home to pray;
To serve one master in the night,
    Another in the day.


Oh Margie, why didn’t you talk to someone? Whatever had been going on in her life she must have begun to realize she wasn’t herself—it was just a little too late.

****

If you've liked my posts of The Milk Carton Murders, you should like this tale too. It was written to predate MCM and includes Sheriff Nazzaro and Pepper Black as well as other characters, from MCM.


Check out the other Weekend Writing Warriors---where a sampling of a variety of great writers is only a click away!
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Saturday, April 23, 2016

A Book to Die For - 09

The estate of Malcolm Sinclair on Spirit Lake
(In real life the country club on Silver Lake in Castile, NY where I live)



Previously, Sheriff Nazzaro and Investigator Pepper Black separated the parents of the victim. Both parents thought something was fishy about the guy leading the book club where her daughter was last seen. With Clayton's permission, Pepper has decided to influtrate the book club. She went home to get ready at her apartment above the Lamont Bicycle Shop. She stops first at McCormick's Boat Rental where the victim Margie Webster worked. And now the snippet:

 ***
 The bell tingled above Pepper Black’s head as she opened the door of McCormick’s Boat Rentals. A man sat behind the counter sorting through a carton of Rapala fishing lures.

“Excuse me,” said Pepper, “are you Steve McCormick?”

“That would be me--what can I do ya for?”

Pepper unclipped her badge from her belt and opened it for Steve to see. “I’m Investigator Black from the county sheriff’s office. I’d like to ask you a few questions about Margie Webster.”

Steve dropped the lures back in the box and sat down on the stool behind the register. “Damn bad business that. Margie was a nice gal.”


***

We'll continue here next week and see what Steve knows!

If you've liked my posts of The Milk Carton Murders, you should like this tale too. It was written to predate MCM and includes Sheriff Nazzaro and Pepper Black as well as other characters, from MCM.


Check out the other Weekend Writing Warriors---where a sampling of a variety of great writers is only a click away!

My new book  A History of Native American Land Rights in Upstate New York is now available via the History Press (and Arcadia Publishing) the largest publishers of local & regional history in the country. Cool huh? Swing on over to Amazon or enter the Goodreads giveaway!
 
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Sunday, April 03, 2016

A Book to Die For - 08

Previously, Sheriff Nazzaro and Investigator Pepper Black separated the parents of the victim. Both parents thought something was fishy about the guy leading the book club where her daughter was last seen. With Clayton's permission, Pepper has decided to influtrate the book club. She went home to get ready. This is Pepper's scene. And now the snippet:

***
Pepper had four hours to decide what to wear to the book club and the persona she wanted to adopt. Should she go for the hot erotica book reader type or maybe the quiet librarian look? Sheriff Nazarro wasn’t much help. Although he knew Margie Webster it was just to say hello or small talk when he had seen her out and about with her parents. Clayton had known Jack and Alice Webster for years through different town organizations, but not the daughter. The sheriff was single with no kids so he never crossed Margie’s path socially and the parents didn’t seem to know the real Margie.

Pepper grabbed her badge and clipped it to her belt, along with a few accessories—notepad, police radio, and her Sig Sauer 380. Her day old coffee sat thick in the pot. No time now to brew a fresh one and she didn’t feel like stopping at the Stop-n-Shop to grab their version of coffee. She poured the sludge in her mug, diluted it with a bit of tap water and put it in the microwave—nothing a good dose of sugar wouldn’t cure. 

***

If you've liked my posts of The Milk Carton Murders, you should like this tale too. It was written to predate MCM and includes Sheriff Nazzaro and Pepper Black as well as other characters, from MCM.


Check out the other Weekend Writing Warriors---where a sampling of a variety of great writers is only a click away!

My new book  A History of Native American Land Rights in Upstate New York is now available (E-book releases in mid April)  via the History Press (and Arcadia Publishing) the largest publishers of local & regional history in the country. Cool huh?

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Sunday, March 27, 2016

A Book to Die For - 07

Last week Investigator Pepper Black and Sheriff Clayton Nazzaro split the parents up to question them. Alice, the victim's mother, had seen her daughter Margie once with Malcolm Sinclair, the head of the book club. He went through the motions of interest in Margie, but not as interested as Margie was in him it seems. Jack, the father, wanted his daughter no where near him or his book club. Now the snippet. A conversation between Sheriff Nazzaro and Investigator Black, Piecing Malcolm's motives together:

***
"So you think this guy Malcolm, found her important for the purpose she served, to him anyway?" asked Clayton.

"That's how I see it.," Pepper answered.

"That's something like what her parents implied when I first got them in here. Said his attention towards their daughter wasn't on the up and up so Jack insisted she drop the book club."

"Obviously she didn't take her dad's advice."

"Suppose we better have a talk with Mr. Sinclair to see what he was up to last weekend," said Clayton.

Pepper had a cat that ate the mouse look on her face. "Better yet, I haven't read a good book in a while. Know of a club around here I can join?"

*** 

If you've liked my posts of The Milk Carton Murders, you should like this tale too. It was written to predate MCM and includes Sheriff Nazzaro and Pepper Black as well as other characters, from MCM.

Check out the other Weekend Writing Warriors---where a sampling of a variety of great writers is only a click away!
My new book  A History of Native American Land Rights in Upstate New York is now available (E-book releases in April)  via the History Press (and Arcadia Publishing) the largest publishers of local & regional history in the country. Cool huh?
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Sunday, March 20, 2016

A Book to Die For - 06

We last left off with Investigator Pepper Black entering the station where Sheriff Clayton Nazzaro is trying to get answers out of the parents of the victim, Margie Webster. For some reason Jack Webster didn't want his daughter going to a certain book club and finds out his wife knew that Margie went anyway on the Friday before her body was found. The parents have been separated. And now the snippet:
***

Pepper closed the door to interrogation room number two where she left Alice Webster with a box of tissues and a female guard. Clayton could see through the glass that Alice would need another box very soon.

"Get anything useful?" asked Clayton.

Pepper sat on the edge of Clayton's desk and slid her pad across to him. "Alice didn't approve of Margie going to the book club either. Not so much the club as the guy running it, Malcolm Sinclair."

"Same here. Jack thought the guy was filling her head with crazy ideas. He didn't say exactly what though."

"Alice said she only saw Malcolm once," said Pepper, " and Jack didn't know about it--still doesn't.

***
If you've liked my posts of The Milk Carton Murders, you should like this tale too. It was written to predate MCM and includes Sheriff Nazzaro and Pepper Black as well as other characters, from MCM.

Check out the other Weekend Writing Warriors---where a sampling of a variety of great writers is only a click away!
My new book  A History of Native American Land Rights in Upstate New York is now available (E-book releases in April)  via the History Press (and Arcadia Publishing) the largest publishers of local & regional history in the country. Cool huh?
Share:

Sunday, March 13, 2016

A Book to Die For - 05


We continue with Sheriff Clayton Nazzaro questioning the parents of Margie Webster about the daughters movements the day of her death. Alice, Margie's mother spoke up saying Margie didn't go to work like normal. She went to a book club that her father had forbidden her to go to. We pick up here.

***
The problem with murder when it comes to parents, is to get them past their misplaced guilt. Clayton ran into it on other cases too, not just murder. Even after Clayton reassured them there was nothing they could have done; that Margie, like most twenty-five-year-old women, had a mind of her own, but it didn't help ease their pain. They felt responsible in some way.

The guilt they placed on each other made it all the more difficult for the Websters to stick to the questions. Why hadn't Alice told Jack that Margie went off to the book club? If Jack hadn't stifled their daughter so she would have been more open with them--and on and on. It took Clayton an hour to get any honest answers from either of them and that was only after he called in his investigator, Pepper Black.

***
If you've liked my posts of The Milk Carton Murders, you should like this tale too. It was written to predate MCM and includes Sheriff Nazzaro and Pepper Black as well as other characters, from MCM.

Check out the other Weekend Writing Warriors---where a sampling of a variety of great writers is only a click away!

And just to share some excitement, release day is tomorrow for my new book A History of Native American Land Rights in Upstate New York (E-book releases in April)  via The History Press the largest publisher of local history in the country. Cool huh?
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Sunday, March 06, 2016

A Book to Die For - 4

Welcome again to Weekend Writing Warriors. Last time, in A Book to Die For, Sheriff Clayton Nazzaro was questioning the parents of Margie Webster about the daughters movements the day of her death. Jack thought she had been at work at McCorrmick's Boat Rental saying she worked every Friday until 4. Alice, Margie's mother spoke up saying, no she didn't. It seems Alice knew a few things her hubby didn't. We pick up here.
A scene of Silver Lake, in this story Spirit Lake.
SNIPPET:

 “She didn’t what Mrs. Webster," asked Clayton.

“She didn’t go to work Friday,” Alice said, “She was supposed to--normally did--but not last Friday.”

Jack released the hold on his wife as if the shock of her words were electric. “She didn’t go in? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“She took the day off. Some day trip or other with that book club.” Alice was on the edge of collapse. “That ridiculous club of hers. You know the one, Jack; you forbade her to go.”

***
If you've liked my posts of The Milk Carton Murders, you should like this tale too. It was written to predate MCM and includes Sheriff Nazzaro and Pepper Black as well as other characters, from MCM.


Check out the other Weekend Writing Warriors---where a sampling of a variety of great writers is only a click away!
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Sunday, February 28, 2016

A Book to Die For - 03

Weekend Writing Warriors time! We last left off in A Book to Die For with Sheriff Clayton Nazzaro and Coroner Herbert Wilde leaning over the decapitated body of a young woman found along a hedgerow between two farm fields. They identified the girl as Margie Webster who worked at McCormick's Boat Rental, but they were confused by the simple girls flashy clothing. Her body was taken to the morgue to be identified by her parents. And now the snippet:

Just some cows in the rural setting of the story---the county where I live.

***
“Jack,” Clayton began, still unsure of what to say next, “I’m going to have to ask you some questions, and I’m sorry about that, but you understand we have to try and figure out what happened, right?”

“Yes, I understand,” Jack said, as he looked at his wife's blank expression.

“Alright then, so was Margie still working up at McCormick’s Boat Rental?”

“Yes, just the weekends this time of year, until tourist season starts beginning of May.” Jack faced Alice as he answered. “Isn’t that right honey?” His wife gave no indication that she heard the question.

“So she worked yesterday then, I take it, on Friday?”

“I believe she did, every Friday til 4 o’clock,” Jack said.

“No, she didn’t ...” said Alice, her voice barely audible.


***
If you've liked my posts of The Milk Carton Murders, you should like this tale too. It was written to predate MCM and includes Sheriff Nazzaro and Pepper Black as well as other characters, from MCM.

Check out the other Weekend Writing Warriors---where a sampling of a variety of great writers is only a click away!
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Sunday, November 08, 2015

A Book to Die For - 02

Well I skipped a few weeks of Weekend Writing Warriors due to edits, but now the new mystery continues! If you've liked my posts of The Milk Carton Murders, you should like this tale too. It was written to predate MCM and includes Sheriff Nazzaro and Pepper Black as well as other characters, from MCM.
The docks at Silver Lake, NY and the inspiration for Spirit Lake in my mystery.
 We last left off in the first installment of A Book to Die For with Sheriff Clayton Nazzaro and Coroner Herbert Wilde leaning over the decapitated body of a young woman found along a hedgerow between two farm fields. They identified the girl as Margie Webster who worked at McCormick's Boat Rental, but they were confused by the simple girls flashy clothing. Her body was taken to the morgue to be identified by her parents. Sheriff Nazzaro is thinking below. And now the snippet:

***

Sure, he had to notify parents before, but not like this. There was no easy way to tell them their daughter had been beheaded—so he didn’t. He told himself the reason was that he didn’t want that piece of information to end up in the Lamont Weekly Times.

Alice’s hands wrung the sides of her dress into tight balls. She didn’t look up. Her husband had his arm around his wife's shoulder holding her close but Clayton doubted she was cognizant of it. Clayton would have to handle this next part as delicately as possible. How to start?


Check out the other Weekend Writing Warriors---where a sampling of a variety of great writers is only a click away!

And in other news. I revealed the cover of my upcoming book with the History Press on my Facebook page this week, and here it is! Release details coming soon. 

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Sunday, October 04, 2015

A Book to Die For -01

Welcome back to Weekend Writing Warriors! Many of you are familiar with The Milk Carton Murders. I won't be posting more of that because I was getting to close to revealing too much. This story, however, was written to predate MCM and includes Sheriff Nazzaro and Pepper Black as well as other characters  from The Milk Carton Murders, and is set in the same rural town of Lamont.
Twenty-five-year-old Margie Webster’s body was found along a hedgerow between two farm fields—a place where she would have no reason to be. 

She had been a beautiful woman in life. If it wasn’t for the polka dot scarf around her neck it would be obvious her head was no longer attached to her body.  An adze lay only a few feet away embedded in a partially hewn log. Sheriff Clayton Nazzaro walked over to the hedgerow where the coroner, Herbert Wilde, was crouched down near the body.

“So, the murder weapon you think, Herb?” asked Clayton, with a tilt of his head towards the log.

“I’m not guessing on that one until I get her back to the morgue,” said Herb, “and not until your forensic guys have that adze removed. No mistaking who she is though.”

“Nope. Jack Webster’s daughter,” said Clayton, “worked up at McCormick’s boat rental last I heard. Quiet girl--what do make of the clothes?”

Check out the other Weekend Writing Warriors---where a sampling of a variety of great writers is only a click away!
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Monday, April 27, 2015

W is for WYOMING County Historian's Office

Wyoming County Historian's Office
This is where I work as Assistant County Historian. We do genealogy requests, track down the history of abandoned cemeteries or an old building. We even found descendents to pass some silverware along to. You just never know what we will be asked to do.

The office of county historian has been around since 1947 collecting information on the county's history. We are open Monday through Friday 8-noon and 1-3:30 at 26 Linwood Avenue in Warsaw, NY 14569. All those file drawers on the right contain family files. We also have atlases, census records, copies of military pension records, cemetery records... well lots of stuff. Come visit sometime! Oh yes! We also produce a quarterly publication called Historical Wyoming, also since 1947 (except a few years in the 70s till they found another printer.) A subscription is only $10 a year for 4 issues of 28 pages, and no ads (send to address above). Click here for a free PDF issue.


Stay tuned for more history tidbits throughout the month of April!

The list to the other A-Z bloggers is here.

***
If your user name in comments doesn't lead to your A-Z blog, leave the URL so I can find you!
Here's how to do a clickable link to your blog in the comments section:

< a href="http://historysleuth.blogspot.com/">History Sleuth's Writings - Blogging A-Z</a >

Just replace my stuff with yours and take the space out between the < a and a > above.
(Had to put a space in or you would see a link instead of code. :)
Keep it in a note on your desktop so you can copy & keep hitting paste at every blog instead of retyping.

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Saturday, April 25, 2015

V is for VICTORIAN

Queen Victoria, 1867. Library of Congress
Not very attractive was she? Fashion, architecture, clothing styles housewares on many continents revolved around her during her rule from 1837-1901, the Victorian Era. Below are some free Dover clipart images.


Stay tuned for more history tidbits throughout the month of April!

The list to the other A-Z bloggers is here.

***
If your user name in comments doesn't lead to your A-Z blog, leave the URL so I can find you!
Here's how to do a clickable link to your blog in the comments section:

< a href="http://historysleuth.blogspot.com/">History Sleuth's Writings - Blogging A-Z</a >

Just replace my stuff with yours and take the space out between the < a and a > above.
(Had to put a space in or you would see a link instead of code. :)
Keep it in a note on your desktop so you can copy & keep hitting paste at every blog instead of retyping.

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Friday, April 24, 2015

U isfor UFO


TRI-COUNTY TIMES (Arcade, NY)
Oct. 24, 1973 (Wednesday)
Wyoming County, NY had its share of UFO sightings in the 1950s-mid 70s.  We even made the government's "Project Bluebook" which is now available, with much redacted, through the freedom of information act. The government blamed far too many sightings on Venus or weather balloons. Below are some of our encounters:

PERRY HERALD
August 28, 1952
FLYING SAUCERS HERE

    It’s happened in Perry. A local resident, who asked that her name be withheld, reported sighting two flying saucers over Perry last Monday. Fearful that her story would not be credible in view of the discussion centering around the saucers the lady reported that the two objects were plainly visible during the daytime.
    The report here coincides with a report from Watkins Glen that a pair of flying silver balls had been sighted at Watkins Glen. The local resident had no knowledge of this report at the time she reported seeing the flying saucers here.

***
Buffalo Evening News 
August 29, 1952

WARSAW AUDIENCE REPORTS SAUCERS ‘PLAYING TAG IN SKY’

Special to the Buffalo Evening News
WARSAW, Aug. 29 - Residents of Murray St. in the center of this village, saw strange objects in the sky at intervals from 9:30 to 10 o’clock Thursday night.
    A group of boys, 12 to 14 were the first to spot the “saucers” darting through the northwestern sky. Douglas Rudgers, Gorden Abner, James Alfieri, Richard and Harold Lee and David Webster and Donald Webster Jr. were greatly impressed. So were their elders. Mrs. Rudgers, mother of Douglas, remarked: “I never believed in ‘flying saucers’ until I saw those things last night.”
    She pointed out that they didn’t streak across the sky and disappear but darted back and forth through the cloud formations “as though they were playing tag.”

Stay tuned for more history tidbits throughout the month of April!

The list to the other A-Z bloggers is here.

***
If your user name in comments doesn't lead to your A-Z blog, leave the URL so I can find you!
Here's how to do a clickable link to your blog in the comments section:

< a href="http://historysleuth.blogspot.com/">History Sleuth's Writings - Blogging A-Z</a >

Just replace my stuff with yours and take the space out between the < a and a > above.
(Had to put a space in or you would see a link instead of code. :)
Keep it in a note on your desktop so you can copy & keep hitting paste at every blog instead of retyping.

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Thursday, April 23, 2015

T is for TITLE Search


An 1829 tavern I researched in Barre, NY. Here are folks that are part of an archaeology dig.
A title search is basically the genealogy of a piece of property. It is most often used by abstract companies to create a chain of title (ownership) for the property for a lawyer or bank when people are buying, selling or taking out a mortgage. It is often used when someone is seeking historic landmark designation for their building or the property as a whole.

I'm a historian that used to work for an abstract company, and now I just research historic properties or Indian land. If you are researching your house, aside from looking in the usual places like deeds, mortgages, atlases, etc here is a few tips to keep in mind while you are looking. It is what I call my 50 year rule of thumb:

If you get to a point and you can't find the next deed back, look up to 50 years ahead after the owners death. Why? Because families often do what they want and not what they should. Here is my made up example.


Joseph Bolton lived in Alabama in the 1850's.  In fact he lived there most of his life.  Joseph had a wife named Sally, and one son named Charles.  Poor Sally died however leaving Joseph and Charles to run the farm all alone.  In 1865 Joseph decided to move to Michigan.  Charles had married and decided to stay on at the farm in Alabama with his wife Beth, and son Michael. 

     In 1870 Joseph dies in Michigan, but he did leave a Will.  In his Will he leaves the farm to his son Charles.  (You however have no probate file to check because he died out of state.  You might get lucky and find a duplicate here, but in this case it did not happen that way.)  No Executor's Deed was ever filed transferring the property from Joseph's estate to his son Charles. Charles just figured well it was in my father's Will, so I guess it's mine now. 

     Michael grows to adulthood, marries, and has a son named George.  Poor George won't see his grandparents very long because Charles and Beth Bolton die in a train accident in 1901.  Charles left a Will as well and "willed" his property to his son in the event that his wife was already dead.  Again no Executor's Deed was filed.  Michael figured the same thing as his father did.  Well I guess now it is mine.

     In 1910 Michael Bolton decides to sell the property.  He of course ends up hiring an attorney to clean up the mess his family has created.  Finally in 1911 the original deed of Joseph Bolton from 1858 is filed at the Clerk's Office, and several affidavits’ explaining the whole messy affair.  The title is now clear, and Michael Bolton sells his land in 1911.  The deed to the new owners not only has the usual stuff; it is also clearly written as to how the property exchanged hands.  This is nice if you are doing genealogy.

     This type of thing, of course, is an Abstractor's worst nightmare; but it is an excellent lesson in genealogical searching!  So always check ahead at least fifty years.  When it comes to family conveyed property assume they will make a mess of the title.

***

Stay tuned for more history tidbits throughout the month of April!

The list to the other A-Z bloggers is here.

***
If your user name in comments doesn't lead to your A-Z blog, leave the URL so I can find you!
Here's how to do a clickable link to your blog in the comments section:

< a href="http://historysleuth.blogspot.com/">History Sleuth's Writings - Blogging A-Z</a >

Just replace my stuff with yours and take the space out between the < a and a > above.
(Had to put a space in or you would see a link instead of code. :)
Keep it in a note on your desktop so you can copy & keep hitting paste at every blog instead of retyping.

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Wednesday, April 22, 2015

S is for ST. REGIS

A State law was passed in 1816 to allow the State to purchase land from the St. Regis Indians based on whatever the Governor considered a reasonable amount.  There were three articles to the treaty of 1816.

The first article was to convey the one mile square on Salmon River and 5,000 acres off the east end of the St. Regis reserve (Fort Covington then called French Mills).
Article two: states that the Governor agrees to pay an annuity of $1,300 “forever hereafter” on the first Tuesday of August next, and every year thereafter.
Article three: that the St. Regis will authorize three of its chiefs or principal men to receive the annuity. “And the receipt of the said chiefs or principal men, so deputed, shall be considered a full and satisfactory discharge of the people of the State of New York, from the annuity which may be so received.”

Article three is rather odd.  Does it mean they are discharged for the year, or that once the St. Regis actually take the money in August of 1817, New York would be discharged of their obligation, period?  That is an unknown without access to records of payments. ...

More of the above excerpt will be discussed in my book Indian Land Title in New York to be published later this year by The History Press.
***

Stay tuned for more history tidbits throughout the month of April!

The list to the other A-Z bloggers is here.

***
If your user name in comments doesn't lead to your A-Z blog, leave the URL so I can find you!
Here's how to do a clickable link to your blog in the comments section:

< a href="http://historysleuth.blogspot.com/">History Sleuth's Writings - Blogging A-Z</a >

Just replace my stuff with yours and take the space out between the < a and a > above.
(Had to put a space in or you would see a link instead of code. :)
Keep it in a note on your desktop so you can copy & keep hitting paste at every blog instead of retyping.

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Tuesday, April 21, 2015

R is for Grass RIVER

Grass River. Akwesasne


The Gassy Meadows along Grass River is one of the areas I will be covering in my book, Indian Land Title in New York, (to be published later this year by The History Press). Below s an excerpt.

TREATY WITH THE ST. REGIS 1845 – GRASSY MEADOWS
Whereas by the act entitled "An Act in relation to certain tribes of Indians " passed May 25, 1811 the Commissioners of the Land Office are authorized to make such treaties contracts and arrangements with any tribe or Nation of Indians or with any parry or portion of them or with any Individual Indian or Indians who have any claim upon any lands in this State for the purchase of any portion of such lands as the said Commissioners may deem just and proper: And Whereas the said St. Regis Indians own certain lands in the County of St. Lawrence known and distinguished as the Indian Meadows or Grass River, on both sides of the said river or as Islands in the said river, which meadows were reserved in and by the Treaty made with the said Indians on the 31st day of May 1796 ....

... . It appearing by a map made by Amos Lay in the year 1801 now on file in the Surveyor Generals Office that the said Indian Meadows and Islands contain in the whole the quantity of Two hundred and ten acres and four tenths of an acre: It is therefore agreed that the sum of four hundred dollars be now paid to the said Indians and when the Survey aforesaid shall be made and returned to the Surveyor General the remainder of the consideration money at the rate aforesaid shall be paid to them in full. ...
***

Stay tuned for more history tidbits throughout the month of April!

The list to the other A-Z bloggers is here.

***
If your user name in comments doesn't lead to your A-Z blog, leave the URL so I can find you!
Here's how to do a clickable link to your blog in the comments section:

< a href="http://historysleuth.blogspot.com/">History Sleuth's Writings - Blogging A-Z</a >

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Monday, April 20, 2015

Q is for QUARTER Century

Which is exactly as it implies, 25 years. 

Here are some quarter century events from 1925.

Jan 5th - Nellie Taylor Ross becomes the first woman governor in the US for the state of Wyoming.

Feb 21st - The New Yorker magazine is published for the first time.


Apr 10th - The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is published.

The first ever motel is created in San Luis Obispo, California, originally called the Milestone Mo-Tel.

Al Capone muscles in and takes over bootlegging in Chicago.

***

Stay tuned for more history tidbits throughout the month of April!

The list to the other A-Z bloggers is here.

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