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Category Archives: history
A Visit to the Home of the Future Socialist Leader–Part One
May, 1894: Social activist Norah O’Hanlon Quinn, now married to former priest Daniel Quinn, accompanies him on the last leg of their trip out to the Midwest. Expecting to visit American Railway Union leader Eugene Debs and his wife Kate, … Continue reading
The Homestead Steel Strike–Aftermath
July, 1892: Jimmy Scanlon, in Everett, Washington, has been following the distant events of the Homestead Steel strike. Excerpted from Chapter 21, Beyond the Divide–Available from Village Books, Fairhaven (Wash., U.S.A.); and from Amazon It’s rare for the law to be … Continue reading
The Homestead Steel Strike–Part Two
Gaining fame for ensuring the safety of President Lincoln on his inaugural trip to Washington D.C. back in 1861, by the 1890s The Pinkerton Detective Agency had evolved into a multifaceted organization chiefly known–and despised among the laboring classes–for providing … Continue reading
The Homestead Steel Strike– Part One
July 7th, 1892: From various parts of the country comes the news of festering labor unrest, as workers feel left out of the prosperity issuing from new industrial technologies and rising productivity. Jimmy Scanlon is holed up in Everett, Washington, … Continue reading
Posted in history, labor, writing
Tagged 1892, Amalgamated Association of Iron & Steel Workers, Andrew Carnegie, Bessemer Process, Everett WA, Henry Clay Frick, Homestead PA, Homestead Works, Iron Puddlers, Monongahela River, Open Hearth Process, Pinkerton Agency, Steelmaking, Wrought Iron
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Panic on the Farm– Part Three
Fall 1894: Melissa Davis is absent as Jimmy Scanlon helps Curt and his sons finish up with the last of the harvest on the Davis farm. Excerpted from Chapter 26, Beyond the Divide–Available from Village Books, Fairhaven (Wash., U.S.A.); and … Continue reading
Panic on the Farm- Part Two
Late Summer, 1894: Jimmy Scanlon falls into the routine of working as hired-man on the Davis farm, a few miles east of Everett, Washington. Excerpted from Chapter 26, Beyond the Divide–Available from Village Books, Fairhaven (Wash., U.S.A.); and from Amazon. Curt … Continue reading
Posted in farming, history, labor, writing
Tagged American Protective Association (Know-nothings), election of 1896, Everett Land Co., Everett Wash., fall harvesting, Grover Cleveland, John D. Rockefeller, John W. Frame, Monte Cristo mine, People's Party (Populists), Pullman Strike, Snohomish Sun
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Panic on the Farm- Part One
Summer 1894: During the two years following his ride into Everett, picked up by an accommodating farm couple, Jimmy had run into the farm wife on a train–finally learning her and husband’s names. In spring of 1894, the nation … Continue reading
Posted in farming, history, labor, railroading, writing
Tagged American Federation of Labor, American Railway Union, Eugene V. Debs, Everett WA, Great Northern Railway, hay loaders, hay rakes, I.W.W., James J. Hill, John D. Rockefeller, mowing machines, Northern Pacific Railroad, Panic of 1894, Populists, Pullman Strike, Samuel Gompers, Seattle Lake Shore & Eastern Railroad, Snohomish WA, Tulalip Indians
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Hitching a Ride to Everett
Summer of 1892. Leaving behind Fairhaven, Washington–the railroad boom town gone bust–Jimmy Scanlon is returning to Everett, after unloading his Fairhaven lots at a disastrous loss. He will be signing on to work track construction as the Great Northern Railway … Continue reading
A Return to “Boomtown” Fairhaven, Washington
Summer of 1892. Two years have passed since Jimmy Scanlon’s July 4th beach-side idyll with Susie Taylor (see “Along Chuckanut’s Shore,” posted April 5, 2014). Sharing in the optimistic spirit of the time, Jimmy purchased three building lots in Fairhaven, the … Continue reading
“A Terrible Beauty Is Born”
General Sir John Maxwell’s decision to quash even the thought of rebellion in Ireland–by sending 16 men to the firing squad, mostly young men, among them poets and teachers–had the unintended consequence of shifting world opinion of the 1916 … Continue reading
Posted in Easter Rebellion, history, Ireland, Irish poetry, love, writing
Tagged Cathal Brugha, Countess Markeivicz, Eamon de Valera, Eoin MacNeill, Grace Gifford Plunkett, Irish Civil War, Irish Free State, Irish Republic, Michael Collins, Robert Montieth, Roger Casement, William Butler Yeats
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J.P. Kenna 