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For the latest news from Scotland see our ScotNews feed at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/
Electric Scotland News
I was watching an episode of Food Revolution where celebrity chef Jamie Oliver was trying to improve the heating habits of children in Huntingdon, West Virginia. I was shocked and appalled at what I saw in that program. The USA is THE World Power and yet the kids there couldn't even identify even one vegetable. One wee boy being showed a bunch of tomatoes thought they were potatoes. They couldn't even identify a potato! And to top it all the wee kids weren't even provided with a knife and fork and when given them most didn't know how to use them. Huntingdon is the town with the worst health record in the USA.
He actually brought in a bunch of kids to show them a real chicken. He then took of the breast, legs and wings and then in front of them he put the rest of the carcass into a blender, added some flour and other ingredients and then put the results through a mesh. He then made that into nuggets and put them into bread crumbs. All of the kinds wanted those to eat rather than the other parts of the chicken.
Should this be an example of how Americans in general look after their children then they should be embarrassed as hell but from what I saw in that episode they really didn't seem to give a damn. There are episodes on YouTube but I did feature the bit about vegetables which you can watch at: http://www.electricscotland.org/show...tato-or-Tomato
Obesity is the No. 1 killer and it leads to so many other health issues. You'd think the government would be prepared to put some more money into the pot to give the children better education on food and diet and also to provide healthy school meals. That would save them billions in health care costs and would pay for itself time after time.
Quality of pdf archives
I have to say I am getting quite depressed at the quality of scans of books done by Microsoft and Google. It's as if they have one setting for all books and don't actually bother to view the results. Some of the ones I have viewed this week have been terrible and I must have spent a whole day unpicking them and then running each page through a picture program to try and make the words easier to read.
I don't pretend I have done a great job either but at least I can now read most of the text whereas prior to enhancing the scan I could hardly read it at all.
Simon Fraser University
We now have our windows server setup at SFU so in the coming week we are looking to install our applications and programs and hope to get our domains over by the end of this month. The aim is to do the final move on September 30th when I will stop publishing to the site and thus ensure the new server is bang up to date with all our content. We will need to make a change to our DNS which will likely mean we won't be accessible for a short time as it takes time to propogate a new DNS around the Internet. Once we can access the new server I'll be publishing as normal.
Scottish secretary accuses Nicola Sturgeon of hypocrisy
SNP mocks David Mundell’s claim that if the union between Scotland and England did not exist, it would have to be invented. Read more at
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/...n-of-hypocrisy
Scotland a special place for the Queen
Scotland has held a special place in the Queen's affections from a very young age. Read more about this at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-34196921
King's Own Scottish Borderers recall Malayan campaign
Thanks to Robert Stewart for alerting me to this story from the BBC.
Across the south of Scotland and beyond this week brings a significant anniversary from many men now well into their seventies.
It is 60 years since the King's Own Scottish Borderers were deployed to a campaign they will never forget.
The Malayan Emergency, as it became known, was a bitter conflict against hardened ethnic Chinese communists.
Sometimes called the "forgotten war", its memories remain strong among the young national servicemen of the day.
Few of the teenage soldiers had previously been away from home and were setting off on a lengthy journey unaware of the conditions they would have to face.
For many of them, the furthest afield they had travelled was Southerness, Edinburgh or perhaps Blackpool.
'Everything was new'
To Arthur Haining from Glencaple, for instance, a trip to his uncle on a farm at New Galloway had been a major event.
"My father couldn't afford to go anywhere on holidays like they do nowadays - Butlins or abroad," he said.
"We got the boat from Southampton - the troop ship - we couldn't compare it with anything.
"It was great - seeing the sea and the flying fish - everything was new. There was no television when I was a boy so seeing all these foreign people and seeing how they operated, it was great."
That experience was echoed by Leslie Thin from Galashiels.
"In those days it was only those and such as those that could go holidays abroad," he said.
"You saw things things that you never dreamed you would have seen."
Their destination saw them enter a conflict in which they not only had to face a hostile environment of heat and humidity, deadly insects and debilitating illnesses, but fight an unseen enemy in guerrilla-type fashion.
Willie Jardine, from Dumfries, had never imagined the conditions he met could exist.
"Nobody knew where the enemy was, but they were there," he said.
"You were walking in darkness in the jungle - you never knew what was in front of you.
"It could have been an ambush - there were one or two. It is something you will never forget."
It was a very similar experience for George Wright from Jedburgh.
'Soaking with sweat'
"The heat and the humidity was something else," he said.
"When you made camp at night, each person had a poncho cape - you used it as a ground sheet.
"The whole movement of earth under your feet was just a mass of ants and beetles. And during the day you were just soaking wet with sweat."
Mr Wright, too, lived with the constant threat of ambush from the enemy.
"The jungle was so thick," he explained, "that he could have been four feet away from you and you would never have seen him."
Eventually the British, Malayan and Commonwealth forces pushed the communists back far into the jungle, finally ending the conflict in 1960.
But by then 2,500 soldiers had died and those who survived will never forget their experiences.
Electric Canadian
Reminiscences of a Canadian Pioneer for the last Fifty Years
We have now completed this book.
You can read the rest of the new chapters at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...pson/index.htm
The Maple-Leaf Canadian Annual
A publication in 1849 which has been repaired and enhanced from the very faint original (pdf). You can download this book at:http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...leleaf1849.pdf
Talks on the Maple Leaf in Many Lands
By Mary I. Houston
I'm afraid this is a very poor scan of this book but it can be read and it does provide some very interesting information for the researcher. You can download this at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/Reli...gnmissions.pdf
John Lorne Campbell
He was a noted Baptist pastor, educator, author, lecturer, apologist, mission advocate, and world traveler. In a career that spanned a remarkable sixty years of full active service, he ministered not only among his native Canadian Baptists but also among both Northern Baptists and Southern Baptists in the United States and Baptists in England.
You can download this book at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/Reli...neCampbell.pdf
Crofters Colonisation Report
Found this old document which was in a terrible state so have worked on it to make it more readable. It's still a challenge but I think worth while reading for researchers. You can download this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...tersreport.pdf
The report is about the colonisation of Canada of the Crofters and Cottars from the Western Highlands and the Islands of Scotland.
Electric Scotland
The Scotch Settlers in Raphoe County, Donegal, Ireland
By William M. Mervine (1912). Added a link to this report at the foot of our Ulster page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/ulster/
The Scottish Law Reporter
Added a link to an example copy of this publication and a link to their web site toward the foot of this page.
You can get to this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/history/law/
Beth's Newfangled Family Tree
Got in October 2015 section 2 issue which you can get to at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/bnft/index.htm
Le mystère des McIntyre du Restigouche
French language article in pdf format and have added a link to it from our MacIntyre index page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/webclans/m/macinty.html
We are hoping to get a translation of this at some point.
The Angling Handbook of Scotland
This book covers angling in Scotland and the Scottish Borders. Have added a link to this book at the foot our our Sports page at:http://www.electricscotland.com/history/sport/
Memoir of the Life, Writings and Correspondence of James Currie, M.D.
Edited by his son, William Wallace Currie in 2 volumes (pdf). Added links to this publication to his page in our Famous Scots section at:http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...rrie_james.htm
The Revd. John Stuart D.D., U.E.L. Of Kingston, U. C. and His Family
This is a genealogical account of him and his family which I've added to our Stewart page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/webc...z/stewart.html
THIS little study of the distinguished Stuart family, founded by the Revd. John Stuart, D.D., of Kingston, has grown out of researches for a Life of Bishop Strachan, who called him "my spiritual father." Perusal of original letters to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, together with the Society's Journals and Annual Reports from 1770 to 1812, gives one a good idea of "the little gentleman," as he was called, notwithstanding his six feet four inches, even before he left the Province of New York in 1781.
Battle of Flodden
Added an article on How well prepared was James IV to Fight by Land and Sea in 1537? By David H. Caldwell. Added this to the foot of the page at: http://www.electricscotland.com/history/flodden.htm
Gairloch and Loch Maree
Added a documentary film of wild life in Scotland which is based in this area of Scotland. You can view this at:http://www.electricscotland.com/history/gairloch/
Scottish Pictures
Drawn with Pen and Pencil By Samuel G. Green D. D., Illustrated by Eminent Artists. I've added this book to the foot of our Pictures page at: http://www.electricscotland.com/trav...ures_tours.htm
Duncan Black MacDonald
Christian missionary who promoted a new approach to relating to the Muslim world who we've added to our Famous Scots page at:http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ncan_black.htm
As Hartford Seminary professor from 1892-1932, Duncan Black Macdonald belonged to a time of great Orientalists (Goldziher, Massignon, Asin Palacios...). In the fields of classical Islamic thought, jurisprudence, and popular Arabic literature, he was in the United States a primus inter pares, where few could be called his peers. As a Christian missionary, Macdonald promoted a new approach to relating to the Muslim world, stressing conversation over conversion, which proved quite revolutionary for his epoch.
We have a book about him, links to some of his books and a video about him.
THE STORY
Thought I'd bring you a pioneering story from Florida this week...
They were the Mothers of Florida
From Tampa Tribune Kan 1, 1956 by D. B. McKay
Mrs. Sudie Knight sent in another interesting story of pioneer life in South Florida, based on an interview with a highly esteemed old lady who was born in Hillsborough County and who passed on to her home in Heavan but a few months ago. In Mrs. Molly McLeod Whidden's own words, Mrs. Knight presents a realistic recollection of frontier life.
"My father was Wfiliam McLeod and his father was born in Scotland. Grandfather McLeod married Emily Sloane, and all their children were born in this country—though not In Florida. In Georgia, I think. They had four girls and four boys. Father married Susan Howard, a widow with two daughters, Virginia and Missouri. Her parents were Seth Howard and Harriet Weeks.
"Father and mother were married in Tampa. They had 10 children, three boys and seven girls. I was the oldest. We were always happy at home. We loved each other and we were brought up right and did not see other people enough to learn anything bad. We didn’t have many neighbors, and most of them were good people.
"Mother was converted when she was a girl. Father was converted during the Civil War and baptized at night. I do not know why It was at night, unless it was because they did not have time for church in the daytime.
"He was usually cheerful, but when he did get mad he really got his Scotch up. His mother died of smallpox during the war while he was gone, and was buried by Grandfather and a colored man. Neighbors were afraid to come to help them.
"FATHER FOUGHT through the Civil War. He was never wounded, although he fought in the battles of Chickamauga and several others I don’t remember. He almost froze one time when he was barefooted and it snowed. He caught a cold, and couldn’t speak above a whIsper for three years.
"His captain was named Josh Riggs. He used to come and stay all night and he and Pa would sit up till alter midnight talking about the war. We children loved to sit up and listen.
"He fought in an Indian war, too, and my father-in-law Whidden was killed in a battle with the Indians at Payne’s Creek.
"OUR HOME WAS about four miles from where the New Zion Church now stands. Most of. our children were born there and Pa and Ma died there.
"All of us children learned to work as soon as we were old enough. Ma made all of our clothes. We’ raised the cotton and bought the wool. Pa did the carding till we older ones got to where we could do it He would card the rolls at night after working In the field all day, and Ma would sit up and spin and weave.
"As soon as we could all of us girls learned to spin and weave and that kind of work and remember she used copperas In making yellow.
The first sewing machine I ever saw was a little thing that sat on a table and turned with a handle. You had to crank with one hand and hold the sewing with the other. It didn’t sew very fast.
"The first calico dress I remember was bought from a peddler. He had one piece of calico with blue and white stripes about two fingers in width with red roses in the white stripe. My two half-sisters got dresses off that piece. Mine was pink with fine white pin stripes and white flowers in it.
"We wore home-woven dresses for everyday. We went barefooted all Winter around home and saved our shoes for Sunday to wear to church. We had church.then under a brush arbor.
"MA COOKED in the fireplace and used a.long iron rod to hang pots on, called a crane. We didn’t can anything. I never saw a glass jar for canning until alter I was married. But we dried a lot of things. We dried green beans, corn and pumpkins. We had to soak them before cooking.
"Most every family had a cook scafold to use in the Summer, when it was too hot to have a fire in the house. The men folks built a stout table about waist high and put boxing around it. Then they filled this box with sand. They made it large enough that when we built a fire in it the wood planks would not catch on fire.
"There were no orange groves in this part of the country then. There were a few orange trees In Tampa, and Grandpa Howard had one in his yard. My father bought two and set them out on our place and. soon we had oranges of our own. Sour oranges and lemons grew wild In some of the hammocks. Grapefruits got scattered through the country while I was growing up, but I never knew of a pineapple in this region until several years after I married.
"WE DOCTORED with home remedies, and one of them was Jerusalem Oak. it was a weed that made an awful bitter tea, and all of us children hated to take It. But all the same they gave us a lot of it.
"One day Naaman. my oldest brother, and I thought of a way to keep from taking the tea. We took Pa’s hatchet and went all around the yard. and in all the fence corners and chopped down every Jerusalem Oak on the place.
"Almost everything we had cooked the juice till it was ready to go to sugar and then would have holes bored In the bottom of the barrels and let the syrup drip into a pan. He stood up stalks of sugar cane in the barrels so he could stir the sugar every few days to keep the crust broken so it would dry out and drip better. When it got dry and crumbly he would take it out and stack it in another barrel and it was ready for use.
"Old Man Strickland and his boys used to make sugar barrels of cypress. They bent the staves while they were green and then seasoned them. We saved our barrels and used them year after year. We children used to slip to the sugar barrel sometimes, but we had to be careful, for they thought that too much sugar was not good for us. We used to beg for lumps of sugar like children nowadays beg for candy,
"PA ALWAYS raised enough rice to do us. He built a tight little room to put the rice in after it was threshed out and cleaned.
"I remember one Spring there was a late frost, in April I think It was, and everybody’s gardens and truck patches were killed. Many families were already about out of what they had saved over to run till Spring, and some people were absolutely without anything at all and moved away. We still had plenty of rice and we had cabbage.
"That is what we lived on until Pa could put out another garden and it grew up. We would eat rice one day and cabbage the next till one time Ma said ‘Let’s try a cabbage and rice pilau.’ So she made it and we all liked it, but we sure did get tired of cabbage and rice. Pa gave lots of it away.
"We generally had plenty of meat. There were lots of deer in the woods in those days and a lot of venison was wasted. Deer hams could be sold in Tampa, and some men would cut out the hams and leave the rest of the deer wherever they had killed It. But Pa never did that. He sold hams In Tampa to buy our shoes and other things, but he always brought the deer home, and if we didn’t eat it at the time we would dry it.
"We dried turkey breasts, too. If we had two or three turkeys at a time Ma would cut off the breast meat, salt it down and then after it had taken salt would string them up and hang them in the sun to dry. When it was sliced and fried It was fine. Of course we had plenty.
There were not any free schools in those days. The neighbors who lived close together would join in and hire a teacher. My first teacher was an old man named Davis. He taught school in my ‘Grand. father Howard’s barn. The men made benches and put them along the sides of the wall, they were split logs smoothed with a plane with wooden legs pegged into them.
We didn’t have any black beards nor any slates. A few had pencils and paper, but paper was scarce. When.a child got a sheet of writing paper he thought he had something wonderful.
At my second school the big boys and girls had slates. We little ones had the Blue Backed Speller. It had reading in It, and that is all we had to study out of. I went with my two elder half-sisters, and besides us there were my grandfather’s three boys and two girls, the Roberts children, Lizzie Tucker, two Hendry girls and a boy of the name of Dan Pate. Yes, there was an Arnoa girl, too.
My next school was taught by a young man named Buddie Payne. The schoolhouse was in a harnmock this side of where the New Zion Church is now. I’d not learn much from him, for be put in all his time with the big boys and girls. We little ones had only one lesson a day.
"My third school was taught by Miss Lizzie Berry, It was called the Taylor school and was five miles from home. My two half-sisters, my little brother Naaman and I went from our house. The other childreni were the Taylors, Knights, Wingates, Stevens, Harrises and Pitts, I studied the Blue sacked Speller and a reader. I had a pencil and paper. I don’t remember any blackboard in this school.
"WE CARRIED OUR dinner in tin buckets—if we could get the buckets, Some of us had to use homemade baskets that some of the family had made out of strips of inner bark of certain trees.
"They were all right, but everybody had baskets of this kind of all sizes from little to big, while tin buckets had to be bought at the store. and that made us feel like they were more valuable.
"Our dinner usually consisted of corn bread, rice, and meat of some kind. Sometimes we had biscuits, but flour wasn’t as plentiful as corn was. We didn’t always have flour, but we always had corn meal, grits, and rice. One of the best things we had was sweet potato pone. It was made of grated sweet potatoes, eggs and spice and sweetened with some of our homemade sugar.
"We had to walk five miles to Miss Berry’s school. We took a path through the woods and we often saw wolves.
Sometimes mother would carry Naaman part of the way on her back. She would talk and laugh with us and tell us stories, and we loved for her to go home with us to stay all night. Then, of course, we would have her to go along with us back to school the next morning.
"AT RECESS WE played ball and Three Old Cats. Sometimes the boys played Bull Pen. Boys and girls did not play together. We girls played such games as Dare Base, Poison Stick and Wood Tag. I was almost grown before we learned to play Handkerchief and Go In and Out the Windows. Singing games like Skip to Ma Lou came in at about this same time.
"We had recitations on Friday afternoons. Some of the neighbors would come in to hear us and most all, of us learned little pieces to recite. We would sing songs, too. We never had a Christmas tree at school nor at home either, but we always hung up our stockings. Sometimes we would get a little toy made out of wood, but we never got any china dolls. Our dolls were all homemade. We always got candy and sometimes an apple.
"We never had parties. I didn’t know what parties were. If we had anything like that we would all get together and go to the creek to fish and have a fish dinner. Of course we went to church and had church dinners on Sunday. We generally would camp out on Christmas night and next morning kill deer or wild turkeys to cook for our dinner. Times have changed a lot since then."
Aunt Molly died last June 28th In the Palmetto Clinic at Wauchula and is buried In the New Zion Cemetery, between ,Wauchula and Myakka City.
And that's it for this week and hope you all enjoy your weekend.
Alastair
http://www.electricscotland.com/
Electric Scotland News
I was watching an episode of Food Revolution where celebrity chef Jamie Oliver was trying to improve the heating habits of children in Huntingdon, West Virginia. I was shocked and appalled at what I saw in that program. The USA is THE World Power and yet the kids there couldn't even identify even one vegetable. One wee boy being showed a bunch of tomatoes thought they were potatoes. They couldn't even identify a potato! And to top it all the wee kids weren't even provided with a knife and fork and when given them most didn't know how to use them. Huntingdon is the town with the worst health record in the USA.
He actually brought in a bunch of kids to show them a real chicken. He then took of the breast, legs and wings and then in front of them he put the rest of the carcass into a blender, added some flour and other ingredients and then put the results through a mesh. He then made that into nuggets and put them into bread crumbs. All of the kinds wanted those to eat rather than the other parts of the chicken.
Should this be an example of how Americans in general look after their children then they should be embarrassed as hell but from what I saw in that episode they really didn't seem to give a damn. There are episodes on YouTube but I did feature the bit about vegetables which you can watch at: http://www.electricscotland.org/show...tato-or-Tomato
Obesity is the No. 1 killer and it leads to so many other health issues. You'd think the government would be prepared to put some more money into the pot to give the children better education on food and diet and also to provide healthy school meals. That would save them billions in health care costs and would pay for itself time after time.
Quality of pdf archives
I have to say I am getting quite depressed at the quality of scans of books done by Microsoft and Google. It's as if they have one setting for all books and don't actually bother to view the results. Some of the ones I have viewed this week have been terrible and I must have spent a whole day unpicking them and then running each page through a picture program to try and make the words easier to read.
I don't pretend I have done a great job either but at least I can now read most of the text whereas prior to enhancing the scan I could hardly read it at all.
Simon Fraser University
We now have our windows server setup at SFU so in the coming week we are looking to install our applications and programs and hope to get our domains over by the end of this month. The aim is to do the final move on September 30th when I will stop publishing to the site and thus ensure the new server is bang up to date with all our content. We will need to make a change to our DNS which will likely mean we won't be accessible for a short time as it takes time to propogate a new DNS around the Internet. Once we can access the new server I'll be publishing as normal.
Scottish secretary accuses Nicola Sturgeon of hypocrisy
SNP mocks David Mundell’s claim that if the union between Scotland and England did not exist, it would have to be invented. Read more at
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/...n-of-hypocrisy
Scotland a special place for the Queen
Scotland has held a special place in the Queen's affections from a very young age. Read more about this at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-34196921
King's Own Scottish Borderers recall Malayan campaign
Thanks to Robert Stewart for alerting me to this story from the BBC.
Across the south of Scotland and beyond this week brings a significant anniversary from many men now well into their seventies.
It is 60 years since the King's Own Scottish Borderers were deployed to a campaign they will never forget.
The Malayan Emergency, as it became known, was a bitter conflict against hardened ethnic Chinese communists.
Sometimes called the "forgotten war", its memories remain strong among the young national servicemen of the day.
Few of the teenage soldiers had previously been away from home and were setting off on a lengthy journey unaware of the conditions they would have to face.
For many of them, the furthest afield they had travelled was Southerness, Edinburgh or perhaps Blackpool.
'Everything was new'
To Arthur Haining from Glencaple, for instance, a trip to his uncle on a farm at New Galloway had been a major event.
"My father couldn't afford to go anywhere on holidays like they do nowadays - Butlins or abroad," he said.
"We got the boat from Southampton - the troop ship - we couldn't compare it with anything.
"It was great - seeing the sea and the flying fish - everything was new. There was no television when I was a boy so seeing all these foreign people and seeing how they operated, it was great."
That experience was echoed by Leslie Thin from Galashiels.
"In those days it was only those and such as those that could go holidays abroad," he said.
"You saw things things that you never dreamed you would have seen."
Their destination saw them enter a conflict in which they not only had to face a hostile environment of heat and humidity, deadly insects and debilitating illnesses, but fight an unseen enemy in guerrilla-type fashion.
Willie Jardine, from Dumfries, had never imagined the conditions he met could exist.
"Nobody knew where the enemy was, but they were there," he said.
"You were walking in darkness in the jungle - you never knew what was in front of you.
"It could have been an ambush - there were one or two. It is something you will never forget."
It was a very similar experience for George Wright from Jedburgh.
'Soaking with sweat'
"The heat and the humidity was something else," he said.
"When you made camp at night, each person had a poncho cape - you used it as a ground sheet.
"The whole movement of earth under your feet was just a mass of ants and beetles. And during the day you were just soaking wet with sweat."
Mr Wright, too, lived with the constant threat of ambush from the enemy.
"The jungle was so thick," he explained, "that he could have been four feet away from you and you would never have seen him."
Eventually the British, Malayan and Commonwealth forces pushed the communists back far into the jungle, finally ending the conflict in 1960.
But by then 2,500 soldiers had died and those who survived will never forget their experiences.
Electric Canadian
Reminiscences of a Canadian Pioneer for the last Fifty Years
We have now completed this book.
You can read the rest of the new chapters at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...pson/index.htm
The Maple-Leaf Canadian Annual
A publication in 1849 which has been repaired and enhanced from the very faint original (pdf). You can download this book at:http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...leleaf1849.pdf
Talks on the Maple Leaf in Many Lands
By Mary I. Houston
I'm afraid this is a very poor scan of this book but it can be read and it does provide some very interesting information for the researcher. You can download this at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/Reli...gnmissions.pdf
John Lorne Campbell
He was a noted Baptist pastor, educator, author, lecturer, apologist, mission advocate, and world traveler. In a career that spanned a remarkable sixty years of full active service, he ministered not only among his native Canadian Baptists but also among both Northern Baptists and Southern Baptists in the United States and Baptists in England.
You can download this book at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/Reli...neCampbell.pdf
Crofters Colonisation Report
Found this old document which was in a terrible state so have worked on it to make it more readable. It's still a challenge but I think worth while reading for researchers. You can download this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...tersreport.pdf
The report is about the colonisation of Canada of the Crofters and Cottars from the Western Highlands and the Islands of Scotland.
Electric Scotland
The Scotch Settlers in Raphoe County, Donegal, Ireland
By William M. Mervine (1912). Added a link to this report at the foot of our Ulster page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/ulster/
The Scottish Law Reporter
Added a link to an example copy of this publication and a link to their web site toward the foot of this page.
You can get to this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/history/law/
Beth's Newfangled Family Tree
Got in October 2015 section 2 issue which you can get to at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/bnft/index.htm
Le mystère des McIntyre du Restigouche
French language article in pdf format and have added a link to it from our MacIntyre index page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/webclans/m/macinty.html
We are hoping to get a translation of this at some point.
The Angling Handbook of Scotland
This book covers angling in Scotland and the Scottish Borders. Have added a link to this book at the foot our our Sports page at:http://www.electricscotland.com/history/sport/
Memoir of the Life, Writings and Correspondence of James Currie, M.D.
Edited by his son, William Wallace Currie in 2 volumes (pdf). Added links to this publication to his page in our Famous Scots section at:http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...rrie_james.htm
The Revd. John Stuart D.D., U.E.L. Of Kingston, U. C. and His Family
This is a genealogical account of him and his family which I've added to our Stewart page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/webc...z/stewart.html
THIS little study of the distinguished Stuart family, founded by the Revd. John Stuart, D.D., of Kingston, has grown out of researches for a Life of Bishop Strachan, who called him "my spiritual father." Perusal of original letters to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, together with the Society's Journals and Annual Reports from 1770 to 1812, gives one a good idea of "the little gentleman," as he was called, notwithstanding his six feet four inches, even before he left the Province of New York in 1781.
Battle of Flodden
Added an article on How well prepared was James IV to Fight by Land and Sea in 1537? By David H. Caldwell. Added this to the foot of the page at: http://www.electricscotland.com/history/flodden.htm
Gairloch and Loch Maree
Added a documentary film of wild life in Scotland which is based in this area of Scotland. You can view this at:http://www.electricscotland.com/history/gairloch/
Scottish Pictures
Drawn with Pen and Pencil By Samuel G. Green D. D., Illustrated by Eminent Artists. I've added this book to the foot of our Pictures page at: http://www.electricscotland.com/trav...ures_tours.htm
Duncan Black MacDonald
Christian missionary who promoted a new approach to relating to the Muslim world who we've added to our Famous Scots page at:http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ncan_black.htm
As Hartford Seminary professor from 1892-1932, Duncan Black Macdonald belonged to a time of great Orientalists (Goldziher, Massignon, Asin Palacios...). In the fields of classical Islamic thought, jurisprudence, and popular Arabic literature, he was in the United States a primus inter pares, where few could be called his peers. As a Christian missionary, Macdonald promoted a new approach to relating to the Muslim world, stressing conversation over conversion, which proved quite revolutionary for his epoch.
We have a book about him, links to some of his books and a video about him.
THE STORY
Thought I'd bring you a pioneering story from Florida this week...
They were the Mothers of Florida
From Tampa Tribune Kan 1, 1956 by D. B. McKay
Mrs. Sudie Knight sent in another interesting story of pioneer life in South Florida, based on an interview with a highly esteemed old lady who was born in Hillsborough County and who passed on to her home in Heavan but a few months ago. In Mrs. Molly McLeod Whidden's own words, Mrs. Knight presents a realistic recollection of frontier life.
"My father was Wfiliam McLeod and his father was born in Scotland. Grandfather McLeod married Emily Sloane, and all their children were born in this country—though not In Florida. In Georgia, I think. They had four girls and four boys. Father married Susan Howard, a widow with two daughters, Virginia and Missouri. Her parents were Seth Howard and Harriet Weeks.
"Father and mother were married in Tampa. They had 10 children, three boys and seven girls. I was the oldest. We were always happy at home. We loved each other and we were brought up right and did not see other people enough to learn anything bad. We didn’t have many neighbors, and most of them were good people.
"Mother was converted when she was a girl. Father was converted during the Civil War and baptized at night. I do not know why It was at night, unless it was because they did not have time for church in the daytime.
"He was usually cheerful, but when he did get mad he really got his Scotch up. His mother died of smallpox during the war while he was gone, and was buried by Grandfather and a colored man. Neighbors were afraid to come to help them.
"FATHER FOUGHT through the Civil War. He was never wounded, although he fought in the battles of Chickamauga and several others I don’t remember. He almost froze one time when he was barefooted and it snowed. He caught a cold, and couldn’t speak above a whIsper for three years.
"His captain was named Josh Riggs. He used to come and stay all night and he and Pa would sit up till alter midnight talking about the war. We children loved to sit up and listen.
"He fought in an Indian war, too, and my father-in-law Whidden was killed in a battle with the Indians at Payne’s Creek.
"OUR HOME WAS about four miles from where the New Zion Church now stands. Most of. our children were born there and Pa and Ma died there.
"All of us children learned to work as soon as we were old enough. Ma made all of our clothes. We’ raised the cotton and bought the wool. Pa did the carding till we older ones got to where we could do it He would card the rolls at night after working In the field all day, and Ma would sit up and spin and weave.
"As soon as we could all of us girls learned to spin and weave and that kind of work and remember she used copperas In making yellow.
The first sewing machine I ever saw was a little thing that sat on a table and turned with a handle. You had to crank with one hand and hold the sewing with the other. It didn’t sew very fast.
"The first calico dress I remember was bought from a peddler. He had one piece of calico with blue and white stripes about two fingers in width with red roses in the white stripe. My two half-sisters got dresses off that piece. Mine was pink with fine white pin stripes and white flowers in it.
"We wore home-woven dresses for everyday. We went barefooted all Winter around home and saved our shoes for Sunday to wear to church. We had church.then under a brush arbor.
"MA COOKED in the fireplace and used a.long iron rod to hang pots on, called a crane. We didn’t can anything. I never saw a glass jar for canning until alter I was married. But we dried a lot of things. We dried green beans, corn and pumpkins. We had to soak them before cooking.
"Most every family had a cook scafold to use in the Summer, when it was too hot to have a fire in the house. The men folks built a stout table about waist high and put boxing around it. Then they filled this box with sand. They made it large enough that when we built a fire in it the wood planks would not catch on fire.
"There were no orange groves in this part of the country then. There were a few orange trees In Tampa, and Grandpa Howard had one in his yard. My father bought two and set them out on our place and. soon we had oranges of our own. Sour oranges and lemons grew wild In some of the hammocks. Grapefruits got scattered through the country while I was growing up, but I never knew of a pineapple in this region until several years after I married.
"WE DOCTORED with home remedies, and one of them was Jerusalem Oak. it was a weed that made an awful bitter tea, and all of us children hated to take It. But all the same they gave us a lot of it.
"One day Naaman. my oldest brother, and I thought of a way to keep from taking the tea. We took Pa’s hatchet and went all around the yard. and in all the fence corners and chopped down every Jerusalem Oak on the place.
"Almost everything we had cooked the juice till it was ready to go to sugar and then would have holes bored In the bottom of the barrels and let the syrup drip into a pan. He stood up stalks of sugar cane in the barrels so he could stir the sugar every few days to keep the crust broken so it would dry out and drip better. When it got dry and crumbly he would take it out and stack it in another barrel and it was ready for use.
"Old Man Strickland and his boys used to make sugar barrels of cypress. They bent the staves while they were green and then seasoned them. We saved our barrels and used them year after year. We children used to slip to the sugar barrel sometimes, but we had to be careful, for they thought that too much sugar was not good for us. We used to beg for lumps of sugar like children nowadays beg for candy,
"PA ALWAYS raised enough rice to do us. He built a tight little room to put the rice in after it was threshed out and cleaned.
"I remember one Spring there was a late frost, in April I think It was, and everybody’s gardens and truck patches were killed. Many families were already about out of what they had saved over to run till Spring, and some people were absolutely without anything at all and moved away. We still had plenty of rice and we had cabbage.
"That is what we lived on until Pa could put out another garden and it grew up. We would eat rice one day and cabbage the next till one time Ma said ‘Let’s try a cabbage and rice pilau.’ So she made it and we all liked it, but we sure did get tired of cabbage and rice. Pa gave lots of it away.
"We generally had plenty of meat. There were lots of deer in the woods in those days and a lot of venison was wasted. Deer hams could be sold in Tampa, and some men would cut out the hams and leave the rest of the deer wherever they had killed It. But Pa never did that. He sold hams In Tampa to buy our shoes and other things, but he always brought the deer home, and if we didn’t eat it at the time we would dry it.
"We dried turkey breasts, too. If we had two or three turkeys at a time Ma would cut off the breast meat, salt it down and then after it had taken salt would string them up and hang them in the sun to dry. When it was sliced and fried It was fine. Of course we had plenty.
There were not any free schools in those days. The neighbors who lived close together would join in and hire a teacher. My first teacher was an old man named Davis. He taught school in my ‘Grand. father Howard’s barn. The men made benches and put them along the sides of the wall, they were split logs smoothed with a plane with wooden legs pegged into them.
We didn’t have any black beards nor any slates. A few had pencils and paper, but paper was scarce. When.a child got a sheet of writing paper he thought he had something wonderful.
At my second school the big boys and girls had slates. We little ones had the Blue Backed Speller. It had reading in It, and that is all we had to study out of. I went with my two elder half-sisters, and besides us there were my grandfather’s three boys and two girls, the Roberts children, Lizzie Tucker, two Hendry girls and a boy of the name of Dan Pate. Yes, there was an Arnoa girl, too.
My next school was taught by a young man named Buddie Payne. The schoolhouse was in a harnmock this side of where the New Zion Church is now. I’d not learn much from him, for be put in all his time with the big boys and girls. We little ones had only one lesson a day.
"My third school was taught by Miss Lizzie Berry, It was called the Taylor school and was five miles from home. My two half-sisters, my little brother Naaman and I went from our house. The other childreni were the Taylors, Knights, Wingates, Stevens, Harrises and Pitts, I studied the Blue sacked Speller and a reader. I had a pencil and paper. I don’t remember any blackboard in this school.
"WE CARRIED OUR dinner in tin buckets—if we could get the buckets, Some of us had to use homemade baskets that some of the family had made out of strips of inner bark of certain trees.
"They were all right, but everybody had baskets of this kind of all sizes from little to big, while tin buckets had to be bought at the store. and that made us feel like they were more valuable.
"Our dinner usually consisted of corn bread, rice, and meat of some kind. Sometimes we had biscuits, but flour wasn’t as plentiful as corn was. We didn’t always have flour, but we always had corn meal, grits, and rice. One of the best things we had was sweet potato pone. It was made of grated sweet potatoes, eggs and spice and sweetened with some of our homemade sugar.
"We had to walk five miles to Miss Berry’s school. We took a path through the woods and we often saw wolves.
Sometimes mother would carry Naaman part of the way on her back. She would talk and laugh with us and tell us stories, and we loved for her to go home with us to stay all night. Then, of course, we would have her to go along with us back to school the next morning.
"AT RECESS WE played ball and Three Old Cats. Sometimes the boys played Bull Pen. Boys and girls did not play together. We girls played such games as Dare Base, Poison Stick and Wood Tag. I was almost grown before we learned to play Handkerchief and Go In and Out the Windows. Singing games like Skip to Ma Lou came in at about this same time.
"We had recitations on Friday afternoons. Some of the neighbors would come in to hear us and most all, of us learned little pieces to recite. We would sing songs, too. We never had a Christmas tree at school nor at home either, but we always hung up our stockings. Sometimes we would get a little toy made out of wood, but we never got any china dolls. Our dolls were all homemade. We always got candy and sometimes an apple.
"We never had parties. I didn’t know what parties were. If we had anything like that we would all get together and go to the creek to fish and have a fish dinner. Of course we went to church and had church dinners on Sunday. We generally would camp out on Christmas night and next morning kill deer or wild turkeys to cook for our dinner. Times have changed a lot since then."
Aunt Molly died last June 28th In the Palmetto Clinic at Wauchula and is buried In the New Zion Cemetery, between ,Wauchula and Myakka City.
And that's it for this week and hope you all enjoy your weekend.
Alastair
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