Mossy Feet Books – Author Paul R. Wonning
Books About Indiana History, United States History and Garden Guides
The Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial is a suitable memorial to the Sixteenth President, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln spent his boyhood years on Spencer County and grew up in the land around the Lincoln Boyhood Memorial and Lincoln State Park. Continue reading Podcast – Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial
By the early Seventeenth Century, Spanish settlement delved deep into the Caribbean, Mexico and South America. The Bolivian city of Potosi, Mexico City and Lima, Peru all had larger populations than any city in the parent nation, Spain. The colonists grew coffee, sugar, tobacco and other agricultural products for export to Europe. The silver and gold mines of the regions also supplied a vast quantity of wealth for Spain. The ship Nuestra Señora de Atocha carried a large quantity of this treasure in its holds when a hurricane sank it off the coast of Florida. Continue reading Podcast – Ill Fated Treasure Ship Nuestra Señora de Atocha Departs
Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 April 15, 1865)
The son of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, Abraham was native to Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville, Kentucky. Continue reading Podcast – Abraham Lincoln
The earliest evidence of the European Honeybee in America comes from a letter drafted by the Council of the Virginia Company, dispatched to Governor and Council in Virginia. The letter noted that the colonists had ordered seeds, apple trees, pigeons, mastiff dogs and beehives. The shipment of bees arrived in Virginia sometime in March 1622 to serve as pollinators for the European crops. The bees would also produce honey and beeswax, which the native bees did not produce. Continue reading Podcast – First Report of European Honeybees in the Colonies
Parliament had passed the Tea Act on May 10, 1773 to help the struggling East India Company compete with other tea importers. The legislation allowed the company to undersell their competition, including colonial tea smugglers. The company sent ships to Boston, New York, Charlestown, and Philadelphia in September 1773 with combined cargoes of over 500,000 pounds of tea. Tea importers in Charleston, New York, and Philadelphia, under pressure from local patriot groups, refused the shipments. However, the Boston merchants allowed the ships to dock. Continue reading Podcast – Boston Tea Party
Native tribes ceded the area to the United States in the Treaties of Vincennes 1803 and Fort Wayne in 1809. This area at the junction of the Wabash and Ohio Rivers was mainly wetland not suitable for farming and received the designation as swampland. The Wabash and Erie Canal Company received the land as a grant from the Congress on March 2, 1827. The canal company failed. A man named Charles J. Hovey received ownership of the land in the 1880’s. Continue reading Podcast – Hovey Lake State Fish & Wildlife Area – Mount Vernon
Commodore Charles Knowles anchored his ship, the HMS Cornwall, in Boston Harbor in mid-November 1747 to retrofit and re-supply it. British seamen worked under harsh discipline, thus many of the crew deserted while the ship lay at anchor. When the ship prepared to depart, the ship was short of crew, so Commodore Knowles sought to replenish his crew by impressing Bostonians into naval service. Continue reading Podcast – Beginning of the Boston Impressments – Sparked the Knowles Riots
Philanthropist William Maclure established the Institute in 1838. The Working Men’s Institute inhabited a wing in the Harmonist Church until 1894. In that year, it moved to this impressive building three-story structure on Tavern Street. The Institute at one time comprised 144 Institutes in Indiana and additional sixteen in Illinois at its height. The Working Men’s Institute has dwindled to this location. This is the oldest continuously operating library in Indiana. Continue reading Working Men’s Institute Museum & Library
The Seven Years War, known as the French and Indian War in North America, ended with the Treaty of Paris on 10 February 1763. The French, by virtue of the treaty, yielded to the British vast stretches of land in North America and the Caribbean Sea. Continue reading Podcast – Royal Proclamation of 1763
Jane Blaffer Owen (April 1915 – June 21, 2010)
The daughter of Robert Lee and Sarah “Sadie” Campbell Blaffer, Jane was native to Houston, Harris County, Texas. Her father was the founder of Humble Oil Company, which later became Exxon. She attended The Kinkaid School in Margaret Kinkaid’s home, which is a college prepatory school for children K – 12. She attended high school at Ethel Walker School in Connecticut, graduating in 1933. She later attended Bryn Mawr College and the Union Theological Seminary in New York. She married Kenneth Owen, who was a descendent of Indiana philosopher, manufacturer and social reformer Robert Owen. The couple would have 2 children. Kenneth was from the small Indiana town of New Harmony. Continue reading Podcast – Roofless Church in New Harmony, Indiana
The crises with England had grown after Parliament passed the so-called Intolerable Acts. In an attempt to provide a united response to Parliament and get the Acts repealed, delegates from twelve of the thirteen colonies on the Atlantic seaboard assembled in Philadelphia at Carpenter’s Hall. The last inter-colonial meeting had been the Stamp Act Congress of 1765. Continue reading Podcast – First Continental Congress assembles in Philadelphia
Johann Georg Rapp founded the group that would become the Harmony Society in Iptingen, Germany, in 1785. The Lutheran Church persecuted the members, so they migrated to the United States. They purchased land in Butler County, Pennsylvannia on February 15, 1805. They formed the Harmony Society and placed all of their possessions in common. Continue reading Podcast – Harmonist’s Labyrinth at New Harmony, Indiana
The British Parliament’s passage of the Stamp Act to pay for the French and Indian War in 1765 created massive protests in Britain’s North American colonies. Street protests broke out in many of the cities. The Crown had appointed Andrew Oliver to oversee the collection of the tax. Furious protesters hung Oliver in effigy during a protest on August 14, 1765. Continue reading Stamp Act Riots – Stamp Distributor Andrew Oliver Hanged in Effigy
The Cathedral Labyrinth at New Harmony, Indiana
Visitors will find both a labyrinth and a maze in New Harmony. Though many think they are the same thing, there is a difference in the two. A labyrinth has one winding path leading to the center of the structure while a maze has many paths, some of which are dead ends.
Today I will talk about labyrinths, next week it will be mazes.
Walking on a labyrinth symbolizes a spiritural journey or a quest for self-discovery. It is meant as a sort of walking meditation. Continue reading The Cathedral Labyrinth at New Harmony
An Amerindian raiding party consisting of four Shawnee and one Cherokee overcame a group of three girls as they drifted on the Kentucky River, capturing them. Continue reading The Abduction and Rescue of Jemima Boone
Visitors will find the David Lenz House and Garden on North Street. The house is closed to the public, unless you take a guided tour, but the gardens are open to browse. Construction of the house occurred around 1819 by David Lenz. Continue reading Podcast – David Lenz House and Garden
June 29, 1773 – First of the Hutchinson Letters Published
Leaking sensitive government documents is nothing new. Ben Franklin, in an attempt to soothe the heat of the growing American Revolution, ended up fanning the flames instead when he sent a packet of letters written by Boston Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson that he had acquired to colonial leaders. Continue reading First of the Hutchinson Letters Published
County officials first met at the home Absalom Duckworth in the village of Blackford. They moved the county seat to Springfield in 1817. Mount Vernon became the county seat in 1825, where they constructed a small brick courthouse. The current courthouse was built in 1874. The three story Italianate style architecture building features red brickwork with details of Bedford limestone. Continue reading Podcast – Visiting Posey County, Indiana
The Chinese and Romans each had their own forms of ice cream that the elite among them could enjoy. Roman emperors dispatched runners into the mountains to fetch snow from the snow-covered peaks to bring back for the emperor to enjoy. Servants then flavored the snow with fruits and fruit juices. Historians have found evidence that Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) enjoyed snow mixed with honey and fruit. Continue reading Podcast – May 12, 1777 – First Ice Cream Advertisement
The details of Thomas Posey’s parentage are uncertain. Historians know that he was native to a farm on the banks of the Potomac River near Mount Vernon. Rumors persist that he was the illegitimate son of George Washington, however no one has ever been able to either prove or disprove it. We know little of his early childhood except that Thomas enjoyed George Washington’s patronage as a child. Continue reading Sample Chapter – Thomas Posey
Mossy Feet Books - Author Paul R. Wonning 