Imagine being asked, “What are you in for?” and you have to answer “mowing the lawn”. This situation is something that a man from Ohio could have experienced in 2009. On May 30th, the Bellevue Gazette reported that a man had been arrested for mowing grass in Sandusky, Ohio. John Hamilton had grown frustrated with the city parks department for neglecting the grass in Sandusky Central Park, and once the grass had grown a foot high, he took matters into his own hands. Hamilton was asked to stop mowing the grass on city property by police, and was arrested after he refused to stop for obstructing official business. The City Manager seemed to empathize with him but explained that recent budget cuts left them without seasonal summer maintenance staff to cut the grass. Maybe they should have hired him to do it instead!
On May 30th, 1996, the Wellesley Free Library decided to remove specific materials from its catalog. In The Townsman, they reported that the library would not be renewing their subscription to Playboy magazine, and that the 1996 editions would be the last they received. This decision was made after multiple parents in the town complained that their children were being permitted to check out and view these materials, which are not child-friendly. While some argued that the materials could simply be age-restricted, the library decided to no longer include the magazines in their collections entirely. However, they acknowledged that the conversation brought up an issue about which materials should be included in library collections that they hadn’t previously discussed. From the article, it seems that a majority of people voiced their support for the decision and were perfectly content to use the library despite the lack of this specific magazine.
Next is the story of a decision that saved a family’s home. In The Blairstown Press on May 26th, 1960, they published a story titled “Going Back After Forgotten Letter Saves Farm House From Costly Blaze”. The story is of a local woman who had left her house to go into town, but turned back around once she realized she forgot to bring along some letters she had intended to mail. As she returned to the house, she found her basement full of smoke and flames, which they later discovered was caused by their oil water heater overheating. Upon discovery, she called her neighbors, who helped her put out the fire. Thankfully, only the basement was damaged from the fire. However, had she not returned the forgotten letters, the farmhouse would have likely burned down. I can only imagine how grateful she was to forget them that day!
On May 30th, 1935, the Record Courier in Johnson City, Texas, reported that scientists had discovered skeletons on Kodiak Island. The island, located in Alaska, had been the site of multiple scientific expeditions where they excavated the remains of a settlement that had since fallen. At the time they reported this discovery, they were unfamiliar with the settlement and had no clue who they were. They did, however, learn from excavating that they were master craftsmen with “high culture”. The individuals within the settlement shared the same culture, but they discovered slight variations in culture between family units. They also observed that most burial sites were “nest burials”, which they described as groups of skeletons being buried together in one spot. Outside research has identified these settlements as belonging to a native/indigenous Alaskan group. The lead researcher, Dr. Hrdlička, collected thousands of artifacts from this site and more, a practice that has led to modern guidelines for archaeologists when handling remains. Despite the questionable ethics of his process, the collection of these remains and the study of the site on Kodiak Island greatly benefitted our current understanding of those who lived on the North American continent before colonization.
Finally, a story of a ship literally frozen in time, published in The Bloomer Advance on May 31st, 1906, in Bloomer, Wisconsin. They shared that a steamer had solved the mystery of a lost blockade runner after discovering the ship completely encased in ice off the coast of Siberia. Part of the crew was missing from the ship, and those who remained were nothing more than frozen corpses by the time they were found. The steamer, which had become unable to reach port after a Japanese blockade, decided to seek refuge in the Arctic. There, the ship became frozen in place for months until discovered by a steamer. Upon further research, I learned more about the discoveries that came as they studied the ship more. From the positioning of the corpses and taking inventory of supplies, it appears that the crew ran completely out of food, and the crew either froze or starved to death. This was a surprising story to me, as we typically only hear about the Titanic’s tragic battle with frozen waters, but I suppose it was more of a tragedy than we think.
I hope that you learned something new from these smaller historical moments. These stories are proof that there is always something new to learn, even for someone who studies history! Join me again next week to discover more of history’s hidden gems and timeless tales.
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