September in 19th-century history

A few dates and points of interest for September.  Enjoy!

September 8, 1883: Ceremony celebrating the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad, which had been finished on August 22nd.  This connected the Great Lakes with the Pacific Coast on one continuous line.  More information: http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM9YF0_Northern_Pacific_Railroad_Completion_Site__Gold_Creek_MT

September 8, 1892: The pledge of allegiance is first published in The Youth's Companion.  Francis Bellamy, who wrote the lines, hoped that the pledge would be used by citizens in any country  http://www.ushistory.org/documents/pledge.htm

September 11 & 12, 1879: "A Wheel Around the Hub" club run.  An account of America's first group cycling ride ever opened the very first issue of the Victorian Cycling Magazine, "The Wheelman".  A digital copy of this publication is available here: http://tinyurl.com/jj4uqmb

September 13, 1857: Milton Hershey born.  
Milton and his wife Katherine, who couldn't have children of their own, established a school for orphans that has continued to help underprivileged children ever since. To this day, the Milton Hershey School remains the controlling stockholder and main beneficiary of the Hershey Chocolate company. Read about the school's history: http://www.mhskids.org/about/school-history/
Before he made his fortune in chocolate, Milton got his start manufacturing caramels. The Hershey company recently reinstated his original caramels as a regular product: Lancaster caramels (named for the city where Milton started his business.) If anyone out there hasn't tried Lancaster caramels yet, I highly recommend them! They're delicious—and remember, more than half the profits go to help underprivileged kids!
The Lancaster Caramel website: http://www.lancastercandy.com/home
More info: https://hersheystory.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Milton-Hershey-The-Man-Behind-The-Chocolate.pdf
Hershey Community archives: http://blog.hersheyarchives.org

Mr. Hershey

September 19, 1881: Death of President Garfield.  
Some of my favorite Garfield quotes:
"[I]n order to have any success in life, or any worthy success, you must resolve to carry into your work a fulness of knowledge—not merely a sufficiency, but more than a sufficiency. In this respect, follow the rule of the machinists. If they want a machine to do the work of six horses, they give it nine horse power, so that they may have a reserve of three. To carry on the business of life you must have surplus power. Be fit for more than the thing you are now doing. Let every one know that you have a reserve in yourself; that you have more power than you are now using..." — James A. Garfield, "Elements of Success—Address Delivered in Spencerian Business College, Washington D.C., June 29, 1869."

"Young men talk of trusting to the spur of the occasion.  That trust is vain.  Occasions cannot make spurs, young gentlemen.  If you expect to wear spurs, you must win them.  If you wish to use them, you must buckle them to your own heels before you go into the fight.  Any success you may achieve is not worth having unless you fight for it.  Whatever you win in life you must conquer by your own efforts, then it is yours—a part of yourself." —James A. Garfield. "Elements of Success—Address Delivered in Spencerian Business College, Washington D.C., June 29, 1869."

For anyone interested in Garfield, I highly recommend the excellent book, Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President.

​September 20, 1853: Elisha Otis sold his first elevator (Source: Farmer's Almanac, 2016, p. 145.)

​September 22, 1862: President Lincoln issues a preliminary version of the Emancipation Proclamation; it would officially come into effect on January 1, 1863.  More information: www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=34
 
September 27, 1827: Happy birthday, Hiram Rhodes Revels!
In 1870 Revels was appointed to a seat in the U.S. Senate, becoming the first African American to fill such an office. (In 1875, former slave Blanche Kelso Bruce would become the first African American to be elected —rather than appointed— to a seat in the Senate.) Revels would go on to found the first African American university. More on Revels: http://history.house.gov/…/R/REVELS,-Hiram-Rhodes-(R000166)/

Senator Revels

 
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Other September-related items:


The last full week of September is Deaf Awareness Week (see https://www.signingsavvy.com/deafawarenessweek)  Victorian author Wilkie Collins (a friend of Charles Dickens) wrote a very poignant novel about a deaf girl which which is at the same time a very engaging mystery; it was published in 1856.  A free digital copy is available at http://tinyurl.com/y9wc3srx  A free audiobook is available at http://tinyurl.com/y947nq46



In September, 1878 (when the very lightest bicycles weighted around 35 lbs and most were even heavier), W.S. Britten rode 220 miles in a single twenty-four hour period.  His remarks about this superhuman feat: "Roads fair, wind slight.  Lost way three times."  Source: "Road Riding" Appendix VI to "A Bicycle Tour in England and Wales" by Alfred Dupont Chandler. Boston: A. Williams Co. 1881. p. 134.
More on Victorian cycling: http://www.thisvictorianlife.com/cycling.html
Historical cycling articles —see the "Cycling" links at http://www.thisvictorianlife.com/19th-c-articles-index.html

PROVISIONS IN SEASON IN SEPTEMBER
From Isabella Beeton's The Book of Household Management, 1893 edition, pages 123-126:
Vegetables.- Artichokes, asparagus, beans, cabbage sprouts, carrots, celery, lettuces, mushrooms, onions, peas, potatoes, salading, sea-kale, sprouts, tomatoes, turnips, vegetable marrows - various herbs.
Fruit.- Damsons, figs, filberts, grapes, melons, morella-cherries, mulberries, nectarines, peaches, pears, plums, quinces, walnuts.
 
September is blackberry season!
"Strolling along trails in the Washington woods where paths cleared by feet have allowed light to angle into the undergrowth, a small trailing vine drapes itself over the evergreen bushes like tinsel on a Christmas tree. Rubus ursinus is the only blackberry native to the Northwest; its fruits are sweet and potently flavorful but modest in size, being only about as large as the nail on a woman’s pinky finger. Northwestern tribes have long gathered these berries for food, either eating them immediately after harvesting or drying them for winter stor- age. They also used the leaves and roots to treat diarrhea, menstrual problems, and a variety of other medical issues. The Stl’atl’imx and the Coast Salish tribes told a story about the plant’s origins that might have something to do with the way the thorny vines seem to chase the plants’ flowers and fruit, or with the resemblance of the berries’ juice to fresh blood. The traditional myth holds that a woman with a cruel husband fled up a tree to escape him. Her blood fell upon the earth and the blackberry sprang up.
     Rubus discolor or Himalayan blackberry has no such myth about its origins; its introduction is a matter of historical record.  The huge, arching brambles that appear anywhere with the barest scratch of earth (from abandoned lots to cracks in sidewalks) were introduced to North America in 1885 by Luther Burbank—the botanical wizard who invented rainbow corn, elephant garlic, Russet Burbank potatoes, Shasta daisies, crimson California poppies, and a wide array of other plants that have become ubiquitous throughout America. The blackberries descended from Burbank’s seeds have gone feral in a big way. Every year in late summer, crowds of people swarm around bramble patches, gorging themselves on the huge, juicy berries and bringing home gallons more, yet there hardly ever seems to be a dent in the bounty. No matter how many humans and animals devour them, by early autumn the air turns heady with the wine-scent of thousands of remaining berries fermenting under their own thorns." --This Victorian Life,Skyhorse Publishing: 2015, p. 163.