BLAST FROM THE PAST: Ads from Bygone Years

By Andrea Downing (with apologies for the quality of the photos)

Some time ago, while renovating a Victorian house in the UK, I came upon a bunch of old magazines…very old magazines.  Since then, I’ve encountered and kept a few more because I’m fascinated by the ads and advice and stories in them.  I thought some of you might also enjoy seeing a few of the ads, or even find use for them in an HWR you’re writing—though heaven knows not all of these are appealing. What gets me more than anything is some of the claims, but I also enjoy thinking about how times have changed.

From Petersen’s Magazine of August, 1873, we have the first of a couple of corsets.  Madame Foy claims this one to be a ‘skirt supporter’—I’m not sure how that works.  We also have an ad for the Great Western Gun Works, which will give you an idea of the price of guns during this period. But what amazes me is that Petersen’s was specifically a woman’s magazine—it had patterns to sew the latest fashions and other features directed at women.  Maybe they were thinking of ranching women?

Next is Scribner’s of March, 1878.  There’s this ad directed at the upper crust of society; who else could afford a five-glass landau? At the other end of modes of transport, we have the supposed “World’s ONLY Manufacturer of Wheel Chairs.” In a pre-PC world, there was no hold on how one described disabled people, I note.

Another issue of Petersen’s, this one from August, 1878, has this ad for a truss, looking like something of a cross between the Inquisition tortures and a chastity belt. I guess hernia surgery was not yet developed.

A second issue of Scribner’s, from October 1880, has this delightful ad for a bicycle. Imagine! Riding 1404 miles in 6 days—standing up! My legs ache just thinking of it. And there’s an ad for Vaseline, still with us today, but, look, in those days it made hair grow when nothing else would and was good for pimples, too! But even better is Cocoaine (sic) that prevents hair from falling, softens the hair, soothes irritated scalps and cures dandruff.  Wow. There must’ve been an awful lot of addicts going around with terrific hair.

Over in the UK in April, 1909, in a magazine called Our Home, we see our second corset, the Kosybak.  It had no back lacing or back opening, nor hard, unyielding dangerous busks-it had come to "stay"!  Get it? They don’t tell you how a woman would get into it, but there was a free book which I guess explained everything. Also in this issue was an ad for Valentine’s Extract, which seems to be some extract of walnut for dying hair. And you could get a free bottle to try…

Finally, from Sept. 22, 1917, (during WWI) the Literary Digest shows us that a few products still available today were around then. Although Campbells bought Franco-American in 1915, the logo is still around, though maybe not with a label claiming beef broth is for children and invalids.

Scott tissue is still around (although difficult to find in pandemic times) & hopefully has still ‘never been used before.’

Have a look at The Comptometer, an adding machine they claim is easy enough for a woman to use, thereby saving companies tons of money in paying men! If the men would have been paid $75 a week, one can only imagine what the women were paid.

Genco, a cutlery company, was making razors for the troops, the only ad I spotted  to mention the war.

Did you know there were dishwashers in 1917? No, not the husband of the house; I’m talkin’ electric dishwashers which washed your dishes in five minutes!  My own takes over two hours so maybe they were better then.

And last but certainly not least, we have Lastbestos Roof Tile—fireproof! And as we were later to discover, a whole lot more…

I wonder if in years to come people will think of our current advertisements with the same amazement?

My own HWR does not contain any of these fabulous items, but hopefully you’ll enjoy it just as much! It’s getting some great reviews so why not mosey on over to your favorite site:

  Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Shot-Through-Heart-Andrea-Downing-ebook/dp/B08DHV8VQ5/

Barnes and Noble https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/shot-through-the-heart-andrea-downing/1137387142?ean=9781509232345

iBooks on app

Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54751926-shot-through-the-heart

BookBub https://www.bookbub.com/books/shot-through-the-heart-by-andrea-downing

Kobo https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/shot-through-the-heart-18

Gunslinger Shiloh Coltrane has returned home to work the family's Wyoming ranch, only to find there's still violence ahead. His sister and nephew have been murdered, and the killers are at large.
Dr. Sydney Cantrell has come west to start her medical practice, aiming to treat the people of a small town. As she tries to help and heal, she finds disapproval and cruelty the payment in kind.
When the two meet, it's an attraction of opposites. As Shiloh seeks revenge, Sydney seeks to do what's right. Each wants a new life, but will trouble or love find them first?

BEAUTIFUL DREAMER -TWO 19th CENTURY SONGWRITERS

 Post by Doris McCraw, writing as Angela Raines

Photo property of the author

In 1864 the song 'Beautiful Dreamer' by Stephen Foster, was published. That same year "De Deitcher's Dog" (Where oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone) by Septimus Winner, was also published Both men were American born songwriters whose songs were a part of the public consciousness and are still remembered today. 

Stephen Collins Foster was born on July 4, 1826, in Lawrenceville Pennsylvania. Even at a young age, Foster showed an interest in music but any training he had was primarily self-taught. His love of music saw him performing in minstrel shows while still a young boy. He had his first song published at the age of eighteen. Although the first song was music set to a poem by George P Morris, almost all of the remainder of Foster's works had both the lyrics and compositions done by Foster himself.

Stephen Foster - from Wikipedia

His first big hit published in 1847 was "Oh Susanna". According to the Library of Congress, this song became associated with the California Gold Rush of 1849 when the "49ers" used a parodied version of this song as their unofficial anthem.

In 1850, Foster married Jane Denny McDowell. Perhaps you remember the romantic ballad "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair"? This song was written for his wife.

By 1854 Foster and his wife separated. Due to a lack of copyright protection for his works, Foster dealt with financial problems, and in the 1860s with his health declining and alcoholism the output of music suffered. He had moved from the minstrel music genre to sentimental ballads. Of all the ballads written during this time, "Beautiful Dreamer" was the only one to match the popularity of his early minstrel work. On January 10, 1864, Stephen Foster died in a New York hospital of the "fever". He was penniless at the time of his death.

Septimus Winner was born in Philadelphia Pennsylvania in 1827. His name Septimus came about because he was the seventh child of Eastburn Winner, a violin maker, and Marianne Hawthorne. Although Winner had studied music as a youth he was primarily self-taught.

Winner opened a music store at age twenty and shortly thereafter began writing music and lyrics. During his lifetime he composed some fifteen hundred works for chorus and instrument ensembles but his first success was in 1854 with the popular song "What Is Home Without a Mother". Perhaps the one most popular and the one people know is, "Listen to the Mockingbird".

Septimus Winner - from Wikitree.com

An interesting fact about Winner is during the Civil War he composed a song "Give us Back Our Old Commander: Little Mac, the People's Pride". Although Winner was said to have written the song as an appeal to President. Lincoln to return with McClellan to service it was branded and anti-union song. In 1862 as a result of this song Winner was court-martialed and jailed on a charge of treason. The charge was dropped after Winner agreed to destroy all the remaining copies of the song which had sold some 80,000 copies within a few days of its release.

One of the big differences between Foster and Winner is Winner created his own publishing company, Winner & Schuster. This allowed Winner to control his works which included music instruction books that were published under the title "Septimus Winner's Methods".

Winner also wrote poetry and other written works. He was a frequent contributor to 'Graham's Magazine' which is at the time was edited by Edgar Allen Poe. Winner died in Philadelphia of a heart attack on November 22, 1902. 

Music was and still remains an important part of our consciousness. Many were the songs the miners, cowboys, teachers, women, and men used to get them through life. Below are links to two of those popular songs.

Listen to the Mockingbird   

Beautiful Dreamer

Doris Gardner-McCraw -

Author, Speaker, Historian-specializing in
Colorado and Women's History

Angela Raines - author: Telling Stories Where Love & History Meet

Books: Angela Raines Books

Website: Angela Raines - author

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The Dalles Military Road

by Shanna Hatfield

I've been doing a lot of research for my current work in progress, set in northern central Oregon. 

Grass Valley is the specific town I've been researching, although the history of the region has become an fascinating side study. The town was located on both the Barlow Road and The Dalles Military Road.

The Dalles Military Road has an interesting history.

Around the time prospectors struck gold in Canyon Creek in Oregon, the U.S. Congress toyed with the idea of stimulating private enterprise in the American West. They granted millions of acres of public domain to private companies as an incentive for them to borrow money, hire surveyors, and construct / operate railroads and wagon roads across the West. Through this "give away" of public lands, they hoped to encourage the private sector to create a transportation infrastructure to meet the needs of miners, settlers, and developers of town sites. 

Oregon was the target of a series of land grant wagon roads. These were supposed to get individuals to build roads that could be used for military purposes and were designated as "military wagon roads." 

One such road was The Dalles Military Road. It qualified for a government land grant and was supposed to create a wagon road from The Dalles, Oregon, to Fort Boise, Idaho. 

Investors in The Dalles-Fort Boise Military Road studied a route into the John Day region that followed the stream east to the Blue Mountains. A trace, established by mule teams and wagons, the existing Dalles to Canyon City Road would become part of the military road.

In October, 1868, legislature approved the franchise of The Dalles Military Wagon Road Company to construct the route. The terms of the grant provided that as soon as the company had constructed ten contiguous miles, it could seek up to thirty sections of land (more than 19,000 acres). In June 1869, Governor George L. Woods claimed he made a "careful examination" of the road and the certification process began. 

The road the company supposedly built (and spent about $6,000 on construction) consisted largely of existing trails and roads (some Indian trails). They took credit for building the well-traveled, pre-existing road between The Dalles and Canyon City.

The company also took credit for building a road from Canyon City to the Oregon-Idaho border near Vale, Oregon. The claims of a good wagon road were reportedly exaggerated.

The road was used to haul food and other supplies in wagons pulled by oxen and mules with forts and stations spaced every thirty miles or so along the route. 

In June 1874, Congress authorized the transfer of lands to the State of Oregon, and in December, the Commission of the General Land Office withdrew from public entry all odd-numbered sections within three miles of either side of The Dalles Military Road.  The road company selected its grant, then sold it for $125,000 to Edward Martin of San Francisco, California.

That single transaction made Edward Martin one of the largest landowners in the Pacific Northwest. At his death, Martin's Eastern Oregon and Company held a reported 450,000 acres of land in Oregon. 

Public outcry over the wagon roads grew. At best, they road companies had built rudimentary traces through rugged terrain, leaving travelers to deal with mud holes, washouts, fords rather than bridges, landslides, and multiple delays. 

The Grant County Express in March, 1876, printed a view of the road:

There are places on the Dalles Military Road where the bottom has dropped out. If the Road Company should follow their road to where it ought to go they would find a warmer climate than Grant County. Like a great serpent it has dragged itself through the John Day valley, poisoning the whole country. The road is an illegitimate child of one ex-Governor Woods — after a carpetbagger in Utah. It was and is a great swindle.

Public discontent eventually led to a lawsuit. The U.S. Attorney General argued the land had been privatized through fraud and should become public domain. The suit was dismissed in 1893 under the argument that the governor at the time had certified the road as complete and therefore the grants were valid and would not be reversed. 

Today, parts of the original road have merged with Highway 97 and Highway 26. There are still areas, though, where there are visible traces of the original road. Much of the road is used by ranchers, fishermen, and hunters.  

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Find out more about Grass Valley and the fictional residents that live there in my September release Grass Valley Brides.

USA Today bestselling author Shanna Hatfield is a farm girl who loves to write. Her sweet historical and contemporary romances are filled with sarcasm, humor, hope, and hunky heroes. When Shanna isn’t dreaming up unforgettable characters, twisting plots, or covertly seeking dark, decadent chocolate, she hangs out with her beloved husband, Captain Cavedweller.

Shanna loves to hear from readers. Follow her online at:

ShannaHatfield | Facebook | Newsletter | BookBub | Pinterest | Goodreads | You Tube | Twitter

Thanksgiving with the Cowboy President

It’s true!  Theodore Roosevelt, our 26^th President, was known as the Cowboy President. 

Always an outdoorsman, TR first journeyed to the Dakota Badlands in 1883 to hunt buffalo. By the end of that trip, he had purchased the Maltese Cross ranch and entered the cattle business.  Although Teddy didn’t stay out west, it was the place closest to his heart and which inspired his future conservation and environmental efforts.

      Sadly, five months after his return, both his wife and his mother passed away on the same day. Aged only twenty-five, Roosevelt was already involved in politics, and after the Republican Convention in June, 1884, he headed west to seek solace from his overbearing grief.  His herd at the Maltese had wintered well that year, and he decided to increase his stock and bring out two men from Maine, who had served as hunting guides, to manage it. Roosevelt then selected a site for a second ranch, thirty-five miles from Medora, ND, and named it the Elkhorn. The remains of that ranch are today part of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, which covers 3 separate sites.

     The Elkhorn eventually had an eight-room house and various outbuildings, and continued as a ranch until the horrendous winter of 1886/87 decimated the herd by 60%. Now living in New York and pursuing his political career, Roosevelt eventually sold the Elkhorn in 1890.  And maybe that was lucky for us because, aside from leading the Rough Riders up San Juan Hill in the Spanish-American War, becoming NY State Governor, and eventually winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his work ending the Russo-Japanese War in 1906, TR as President created no less than five national parks, added land to Yosemite NP, and designated eighteen sites as national monuments.  I know someone who might learn something from this….

But I digress….

Back in New York, the Roosevelt home was located in Oyster Bay, Long Island. Sagamore Hill is now, itself, a National Monument, and as you can see from its furnishings in these photos, it gives a pretty good nod to TR’s cowboy life.  And like any red-blooded hunting man, TR’s appetite was prodigious, if fairly plain. He could eat an entire chicken at one sitting, or half a roast suckling pig; his son claimed that TR’s coffee cup was the size of a bathtub (a remark often made about my own mug, I must admit) and he would have seven cubes of sugar per cup. The Roosevelt dinner table was not elaborate, and was generally garnered from the estate itself:  dairy from its own herd; home-baked breads; preserves and vegetables harvested from the kitchen garden and orchards; fish from the bay.

It might be no surprise, then, that the Roosevelt Thanksgiving dinner menu was pretty close to that of most Americans, with the possible addition of the roast suckling pig. It started with oysters on the half shell, and garnishes of celery, radishes and olives, followed by a consommé. The main course was the traditional roast turkey, chestnut stuffing, and a giblet gravy, plus that roast suckling pig.  The sides included cranberry sauce (of course!), spiced crab apples, spinach, mashed potatoes, onions in cream, and Brussels sprouts. The Roosevelts had their salad after this, and desserts of mince pies, pumpkin pie, vanilla ice cream, nuts, fruits, chocolates, and ended with coffee. I’m sorry to note that sweet potatoes do not play a role.

It’s very unlikely that the Roosevelt’s cook would have used frozen cranberries, if such an item was available, but I’m going to end this post with my recipe for the only cranberry sauce—more a relish—that I’ll eat:  Take one large juicy orange and quarter it; do not peel but remove the pips.  Put in a blender and chop roughly. Add one 12oz bag of frozen cranberries (if you use fresh, you’ll have to cook ‘til they pop, about 10 mins., and drain thoroughly) and 2oz. of shelled walnuts. Process to rough chop, not puree. Add 2oz. superfine sugar and leave for at least 2 hours before serving. A treat!

And I’ll tell you what else is a treat:  to curl up after Thanksgiving with a lovely Christmas western romance.  The weather is cold, the atmosphere is festive, and the cowboys are hot. How do you keep a cowboy at Christmas?

Don’t miss this holiday collection of modern-day cowboys and the women they love, featuring USA Today, Amazon Bestselling, and Award-Winning authors.

CHRISTMAS, LIBERTY, AND THE THREE MINUTE MAN by Carra Copelin

Daniel Dylan Layman is determined to show headstrong city girl Liberty Ann Hart that a country life in Mistletoe, Texas, is the perfect Christmas gift.

A CHRISTMAS CAROLE by Andrea Downing

Carrie Matheson and her son are trying to settle into a new life in Wyoming. Tate Schrugge is trying to ditch his Scrooge and play Santa to the young boy. But will there be a Dickens of a romance by Christmas?

THE PEPPERMINT TREE by Kristy McCaffrey

Lawyer Skye Mallory returns home for the holidays due to an unexpected inheritance and cowboy Joe Carrigan stands in her way.

THE DEVIL’S CHRISTMAS KISS by Devon McKay

When Kristen Kelly receives a Christmas kiss from Cole Lawson, she doesn’t believe it means anything. But Cole sets out to make things right with the woman of his heart.

SLAY BELLS by Hildie McQueen

At a small-town Christmas festival sparks fly between Carmen Dias and Detective Jared Bowden, but a dead body and a pesky ex-girlfriend don’t exactly spell romance.

THE BEST CHRISTMAS by Hebby Roman

All Sofia Rossi wants is to re-connect with her estranged son. But can Gar McCulloch, a handsome cowboy who runs a juvenile rehab ranch, be the answer to all her problems?

COUNTING DOWN TO CHRISTMAS by Patti Sherry-Crews

Wedding planner Melody Evans views happily-ever-after endings with a skeptical eye. Veterinarian Leland Jennings IV thinks Christmas is for kids. Can the holiday spirit bring them together?

Available at https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Cowboy-Keep-Contemporary-Collection-ebook/dp/B07JF6LYWD/

                                                      HAPPY THANKSGIVING

With thanks to The American Heritage Cookbook, Penguin, 1964

Photos public domain, thanks to the National Park Service via Wikimedia Commons. 

Don't Call Me A "Sidewinder"

Rattlesnakes. Just the very word makes a lot of people uneasy and anxious. As a western historical writer, nature lover, and all around information geek, I’m fascinated with the critters, so when Dearest Husband attended a Continuing Education meeting (required to maintain his veterinary license) that had a lecture on rattlesnakes living in Wyoming, the Dakotas, and Colorado (same general area I wish I lived), I grabbed his lecture notes as soon as the meeting was over.

There are more than 24 known species of rattlesnakes in the US of which the Mojave Rattlesnake is the most venomous. It has venom which can kill a person if antivenin is not administered. These rattlesnakes are aggressive toward humans and will bite without provocation. Although rattlesnake venom isn't as deadly as some other snakes, the volume of the injected venom makes rattlesnakes particularly dangerous. The venom is haemotoxic, meaning that it prevents blood from clotting and destroys tissue.

Most of what I write is set in what was the Wyoming Territory—now the great state of Wyoming. Only two rattlers live in Wyoming, according to the Wyoming Department of Fish and Wildlife: the prairie rattler and the midget faded rattler. The prairie rattler can be found just about everywhere in the state below 8000 feet. The midget is found only in the Flaming Gorge area and is endangered.

Of the two, the midget (what’s midget about a venomous snake that can be as long as 20 inches fully mature?) is much more venomous, more prone to bite, and definitely aggressive. It is an absolutely gorgeous snake—liver and orange colored.

The prairie rattler, on the other hand, has a huge distribution area. These snakes are robust, less aggressive than their midget or Mojave cousins, and aren’t as venomous. Unless cornered or actually threatened, they’ll just slither away through the sage brush and grasses. Most mature prairie rattlers will also prefer, if forced to strike, to deliver a warning, dry bite. (And if I’m ever in a situation where I’ve accidently cornered a prairie rattler and receive a dry bite, I’m still dead because the heart attack will kill me.)

Now, I’m off to go research rattlesnakes in the Big Piney area of Texas for my next romance novel.