Somehing NEW Be Coming.................

 Read clear to the end for my big announcement!


I knew that my maternal grandmother, Clara Ann Joseph, was born on 14 Nov 1894 in the Mississippi River town of Ivy Landing, Illinois. By 1900, the Joseph family was living several miles inland which gives a big clue as to way I could never find Ivy Landing on any map. It must have surely washed away! In those early days, men’s attempts to control the Mighty Mississippi were puny at best. It was well into the 1890s that the Corps of Engineers began building dams to (hopefully) better control the river.




In late October 2022,  I tool a cruise down the entire length of the Mississippi River. I was very surprised to see miles and miles and miles of empty sandy river bank looking much like the picture above. Was this where Ivy Landing was? I’ll never know for sure but I’ll bet it was a tiny town back in the trees along a stretch of river bank just like this.

 

Now for my big announcement:  On this recent cruise, I kept my eyes and ears open to learn everything I could about the Mississippi River and the history of states along the river, the Heartland of America. Polling several genealogy friends, and getting their thumbs up, for the foreseeable future I will be sharing much of what I learned about America’s history. One highlight was that I got to visit Graceland and see Elvis!! Future posts of mine will be sharing what I observed and learned on that trip. Enjoy!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tums For The Tummy & Mississippi River Rules

Image
  Who hasn't taken Tums for the tummy?  On our bus ride from the boat to the Gateway Arch in downtown St. Louis, and not in the best-looking part of town, we passed a 5-story red brick factory building....... the home to Tums for nearly 100 years.  Here's a bit from their website: Insomniac snacks, car crashes, tax audits, pink slips… Imagine all the gushes of gastric acid those Tums have neutralized. The brand leads the industry, selling more than 60 million bottles or rolls a year—almost double the total of its second-place rival, Rolaids. And 99.9 percent of those Tums, more than 6 billion tablets, are made right here. (The .1 percent? Wrafton Laboratories in England.) Now you're ready to be a Jeopardy champion! Here’s another bit of trivia for you:   When did hurricanes start getting named?  It was back in 1950 when the U.S. Weather Bureau began using the phonetic alphabet (Able-Baker-Charlie). In 1953, women’s names were substituted and in 1979 the World Me...
Read more

Bald Eagles On The Upper Mississippi River

Image
  According to Aaron, our education presenter on the cruise, the Mississippi River valley is a major fly path for many eagles (and other birds). While they can be seen in almost all states, they are predominately in Alaska, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Here is some Upper Mississippi River eagle trivia: An eagle's head stays dark until age 5. In the early 70s, DDT nearly decimated the eagle population.  When only one nest could be found (by boat/survey between St. Paul and St. Louis) a loud alarm was raised and finally in 1973 DDT was banned.    Unless you are Native American, it is illegal to own any part of an American Bald Eagle.  Eagles mate for life; they lay 1-3 eggs per year with only a 50% survival rate.  Eaglets fledge in 8-12 weeks.  Nests can be as big and heavy as a VW bug!  Eagles only weigh 7-8 pounds and have a 6-8 foot wingspan. They can turn their heads 180o.  Females are 1/3 larger than males. The name "bald" comes from an Old En...
Read more

Vicksburg Military Park, Part 3

  On this trip down the Mississippi, I carried a small notebook and scribbled notes furiously. Visiting this national park, I was especially overcome by the enormity of this battle. The notes are mine and the facts as I understood from our guide. After the battle, some 17,000 Union dead were buried in a cemetery near the battlefield, now part of the Vicksburg National Park. We were told that the upright stones were for the identified soldiers and the “stubby flat” stones were for the 13,000 unidentified. The Confederate dead were buried in trenches. The Vicksburg National Military Park was established on 21 February 1899 to preserve and protect the areas associated with the defense and siege of Vicksburg. The park covers over 1800 thousand acres. During the battle, the hills were stripped of trees. During the 1930s, the CCC men replanted many trees. In 1917, veterans were invited to return to the site and point out just where their units stood and fought and some 8800 showed up! Ma...
Read more