(Alexander Hamilton was born on January 11, 260-or so years ago. He was the first Secretary of the Treasury and created the National Bank of the US, the precursor of the Federal Reserve System. His life is the subject of the hottest play on Broadway today. His likeness is on the $10 bill and…

Forty years ago, the last United States’ troops left South Vietnam and the country was united with the North as a single, communist State. Was Vietnam ‘lost’ then? Today, American veterans are welcomed back as tourists, American businessmen are making deals and signing contracts with Vietnamese entrepreneurs, the country has social media, KFC has…

Given the present interest in oil prices, I thought this might be timely background. George Bissell was a New Hampshire native who was born in 1821 and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1845. He had helped finance his education by writing for newspapers and, after graduation, he went travelling, first to Richmond VA,…

The story of the New York and Erie Railroad begins like this, so we are told. In January 1831, Henry L. Pierson and his bride, Helen, were on their honeymoon in Charleston, South Carolina. Helen learned that a steam engine, the “Best Friend of Charleston,” was going to make its first commercial run pulling…

Up to the end of the Civil War, settlers who lived away from the coast had to depend on complicated and slow means to access the goods and services they needed or desired. From the first, a successful farm had to get some or all of its produce to market in order to have…

In March 1911, Frances Perkins, the executive secretary of the Consumers’ League in New York, was attending an afternoon tea in a Washington Square home along with some of the city’s prominent society women. They became aware of a nearby commotion, and Frances went out to see what was happening. It proved to be…

151 years ago, in the evening of April 15, 1865, President Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, as he watched a play. It could have been different…… In March of 1858, the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company was reorganized as the Seneca Oil Company, with New Haven CT banker James Townsend becoming President…

George Washington’s experiences in the wars against the French taught him the value of irregular tactics in wilderness areas, but his relationships with British officers also taught him that a regular army organization was superior in settled areas. In the aftermath of Bunker Hill in 1775, when American optimism was at its peak, he…

This is part 1 of a two-part piece on the early 19th Century Yankee contribution to healthy lifestyles. The parallels with today are most interesting. The material comes from a chapter draft for a projected volume 2 of The Yankee Road.   In 1832, the Great Cholera Epidemic hit the United States.…

This is the second of a two-part piece on the early 19th Century Yankee contribution to healthy lifestyles. The parallels with today are most interesting. The material comes from a chapter draft for a projected volume 2 of The Yankee Road. The early 1840s marked the high point in public interest in diet…