Sam Talley's Blog (74)

 For all of you who knew my husband, Sam Talley, he has passed away and has gone to Heaven to be with our Lord.  He sure liked being a member of this wonderful group of people and has had many pleasant moments writing history for this group.  Just wanted you to know the reason you have not heard from him lately.  Sincerely,  Kathleen Talley

                                                         The Night full of Stars

We’ve all laid out on a clear night and looked at the moon and stars. And I’m sure the pioneers did also. But what did their limited resource books allow them to know? Has anyone got access to school books of the mid-1800s…

Newspaper Insulation – I heard there was an old broken down log cabin out at an overgrown homestead. It was a clear winter day and the anticipation of excitement was in the air. We found the place and could tell it had been visited many times previously. Everything of collectible value had been carted off. I found big sections of insulation or wallpaper still covering some wall sections. Upon further inspection I learned the occupants, way back near the first of the century, had used the…

Last night I say a biographical TV show on Wyatt Earp and outlaws. There was a wealth of detailed info such as Wyatt using a 'dealers box' when card playing. My question is 'Does Dr. Hutton sticks to fact or is some of his stuff romanticized?' He holds me spellbound!!…

Recently, I wrote about a woman who was hung from a bridge in Downieville, Ca. About sixty years ago my family vacationed in this small village which was squeezed into a small canyon. I have always remembered a Chinese café there that bought us kids’ sucker fish, which we caught in the river, for 25 cents per fish. I always wondered “Why would they open a Chinese restaurant up in the mountains of California?”

Yesterday the California State Library sent me an article ANECDOTES OF THE…

When a member recently reminded us that gold today is presently going for $1,600 per ounce, I started wondering about some of the big gold nuggets found during the California gold rush og 1849. There were ones weighing 133 lbs, 98 troy ounces whatever that means, 100…

While reading about hunting the sea otter, buffalo, and other things the Sharp 50 caliber rifle is frequently mentioned. I'm not a gun type. Please tell me about this gun. Why was it so popular then, but I don't think now?

Since the 1800s our house had a hot water heating system in which the hot water tank situated behind the wood burning cook stove operated on a heat exchange principle. A water line with coils in the stove was fed water from the bottom of the hot water tank, heated in the stove firebox and returned to the top of the tank.…

I recently saw something I have not seen in a long time. An individual was sitting in the open door of an empty freight car as a train went by. When I was a kid in the early 1950’s in Suisun, Ca, I’d see them all the time; but not now. I started thinking about how people with no money or family would get out west in the 1800s. In the mid-century there were about 60,000 miles of train tracks in this country. These money strapped individuals…

In the days of the old west, was an 'outlaw' declared so by the court system? The possible outcome of being called an outlaw could result in person NOT yet found guilty by a court, killed. The more I mull this over, the more confused I get. Could someone explain how an individual got to be known as an "outlaw" and the ramlifications of being labeled such. Is anyone out there an 'armchair judge' or a student of the 1800s law?

In Downieville, Ca the gold rush was on. In 1851 the mining town built in a gulch grew to 5,000  gold crazed seekers of the yellow. A pregnant 20 yr. old Mexican girl named Josefa Lopiza, known as Juanita, got into an argument with a drunken man who broke into her home resulting in her…

The Chehalis River which drains into Grays Harbor in Washington and the mighty Columbia River are the two best sturgeon fishing places on the west coast. The best place on the Chehalis was and still is at my home town of Cosmopolis. One day when I was a kid my grandfather told me that in the early 1900s…

                                      Grandfather’s Coin Purse

My wife mentioned an article in the magazine Good Old Days about men’s leather money pouches. She said her grandfather had one and I told her mine did also. Coins were kept in one side pouch and folding paper money on the…

This photo is of the officers at Fort Laramie in 1860. It was on the front page of a monthly newsletter  from my old time radio club “Radio Enthusiasts of Puget Sound". The article is about an old radio program “Laramie”. In each show the creator insisted upon historical accuracy, correct geographic names, authentic Indian practices, military terminology, and correct terminology for places(the trading post was the sutler’s store).

I was thinking that…

I want to buy books, occasionally, that date back as for as the late 1800s, but I don't know how to locate and buy them. I'm not good at using the internet. One book is 'Anecdotes of the Mines' by Hubert Burgess from the late 1800s. Can someone point me in the right direction?

Sixty years ago our family spent a week during the summer on the Yuba River in the Sierra Mts., California. This was less than 100 yrs…

 Like everyone who has ever slept out under the stars, I wondered about whom else, far away, could also see those same stars. Did the west bound settlers make any notations of following them to help keep their directions…

                                                      YODELING

Yesterday I watched a good old black and white Gene Autry movie in which he was yodeling in a song. By the way, it was very rudimentary and poorly done. I’ve heard it may have started by people hollering or yodeling as a way of communicating across the hollers in the south. Many years ago I wanted to teach myself how to do it. A guy told me to sing “go old lady, go old lady, go old lady….” to learn the rhythm. After a…

I was going to look at some parts for an old military jeep I’m trying to restore. We came upon a beautiful old restored covered bridge built in 1905. It was initially constructed by farmers to get their goods to market. The covering was designed to protect timbers. It is now in the Natl. Register of Historic Places. There are about thirty others in the State, most built after 1950. But this bridge crossing the Grays River is the oldest one in the State of Washington.

There is…