Fancy that...

There are more blogger blokes on blogspot that I know than I knew. Sweet. If you should happen to stumble over here, I bid you all hail and welcome. This is just a little place to organize some thoughts and findings of mine pertaining to a project that has absorbed me for two years now, and for occasional interjections of things that evoke a "feel" I'm shooting for with some upcoming work as the story (or stories) emerge. Not exactly exciting for most, but it's part of what I'm working on. Hopefully end projects will prove more interesting. Be well.

Darke County Infirmary...

This is a picture of Darke County Infirmary as it looked when Annie stayed there, years before it burnt down and they replaced it with the one identified in a postcard in a previous posting.

The Coen Brothers' "True Grit"

An article on Annie's Dorchester Home.

Widely regarded as the only existing home Annie used as a primary residence, her home in Cambridge, Maryland was featured recently in a Washington Post article.

With luck...

...I'll be going back to Ohio soon.

...I'll be looking for assessed tax discrepancies in chattel holdings in Eaton for a family of interest.

...I'll be conducting at least 1-2 interviews in person.

...I'll be revisiting an interesting home... ...maybe.

...stopping by Blair County, PA, for research.

...I'll meet up with fellow researchers and telling them, perhaps, which of the things they've been seeking that I've since found.

...contemplating how to secure an historic home for preservation and restoration.

...scanning pictures, if they exist.

...and more. :)

So...

It's been altogether too long since I've updated this thing, but I've been insanely busy after my research vacation. So much to be thankful for on that trip -- meeting new contacts and such -- but here's a little tidbit I'll elaborate upon later:



^ That's my guy.

Pics.

The following are postcards from the area and near the era I'm studying. They prove invaluable points of reference for understanding what ones' characters might be seeing and hearing...





Above is the Darke County Infirmary in Greenville, OH. The original measured but 48' X 80', and was expanded, doubling its capacity. It burnt down and this was built in it's place, and a separate Children's Home was built to better serve the population.

The present structure occupying the site bears no resemblance to the original, nor to the one pictured here.





Greenville City Hall pictured above.





Broadway, looking north to City Hall off in the distance.






Arcanum is a small town in Twin Tmp. once fed commerce via the Dayton & Union Railroad. The D & U long since dissolved, Arcanum has fallen into disrepair. People still live there, but it's littered with abandoned buildings and an empty church not yet modified for residence. Elsewhere nearby, you can find at least two churches that have been converted to residences as the population base that once sustained them dissipated, likely following employment into larger urban centers. It is the primary cause of most modern "Ghost Towns".





An old Opera House from Arcanum in its heyday.




Here's how it appears today.


I plan to pick up more postcards, especially of the RPPC (Real Photo Post Card) from neighboring Lewisburg, and the surrounding area if I can find them. They're not only great pieces of Americana themselves, but great reference for the historical writer to get their head in the proper time/space.