President William Howard Taft visits the Thousand Islands

By Susan G Mathis

Lots of famous people from all over came to the New Frontenac Hotel during their summers. In 1904, William Howard Taft sought respite in the tranquil beauty of the Thousand Islands on Round Island. The scenic archipelago, nestled along the Saint Lawrence River on the border of the United States and Canada, provided the perfect backdrop for the president to unwind and rejuvenate. President Taft, known for his larger-than-life personality and robust stature, had a keen appreciation for leisure and relaxation. The Thousand Islands, with its lush greenery, crystal-clear waters, and countless islets, promised a peaceful escape from the pressures of the Oval Office.

Taft and his family embarked on a voyage to the Thousand Islands, taking advantage of the region's reputation as a premier vacation destination. The president's decision to visit the islands not only highlighted the area's natural beauty but also brought attention to the growing popularity of the Thousand Islands as a haven for the well-to-do seeking solace. The president and his family enjoyed boat rides along the winding channels, exploring the myriad of islands that make up the region.

Fishing excursions were a favorite pastime, with the president's robust enthusiasm for the sport. The abundance of fish in the Saint Lawrence River provided ample opportunities for Taft to indulge in his love for angling while taking in the picturesque surroundings.

In Rachel’s Reunion, Rachel meets William Howard Taft, Secretary of War in Teddy Roosevelt’s Administration at the time, the Maharaja and Maharani of Baroda, Mr. and Mrs. Oliver and Alva Belmont, the Russian Prince and Princess Engalitcheff, and a famous photographer, Chester Armstrong. These people, and others, really did come and stay at the resort.

What makes a great president? Leave your answer or comments on the post below and join me on February 19th for my next post.

ABOUT RACHEL’S REUNION

It’s 1904, and Rachel Kelly serves the most elite patrons at the famed New Frontenac Hotel on Round Island. She has wondered about her old beau, Mitch, for nearly two years, ever since he toyed with her affections while on Calumet Island, then left for the high seas and taken her heart with him. Now he’s back, opening the wound she thought was healed. Mitch O’Keefe returns to claim his bride but finds it more difficult than he thought. Returning to work at the very place he hated, he becomes captain of a New Frontenac Hotel touring yacht, just to be near Rachel. But his attempts to win her back are thwarted, especially when a wealthy patron seeks her attention. Who will Rachel choose?

ABOUT SUSAN:

Susan G Mathis is an international award-winning, multi-published author of stories set in the beautiful Thousand Islands in upstate NY. Susan has been published more than thirty times in full-length novels, novellas, and non-fiction books. She has eleven in her fiction line. Susan is also a published author of two premarital books, stories in a dozen compilations, and hundreds of published articles. Susan lives in Colorado Springs and enjoys traveling the world. Visit www.SusanGMathis.com/fiction for more.

 

Katsushika Hokusai's Art

Great Wave off Kanagawa - Public Domain

In November 2023, I was visiting my daughter in Washington near Seattle. We found out about an art exhibit for Katsushika Hokusai’s art and visited one afternoon. The exhibit was one of the most amazing to me. Hokusai’s art is just incredible and his contribution to the art world is still impactful. 

For pronunciation: Consonants are like English, vowels like Spanish. So Hokusai is Ho - Coo - Sigh. Also, in Japanese, traditionally the surname comes first and the personal name second. Thus, Hokusai is his familiar or personal name while Katsushika is his family or surname. 

 

Self-portrait
Age 83
Wikimedia 
Commons

Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) was one of Japan’s great artists. He lived almost 90 years and changed his name 30 times. Most of his name changes reflected where he was at in his art production. We’ll look at a few of those.

 

Hokusai began drawing when he was only six years old. Some believe he got his start by helping his father, who polished metal mirrors for the shōgun. The mirrors included art work around the edges, usually flowers and vines.

 

When he was 18, Hokusai became an apprentice to artist, Shunshō, working at his school. His master called Hokusai, Shunrō, and this is the name Hokusai used when he published his first book of prints. After the master’s death, Hokusai had to leave the school when his thirst for knowledge of art led him to learn from a rival school.

 

Courtesan Sleeping
Public Domain
(Try enlarging the picture 
to see the incredible detail.)

Under Shunshō, Hokusai did mostly prints of courtesans and people of the court. When he left the school, his art focused more on landscapes and daily life. His depictions of the daily life of Japanese people were vivid and detailed. 

 

At 51, Hokusai became known as Taito and began a new type of art to him. He did more simplified drawings, creating Hokusai Manga. The art he produced at this time influences the manga of today. The style of artwork is very similar. He published 12 volumes of his manga during his life and three were published posthumously.

 

Red Fuji - Public Domain

The 1820’s to mid-1830’s were a time of renown for Hokusai’s art. His name during this period was Litsu and his fame in Japan grew. He created his most famous work, 36 Views of Mount Fuji. This collection contained “Great Wave off Kanagawa”, Hokusai’s most famous painting. The wave painting (pictured above) is reproduced often today in a variety of ways, including on the shower curtain in my guest bathroom. If you watch for that wave picture, you’ll start to notice where it’s used.

 

Hawfinch and Marvel-of-Peru 
Small Flowers Series 1834

Hokusai never stopped learning or growing as an artist. He believed he would not truly understand art until he reached 90, and it would be better if he could live until 130, when he would have divine understanding of art and would have “reached the stage where every dot and every stroke I paint will be alive.” 

 

From 36 View of Mount Fuji

During his 80s, Hokusai continued his art, mostly painting in his latter years. He had a table set up for him to produce art any time he wanted. His daughter lived with him and cared for him. She was also an artist. 

 

Wisteria and Wagtail
Small Flowers Series

On his deathbed, Hokusai reportedly said, “If only Heaven will give me just another ten years…five years, then I could become a real painter.”

 

I hope someday you have the chance to visit an exhibit of Hokusai’s art. The detail is exquisite. His pen and ink sketches have such a graceful style and his drawings of every day life are very detailed and lifelike. 

 

Have you ever heard of Hokusai? Have you seen some of his artwork? I’d love to hear from you. Be sure to enlarge the pictures in this post so you can see the detail he adds to his artwork.

The Night Attack - 1780s
From the real life story of the 47 Ronin.

Nancy J Farrier is an award-winning, best-selling author who lives in Southern Arizona in the Sonoran Desert. She loves the Southwest with its interesting historical past. When Nancy isn’t writing, she loves to read, do needlecraft, play with her cats and dog, and spend time with her family. You can read more about Nancy and her books on her website: nancyjfarrier.com.

Twenty Fascinating facts about Paul Revere beyond his "Midnight Ride"

 

Paul Revere by John Singleton Copley

 

Many of us had to memorize parts of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere in grade school. It immortalized the Boston Silversmith, but there was so much more to him. I was looking through my copy of The Book of This Day in History by Jim Dailey. When I came across the entry for April 18, 1775, marking the Paul Revere’s ride to alert those in Concord, Massachusetts that the British were coming, I got curious about the man. The things I knew about him: he was a successful silversmith, had been married twice and had 16 children and he was a patriot. 

Here is my list of fascinating facts after a little research on Paul Revere

1.   He helped organize an intelligence and alarm system to keep watch over the British troop movements before and during the Revolutionary War. This system consisted of men who would observe and report. He was such a well-known courier that The London Times listed his name as being wanted for spying. I’m impressed he avoided being arrested. However, during his “Midnight Ride” through a British Checkpoint his horse was confiscated.

2.   In 1748 at 13, he began his apprenticeship with his father to be a silversmith. Paul never attended college but had a brilliant mind.  

3.   In 1756, he briefly served in the army during the French and Indian War. He wasn’t old enough to take over his father’s silversmith shop after his death in 1754, so this was a way for him to earn a consistent wage.

4.   1758 at 21 he opened his own silversmith shop. He’d already married Sarah Orr in 1757. 

creamer  created by Paul Revere

 

5.   Business was poor due to the economic stresses like the Stamp Act on the economy. So, he learned dentistry to add to his income.

6.   In 1765, he joined the Sons of Liberty and was an active participant in the Boston Tea Party. Three shiploads of tea were dumped in the harbor after the patriots had blocked the harbor for several days, not allowing the ships to unload their cargo.

7.   He served as a courier for the Boston Public Safety, traveling 18 times to New York and Philadelphia to report on the political unrest in Boston. The colonists were monitoring the movement of the British.

8.   In 1775, at the beginning of the Revolutionary War he continued as a courier and printed currency Congress used to pay the Colonial Army. He also created silver engravings of the Boston Massacre and the British entering Boston, which he titled “the insolent parade.” He made many other politically themed engravings.

Bloody Massacre Engraving

 

9.   He served as an officer in the Revolutionary War after the British overtook Boston and he had to flee with his family.

10.       If there was a need, Revere stepped up to meet it. He designed and built a gunpowder factory for the Colonial Army.

11.       John Warren, a close friend, had died at the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775. Paul went with Warren’s brother to find his body amongst mass graves on March 21,1776. Although his body was badly decomposed, Paul was able to identify him by dental work he’d preformed on John. Was this the first use of dental work to identify a body?

12.       Seeing the need to expand his business after the war, with a slow economy, he began producing things for the masses rather than the wealthy class. Among those items were silver teaspoons and belt buckles.

13.       After the war, the economy was depressed. Revere saw the need to learn more technology and expanded beyond silver and gold to other metals. By 1788 he bought a furnace and began to produce cast iron items like sash-window weights, stove backs, fireplace tools sold to the masses in Boston.

14.       Revere used artisans to create various items in his factories and, rather than treat them as common laborers, he gave them benefits that were not available in other factories. He offered higher wages to match their skills, flexible working hours and liquor on site.

15.       Revere was always looking for ways to expand his business. He was constantly learning from other manufacturers ways to make his factory better. Always looking for consumer needs, he expanded to cooper and created the first sheet cooper machine. The sheet cooper was sold to the Navy to coat their ships and was used to cover the original wood dome at the Massachusetts State House. He also developed cooper hinges, spikes and other items that he also sold to the Navy and manufacturers.

16.       He learned to cast bronze cannons, which he sold to the federal and state government and some private clients.

17.       And his most noteworthy creation was casting bells. During the Second Great Awakening, a revival that brought many to The Lord, new churches needed bells. In 1792, he became known as one of the world’s best bell casters. He produced over a hundred bells. Some are still in operation. One is even at the National Museum of Singapore.

18.       Paul saw the need to standardize production and worked toward creating standardized instructions for creating items so they could be produced faster and cheaper.

Portrait done in 1810

19.       He also supported Alexander Hamilton’s campaign for standardized currency for the nation. At this time, each state had its own currency and often Revere found himself unable to get raw materials for his factories because of insufficient funds in circulation.

20.       He was 83 when he died on May 10, 1818. Only his daughter Maria Revere Balestier outlived him. Can you imagine outliving 15 of your 16 children.

I was very impressed with all that he accomplished as a patriot, an entrepreneur, and a businessman. 

Anyone have Revere Ware?

 He passed on a legacy of good business practices that continues today. Paul Revere was more than one of several guys who warned his fellow-patriots that the British were on the way. If you haven’t read the poem The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, click here.

Did you know about the Revere Legacy?

Cindy Ervin Huff is an Award-winning author of Historical and Contemporary Romance. She loves infusing hope into her stories of broken people. She addicted to reading and chocolate. Her idea of a vacation is visiting historical sites and an ideal date with her hubby of almost fifty years would be live theater.Visit her  website www.cindyervinhuff.com Or on Social media:

https://www.facebook.com/author.huff11

https://www.instagram.com/cindyervinhuff/

https://twitter.com/Cindyhuff11Huff

https://www.tiktok.com/@cindyehuff?lang=en

 

Rescuing Her Heart

As her husband's evil deeds haunt a mail-order bride from the grave, can she learn to trust again and open her heart to true love? Jed has his own nightmares from a POW camp and understands Delilah better than she knows herself. Can two broken people form a forever bond?

 Click to learn more.

 

Your Freedom in Jeopardy

 By Catherine Ulrich Brakefield

         Winston Churchill was seventy-four when he addressed the House of Commons with this line, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” He’d gone against the current of popularity again facing the same brick wall as he had with the impending doom of Nazism, now, with the threat of Communism.

He summed his life up thusly: “All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.” The Brit’s British Bulldog was still on his feet, growling his warnings.

In my February blog, we traveled through the hallways of Churchill’s early days, his accomplishments, and his defeats. In March we learned about the obstacles he faced in World War I and World War II and the trials he overcame.

He was often lonely, misunderstood, and yes, made a couple of wrong turns. He fought heroically in the trenches of World War I and battled the Blitz of World War II. But this latest threat looming upon Britain’s borders worried him even more. When in 1949, George Orwell’s (the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair) science fiction book Nineteen-Eighty-four was published, more discord followed. Most know Blair as George Orwell, so I shall refer to Blair as Orwell henceforth.

         It is amazing how much Orwell and Churchill had in common—and how many differences. Both ended up with the same ideals—but with very, very different outcomes.

        

Both had experienced severe loneliness in their lifetime. Both were well-known authors. Both were British subjects. Both had a heart for the poor and downtrodden, and both had experienced the snobbery of their constituents during their young school years and adult years.  Perhaps there was even a little awe in Orwell’s temperament toward Brit’s Bull Dog because he named his protagonist Winston in Nineteen Eighty-four.

         Perhaps it was the deciding differences between them that made each choose a different path to notability—and in the end, the outcome of their souls.

         Churchill was born into an aristocratic family and struggled with maintaining his grades. Orwell was born into a lower-middle-class family. He was intellectually brilliant and received outstanding grades throughout school. He won two scholarships, one to Wellington and Eton.

Though both men experienced loneliness, they reacted very differently. Orwell often wrote about his miseries throughout his novels, as seen in his autobiographical essay, Such, Such Were the Joys (1953).

Churchill chose to see the brighter side of life, and wrote, “When we look back on all the perils through which we have passed and at the mighty foes that we have laid low and all the dark and deadly designs that we have frustrated, why should we fear for our future? We have come safely through the worst.”

Orwell once shrugged off imperialism and labeled himself an anarchist. He continued this self-behavior for several years. Then, during the 1930s, he decided he was a socialist. Thinking this was even too libertarian in the way he thought, he took the next step to saying he was a communist.

Orwell’s Animal Farm came into print in 1945. It was a political fable based on the Russian Revolution and its betrayal of Joseph Stalin. The book is about the barnyard animals that overthrow their human masters and then set up their own society.

The intelligent and power-loving pigs form a dictatorship and then encourage bondage even more oppressive and heartless than their former human masters had bound them beneath.

The pigs’ slogan was, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” Animal Farm made Orwell famous. Many critics said, “Animal Farm was one of Orwell’s finest works, full of wit and fantasy and admirably written.”

Well into his forties now, Orwell pondered his political preferences. And after brooding over Naziism and Stalinism, he realized there loomed a dark menace in each. This is when he took up pen again and wrote his science-fiction thriller Nineteen Eighty-four.

It’s about an imaginary future where the world is dominated by three warring totalitarian police states and the leader is called Big Brother. The hero in Orwell’s book is Englishman Winston Smith who lives in Oceania. It is Smith’s job to rewrite the history books. To systematically destroy the truth and rewrite history in the Ministry of Truth, therefore, bringing it up to the current political thinking.

The party has created a propagandistic language known as Newspeak, designed to limit free thought and promote the Party’s doctrines.  For instance, war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength. Winston has doubts and shares these thoughts with a like-minded woman. They fall in love. They get caught and are arrested by the Thought Police.

The method was so diabolical that it eventually worked. The imprisonment, torture, and reeducation broke him physically and rooted out his independent mental existence, and his spiritual dignity—the only love he felt was toward Big Brother.

Afterwards, meeting the woman he once loved, he feels no attraction toward her at all. Only an allegiance to Big Brother.

“Who controls the past, controls the future; who controls the present, controls the past,” Orwell said in his book. Pointing out the dangers of totalitarianism did make an impression upon many. The book was later turned into a movie entitled Big Brother.  Nineteen Eighty-four is considered a classic and mandatory reading for some high schools and colleges in the United States. Orwell died of tuberculosis in a London hospital in January 1950.

Nineteen Eighty-four continues in print and into the minds of our youth today. As I wrote in March’s blog, here is Churchill’s speech at Westchester during the Great Depression of the 1930s again, “Words are the only things that last forever. The Pyramids molder, the canals silt up, the bridges rust, the railroads change and decay…But words spoken two or three thousand years ago remain with us now, not as mere relics of the past, but with all their pristine living…leaping across the gulf of ages—they light the world for us today.” How ironic you hear nothing of this today. Churchill was right when he said, “The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.”

In 1951 Winston Churchill was at the ripe age of 77 when he was elected prime minister for the second time. Queen Elizabeth made Winston Churchill a knight of the Order of the Garter in 1953.

In 1963, President John F. Kennedy made Winston Churchill the first foreigner to be granted honorary U.S. citizenship. “In the dark days and darker nights when Britain stood alone…he mobilized the English language and set it into battle.”

Upon Churchill’s death, we learn of his most cherished Bible verse,  John 14:2–3 

“In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (NKJV)

His funeral was laced with Christian undertones, for he orchestrated it himself and wanted lively hymns. And so, before a worldwide audience of 350 million, the congregation listened to “The Battle Hymn of the Republic;” in respect to his Anglo-American parentage, “Who Would True Valour See” and “Fight The Good Fight With All Thy Might.” His coffin was carried out of St Paul’s Cathedral to “O God, Our Help in Ages Past.”

Once, someone said to him that he was a pillar of the church. He retorted, “No, no, not a pillar, but a buttress, supporting it from the outside.”

Orwell and Churchill had commonalities, but both went about achieving their notability in different ways.

What if history were rewritten? Words are a vital network of wisdom for the next generation to explore. What if history books are changed to uphold the dominant party’s agenda? As seen in February, March, and April’s blog, this has been tried throughout the years.  It is Orwell’s words that the schools are exploiting. Churchill’s words are all but obscure.

Churchill once said in his boisterous voice, “What is foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong—these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.” 

         

Love’s Final Sunrise: Fleeing for her life Ruth finds herself in an hourglass of yesteryear. Can Joshua’s Amish ways help them survive these final three-and-one-half years? “To be honest, I’m not usually drawn to fiction. But for this no-nonsense nonfiction lover, Love’s Final Sunrise was a risk that paid off in full measure. I highly recommend this author’s way of weaving intrigue, romance, and Christian principles.”  Lori Ann Wood

            Catherine is the award-winning author of Wilted Dandelions, Swept into Destiny, Destiny’s Whirlwind, Destiny of Heart, Waltz with Destiny and Love's Final Sunrise, and two pictorial history books, The Lapeer Area and Eastern Lapeer. She has been published by Guideposts Books, CrossRiver Media, Revell Books, Bethany House Publishers, and Arcadia Publishers. 

Catherine and her husband of fifty-one years live on a ranch in Michigan and have two adult children, four grandchildren, four Arabian horses, three dogs, three cats, six chickens, and five bunnies. You can learn more about her at CatherineUlrichBrakefield.com

https://www.history.com/topics/european-history/winston-churchill 

https://www.biography.com/political-figures/winston-churchill

https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/winston-churchill-quotes

https://www.history.com/news/meet-the-woman-behind-winston-churchill

https://www.thoughtco.com/what-does-that-quote-mean-archaeology-172300#:~:text=%22Who%20controls%20the%20past%20controls%20the%20future%3A%20who%20controls%20the,quote%20means%20may%20be%20found.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Orwell/Animal-Farm-and-Nineteen-Eighty-four

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nineteen-Eighty-four

https://www.churchillsocietyny.com/westchester-county