Person, Place, and Thing: December 22 - 31

 

Person.

Rachel Jackson, the wife of President-Elect Andrew Jackson died of heart failure in December 22, 1828.

Rachel Donelson Jackson (1767-1828) was born in Pittsylvania County Virginia, one of 11 children. After several years as an ironmaster, John Donelson moved his family to middle Tennessee, where he became a co-founder of the city of Nashville. Rachel was known as a very beautiful lady devoted to Presbyterianism and to the Bible. She met and married Captain Lewis Robards, but the two separated in 1790. She thought he had arranged a divorce,cand there may have been rumors of his death somewhere in the Louisiana territory. In any case, she returned to her parents' home, unattached - or so she thought.

When the brash and dashing Andrew Jackson moved to Nashville, he boarded in the Donelson house, and he and Rachel became close and married. In 1793, the Jacksons learned that Robards had filed for divorce and was very much alive, but the divorce was never granted. It was lost in the shuffle as Kentucky transitioned from Virginia county to its own statehood. Technically, Rachel Jackson was now a bigamist and adulterer. The Jackson marriage was also iffy because they married in Spanish territory, Natchez Mississippi, where only Catholic marriages were recognized. In 1794, the Robards divorce was finalized, and Rachel and Andrew quietly remarried.

Fast forward to 1828, one of the most vicious presidential elections ever. Jackson surrogates accused President John Quincy Adams of providing white sex slaves to the Tsar if Russia while he was Ambassador, and they accused him of - GASP! - THE HORROR! - of installing a billiards table in the Executive Mansion. Adams surrogates seized on Rachel's bigamy and adultery. The scandal was too much. Rachel took to bed and died of a heart attack. Jackson always blamed his political opponents for her death, calling them murderers. She was buried in the dress she had planned to wear at his inauguration a few months later.

Irving Stone published a biographical novel, The President's Lady, in 1951.

Place.

Rachel Jackson, the wife of President-Elect Andrew Jackson died of heart failure in December 22, 1828.

I often told my students that my favorite among historical houses that I've visited is Andrew Jackson's Nashville plantation house, the Hermitage. Why? Because it's so original. Even the wallpaper and carpet in many rooms go back to the 1830s, selected and used by the man himself. The rooms are full of authentic Jackson possessions, down to the DIY bloodletting kit by his bedside for those days when he was feeling poorly.

When he purchased the farm, it was already named the Hermitage, but it looked entirely different. The farmhouse was a very small cabin. Over time, Jackson built the mansion and acquired more and more surrounding land. At the time of his death, he enslaved 150-160 people. He and Rachel are buried in a small family plot very close to the house.

Irving Stone published a biographical novel in 1951.

Thing.

Rachel Jackson, the wife of President-Elect Andrew Jackson died of heart failure in December 22, 1828.

Irving Stone published a biographical novel of the almost-First Lady in 1951. In 1953, it was adapted into a film starring Susan Hayward and Charlton Heston.

The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design.

A few years later, Charlton Heston played Andrew Jackson once again in The Buccaneer (1958).

Person.

"A Visit From St. Nicholas," aka "The Night Before Christmas" or "Twas the Night Before Christmas," was first published, anonymously, on December 23, 1823 in the Troy, New York Sentinel. Poet Clement C. Moore was first named author in 1837. The poem was largely responsible for many of the conceptions of Santa Claus, gift giving, and Christmas in general from the mid 19th century through today. Many families continue to make it a part of their holiday tradition, and there are many illustrated children's book versions to choose from.

Moore, 1779-1863, was Professor of Oriental and Greek Literature, Divinity, and Biblical Learning at the General Theological Seminary in New York City. He was also a writer and a real estate developer, developing the New York neighborhood of Chelsea from the original family estate named Chelsea. He very carefully managed development, specifying what could be built on land that he sold and requiring certain architectural details of the buildings. Commercial enterprises were expressly forbidden.

It must be said that scholars still debate authorship today, with some attributing it to a distant relative of Moore's wife, Henry Livingston Jr. However, Moore claimed authorship, and Livingston never did. In 1837, he refused to confirm or deny authorship, apparently afraid that it would diminish his reputation as an academic, but he included it in an 1844 anthology of his poems.

Place.

"A Visit From St. Nicholas," aka "The Night Before Christmas" or "Twas the Night Before Christmas," was first published, anonymously, on December 23, 1823 in the Troy, New York Sentinel. Poet Clement C. Moore was first named author in 1837. The poem was largely responsible for many of the conceptions of Santa Claus, gift giving, and Christmas in general from the mid 19th century through today. Many families continue to make it a part of their holiday tradition, and there are many illustrated children's book versions to choose from.

Moore, 1779-1863, was Professor of Oriental and Greek Literature, Divinity, and Biblical Learning at the General Theological Seminary in New York City. He was also a writer and a real estate developer, developing the New York neighborhood of Chelsea from the original family estate named Chelsea. He very carefully managed development, specifying what could be built on land that he sold and requiring certain architectural details of the buildings. Commercial enterprises were expressly forbidden.

"Chelsea takes its name from the estate and Georgian-style house of retired British Major Thomas Clarke, who obtained the property when he bought the farm of Jacob Somerindyck on August 16, 1750. The land was bounded by what would become 21st and 24th Streets, from the Hudson River to Eighth Avenue. Clarke chose the name "Chelsea" after the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London, England. Clarke passed the estate on to his daughter, Charity, who, with her husband Benjamin Moore, added land on the south of the estate, extending it to 19th Street. The house was the birthplace of their son, Clement Clarke Moore, who in turn inherited the property." (Wikipedia)

Thing.

"A Visit From St. Nicholas," aka "The Night Before Christmas" or "Twas the Night Before Christmas," was first published, anonymously, on December 23, 1823 in the Troy, New York Sentinel. Poet Clement C. Moore was first named author in 1837. The poem was largely responsible for many of the conceptions of Santa Claus, gift giving, and Christmas in general from the mid 19th century through today. Many families continue to make it a part of their holiday tradition, and there are many illustrated children's book versions to choose from.

The poem helped create the traditional image of Santa Claus that became the American version after the Civil War and in the early 20th century. The sled, the reindeer and their names, the red outfit, the rosy cheeks, the jelly belly, the twinkling, jolly personality --- they all originated in the poem. After the Civil War, editorial cartoons Thomas Nast was inspired by the poem to create the visual image that we all know, along with the advertising department of the Coca-Cola company. (The same Thomas Nast that used cartoons to help bring down Boss Tweed's Tammany Hall political machine in New York and to make the donkey and the elephant the symbols of the Democratic and Republican parties respectively.)

Person.

Conservationist and primatologist Dian Fossey was murdered in her cabin in Rwanda on December 26, 1985. Rwandan courts tried and convicted, in absentia, Wayne Maguire, a student researcher working under Fossey's mentorship, claiming incredibly that the motive was to publish her notes as his own. Maguire returned to the US. Aside from the Rwandan courts, everybody else in the world believes that she was hacked to death by poachers.

Fossey was born in San Francisco in 1932. Her cold and insecure childhood led her at an early age to a lifelong love of animals. She became an accomplished equestrian and lived on a farm while working with children as an occupational therapist in Kentucky. In 1963, she made her first trip to Africa where she met a number of leading conservationists including actor William Holden and paleontologists Louis and Mary Leakey. They discussed Jane Goodall and her recently begun work with wild chimpanzees. Leakey proposed that Fossey take on the same work with the highly endangered mountain gorillas of the Congo and Rwanda and secured funding and support.

Her work, like Goodall's and Birute Galdikas', gathered mountains of new information on the great apes. Galdikas worked with orangutans in Borneo. The press often called the three women the Trimates, or Leakey's Angels.

Fossey became the leading spokesperson in the world for conservation in the African rainforests, specifically for the gorillas. She became the African poachers' worst nightmare, often administering her own punishments to any unlucky enough to be captured. In at least one case, she ordered a poacher stripped and tied down as she beat his genitals with stinging nettles. Some poachers created stories of her magical powers and menacing evil. It was almost certainly poachers that murdered her, but it is also possible that government officials were involved because of her opposition to their plans to bring in tourism money.

In 1983, she published Gorillas in the Mist.

Place.

Conservationist and primatologist Dian Fossey was murdered in her cabin in Rwanda on December 26, 1985. Rwandan courts tried and convicted, in absentia, Wayne Maguire, a student researcher working under Fossey's mentorship, claiming incredibly that the motive was to publish her notes as his own. Maguire returned to the US. Aside from the Rwandan courts, everybody else in the world believes that she was hacked to death by poachers.

When Fossey arrived in Africa, there were just 254 individual mountain gorillas. As of 2022, there are just over 1,000 individuals in two population groups, one in Rwanda and one in Uganda. Their range is blue on the map; green represents the range of the lowlands gorilla. The increasing numbers can be attributed to the conservation efforts launched by Fossey and other like-minded people, often funded by government controlled tourism, something she fought against. The gorillas are still endangered by poaching, loss of habitat, and the unstable political and economic conditions in the region.

Thing.

Conservationist and primatologist Dian Fossey was murdered in her cabin in Rwanda on December 26, 1985. Rwandan courts tried and convicted, in absentia, Wayne Maguire, a student researcher working under Fossey's mentorship, claiming incredibly that the motive was to publish her notes as his own. Maguire returned to the US. Aside from the Rwandan courts, everybody else in the world believes that she was hacked to death by poachers.

Gorilla poaching continues to be a major threat, and hundreds of park rangers and conservationists have been killed by poachers in the line of duty. Why? Gorilla and chimpanzee meat is still consumed, along with other wild animals, as "bush meat" in West and Central Africa,, and it is considered a sign of wealth and prestige. Gorilla body parts are sought after for use in rituals and traditional medicine. Adults are still killed in order to steal infants to sell in the live animal trade. A few African cultures still claim the right to hunt and kill gorillas as part of manhood or warrior rituals.

Person.

On December 27, 1979 Sire Records released the debut self-titled album "The Pretenders" in the US.

The Pretenders were and are a group of British musicians fronted and founded by an American expat named Chrissie Hynde. Hynde was born in 1951 in Akron Ohio whose teenage years were consumed by rock and roll. After a few years at Kent State University's Art School, she moved to London in 1973. She bounced around from job to job and punk band to punk band, amidst several failed attempts to start her own band. In 1978, she recorded a demo and formed a band along with Pete Farndon that became The Pretenders. They released "Stop Your Sobbing," a cover of a Kinks song and took off from there.

The band has been through a number of personnel changes over the years, leaving Chrissie and drummer Martin Chambers as the only originals left, but they're still recording and touring. We saw them in concert a few years ago, and they were absolutely fantastic. Chrissie proves that a woman can be a strong and dynamic rock and roll front person. She definitely takes charge of the stage. Unfortunately, she announced recently that she's no longer interested in performing older Pretenders hits on stage.

She's also had and has a very successful solo career, and in 2015 she published her autobiography Reckless.

Place.

On December 27, 1979 Sire Records released the debut self-titled album "The Pretenders" in the US.

The Pretenders were and are a group of British musicians fronted and founded by an American expat named Chrissie Hynde. Hynde was born in 1951 in Akron Ohio. Now she makes her home in London but still maintains an apartment in Akron. From 2007 to 2011 she was co-owner of a highly regarded vegan restaurant in Akron, The VegiTerranean.

Thing

On December 27, 1979 Sire Records released the debut self-titled album "The Pretenders" in the US.

The Pretenders were and are a group of British musicians fronted and founded by an American expat named Chrissie Hynde. Hynde now lives in London primarily, and her latest solo project, released in 2021, is an album of Bob Dylan cover songs. It was recorded as a COVID lockdown project, and a film was made of the recording process.

Person.

On December 28, 1944, Corrie Ten Boom was accidentally released, by some clerical error, from the Ravensbruck concentration camp, a women's concentration camp in Germany. A week later, all the women in her age group were sent to gas chambers.

Corrie Ten Boom (1892-1983) lived with her large extended family in Haarlem Netherlands. Her father was a jeweler and watchmaker, and Corrie kept books and eventually learned watchmaking herself, becoming the first licensed woman watchmaker in the country in 1922.

When the Germans invaded the Netherlands in 1940, the family started helping their Jewish neighbors. Soon, Jews started arriving on their doorstep for assistance, and they were hidden by the family until their escape could be arranged, and the family acquired ration cards in various ways in order to feed them.. The Dutch Resistance underground heard of them and built a fake wall in the house, creating a "hiding place" big enough for six adults at a time. It is estimated that about 800 Jews passed through their house before a Dutch informant informed on them in February 1944. The house was raided, every family member was arrested, but the Jews and the hiding place were not found, and the underground helped them escape safely later.

Arrested for stealing ration cards, the family was interrogated and released except for Corrie, her sister, and their father. The father and sister died in custody. Corrie was released in December. During their detention, the sisters had held religious meetings with the other inmates. After the war, Corrie became a Christian evangelist and missionary, administering several charities and homes and publishing numerous books

Place.

On December 28, 1944, Corrie Ten Boom was accidentally released, by some clerical error, from the Ravensbruck concentration camp, a women's concentration camp in Germany. A week later, all the women in her age group were sent to gas chambers. Corrie Ten Boom had been sent to Ravensbruck when she and other family met were arrested for hiding Jews in their home in Haarlem, Netherlands. She wrote The Hiding Place about her experience.

Ravensbruck operated from 1939 to 1945 about 56 miles north of Berlin, and it was unique in that it was only for women. It is estimated to have held 132,000 women, including about 20,000 Jews. The greatest number at any one time was probably about 45,000. More than 80% of the total were political prisoners. At least 50,000 prisoners died in Ravensbruck, either from abuse, illness, labor, accidents, or execution. The camp did not have gas chambers or a crematorium until 1944; some 2,200 women were gassed.

All inmates were forced to do heavy labor ranging from outdoors work to building V-2 rockets parts for the German company Siemens. They also made socks for German soldiers. Many women from Ravensbruck were sent to work in brothels set up in many concentration and death camps for German soldiers' and select prisoner's use.

Thing.

On December 28, 1944, Corrie Ten Boom was accidentally released, by some clerical error, from the Ravensbruck concentration camp, a women's concentration camp in Germany. A week later, all the women in her age group were sent to gas chambers. Corrie Ten Boom had been sent to Ravensbruck when she and other family met were arrested for hiding Jews in their home in Haarlem, Netherlands. She wrote The Hiding Place about her experience.

It's estimated that the family aided at least 800 Jews before an informant alerted authorities. Because of the number of people using their house, the ten Booms built a secret room in case a raid took place. They decided to build it in Corrie's bedroom, as it was in the highest part of the highest part of the house. This would give people trying to hide the most time to avoid detection (as a search would start on the ground floor). A member of the Dutch resistance designed the hidden room behind a false wall. Gradually, family and supporters brought bricks and other building supplies into the house by hiding them in briefcases and rolled up newspapers. When finished, the secret room was about thirty inches deep; the size of a medium wardrobe. A ventilation system allowed for breathing. To enter the room, a person had to open a sliding panel in the plastered brick wall under a bottom bookshelf and crawl in on hands and knees. In addition, the family installed an electric buzzer for warning in a raid. When the Nazis raided the ten Boom house in 1944, six people used the hiding place too avoid detection

Persons.

After gold was discovered nearby, the Georgia state government started enforcing state laws against the sovereign Cherokee nation with its capital at New Echota. The US Supreme Court ruled consistently in the Cherokee's favor, saying that the state has no authority over the Cherokee Nation. This only hardened President Andrew Jackson's resolve to force them southeastern Indians west to Oklahoma. The result was a split within the Cherokee nation that eventually led to violent clashes between factions and the murders of several tribal leaders. On December 29, 1835, the Treaty of New Echota was signed by leaders of the Treaty Faction, giving up Cherokee land east of the Mississippi and accepting land and relocation to the Oklahoma Territory.

The Treaty was ratified by one vote in the US Senate the following March even though it was not approved or signed by representatives of the ruling Cherokee National Council or by Principal Chief John Ross. Ross fought the Treaty through lawsuits, appeals to prominent white leaders and groups, a letter writing campaign, appeals in newspapers across the US, lobbying efforts in Congress, and presenting petitions containing 15,000 - 16,000 Cherokee (a large percentage of the tribe) signatures opposing the treaty.

The Treaty Party was led by Cherokee leaders like Major Ridge, John Ridge, and Elias Boudinot, who had come to the opinion that it was a lost cause and in the best interest of the Cherokee to accept the treaty or face extermination.

Indian tribes collectively signed some 400 treaties with the US from 1787 to 1871, 9 treaties with the Confederacy, and countless others with Spain, France, Britain, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, Canada, Russia, and individual states and colonies. Pen and Ink is a study of these treaties focusing on a few major ones like New Echota. I haven't read it yet, but it's going on my list.

Place.

After gold was discovered nearby, the Georgia state government started enforcing state laws against the sovereign Cherokee nation with its capital at New Echota. The US Supreme Court ruled consistently in the Cherokee's favor, saying that the state has no authority over the Cherokee Nation. This only hardened President Andrew Jackson's resolve to force them southeastern Indians west to Oklahoma. The result was a split within the Cherokee nation that eventually led to violent clashes between factions and the murders of several tribal leaders. On December 29, 1835, the Treaty of New Echota was signed by leaders of the Treaty Faction, giving up Cherokee land east of the Mississippi and accepting land and relocation to the Oklahoma Territory.

The Treaty of New Echota was not the first treaty to cause intratribal violence. Ten years earlier, in 1825, Creek Chief William McIntosh had signed the Treaty of Indian Springs, along with 8 other chiefs, near Jackson Georgia, just south of Atlanta. The Treaty ceded Creek land in Georgia and Alabama in return for $200,000 and perpetual annuities paid to the tribe. McIntosh himself was paid $200,000. The remaining Creek National Council members decreed that the signers had committed treason and ordered their executions. Chief Menawa, with a force of 120 to 150 members, attacked the McIntosh plantation near Rome Georgia. McIntosh and another signer were killed, with McIntosh's corpse shot more than 50 times and buried naked in an unmarked grave.

Thing.

After gold was discovered nearby, the Georgia state government started enforcing state laws against the sovereign Cherokee nation with its capital at New Echota. The US Supreme Court ruled consistently in the Cherokee's favor, saying that the state has no authority over the Cherokee Nation. This only hardened President Andrew Jackson's resolve to force them southeastern Indians west to Oklahoma. The result was a split within the Cherokee nation that eventually led to violent clashes between factions and the murders of several tribal leaders. On December 29, 1835, the Treaty of New Echota was signed by leaders of the Treaty Faction, giving up Cherokee land east of the Mississippi and accepting land and relocation to the Oklahoma Territory.

The treaty proposed that in exchange for all Cherokee land east of the Mississippi River, the Cherokees would receive $5,000,000 from the U.S. (to be distributed per capita to all members of the tribe), an additional $500,000 for educational funds, title in perpetuity to land in Indian Territory equal to that given up, and full compensation for all property left behind. The treaty included a clause to allow all Cherokees who so desired to remain and become citizens of the states in which they resided, on individual allotments of 160 acres of land. With that clause, it was unanimously approved by the contingent at New Echota, then signed by the negotiating committee of twenty, but that clause later was struck out by President Jackson.

In 2019, Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. cited a provision of the treaty that states that the Cherokee "shall be entitled to a delegate in the House of Representatives of the United States whenever Congress shall make provision for the same," in announcing that he intended to appoint, for the first time, a Congressional delegate from the Cherokee Nation.

Person

Rudyard Kipling, British author and journalist, was born on December 30 1865 in Bombay, British India. He spent much of his life in colonial India which features prominently in his work. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries he was among Britain's most popular authors, and he is seen as an innovator in the craft of writing short stories and children's literature.

His father was a Professor at the School of Art in Bombay. Like other Anglo-Indian children of the Empire, Kipling at age 5 and his sister at age 3 were shipped back to England for their education. They lived in the home of a couple whose livelihood was built in taking in and boarding strangers' children. He found the experience horrible and wrote of cruelty and neglect there. Their only relatives in England were an aunt and her family whom they visited for Christmas.

It was decided that his academic record wasn't strong enough to earn admission to Oxford, so his father got him a job at a newspaper in Lahore where his father was now Principal of an art school and a museum curator. He began writing and publishing many stories and poems. The Jungle Book, published in 1894 is probably his most famous work. In 1907, he was awarded the Novel Prize for Literature. He died in London in 1936.

Place.

Rudyard Kipling, British author and journalist, was born on December 30 1865 in the Malabar Hill section of Bombay (now Mumbai), British India. He spent much of his life in colonial India which features prominently in his work. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries he was among Britain's most popular authors, and he is seen as an innovator in the craft of writing short stories and children's literature.

Malabar Hill is a hillock and upmarket residential neighbourhood in South Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Malabar Hill is the most exclusive residential area in Mumbai. It is home to several business tycoons and film personalities, some of the wealthiest and most famous Indian businessmen and Bollywood movie makers and performers. As of 2014 it is one of the most expensive areas in the world regularly featuring in the top 10 world wide localities.

Thing.

Rudyard Kipling, British author and journalist, was born on December 30 1865 in the Malabar Hill section of Bombay (now Mumbai), British India. He spent much of his life in colonial India which features prominently in his work. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries he was among Britain's most popular authors, and he is seen as an innovator in the craft of writing short stories and children's literature.

Kipling is also seen as the chief apologist for British imperialism, imperialism's hype man. Many of his works reflect his life experiences and his personal biases, typical of white Europeans at the time, that whites, the British in particular, were superior to people of color around the world, and that it was the divine destiny of the British empire to guide the less fortunate, child-like people of color toward "civilization."

That altruistic idea came to be called "The White Man's Burden," named after Kipling's poem of that name. It was used as justification for European and American invasions, domination, and atrocities committed against Asians, Africans, and Latin Americans.

Person.

Andreas Vesalius was born on December 31, 1514 in Brussels. He was a professor at the University of Padua and imperial physician to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

Early in his career, Vesalius did much to disprove and to correct the incorrect claims made by the ancient physician Galen, which has been accepted as fact by physicians for centuries. He realized that Galen's errors partly stemmed from the fact that he had never dissected humans because it was illegal in his lifetime, and many of Galen's conclusions had based on religious doctrine more than science. Vesalius began active dissection of humans. In 1543, at age 28, he began the publication of On the Fabric of the Human Body, in 7 volumes with 273 detailed illustrations. Though not the first text based on human dissection, it is considered an important milestone, and Vesalius is credited as the founder of the science of anatomy.

Shout-out to all my former students who are now doctors, nurses, therapists, paramedics, techs, and healthcare workers. I'm proud of you. (But it can be a little unnerving to be waiting in an exam room and have one of you walk in. It's happened.)

Place.

Andreas Vesalius was born on December 31, 1514 in Brussels. He was a professor at the University of Padua and imperial physician to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

"In 1564 Vesalius went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, some said, in penance after being accused of dissecting a living body. He sailed with the Venetian fleet under James Malatesta via Cyprus. When he reached Jerusalem, he received a message from the Venetian senate requesting him again to accept the Paduan professorship, which had become vacant on the death of his friend and pupil Fallopius.

After struggling for many days with adverse winds in the Ionian Sea, he was shipwrecked on the island of Zakynthos Here he soon died, in such debt that a benefactor kindly paid for his funeral. At the time of his death he was 49 years old. He was buried somewhere on the island of Zakynthos." (Wikipedia)

Thing.

Andreas Vesalius was born on December 31, 1514 in Brussels. He was a professor at the University of Padua and imperial physician to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

"In 1543, Vesalius conducted a public dissection of the body of Jakob Karrer von Gebweiler, a notorious felon from the city of Basel, Switzerland. He assembled and articulated the bones, finally donating the skeleton to the University of Basel. This preparation ("The Basel Skeleton") is Vesalius' only well-preserved skeletal preparation, and also the world's oldest surviving anatomical preparation. It is still displayed at the Anatomical Museum of the University of Basel." (Wikipedia)