Lancaster A History 1845 1945

The Youngers—Bob, Cole, Jim, and John—tested the boundaries of the violent and turbulent post-Civil War society in which they lived. The author investigates the events from the Border and Civil Wars which forged their characters, their intricate relationships, the innovative train and bank robberies in which they participated, and their decades-long fight for freedom. Brant’s extensive research includes unpublished accounts from family members, the families of their enemies and victims, and hundreds of revealing historical documents. The story of the Youngers as more than the folklore figures they have grown to be demonstrates that often the truth is more fascinating than the fiction.

Adolphe Gouhenant tells the story of artist, revolutionary, and early North Texas resident Francois Ignace (Adolphe) Gouhenant (1804-1871). Born at the dawn of the Romantic era, Gouhenant traveled from a small village near the foothills of the Alps to France’s second largest city, where he built a monument to the arts and sciences atop Lyon’s famous Fourvière Hill. His wildly ambitious schemes landed him in court and ultimately devastated him financially. Participating in clandestine revolutionary organizations, Gouhenant organized a secret meeting under the guise of a Masonic banquet and was later imprisoned for conspiracy against the monarchy. Aligning himself with the early communist movement, Gouhenant advocated for workers’ rights and was selected by well-known Icarian communist Etienne Cabet to lead an advance guard on a treacherous journey across the Atlantic to settle a utopian colony in North Texas. Despite broken wagons, severe weather, and lack of food, he navigated overland from New Orleans in 1848 to establish a small settlement in Denton County. The community, beset by hardships, ultimately scapegoated Gouhenant and accused him of being a French agent deliberately sent to lead the group to destruction into the wilds, and for this “treason” they shaved his head and beard and expelled him from the colony (which collapsed shortly thereafter). Gouhenant then journeyed to Fort Worth to teach the federal soldiers French and art, and next to Dallas where he founded the town’s first arts establishment in the 1850s. He set up shop as a daguerreotypist and photographed the town’s early residents. His Arts Saloon was the scene of many exhibitions and dances but ultimately became the high stake in a nasty battle among Dallas’s leading citizens, setting legal precedent for Texas homestead law. Gouhenant’s death in a freak railroad accident left behind mysterious claims that contribute one last chapter to this amazing man’s story.

From the first "Cheese Day" in 1874 to the "Great Limburger War" of 1935, author Duane H. Freitag peers into the nooks and crannies of the tumultuous political history of Green County, Wisconsin. In this previously untold story, Freitag pulls back the curtain to uncover how the Swiss immigrants who settled in southern Wisconsin influenced Green County politics from 1845 to 1945. Buffeted by wars, dairy industry economics, murders, epidemics, the temperance movement, and LaFollette progressivism, this immigrant group was heavily involved in each major election, asserting their political will in candidates and through the polls. In addition to exploring the politics of the region, Freitag also discusses what caused shifts in Wisconsin's political winds throughout this period by placing Green County elections against the larger context of political landscape of the United States as a whole. In doing so, he examines the history of America and demonstrates how Swiss immigrants and other Wisconsin cultural groups responded to the events that shaped the nation. From the abolition of slavery to prohibition, the Great Depression, and concerns about America's involvement in two world wars, Sauerkraut, Suspenders, and the Swiss demonstrates the remarkable story of Wisconsin-and American-politics.

A reconstruction of the life and works of a sixteenth-century minstrel, showing the tradition to be flourishing well into the Tudor period. Richard Sheale, a harper and balladeer from Tamworth, is virtually the only English minstrel whose life story is known to us in any detail. It had been thought that by the sixteenth century minstrels had generally been downgradedto the role of mere jesters. However, through a careful examination of the manuscript which Sheale almost certainly "wrote" (Bodleian Ashmole 48) and other records, the author argues that the oral tradition remained vibrant at this period, contrary to the common idea that print had by this stage destroyed traditional minstrelsy. The author shows that under the patronage of Edward Stanley, earl of Derby, and his son, from one of the most important aristocratic families in England, Sheale recited and collected ballads and travelled to and from London to market them. Amongst his repertoire was the famous Chevy Chase, which Sir Philip Sidney said moved his heart "more than witha trumpet". Sheale also composed his own verse, including a lament on being robbed of 60 on his way to London; the poem is reproduced in this volume. ANDREW TAYLOR lectures in the Department of English, University of Ottawa.