Wednesday, December 30, 2009

TODAY IN HISTORY

Click Here for Today In History

Browse the blog, the archives and the many links for more of the related history. Click on the picture below to read this 1905 news article.

ASSASSINATED WITH A DYNAMITE BOMB

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Clarence Darrow aka Gary Anderson

Just so you don't lose track of our friend Clarence Darrow (aka Gary Anderson), he is still out there providing us with great oratory but has left CA for for the friendly confines of Dillon, Montana. Below is Darrow's updated contact information. There should be plenty of miners and unions around Dillon that can benefit from having Darrow in the neighborhood.

Click Steunenberg (aka me) and Darrow (aka Gary) to see us "loafing" at the Idaho Pen the day after the Egyptian Theatre premiere of Assassination: Idaho's Trial of the Century.

Clarence Darrow changing email/website/phone

Hi Everyone and Happy Holidays,

My wish for all of us is a well funded and prosperous new year in which the country can once again thrive.

Please note:

1. new email address darrowfoundation@yahoo.com please delete my prior address of americanlegends@sbcglobal.net

2. new website and domain name www.clarencedarrowfoundation.org
The other domain name of www.clarencedarrowgaryanderson.com is no longer.

3. new phone number 406-925-0718.

Thanks for staying in touch and for your support and encouragement.

Gary Anderson,CEO
The Clarence Darrow Foundation.
A 32 year-old, 501(c)(3)non profit
public charity dedicated to the
perpetuation of the legacy and
ideals of Clarence Darrow.

406-925-0718
www.clarencedarrowfoundation.org

Monday, December 21, 2009

Christmas Day 1905

This is a repeat of a previous Christmas season post. Perhaps it will become a yearly tradition, as it is one of my favorite passages from Big Trouble. I always know there will be new readers discovering it for the first time and family and friends that won't mind reading it again.

“At noon on Christmas Day, the governor and Belle attended the traditional family dinner at A. K.’s house. The hustling young entrepreneur and his family occupied an imposing Colonial Revival mansion, its great front portico supported by three Tuscan columns, approached by a new cement sidewalk on North Kimball Avenue, where the city’s “quality” clustered in the lee of the Presbyterian Church.”


Photograph circa 2007. In need of further restoration.

“….a gracious A.K. welcomed the boisterous clan beneath his portico. No fewer than thirty Steunenbergs gathered around the heavily laden table, headed by the seventy-two year old patriarch, Bernardus, a shoemaker by trade, a Mexican War veteran who’d come west from Iowa to join his children earlier that year. Seven of his ten offspring were there that afternoon: five sons—Frank; A.K.; Pete, the most raffish of the brothers, a part-time printer who sometimes dealt cards at the Saratoga; Will and John, lifelong bachelors and partners in a shoe store (“Fitters of Feet,” they called themselves) just behind the Saratoga—and two daughters—Elizabeth (“Lizzie”), married to Gerrit Van Wyngarden, a Caldwell contractor who’d built both Frank’s house and the new Caldwell Banking and Trust building, and Josephine (“Jo”), at thirty-four still unmarried, who made a home for John, Will, and Bernardus at her commodious house on Belmont Street, while finding time to repair Franks’ shirts as well. The “plump” and jolly” A.K. played Santa at his own festivities, distributing elaborately wrapped gifts to all the children.”
--Big Trouble by J. Anthony Lukas

Of course, the family could never imagine that this would be Frank's last Christmas at his brother A.K's, with only five days remaining until the tragic events on December 30th, 1905. A reminder to us all...enjoy the day as you never know what tomorrow will bring.

Click here to see a blog post about the home of A.K. and Carrie Steunenberg.

Click here to see the 1880 Census entries for the Steunenberg family.

Google Street View.

From our family to yours, we wish you a Happy Holidays and a Healthy and Prosperous 2010.

John, Cindy and Caley Richards

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Governor Steunenberg's changing views of Boise and the Capitol building.

January 9th, 2010 will mark the completion and re-dedication of the remodeled and restored Idaho Capitol building. If you are in or around Boise on the 9th, be sure to stop on in for a look see and maybe send me a picture or two. Hopefully, I will get a chance to visit in the spring or summer. See previous blog post from Saturday, September 19, 2009: Capitol Restoration

Watching over the capitol building for 82 years has been the statue of Governor Frank Stueunenberg, dedicated on 12/11/1927. In the real photo postcard above, note the cars in the distance and the lack of any vegetation around the statue in the middle of the round circular area. Click on the photo to enlarge for viewing. We can see the Federal Building to the immediate right and the Egyptian Theatre further up on the corner of Capitol Blvd. (7th Street at that time I believe) and Main Street. As many of you know, the Egyptian is where the premiere of Idaho Public Television's production of Assassination: Idaho's Trial of the Century took place. You all have supported public television and purchased your DVD of the program...right? Makes a great Christmas gift and you might even see me flash across the screen for a few seconds in a couple of appearances. Straight ahead up Capitol Blvd., in the very far distance, is the faint outline of the Union Pacific Depot.



Here is a a slightly later view. Shrubbery and flowers have been planted around the statue and some of the larger trees along Bannock Street have been removed. Still circa 1930's I would guess?

And here we see the shrubbery around the statue has matured, the Egyptian is now the Ada Theatre (and would change later back to the Egyptian) and cars appear to be from the 1930's-40's.

Above photos from the collection of John T. Richards.

Click here for another view taken from the capitol dome that can been seen on the ISHS webite. Appears from the automobiles and more mature trees to be maybe late 1940's/early 1950's.


View Larger Map


View Larger Map

Coming up soon! Frank's changing views looking toward the Capitol Building over the years.
Other Related Links Below
Idaho Capitol Commission
Welcome To Idaho's State Capitol

Wikipedia - Idaho State Capitol
Territorial Capitol
Arthur Hart Straightens Me Out

Thursday, December 10, 2009

ORCHARD STALKED GOVERNOR STEUNENBERG FOR DAYS BEFORE HE KILLED HIM

ORCHARD STALKED GOVERNOR STEUNENBERG FOR DAYS BEFORE HE KILLED HIM

Click on photo to utilize Footnote viewer for reading and enlarging.

Includes an interesting article based on an interview of Eveline "Belle" Steunenberg.

"Nevada Jane" Haywood, the grieving wife at the Boise trial, left Big Bill crying in the end.


--The Chicago Tribune, August 16, 1921

Click on picture for larger and clearer view.

Nevada Jane - Utah Phillips

"I thought the world of that man. But nothing mattered as much to him as the labor movement. For it, he gave up his God, his country, his wife and two children. . .everything!"
--Nevada Jane Haywood

WITH TEARS IN HIS EYES, ORCHARD TELLS OF HIS COLORADO WIFE

Click on image to enlarge and use Footnote viewer.

WITH TEARS IN HIS EYES, ORCHARD TELLS OF HIS COLORADO WIFE

Don't you cry now!

Saturday, December 5, 2009