The First Methodist Church in America

My paternal grandmother’s family was steeped in Methodism. I have attended some Methodist services and functions through the years and have befriended a minister or two. I don’t quite understand how liberalism and leftism crept in and took over, so understanding the roots of the Methodist church has dual purposes for me. On this day in [...]

Captain Thomas Robinson’s Heirs

A man named Robinson, an engineer with a ship building company, contacted me the other day. Somehow he found my blog post on my ancestor Martin Tidd documenting his service with Robinson’s Rangers during the American Revolution. The man is a descendant of Captain Thomas Robinson, after whom the unit is named. Hello, I saw [...]

William Tidd’s File at the National Archives

Every since finding my great-great-great-great-great-great-great uncle’s Revolutionary War pension file on Footnote.com a few years back, I have been meaning to get a hold of it again and then put it somewhere easily accessible. I don’t mean a hard copy, but a digital one. Unfortunately, the document — a Revolutionary War pension file — apparently is only available [...]

Happy Birthday Bill of Rights!

[T]oday . . . marks the anniversary of one of the most important events in American history. It was 220 years ago today — on Dec. 15, 1791 — that the required nine states officially ratified the Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the then-2-year-old U.S. Constitution. Those amendments include, of course, what [...]

Woe to the Liars

It’s amazing what passes as historical scholarship these days. One writer in Florida, clearly an activist with an agenda, doesn’t let history get in the way. Some of the Founding Fathers leaned right, but the majority were anti-monarchists, Freemasons and atheists who held what modern historical language would term a secularist and globalist view. In some cases — like George Washington’s — [...]

Colonel Zebulon Butler’s Desk

An auction is slated for Tuesday, August 30, 2011 in Plains, Pennsylvania. Some of the items, one in particular of note, relate to the American Revolution and colonial era. Loaded with early Americana and featuring the 18th Century DESK of Colonel Zebulon Butler, who served in the French and Indian Wars, was the military leader [...]

July 14, 1789

I am on the mailing list (electronic mail, that is) of the Willamette Reds, the local group of socialists and communists[1], and today’s message was celebrating Bastille Day[2], when a bunch of French radicals stormed the famed castle in France. I am not a leftist, but I did attend one of the Reds meetings a [...]

C-SPAN’s American History TV

C-SPAN, “devoted to providing access to the political process,” has developed programming on American history for years. But it was often sporadic and mixed in with political and judicial coverage. Now, however, the network has dedicated weekends on C-SPAN3 to the subject, naming it American History TV (AHTV). From Saturday morning to Monday morning, AHTV [...]

‘History Is the Soldier’s Gift’

Here’s a great piece from Human Events on the importance of history and remembering those who’ve come before, particularly veterans of America’s wars. Remember where our heroes fell, and why. . . . . . . Today we honor men and women who were in the right place at the right time.  All of history would have been different, if they had [...]

Patrick Henry, ‘Lion of Liberty’

Ever since learning about Patrick Henry in school, I’ve admired the man. His “Give me liberty or give me death!” speech captivated me. Now, there’s a new book about him, one I intend on reading. There’s a writeup about it in the April issue of The American Spectator. Among the men who did the most for the [...]