#BLACKLIVESMATTER?
Do black lives matter? Do black lives really matter? Or is it just an illusion, a grand talking point in a political tug of war?
ajh
Tag Archives: Chicago
A policeman’s death in Chicago was ruled a suicide. But an FBI expert says otherwise.
Veteran Chicago police Sgt. Donald Markham was shot by someone else at point-blank range in his home in 2015 before the scene was staged to appear to be a suicide, a forensic pathologist hired by the FBI concluded in a report obtained Thursday by the Chicago Tribune.
The five-page report contradicts Cook County officials’ ruling that Markham had shot himself in September 2015 after a drunken argument with his wife, Dina, also a veteran Chicago cop. The report was part of a yearlong probe by the FBI, which began after questions were raised within the Chicago Police Department about Markham’s death.
ajh
Did Grandpa Darling ride the first Ferris Wheel?
In 1893 Chicago hosted the World’s Columbian Exposition. There were many inventors and exhibits. Among them was engineer George Ferris who introduced the world to his soon-to-be iconic Ferris Wheel.
The Wheel stood 264 feet high and had a diameter of 250 feet. Each of the structure’s 36 cars could hold 60 to 65 people. Folks stood in long lines to pay 50 cents each to ride on the slowly spinning marvel.
My great-great grandfather was living in the city, in Little Italy. He was studying to become a dentist. My great grandmother was a toddler.
Oh, how I wish I could sit with them both and talk about their memories of this time.
ajh
This is why so many us are sick of the status quo!
A $138,400
annual paycheck
from the feds
for corrupt
Jesse Jackson Jr.!?
Despite having been convicted and imprisoned for corruption, former Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. collects a hefty salary, milking the taxpayers for even more. Meanwhile, shootings and murders in Chicago continue to plague the populace, the homeless and the poor continue to struggle, and the politicians continue to bilk the system.
ajh
$312.32 for a map on canvas of Chicago in 1893! I thought Walmart was supposed to be cheap!
$312 and 32¢
I’d love to have one of these on my walls. But three hundred dollars! Why so pricey?
Sure, it’s nice and big at 36 by 54 inches, which translate to three by four and a half feet. The entire piece is actually a little bigger than that, but the image dimensions appear to be 36 by 54.
I wonder where it is made. China? Wouldn’t surprise me. What is the mark up? What does it cost to produce and how much money is the retailer, in this case Walmart, make off of a sale?
ajh
Never send the original!
The site where Abraham Lincoln’s parents, Thomas and Sarah Bush Lincoln, lived during the 1840s is planning a celebration of his birthday. They lived near some of my ancestors, the Parkers and the Goodells.
I learned something, a historical sidenote, that I did not know.
“The original cabin was disassembled and shipped to Chicago for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and was never seen again.”
Why would anyone dismantle and send the cabin to Chicago? Why not just make a replica?
I am convinced that some of my relatives knew Thomas and Sarah and possibly Abraham as well, when he was working as congressman and then a lawyer in Illinois.
And another strange fact is that a great-great grandfather and his family lived in Chicago during the World’s Columbian Exposition.
So don’t forget, everyone is a witness to history— you, me, every single one of us.
ajh
Saving history, one building at a time
It’s remarkable, in this day and age of discarding, demolishing and replacing, that the old Cook County Hospital has been spared. I wish more communities would do this. So many quirky and interesting places, each with their own unique histories, are being lost.
ajh
What Would Have Happened To Disruptive protesters At Obama Campaign Rallies?
Chicago thug culture rises yet again.
Imagine, just imagine, if similar protests had disrupted Obama campaign rallies.
What’s the murder rate in Chicago these days, anyway?
Stay classy, protesters.
ajh
The Chicago River, 1895
Discovered a photo of Chicago from the time when my great-great grandfather, Dr. Jerome Darling, lived there. It’s from 1895.
He had been studying dentistry. A son, Leslie Warren Darling, was born in August of that year in the city. My great grandmother, Geneva, was a toddler, three or four years old.
They lived in what she described as the Italian section of the city.
ajh
Little Italy, Chicago
The story goes that when my great-great grandfather lived in Chicago, during the 1890s, the family lived in a tenement house in the ‘Italian’ section of the city. I am assuming this is the Little Italy referred to on maps and in histories of Chicago.
My great grandmother, born in rural Iowa in 1891, was just a baby. I wish I had the chance to talk with her about any experiences she remembered from that time. She died in 1983 and I was just a kid, and it was before my interest in the family history blossomed into a sincere passion, which I started compiling in 1989.
ajh
AARON HILL’S NOTEBOOK 