Chronicling the devastating Strand Theatre Fire of 1941 and celebrating the community's heroes and resilience in the face of adversity.On March 10, 1941, at 12:38 a.m., the Brockton Fire Department responded to Fire Alarm Box 1311, which was pulled for a fire at the Strand Theatre. Fire Alarm dispatched the deputy chief, three engine companies, a ladder company and Squad A. Within six minutes, a second alarm was struck. Less than one hour after the first alarm, the...

Brockton, first settled in 1700, was originally a part of Old Bridgewater, known as North Parish and later as North Bridgewater. On April 9, 1881, it officially became the City of Brockton. During the Civil War, Brockton was the largest producer of shoes in the country, earning it the nickname �Shoe City.� As a growing industrial center, Brockton had the proud honor of being first in the world and nation in many ways. On October 1, 1883, the city became the first in the world to have a thr...

Follow the tragic story of a fishing trip gone wrong and its impact on the community of Brockton, Massachusetts.On May 13, 1928, ten prominent men of Brockton, Massachusetts, headed off on a fishing trip to Moosehead Lake in Maine. After traveling fourteen hours, the group met Maine guide Samuel Budden and boarded the Mac II for the final voyage to their destination. Approximately six miles from the Tomhegan sporting camp, the boat took on water in rough seas and s...

First gaining notoriety as the "shoe city," Brockton grew and flourished toward the end of the 19th century. As the halcyon days of the shoe industry waned, however, Brockton experienced many changes. After World War II, major residential development took place in the form of affordable single-family homes, and four new junior high schools and (eventually) a new high school were built. Housing for senior citizens and low-income residents was constructed, and new commercial buildings replac...

Forbidden Fruit is a collection of fascinating, largely untold tales of ordinary men and women who faced mobs, bloodhounds, bounty hunters, and bullets to be together**—**and defy a system that categorized blacks not only as servants, but as property.In the true love stories of Forbidden Fruit, you will meet sixteen couples who fought for love—love between slaves, between slaves and masters, and between slaves and...

Burlington Police Department detective Jeff Beerworth explores the nature of crime and justice in the Queen City.As Burlington grew into a city out of wilderness, more citizens meant more opportunities for crime. Horse thefts, murders and drunken brawls swamped the young and prosperous city. Those misdeeds inspired the first officers of what would become the Burlington Police Department to serve and protect. Step behind the scenes of the Griwold murder case, the Ma...

SALEM, WEST VIRGINIA A small town with a big spirit. Every town has its stories, and Salem is no exception. When Salem was still in the state of Virginia, Preston Randolph, a renowned educator and pillar of the community, campaigned for Abraham Lincoln. Within these pages you will learn about the person who manufactured Salem's first electricity; the first man to sell oil that was produced and marketed in Harrison County; where in 1976 a well still existed that had been used to supply wate...

Allendale on the Savannah - Revisited is based on an earlier work and is a historical account of the settlement and development of Allendale County, SC from the days of early Spanish explorers through 1970.It is based on the work of my Great Aunt, Alexania Easterling Lawton and Mrs. Minnie Reeves Wilson which was published in 1970. This work attempts to correct some of the mistakes in the original work and will be followed with another updated, and more in-depth sequel "Allendale C...

Today, seventy-three years after his death, journalists still tell tales of Charles E. Chapin. As city editor of Pulitzer’s New York Evening World , Chapin was the model of the take-no-prisoners newsroom tyrant: he drove reporters relentlessly—and kept his paper in the center ring of the circus of big-city journalism. From the Harry K. Thaw trial to the sinking of the Titanic , Chapin set the pace for the evening press, the CNN of the pre-electronic world of journalism.In 1918, at ...

This new edition of Southern Writers assumes its distinguished predecessor's place as the essential reference on literary artists of the American South. Broadly expanded and thoroughly revised, it boasts 604 entries-nearly double the earlier edition's-written by 264 scholars. For every figure major and minor, from the venerable and canonical to the fresh and innovative, a biographical sketch and chronological list of published works provide comprehensive, concise, up-to-date information. H...

Edison, named for its most famous resident, inventor Thomas Alva Edison, can be called the birthplace of modern life as we know it. It was here at his Menlo Park complex that Thomas Edison created the incandescent electric lightbulb and 300 other inventions, providing residents with not only a place of employment but also a source of national pride. Known as Raritan Township until 1954, Edison was a slow-paced agricultural community until the twentieth century, with farms remaining until t...

Although the town benefits from a position on a major navigable waterway, Middletown's success is primarily due to the energy, creativity, and diversity of its people. These include James Riley, whose autobiography detailing his trials as a white slave in Northern Africa showed millions of Americans the evils of slavery; Max Corvo, who helped the World War II Italian underground defeat the fascist regime; and Christie Ellen McLeod, longtime chief pathologist at Middlesex Memorial Hospital....