Local History

One of the most celebrated milestones in Springfield's history is the invention of basketball. It was within the hallowed halls of Springfield College that this iconic sport was born. Springfield College, one of the oldest colleges in the United States, became the birthplace of a game that would capture the hearts and minds of millions worldwide. The spirit of competition, teamwork, and athleticism found its roots here, giving rise to the phenomenon we know as basketball.

Part of the inscription on the base of the San Jacinto Monument reads: "Measured by its results, San Jacinto was one of the decisive battles of the world." James W. Pohl, a noted military historian, tells the exciting story of the pivotal battle of the Texas Revolution.

Indians! Pirates! Rebels! Blockade runners! Smugglers! Murder! Beaches! Beauty contests! Hurricanes! These are all parts of the colorful history of an island city that once called itself The Free State of Galveston. Located at a natural harbor on the northeastern part of a 30-mile-long sand barrier island, the city dates its beginning to the end of the Texas Revolution.

Called by Sam Houston at its founding "the most unfortunate site upon Earth for the seat of government", the infant community struggled for three decades against political enemies and competing towns before winning recognition as the permanent capital. The founding of the University of Texas turned the seat of politics into the seat of education, but Austin's 19th-century dreams of becoming a river port and a factory town came to naught.

In 2005, Margaret Jones Bolsterli learned that her great-great-grandfather was a free mulatto named Jordan Chavis, who owned an antebellum plantation near Vicksburg, Mississippi. The news was a shock; Bolsterli had heard about the plantation in family stories told during her Arkansas Delta childhood, but Chavis' name and race had never been mentioned. With further exploration, Bolsterli found that when Chavis' children crossed the Mississippi River between 1859 and 1875 for exile in Arkansas, they passed into the white world, leaving the family’s racial history completely behind.

Deutschland zur Zeit der Französischen Revolution: Die Adelsfamilie der Baroness von C. flieht auf ihr rechtsrheinisches Gut, um mit Freunden der französischen Belagerung zu entkommen. Nach heftigen Auseinandersetzungen über die politische Lage beschließt die Gesellschaft, sich gegenseitig Geschichten zu erzählen - zur Aufheiterung und gegen den Verfall der Kultur und ihrer Welt.

Central Massachusetts is a land of oddities and apparitions. Stories of the strange and paranormal have been passed down from generation to generation and only the local populace has any idea of just how vast and deep their superstitions run. It’s time to truly learn that the world around you is much more than you can touch, taste, smell, see, and hear...or at least that’s what a good story is supposed to do!

In Summer over Autumn, Howard Mansfield sifts through the commonplace and the forgotten to discover stories that tell us about ourselves and our place in the world - in this case, Hancock, New Hampshire.

As a new president takes the White House, Just Cause returns to New York City for the first time in eight years, under the command of its newest leader: Mustang Sally. But not everyone is excited about the expansion of Just Cause. Senator Christine Goodwin, slighted by the team's leadership years before, has made it her mission to put all para-humans on a very short leash while, at the same time, creating her own super-powered militia.

Alaska statehood - a historic 25 years! This fifth audiobook in the Aunt Phil’s Trunk Alaska History series highlights the first 25 years of statehood through short stories. Not only did the optimistic citizens of the Great Land create a government from scratch in just a few years, they also dealt with many challenges.

Rising from the waters of the Pacific off the Southern California coast, Santa Cruz Island captures the imagination. Once home to a large Chumash population, in the 19th century it became a self-sufficient island rancho. As with all islands of beauty and size, it attracted people from the coastline.

Trains, planes, and automobiles arrive and forever change the lives of Alaskans throughout Aunt Phil’s Trunk, Volume Three. Hardy souls with hammers and drills, axes and mattocks, mauls and gauges found it took muscle and endurance to lay railroad tracks in Alaska’s untamed wilderness. Other adventurers brought automobiles and airplanes north that transformed the way we mined resources, explored the country and traveled the Great Land.

The history of California is one that witnessed the rise and fall of several nations and peoples. From the first natives to settle the fertile lands to the encroaching foreigners from the south, east, west, and north, the land that eventually became the Golden State received them all. From across oceans, mountains, plains, and deserts, people came to take advantage of the region’s natural resources.

The classic dog story Stickeen is John Muir's account of what happened on an Alaskan glacier with a little dog named Stickeen. One day, Muir went exploring a large glacier during a blizzard, with Stickeen in tow. They became stranded, and the only way out was across a precarious ice bridge. Both man and dog escaped, and this triumph changed Stickeen from a rather aloof canine into a devoted companion. Muir called his adventure with Stickeen "the most memorable of all my wild days”, and wrote that the little dog enlarged his life by extended its boundaries.

The appointment of a Supreme Court Justice is an event of major significance in American politics. Each appointment is of consequence because of the enormous judicial power the Supreme Court exercises as the highest appellate court in the federal judiciary. To receive appointment to the Court, a candidate must first be nominated by the president and then confirmed by the Senate.

This serves as the second volume of a series covering the amazing 50 states. It looks at the facts about each state, its history, and interesting little tidbits of information about each.

This serves as the first volume of a series covering the amazing 50 states. It looks at facts about each state, their histories, and interesting little tidbits of information about each. In this volume Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, and Maryland are covered.

Goliad has been an important site in Texas history since Spanish colonial days, but is best known for two of the most controversial episodes of the Texas Revolution: the Fannin Battleground at Coleto Creek and Nuestra Senora de Loreto (Presidio La Bahia), site of the Goliad Massacre. In Remember Goliad!, Craig H. Roell tells the story of the region with clarity and precision.

Though troubled by violent border disputes with Massachusetts and bloody wars with Native American tribes, New Hampshire was settled by knowledgeable merchants and disgraced ministers. They quickly infused the colony with a spirit of rugged industriousness and defiant individualism that persists to this day. This engaging audiobook details the rise of that spirit as New Hampshire grew.

Returning to Roanoke in 1590 after a three-year absence, Governor John White was shocked to find all of the colonists gone. This book examines the Lost Colony of Roanoke from its 1584 exploration, to the failed first settlement, to the mystery of the 1587 colony. Several of White's drawings are included.