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HISTORY: unwrapped – February 2008

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Yerba Buena was a tiny village of sand dunes and small oaks populated with fleas that tormented the few people who lived there. The Gold Rush transformed the sleepy town into the booming city of San Francisco. This cosmopolitan center was jolted awake on the morning of April 18, 1906 as an earthquake hit the city. People were in bed as buildings were leveled and streets rose and fell. Fires broke out, causing more destruction than the earthquake. Four square miles of the city was destroyed by fire and the death toll was 4,000. This was not the first time San Francisco had survived a disaster. The city had burned to the ground six times previously. The mythical bird that is reborn from its ashes, the Phoenix, was adopted as the city’s symbol. Did San Francisco survive only to fall victim to a future earthquake? Only time will tell.

In 1900 there were no weather satellites and no Doppler radar. However, warnings were issued by the U.S. Weather Bureau.  People were advised to seek higher ground. Many didn't heed the warnings preferring instead to watch the huge waves. On September 8, the hurricane slammed into Galveston, Texas almost head on. Waves were higher than 15 feet and winds howled at 130 miles per hour. By the time the storm passed, more than 8,000 people were dead, countless were injured and half of the island's homes had been swept away. The Great Storm reigns today as the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history. But while the storm was phenomenal, so was the response of the people who survived it.

"Sunday morning, the day after the disaster, began with the sound of bells from the ruined Ursuline Convent calling people to worship," wrote historian David G. McComb. It was a fitting beginning. Despite the unimaginable devastation and what must have been a hard realization that it could happen again, the city immediately began pulling itself out of the mud.

February 27, 2008 – The Black Awakening

In spite of many obstacles, Southern slaves heard the gospel. Some white masters believed that slaves had no souls, others felt that conversion would make them “saucy” and they would think they were equal to whites. Others believed that a Christian slave was ten times worse than a pagan one. Plantation work gave slaves little time for religion; some masters required slaves to work on Sunday. Secret prayer meetings began to take place. Slaves would gather in the swamps, far away from patrols. The first to arrive at the meeting place broke the branches from trees, bending them in the direction of the selected meeting spot. After the slaves arrived, preaching, prayer, and then singing took place. Punishment could be 200 lashes if they were discovered. Black Christianity surged in the late 18th century in spite of the persecutions and gave hope to many who wore the chains of slavery.

February 26, 2008 – Delicious and Refreshing

Mention the name of Dr. John Stith Pemberton, and the majority of people would shrug their shoulders. But it was Dr. Pemberton, an Atlanta pharmacist, who carried his new concoction in a jug down the street to Jacob’s Pharmacy for a taste testing at the soda fountain. The syrup was declared “excellent” and sold for five cents a glass. Carbonated water was added to the new syrup producing a drink that was “Delicious and Refreshing,” a theme that continues to this day.

Dr. Pemberton’s partner and bookkeeper suggested the name “Coca-Cola,” and soon the beverage was being advertised in the newspaper. The first year’s sales averaged about nine drinks a day. Dr. Pemberton had no idea of the potential of his creation. He eventually sold his business, with the remaining interest in his tasty drink being purchased by Asa Candler. Atlantan Candler had fine business sense and ended up with complete control of Coca-Cola. Under his direction, Coca-Cola became the most recognized product around the world.

The smallpox virus had its greatest impact on the Indian populations in what is now Central and South America. Some historians have theorized that “it was not Cortez’ soldiers but smallpox that conquered the kingdom of the Aztecs in Mexico in 1520.” While this might be an exaggeration, smallpox certainly took its toll. It’s no wonder that the “Aztecs couldn’t believe that such a disease could be considered small and called it the `big pox.’“

The psychological impact of smallpox was also great. Between 1518 and 1531 nearly one-third of the total Indian population died of smallpox while the Spanish remained mysteriously unaffected. The Indians interpreted this to mean that their gods had failed them. In a deeply religious and superstitious society this assessment undermined the will to resist and made it possible for the Spanish to conquer what was left of the well-established pagan Aztec population.

Smallpox was followed by waves of measles, influenza, and typhus. “By the end of the sixteenth century, it is estimated that up to 90 percent of the indigenous populations had died in the successive waves of disease, and the Spanish began importing slaves to meet the labor demands created by catastrophic disease mortality.” The Aztecs contributed to their own demise through human sacrifice. As many as fifty thousand people a year were sacrificed “as a gourmet source of protein for its privileged elites.” But, that’s another story for another time.

February 22, 2008 – A City in Ruins

Yerba Buena was a tiny village of sand dunes and small oaks populated with fleas that tormented the few people who lived there. The Gold Rush transformed the sleepy town into the booming city of San Francisco. This cosmopolitan center was jolted awake on the morning of April 18, 1906 as an earthquake hit the city. People were in bed as buildings were leveled and streets rose and fell. Fires broke out, causing more destruction than the earthquake. Four square miles of the city was destroyed by fire and the death toll was 4,000. This was not the first time San Francisco had survived a disaster. The city had burned to the ground six times previously. The mythical bird that is reborn from its ashes, the Phoenix, was adopted as the city’s symbol. Did San Francisco survive only to fall victim to a future earthquake? Only time will tell.

February 21, 2008 – The Detroit of the South — Almost

“In 1921, automotive tycoon Henry Ford, accompanied by Thomas Edison, came to Muscle Shoals with a vision of transforming this area into a metropolis. ‘I will employ one million workers at Muscle Shoals and I will build a city 75 miles long at Muscle Shoals,’ stated Mr. Ford.  The instant rumors of Ford’s plan hit the streets, real estate speculators began buying up land and parceling it out in 25 foot lots and putting in sidewalks and street lights. People from all over the United States bought lots, sight unseen, during this time. Mr. Ford’s offer to buy Wilson Dam for $5 million was turned down by Congress. (The initial cost of the construction of the dam was $46.5 million.)  Instead, Congress, under the influence of Senator George Norris of Nebraska, later formed the Tennessee Valley Authority to develop the dam as well as the entire river valley.  Senator Norris felt strongly that the public, rather than private companies, should receive the benefits from the government’s investments in Muscle Shoals. Although Ford’s plans did not turn Muscle Shoals into a huge city, it did lay the foundation for the city of Muscle Shoals.”1 Congress missed out on a great opportunity. While the quad-city area (Muscle Shoals-Sheffield-Florence-Tuscumbia) of northwest Alabama is picturesque and a great place to visit and live, it has (mostly) been bypassed by industry, as has much of Alabama, although this is beginning to change. Ford’s venture would have more than paid for the cost of Wilson Dam in jobs, production, and tax revenue. The enterprise would have transformed the South by bringing industrial diversity to a part of the country almost exclusively supported by agriculture.

Muscle Shoals is much more famous, although most people don’t know it, for being a music Mecca. The city was immortalized in song by Lynyrd Skynyrd in “Sweet Home Alabama” with the line “Now Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers.” It’s hard to believe, if you’ve ever driven through the city, that Little Richard, Wilson Pickett, Clarence Carter, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Leon Russell, Joe Cocker, Paul Simon, Traffic, Rod Stewart, Bob Seger, and others recorded there. Songs like “Take A Letter Maria,” “High Time We Went,” “When a Man Loves a Woman,” “Respect Yourself,” “Kodachrome,” “Loves Me Like A Rock,” “Land of a 1000 Dances,” “Old Time Rock And Roll,” and “Sailing” were recorded at the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio.2 It’s hard to imagine Mick Jagger and the rest of the Rolling Stones hanging out anywhere in the Quad-City area. The biggest tourist attraction is the home of Helen Keller down the road a piece in Tuscumbia, and it’s not much to see.

Detroit may be the automobile capital of the world with its distinctive “Motown (Motor Town) Sound,” but this tiny Alabama enclave that missed out on being the Detroit of the South set its mark in the music business as the “Hit Recording Capital of the World.”

1 www.cityofmuscleshoals.com/Default.asp?ID=11

2 www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1437161. Before the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, there was FAME Studios (Florence Alabama Music Enterprises). The studio later moved to Muscle Shoals.

February 20, 2008 – Radio to the Rescue

During a very dense fog, the British ship East Goodwin collided with a British steamer. The steamer misjudged the tide and accidentally rammed the East Goodwin causing heavy damage. Fortunately, the sea was calm and the damaged ship was able to keep afloat. The steamer remained alongside the East Goodwin until a distress call was sent across the water by wireless radio. It was one of the first uses of radio since its invention just months earlier by the Italian physicist Guglielmo Marconi.

The Italian government was not interested in Marconi’s ideas of wireless communication when presented to them in 1896. Marconi believed he would have more success in England where some of his relatives resided. He filed his first patent for a system for telegraphy shortly after arriving in England and in 1897, formed the world’s first radio company.

Although lifeboats were not needed to rescue the East Goodwin crew and passengers, the wireless link with the shore made it possible for the rescue ship to set out much more quickly than would otherwise have been the case. The significance of what happened did not escape the people involved at the time. A system was now in place that enabled a vessel in distress to quickly call for help.

February 19, 2008 – The “Mick” and the Gospel

Baseball great Mickey Mantle played hard both on and off the field. The belief that he would die young like his father may have led to Mantle’s failure to take care of himself. In the early 1990s, Mantle entered a clinic to combat alcoholism. Several years later, he was hospitalized for cancer. The former New York Yankees slugger had admitted years earlier that there was a void in his life. He had heard the gospel message many times from Christian friends. While in the hospital near the end of his life, he came to Christ while listening to a testimonial tape by NBA Hall of Famer Pete Maravich. A few weeks before his death, Mantle shared with a close friend that he “now trusted Christ as his Lord and Savior.”

February 18, 2008 – The Brains of the Confederacy

On the floor of the Confederate House of Representatives, Congressman Henry Foote of Mississippi spewed hateful words about “Davis’s Jews,” as he called them. He accused the Jews of seizing control of the South’s economy and of President Jefferson Davis. He blamed them for destroying everything. Those poisonous words appealed to those who wanted to believe there was a conspiracy behind the South’s military and economic downturns in 1863. But Jefferson Davis was not about to give into the insults, especially not with Judah Benjamin as his Secretary of State and most trusted cabinet member. For three years, Davis endured verbal abuse from Congressman Foote, who disagreed with him on nearly everything. Davis stuck by his friend and did not heed the criticism of those who blamed the Jews for the South’s troubles. Jefferson Davis was more than willing to defend his friend Judah Benjamin from a bitter and unrelenting anti-Semite.

February 15, 2008 – Andrew Carnegie’s Golden Goose

Before Andrew Carnegie earned his millions in steel, he made his first fortune through investments—and never used a penny of his own money. Twelve-year-old Andrew took a factory job for $1.20 a week shortly after his poverty-stricken family arrived in America from Scotland in 1848. Four years later, he went to work for Tom Scott of the Pennsylvania Railroad who taught young Andrew the art of investing. Carnegie learned how to use dividends from stock to make payments against loans. When the loans were paid off, the dividends were his. He would use this system repeatedly to build his assets and income without having to invest his own capital. Though Carnegie would go on to amass a staggering fortune in the steel business, he would always remember his very first monthly dividend of $10. Carnegie gave away much of his vast fortune, funding libraries and museums.

February 14, 2008 – Yankee Paradise

St. Cloud, Florida, was founded in 1909 as a colony for Union veterans. Investors purchased 32,000 acres and more than 1,000 former Union soldiers bought land. One hundred dollars would buy a house lot in the city and five acres in the country. The town grew rapidly during the first summer with the erection of a hotel, bank, electric power plant, four churches, stores, restaurants, and a printing office. Along with St. Cloud’s many successes, there were some setbacks . . . such as the first cattle and sheep being unable to adapt to the climate, a severe freeze that destroyed crops, and a fire that leveled all the buildings but one on Pennsylvania Avenue. But St. Cloud survived. Its Grand Army of the Republic Memorial Hall is the only existing Union memorial south of the Mason-Dixon Line. The tightly knit community is changing into a growing suburb, but the town’s unusual beginning can never be changed.

February 13, 2008 – The Man Behind the Mask

Lon Chaney was the son of deaf mute parents and learned from childhood to communicate through pantomime, sign language and facial expression. Little did he know that the skits he reenacted mimicking the towns people would one day help him start a career entertaining people, which would last nearly forty years and make him the world’s most popular box office attraction. Silent movies were made for Chaney. He started out singing and dancing in touring musical shows but it was silent films where his genius for makeup and pantomime made its mark. His bizarre characterizations often portrayed villains or physically disabled or deformed characters. By 1922, Chaney was being billed as The Man of A Thousand Faces.  His roles as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925) made him a superstar. MGM offered the actor a contract where he became the studio's most popular male star. Chaney was a fine actor dedicated to his craft and remains a mysteriously enduring star even today.

February 12, 2008 – The Failed Attempt to Assassinate Adolf Hitler

On July 20, 1944, Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg planted a bomb during a meeting at Adolf Hitler’s headquarters in Rastenberg, East Prussia, which is now Poland. The bomb, contained in a briefcase, exploded, killing four. Hitler survived with only minor injuries, including burns, a concussion, and a loss of hearing. The injuries were not serious enough for him to cancel his meeting with Italian dictator Benito Mussolini later in the day. The bomb had been placed on the right side of one of the oak table’s two heavy support legs, shielding Hitler from the major force of the blast. After planting the bomb, Stauffenberg left the room. The officer who took his place at the table noticed the briefcase, and with his foot pushed it further under the table.

Stauffenberg waited for the explosion and assumed Hitler had been killed. Big mistake. He flew back to Berlin where he and his co-conspirators hoped to stage a coup de état and install a new government. It was not to be. Hours after the failed assassination attempt, Stauffenberg and other army officers implicated in the plot were rounded up and executed on Hitler’s orders. Eight of the conspirators were hanged with piano wire from meat-hooks. Their executions were filmed and shown to senior members of the Nazi Party and the armed forces as a not so subtle warning to future traitors to the Nazi cause.

Sixty years later, on July 20, 2004, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder led a series of tributes to the conspirators at a ceremony in Berlin. At the army headquarters where Stauffenberg was executed by firing squad for his role in the assassination attempt, Prime Minister Schroeder said Germans should remember all those who stood up to the Nazis. The Stauffenberg plotters are today regarded by most Germans as heroes for their attempt to free Germany from the Nazi regime and its megalomaniac dictator.

February 11, 2008 – The Gentle Professor

The most famous scientist of the 20th century, Albert Einstein, was born in Germany in 1879. Einstein didn’t talk until he was three, but the precocious boy taught himself Euclidean geometry at twelve. He detested dull education and often cut classes to study physics or play his violin. His professors turned him down for a teaching position. Instead he worked as tutor, substitute teacher, and an examiner in the Swiss patent office. Einstein earned a doctorate and published three theoretical papers that would change the way scientists regarded light and motion. Like Sir Isaac Newton, Einstein believed in a universe ordered by God. When Adolph Hitler came to power in 1933, Einstein accepted a position at Princeton University. At Princeton, Einstein became a beloved and familiar figure who was often seen taking walks and checking out the kitchen gadgets at Woolworth’s.  His rumpled appearance and finger-in-the-light-socket hair often caused visitors to the university to mistake him for a bum. Always approachable, Einstein, whose brilliance rocked the scientific community, was not above helping a young neighbor with his math homework.

February 8, 2008 – I Owe, I Owe, Off to Work I Go

The majority of laborers throughout the seventeenth century were white indentured servants. “Indentured servitude” means working off a debt a person cannot repay. The person worked without wages, usually for a period of five to seven years, in exchange for payment of the person’s passage to the American colonies. The contract, called an “indenture,” entitled the servant to food, clothing, shelter, and medical attention. Devised by the Virginia Company in the late 1610s, the system provided much needed cheap labor. It is estimated that one-half to two-thirds of all European immigrants to the colonies participated in the system, some voluntarily, some as victims of penal servitude. More often than not, the indentured servants were shocked by their new conditions. Rather than finding venues in which they could practice their profession, like gardens and orchards, overseers marched servants out to the fields. Many died, attempted to return to England, or ran away. In addition to mistreatment, many servants also encountered contract extension, a popular punishment of planters for rowdy indentures. Even the worst human abuses did not take the mortal tolls that the climate of Virginia claimed. The temperate springs and falls, and sweltering summers in the New World, created a market for fresh servants.

February 7, 2008 – Hot Off The Press

In the book, "1,000 Years, 1,000 People: Ranking the Men and Women Who Shaped the Millennium," Johannes Gutenberg (1394?–1468), inventor of the printing press, is first on the list. The first book that came off his press was the Bible.The process of preparing a press for printing a book has not always been as easy as it is today. By the tenth century, the Chinese were printing books using carved wooden blocks. Medieval European printers followed a similar method. This was a long and tedious process. The Chinese tried to speed up the process by making ceramic characters. Since thousands of such characters were needed, the project was abandoned. Gutenberg’s printing press was revolutionary because it featured movable metal type that kept its shape after numerous impressions. Individual letters were cast from master molds and could be put together in any combination to form any word. The type was then inked and pressed down onto paper with a large wooden screw. Although still a slow process (by today's standards), Gutenberg's press paved the way for modern mass media, although almost no one today uses hard type to typeset books. Most if not all books are typeset electronically. Gutenberg captured the true significance of his invention with these words: “Religious truth is captive in a small number of little manuscripts, which guard the common treasures instead of expanding them. Let us break the seal which binds these holy things; let us give wings to truth that it may fly with the Word, no longer prepared at vast expense, but multiplied everlastingly by a machine which never wearies—to every soul which enters life.”

February 6, 2008 - Bones that Started a Reformation

England had a head start on the Reformation because of the work of John Wycliffe (c. 1324–1384). It was Wycliffe who held that the Bible alone (sola Scriptura) set forth the definition of true Christianity. Wycliffe’s efforts to translate the Bible into the language of the people prepared the way for a reform movement that would take England and the New World by storm. His hand written translations were based on Jerome’s Latin Vulgate, the only source text available to Wycliffe. Like Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and Tyndale, Wycliffe’s reform efforts did not go unopposed. Thirty-one years after his death, the Council of Constance condemned Wycliffe on 260 different counts, ordered his writings to be burned, and directed that his bones be exhumed and buried in unconsecrated ground. In 1428, on orders from the Pope, Wycliffe's remains were dug up and burned. His ashes were thrown in a nearby river. Wycliffe's followers, called Lollards,* carried on his work under severe persecution from Henry V (1413–1422). Because of continued opposition from the Crown and the outlawing of Bible reading in the English language, the Lollards worked in secret. But by the late fifteenth century, the activity of the Lollards began to grow more bold and effective. They brought the discussion of theological issues to the masses which in turn led some people to question certain aspects of Roman Catholic doctrine. In the end, Wycliffe’s views won out. His ashes became seed for a Reformation that transformed the world. “The sacred Scriptures,” Wycliffe wrote, “be the property of the people, and one which no party should be allowed to wrest from them.”

* The Lollards derived their name from the medieval Dutch word meaning “to mutter” (lollaerd), possibly a reference to their style of worship, which was based on reading the scriptures. The derivation may be of Latin origin, from lollen, “to sing softly” (cf. Eng. lull).

It’s one thing to fly a fighter jet over enemy territory, but 6,000 Americans volunteered to be glider pilots flying large unarmed cargo gliders during World War II. They repeatedly risked their lives as they landed their cargo of men and tools deep within enemy-held territory. These men often worked in darkness and only had a stopwatch to navigate their route. Their gliders had no engines, no parachutes, and no second chances. They were made of steel tubing, cloth, and plywood but were capable of carrying a jeep loaded with supplies or up to 16 men. The pilots either succeeded in their mission, or they died trying. Many have called the glider pilots courageous; others have said that they must have been insane to be willing to perform such hair-raising missions.

February 4, 2008 – Leadville's Ice Palace

The town of Leadville, Colorado was in the doldrums. Its glory days as a silver-mining center were ending. In an effort to keep their city alive, the citizens decided to stage a winter carnival. Workmen worked day and night using 5,000 tons of ice to build an ice palace for the carnival. On New Year’s Day, 1896, the town turned out for the grand opening. The huge ice palace covering three acres had been completed costing more than $40,000. The towers that flanked the entrance were 90 feet high. The inside contained a 16,000-square-foot ice rink, dance floor, curling rink, restaurant, gaming room and other activity areas. It was illuminated with a dazzling array of electric lights and adorned with gleaming search lights with wonderful prismatic colors illuminating the walls of ice outside.

One woman viewing the fireworks reflecting off the palace walls looked away saying that it was “too unearthly a vision” to gaze upon. By the end of March, the vision was melting away. The thousands of visitors coming from far and wide had spent very little money, but the townspeople felt it had all been worthwhile.

February 1, 2008 – Georgia on His Mind

General James Oglethorpe (1696–1785) conceived a plan to provide a refuge for persecuted Protestants of Europe. On June 9, 1732, he was granted a charter by George II to establish a new colony. Oglethorpe named his colony Georgia. He was motivated primarily from strong Christian principles, which are evident in his denouncement of slavery. In London, in 1734, he praised Georgia for its anti-slavery policy:

Slavery, the misfortune, if not the dishonor, of other plantations, is absolutely proscribed. Let avarice defend it as it will, there is an honest reluctance in humanity against buying and selling, and regarding those of our species as our wealth and possessions. . . . The name of slavery is here unheard, and every inhabitant is free from unchosen masters and oppression. . . . Slavery is against the gospel as well as the fundamental law of England. We refused, as trustees, to make a law permitting such a horrid crime. But, Oglethorpe’s words were not heeded. The “horrid crime” of slavery was soon introduced to Georgia. “In 1750 the law prohibiting slavery was repealed and Georgia became a slave-worked plantation colony like its neighbor, South Carolina.”

In keeping with the original charter which gave the colonists of Georgia “a liberty of conscience” to worship God, the 1777 Constitution retains its essential religious character. Article VI states that “The representatives shall be chosen out of the residents in each county . . . and they shall be of the Protestant religion.” Article LVI declares that “All persons whatever shall have the free exercise of their religion; provided it be not repugnant to the peace and safety of he State.” Like many of the state constitutions, the Georgia constitution prohibited clergymen from holding seats in the legislature.