Matthew Kerns's Blog: The Dime Library, page 3

Part 2-Transcontinental Railroad-Mountains To Conquer: Legends of the Old West

Episode 2 of 6 in a series on The Transcontinental Railroad  I wrote for Legends of the Old West. In Episode 2, "Mountains to Conquer,"...

The Man Who Put The "Wild" In The West

James Butler Hickok was born 188 years ago today, May 27, 1837. Most folks don’t remember him by that name. They know him as Wild...

When Going Viral Means Getting Robbed

Why So Many Facebook Pages Are Copying My Work Without Credit On the morning of May 15, I published a post about Daniel Webster "80 John"...

Part 1-Transcontinental Railroad-The Great Race: Legends of the Old West

LEGENDS OF THE OLD WEST | Hell on Wheels Ep1 — “The Great Race” Episode 1 of 6 in a series on the construction of the Transcontinental...

For The Old Man

I was fifteen years old on Christmas morning, 1994. That year, my dad was forty-four. Among the gifts he gave me were two books:...

A Drive With Buffalo Bill & Texas Jack

On August 11, 1873, the Daily Local News of West Chester, Pennsylvania published a glowing feature titled "A Drive with Buffalo Bill and...

"80 John" Wallace - Born into Slavery - Died A Cowboy Millionaire

Born into slavery, by the time of his death on March 28, 1939, Daniel "80 John" Wallace had amassed a net worth of over one million dollars, a staggering achievement for a man who began life as property.

National Biographer's Day

I started typing this blog post and was a good paragraph in before it hit me—today is National Biographer’s Day , and somehow I almost...

Defending Real History in the Age of AI

AI Nonsense This post from the “90’s History” Facebook group might look convincing at first glance, but let’s call it what it is: a...

Eight Generations

Left to right: Me holding my granddaughter Celene (2025), my grandmother Ruth with my father and me (1979 or 1980), Richard Jeffreys with...