Sylvia Shults's Blog, page 48

Today I Learned …

Reindeer lick up urine puddles to get salt in icy environments. Some reindeer herders in Siberia pee on the ground to attract their reindeer to come closer.

Silas Soule

We hear a lot around Thanksgiving about how the Indians really got a raw deal when the Europeans came over to the New World, and yeah, it’s true. The Wampanoag shared the first Thanksgiving feast with the Pilgrims — and provided most of the food — and less than a generation later, were embroiled in King Philip’s War and getting the worst of it. And that pattern, of Native Americans getting shafted by the immigrant Europeans, continued throughout our American history.

But I was delighted to discover, a while ago, that one of my own ancestors, a fellow named Silas Soule, made it a habit to stand up for the rights of Native Americans. Born in Woolwich, Maine on July 26, 1838, he was also an abolitionist. The Soule family was friends with John Brown, and the Soule house was a stop on the Underground Railroad.

Members of the Soule family read Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and were inspired by the tale. Silas’ sister Annie was convinced that it was this inspiration that led her father, Amasa, to move the family from Maine to Kansas to help make Kansas a free state. In November 1854, Amasa and his oldest son William arrived in Lawrence, Kansas, and staked a claim at nearby Coal Creek. The next fall, Mrs. Soule and the rest of the children (Silas, age 17, Emily, age 15, and Annie, age 13) came to join Amasa and William. Soon after this, the young people of Coal Creek decided they needed some fun, so they founded the Coal Creek Social Library Association. They met every two weeks in someone’s home for games, socialization, and reading, and they collected money to found to Coal Creek Library, which still exists today. So one of my ancestors started a library. How about that?

But that’s not Silas Soule’s only claim to fame and remembrance. He followed his brother William to Colorado to work in the gold fields, and when the Civil War broke out, he joined up. The war started in the spring of 1861, and by December, Silas had joined the First Colorado Volunteer Infantry, and later became cavalry. He rose through the ranks, ending up as captain. He was appointed commander of Company D of the First Colorado Cavalry, which was stationed at Fort Lyon in southeast Colorado.

Over the summer, there had been issues with Indian raids. That fall, Silas was present at a conference between chiefs of the Cheyenne and Arapaho, and Governor Evans and Col. Chivington. In September 1864, Captain Soule and Major Edward Wynkoop participated in the Smoky Hill peace talks with Chiefs from the Cheyenne and Arapaho nations. The peace party met with the Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs John Evans and Colonel John Chivington in Denver. Silas’s presence at both of these important peace meetings reinforced his personal beliefs. The talks gave Silas a deep respect for the Native American nations and hope for a peaceful resolution. The Indians believed they had made peace and were camped on Sand Creek several miles from Ft. Lyon, when, on the morning of Nov. 29, 1864, Col. Chivington, with elements of the First and Third Colorado Cavalry, attacked. Some of the officers joined him, but Soule did not. As soon as Soule learned of the plan, he went to a room where some officers were assembled and told them that any man who would take part in the murders was “a low lived cowardly son of a bitch.”

Silas, knowing that the Indians were peaceful, refused to give his company the order to fire on them. But in spite of Silas’s courage, the Sand Creek Massacre was one of the blackest episodes in American history. At dawn on November 29, 1864, approximately 675 U.S. soldiers commanded by Chivington attacked a village of about 750 Cheyenne and Arapaho men, women and children along Sand Creek in southeastern Colorado Territory. Using carbines, pistols and cannon fire, the troops drove the people out of their camp.

     Some managed to escape the initial onslaught. Some women, children, and the elderly fled to the bottom of a dry stream bed. The soldiers followed, shooting at them as they struggled to escape death. Women and children frantically scraped at the sandy earth along the sides of the streambed to protect themselves.

     Over the course of eight hours, the troops killed over 230 Cheyenne and Arapaho people composed mostly of women, children, and the elderly. That afternoon and following day, soldiers mutilated the dead before departing on December 1.

     Silas and most of the other officers at Fort Lyon were appalled. Silas and Lieutenant Cramer wrote letters to their former commander, Major Edward “Ned” Wynkoop. The letters condemned the leadership of Colonel Chivington who ordered the attack. These letters led to investigations by the Army and two congressional committees. The Army’s investigation began in January 1865, and Silas was the first to testify against John Chivington. Chivington was brought before a US Army court-martial. Following the investigations, an Army commission changed history’s judgment of Sand Creek from a battle to a massacre of men, women, and children.

     Chivington was condemned for his actions, but not punished. He resigned from the Army in February 1865. He died penniless in 1894.

     After this, Soule returned to civilian life. He moved to Denver, and on April 1, 1865, he married Hersa A. Coberly. But the honeymoon was to be cut tragically short. On April 23, less than three months after testifying at Chivington’s court-martial, Silas was gunned down in the streets of Denver. His murderer was Charles Squier, a soldier who was loyal to Chivington. Squier was never brought to justice.

     On this Thanksgiving Day, I’m really proud to say that I’m related to Silas Soule, a man who stood up for what he believed was right, even though it cost him his life. And how are we related, you ask? Well, Silas’s ancestor was George Soule, who came over on the Mayflower, and who shared that first Thanksgiving feast with the Wampanoag. And George is MY ancestor too.

[image error]Silas Stillwell Soule. A stand-up guy, and a relative of mine.

Today I Learned…

We all know that Johnny Appleseed was a real person — John Chapman, a missionary who trekked all over Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana during the first half of the 19th century. But did you know that those trees that he planted so carefully were mostly gone by the 1920s? During Prohibition, most of them were chopped down by the FBI so that people couldn’t turn those lovely apples into hard cider. (From Reader’s Digest, September 2019, “Big Apple Facts, And Small Ones Too”.)

Today I Learned …

Lights Out — Zion Cemetery

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Welcome to another episode of Lights Out! Zion Cemetery is a little graveyard hidden away among the cornfields of Illinois. It has a reputation among local paranormal investigators as a place to chase ghosts. As it happens, the reputation is well-deserved. Join me and investigator James Brija for a peek behind the iron gates of Zion Cemetery. https://youtu.be/2VbUil_9dF8

RAS #411 – Psych-Out!

Join me for another wild adventure on Ron’s Amazing Stories. We’ll explore some ghostly happenings … or will we?

via RAS #411 – Psych-Out!

Today I Learned…

Platypuses are an odd combination of animal parts — a duck’s bill, clawed feet (the claws are poisonous, by the way), and fur. They lay eggs — a very odd thing for a mammal to do. But the reproductive weirdness doesn’t stop there, oh no. The female platypus doesn’t have nipples, so the milk she makes to nourish her young is secreted through her skin, where it gathers in creases and folds, like sweat. The babies lap it straight from mama’s skin. (From Reader’s Digest , September 2019, “I Am Milk.”)

Today I Learned…

If you choose not to have children, you are the first person in your direct line of ancestry to make this choice since the first organism appeared on Earth, about 4 billion years ago.

Inadvertently Humorous Cemetery Art

I’m one of those people who enjoy wandering around cemeteries. In particular, I love seeing how people choose to remember their loved ones, both in the stones they choose and in the more ephemeral decorations they leave at the grave site. Most of these tributes are wonderfully touching.

But sometimes, the artwork sends … a different message.

 

As I wandered around Mount Carmel cemetery a few weeks ago, I noticed a beautiful little mausoleum near the end of the row.

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If you walk closer, and peer inside the tomb, you can see a gorgeous piece of stained glass artwork at the back of the structure — a picture of Jesus as the Lamb of God.

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I walked around the mausoleum, and discovered to my horrified delight that if you look at it from the opposite direction … it looks like Jesus has landed Himself in the slammer.

Today I Learned…

Most elephants weigh less than a blue whale’s tongue. And a blue whale’s heart is as big as a Volkswagen Beetle.