Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 90, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 July 1903 — THE WEEKLY HISTORIAN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE WEEKLY HISTORIAN

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

Two hundred thousand French troops were reported ready for landing In England. New York City was in such Insanitary condition that the King of Denmark refused to permit ships from that port to land in hit dominions without a special certificate from the Danish consul. President Thomas Jefferson read In public the official dispatch announcing that the Louisiana purchase treaty had been signed in Paris. SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO. Samuel Meek of Georgetown advertised for fifty negroes between 10 and 25 years old, offering to pay the "highest cash price” in the District of Columbia. Striking cotton mill operatives at Greenwich, Conn., destroyed' looms and cloth valued at several thousand dollars. What were declared to be rich gold fields were discovered in Randolph County, North Carolina. President John Quincy Adams lifted the first shovelful of earth for the building of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, andl reviewed a parade of boats on the Potomac river. The famous Thames tunnel was reported near successful completion, although leading engineers had pronounced it an impossibility. Monticello, the estate of Thomas Jefferson, near Charlottesville, Va., was ad- v. vertised for sale to satisfy a debt of $72,000, remaining due at the time of its owner’s death. FIFTY YEARS AGO. The first railroad was opened in Norway. The American naval expedition under Commodore Matthew C. Perry entered the harbor of Yeddo, Japan, after a judicious display of big guns. A national convention of negroes met at Rochester, N. Y., to discuss the possibility of colonizing American slaves and freedmen in Africa or elsewhere. Gen. Almonte reached Washington as representative of Gen. Santa Ana, with authority to settle the threatened rupture between Mexico and the United/ States. Twenty-one armed conspirators were arrested for plotting the assassination of the Emperor Louis Napoleon of France. FORTY YEARS AGO. Gen. Morgan seized two Union gunboats on the Ohio river forty miles below Lonisville, transported his 4,000 rebel cavalrymen to the Indiana shore, and defeated a force of State militia aent to resist him. The Louisville (Ky.) City Council voted to enroll all male citizens between the ages of 18 and 45 for the defense of that eity against the rebels, and to send north all who resisted. Gen. Meade decided to attempt the capture of Gen. R. E. Lee’s retreating rebel army, and ordered Gen. French to reoccupy Harper’s Ferry, while he himself, with the main body of hia troops, started from Gettysburg into the Antietam valley. Louisville (Ky.) citizens were called oat at midnight by the ringing of fire belle and prepared to resist Gen. Morgan’s rebel raiders, who were reported close by. The forty-five days’ siege of Vicksburg, Miss., ended with the display of a flag of truce and a conference between Gen. Pemberton, the rebel commandant, and Gen. U. S. Grant over terms of surrender. The battle of Gettysburg ended with the repulse of the rebel troops under Ewell, an artillery duel between Lee and Meade, the charge of the rebels on Hancock’s brigade and the capture of 4,500 of them, the recovery of 'the ground lost by Union troops on July 2, and preparations by Gen. Lee for a rebel retreat. Gen. Morgan’s rebel raiders were attacked at Columbia, Ky., by Wolford’s cavalry, which they repulsed, and then sacked the town. Gen. R. E. Lee began hia retreat with the rebel army from Gettysburg, taking south with him an enormous number of cattle, stores and plunder from the Pennsylvania farmers and storekeepers. Gen. Morgan's rebel * raiders were repulsed at Tehbs Bend, Ky., by 200 Michigan troops under Col. Moore. • Gen. Morgan reached the Ohio river at Brandenburg with 4.000 rebel cavalry and Kentucky secessionists and prepared to invade Indiana. THIRTY YEARS AGO, The famous steamer Virginius arrived at Aspinwall, followed by a Spanish man of war and the United States ship Kansas. A drawing of the Louisville (Ky.) lottery, whose promoters advertised they would build a new public library, took t place before an immense crowd, the capital prize of $20,000 going to O. A. Krspp, a liquor dealer. Jefferson Davis, former Preaident of the Confederacy, was reported among the distinguished arrivals in New York. President Grant’s cabinet witnessed the formal transfer of the Philadelphia centennial grounds to the exposition commissioners. Ex-cftr#.Palmer of Illinois, In a speech at Springfield,' attacked President Grant’s salary increase end declared that no President of the United States ever earned $50,000 e year. „ The New York Btate p*rk commission urged that the Adirondack* be converted Into a public park and game preserve.