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Welsh Hills, The
by Janet Philipps ProcidaIn 1796, several Welsh families fled their homeland to start new lives in America. Theophilus Rees and Thomas Philipps are considered the founding fathers of the Welsh Hills. In 1801, after residing for a few years in Pennsylvania, Rees and Philipps purchased about 2,000 acres of land in Licking County, Ohio. This area is known as the Welsh Hills. Soon they were joined by other families with the last names Thomas, Lewis, James, Johnson, Griffiths, Evans, Jones, Davis, Williams, Owens, Price, King, Cramer, Shadwick, Pugh, White, and Hankinson. Their descendants still reside in and around the Welsh Hills. The Welsh Hills is predominately located in Granville and Newark townships, but a small portion is also located in McKean and Newton townships. This fertile land with hills and valleys and an abundance of timber and natural springs enticed these families to make their permanent home the Welsh Hills.
Wendell Lost and Found
by Valerie J. BrotzWendell turns every which way but the right way in this funny story about friendship, travel, and the perils of a poor sense of direction. Readers will love this wacky adventure through Tasmania and its strange animals like the platypus, Tasmanian devil, and wombat.
We're Sailing Down The Nile: A Journey Through Egypt
by Laurie Krebs Anne WilsonAs the riverboat sails down the Nile River, remnants of Egypt's long history and aspects of its present culture are revealed on its banks.
Wesley Chapel (Images of America)
by Madonna Jervis WiseWesley Chapel originated in the mid-1800s as a cohesive community of settlers who demonstrated a uniquely rural authenticity and independence of spirit. Evidence of Native American presence in the area has been documented as early as 10,000 BC. Lumber harvesting and turpentine production became prominent industries, while cash-crop farming, citrus, and livestock ranching provided sustenance for the pioneer settlement. Charcoal kilns, gator hunting, and moonshine stills supplemented incomes and spawned legends. The community was also identified by the monikers Gatorville, Double Branch, and Godwin. From 1897 to 1902, Wesley Chapel boasted its own post office, two sawmills, and a general store. Primitive roads left residents with an informal town nucleus, and services shifted to surrounding towns until the late 20th century, when postal service and incorporation emerged, and the lumber trusts of John D. Rockefeller, Otto Hermann Kahn, and Edwin Wiley morphed into sizeable ranches.
West Bloomfield and the Tri-Cities
by Ronald K. GayWest Bloomfield Township, located 30 miles northwest of Detroit, was carved from Bloomfield Township in 1833. There were settlements in nearby Pontiac as early as 1818 and in Bloomfield by 1820. The area, originally settled by Native Americans, became a farming community when it was later occupied by European settlers. Towns grew and prospered due to the large number of lakes and later with the advent of the local automotive industry. Around the start of the 20th century, Orchard Lake became an established village, and Sylvan Lake Village and Keego Harbor were beginning to take shape. Over the years, there have been five country clubs, an automobile club, two boat clubs, two camps, a curling club, a military academy, a seminary, and a prep school in the area. There have also been two summer resort hotels created in Orchard Lake, one in Sylvan Lake, and one in West Bloomfield on Pine Lake.
West Brighton
by Cecelia N. Brunner Jim HarkinsIn the late 19th century, West Brighton became known as "Factoryville" after several industries set up shop in the vicinity. One of the largest, Barrett, Nephews, and Company, a dyeing and cleaning establishment, employed hundreds of Staten Islanders. Several prominent historical figures have resided in the region as well, including former first lady Julia Gardiner Tyler, who, in 1862, left the Confederacy (but not her Southern sympathies) to rejoin her family in West Brighton upon the death of former U.S. president John Tyler. The neighborhood is also the home of the famed Staten Island Zoo; the idyllic beauty of Silver Lake, Clove Lakes, and Walker Park lie within walking distance. But the most enduring trait of West Brighton is its people--the generations of families that have put down roots in one of the most scenic communities on Staten Island.
West Brookfield (Images of America)
by William Jankins Brenda MettervilleOriginally a part of Quaboag Plantation, the town of West Brookfield became independent by incorporating in 1848. Early industries included brickyards and factories for bookbinding and the manufacture of boots, hats, corsets, and condensed milk. The community's earliest days were also committed to education as rural school districts were established, boasting original school buildings that were able to be used through the 1950s. Over the years, many notable residents emerged, including Judge Jedediah Foster, who assisted in drafting the Massachusetts Constitution, and famous suffragist Lucy Stone. Brothers Daniel and Ebenezer Merriam established a printing house and bookstore in West Parish Brookfield. Today, residents and visitors enjoy West Brookfield's most popular attractions: the Rock House Reservation features 196 acres of boulders and stone outcrops and the 315-acre Lake Wickaboag is the scene of winter and summer activities, from icehouses to a nationally recognized water-ski club. The Quaboag Historical Society was founded in 1895 and 120 years later is still a vital part of the community.
West Chester: Six Walking Tours (Images of Modern America)
by Bruce E. Mowday Melissa A. MowdayWest Chester is a thriving modern American town that honors its historic past and has become a sought-after location to live. First known as Turks Head, the town was a frequent stop for travelers before the American Revolution. Later, Abraham Lincoln�s first campaign biography was printed in the town. West Chester is the seat of government for Chester County, one of the most affluent and best governed counties in the nation. West Chester and the county have been named repeatedly by a myriad of national publications as one of the top places to live, work, and raise a family in the United States. The community offers many exciting events during the year, including a professional bicycle race, parades, and art and restaurant festivals. West Chester�s famous residents include composer Samuel Barber and artist Horace Pippin.
West Coast Road Eats: The Best Road Food from San Diego to the Canadian Border
by Anna RothAs "locavore" becomes part of our everyday vocabulary and food critics continue to give West Coast cuisine accolades for its freshness and sustainability, West Coast Road Eats shows how why we eat-and where we eat it-matters more than ever. Part guidebook, part travelogue, and part history lesson, West Coast Road Food is a love letter to the seafood shacks, farm stands, taquerias, ice cream parlors, burger joints, wineries, and more that make up our unique edible ecosystem. Covering more than 1,500 miles from the Canadian border to San Diego, West Coast Road Eats offers a plethora of unique restaurants that dot the freeways and scenic byways of the West Coast. With suggested itineraries, overviews of major cities, and sidebars covering everything from captivating food-factory tours to instructions on how to pick the best produce at a farm stand, this book focuses the relationship between food and a sense of place with the enduring image of the American West as a backdrop.Anna Roth is a Los Angeles-based food and travel writer whose work has appeared in publications such as Sunset, Seattle Metropolitan, Edible Seattle, Virtuoso Life, and more. She is the editor of a travel website at Demand Media in Santa Monica, CA.
West Columbus
by Sean V. LehositPresent-day West Columbus is a collective of neighborhoods born from the western banks of the Scioto River in what became Franklin County on April 30, 1803. The first settlement, Franklinton, was founded by Lucas Sullivant in 1797, platted two years after he received 6,000 acres in payment for surveying the central Ohio portion of the Virginia Military District. Later expansions included the areas of Sullivant's Hill, Rome, and Camp Chase. While the first settlers were farmers and ex-soldiers, the land would also attract Quakers, rail men, real estate moguls, and manufacturers. The neighborhoods found success even though the Scioto River, which birthed the region, on multiple occasions threatened to wash them off the map during three great floods. Characterized by a hardworking and driven population, the community attracted major investments by the mid-1900s, including the expanded operations of the General Motors Fisher Body Plant.
West Essex, Essex Fells, Fairfield, North Caldwell, and Roseland
by Charles A. Poekel Jr.In 1702, a tract of land known as "Horseneck" was purchased by descendants of the Puritans from the Hackensack Indians for 130 pounds. The area, which consisted of over 13,500 acres of land, was located on the second Watchung Mountain from New York City. With conflicts between the Native American deeds and the grants from the East Jersey Proprietors whorepresented the Crown, land disputes ensued and resulted in the "Horseneck Riots" in 1744. These riots occurred when a prominent Horseneck farmer, Samuel Baldwin, was arrested and thrown into the Newark Jail. Within a few hours, 300 angry Horseneck farmers marched into the jail and freed him. This represented the first successful resistance against British tyranny, more than 30 years before Lexington and Concord. From this territory and from these early settlers were born the four communities of West Essex--Essex Fells, Fairfield, North Caldwell, and Roseland. From the Dutch origins of Fairfield to the planned suburban development of Essex Fells to the farms and estates of North Caldwell and Roseland, West Essex provides a photographic glimpse of the area, featuring over 200 images, many of whichhave never before been published. The impact of several important individuals is also noted, including Peter Van Ness, Willis H. Carrier, Madame Ernestine Schumann-Heink, and Henry Becker.
West from Home: The Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder, San Francisco, 1915 (Little House #11)
by Roger Lea Macbride Laura Ingalls WilderLaura Ingalls Wilder described her 1915 voyage to San Francisco to visit her daughter, Rose Lane. Laura's husband, Almanzo, was unable to leave their Missouri farm and these are her faithful letters home, vividly describing every detail of her journey.
West Georgia Textile Heritage Trail, The
by The Center for Public History at the University of West GeorgiaThe textile industry powered the economic development of west and northwest Georgia in the 19th and 20th centuries. Several water-powered mills emerged in the antebellum period, but the late 19th century brought more growth as new technology allowed entrepreneurs to build cotton mills in towns and cities. The industry diversified in the 1920s, when hosiery mills moved to the region, and local businessmen established the apparel industry around Bremen. At the same time, a handicraft chenille business evolved in northwest Georgia, leading to the thriving carpet industry still centered in Dalton. Although many of the mills and plants have closed, the landscape of this region displays the strong presence of the textile industry. The West Georgia Textile Heritage Trail, a heritage tourism initiative extending from Columbus to Dalton, explores the rich history of these communities and the people who lived and worked in them.
West Haven Revisited
by Carole A. McelrathFor more than 350 years, the hardy southern New England coastal town of West Haven has made its mark on the nation's history. From the days when Pres. George Washington's fledgling government gave permission to install a dike at Oyster River to Pres. Barack Obama's recognition of the West Haven Black Heritage Committee's leaders, the town has reflected, in miniature, the growth of America. Important people like movie theater mogul Sylvester Z. Poli, his granddaughter Jeanne Poli, and the entrepreneurs who created Savin Rock Amusement Park helped shape West Haven's development. The town's history was also impacted by Queen Victoria and Robert Todd Lincoln's correspondence concerning the rededication of the Campbell grave site, the "Razorbacks connection," and the 1882 murder of Jennie Kramer.
West Jerusalem Noir (Akashic Noir Series)
by Maayan EitanIn West Jerusalem Noir—published simultaneously with East Jerusalem Noir—the Akashic Noir Series visits one of the world's most complex locales, in this volume from the perspective of Israeli writersFrom the editor's introduction:"This anthology offers a fictional tour of Jerusalem, this time through the lens of the noir genre. Not all the stories in this book include a detective, a femme fatale, or a dead body. In fact, a significant number of the writers chose to avoid these genre staples. And yet the stories—each taking place in a different part of the city—sketch a dark imagined map of the city, where religious mystery dwells alongside the quotidian, claustrophobic hubbub of the Central Bus Station . . . The stories included in West Jerusalem Noir could not have taken place anywhere else. They reflect national, religious, and socioeconomic tensions inherent to the city and sketch an image of a concrete, contemporary, and complicated Jerusalem." Featuring brand-new stories by: Yiftach Ashkenazi, Ilana Bernstein, Emanuel Yitzhak Levi and Guli Dolev-Hashiloni, Liat Elkayam, Asaf Schurr, Yardenne Greenspan, Ilai Rowner, Zohar Elmakias, Ilan Rubin Fields, Nano Shabtai, Yaara Shehori, Tafat Hacohen-Bick, Nadav Lapid, Tehila Hakimi, and Oded Wolkstein. West Jerusalem Noir is being published simultaneously with East Jerusalem Noir, edited by Rawya Jarjoura Burbara. The companion volume explores the city with brand-new stories by Palestinian authors.
West Las Vegas
by Patricia HershwitzkyOriginal Las Vegas faced stiff odds with fluctuating fortunes throughout the 20th century. Celebrated as the McWilliams Townsite in 1904, Las Vegas's first commercial enterprise was quickly crushed by savvy developers owning most of the water rights on the southeast side of the railroad tracks. Deprived of resources and services, the tent-riddled ground soon earned the name Ragtown and was populated by the area's poorest, the majority being minorities. During the 1940s and 1950s, a soaring influx of blacks from small plantation towns in the South descended upon Las Vegas, seeking a promised land during the boom of wartime industry, but Jim Crow laws flew in with them. Ironically, segregation led to the emergence of the Westside as an enclave of successful businesses, services, entertainment and casino venues, dozens of churches, and middle-class housing. Although integration brought an exodus and decline, a bold new generation of West Las Vegans is once again revitalizing the original Westside community.
West Linn
by Cornelia Becker SeigneurThe largest iron meteorite discovered in the United States, weighing 15.5 tons, was unearthed in West Linn in 1902 and featured in the 1905 World's Fair before journeying to New York's American Museum of Natural History, where it remains. West Linn was carved onto the map years before, when Robert Moore purchased 1,000 acres of land in 1840 from the Wallamut Indians at Willamette Falls. Soon a lumber mill and flour mill were established, and the region was given a new name--Linn City--after free-state advocate Lewis F. Linn. Hugh Burns and the Miller, Fields, and Walling families also figured in early West Linn history. Though an 1861 fire, then flood, destroyed what was Linn City, the falls continued drawing industry. Officially incorporated into Oregon in 1913, West Linn, known for its hills, trees, rivers, and famous meteorite, is a sought-after community in which to raise families and made the 2005 top-100 list of best places to live.
West Palm Beach: 1893 to 1950
by Richard A. Marconi Historical Society of Palm Beach County Lynn Lasseter DrakeWest Palm Beach was established in 1894, two decades after pioneers first arrived in the wilderness at Lake Worth. In 1893, Henry M. Flagler, Standard Oil magnate and Florida railroad mogul, finalized plans to extend his Florida East Coast Railroad south in order to turn Palm Beach into a winter playground for the rich. He designed West Palm Beach as the mainland commercial and residential support for his new resort. From its humble beginnings, it has become Palm Beach County's largest city and the seat of government. The city has suffered fires, hurricanes, boom times, and hard times, always emerging triumphantly. This installment of West Palm Beach's fascinating story shares its unique settlement and growth through the end of World War II.
West Plains: 1880-1930 (Images of America)
by Toney AidOn the eve of the Civil War, West Plains was a sleepy county seat with a population of 150 and a wood-frame courthouse in its town square. During the war, this Southern Missouri town was burned, abandoned, and eventually reconstructed. With the arrival of the railroad in 1883, West Plains turned boomtown, and photographers were among the first entrepreneurs to arrive. This volume of vintage photographs documents the town as it grew, struggled, and prospered over the next 50 years. Pictured here are the washwomen and the bankers, the circuses and the fires, the schools and homes that helped build the West Plains of today.
West Roxbury (Images of America)
by Anthony Mitchell SammarcoWest Roxbury, located along the scenic Charles River, is a community of tree-lined streets and panoramic views, which has undergone tremendous changes since its incorporation as a town in 1851. Formerly known as "Westerly" or "South Street," West Roxbury has grown from a largely rural area, accessible only by train, into a charming neighborhood of Victorian homes that still offers many of the same advantages that attracted people a century ago--the quietness of small town life, with the attractions of big city living just a short distance away. West Roxbury is also the former home of Brook Farm, a utopian community founded by Reverend Ripley. Brook Farm was a center of literary achievement that attracted such foremost thinkers of the nineteenth century as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Horace Greeley.
West Seattle
by Southwest Seattle Historical Society Log House MuseumThe idea of a big city named New York Alki began in 1851 with the arrival of the Bell, Low, Denny, Boren, and Terry families on a Puget Sound shore. Since that rough beginning, logging, farming, shipbuilding, fishing, steel manufacturing, trolleys, and bridges have shaped the area's people and built communities. Beaches on Puget Sound and a river leading inside the country have defined the Duwamish Peninsula. In 1907, long having discarded the misfit name New York, the town of West Seattle was annexed into Seattle. Being the largest landmass annexed to Seattle brought advantages while West Seattle's neighborhood distinction and independent spirit remained.
West Seneca
by James PaceWest Seneca's history as a working community can be seen in its humble Native American cabins, sturdy Ebenezer Society buildings, simple farms, hardscrabble shops, and blue-collar housing tracts. In the 1700s, the Seneca Indians became the most dominant tribe when the town was part of the Buffalo Creek Reservation. In the 1840s, the arrival of the Ebenezer religious community from Germany continued the area's mostly agricultural development, and they formally incorporated the town in 1851. Their departure in the 1860s led to the arrival of more immigrants, primarily farmers, laborers, and shopkeepers. The next 100 years in West Seneca saw its development continue. In the 1950s, a further influx of new residents looking for affordable homes in a suburban setting led to the town's rapid growth as a mecca for working people.
West to a Land of Plenty: The Diary of Teresa Angelino Viscardi (Dear America)
by Jim MurphyThe first humorous book in the Dear America series, "West to a Land of Plenty" follows an Italian girl's immigrant family as they move from New York City to a utopian community in the frontier West.
West Virginia National Guard: 1898-1919 (Images of America)
by Brian Stuart KestersonThe formation of what would eventually become the West Virginia National Guard has its roots intertwined in the "Old" Virginia Militia system of the early and mid-1700s. This militia system spanned the Indian hostilities of the French and Indian War, American Revolutionary War, 1780s and 1790s Indian Wars, and Civil War. Images of America: West Virginia National Guard covers the time span between 1898 and 1919. This period of guard history was chaotic, to say the least, and was typified by turbulent social, economic, and political unrest.
West Whiteland Township
by Janice Wible EarleyLocated in Chester County, Pennsylvania, West Whiteland Township was established in 1765 when Whiteland Township divided into "East" and "West." Readers can glimpse into the past at establishments such as The Guernsey Cow restaurant, Strawbridge & Clothier, and the Valley Creek Coffee House. A chapter on Richard Downing provides firsthand accounts by quoting personal letters of his life in West Whiteland in the 1850s. There are beautiful photographs from the time when riders chased foxes as members of the Whiteland Hunt. The township began to change after the invention of the automobile; for over 100 years, the area had primarily been a farming community, until businesses began to spring up along Lincoln Highway and Pottstown Pike. With rapid development in the late 1970s and 1980s, many historic buildings were saved through the preservation efforts of the West Whiteland Historical Commission.