Podcasts about American frontier

It's corkers and Blarney Stones as NostalgiaCast takes a transatlantic trip back in time to discuss Ron Howard's FAR AND AWAY, starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Jonny and Darin kick off their 1992 retrospective by welcoming Ruth and Rae of the Paperback Flicks podcast to chat about the history of Irish immigrants and the American frontier, along with the sweeping panoramic vistas, overblown Oir-ish accents, and megawatt star chemistry that made this period romantic drama a minor classic.

In this podcast the poet and artist MacGillivray reads from and discusses her book, The Last Wolf of Scotland (Pighog). The collection is an exploration of connections between Scotland and the American Frontier whose form brilliantly reflects the subject matter of the poems. MacGillivray joins Jennifer Williams in a conversation that maps the rich web of influences from which her poetry emerges, taking in Doors front-man Jim Morrison, mock ancient Scottish bard Ossian, and the mysterious ‘Man with Fourteen Lives'. Plus a debate about whether poetry works better on the page or read aloud, or memorised and recited.

Chief Bowles or Duwali was a name familiar across the American Frontier two hundred years ago. As headman of the Cherokees west of the Mississippi River, he saw his people through many a trying time. His favor was curried by the many rulers and would-be rulers of the territories where the Cherokees resided. As a gesture of friendship, he was given a sword by soon-to-be Texas President Sam Houston. That sword is now in Tahlequah, the Capital of the Cherokee Nation, but how it got there is a story you need to hear. More on Lovely's Purchase: https://withinpodcast.com/2018/03/24/lets-talk-about-lovely-county/   SUPPORT INDEPENDENT ARTIST! Episode archive, news and more! Check out all we have to offer at withinpodcast.com! Want to advertise, sponsor or otherwise support Within The Realm? Visit with us at contact@withinpodcast.com or Support Within The Realm  Our wonderful sponsors!: jandjpoolsafety@gmail.com katchakid.com Katchakid has a 100% safety rating and have maintained that for over 50 years. That's a lot of safety and plenty of peace of mind when it comes to your pool and your family. Music: The Right Direction by Shane Ivers Martin Mountain Coffee: Small Batch Roaster for an Artisan Cup of Coffee! Check out Martin Mountain Coffee's signature Within The Realm Blend "Story Teller's Roast!" We won't be mad if you try the other great blends and roasts! Better yet, try a sample pack! It's better on the Mountain! Contact Us! Facebook: @withintherealm1 Instagram: within_the_realm contact@withinpodcast.com Now on Bluesky! https://bsky.app/profile/sfg64.bsky.social   Within The Realm is a fiercly Independent podcast written and produced by Steve Garrett for the enjoyment of the curious soul. WTR intro: Sweat Shirt (S. Garrett) WTR outro: Baby Boy (S. Garrett) Available for speaking engagements! Check out the website for details. withinpodcast.com Want to advertise, sponsor or otherwise support Within The Realm? Visit with us at contact@withinpodcast.com or Support Within The Realm  And as always, Thanks for listening!

You can find Nathan on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/@UCunQl1R0buCXpbR_nFFWRPQ  And on audio podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-nathan-jacobs-podcast/id1747994475  And on Substack https://substack.com/@nathanajacobs    Paul Vander Klay clips channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX0jIcadtoxELSwehCh5QTg Bridges of Meaning Discord https://discord.gg/Vh4DsPnJ https://www.meetup.com/sacramento-estuary/ My Substack https://paulvanderklay.substack.com/ Estuary Hub Link https://www.estuaryhub.com/ If you want to schedule a one-on-one conversation check here. https://calendly.com/paulvanderklay/one2one There is a video version of this podcast on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/paulvanderklay To listen to this on ITunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/paul-vanderklays-podcast/id1394314333  If you need the RSS feed for your podcast player https://paulvanderklay.podbean.com/feed/  All Amazon links here are part of the Amazon Affiliate Program. Amazon pays me a small commission at no additional cost to you if you buy through one of the product links here. This is is one (free to you) way to support my videos.  https://paypal.me/paulvanderklay Blockchain backup on Lbry https://odysee.com/@paulvanderklay https://www.patreon.com/paulvanderklay Paul's Church Content at Living Stones Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh7bdktIALZ9Nq41oVCvW-A To support Paul's work by supporting his church give here. https://tithe.ly/give?c=2160640 https://www.livingstonescrc.com/give

Between avoiding snakebites and fending off the dreaded dysentery, fans of the popular game “The Oregon Trail” are sure to be familiar with Fort Laramie. Situated roughly a quarter of the way through the historic trek from Independence, Missouri to the Willamette Valley in modern-day Oregon, the Fort began as a fur trading post, served as a critical juncture for emigrants heading west, and eventually became one of the largest military posts on the Northern Plains. Before its abandonment in 1890, Fort Laramie would also bear witness to sweeping expansion and the heated negotiations between American Indians and the United States Government that would ultimately define the American West.   Hosted by Jason Epperson Written by Lizzie Tesch Use code PARKS30 for $30 off of a $500 or more booking at www.rvshare.com.

Welcome Back to Wayward Stories!   This week we explore some locations associated with what we would know today as “the Wild West”, or perhaps the very early American Frontier during the days of westward expansion. There will be shootouts, there will be soldiers, there will be forts, and there WILL. BE. FRIED. CHICKEN!   Listen in now to hear all about it!   If you'd like to get in touch with me, just shoot an email to       mywaywardstory@gmail.com   -or-   Head on over to   www.waywardstories.com   Thanks for listening!

For a brief period the small frontier city of Sioux Falls, South Dakota drew in socialites and celebrities who were desperate to end their marriages.For more stories from the Divorce Colony, check out April White's book:The Divorce Colony: How Women Revolutionized Marriage and Found Freedom on the American Frontier.

In the mid-19th century Étienne Cabet had an idea to establish a utopian society in Texas, and he moved his followers from France to do it. Things went badly, but he persisted, and established multiple communities in North America. Research: American Experience. “Timeline: The Early History of the Mormons.” https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/mormons-timeline/ Beautiful Nauvoo. “Nauvoo German-Icarian History.” https://beautifulnauvoo.com/nauvoo-german-icarian-history/ Christopher E. Guthrie, “Cabet, Étienne,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed September 04, 2024, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/cabet-etienne. "Étienne Cabet." Encyclopedia of World Biography Online, Gale, 1998. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1631001065/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=e54772f5. Accessed 29 Aug. 2024. JOHNSON, CHRISTOPHER H. "Cabet, Étienne." Europe 1789-1914: Encyclopedia of the Age of Industry and Empire, edited by John Merriman and Jay Winter, vol. 1, Charles Scribner's Sons, 2006, pp. 337-338. Gale In Context: World History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3446900127/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=2e6d79bb. Accessed 29 Aug. 2024. Kagay, Donald J. “Icaria: An Aborted Utopia on the Texas Frontier.” The Southwestern Historical Quarterly , April, 2013, Vol. 116, No. 4. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24388374 Last, John. “The 19th-Century Novel That Inspired a Communist Utopia on the American Frontier.” Smithsonian. 11/28/2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-19th-century-novel-that-inspired-a-communist-utopia-on-the-american-frontier-icarians-180983302/ Nordhoff, Charles. “The Communistic Societies of the United States From Personal Visit and Observation.” London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1875. https://www.google.it/books/edition/The_Communistic_Societies_of_the_United/EXsRAAAAYAAJ Rousselière, Damien. “'It Was Not a Failure, and It Will One Day Be Recognized as the Only Right Social Order'. On Icarian Communism.” American Communist History, 22:1-2, 51-67, DOI: 10.1080/14743892.2022.2142020 Shaw, Albert. “Icaria : a chapter in the history of communism.” New York : G.P. Putnam's Sons. 1884. https://archive.org/details/icariachapterinh00shaw/ Sutton, Robert P. “Etienne Cabet and the Nauvoo Icarians: The Mormon Interface.” The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal , 2002. Via JSTOR. http://www.jstor.com/stable/43200389 Vallet, Emile. “Communism: history of the experiment at Nauvoo of the Icarian settlement.” Nauvoo, Illinois : Printed by The Nauvoo Rustler. 1917. https://archive.org/details/communismhistory01vall/ Wiegenstein, Steve. “The Icarians and Their Neighbors.” International Journal of Historical Archaeology , September 2006. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20853106 Winnerman, Jim. "Icarians went West in search of utopia: the colonies are long gone, but lowans recall the movement." Wild West, vol. 28, no. 4, Dec. 2015, pp. 20+. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A431578978/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=f46ed77e. Accessed 29 Aug. 2024. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Joint Readiness Training Center is pleased to present the seventy-first episode to air on ‘The Crucible - The JRTC Experience.' Hosted by the former Commander of Ops Group (COG), COL Matthew Hardman. This will be his last episode to host, but we may seem him as a guest in the future. Today's guests are two key members from 2nd Battalion, 130 Infantry Regiment, MAJ Edward Worman and SGT Stephanie Smith. MAJ Worman is the Battalion Commander for 2-130th IN and SGT Smith is the S-2 Intelligence Section Non-Commisioned Officer-in-Charge.   The 2nd Battalion of 130th Infantry Regiment is an infantry regiment in the Illinois Army National Guard. 2-130 IN has an extensive and illustrious history dating back to the War of 1812. Since its establishment, the battalion has served in every conflict that the US Army has participated in, from the Mexican War to the Civil War to Indian Wars of the American Frontier to battlefields of World War I to the island hoping campaign in the Pacific Theater of World War II to the various conflicts of the Cold War and finally in support of the Global War on Terror. They are one of the infantry battalions for the 33rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, formerly the 66th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, but for their rotation at the JRTC they were attached to the 32nd IBCT of the Wisconsin ARNG. They have the Hollywood call-sign of “Blackhawks,” the nickname of “Fourth Illinois,” and the motto of “Always Ready.”   In this episode we discuss the lessons learned at the battalion echelon for conducting large scale combat operations across multiple domains. Specifically, we focus on the information requirements for the battalion commander and his subordinate company commanders as well as best practices of an efficient battalion staff. At the battalion echelon, the commander needs timely and accurate reporting; tactical patience; and understand where leaders need to be on the battlefield. Battlefield circulation is critical during transitions between various phases of the operation. Smart-books and the TRADOC G-2 World Equipment Guide (WEG) are your friend. Staff sections should update and maintain their overlays to provide the commander with updated graphics to make decisions, such as modified combined obstacle overlay and threat overlays plus event matrix. The most successful battalions at the JRTC are those that don't overly rely on digital products and instead use analog products. Remember, to be detected is to be targeted is to be killed.   The number one question that commanders and staff ask across the force is how can we get better at the military decision making processes (MDMP)? There's no shortcut, it's simply sets and repetitions that make staffs better at MDMP. While both our guests did exceptionally well during their crucible rotation, it is nearly certain that some may feel that it is unrealistic that such junior leaders would fill those roles. We at the JRTC would argue that the opposite is true as it should be expected that large scale combat operations would inflict a high attrition rate upon our forces, demanding junior leaders to fill the void.   Part of S02 “If I Would Have Only Known” series.   For additional information and insights from this episode, please check-out our Instagram page @the_jrtc_crucible_podcast   Be sure to follow us on social media to keep up with the latest warfighting TTPs learned through the crucible that is the Joint Readiness Training Center.   Follow us by going to: https://linktr.ee/jrtc and then selecting your preferred podcast format.   Again, we'd like to thank our guests for participating. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and review us wherever you listen or watch your podcasts — and be sure to stay tuned for more in the near future.   “The Crucible – The JRTC Experience” is a product of the Joint Readiness Training Center.    

Even for all the problems that it brings forward, it also brings forward possibilities and promise. - Stephen Aron Discover the American West's alternative history. In this What's Your Why? podcast we discover some of the little-known stories of peace and friendship amidst the frontier's violence. Join us as we unravel the perspectives and role of government in Western expansion. Get ready for a more nuanced understanding of the American West's complex past. But what if everything you thought you knew about the Wild West was just one side of the coin? Stay tuned to hear the untold tales that challenge conventional narratives and give a new perspective about the American West. For example, the Spanish influence in the American West is often overlooked in traditional history. That's the joy of history, there's always a different perspective to learn and imagine. My special guest is Stephen Aron Stephen Aron, President and CEO of the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles, California, is not just an author, but a storyteller who unravels the complexities of the American West. His latest book, “Peace and Friendship: An Alternative History of the American Frontier”, challenges conventional narratives by spotlighting lesser-known currents that diverge from the mainstream of Western American history. With a background in colonial American history, Aron's journey into the history of the American West led him to explore the moments and places where peace and unexpected friendships between former foes emerged, offering an alternative perspective to the often-violent history taught in schools. Aron's work presents a fresh and thought-provoking take on the American West, emphasizing the importance of understanding the realities of historical events.   In this episode, you will be able to: Explore alternative perspectives of American West history that challenge traditional narratives, offering a fresh understanding of the era.  Uncover the profound impact of colonialism on Native Americans, shedding light on a crucial but often overlooked aspect of Western history.  Examine the pivotal role of government in the expansion of the Western frontier, providing insight into the complex dynamics of power and influence.  Learn about Daniel Boone's interactions with the Shawnee Indians, revealing the complexities of cross-cultural encounters during this period.  Discover the remarkable resilience and survival strategies of Native American cultures in the face of immense challenges, offering a deeper appreciation of their enduring heritage.  Alternative Perspectives on Western American History  In exploring the history of the American West, Stephen Aron offers a fresh perspective by highlighting moments of peace and friendship amidst the conflict-ridden narratives typically associated with the region. His book, “Peace and Friendship: An Alternative History of the American Frontier”, challenges traditional views by showcasing instances of cooperation and connection between different cultural groups. By shedding light on these lesser-known aspects, Aron encourages a more nuanced understanding of the complexities of Western expansion. The resources mentioned in this episode are:  Autry Museum of the American West - Learn more about the Autry Museum of the American West and explore their exhibits, events, and resources by visiting their official website at theautry.org.  Peace and Friendship:  an Alternative History of the American West - Discover Stephen Aron's latest book, which delves into the lesser-known currents of the American West's history. Find the book on major online bookstores or at local book retailers.   Reclaiming El Camino Exhibit - Explore the Reclaiming El Camino: Native Resistance in the Missions and Beyond exhibit at the Autry Museum, focusing on the genocidal destruction, resistance, and resilience of Native American communities in California.  Wyoming Humanities - To learn more about Wyoming Humanities and their initiatives, including the What's Your Why podcast, visit thinkwy.org.  Worlds Together, Worlds Apart - Explore Stephen Aron's co-authored world history textbook, provides a comprehensive understanding of global historical contexts.  Follow Us On These Channels: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emydigrappa/ www.ThinkWY.org https://www.facebook.com/storiesaboutwhy https://www.instagram.com/storiesaboutwhy Listen on all your favorite platforms and subscribe! As always leave a review if you enjoyed these stories and follow us on Instagram or visit the webpage of the Wyoming Humanities!

Send us a Text Message.Described as gay Louis B. Mayer, the big producer during the golden age of Hollywood, Shan Sayles was a big, boisterous man who owned movie theaters, produced films and cemented his mark on the early days of all erotic film. It was a legendary production at the time of its release. Both for its subject matter and the various rumors and circumstances that surround the production.A beautifully chiseled body, gorgeous face and that damn mustache. A one-named wonder of gay erotica that with the help of industry players, an aggressive manager and rumored lover who devoted their energies and talents in order to create a legend. That legend was Roger.On this episode, we're going to celebrate Shan Sayles, a legendary exhibitor and one of the first entrepreneurs to comprehensively hire gay men to perform in, direct, write and edit erotic gay films. We will take a look as his film Song of the Loon, one of the first feature-length all male films that premiered during the beginning of the gay liberation era and is about an interracial gay relationship set during the American Frontier in the 1800s. And finally we are going to celebrate Roger; whose meteoric rise made him one the most popular centerfolds and live performers to come out of the golden age of gay erotic cinema. Support the Show.

When a series of mysterious disappearances and gruesome murders happened on the American Frontier in the 19th century, fingers started to point in the direction of not one murderer…but a family of killers. As the case unraveled, their grisly crimes cemented their place in history and earned their nickname as the 'Bloody Benders'.Joining Maddy Pelling and Anthony Delaney this episode is Susan Jonusas, historian and author of 'Hell's Half-Acre: The Untold Story of the Benders, A Serial Killer Family on the American Frontier'.This episode was edited by Tomos Delargy and produced by Freddy Chick. The senior producer is Charlotte Long.Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Sign here for up to 50% for 3 months using code AFTERDARKYou can take part in our listener survey here.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

Civil War Officer John Dunbar is welcomed by a band of Lakota Indians when he's stationed at a military post in the American Frontier. Join me as I discuss the 1990 Oscar winner for best picture: Dances with Wolves.

Adventure is out there! Prepare to take flight up, up, and away on a thrilling hot air balloon tour of the American Frontier. With Russell as your guide, you'll embark on a journey to discover the sights and sounds of this iconic landscape, in an exciting new attraction set to debut at World Showcase.  Hold on to your hats and glasses, because this here's the wildest ride in...EPCOT.Did you catch our reference to Disney's Summit Village & Resort? After you're done here, be sure to tune in to Season 1, Episode 19, a personal favorite of ours and the birthplace of our soon-to-be-famous mascot, Maple the Reindeer. You won't want to miss it!Don't forget to check us out on Instagram and our brand new website!

From 2020- Tom Clavin discusses his book "Wild Bill: The True Story of the American Frontier's First Gunfighter."

Divorce can be a difficult process today, but it's nothing compared to what it used to be. In the late 1800s, women from around the country had to fight for the right to separate from their husbands on their own terms. April White tells their stories and how they still impact us today in her fascinating book, The Divorce Colony: How Women Revolutionized Marriage and Found Freedom on the American Frontier. April White has served as an editor and writer at Atlas Obscura and Smithsonian Magazine. Her historical stories have also appeared in publications including the Washington Post, Boston Globe Magazine and The Atavist Magazine.   Transcript   APRIL WHITE: Each of these women goes out to Sioux Falls for a very personal reason. We start to see the shift in the understanding of divorce. These women have very little traditional power at this moment in history. They are not in any of the rooms where divorce and divorce law are going to be debated. They're not in the legislatures. They're not in the judiciary. They're not in the White House. They're not in religious circles. They're not in those conversations. Yet, they are driving those conversations. BLAIR HODGES: Once upon a time in the late 1800s, Sioux Falls, South Dakota became the hot destination for women from all over the United States. These women weren't coming to see the famous Sioux Falls, they weren't looking for land, or to find husbands. In fact, they came to this frontier of the American nation looking to get rid of husbands. They were looking for the fastest and easiest path to get a divorce. Because in the 19th century, it was almost impossible to get one anywhere else. This wasn't a private process either. It played out in public, in the courtroom, in the press. It was like an old time TMZ saga. Historian April White says these women were really looking for personal solutions to personal problems, but their efforts helped change divorce laws for the entire country in ways that still matter today. April White joins us now to talk about her book, The Divorce Colony: How Women Revolutionized Marriage and Found Freedom on the American Frontier. There's no one right way to be a family, and every kind of family has something we can learn from. I'm Blair Hodges, and this is Family Proclamations. April White, welcome to Family Proclamations. APRIL WHITE: Thank you so much for having me.   RISING DIVORCE RATES (1:54)   BLAIR HODGES: We're talking about your book, The Divorce Colony: How Women Revolutionized Marriage and Found Freedom on the American Frontier. You're taking us back in time a little bit, this is the turn of the century. We're heading into the year 1900 here. In that last decade of the 1800s, there were some headlines that were popping up around the country that you point out in your book, and the headlines were alarmed. The people were alarmed. The question was, is marriage a failure? Why would they ask that question in the late 1800s? APRIL WHITE: In this moment, you're seeing rising divorce rates. The people who are particularly alarmed by this, and it's most often the clergy, can't imagine that divorce is a good thing. They only see this as an evil. They imagined that somehow marriage is falling apart. What's really happening is marriages are as good or as bad as they've ever been. There's just more opportunity now—economic, political, social, legal—there's more opportunity for spouses to go their separate ways if they are unhappy in their marriage. They're saying they're very concerned about marriage, but what they're really concerned about is divorce because they want to keep this building block of the country to gather these ideas of the family, is really central to that concern. BLAIR HODGES: You point out that they're using language of epidemic—this is some sort of illness that is spreading through society. The numbers back up the fact that divorce was increasing. You say that there was a national census in the 1880s that freaked people out. It showed that divorce had basically doubled in a really short amount of time. You mentioned the clergy were particularly alarmed with this. Did they think much about the context of it in terms of maybe people are unhappy in marriages? Maybe that's where we should begin, rather than should we be letting people get divorced? APRIL WHITE: Very few of them thought that way. You mentioned the census. It's basically the first time anyone has gone and counted marriages and divorces. What the census shows is yes, the divorce rate is increasing, but there's also not a lot to compare it to. These numbers seem really big. You knew a couple of people who got divorced, but now there are tens of thousands. Those numbers are also part of what inflames this conversation, whether they had any point of comparison or not. No, you will largely see people wanting to make it more difficult to divorce. Most of the Catholic sects in the in the United States think about it that way. The one exception to this that I was aware of was the Unitarian Church, which very much thought divorce was a necessary evil, and the focus should be on making marriage better, which would naturally lower divorce rates because fewer people would be seeking to leave their marriage.   AUTHORITY FOR DIVORCE (4:38)   BLAIR HODGES: You also talk about at this point in American history, there's an important shift that's already happened in how divorce even worked. The question was where was authority for divorce situated? You trace the change over from legislatures overseeing it to the courts. Maybe describe that transition a little bit, because that has a lot to do with people's ability to get divorced—where that power was. APRIL WHITE: In the early days of the United States, in order to get a legal divorce you needed to go before a state legislator for a private bill of divorce. This was the type of thing that could be very difficult to navigate for people who did not have the connections and the proximity to power this would require. For some practical reasons, which is the legislatures had other things to do, you see the country moving away from this state by state and bringing divorce into the courts. This has an unintentional consequence of leveling the playing field in a lot of ways between men and women in order for people to seek a legal divorce, and in some ways between the upper and lower classes—although there is still an economic divide there when it comes to dealing with the courts. It was not the intention when divorce was moved to the courts to make this more egalitarian. It was an unintended side effect. BLAIR HODGES: What did it look like before? Did the husband have to be the one to initiate the divorce? Could women initiate divorces? What did it look like? Would it also affect her ability to get remarried? APRIL WHITE: Either party could initiate divorces, and what we see throughout the history of divorce is there is the law, and then there are all the other factors around the law that affects who can use it. Even in the time period I'm talking about, since we've moved into the court it has been more egalitarian for men and women. That doesn't mean both men and women are seeking divorce at the same rate or with the same ease. Two things happen. One, for a woman to seek a divorce she needed to be in an unusual for the time independent economic position. She needed to have social support that would allow her to go through a divorce and still have a community on the other side. There were a lot of pressures on her, outside of the law, that made it difficult to seek a divorce. That's the other point, and the exact opposite pressure, which is we see in this census we're talking about that two out of every three people who seeks a divorce is a woman. There's a really particular reason for that, too. Men had an easier time seeking extra legal means to get a divorce. A man could walk away from his marriage. Chances are he had the economic resources that the woman didn't so he didn't have to worry about necessarily marrying again in order to be economically, socially, politically stable. He also didn't have to worry about the legitimacy of his children. He could claim those children or not claim those children. The woman did not have that choice. For women that piece of paper was exceptionally important because without it you could not legally remarry. The real important thing to remember here is that for women in this time period, marriage is the single biggest economic, political, social choice she is going to make in her entire life.   LEGALLY VALID REASONS FOR DIVORCE (8:06)   BLAIR HODGES: Another component here is the cause for divorce. We have no-fault divorce today, although strangely there are some people already trying to claw back that right. Talk about what people had to face in order to even get a divorce because no-fault divorce wasn't a thing yet. APRIL WHITE: It's a little hard to imagine, actually. Divorce, once we get into the courts, is an adversarial process. One spouse has to accuse the other of one of the violations that their state allows—each state was different in terms of what their divorce laws were. The Court needed to find you guilty of that offense. I may go into court and say, "I want to divorce my husband because he has deserted me." I need to prove to the court that has happened or the court is going to say, "Nope, sorry." This adversarial piece is really important because if I and my spouse want to divorce, we both want a divorce, we both want to go our separate ways. We cannot do that. In almost every state there was a law against collusion. That meant if you and I had agreed we wanted a divorce, we were already prohibited from doing that. Of course you see a lot of people working around these laws, but that was the letter of the law. BLAIR HODGES: They could have off the books conversations, like here's how we're going to play it. What were some other differences? You mentioned there was a hodgepodge of laws between states, which was another challenge. What kind of differences, in addition to different causes—I think New York was one that was really hardcore. It was really difficult. There were very specific things. You had to prove adultery or something. What kind of differences between states did people have to consider when they're thinking about getting divorced? APRIL WHITE: New York in this time period only allows divorce with proof of adultery. The only thing I can charge my spouse with was adultery and I have to walk into court and in some way convince the judge. There are plenty of cases in which the judge is not convinced and you remain married to the person you just tried to divorce. BLAIR HODGES: They didn't have cell phones where they could catch people or look at old text messages. [laughter] APRIL WHITE: I've got to tell you, after the time period I write about in the book you actually see this growth of this industry of actresses you can hire to come in and lie on the stand, or to pose for a picture in a hotel room so that a couple who mutually wants to get divorced can. People went to great lengths to separate when the law did not allow them to. That's what the divorce colony in Sioux Falls is. What happens is, in the United States every state has its own divorce laws. There are two components to that. One is the residency requirement. How long do you need to live in the state in order to fall under the jurisdiction of the court and sue for a divorce? The other are the causes. What causes can I claim to get this divorce? New York, South Carolina, very difficult. Other states, in theory more liberal, but how those laws are applied are a little difficult. To the previous point I was making, it's not all about the law, so it also depends on how supportive your community is within that state. That's what ends up making what they call the migratory divorce, or foreign divorce, attractive for those who could afford it. In the time period I'm writing about, starting in 1891, you see wealthy, white women typically, traveling out to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to get divorces. I know that sounds incredibly weird. South Dakota has only just become a state. Sioux Falls has only been a city for not even two decades at this point. It's ten thousand people. BLAIR HODGES: It's the Wild West in some ways. It's the frontier. APRIL WHITE: It really is, particularly for these women who are coming from upper class New York, who have had a very different experience. But the train lines run there now. It's the end of the line. It is a place where you can go and live in 1891 for just three months to fall under the jurisdiction of the court and before you can sue for divorce. I said "just" there but traveling someplace and living there for three months and then more as your case winds its way through the courts, is an expensive and difficult endeavor. That's what people would do to get around these different residency and grounds issues.   WELCOME TO SIOUX FALLS (12:43)   BLAIR HODGES: Your book's written almost like a novel. It really paints such wonderful pictures of the time. Give us a sense of women coming from a place like New York into South Dakota. What would they see as they're getting off the train? What was it like there at the time? APRIL WHITE: Thank you for saying that, because I really did want to bring you as close as you could get to these women and understand what lengths they had gone through in order to seek separation from their spouse. It's a multiple day train ride from New York, and to Chicago that was probably relatively normal at the time. But a woman traveling alone on a train west of Chicago was a pretty rare sight, and one that certainly sparked a lot of gossip. You finally make your way to Sioux Falls—and I have to say Sioux Falls, even at the time, was actually a very beautiful city. This is because they had a local architect who built some very impressive buildings there, and also some local stone, Sioux quartzite, which made this very young city feel more permanent and more of something familiar than it might have otherwise. BLAIR HODGES: It's kind of hip in a way. [laughter] APRIL WHITE: I'm not sure they thought about it that way, but I think we would. [laughter] When you got off the train, what struck me is the two things you could see most clearly on the skyline of this very young city was the courthouse. The courthouse where you were going to stand in a public trial and be questioned about your marriage. You could see the top of St. Augustus Cathedral, and that was home to a man named Bishop Hare, and he was the most outspoken opponent of divorce in Sioux Falls, and eventually a really well-known voice in the country. Those were the two opposing forces of Sioux Falls you could see just as you got off the train. BLAIR HODGES: April, by the way, Bishop Hare seems straight out of Central Casting, too. [laughter] APRIL WHITE: Absolutely. He was quite the character. Someone who was very well respected in the state, had been a missionary there for decades, who truly believed he was preaching in the best interest of his congregants and his city, but in doing so was denying people access to something they really, truly needed. BLAIR HODGES: He was politically savvy too. He'd been paying attention to how laws in the state were influencing people that were coming into the state. He wanted Sioux Falls to be where his flock was, this wonderful place where people could grow families and be prosperous and help expand America. There was definitely this Manifest Destiny feeling there. Then he sees these outsiders coming in, and what he sees is taking advantage. Talk a little bit more about the divorce laws as they played out in South Dakota that differentiated South Dakota from other states. This became the pilgrimage site for a lot of these wealthier women. Why? What were the laws that were so advantageous there? APRIL WHITE: We had this short residency requirement, and it's easy now when you hear that to think, "Wow, South Dakota—super progressive in the 1880s-1890s." No, no, that was not what was going on. We had seen this actually always on the western edge of the United States because when you had white settlers coming into a place for the first time, they wanted to build their community. They wanted to attract people and they wanted people to become a part of the fabric of that community very quickly. These low residency requirements were about bringing people into civic life, not about allowing them to get a divorce. So again, unintended consequences here. Bishop Hare had been a big part of building South Dakota. He had been a missionary in the Dakota territories, very well respected, had spent a lot of time working with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, so had some politicking in him. He had also spent a lot of time back east raising money from well-to-do people, largely in New York—among them the Astor family, basically known as the landlords of New York at the time. Incredibly wealthy people. The idea of shaping laws and influencing people was not foreign to Bishop Hare, when you had what were known as divorce colonists coming out to Sioux Falls and saying, "Hey, there is a law on the books which I would like to use." Yes, it did in theory raise the ire of people who said, "Oh, well this is never what it was intended for. It's okay if my neighbor, a true resident of Sioux Falls, wants to get a divorce. But we did not intend to be a place where other people came." Now, that's not entirely true. They are actually against divorce in general but it is easier for them to say, "We're okay with it ourselves. This is not the spirit of the law." That's where you see the tension. You have these divorce colonists who are typically of a higher class, have more money than the people in Sioux Falls, who are coming out there, they believe, to take advantage of these laws. You have a lot of social tension in the town in addition to this legal tension around the laws. BLAIR HODGES: How about the economy? Were there enough people coming out to provide a windfall to the place? Were there are people that were like, "Actually, this is kind of nice because people are going to come stay in hotels, or they might buy stuff when they're out here." Was that an incentive? APRIL WHITE: It absolutely was. You see that when people first start coming to Sioux Falls. History never moves in a straight line. What we see is first in the history of the divorce colony as people start to arrive, there is this idea that maybe this is a good thing. We want more people in Sioux Falls. We want more money in Sioux Falls. One of the things that anecdotally seems to have grown up around these divorce colonists was a robust arts scene in Sioux Falls, and the latest fashions that were demanded by these people coming from the east. In the very early days you see some entrepreneurial spirit around the divorce colony, but then we have these bigger name women start to come out mid-1891. The national spotlight follows them. Reporters come to town. They're on the front pages on a daily basis. Very quickly the sentiment in Sioux Falls turns to this is a stain on our community. We don't want people to be looking at us like we're a place for divorce. You still have some supporters in the lawyers, in the hoteliers, and restauranteurs, but at least publicly, at least in front of the newspapers you have a lot of derision towards the divorce colony as soon as the rest of the country is looking at the city negatively.   GAINING FREEDOM (19:40)   BLAIR HODGES: Before we dig into the particular people, I have one more broad question and that comes from something you wrote. You say, "The women who traveled to Sioux Falls were not activists. What was for them an act of personal empowerment and self-determination became an intensely political act anyway." That stood out to me. That was one of my surprised moments. These weren't necessarily women who were trying to make some larger societal political point about divorce or women's rights. They were seeking help in their own circumstances, basically, for the most part. APRIL WHITE: Each of these women goes out to Sioux Falls for a very personal reason. The only thing each of them is fighting for out there is their own freedom. No one is out there to make a statement. In fact, they would all prefer not to be on the front pages. If they could have done this quietly they would have. What you see is each person going to the extreme to gain their own freedom, but in doing so in the numbers they did, with the attention they did, we start to see the shift in the understanding of divorce. That was one of the things to me that was so interesting about this story. You have these women who have very little traditional power at this moment in history. They are not in any of the rooms where divorce and divorce law are going to be debated. They're not in the legislatures. They're not in the judiciary. They're not in the White House. They're not in religious circles. They're not in those conversations. Yet, they are driving those conversations. I really was fascinated by that alternate path to power. BLAIR HODGES: There was also an element of entertainment about it. As you said, these were public events that were covered in the press. They didn't have true crime podcasts and Dateline and stuff like this to watch back then and it seemed like this kind of played that role of people being able to be voyeuristic a little bit into what were supposed to be private matters. APRIL WHITE: Oh absolutely. This is your TMZ. This is your grocery store tabloid. This is the celebrity gossip of this time period. People love it. Even those in Sioux Falls who claim to hate the divorce colonists want to know every single thing they do in town. It is the attention that is paid to the divorce colonists that really ultimately ends up shifting the conversation. The time period of the book is roughly twenty years, from about 1890 to about 1910. For twenty years you have these people who oppose divorce saying this is going to topple the family and therefore topple the country. Yet every day you see this on the front pages and nothing has fallen yet. The press really plays a big part in how things shift during this time.   MAGGIE DE STUERS AND HER DIPLOMAT (22:51)   BLAIR HODGES: That's April White. She's senior writer and editor at Atlas Obscura and author of the book The Divorce Colony: How Women Revolutionized Marriage and Found Freedom on the American Frontier. That gives us a broad overview here. Your book lays out the stakes for us, and then you're going to get biographical. You're going to introduce us to particular women and their stories to let us know how things played out on an individual level. The first person that you talk about, and I'm probably going to pronounce the name wrong, is Maggie De Stuers. How do you pronounce that? APRIL WHITE: That's how I pronounce it. I can't tell you how she did, but that's my take. [laughter] BLAIR HODGES: Great. Give us a sense of who Maggie is and why you led off with her story. APRIL WHITE: So Maggie De Stuers arrives in Sioux Falls in the middle of 1891. She tries to do so quietly. That is just not going to work for her because she is a niece of the Astor family, and the Astor family is this incredibly wealthy New York family who is on the front pages all the time. Maggie had been married to a Dutch diplomat, and about a year earlier she had disappeared. She had fled from their home in Paris and for a year no one had known where she was. When it becomes known that she is in Sioux Falls, it is on the front pages of papers in Chicago, in New York, in Boston. This was front page news. BLAIR HODGES: Would it be sort of like Paris Hilton appearing someplace? APRIL WHITE: Yes, she's been missing for a year and suddenly she shows up in a small town in South Dakota. That's exactly right. It drags all this attention to Sioux Falls. That's in part why I led off with her. The other reason I led off with her though is in addition to sparking the media attention in Sioux Falls, she sparks Bishop Hare's ire towards the divorce colony. He was always going to be opposed to divorce, but Bishop Hare had a relationship with the Astors. In fact, St. Augustus Cathedral was named for Augusta Astor, who was Maggie's aunt. So the idea that Maggie is there publicly seeking a divorce—let's put aside the fact she would have loved to have privately sought one and was not allowed to—but the fact that she is there publicly seeking a divorce and sitting in his church on Sundays is a personal affront to Bishop Hare, and in many ways sparks him on what will become the effort of the rest of his lifetime, which is to abolish the divorce colony. BLAIR HODGES: You talk about how she was there because she got married young, she was younger than the person she married, it seemed to be one of these diplomatic or relationship legacy type marriages. They didn't meet on an app and connect because of their enneagrams were similar, or whatever. They seem to be a marriage of family connections and he was older than her. He seemed like a really boring guy. It just wasn't the right thing for her basically. APRIL WHITE: They seem pretty ill suited, at least as they grew older. Maggie would accuse him of treating her poorly, of threatening her, of yelling at her. To your point, one of the interesting things about the different women I picked for this book to focus on is they all do marry for different reasons. Maggie, when she marries in the 1870s, it's really fashionable to marry a European title. So there was a lot of strategy in why she would have married this man. She was supposed to be happy with this life, which involves flitting around between European capitals. But she wanted something else. So she has a moment where she fears that her husband is trying to institutionalize her in order to gain control of her fortune. BLAIR HODGES: Which also wasn't unheard of. This is a thing that they do to control women. APRIL WHITE: Institutionalizing women to control women at this time period was unfortunately quite common. Maggie was in an unusual position where she was far wealthier than her husband was because of her family connections. That's what ultimately led her to flee, although it meant leaving behind her children. She has already gone to great lengths to leave this marriage when she shows up in Sioux Falls. BLAIR HODGES: When she shows up she's not alone. She's got a secretary with her, this gentleman who is supposedly helping her in her travels. She's going to connect with lawyers onsite to help her with her proceedings. We meet some other people in the city. We meet Judge Aikens, who is going to be presiding over the divorce court. We meet Fannie Tinker, who seems to be a cool journalist figure that's going to be there telling the tale. We meet these people there and at this point you say how, again, this was an adversarial procedure so spouses could contest this. Her husband the Baron contested it. What it would take is being publicly accused of being a horrible person. He sent this affidavit over that was filled with scandalous charges. APRIL WHITE: He did. For a while it was thought that maybe the Baron was going to come out to South Dakota from Paris where he was living at the time to contest this in person. To the great dismay of the crowds in South Dakota this does not happen, but to Maggie's relief. You still have a public trial. You have a public trial in which the Baron's deposition is read out loud where Maggie is on the stand in a packed courtroom being asked to relive what she considers to be the worst possible moments of her marriage. You really see there both the lengths to which she had to go, but the determination she had to do this. She'd never stop pursuing this, even once she realized what it would take. Including calling her a bad and uncaring mother, which was one of the worst things you could level at a woman at this particular time period. BLAIR HODGES: If I remember correctly he was also saying that she was having an affair, right? That this was a ruse for her to get with somebody else. APRIL WHITE: Yes. He said that she had left him for another man and had been traveling with this man during the period of time she had been missing. BLAIR HODGES: I don't know. Is it a spoiler to say who that was? [laughter] If you want to keep it a secret, I will. But it's so interesting. APRIL WHITE: Let's say we do find out, and the wedding is even more of a scandal than the divorce. BLAIR HODGES: Yes. I'll let people figure it out in the book but suffice it to say she does get her divorce. Why? Why did the judge side with her? APRIL WHITE: You largely see in Sioux Falls—and I talk about Sioux Falls but of course the same laws apply throughout South Dakota—that in Sioux Falls most people get their divorce. The state had a large number of reasons for grounds for divorce. A lot of people did not contest these things and come out and try to oppose it. Almost everyone who goes before the court gets their divorce. She is able to make the case that she has satisfied the grounds that she has put forth before the court.   MARY NEVINS BLAINE TAKES ON THE POLITICIAN (29:59)   BLAIR HODGES: Let's move to Mary Nevins Blaine. Mary was interesting because it's harder to assume that she married for money. You can't really assume that. She was actually older than the man she married. She was nineteen. Her partner Jamie Blaine was just seventeen when they got married. She was a young actress and Jamie's dad was a politician with national aspirations. This just has the ingredients for a really great story. You've got this young actress marrying the young son of this aspiring politician and the family is not happy about the marriage. APRIL WHITE: Yes. These teenagers elope just a couple of weeks after they meet and marry secretly, to the great dismay of both of their families. Both the Blaine family, as you mentioned, James Gillespie Blaine is the standard bearer of the Republican Party at this time. He's a perpetual presidential candidate, very well known in the country. Mary's family is also like, "We don't know what you're doing with this younger son of the Blaine family." Jamie had not to this point proven himself to be rather reliable and would go on to continue to not be particularly reliable. It was a real scandal, both for the families and again for the whole country who got to watch this elopement play out on the front pages. BLAIR HODGES: That could hurt Jamie's dad's political career so his family would be concerned about how it looks, how it reflects on his dad and his political options. Then for her family, they would be concerned about her options going forward. Could a divorced woman return to acting? Would she get remarried? She, first of all, would need to win the divorce and then would be faced with difficult options after that. The stakes are really high. What do you think was the ultimate reason for them divorcing? Because it seemed like they at least liked each other. Whereas in the previous case, she married a Baron because that was kind of the cool thing to do. But these guys actually seem to like each other, at least at first. APRIL WHITE: Mary definitely married for love. What she didn't love so much was Jamie's family. Jamie was, as I eluded, a sort of wayward, he seems to have had a problem with alcohol. He seems to have had a problem with his temper. He had not accomplished the same things that his siblings had. His parents, particularly his mother, kept him very close and really tried to keep him under their thumb, possibly for very good reasons. But Mary really chafed at this, particularly at Jamie's mother who had never come to like her daughter-in-law. Jamie's father, for a period of time, James did embrace Mary but his mother never did. What Mary would charge in court was that her mother-in-law had instigated this breakup and had driven them apart. Classic mother-in-law situation. [laughter] What happens is when the judge points that out we get a whole big problem. BLAIR HODGES: What happens there? What is that problem? APRIL WHITE: Things had happened, not quietly, but routinely, I would say. The Blaine family had decided not to cause a stir around this divorce. James Gillespie Blaine had decided it was better for his political career to just let this happen. However, the judge, once he hands down his judgment in favor of Mary, goes off on a bit of a tirade against Jamie's mother. He doesn't need to do this. This doesn't need to be part of the court proceedings. He makes it clear that he feels Jamie's mother was the cause of this. The press is very excited about this. James Blaine has throughout his life been very protective of his wife, and he's also hoping to be the presidential candidate for the Republican Party in 1892. This is the moment he decides he needs to go on the offense. Even though Mary already has her divorce at this point, James writes an open letter that's, again, printed on the front pages of newspapers across the country, making it clear that it is Mary's fault and threatens to release her love letters and really is doing everything he can to take down this young twenty-something actress. Which doesn't seem like a particularly good look for the country's top diplomat and a potential presidential candidate, but there you go. BLAIR HODGES: That was what was so surprising is the lengths he was willing to go because what you're showing here is that the battle over public opinion still mattered. Divorce was an issue, right? Public opinion and public thought about how divorce should work really mattered. In this case, divorce was granted, people could move on and still oppose divorce or whatever, but James Blaine, that's when he decided to dig in, as you said. I think there was some protectiveness about his spouse. I would assume there were advisors around him probably saying, "Hey, let's back off a little bit. This might not be the best idea." Yet he pursued. How did Mary respond to that? Now she's being maligned in the press. He's threatening to publish letters and he's insinuating there are these bad letters. Basically saying, "I got dirt on you, and you better back off, or else." What's she going to do? APRIL WHITE: I like her because she seems like such a smart cookie. She is incredibly composed for someone who is taking on one of the best-known figures in the country at this point. She also releases a letter to the press and basically says, "I am a twenty-something actress, it surprises me that you would malign me. I am simply seeking what is best for me and your grandson. However, if you insist on releasing my letters, I will release your son's letters. Game on." She does it in a way that is incredibly effective. I don't think anyone expected this young woman to be able to take on the country's top diplomat. BLAIR HODGES: What exactly did she say that carried the day for her that was so savvy? APRIL WHITE: I don't think anyone expected her to fight back at all. I think the fact that she had the wherewithal not to hide, not to bend to this. I can't speak to her motivation on this, but my thought would be the country already thought poorly of her. She had already been waging this public relations battle and she was a likable character. She had also gotten a divorce. She was now a single mother actress. She didn't have a lot to lose in way of her national reputation. I think that may have emboldened her to take this step. I don't think anyone expected her to confront him, including James Blaine. I think they thought this was the end of the story. Jamie, her ex-husband, had not acquitted himself well. Some people were inclined to believe the accusations against her mother-in-law. There were a lot of ways in which the more space Mary had to tell her story, the worse it looked for the Blaine family. BLAIR HODGES: At this time we're seeing some federal attention on this. People are trying to pass constitutional amendments to regulate marriage and divorce. That just wasn't going anywhere. They couldn't get enough consensus to really nail down any kind of national law about how divorce could look. We look at someone like Bishop Hare, who's a clergy member, he's opposed to divorce for religious reasons. We might expect him to fight hard for those kinds of laws. We might also be surprised at some of the other allies of that cause. I'm thinking, for example, of Emma Cranmer, who was a women's suffragist, and women's rights advocate, and she was on Bishop Hare's side in feeling unsettled about where divorce law might go. APRIL WHITE: One of the other reasons I want to tell Mary's story, in addition to it just being a fascinating tale, was because I got to look at some of these political issues that were coming up at the time. One of the things you realize right away is you had people who oppose divorce, and you had people who were quiet about divorce. You didn't have a whole lot of people out there saying, "Yes, divorce is something we need people to have access to." In that category of opposed divorce, you get what seems today to be some unlikely players. Among them, the suffragettes. Not all of them, but a lot of them. Part of this is because there was, particularly in Emma's case, a large religious component to the suffragist movement, and in Emma's case, the way she thought about the world. But also because there was this fear that the issue of divorce would distract from the issue of the vote. You already had these fears that giving women the vote was going to in some way disrupt family life, was in some way going to take women out of the home and put them into the public space. To also be fighting for divorce was to in some ways, they feared, legitimize that concern. You had a lot of people who simply said, "We can't divide the movement. We can't distract from what we're trying to do here." You really don't see a lot of public support among the suffragettes for this effort.   BLANCHE MOLINEUX, THE MURDERER'S WIFE (39:29)   BLAIR HODGES: You do see some local changes. In Sioux Falls, there is a change in the law where the residency requirement is made longer, which is going to make it more difficult so people who seek a divorce are going to have to stay longer. It increases the burden they would have to pay. You see a decline in divorces that happen, but it doesn't take even a decade before they start loosening that up again. That takes us to Blanche Molineux, another name that I may be pronouncing correctly or not. She shows up on the scene now that things are loosened up again, and she breaks maybe one of the biggest taboos which is that she openly declares that she's going there specifically to use the lax laws that are there. That was supposed to be an open secret and she just says it. APRIL WHITE: We see a lot of change between 1893, which is when South Dakota increases its residency requirement from three months to six months, and when Blanche arrives in the early 1900s. What's happened at this point is, once South Dakota extended its residency requirements, North Dakota was suddenly the easiest place to get a divorce. Not a lot of people wanted to hang out in Fargo, but still North Dakota decided it didn't like the attention. At the end of the nineteenth century, they extend their residency requirement to a year, so all of a sudden Sioux Falls at six months is again the laxest divorce laws in the country. For a little bit, to my earlier point, you see people coming out to Sioux Falls and there's not a lot of fuss so things are kind of okay. But Blanche has a couple of strikes against her before she even arrives in Sioux Falls. That is that she is already incredibly well known as the "murderer's wife." She had been married to a man who had been accused of poisoning a rival, also believed to have poisoned a romantic rival in addition—one of Blanche's former lovers—and he had been convicted of poisoning, very long story, he had been convicted of a poisoning, and he had been sentenced to death row. BLAIR HODGES: This could be its own real true crime podcast, by the way. APRIL WHITE: It is, it is. Then for evidentiary reasons, his conviction was overturned. He had a second trial and he was acquitted. Now, if you'll remember, there is still only one reason to get a divorce in New York: for adultery. Blanche does not believe that Roland has committed adultery. She cannot make this claim. She believes that he has committed murder. BLAIR HODGES: It seems like he has, too, right? APRIL WHITE: I think it seems like he has too. But that is not a reason for a divorce. BLAIR HODGES: That's what's so funny. They're like, "Oh, sorry, you didn't have an affair. You just murdered people." [laughter] APRIL WHITE: She leaves immediately for Sioux Falls and again brings all that attention back that Maggie had brought with her a decade earlier. Yes, she is outspoken about why she's there. A lot of people worry that's going to cause her legal problems. In some ways it does, it actually causes her more social problems, though. She has broken some of the unwritten rules around how this works and the circumstances under which we're going to accept a woman's decision to do this. BLAIR HODGES: You have to at least pretend you're going to stay there, for example. You're coming out to at least pretend you want to live there. APRIL WHITE: That was one of the questions you see in all of the divorce hearings in Sioux Falls, which is, how long have you been living here and do you intend to be a resident? You were a resident, so you could say, "Yes, I have been here for more than ninety days. I am a resident of the state." Most of them got on a train immediately after getting their divorce, if not within a couple of weeks. To my knowledge, no one who had come from out of state to get a divorce stayed in Sioux Falls for any extended period of time after getting their decree. Except for Blanche. She ends up staying in the end, which causes all kinds of problems of its own. BLAIR HODGES: She had announced that wasn't her intention either. Why did she end up staying? She's granted the divorce. APRIL WHITE: She falls in love and she remarries. BLAIR HODGES: Her lawyer. APRIL WHITE: Yes, her lawyer. He is a respected citizen of Sioux Falls, so there is a lot of concern about if she should be accepted into this society as well. Ultimately, she really isn't. She is still an outcast in this community, but she is the one person who does what they had been saying all along they wanted the divorce colonists to do. If only they weren't taking advantage of the law. But that was a lie. BLAIR HODGES: What kind of things did she miss out on? Was she just not really invited to social events? How was she treated? Because she did end up staying for Wallace, her lawyer. She's married to him. But what did the social consequences look like for her? APRIL WHITE: You see that for instance, Wallace Scott is a member of a bunch of civic society and social groups who have this open debate as to whether Blanche should be at a dance they're throwing, or whether she should be invited to various events. You see her on the outskirts of this community pretty much throughout her life there.   SCOTUS AND ANDREWS V. ANDREWS (44:45)   BLAIR HODGES: There was also a strange hitch that happened during this trial with a Supreme Court ruling. As we're thinking about how divorce laws are shifting and how they're being applied throughout the United States, this is a pretty pivotal time for that. Right during the middle of her trial, they throw things into question. There's a case, Andrews v. Andrews. It's in Massachusetts, and the Supreme Court basically says—if I understood this correctly—that Massachusetts wouldn't have to recognize divorce that was carried out in a different state, which would cause a problem for people that went to the divorce colony because it was basically like, "Oh, sorry, that doesn't count. We're not going to honor that in Massachusetts." APRIL WHITE: We've been talking about how difficult this was, and something really important we haven't mentioned yet is you could go through all this, you can go and live in Sioux Falls for six months, nine months, a year, you can pay all this money, you can take this hit to your reputation, and still your divorce decree is actually only tentatively legal. It may not be recognized when you go back to your home state. We see a bunch of cases about this over a period of time. Most of the people who go to Sioux Falls are not worried about this because in order for your divorce to be questioned, your ex-spouse needs to oppose it. They need to bring it up in court in the other state. If you are mutually getting divorced, or even a grudgingly mutual divorce, your decree is never going to come up to court for question. However, if your spouse has some reason to not want to be divorced, as happens in the Andrews' case, it will go up before the court and they can decide whether this is legal or not. There's a lot of consequences to deciding that a divorce is not going to be recognized. You may have remarried. Now you're a bigamist. You may have had children and now they're illegitimate. There's a lot of chaos that can be sowed. Charles Andrews, the case you're referring to, Charles came out to Sioux Falls in the early period of the divorce colony, right around the time Maggie and Mary are there. Like everyone else, he goes out for a divorce, he stays for the period of time he has been asked to, he gets a divorce, he goes back to Massachusetts, he meets a woman, he marries her, he has two children. His father dies, this becomes important. His father dies, and then not long later, Charles dies at a young age. Suddenly his first wife thinks, "Oh, wait a second. There is quite the estate here now because he has his father's money. I should challenge to be the administrator of his estate, to be his legal heir." She does. She takes it all the way up to the Supreme Court, and they find that South Dakota did not have the necessary jurisdiction and therefore the divorce is invalid. His second wife is not his second wife, his children are not his legitimate heirs, and his first wife, Kate, is heir to the fortune. Chaos.   FLORA BIGELOW DODGE, THE KING, AND THE PRESIDENT (47:45)   BLAIR HODGES: You're double married. That's our "what about men?" moment as well for people that were wondering if there were any men that were there. You mentioned a few—Charles Andrews, Edward Pollack. Again, this is where we see laws can just cause havoc. More people were saying we need some sort of uniform law. Why don't we tackle this federally, so we don't have all of this chaos? There just wasn't the political ability to get that done, even though divorce was impacting some of the most powerful people in the country and in the world, as your final profile shows. I'm talking about Flora Bigelow Dodge. When we get to her story, we're going see Teddy Roosevelt and the King of England all of a sudden get involved here. Give us a sense of what's happening here. APRIL WHITE: To your to your "what about men?" point, it's a really important one because I talk a lot about the women of the divorce colony. It wasn't only women who went to Sioux Falls. As we talked about earlier, women had more of an incentive to go great distances to get a divorce. They also caused more of the consternation. I'm not saying that people who opposed divorce were thrilled when men got divorces, but it didn't lead to the same panic that women taking this step did. BLAIR HODGES: Golly, I wonder why. [laughter] APRIL WHITE: We've not seen that since, certainly. What I like about Flora's story is it feels really modern to me. Flora marries young, grows apart from her husband. So far as I can tell from the historical record, neither hated the other. None had done an unimaginable wrong. They were just unhappy. BLAIR HODGES: Marriage for personal fulfillment rather than for all these other reasons. It's a change in what marriage was. APRIL WHITE: Absolutely. We really see that over the course of this book, the ways in which what we thought marriage should be changes. Flora is simply a well-known New York socialite and author. She is well liked. When she decides to get a divorce, everyone sort of thinks, "Well, that makes sense. Her husband's not all that spectacular. She's way cooler." She has lots of connections and her family does, both in in New York and on the East Coast and in England. You realize the extent to which it's not unusual that divorce is affecting these very prominent people, because divorce is affecting everyone. This is over the course of the twenty years I'm talking about, become more of a common place both activity, but just something we understand to be a part of society. BLAIR HODGES: Especially for white folks. Your book is attuned to the racial dynamics of this because this is a very privileged situation. APRIL WHITE: Absolutely. When it comes to talking about Black husbands and wives of this era, it's only very recently that Black people have been allowed to marry in a lot of places. It's a very different dynamic and the economics of divorce and the opportunities for women play a huge issue. Yes, it's a very different story for people who are not wealthy and white. BLAIR HODGES: Sorry to interrupt. To pick up where you left off, you're basically talking about that shift in what marriage was culturally, and we're starting to see someone like Flora who is separating for fulfillment, but she had connections to powerful people. That's how the President of the United States, and ultimately even the King of England, enter the story as well. APRIL WHITE: One of the things I wanted to talk about through Flora was the social change. Part of that is because Flora very much decides she wants something that she believes no one has gotten before, and that is what she called a dignified and legal Dakota divorce. The legal piece, we discussed already how that's a little challenging because no one quite knows what the rules are. But the dignified piece, Flora decides she is going to make friends in Sioux Falls. She is going to make herself a part of that community. She is going to show those people what she has to offer. She performs concerts at the prison. She conducts the city census. She helps raise money for a new furnace at the church. She's really going to enmesh herself in this community, and if it means that she needs to stay there forever in order to have a legal and dignified divorce, she is prepared to. Seeing the ways in which everyone needed to confront this issue, the ways in which Roosevelt had to confront this issue simply because people of his acquaintance were divorcing, and how do you handle that? The ways in which divorce was still a real anathema to some, which is how the King of England comes in. He's basically legitimizing Flora after her new marriage when her in-laws don't like her very much. We really see the ways in which society is dealing with this through Flora's story. BLAIR HODGES: The president is publicly a bit traditionalist. I think he needs to perhaps maintain a facade of supporting "the family," but behind the scenes is also much more sympathetic to the idea of divorce. He wants a uniform model law. He's the president—again, can't get it done. How do things develop for the rest of the century, taking us up to the present where we still don't have necessarily a federal law that says exactly how things should work? If, for example, where does no-fault divorce come into things? APRIL WHITE: We raised the idea earlier of this question of could we have a constitutional amendment that gave the federal government control of marriage and divorce? Could we get all the states to sign on to a uniform divorce law? And there's a bunch of reasons why that doesn't work out so well for anybody. One of them, unfortunately, is the idea that if the federal government had control of marriage and divorce, the southern states fear at this time that they will allow interracial marriage. There were even bigger concerns than divorce out there for some, but what we start seeing is an acceptance of reality. The idea of very disparate state laws is causing a lot of havoc. You don't know what's accepted where. You have these people crossing state lines to gain access to a right they wouldn't have in their states. You basically have people circumventing the laws of the states they live in. Governments slowly start to realize that's not useful to them. If their population is using extra legal means or leaving the state to seek freedom from their marriages, then that state government no longer exercises any control over marriage and divorce. They want to have control over marriage and divorce. You start seeing states recognizing this is going to happen and if they want to say in how it happens, they are going to have to allow for it. That's how we start seeing this shift, eventually, to no-fault. Slowly start seeing this shift to like, "Oh, this is going to happen. How do we shape that in a way we want to?" BLAIR HODGES: It wasn't even until 1970 that no-fault divorce became legal, and that was in California. That's pretty late in the game. I don't know, but I assume every state has no-fault divorce. APRIL WHITE: Every state has a version of no-fault. Those are slightly different, but similar enough that migratory divorce is not a particular issue anymore.   THINKING ABOUT DIVORCE TODAY (55:13)   BLAIR HODGES: I didn't get a sense either from the book about your own personal stakes in it. Were you doing any sort of work on your own personal background and being interested in this topic? APRIL WHITE: No. I've never been married. This is a whole new issue for me, writing about marriage and divorce. I will say that one of the really fascinating things to me personally as I was researching this was realizing just how recent it was that I could make a decision not to be married. You see these women in the book, those who go to great lengths to divorce, almost all remarry because that is really the only choice they can make for a stable life. The idea that I can have a career, sign contracts, have a bank account, even raise a family if I want to—that I can do all those things is very specific to this moment and this place and the culture I grew up in. BLAIR HODGES: There's this great quote from the introduction where you say, "To be free to choose who we love and how to live is to be free both to marry and to divorce." You're sort of arguing that marriage itself is enhanced or strengthened by the fact that it is more chosen. Divorce and the freedom that that allows can actually enhance marriage and make marriage itself more worthwhile and more healthy even. APRIL WHITE: We spent a lot of time as a country thinking about this when we were talking about same-sex marriage, and ultimately when Obergefell came out of the Supreme Court, this idea that choosing who you are married to is incredibly important, but you can't choose that if you can't also divorce. I like thinking about access to divorce in that same arc of loving and Obergefell. In the same way we say, "Oh, yes. You should be allowed to make the intimate choices of your life without the interference of the government." BLAIR HODGES: It was great to see those attitudes arise early on, even at the turn of the century. You mentioned earlier Unitarians, who were talking about divorce, and a Cornell University professor who basically said the rising divorce rate suggests a rise in expectations of what marriage ought to be. In other words, we're increasing our standards. This is a signal that people want more out of marriage, and people want marriage itself to be better, and when it's not they need the ability to end that to try again or to not try again. All throughout, we did see people with that attitude, whether it culturally prevailed or not, that underlying idea of freedom to come together, or freedom to separate, and how that's a good thing. Divorce can actually signal higher expectations rather than the collapse of "the family." APRIL WHITE: So much about the rising divorce rate was about women having more, not enough, but more agency to make choices, and more agency to pursue happiness and stability and the things they wanted out of life. We see this sense that people should want more out of their life than necessarily what they had been told in earlier generations was possible.   BOOKS DO CULTURAL WORK (58:17)   BLAIR HODGES: Let's talk about cultural work for just a second. Books are reflective of the times and places they're published. The fact a book exists suggests there's an audience and a need for it. I think books can do different kinds of cultural work. Some books do cultural work that talks about how we got to where we are and maybe celebrates how we got to where we are. Some books do that but also try to push toward better things, like trying to highlight a problem that we could do better at addressing. I wondered what kind of cultural work you think your book is doing—if it's more of a celebration of how far we've come? Or if there's more cultural work to do and what that work might look like. APRIL WHITE: When I first stumbled upon the divorce colonies story it was shocking to me it had never been explored deeply before. I gave that a lot of thought. I think one of those reasons is what you're alluding to—which is how we think about history and how we think about what's important. For me, in this moment, it was obvious we needed to be asking questions about the ways in which women had agency or didn't have agency, the ways in which they could shape and influence power or have power, and the ways in which they couldn't. That was not something that was understood in earlier versions of how we thought about divorce. That's the reason this was a footnote to that. What I'm trying to do with this book is in part just say there's a lot of history we have not explored through the lens of how we understand the world today. If we go back and ask questions in this broader, more open-minded lens we have today where we understand that the people who helped and did the digging, and had the local knowledge in archeological digs, were actually just as important to the discoveries we've made in archaeology as the celebrated Englishman who showed up in Egypt. The more we understand the important players and that everyone brought something to our history, I think changes the way we think about our history. I really like books. What I tried to do here was to go back and say, what did we miss because we were looking at the world through the specific lens of the thirties, or the fifties, or the seventies? What can we understand now because we've been given more tools and have more questions to ask?   REGRETS, CHALLENGES, & SURPRISES! (61:17)   BLAIR HODGES: It's helpful to get that historical perspective because it also opens up possibilities for the future, because we can see how things played out in the past and how there were different possibilities and different people with different concerns. I also like to use history that way as forward thinking, history for the future. History as a way to expand our imagination about what possibilities are out there. That's why I wanted to do this book for Family Proclamations. I'm trying to feature things from different time periods and look at history and look at sociology and look at all these different ways, because I want people to expand that imagination. Your book really does a good job helping us do that. That's April White. We're talking about the book, The Divorce Colony: How Women Revolutionized Marriage and Found Freedom on the American Frontier. She's a senior writer and editor at Atlas Obscura, and she has previously worked as an editor at Smithsonian Magazine and has been all over the place publishing really great work. The last thing I want to ask is a little segment called regrets, challenges, and surprises, April. This is a chance for you to think through doing this book. A book is a big project, it's a big investment of time. I've found that a lot of people change during that process, or discover new things. Was there anything as you were doing the book that challenged you, that challenge some of your previous thinking? Maybe some of your biases were challenged. Or something that surprised you that you totally didn't expect, or maybe something you regret, or you would change about the book now that it's out in the world. APRIL WHITE: I would definitely say one of the challenges was thinking about the idea of independence. When I tell this story to people, as I was through the book process, everyone got really excited about how independent these women were to seek out divorces. Then they got quite disappointed to hear they remarried almost immediately. I was probably inclined to that point of view initially, having given it very little thought, and then realized how important the idea that independence is doing the thing you wish to do. It wasn't about striking off on their own in the world, if that's not a thing they wished to do, or they could do. It was about making your way in the world the best you could. It wasn't a challenge to their independence that they remarried. Many of them remarried because they loved the person they were marrying. Others did so because it would allow them the life they wanted to live. Independence didn't mean striking out on your own. Independence meant making your own choices. That was definitely something I did not arrive at in the earliest stages of my research. I will say I was surprised. We mentioned many of these women came from similar socio-economic backgrounds, wealthy and white. I was still surprised how different their stories were, how different their stories were as to why they married. How different their stories were as to why they were divorcing. How different that path could be if they had a supportive family member in their life or not. If they had income or not. How many different challenges these women faced, even though they were coming from similar social circles, even sometimes had been the person who had told the next person who came how to do this. I really enjoyed "meeting" each of these women, as so many of them who ended up on the cutting room floor, or in the footnotes because I couldn't bear to part with their stories. I really enjoyed being able to hear those stories, largely because I wasn't sure I'd be able to. Tracing women through history is not the easiest thing to do. To be able to meet so many of those women was wonderful. In terms of regrets, aside from some misspellings, nothing yet, but the book has only been out a little under a year. To my earlier point about the ways in which how we think about history changes, I am absolutely certain when I look at this book in a decade I'm going to realize there were so many questions I didn't ask and so many things I didn't interrogate that I should have. Maybe we'll do an edited version a decade from now where I correct some of those things. BLAIR HODGES: That's how history works. Thank you so much, April. This has been a great conversation. Again, I recommend people check out the book The Divorce Colony by April White. The subtitle is How Women Revolutionized Marriage and Found Freedom on the American Frontier. April, thanks for coming to Family Proclamations and talking about the book today. APRIL WHITE: Thank you. I really enjoyed this. BLAIR HODGES: There's much more to come on Family Proclamations. If you're enjoying the show, why not take a second to rate and review it. Go to Apple podcasts and let me know your thoughts. Please just take a second to recommend the show to a friend. The more the merrier. Thanks to Mates of State for providing our theme song. Family Proclamations is part of the Dialogue Podcast Network. I'm Blair Hodges, and I'll see you next time.

How did Lutheranism settle on the American frontier, and what was the religious culture like in those remote areas? What was the relationship between the Lutheran missionaries and Native Americans on the frontier? Hear these stories and the influence of men like Friedrich August Craemer and Wilhelm Sihler on the frontier Lutheran churches and the formation of Lutheran church bodies and seminaries. Find the Lutheran Ladies' Lounge podcast episode about Dorothea Craemer at kfuo.org/2021/04/09/lutheran-ladies-lounge-episode-080-story-time-with-sarah-dorothea-craemer-goes-to-america. Rev. Dr. Cameron A. MacKenzie, Professor of Historical Theology at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana, joins Andy and Sarah for our nine-episode series on the History of the LCMS. Find more from Dr. Mackenzie at video.ctsfw.edu.

Welcome back to the third season of Drafting the Past! I'm thrilled about the lineup of historians that I'll get to bring to you this year. I know you're going to love them. That includes today's guest, Dr. Benjamin Park. Ben is an associate professor of history at Sam Houston State University, and the author of three books. His first two were American Nationalisms: Imagining Union in the Age of Revolutions, and Kingdom of Nauvoo: The Rise and Fall of a Religious Empire on the American Frontier. His newest book, which came out just this month, is called American Zion: A New History of Mormonism. I was excited to have the chance to talk with Ben about how he tackled a book with such an impressive scope, how he stays disciplined about what to leave in and what two cut, and two pieces of really excellent, practical writing advice from his editors. You'll have to listen until the end for those.

This is episode 152, we're going to dig into a story that is not often told — the amaTola San raiders of the Drakensberg. They emerged by the end of the third decade of the 19th Century as a result of a mish-mash of forces at play on the veld. And what a remarkable story this is so hold onto your horses! Literally as it would appear. What has been re-discovered recently is the identification of a plethora of mounted frontier raiding groups and how these had impacted the interior of Southern Africa, and in particular, the mountains north-east of the Cape Colony. Certain frontier raiding groups often referred to simply as ‘Bushmen' were really comprised of members from many formerly distinct ethnicities, and included the progeny from subsequent inter-marriage. Cultural and ethnic mixing, the advent of the horse, the increased access to guns and ammunition, and the need for identity to adapt to these changes, resulted in a volatile mix indeed. There were freed slaves, Khoesan, San, and English soldiers who'd gone AWOL, as well as descendants of former VOC soldiers who were Swedish, German, Swiss, and Dutch. There's a correlation here with the American Frontier experience, where men and sometimes women, armed with muskets, bows, and spears, wearing feathered headgear or wide-brimmed trekboer hats and riding horses, raided their neighbours for cattle and horses or exchanged these valuable resources for corn, tobacco, dogs and alcohol, much like other nineteenth century frontiers. There the roaming bandits were the Jumanos, the Lakota, the Metis, all became seminal in the B-grade Western movies of the 1950s. South Africa's bandits and raiders were arraigned across a large area, but perhaps the most interesting were those living in the amaTola mountains, a mixture of people who were on the fringes of society. Because horses were only introduced to the Drakensberg in the 1830s and production of hunter-gatherer rock art in that region had almost entirely ceased by the 1880s, horse paintings are comparatively tightly pinpointed in time, unlike virtually all other categories of images in southern African rock art. San paintings of this time reveal quite an astonishing fact, these people had a mixed material culture, the paintings who San and others who were not San working together, carrying firearms, riding horses with their dogs running alongside, carrying spears and bows, and importantly, dancing their trance dances. The area I'm addressing lies between the Mzimvubu River and the Tina River, across the central Drakensburg in other words, across both sides of the escarpment, stretching from Giants Castle in modern Kwa-Zulu Natal to Mount Fletcher in the Eastern Cape and Matsaile inside Lesotho. Glancing at a map, and tracing folks living in this area in 1840 you'd find the Voortrekkers arraigned inland from Port Natal, around Pietermaritzburg, and up to the headwaters of the Umgeni, the Mooi River and Bushman's River just below Giant's Castle. From here the San Raiders controlled the landscape, along the ridges of the Drakensberg south westerly to Mount Fletcher, in the slopes above the Senqu River or the headwaters of the Orange Riverif you prefer. This overlooked where the Bhaca lived, south east of them, the amaMpondo, further south the Mpondomise, then further the amaThembu, to their east and south the amaXhosa could be found and to their south, the English settlers in Albany. I hope you can feel the proximity of these amaTola raiders because everyone in these areas were somewhat fearful of the gangs of men on horses. The San raiders were based in that mountain redoubt between Giant's Castle and Mount Fletcher and they were surrounded by enemies but also prospective allies. This mountain redoubt was getting a bad name, and soon would be identified on maps from the 1840s onwards as nomansland.

This is episode 152, we're going to dig into a story that is not often told — the amaTola San raiders of the Drakensberg. They emerged by the end of the third decade of the 19th Century as a result of a mish-mash of forces at play on the veld. And what a remarkable story this is so hold onto your horses! Literally as it would appear. What has been re-discovered recently is the identification of a plethora of mounted frontier raiding groups and how these had impacted the interior of Southern Africa, and in particular, the mountains north-east of the Cape Colony. Certain frontier raiding groups often referred to simply as ‘Bushmen' were really comprised of members from many formerly distinct ethnicities, and included the progeny from subsequent inter-marriage. Cultural and ethnic mixing, the advent of the horse, the increased access to guns and ammunition, and the need for identity to adapt to these changes, resulted in a volatile mix indeed. There were freed slaves, Khoesan, San, and English soldiers who'd gone AWOL, as well as descendants of former VOC soldiers who were Swedish, German, Swiss, and Dutch. There's a correlation here with the American Frontier experience, where men and sometimes women, armed with muskets, bows, and spears, wearing feathered headgear or wide-brimmed trekboer hats and riding horses, raided their neighbours for cattle and horses or exchanged these valuable resources for corn, tobacco, dogs and alcohol, much like other nineteenth century frontiers. There the roaming bandits were the Jumanos, the Lakota, the Metis, all became seminal in the B-grade Western movies of the 1950s. South Africa's bandits and raiders were arraigned across a large area, but perhaps the most interesting were those living in the amaTola mountains, a mixture of people who were on the fringes of society. Because horses were only introduced to the Drakensberg in the 1830s and production of hunter-gatherer rock art in that region had almost entirely ceased by the 1880s, horse paintings are comparatively tightly pinpointed in time, unlike virtually all other categories of images in southern African rock art. San paintings of this time reveal quite an astonishing fact, these people had a mixed material culture, the paintings who San and others who were not San working together, carrying firearms, riding horses with their dogs running alongside, carrying spears and bows, and importantly, dancing their trance dances. The area I'm addressing lies between the Mzimvubu River and the Tina River, across the central Drakensburg in other words, across both sides of the escarpment, stretching from Giants Castle in modern Kwa-Zulu Natal to Mount Fletcher in the Eastern Cape and Matsaile inside Lesotho. Glancing at a map, and tracing folks living in this area in 1840 you'd find the Voortrekkers arraigned inland from Port Natal, around Pietermaritzburg, and up to the headwaters of the Umgeni, the Mooi River and Bushman's River just below Giant's Castle. From here the San Raiders controlled the landscape, along the ridges of the Drakensberg south westerly to Mount Fletcher, in the slopes above the Senqu River or the headwaters of the Orange Riverif you prefer. This overlooked where the Bhaca lived, south east of them, the amaMpondo, further south the Mpondomise, then further the amaThembu, to their east and south the amaXhosa could be found and to their south, the English settlers in Albany. I hope you can feel the proximity of these amaTola raiders because everyone in these areas were somewhat fearful of the gangs of men on horses. The San raiders were based in that mountain redoubt between Giant's Castle and Mount Fletcher and they were surrounded by enemies but also prospective allies. This mountain redoubt was getting a bad name, and soon would be identified on maps from the 1840s onwards as nomansland.

Lawman: Bass Reeves is a new American Frontier western on Paramount+ that dropped Sunday, November 5th with a two-part pilot. Spanning 1863-1875, the first two episodes follow Bass (played by British actor David Oyelowo) as a runaway slave, turned free man, turned lawman, the first African American Deputy Marshal west of the Mississippi River. Tune in as we discuss the pros and cons, the history, and our ultimate rating. Welcome to Today's Episode!

The Divorce Colony: How Women Revolutionized Marriage and Found Freedom on the American Frontier is a nonfiction book by April White. Published by Hachette Book Group in 2022, The Divorce Colony examines the role of Sioux Falls, South Dakota as a destination for divorce seekers through personal stories. Excerpts were published in The Boston Globe,[1] Smithsonian Magazine,[2] and on Politico.[3]

James Beckwourth was a pioneering frontiersman and fur-trapper who conquered the American West by embedding himself in the Native American tribes who called it home. Although Beckwourth wasn't a runaway slave, he'd been born into slavery in the Deep South at the turn of the 19th century. As a young man, he was enticed by the freedom of the wilderness, after being emancipated by his owner and own father- a white Virginian planter. Beckwourth made his way west to the gold-dappled state of California and in doing so traversed the formidable Sierra Nevada mountains, carving a route for future gold-rush prospectors, thanks to the knowledge and understanding of the landscape he learnt from running with a band of Crow Nation American Indians. He hunted wild animals, searched for gold, got embroiled in inter-tribe warfare and travelled through many of America's states looking for adventure, telling great tales about the things he experienced.Dan is joined by historian Ann Manheimer who, like Beckwourth himself, weaves a gripping yarn about the life of this frontiersman. She is the author of 'James Beckwourth: Legendary Mountain Man'.Produced by Mariana Des Forges, sound design and editing by Dougal Patmore.

Ep 039 – Nonfiction. Tecumseh's military stand against William Henry Harrison was a last chance to protect Indigenous people from U.S. expansion. Peter Stark joins me to discuss his new book, "Gallop Toward the Sun: Tecumseh and William Henry Harrison's Struggle for the Destiny of a Nation."Support local bookstores & buy Peter's book here:https://bookshop.org/a/92235/9780593133613Subscribe to the War Books podcast here:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@warbookspodcastApple: https://apple.co/3FP4ULbSpotify: https://spoti.fi/3kP9scZFollow the show here:Twitter: https://twitter.com/warbookspodcastFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/warbookspodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/warbookspodcast/

Part 2 of our series of Joey and Gil delving into The Benders. An American Frontier family of serial killers. They had not 1, not 2, but 4 in their family of vicious murderers. Join us as we go through their murders and where they end up. Main Source: Hell's Half Acre by Susan Jonusas Audiobook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09LK35V3T/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title_ab_amzn Book: https://www.amazon.com/Hells-Half-Acre-Benders-American-Frontier/dp/1984879855/ Extra Sources: https://www.openbible.info/topics/killing_non_believers https://www.legendsofamerica.com/ks-benders/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Benders SUBSCRIBE! Don't forget to subscribe so you can catch future shows. PLEASE RATE & REVIEW:

Part 1 of our series of Joey and Gil delving into The Benders. An American Frontier family of serial killers. They had not 1, not 2, but 4 in their family of vicious murderers. Join us as we are introduced to the family and some of their victims. In Southeast Kansas they truly terrorize the town they call home. Main Source: Hell's Half Acre by Susan Jonusas Audiobook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09LK35V3T/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title_ab_amzn Book: https://www.amazon.com/Hells-Half-Acre-Benders-American-Frontier/dp/1984879855/ Extra Sources: https://www.openbible.info/topics/killing_non_believers https://www.legendsofamerica.com/ks-benders/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Benders SUBSCRIBE! Don't forget to subscribe so you can catch future shows. PLEASE RATE & REVIEW:

Johnny Appleseed is an American folk hero, myth, and legend. But he was also an actual man. On this episode we go back to the time of John Chapman to relive his story and learn about his contribution to cider and the American apples culture. It's a far cry from the happy go lucky Disney version but like with most legends, there are always seeds of truth. Thank you so much to those who were referenced for the content in this episode. I cut and pasted a bunch and I appreciate the time you spent putting these words together. May my use of your content be the highest form of flattery. Referenced Works: Johnny Appleseed, Wikipedia Johnny Appleseed, American Nurseryman - Britannica The Real Johnny Appleseed Brought Apples—and Booze—to the American Frontier, Smithsonian MagazineThe Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World, Michael PollanJohnny Appleseed - BiographyThe Debaucherous Tale of Johnny Appleseed  - Science History Institute, Museum and LibraryWho was Johnny Appleseed - History Channel  The Legend of Johnny Appleseed - Apple Holler And for your enjoyment: The Walt Disney Legend of Johnny Appleseed 1948Thank you to Tony Stuck for the awesome intro/outro music and to Mary Ann King for the amazing pod art that you see for every episode. If you've enjoyed this episode, please share it with a family member, a friend in the alcohol industry, or even just a stranger on the street! I so appreciate your support. For more information about me and this podcast visit us online at othercwords.com or follow the podcast @othercwords on FB and Instagram. Talk to you soon! And thanks for joining me today!

In the 1870s,  thousands of people poured into the mining town of Deadwood Gulch in the Black Hills of South Dakota.Some of those people are still famous today.   "Calamity Jane" - known throughout the world as the gun-slinging, bar and brothel owner . Wyatt Earp -  the most dangerous of all the gun-slinging US Marshals.Wild Bill Hickok, a man whose biographers claimed  killed only six people in gunfights.And there was another person... A man whose identity was a mystery until current-day investigators got to work... Their trail involved forensic dentistry, genealogy, and, good, old-fashioned detective work to trace the identity of an unknown man dead for over one-hundred-and-twenty years. 

While many of us in the present day wish we could return to times of old, the wild west would make for a difficult transition. In this episode, Janelle and Vicky look at two cases from the wild country. From bank robberies and train heists to murders and gunfights, these crimes were all part of the fabric of life in the untamed frontier.You can check out the We're All Just Pretending podcast here!Research links below!: Slate - "The Story of the 'Bloody Benders,' the Serial-Killing Family That Terrorized the Wild West - Then Disappeared"A&E - "Who Were the 1870s Serial Killing 'Family' Known as the 'Bloody Benders'?"Medium - "The Bastardized Story of the Bloody Benders"Kansas Historical Society - "Kate Bender"Smithsonian Magazine - "The Kansas Homestead Where America's First Serial Killer Family Committed Its Crimes Is Up for Sale""Hell's Half-Acre: The Untold Story of the Benders, a Serial Killer Family on the American Frontier" by Susan Jonusas (Amazon)Legends of America - "Levi Boone Helm - Murderer, Cannibal & Thief"The Caribou Sentinel - "Kentucky Cannibal In Cariboo""Vigilante days and ways; the pioneers of the Rockies; the makers and making of Montana and Idaho" by Nathaniel Pitt LangfordThe Spell of the West - "Montana Vigilantes""The Vigilantes of Montana; or Popular Justice in the Rocky Mountains" by Prof. Thos. J. DimsdaleThis show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/3663283/advertisement

The Joint Readiness Training Center is pleased to present the twenty-first episode to air on ‘The Crucible - The JRTC Experience.' Hosted by the Commander of Ops Group (COG), COL Matthew Hardman.  Today's guest is the battalion command sergeant major from 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, CSM Joseph Lachnit within the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division.   The 2nd IBCT was officially activated in February 1985 along with the rest of the division. While 10th Mountain Division was originally established to fight in the brutal mountains of the Italian campaign of WWII, 2-14 IN has an extensive and illustrious history dating back to the Civil War. Since its establishment, the battalion has served in every conflict that the US Army has participated in, from the Indian Wars of the American Frontier to the Boxer Rebellion to the mountains of Italy in World War II to the various conflicts of the Cold War and even Operation Restore Hope in Somalia. The battalion's call-sign is the “Golden Dragons” with the motto of “Right of the Line.”   In this episode we discuss some of the overall mindset required to be an infantryman on the modern battlefield as well as exploring some of the leadership traits required to successfully lead troops in combat. A reoccurring theme highlighted on the podcast is that there isn't a secret to conducting infantry operations, whether as part of a special operations task force or in conventional forces. Instead, modern infantry formations must focus on the fundamentals and being able to execute them violently across multiple domains. At the battalion level, leaders must focus on helping companies achieve the brigade's objectives, thus making the entire organization better. In large scale combat operations, senior non-commissioned officers have to own sustainment operations for their organizations. Closing the last tactical kilometer in sustainment operations was also emphasized, which is a reoccurring theme on the podcast.   Part of S03 “Lightfighter Lessons” series.   For additional information and insights from this episode, please checkout our Instagram page @the_jrtc_crucible_podcast   Be sure to follow us on social media to keep up with the latest warfighting TTPs learned through the crucible that is the Joint Readiness Training Center.   Follow us by going to: https://linktr.ee/jrtc and then selecting your preferred podcast format.   Again, we'd like to thank our guests for participating. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and review us wherever you listen or watch your podcasts — and be sure to stay tuned for more in the near future.   “The Crucible – The JRTC Experience” is a product of the Joint Readiness Training Center.

Join our Member's Exclusive Content - Commercial Freehttps://redcircle.com/shows/cowboy-classics-old-time-radio-westerns-podcastDouble FeatureGunsmoke - Busted Up Guns & Spring FreshetBattle Armor Apologetics*(NEW BOOK) Finding Freedom: Overcoming Addiction - A Bible-Centered Recovery*Understanding the Bible Made Easy: Bible Study Guide for Beginners*Christian Devotional and Prayer Journal for Women* Our Affiliate Partners*Click the link to receive two free audiobooks from Audible*Walmart Back-to-school savings*Chewy - 50% off your first Autoship of Select Top Dog Food Brands with Code: GREAT50*Click here to connect and follow Cowboy Classics Podcast Old Time Radio Shows Westerns - GunsmokeWelcome to Cowboy Classics, your ultimate destination for the best Old Time Radio Shows featuring classic Westerns. Our podcast takes you back to the Golden Age of Radio when the American frontier was the Wild West, and adventures were the norm. Join us as we saddle up and ride off into the sunset with vintage radio shows that feature the rugged and daring heroes of the West. Immerse yourself in the nostalgic entertainment of Retro Audio and Vintage Drama that has captivated audiences for generations. Relive the glory days of OTR Podcasts and the iconic characters of cowboy fiction, such as John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, and the Lone Ranger. So, sit back, relax, and enjoy the wild ride with Cowboy Classics - the home of the greatest Westerns on Old Time Radio. Gunsmoke, Cowboy Classics, Old Time Radio, Westerns, Best Radio Shows, Golden Age of Radio, Classic Westerns, Western Adventures, American Frontier, Wild West, Vintage Radio Shows, Nostalgic Entertainment, Retro Audio, Vintage Drama, OTR Podcast, Western Heroes, Cowboy Fiction, Ranchers and Outlaws, Trail Drive, Gunslingers, John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, Lone Ranger Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/cowboy-classics-old-time-radio-westerns-podcast/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Join our Member's Exclusive Content - Commercial Freehttps://redcircle.com/shows/cowboy-classics-old-time-radio-westerns-podcast Double Episode - GunsmokeXmas StoryThe Man Who Would Be MarshalBattle Armor Apologetics*(NEW BOOK) Finding Freedom: Overcoming Addiction - A Bible-Centered Recovery*Understanding the Bible Made Easy: Bible Study Guide for Beginners*Christian Devotional and Prayer Journal for Women * Our Affiliate Partners*Click the link to receive two free audiobooks from Audible*Walmart Back-to-school savings*Chewy - 50% off your first Autoship of Select Top Dog Food Brands with Code: GREAT50 *Click here to connect and follow Cowboy Classics Podcast Old Time Radio Shows Westerns - GunsmokeWelcome to Cowboy Classics, your ultimate destination for the best Old Time Radio Shows featuring classic Westerns. Our podcast takes you back to the Golden Age of Radio when the American frontier was the Wild West, and adventures were the norm. Join us as we saddle up and ride off into the sunset with vintage radio shows that feature the rugged and daring heroes of the West. Immerse yourself in the nostalgic entertainment of Retro Audio and Vintage Drama that has captivated audiences for generations. Relive the glory days of OTR Podcasts and the iconic characters of cowboy fiction, such as John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, and the Lone Ranger. So, sit back, relax, and enjoy the wild ride with Cowboy Classics - the home of the greatest Westerns on Old Time Radio. Gunsmoke, Cowboy Classics, Old Time Radio, Westerns, Best Radio Shows, Golden Age of Radio, Classic Westerns, Western Adventures, American Frontier, Wild West, Vintage Radio Shows, Nostalgic Entertainment, Retro Audio, Vintage Drama, OTR Podcast, Western Heroes, Cowboy Fiction, Ranchers and Outlaws, Trail Drive, Gunslingers, John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, Lone RangerSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/cowboy-classics-old-time-radio-westerns-podcast/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Double FeatureGunsmoke - Cavalcade & Child LaborJoin our Member's Exclusive Content - Commercial Freehttps://redcircle.com/shows/cowboy-classics-old-time-radio-westerns-podcastBattle Armor Apologetics*(NEW BOOK) Finding Freedom: Overcoming Addiction - A Bible-Centered Recovery*Understanding the Bible Made Easy: Bible Study Guide for Beginners*Christian Devotional and Prayer Journal for Women* Our Affiliate Partners*Click the link to receive two free audiobooks from Audible*Walmart Back-to-school savings*Chewy - 50% off your first Autoship of Select Top Dog Food Brands with Code: GREAT50*Click here to connect and followCowboy Classics Podcast Old Time Radio Shows Westerns - GunsmokeWelcome to Cowboy Classics, your ultimate destination for the best Old Time Radio Shows featuring classic Westerns. Our podcast takes you back to the Golden Age of Radio when the American frontier was the Wild West, and adventures were the norm. Join us as we saddle up and ride off into the sunset with vintage radio shows that feature the rugged and daring heroes of the West. Immerse yourself in the nostalgic entertainment of Retro Audio and Vintage Drama that has captivated audiences for generations. Relive the glory days of OTR Podcasts and the iconic characters of cowboy fiction, such as John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, and the Lone Ranger. So, sit back, relax, and enjoy the wild ride with Cowboy Classics - the home of the greatest Westerns on Old Time Radio.Gunsmoke, Cowboy Classics, Old Time Radio, Westerns, Best Radio Shows, Golden Age of Radio, Classic Westerns, Western Adventures, American Frontier, Wild West, Vintage Radio Shows, Nostalgic Entertainment, Retro Audio, Vintage Drama, OTR Podcast, Western Heroes, Cowboy Fiction, Ranchers and Outlaws, Trail Drive, Gunslingers, John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, Lone RangerSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/cowboy-classics-old-time-radio-westerns-podcast/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Cowboy Classics Podcast Old Time RadioTwo Episodes:Laurie's SuitorSunny AfternoonJoin our Member's Exclusive Content - Commercial Freehttps://redcircle.com/shows/cowboy-classics-old-time-radio-westerns-podcastOur Affiliate Partners*Click the link to receive two free audiobooks from Audible*Click here to connect and follow Battle Armor Apologetics*(NEW BOOK) Finding Freedom: Overcoming Addiction - A Bible-Centered Recovery*Understanding the Bible Made Easy: Bible Study Guide for Beginners*Christian Devotional and Prayer Journal for WomenSave BIG with our Affiliates*Save Up to 25% Off Columbia For 4th of July at Bass Pro Shops!*Free Shipping on 1,000s of essential household itemsConnect and Follow: https://linktr.ee/shelbygreenmedia Cowboy Classics Podcast Old Time Radio Shows Westerns - GunsmokeWelcome to Cowboy Classics, your ultimate destination for the best Old Time Radio Shows featuring classic Westerns. Our podcast takes you back to the Golden Age of Radio when the American frontier was the Wild West, and adventures were the norm. Join us as we saddle up and ride off into the sunset with vintage radio shows that feature the rugged and daring heroes of the West. Immerse yourself in the nostalgic entertainment of Retro Audio and Vintage Drama that has captivated audiences for generations. Relive the glory days of OTR Podcasts and the iconic characters of cowboy fiction, such as John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, and the Lone Ranger. So, sit back, relax, and enjoy the wild ride with Cowboy Classics - the home of the greatest Westerns on Old Time Radio. Gunsmoke, Cowboy Classics, Old Time Radio, Westerns, Best Radio Shows, Golden Age of Radio, Classic Westerns, Western Adventures, American Frontier, Wild West, Vintage Radio Shows, Nostalgic Entertainment, Retro Audio, Vintage Drama, OTR Podcast, Western Heroes, Cowboy Fiction, Ranchers and Outlaws, Trail Drive, Gunslingers, John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, Lone Ranger Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/cowboy-classics-old-time-radio-westerns-podcast/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Discover amazing products/services! Click my affiliate links for exclusive discounts, helpful reviews, and valuable recommendations. Start saving time and money today!*Save Up to 25% Off Columbia For 4th of July at Bass Pro Shops!*Free Shipping on 1,000s of essential household items*(NEW BOOK) Finding Freedom: Overcoming Addiction - A Bible-Centered Recovery*Understanding the Bible Made Easy: Bible Study Guide for Beginners*Christian Devotional and Prayer Journal for Women*Click the link to receive two free audiobooks from Audible*Click here to connect and followCowboy Classics Podcast Old Time Radio Shows Westerns - GunsmokeWelcome to Cowboy Classics, your ultimate destination for the best Old Time Radio Shows featuring classic Westerns. Our podcast takes you back to the Golden Age of Radio when the American frontier was the Wild West, and adventures were the norm. Join us as we saddle up and ride off into the sunset with vintage radio shows that feature the rugged and daring heroes of the West. Immerse yourself in the nostalgic entertainment of Retro Audio and Vintage Drama that has captivated audiences for generations. Relive the glory days of OTR Podcasts and the iconic characters of cowboy fiction, such as John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, and the Lone Ranger. So, sit back, relax, and enjoy the wild ride with Cowboy Classics - the home of the greatest Westerns on Old Time Radio. Gunsmoke, Cowboy Classics, Old Time Radio, Westerns, Best Radio Shows, Golden Age of Radio, Classic Westerns, Western Adventures, American Frontier, Wild West, Vintage Radio Shows, Nostalgic Entertainment, Retro Audio, Vintage Drama, OTR Podcast, Western Heroes, Cowboy Fiction, Ranchers and Outlaws, Trail Drive, Gunslingers, John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, Lone RangerSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/cowboy-classics-old-time-radio-westerns-podcast/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Discover amazing products/services! Click my affiliate links for exclusive discounts, helpful reviews, and valuable recommendations. Start saving time and money today!*Save Up to 25% Off Columbia For 4th of July at Bass Pro Shops!*Free Shipping on 1,000s of essential household items*(NEW BOOK) Finding Freedom: Overcoming Addiction - A Bible-Centered Recovery*Understanding the Bible Made Easy: Bible Study Guide for Beginners*Christian Devotional and Prayer Journal for Women*Click the link to receive two free audiobooks from Audible*Click here to connect and followCowboy Classics Podcast Old Time Radio Shows Westerns - GunsmokeWelcome to Cowboy Classics, your ultimate destination for the best Old Time Radio Shows featuring classic Westerns. Our podcast takes you back to the Golden Age of Radio when the American frontier was the Wild West, and adventures were the norm. Join us as we saddle up and ride off into the sunset with vintage radio shows that feature the rugged and daring heroes of the West. Immerse yourself in the nostalgic entertainment of Retro Audio and Vintage Drama that has captivated audiences for generations. Relive the glory days of OTR Podcasts and the iconic characters of cowboy fiction, such as John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, and the Lone Ranger. So, sit back, relax, and enjoy the wild ride with Cowboy Classics - the home of the greatest Westerns on Old Time Radio. Gunsmoke, Cowboy Classics, Old Time Radio, Westerns, Best Radio Shows, Golden Age of Radio, Classic Westerns, Western Adventures, American Frontier, Wild West, Vintage Radio Shows, Nostalgic Entertainment, Retro Audio, Vintage Drama, OTR Podcast, Western Heroes, Cowboy Fiction, Ranchers and Outlaws, Trail Drive, Gunslingers, John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, Lone RangerSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/cowboy-classics-old-time-radio-westerns-podcast/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints learn early on about the murder of their faith's founder, Joseph Smith. They know that, on June 27, 1844 (179 years ago this month), he and his brother Hyrum were gunned down by a mob at a jail in Carthage, Ill. They know that no one was ever convicted of the killings. And they know that the ugliness that took place outside their “City Beautiful” marked the beginning of the end to the Saints' stay in nearby Nauvoo. What many insiders and outsiders alike either don't know or fail to recognize, however, is that Smith's slaying was not only a religious martyrdom but also a political assassination. They forget that the church leader was a candidate for the U.S. presidency at the time of his death and was the first American to be assassinated while running for the White House. On this week's show, with the help of Benjamin Park, author of the acclaimed “Kingdom of Nauvoo: The Rise and Fall of a Religious Empire on the American Frontier,” we revisit the mystique surrounding Carthage, how it happened, why it happened, what can be learned from it.

*(NEW BOOK) Finding Freedom: Overcoming Addiction - A Bible-Centered Recovery: https://amzn.to/3qBaXOD*Understanding the Bible Made Easy: Bible Study Guide for Beginners: https://amzn.to/3QOOdCY*Christian Devotional and Prayer Journal for Women: https://amzn.to/3F2s2G0*Click the link to receive two free audiobooks from Audible: https://amzn.to/3uoIVVo*Click here to connect and follow: https://linktr.ee/shelbygreenmedia*Thermacell Keeps Mosquitoes Away GunsmokeWelcome to Cowboy Classics, your ultimate destination for the best Old Time Radio Shows featuring classic Westerns. Our podcast takes you back to the Golden Age of Radio when the American frontier was the Wild West, and adventures were the norm. Join us as we saddle up and ride off into the sunset with vintage radio shows that feature the rugged and daring heroes of the West. Immerse yourself in the nostalgic entertainment of Retro Audio and Vintage Drama that has captivated audiences for generations. Relive the glory days of OTR Podcasts and the iconic characters of cowboy fiction, such as John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, and the Lone Ranger. So, sit back, relax, and enjoy the wild ride with Cowboy Classics - the home of the greatest Westerns on Old Time Radio.Gunsmoke, Cowboy Classics, Old Time Radio, Westerns, Best Radio Shows, Golden Age of Radio, Classic Westerns, Western Adventures, American Frontier, Wild West, Vintage Radio Shows, Nostalgic Entertainment, Retro Audio, Vintage Drama, OTR Podcast, Western Heroes, Cowboy Fiction, Ranchers and Outlaws, Trail Drive, Gunslingers, John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, Lone RangerSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/cowboy-classics-old-time-radio-westerns-podcast/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

At the close of 18th century, the Mississippi River ran dark with blood and whiskey. This great artery of North America was a lawless frontier contested by Spain, France, Britain, the United States, as well as indigenous governments like the Choctaw and Chickasaw that had no intention of vacating land that had been theirs for generations. But there was one more ingredient in this cauldron of conflict. River pirates took advantage of this chaos, playing all these sides against each other in pursuit of gold and glory. From the time of the American Revolution up until the 1830s, the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers were dominated pirates just as ambitious and exciting as the buccaneers who ruled the Caribbean a century before. On this week's Gladio Free Europe, Liam and Russian Sam give an overview of the unique political and social situation that existed on the frontier, with some discussion the nature of outlawry as well as the surprising amount of support the Spanish Empire lent to the American Revolution, particularly on the far-western frontier. Join us for a look at the old old west and the river pirates who once were the true masters of the waters. Characters include gentleman thief turned frontier warlord Philip Alston, Gaelic-Chickasaw freedom fighter James Colbert, the psychopathic hillbilly Harpe Brothers, and an ambitious young pirate named John Murrell who tried to incite a nationwide slave revolt to overthrow the planters and allow his pirates to dominate the South. Expect double-crossings and back-stabbings, a surprising amount of polygamy, and too many severed heads to count.

*(NEW BOOK) Finding Freedom: Overcoming Addiction - A Bible-Centered Recovery: https://amzn.to/3qBaXOD*Understanding the Bible Made Easy: Bible Study Guide for Beginners: https://amzn.to/3QOOdCY*Christian Devotional and Prayer Journal for Women: https://amzn.to/3F2s2G0*Click the link to receive two free audiobooks from Audible: https://amzn.to/3uoIVVo*Click here to connect and follow: https://linktr.ee/shelbygreenmediaGunsmokeWelcome to Cowboy Classics, your ultimate destination for the best Old Time Radio Shows featuring classic Westerns. Our podcast takes you back to the Golden Age of Radio when the American frontier was the Wild West, and adventures were the norm. Join us as we saddle up and ride off into the sunset with vintage radio shows that feature the rugged and daring heroes of the West. Immerse yourself in the nostalgic entertainment of Retro Audio and Vintage Drama that has captivated audiences for generations. Relive the glory days of OTR Podcasts and the iconic characters of cowboy fiction, such as John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, and the Lone Ranger. So, sit back, relax, and enjoy the wild ride with Cowboy Classics - the home of the greatest Westerns on Old Time Radio!Gunsmoke, Cowboy Classics, Old Time Radio, Westerns, Best Radio Shows, Golden Age of Radio, Classic Westerns, Western Adventures, American Frontier, Wild West, Vintage Radio Shows, Nostalgic Entertainment, Retro Audio, Vintage Drama, OTR Podcast, Western Heroes, Cowboy Fiction, Ranchers and Outlaws, Trail Drive, Gunslingers, John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, Lone RangerWelcome to Cowboy Classics, your ultimate destination for the best Old Time Radio Shows featuring classic Westerns. Our podcast takes you back to the Golden Age of Radio when the American frontier was the Wild West and adventures were the norm. Join us as we saddle up and ride off into the sunset with vintage radio shows that feature the rugged and daring heroes of the West. Immerse yourself in the nostalgic entertainment of Retro Audio and Vintage Drama that has captivated audiences for generations. Relive the glory days of OTR Podcasts and the iconic characters of cowboy fiction such as John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, and the Lone Ranger. So, sit back, relax, and enjoy the wild ride with Cowboy Classics - the home of the greatest Westerns on Old Time Radio!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/cowboy-classics-old-time-radio-westerns-podcast/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Understanding the Bible Made Easy: Bible Study Guide for Beginners: https://amzn.to/3QOOdCYChristian Devotional and Prayer Journal for Women: https://amzn.to/3F2s2G0Click the link to receive two free audiobooks from Audible: https://amzn.to/3uoIVVoClick here to connect and follow: https://linktr.ee/shelbygreenmedia Gunsmoke Welcome to Cowboy Classics, your ultimate destination for the best Old Time Radio Shows featuring classic Westerns. Our podcast takes you back to the Golden Age of Radio when the American frontier was the Wild West, and adventures were the norm. Join us as we saddle up and ride off into the sunset with vintage radio shows that feature the rugged and daring heroes of the West. Immerse yourself in the nostalgic entertainment of Retro Audio and Vintage Drama that has captivated audiences for generations. Relive the glory days of OTR Podcasts and the iconic characters of cowboy fiction, such as John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, and the Lone Ranger. So, sit back, relax, and enjoy the wild ride with Cowboy Classics - the home of the greatest Westerns on Old Time Radio!Gunsmoke, Cowboy Classics, Old Time Radio, Westerns, Best Radio Shows, Golden Age of Radio, Classic Westerns, Western Adventures, American Frontier, Wild West, Vintage Radio Shows, Nostalgic Entertainment, Retro Audio, Vintage Drama, OTR Podcast, Western Heroes, Cowboy Fiction, Ranchers and Outlaws, Trail Drive, Gunslingers, John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, Lone RangerSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/cowboy-classics-old-time-radio-westerns-podcast/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

THIS SHOW WAS RECORDED IN FRONT OF A LIVE AUDIENCE These Paper Lantern Writers band together on this special episode of LAUNCH PAD to discuss historical fiction, feminist romance, pugilism, Amsterdam's Golden Age and map making, betrayal, roses and rebels, and the American Frontier. Join these fascinating authors and learn about their unique tales and lives just as you fall in love with the authors and find your next great read. Find out more about these authors at: · Edie Cay: https://www.scarabskinbooks.com · Rebecca D'Harlingue: https://rebeccadharlingue.com · C.V. Lee: https://cvlee.com · Linda Ulleseit: https://ulleseit.com LAUNCH PAD combines the best of book celebration and solid marketing strengths. Each on-air episode is hosted by Grace Sammon and celebrates book releases and the authors that create them. Each episode engages guests and listeners in the book launch journey from concept to publication. Applying her years of experience as an educator, entrepreneur, author, and storyteller herself, Grace brings to readers, reviewers, book club members, and more an intimate look at some of today's newest releases. Visit Grace at her website www.gracesammon.net. Contact Grace about being a guest on the show, email her at grace@gracesammon.net Follow Grace: On Facebook https://www.facebook.com/GraceSammonWrites/ On Instagram https://www.instagram.com/GraceSammonWrites/ On Twitter https://www.twitter.com/GSammonWrites On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grace-sammon-84389153/ Visit author marketing coach, Mary Helen Sheriff at her website www.maryhelensheriff.com/marketing for more about information about how she can help you navigate this marketing of your book. Be sure to sign up for her marketing newsletter while you are there. Follow Mary On Facebook @maryhelensheriff On Instagram @maryhelensheriff On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryhelensheriff/ On Book Bub @maryhelensheriff #launchpad #bookish #bookishroadtrip #roadtrip #bookmarketing #Storytellers # Storytelling #AuhtorInterview #LetsTalkBooks #LeaveYourMark #AuthorLife #StorytellerLife #ArtofStory #AuthorTalkNetwork #AuthorTalkNetwork #awardwinningfiction #womensfiction #memoir #historical fiction #WFW #womensfictionwritersassociation #nationalwomensbookassociation #awardwinningfiction #novelist #historicalfiction #bookdebut #debutnovel #booklaunch #launchpad #bookish #bookishroadtrip #roadtrip #bookmarketing #Storytellers # Storytelling #AuhtorInterview #LetsTalkBooks #LeaveYourMark #AuthorLife #StorytellerLife #ArtofStory #AuthorTalkNetwork #AuthorTalkNetwork #awardwinningfiction #womensfiction #memoir #historical fiction #WFW #womensfictionwritersassociation #nationalwomensbookassociation #awardwinningfiction #novelist #historicalfiction #bookdebut #debutnovel #booklaunch #paperlanternwriters LAUNCH PAD is a copyrighted work © of Grace Sammon and Authors on The Air Global Radio Network.

Compared to the Puritans, Mormons have rarely gotten their due, treated as fringe cultists at best or marginalized as polygamists unworthy of serious examination at worst. In Kingdom of Nauvoo: The Rise and Fall of a Religious Empire on the American Frontier (Liveright, 2020), the historian Benjamin E. Park excavates the brief life of a lost Mormon city, and in the process demonstrates that the Mormons are, in fact, essential to understanding American history writ large. Drawing on newly available sources from the LDS Church--sources that had been kept unseen in Church archives for 150 years--Park recreates one of the most dramatic episodes of the 19th century frontier. Founded in Western Illinois in 1839 by the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith and his followers, Nauvoo initially served as a haven from mob attacks the Mormons had endured in neighboring Missouri, where, in one incident, seventeen men, women, and children were massacred, and where the governor declared that all Mormons should be exterminated. In the relative safety of Nauvoo, situated on a hill and protected on three sides by the Mississippi River, the industrious Mormons quickly built a religious empire; at its peak, the city surpassed Chicago in population, with more than 12,000 inhabitants. The Mormons founded their own army, with Smith as its general; established their own courts; and went so far as to write their own constitution, in which they declared that there could be no separation of church and state, and that the world was to be ruled by Mormon priests. This experiment in religious utopia, however, began to unravel when gentiles in the countryside around Nauvoo heard rumors of a new Mormon marital practice. More than any previous work, Kingdom of Nauvoo pieces together the haphazard and surprising emergence of Mormon polygamy, and reveals that most Mormons were not participants themselves, though they too heard the rumors, which said that Joseph Smith and other married Church officials had been "sealed" to multiple women. Evidence of polygamy soon became undeniable, and non-Mormons reacted with horror, as did many Mormons--including Joseph Smith's first wife, Emma Smith, a strong-willed woman who resisted the strictures of her deeply patriarchal community and attempted to save her Church, and family, even when it meant opposing her husband and prophet. A raucous, violent, character-driven story, Kingdom of Nauvoo raises many of the central questions of American history, and even serves as a parable for the American present. How far does religious freedom extend? Can religious and other minority groups survive in a democracy where the majority dictates the law of the land? The Mormons of Nauvoo, who initially believed in the promise of American democracy, would become its strongest critics. Throughout his absorbing chronicle, Park shows the many ways in which the Mormons were representative of their era, and in doing so elevates nineteenth century Mormon history into the American mainstream. Blair Hodges hosted and produced the Maxwell Institute Podcast for eight years before going independent with his current show, Fireside with Blair Hodges. It features interviews with writers, scholars, social justice advocates, and artists talking about culture, faith, memory, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

Compared to the Puritans, Mormons have rarely gotten their due, treated as fringe cultists at best or marginalized as polygamists unworthy of serious examination at worst. In Kingdom of Nauvoo: The Rise and Fall of a Religious Empire on the American Frontier (Liveright, 2020), the historian Benjamin E. Park excavates the brief life of a lost Mormon city, and in the process demonstrates that the Mormons are, in fact, essential to understanding American history writ large. Drawing on newly available sources from the LDS Church--sources that had been kept unseen in Church archives for 150 years--Park recreates one of the most dramatic episodes of the 19th century frontier. Founded in Western Illinois in 1839 by the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith and his followers, Nauvoo initially served as a haven from mob attacks the Mormons had endured in neighboring Missouri, where, in one incident, seventeen men, women, and children were massacred, and where the governor declared that all Mormons should be exterminated. In the relative safety of Nauvoo, situated on a hill and protected on three sides by the Mississippi River, the industrious Mormons quickly built a religious empire; at its peak, the city surpassed Chicago in population, with more than 12,000 inhabitants. The Mormons founded their own army, with Smith as its general; established their own courts; and went so far as to write their own constitution, in which they declared that there could be no separation of church and state, and that the world was to be ruled by Mormon priests. This experiment in religious utopia, however, began to unravel when gentiles in the countryside around Nauvoo heard rumors of a new Mormon marital practice. More than any previous work, Kingdom of Nauvoo pieces together the haphazard and surprising emergence of Mormon polygamy, and reveals that most Mormons were not participants themselves, though they too heard the rumors, which said that Joseph Smith and other married Church officials had been "sealed" to multiple women. Evidence of polygamy soon became undeniable, and non-Mormons reacted with horror, as did many Mormons--including Joseph Smith's first wife, Emma Smith, a strong-willed woman who resisted the strictures of her deeply patriarchal community and attempted to save her Church, and family, even when it meant opposing her husband and prophet. A raucous, violent, character-driven story, Kingdom of Nauvoo raises many of the central questions of American history, and even serves as a parable for the American present. How far does religious freedom extend? Can religious and other minority groups survive in a democracy where the majority dictates the law of the land? The Mormons of Nauvoo, who initially believed in the promise of American democracy, would become its strongest critics. Throughout his absorbing chronicle, Park shows the many ways in which the Mormons were representative of their era, and in doing so elevates nineteenth century Mormon history into the American mainstream. Blair Hodges hosted and produced the Maxwell Institute Podcast for eight years before going independent with his current show, Fireside with Blair Hodges. It features interviews with writers, scholars, social justice advocates, and artists talking about culture, faith, memory, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

November 7, 1811. William Henry Harrison and his troops are camped near the Wabash river. They've been told to keep the peace—but Harrison wants land, and he's come here to try and take it. Less than a mile away is a flourishing Native American settlement called Prophetstown. It's led by Tecumseh, a skilled diplomat and warrior, and his brother Tenskwatawa, whose religious teachings have attracted indigenous people from across the newly-formed United States. Before dawn, these two sides will be in a battle that ends with one of their settlements burned to the ground. How did a future president exploit this conflict to catapult himself all the way to the White House? And how did Prophetstown become the most powerful alliance of Native American military, spiritual, and social forces to ever take on the US government?Thanks to our guests, Chief Ben Barnes; Peter Cozzens, author of Tecumseh and the Prophet: The Heroic Struggle for America's Heartland; and Stephen Warren, author of The Shawnees and Their Neighbors, 1795-1870. Chief Barnes and Stephen Warren are co-editors of the book, Replanting Cultures: Community-Engaged Scholarship in Indian Country. Look out for Cozzens' forthcoming book, A Brutal Reckoning: Andrew Jackson, The Creek Indians, and the Epic War for the American South. Thanks also to Douglas Winiarski, author of Darkness Falls on the Land of Light: Experiencing Religious Awakenings in Eighteenth-Century New England; and to Adam Jortner, author of The Gods of Prophetstown: The Battle of Tippecanoe and the Holy War for the American Frontier. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

No-fault divorce laws began spreading across the globe in the 1970s, in which neither party had to prove wrong-doing. Before this time, somebody had to prove that the other party breached the marital contract, typically through infidelity or desertion. Basically, it was shockingly difficult to get divorced. For a woman in the late 19th century, there was only one place in the country to reliably get a divorce: Sioux Falls, otherwise known as the “Divorce Colony,” a place where the land and the laws had not yet been tamed. To explore this topic further is today's guest April White, author of “The Divorce Colony: How Women Revolutionized Marriage and Found Freedom on the American Frontier.” She discusses the stories of four real women who made the trek to Sioux Falls to get their divorces because the new state had short residency requirements before a settler fell under the jurisdiction of its flexible laws. We discuss salacious newspaper headlines, juicy court documents, and high-profile cameos from the era's most well-known socialites to unveil the incredible social, political, and personal dramas that unfolded in Sioux Falls and reverberated around the country. In particular, we discuss how the scandalous divorces of socialites and actresses at the turn-of-the-century led to greater acceptance of divorce in the United States; why turn-of-the-century suffragists were split on the question of divorce; and wow increased access to divorce changed the role of women in the United States.

This episode picks up where Episode 193 left off. We suggest you listen to them in order. Blanche Molineux visited her husband while he was in prison for murder to keep up what she called the “ghastly pretense.” But eventually, she couldn't keep it up anymore, and bought a train ticket to a place called "The Divorce Colony." April White's book is The Divorce Colony: How Women Revolutionized Marriage and Found Freedom on the American Frontier. Take our survey: vox.com/podsurvey Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: iTunes.com/CriminalShow. We also make This is Love and Phoebe Reads a Mystery. Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop.  Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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For a brief period the small frontier city of Sioux Falls, South Dakota drew in socialites and celebrities who were desperate to end their marriages.For more stories from the Divorce Colony, check out April White's book: The Divorce Colony: How Women Revolutionized Marriage and Found Freedom on the American Frontier.https://thedivorcecolony.com/ 

Lone-wolf serial killers like Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy live in infamy – it's a familiar archetype in true crime. But a family of serial killers is much less common, and the killing spree committed by the Benders in 19th century Kansas is likely the most famous murder case in American history that you've never heard of. This family became known as the Bloody Benders—a mother, father and their daughter and son—and their exploits were called the “little slaughterhouse on the prairie.” Today's guest is Susan Jonusas , author of the book Hell's Half-Acre: The Untold Story of the Benders, a Serial Killer Family on the American Frontier. She discusses the dangers and lawlessness of the American West, and chroncles families of the victims, the hapless detectives who lost the trail, and the fugitives that helped the murderers escape. In 1873 the people of Labette County, Kansas made a grisly discovery. Buried by a trailside cabin beneath an orchard of young apple trees were the remains of countless bodies. Below the cabin itself was a cellar stained with blood . . . And the Benders were nowhere to be found. This discovery sent the local community and national newspapers into a frenzy that continued for decades, sparking an epic manhunt for the Benders. The idea that a family of seemingly respectable homesteaders—one among the thousands relocating farther west in search of land and opportunity after the Civil War—were capable of operating "a human slaughter pen" appalled and fascinated the nation. But who the Benders really were, why they committed such a vicious killing spree and whether justice ever caught up to them is a mystery that remains unsolved to this day. All of this takes place during a turbulent time in America, a place where modernity stalks across the landscape, violently displacing existing populations and building new ones. It is a world where folklore can quickly become fact and an entire family of criminals can slip through a community's fingers, only to reappear in the most unexpected of places.