Posts about St. Louis history, family, and miscellaneous history.
This post is an exerpt from the second edition of St. Louis’ Civil War: The Streetcar Strike of 1900 (Second Edition). Saint Louis Police arrested transit security officer Ora Havill for the third time in a week on Sunday, June 3, 1900. Havill shot multiple men in two previous incidents. Havill claimed self-defense on both occasions. Havill fired six to […]
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Finding the first wrestling card that Vicky and I attended did not prove that difficult. Finding the last card, we attended proved more of a challenge. I thought it was around 1985 or 1986. It turned out to be in June 1984. Within two and a half years, Pat O’Connor, Bob Geigel, and Verne Gagne decimated a forty-year-old promotion they […]
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Recently, I went through St. Louis Wrestling Club cards from 1981 trying to find the first card I attended with my sister Vicky. My big sister taking me to the wrestling matches in St. Louis every three weeks led to my interest in professional wrestling history. When my mom married my stepdad, Ernest C. Diaz, I got five bonus sisters. […]
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On Wednesday, January 10, 1900, St. Louis Police Officer Paul Girard was standing at the corner of S. Taylor and Lindell Boulevard, when he saw a man jump from the second floor of 4511 Lindell Boulevard. Aware of recent burglaries in the wealthy Central West End neighborhood, Girard approached the man. When the limping man saw Girard, he ran towards […]
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In the 19th century, most states banned bare-knuckled prizefighting and professional gloved boxing. Police often arrested fighter, managers, and promoters to stop prizefighting. A unique aspect of geography turned St. Louis into an ideal fight venue to get around the authorities’s activity to stop professional prizefighting. In the Mississippi River between Missouri and Illinois, the river’s current created a handful […]
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On Monday, November 13, 2023, I achieved a major goal when I hiked the entire length of Chubb Trail, an out-and-back 13.6 mile trail in West St. Louis County. The hike took me seven hours and thirty minutes to complete. When my oldest son “Trey” was completing the requirements for the Gold Medal of Achievement in Royal Rangers, equivalent […]
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Burglars took advantage of the weather on a bitterly cold Saturday night in St. Louis during January 1904 to steal $100 in jewelry from 5161 Kensington Avenue. Today, the jewelry would be worth more than $3,000. Hiram Phillips, President of the Board of Public Improvements for the City of St. Louis, owned the home. Phillips and his family were away […]
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On December 1, 1938 at 5:15 pm, former professional wrestler and all-around athlete George Baptiste passed away at 74 years of age. While enjoying robust strength his whole life, Baptiste’s doctor discovered he had stomach cancer in June 1938. The doctor operated on Baptiste but was unable to remove all the cancer. Baptiste had been living at his country home […]
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During the 19th century, both prizefighters and duelists took advantage of the sandbar islands in the Mississippi River, around St. Louis, Missouri, to hold prizefights or duels. Authorities have frowned on duels to the death in any location. However, both Illinois and Missouri also outlawed prizefighting. Bloody Island in the middle of the Mississippi River just north of Downtown St. […]
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My great grandfather Parker L. Zimmerman married three times. After a couple of months marriage to Victoria Harris during 1897 in Franklin County, Missouri, Parker moved to Bollinger County, Missouri to be closer to his family. His parents, Samuel and Sarah Zimmerman, lived in Dongola, Bollinger, Missouri. On March 31, 1902, 27-year-old Parker married his second wife, 22-year-old Mellie Bollinger. […]
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