Combat Sports Historian and Martial Artist
Posts about miscellaneous history.
On January 7, 1903, St. Louis Chief of Detectives William Desmond married 24-year-old Hannah McLaughlin in a ceremony he hoped to keep secret. The 46-year-old Desmond always said he would never marry due to the dangers of his job. However, he was clearly smitten with Hannah McLaughlin. In March 1897, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch printed the first rumors of an
A 122-year-old brick house dominates the street scene at the corner of Whittier Street and Cook Avenue in St. Louis, Missouri. Builders erected the 2378 square foot house in 1892. Its unique architecture includes a turret balcony on the second floor of the northeast wall. When first built, 4200 Cook must have been an impressive site. Today, 4200 Cook is
On September 5, 1984, I walked through the doors of Grover Cleveland High School for the first time. I attended St. Louis’ most popular magnet school at the time, Kennard NJROTC Academy. The St. Louis School Board decided to move the program to “The Castle on Grand”. Cleveland High School would graduate many St. Louis children on St. Louis’ South
On Friday, October 14, and Saturday, October 15, 1904, 42 wrestlers in 7 weight classes met in the first Olympic Games contested in the freestyle wrestling method. Prior Olympic Games were contested in the Greco-Roman style of wrestling. The 1904 Summer Olympics was held in conjunction with the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, MO. St. Louis was well-represented in
Kate Chopin, daughter of a prominent French family and at the time local author, collapsed at the St. Louis 1904 World’s Fair on August 20, 1904. Madame Chopin was only 54 years old and suffered a brain hemorrhage or aneurism. She died at her home on McPherson Avenue on August 22, 1904. Kate Chopin was born Kate O’Flaherty in St.
Oliver Leonard Kirk has the distinction of being the only Olympic boxer to win a gold medal in two separate weight classes in the same Olympic Games. Oliver Kirk accomplished this feat at his hometown Olympics in 1904. St. Louis hosted the third Olympiad during the 1904 World’s Fair Exposition. Like the Paris Games four years before, St. Louis gave
On September 21, 1897, Joseph Bloomfield Jackson attempted to sneak into the White House armed with a loaded revolver. Jackson had boasted of plans to attack a high government official for days. Jackson was arrested before he could carry out his plans to attack President McKinley. Police quickly realized Jackson was mentally disturbed. They sent him to a Washington asylum
Theodore Roosevelt made a fateful decision on Election Day 1904. He announced after being elected to the Presidency in his own right after ascending to the office upon the assassination of William McKinley that he would not run for another term in 1908. Roosevelt had served almost a full term before his election as McKinley was assassinated in September 1901.
Frank Gotch took the American Heavyweight Wrestling Championship from Tom Jenkins in December 1903. Gotch intended on following up this triumph with a match for World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship from George Hackenschmidt. Gotch wanted to meet “Hack” in St. Louis during the 1904 World’s Fair. Unfortunately for Gotch and St. Louis, the match would not occur until 1908 in Chicago,
On Saturday, March 12, 1904, St. Louis Detective James J. Moran led a team of detectives to a room in a row house at 634 South Broadway on St. Louis’ Near South Side. Frank Ward, a suspected safe cracker, rented a room in the row house. Besides Ward, the detectives arrested Edward Seely and John Shumway. Moran and the detectives