Arcadia: 7606 books

In 1778, the first sailing vessel with cargo holds, the Archange, a schooner built for prominent British trader John Askin, found �quiet waters� in Milwaukee Bay. These quiet waters and the Milwaukee, Menomonee, and Kinnickinnic Rivers made Milwaukee a favorable destination for early settlers. Maritime...

In 1829, the Humane Hose Company and the Schuylkill Hydraulians Engine Company organized in the booming town of Pottsville, a mining center in Pennsylvania's anthracite coal region. Fire protection was urgently needed for this growing community. New fire companies such as the Good Intent, the Rough and...

On March 14, 1863, the New Jersey Legislature created the township of West Orange by combining all of the land of the existing Fairmount Township, formed only a year earlier, with a section of neighboring Orange. It created West Orange with its present-day boundaries and gave the new town a separate...

Surrounded by Long Beach, the relatively small city of Signal Hill has a rich and colorful history. Because they used the hill as a view and signal point for the surrounding ranchos, early Spanish settlers called the area Loma Sental, which translates to Signal Hill. At the turn of the 20th century,...

Ten miles west of Chicago on the west bank of the Des Plaines River sits Maywood, a village that was founded in 1869 by seven New England businessmen who established the Maywood Land Company. This prairie community, carefully laid out along the railroad, experienced a population boom after the Great...

In April 1834, the Green-Bay Intelligencer newspaper reported that a sawmill was being erected in a new settlement on the Milwaukee River. Less than one year later, the paper reported that �Milwaukey [sic], which 10 months ago, had only a single trading house, has now some 20 or 30 houses, and two...

Port Washington is located 17 miles east of Manhattan on Long Island�s North Shore. Once known as the �shellfish garden� of New York City, it is known for its bounteous bays, yachting and boatbuilding, celebrity residents, and pioneering aviation activities. Immigration, technology, economic changes,...

The story of the first German immigrants to northern Indiana is the story of the beginnings of South Bend. The predominant immigrant group from the 1840s to the 1870s, the Germans helped build South Bend from an isolated trading post into a thriving industrial city. They also played a key role in transforming...

Farmers from the East found the broad and fertile prairies of McHenry County offered the perfect soil and climate for growing corn, wheat, oats, barley, and rye. This led the way for a flourishing dairy industry that eventually supplied milk to the city of Chicago. The first settlements appeared in 1835...

Communities have spent more than 100 years mastering the mighty Brazos River and its waterways. In the 1800s, Stephen F. Austin chose the Brazos River as the site for the first Texas colony because of its vast water and fertile soil. Within 75 years, a pumping station would herald the way for crop management....

Ridgway, known as the �lily of the valley,� is located on the scenic Clarion River in Pennsylvania�s Allegheny Mountains. Ridgway�s history has long been closely linked to the river, from a time when residents utilized the water to float timber from the nearby forested hills and supplied lumber...

Nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in southwestern North Carolina, Cleveland County has long been cultivated. Before the Civil War, self-reliant farms grew and raised a diverse array of vegetables, field crops, and livestock. These small farms relied on family labor, draft animals,...

The Land of Orland dates from the pre-Gold Rush 1840s when Granville Perry Swift selected the area for the adobe headquarters of his vast cattle operation. The naming of the town took place in 1875 when three men--who could not agree on a name--put their choices on slips of paper and the name "Orland"...

A brief look into the history of Glenn County will show you that Glenn County was created out of the northern portion of Colusa County on March 11, 1891, and was named after the prominent wheat farmer known as the �Wheat King of the World,� Dr. Hugh J. Glenn. A more in-depth look at the formation...