San Diego today is a vibrant and bustling coastal city, but it wasn't always so. The city's transformation from a rough-hewn border town and frontier port to a vital military center was marked by growing pains and political clashes. Civic highs and criminal lows have defined San Diego's rise through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries into a preeminent Sun Belt city. Historian Richard W. Crawford recalls the significant events and one-of-a-kind characters like benefactor Frank "Booze" Beyer, baseball hero Albert Spalding and novelist Scott O'Dell. Join Crawford for a collection that recounts how San Diego yesterday laid the foundation for the city's bright future.
Known to its residents as "America’s Finest City," San Diego has a mild, inviting climate and stunning coastal scenery. San Diego Then and Now looks at how the city developed from a small village settled by early Franciscan missionaries and the Spanish military. It came under U.S. rule in 1846, but it was not until 1867 when San Francisco speculator and businessman Alonzo E. Horton acquired 960 acres of waterfront land and promoted it as "New Town" that San Diego really began to take off.San Diego Then and Now pairs archival photographs with modern views of the same scene to illustrate the city’s growth since these humble beginnings. It shows how the city’s architecture still reflects and preserves its Spanish heritage but also incorporates modern glass skyscrapers and Victorian mansions.Sites include: Horton Plaza, U.S. Grant Hotel, Stingaree District, Speckels Theatre, Fifth Avenue, Seaport Village, Embarcadero, Star of India, Coronado, Hotel del Coronado, Santa Fe Depot, Carnegie Library, El Cortez Hotel, Long-Waterman Mansion, Villa Montezuma, The Prado, San Diego Zoo, Old Globe Theatre, San Diego High School, Hillcrest, City Heights, Kensington, La Casa de Estudillo, Casa de Bandini, Whaley House, Junipero Serra Museum, Ballast Point, Point Loma, Ocean Beach and Pacific Beach.
San Diego, known for its perfect weather, naval ties and landmarks like the San Diego Zoo and Balboa Park, has a history as incredible as its stunning shoreline. In this collection of articles from his San Diego Union-Tribune column "The Way We Were," Richard W. Crawford recounts stories from the city's early history that once splashed across the headlines. Read about Ruth Alexander's aviation feats, the water pipeline carved from Humboldt County redwoods, the jailbreak of a man facing ten years in San Quentin for cow theft, a visit from escape artist Harry Houdini and the Purity League's closure of the Stingaree red-light district. These stories highlight San Diego's progress from a humble frontier port to the stylish city it is today.
The Plan of San Diego, a rebellion proposed in 1915 to overthrow the U.S. government in the Southwest and establish a Hispanic republic in its stead, remains one of the most tantalizing documents of the Mexican Revolution. The plan called for an insurrection of Mexicans, Mexican Americans, and African Americans in support of the Mexican Revolution and the waging of a genocidal war against Anglos. The resulting violence approached a race war and has usually been portrayed as a Hispanic struggle for liberation brutally crushed by the Texas Rangers, among others. The Plan de San Diego: Tejano Rebellion, Mexican Intrigue, based on newly available archival documents, is a revisionist interpretation focusing on both south Texas and Mexico. Charles H. Harris III and Louis R. Sadler argue convincingly that the insurrection in Texas was made possible by support from Mexico when it suited the regime of President Venustiano Carranza, who co-opted and manipulated the plan and its supporters for his own political and diplomatic purposes in support of the Mexican Revolution. The study examines the papers of Augustine Garza, a leading promoter of the plan, as well as recently released and hitherto unexamined archival material from the Federal Bureau of Investigation documenting the day-to-day events of the conflict.
Avoid The Tourist Herds. What could be more uninspiring than seeing the identical attractions that everyone else has for decades? This Twisted Tour Guide escorts you to the places locals don’t want to talk about anymore…the same places people once couldn’t stop talking about. Long after the screaming headlines and sensationalism has subsided, these bizarre, infamous and obscure historical sites remain hidden awaiting rediscovery. Each visitation site in this guide is accompanied by a story. Many of the narratives defy believability, yet they are true. The profiled cast of characters feature saints and sinners (with emphasis towards the latter). Notorious crimes, murders, accidental deaths, suicides, kidnappings, vice and scandal are captivating human interest tales. The photography from each profile showcases the precise location where each event occurred. The scenes can seem ordinary, weird and/or sometimes very revealing towards clarifying the background behind events. If you’re seeking an alternative to conventional tourism, this Twisted Tourist Guide is ideal. Each directory accommodates the restless traveler and even resident looking for something unique and different. Historical Scandals: Dead Man’s Point, Old Town’s Flawed Jail, Hanging A Horse Thief, A Rouge Litany of Flawed Mayors, The Rainmaker, Abraham Lincoln’s Love Letters, Kumeyaay Forced Relocation, Children’s Hospital Tainted Blood, Strippergate, Big Boom Bust and Del Mar Racehorse Fatalities. Flawed Personalities: Count Agoston Haraszthy, Davis’ Waterfront Folly, The Future Duchess of Windsor, Beach Boy Brian Wilson’s Vagrancy Arrest, Actor Desi Arnez’s Parking Shooting, Bird Rock Bandits Fatal Beating, Distancing From Aviator Charles Lindbergh, Junior Seau, Kellen Winslow II, Online Influencer Ali Abulaban and Unconventional Dr. Seuss. Architecture With A Distinctive Past: Stingaree District, The Golden Poppy Brothel, U.S. Grant Hotel, Cabrillo Monument, Escondido Bomb Factory, 101 Ash Street Skyscraper and Horton Plaza Hospitality and Hauntings Casa de Estudillo, Cosmopolitan Hotel, Whaley House, Villa Montezuma, El Cortez Hotel and Del Coronado Resort Hotel, Financial Sleights of Hand California National Bank Bust, Anti-Gambling Crusade, C. Arnholt Smith’s Crumbled Empire, J. David Investments and the Foreign Currency Scam, Congressman Randy Cunningham, Drug Money Laundering Sting of a Political Fixer, Congressman Duncan Duane Hunter and Gina Champion-Cain Legacies and Notorious Events Southern California To Phoenix Road Race, Balboa Park’s Nudist Colony, Japanese-American Internment, Elvis Presley’s 1956 Concert, El Cajon Boulevard Drag Racing Riots, Del Coronado Bridge Suicides, Baseball’s Roberto Clemente Abduction, Midair Collision of PSA Flight #182 and Cessna aircraft and Menacing Runaway Tank. Infamous Murders Ruth Sackett Muir, Morse and Goedecke Family Murders, Tara Rand, Donald Tubach, Mobster Frank Bompensiero, Robert Alton Harris, Torrey Pines Beach, Brenda Spencer, San Ysidro McDonald’s Massacre, Broderick versus Broderick, John Morency, San Diego State Graduate Student Kills His Professors, Comic Publisher Todd Loren, Charles Keever and Jonathan Sellers, Father Louis Gutierrez, Heaven’s Gate Mass Suicide, Santana High School Shooting, Serial Killer John Albert Gardner III, Ryan Jenkins, Trading Places With Your Murder Victim, Vanishing McStay Family, Death at Speckles Mansion, Suburban Bondage Killing, Murder and Abduction By A Trusted Family Friend, Homeless Serial Killer, Poolside Party Shooter and Poway Synagogue Shooting Law Enforcement Related Killings Fatal City Jail Fire, Hub Loan Shoot Out, Grape Street Park, Officers Christopher Wilson, Jeremy Henwood and Jonathan DeGuzman, Demetrius DuBose and Daniel Chong’s Isolation Hell.
This is one of the most important baseball books to be published in a long time, taking a comprehensive look at black participation in the national pastime from 1858 through 1900. It provides team rosters and team histories, player biographies, a list of umpires and games they officiated and information on team managers and team secretaries. Well known organizations like the Washington's Mutuals, Philadelphia Pythians, Chicago Uniques, St. Louis Black Stockings, Cuban Giants and Chicago Unions are documented, as well as lesser known teams like the Wilmington Mutuals, Newton Black Stockings, San Francisco Enterprise, Dallas Black Stockings, Galveston Flyaways, Louisville Brotherhoods and Helena Pastimes. Player biographies trace their connections between teams across the country. Essays frame the biographies, discussing the social and cultural events that shaped black baseball. Waiters and barbers formed the earliest organized clubs and developed local, regional and national circuits. Some players belonged to both white and colored clubs, and some umpires officiated colored, white and interracial matches. High schools nurtured young players and transformed them into powerhouse teams, like Cincinnati's Vigilant Base Ball Club. A special essay covers visual representations of black baseball and the artists who created them, including colored artists of color who were also baseballists.
At this point in my life, I decided to put life's memories together for my family. In 1922, I was born on a farm in the southwest corner of Mahaska County, Iowa. I am now 85 years old and have lived the BEST life! With this book I hope I can pass along some of the highlights of these 85 years! In my mind, all of it has been fun! World War II entered my life in December of 1942. After 30 hours of pilot training I washed out and went to airplane mechanics school in Biloxi, Mississippi. Out of the War in February of '46, on a Friday. Bought a restaurant on Saturday and went to work on Monday-my life has centered around it ever since. I met my wife of 56 years in 1950. Dorene and I had 4 great children and she has a great business sense. Along the way I was in numerous sidelines (wholesale route, bottling works, grocery store, Joe's Short Order in the Chicago Loop). All the way from Bussey, Iowa to Indianola, it's been great. I hope my family and friends will enjoy this story of my life.
The tanned farmer stood under the windmill in the hot, cloudless July afternoon. His soiled blue cotton shirt was buttoned to the collar. Before him, his nineteen-year-old son, ramrod straight in his immaculate marine dress blues, lamented, Dad, if only I could turn back just a few months, then I wouldnt be in this predicament. The father, his jaw set, gazing up at the windmill vanes, quiet in the summer calm, uttered softly, You cant pump water with yesterdays wind. Born in 1922 to a simple farming family in rural Colorado, Andrew Hubbard is athletic, handsome, and intelligent. Andys childhood is a balancing act between the academic world he loves so dearly and the farming culture surrounding him. Maturing into a young man, he is on track to fulfilling his dream of becoming a doctor and marrying his high school sweetheart. World War II put the plans of a generation on hold, and Andy was no exception. After joining the United States Marines and facing a long and bloody war, Andy fights not only for his country but also for his ability to make it home to the life he treasures. Based on a true story.
