Name: Wicked Wichita
Brand: Joe Stumpe
SKU: 9781467139106
Price: 23.99 USD
Availability: InStock

Wicked Wichita

9781467139106

$23.99

Early Wichita earned a wicked reputation from newspapers across Kansas thanks to a bevy of madams and murderers, bootleggers and bank robbers, con men and crooked cops. Gambler and saloonkeeper "Rowdy Joe" Lowe was the toast of the town before shooting down his rival, "Red" Beard, and skipping town. Robber and cop killer "Clever Eddie" Adams spread a wave of terror until the police evened the score. Dixie Lee ran the city's classiest brothel with little interference from authorities. Notorious quack "Professor" H. Samuels made a fortune selling worthless eye drops. And county attorney Willard Boone was chased out of town when he was caught with his hand in the bootlegger's cookie jar. Local author Joe Stumpe tells the real stories of the city's best-known and least-known criminals and misfits.

Wicked Women of Detroit

9781467138451

$23.99

Author Tobin T. Buhk recounts the thrilling tales of Detroit's most violent, clever and misunderstood female criminals.

"Queen of the Underworld" Sophie Lyons faced off with detective Teresa Lewis in court three times, and twice in the street, rendering both women battered and bloodied. Nellie Pope goaded her lover to axe her husband in what the press called "one of the most atrocious, cold-blooded, and deliberately-planned murders" in city history. Mother Elinor L. Mason, "High Priestess of the Flying Roller Colony," was no holy roller but a criminal chameleon who changed personas as easily as some people change clothes. And a feud between Delray madams Julia Toth and Annie Smith exposed widespread graft in the thriving red-light industry and led to one of the worst police scandals in Motor City history. These stories and more await in this deliciously entertaining collection.

Wild Women of Michigan

9781467137690

$23.99

Wild Women of Michigan commemorates the women of this state who boldly left their marks.

Countless Michiganian women performed extraordinary acts that challenged and improved the world. Madame Marie-Therese Cadillac served as the medicine woman in the frontier that became Detroit. Annie Taylor survived rolling over Niagara Falls in a barrel. After suffragist Anna Howard Shaw fought to vote, the state saw an influx of women running for office. In the 1970s, East Lansing's Patricia Beeman aided in efforts to end apartheid in South Africa. Suellen Finatri showcased an extreme side of equestrian sports by riding more than four thousand miles from St. Ignace to Skagway, Alaska. And World War II army flight nurse Aleda Lutz evacuated more than 3,500 wounded soldiers and is still recognized as one of America's most decorated servicewomen. Author and historian Norma Lewis commemorates the women who boldly left their marks.

William Henry Jernagin in Washington, D.C.

9781467119115

$21.99

William Henry Jernagin was a devout Christian and fierce advocate for civil rights in the first half of the twentieth century. He was senior pastor of the Mount Carmel Baptist Church in the Mount Vernon Square neighborhood for more than forty-five years. His activism made him an internationally recognized figure. He was a foundational leader in the American civil rights movement. His residency allowed him to contribute to the collective action to abolish Jim Crow in the nation's capital. Through his office in the National Baptist Convention, he also identified the potential in a lesser-known leader of the time, Martin Luther King Jr. Jernagin's passion lifted him to leading positions in the National Baptist Convention and National Fraternal Council of Negro Churches, as well as close work with Presidents Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower. Author Ida E. Jones reveals the story of this often-overlooked leader and his fight for civil rights while living in the District of Columbia.

William Henry Jernagin in Washington, D.C.

Willow Creek History

9781609496449

$21.99

It's the same Willow Creek that flows into Bass Lake and moves through five powerhouses generating twenty-seven kilowatts of electricity for California. It's the same Willow Creek that rises at eight thousand feet in the Sierra Forest, crashes through narrow granite canyons and meanders through serene mountain passes on its journey to its confluence with the San Joaquin River twenty-five miles below. Logging railroads have carried their loads alongside and over Willow Creek. Native tribes made their homes along its banks. Each year, thousands of people swim and boat and fish in its waters. In this history of Willow Creek, local author Marcia Penner Freedman shares the amazing story of these moving waters and the people whose lives have been touched by Willow Creek.

Wilson's Raid

9781467139038

$21.99

Relive the final days of the Civil War with this compelling account of Wilson's Raid told by memoirs of those who witnessed it.

In the closing months of the Civil War, General James Wilson led a Union cavalry raid through Alabama and parts of Georgia. Wilson, the young, brash ""boy general"" of the Union, matched wits against Nathan Bedford Forrest, the South's legendary ""wizard of the saddle."" Wilson's Raiders swept through cities like Selma, Tuscaloosa and Montgomery, destroying the last remaining industrial production centers of the Confederacy along with any hopes of its survival. Forrest and his desperately outnumbered cavalry had no option but to try to stop the Union's advance. Join Russell Blount as he examines the eyewitness accounts and diaries chronicling this defining moment in America's bloodiest war.

Wines of Vermont:

9781467118132

$21.99

Vermont's extreme climate may not seem ideal for wine production, but industry pioneers are proving otherwise. For nearly half a century, local winemakers developed distinctive fermentation techniques and adopted select crops to withstand icy winters. In 1970, Frank Jedlicka used traditional recipes to make wine with apples, maple and honey. North River and Grand View followed with other orchard and berry fruits. Harrison Lebowitz planted French hybrid grapes on a Lake Champlain island in the 1990s, and soon Vermont hosted some of America's first true cold-climate vineyards. Fresh tastes and resurrected flavors now symbolize the Green Mountain State's ripening wine industry. Todd Trzaskos reveals Vermont's identity as an innovative and maturing wine producer.

Winston-Salem

9781596293045

$21.99

Not just home to Old Salem and tobacco tycoons, Winston-Salem has more stories to tell. Author Michael Bricker chronicles the history of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in this interesting and accessible account that spans from the development of Moravian Salem and industrial Winston to the modern day. Conventional versions of Winston-Salem's past tend to focus on the city's famed public figures and wealthy businessmen, but this book also uncovers stories of the workers who built the tobacco and textile industries that have made this city what it is today. With an informative and entertaining approach, Bricker also discusses the effects of the Civil War, the Industrial Revolution, Prohibition, the Great Depression and the cold war upon the Twin City. This history is a must-read for all those fortunate enough to call Winston-Salem "home."

Wisconsin Literary Luminaries

9781467136051

$21.99

From the humble Ingalls family cabin in the woods to Ayad Akhtar's multicultural conflicts, the Badger State's stories and imagery have long inspired. Explore how Aldo Leopold and Lorine Niedecker drew on their close observations of the natural world. Contrast the distinct novels that Jane Hamilton and Larry Watson set on Wisconsin apple orchards. Delve into Thornton Wilder's enduringly popular Our Town and the wild fiction of Ellen Raskin and Cordwainer Smith, who wrote like no one else. Join Jim Higgins for a detailed account of ten notable Wisconsin writers that blends history, literary criticism and fact.

Woburn High School

9781467118200

$21.99

Woburn High School has instilled the importance of education in generations of students for over 160 years. The school opened its doors in 1852 with thirty-four students in a leased room at the Knight Building on Main Street. Increasing enrollment and curriculum requirements necessitated the building of a larger school on Main Street in 1854 and again in 1906 at the Dow Farm property on Montvale Avenue. Woburn's reputation as a leading leather manufacturer during the Civil War inspired the Tanner nickname, bull mascot and school motto: "Tanner Pride." With the leadership of thirteen principals throughout its history, over thirty-two thousand students have graduated from this school. Today, more than half the faculty are returning alumni, and generations of Woburn families continue to send their children to this school. Join author Susan Thifault as she explores a history of pride and tradition at Woburn High School.

Woodland Mounds in West Virginia

9781467138659

$21.99

The first Europeans to arrive in the Ohio Valley were intrigued and puzzled by the many conical earthen mounds they encountered there. They created wild theories about who the mysterious "mound builders" might be.

It was not until the 1880s that Smithsonian Institution investigations revealed that the mound builders were the ancestors of living Native Americans. More than four hundred mounds have been recorded in West Virginia, including the Grave Creek Mound in Marshall County, once the largest conical mound in North America. Join archaeologist Darla Spencer and learn about the Grave Creek Mound and sixteen additional Adena mounds and groups of mounds from the fascinating Woodland period in West Virginia.

World War II Buffalo

9781467136952

$21.99

Author Gretchen Knapp brings to life the challenges and contributions of daily life in World War II Buffalo.

When President Roosevelt visited Buffalo in November 1940, he found a hardworking city with a large immigrant population manufacturing aircraft for the Allies. Nearby Fort Niagara inducted over 100,000 young men, resulting in an acute labor shortage. American Brass, Bell Aircraft, Chevrolet, Curtiss-Wright, Houde Engineering and Republic Steel reluctantly, then gladly, hired women. More than 300,000 defense workers toiled in hot factories for high wages despite transportation, housing and food shortages. The aircraft plants alone employed 85,000 on forty-eight-hour workweeks. Buffalonians watched the flag raising at Iwo Jima, participated in the Manhattan Project and observed the formal surrender of Japan in Tokyo Bay. Author Gretchen Knapp brings to life the challenges and contributions of daily life during wartime.

World War II POW Camps in Ohio

9781467141666

$21.99

During World War II, more than six thousand prisoners of war resided at Camp Perry near Port Clinton and its branch camps at Columbus, Rossford, Cambridge, Celina, Bowling Green, Defiance, Marion, Parma and Wilmington. From the start, the camps were a study in contradictions. The Italian prisoners who arrived first charmed locals with their affable, easygoing natures, while their German successors often put on a serious, intractable front. Some local residents fondly recall working alongside the prisoners and reuniting with them later in life. Others held the prisoners in disdain, feeling that they were coddled while natives struggled with day-to-day needs. Drawing on first-person accounts from soldiers, former POWs and residents, as well as archival research, Dr. Jim Van Keuren delves into the neglected history of Ohio's POW camps.

World War II Sacramento

9781467138086

$21.99

Spurred into action by the attack on Pearl Harbor, Sacramento dragged itself out of the morass of the Great Depression and joined the war effort. Local citizens trained for Japanese attacks through Civilian Defense, cultivated thousands of acres of victory gardens and harnessed the agricultural riches of the region. Tens of thousands engaged in war work at local bases like the new McClellan Field, while Sacramento's diverse servicemen distinguished themselves in combat overseas. They would later return and transform the city into the modern Sacramento of today. Exclusive images and stories from the Special Collections of the Sacramento Public Library bring this story to life.

World's Finest Beach

9781596299672

$21.99

Beginning as a summer resort for the wealthy, the oceanfront of Jacksonville has morphed into an outrageously popular tourist destination, stretching from Mayport to Ponte Vedra Beach. Encompassing a fishing village, luxury hotels, a carnival, railroads, mines and flocks of tourists, these beaches have a vast and eclectic history. Discover how Mayport became an adjunct of one of the largest naval bases in the United States and how a former mine called Mineral City became Ponte Vedra. Noted historian Don Mabry traces the fascinating history of what he still considers home from the nineteenth century to the twenty-first in this warm account of the "World's Finest Beach."

Writings of the Lowcountry

9781596290037

$14.99

The South Carolina Lowcountry is comparable to an epic work of literature, overflowing with palmettos and live oaks, rivers and shorelines and a natural beauty found nowhere else. If one looks deeper into this irreplaceable work of art to see the people and events that make up its diverse and interesting history, multiple volumes abound.
With an eye for history and the unusual, Suzannah Smith Miles leads visitor and local alike through these fascinating volumes. From the Revolution to the Civil War, through hurricanes and earthquakes, Suzannah shows the reader the Lowcountry as only a local can.
Drawing on her extensive knowledge of local history and a lifetime of personal observations, Suzannah has brought to life narratives that are as unique as the region itself. Whether it is okra, oyster roasts and the food of the region, or the Gullah language and historic locales, the reader cannot help but feel immersed in this distinct Southern world.

Wyoming Airmail Pioneers

9781625858641

$21.99

The story of the United States Transcontinental Air Mail Service, the first of its kind in the world, is one of romanticism and danger. Through calm or storm, in light or dark, a contingent of courageous couriers relayed the public mail across three thousand miles in less than a day and a half--faster than ever before. Though the U.S. Air Mail Service began on the East Coast, some of the frontier tales of the route through the Rocky Mountains were lost. The western leg of the airmail service from Chicago to San Francisco included the Mountain Division, headquartered in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The route through Wyoming, considered the most treacherous, provided harrowing tales of the pilots who risked their lives. Authors Starley Talbott and Michael Kassel lionize these folk heroes, aviation legends and icons of western history.

Yankees & Rebels on the Upper Missouri

9781467135627

$24.99

During the 1860s, the Missouri River served as a natural highway, through snags and rapids, from St. Louis to Fort Benton for steamboats bringing Yankees and Rebels and their families to the remote Montana territory. The migration transformed the Upper Missouri region from the isolation of the fur trade era to the raucous gold rush days that would keep the region in turmoil for decades. The influx of newcomers involved its share of dramatic episodes, including the explosion of the Chippewa triggered by a drunken crew member, the mystery of the fugitive James-Younger gang and Colonel Everton Conger's journey from capturing John Wilkes Booth to the Montana Supreme Court. Acclaimed historian Ken Robison reveals the thrilling history behind this war-weary wave of migration seeking opportunity on Montana's wild and scenic frontier.