Clipmarks | bignosemousie's History collection

How the SPCA led to Child Protective Services

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:06:00 GMT

clipped by: bignosemousie
clipper's remarks: Amazing. The police could not intervene in child welfare, so a worker petitioned the SPCA to help.

Clip Source: www.childrenservices.org

In the United States, an early means of caring for orphans was by indenture. The first American child was indentured in 1636, in Massachusetts. Indenture was often free labor rather than protection.

While there were attempts at times, there werent consistent legal limits placed upon the way a child could be treated, until 1875. At that time, Mary Ellen, a very abused child who had been beaten and chained in a room by the couple who took her from a charitable institution, was discovered by a church visitor. To her dismay, the worker found that the police were helpless to intervene. As a last resort, the worker made a plea to the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, stating that Mary Ellen was an animal in need of protection. The SPCA investigated, and took the case to court. The guardian was sentenced to jail and the child was removed.

With this, the New York SPCA incorporated child protective services.

Tags: spca, children, orphans, cps, america, history

The history of Jocko

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 22:24:59 GMT

clipped by: bignosemousie
clipper's remarks: I never knew any of this.

Clip Source: www.mountainhomeplace.com

The story begins the icy night in December 1776 when General George Washington decided to cross the Delaware River to launch a surprise attack on the British forces at Trenton.

Jocko Graves, a twelve-year-old African-American, sought to fight the Redcoats, but Washington deemed him too young and ordered him to look after the horses, asking Jocko to keep a lantern blazing along the Delaware so the company would know where to return after battle. Many hours later, Washington and his men returned to their horses who were tied up to Graves, he had frozen to death with the lantern still clenched in his fist. Washington was so moved by the young boy's devotion to the revolutionary cause he commissioned a statue of the "Faithful Groomsman" to stand in Graves's honor at the general's estate in Mount Vernon.

the Jocko statues pointed to the safe houses of the Underground Railroad. Along the Mississippi River, a green ribbon tied to a statue's arm

indicated safety; a red ribbon meant danger.

Tags: jocko, lawn jockey, underground railroad

Charles Wesley's fruitful risk

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 05:12:00 GMT

clipped by: bignosemousie
clipper's remarks: Whoa. Two months after his conversion he ministered to men on death row. They faced death full of comfort and peace.

Read the entire story at the source. It is uplifting, for those that need some good news.

Clip Source: www.desiringgod.org

On July 18, 1738, two months after his conversion, Charles Wesley did an amazing thing.

Wesley and Bray asked if they could be locked in overnight with the prisoners who were to be executed the next day. That night they spoke the gospel.

The next day, the men were loaded onto a cart and taken to Tyburn. Charles went with them. Ropes were fastened around their necks so that the cart could be driven off and leave them swinging in the air to choke to death.

Here’s what Wesley wrote:

They were all cheerful; full of comfort, peace, and triumph; assuredly persuaded Christ had died for them, and waited to receive them into paradise.

All the condemned prisoners were converted.

Why did he go?

God put it in his heart to go. And Wesley yielded

It was worth risking his life for.

The Real Story of the von Trapp Family

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:40:51 GMT

clipped by: bignosemousie
clipper's remarks: More pictures at the source, too.

Clip Source: www.archives.gov

Maria came to the von Trapp family in 1926 as a tutor for one of the children, Maria, who was recovering from scarlet fever, not as governess to all the children.

Maria did not marry Georg von Trapp because she was in love with him.

"I really and truly was not in love. I liked him but didn't love him. However, I loved the children, so in a way I really married the children. . . . [B]y and by I learned to love him more than I have ever loved before or after."

There were 10, not 7 von Trapp children.

In the early 1940s the family settled in Stowe, Vermont, where they bought a farm. They ran a music camp on the property when they were not on tour.

Georg died in 1947 and was buried in the family cemetery on the property. Those who had applied for citizenship achieved it in 1948. The Trapp Family Lodge (which is still operating today) opened to guests in 1950.

Tags: history, von trapp, sound of music