A Memory Kept

09/02/2025

It was 1907, and Margaret Harwood had just graduated from Radcliffe College with an A.B. degree in astronomy. She applied for a job at the Harvard College Observatory, an influential research institution known for its pioneering work in astronomical observations and classifications. The Observatory, established in 1839, helped develop modern astrophysics and was instrumental in producing a catalog that classified hundreds of thousands of stars according to their spectra.

The Observatory at the time was also relatively unique in that it employed women, as opportunities for them in scientific fields were limited. These women, nicknamed the "Harvard Computers," carried out extensive calculations and significantly contributed to astronomical classifications. Into this group, the Director hired Margaret as a "computer." And so she began what would become an illustrious career in astronomy.

While teaching at local schools in the morning to supplement her Observatory salary, Margaret still quickly stood out amongst the talented group of fellow women. In 1912, Margaret became the first recipient of an astronomical fellowship awarded by the newly founded Maria Mitchell Observatory. Four years later, in 1916, after receiving her A.M. degree from the University of California - Berkeley, Margaret was appointed the Director of the Maria Mitchell Observatory.

Under her leadership, the Observatory thrived. She made significant contributions to the field during this time, with research focusing on variable stars, particularly in the Milky Way. Throughout her career, she would write numerous papers and articles. And beyond the research, under her leadership, the Observatory also became a training ground for young women astronomers, paving the way for future generations. Margaret led the Observatory until retiring in 1957.

After her retirement, Margaret continued to contribute to the field through her writings and mentorship. She passed away on March 6, 1979.

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01/27/2023

On This Day - January 27, 1967-One of the worst tragedies in the history of spaceflight occurred when the crew of Gus Grissom (center), Ed White (left), and Roger Chaffee (right) were killed in a fire in the Apollo Command Module during a preflight test at Cape Canaveral. They were training for the first crewed Apollo flight, an Earth orbiting mission scheduled to be launched on 21 February. They were taking part in a "plugs-out" test, in which the Command Module was mounted on the Saturn 1B on the launch pad just as it would be for the actual launch, but the Saturn 1B was not fueled. The plan was to go through an entire countdown sequence.

At 1 p.m. on Friday, 27 January 1967 the astronauts entered the capsule on Pad 34 to begin the test. At 6:31 p.m. a surge was recorded in the AC bus 2 voltage readings, possibly indicating a short-circuit. The cockpit recording is difficult to interpret in places but a few seconds later one of the astronauts (probably Chaffee) is heard to say what sounds like "Flames!". Two seconds after that White was heard to say, "We've got a fire in the cockpit." The fire spread throughout the cabin in a matter of seconds. Chaffee said, "We have a bad fire!", followed by shouting. The last crew communication ended 17 seconds after the first indication of the start of the fire, followed by loss of all telemetry.

The Apollo hatch could only open inward and was held closed by a number of latches which had to be operated by ratchets. It was also held closed by the interior pressure of pure oxygen, which was higher than outside atmospheric pressure and required venting of the command module before the hatch could be opened. Nearby technicians tried to get to the hatch but were repeatedly driven back by the heat and smoke. By the time they succeeded in getting the hatch open roughly 5 minutes after the fire started the astronauts had already perished, probably within the first 30 seconds, due to smoke inhalation and burns.

The Apollo program was put on hold while an exhaustive investigation was made of the accident. It was concluded that the most likely cause was a spark from a short circuit in a bundle of wires that ran to the left and just in front of Grissom's seat. The large amount of flammable material in the cabin in the oxygen environment allowed the fire to start and spread quickly. A number of changes were instigated in the program over the next year and a half, including designing a new hatch which opened outward and could be operated quickly, removing much of the flammable material and replacing it with self-extinguishing components, using a nitrogen-oxygen mixture at launch, and recording all changes and overseeing all modifications to the spacecraft design more rigorously.

RIP, Star Voyagers, your sacrifice saved lives and helped make the program - and the subsequent moon landings - a success.

01/05/2023

08/08/2022

The following poem was written in a Bible owned by Alpha Cook - 21st North Carolina. Cook was killed in the battle of Cedar Creek in 1864. His Bible was taken from his co**se by a Federal soldier on the battlefield, 15 years later that Federal soldier would return that Bible to Cook's mother. This is the poem that Cook had written:

"I want to see my mother nigh, Oh can you call her name?
It wouldn't seem hard to die to have my mother near.
My home is in the mountains, up where the pine trees wave;
Was there I heard the bugle calling for the brave.

But, I want to see my mother, her tender, Loving eye -
and hear her footstep, to hear her call my name.
To have her pray beside me - No other prays the same.
I want to clasp her dear hand, and hold her to my heart,
And say, God bless you Mother, once more before we part.

Mother, Mother, come to me! I cannot die alone.
Come quick my Angel Mother, Oh, Don't hear me groan.
Oh No, she does not hear me, she doesn't know my pain
and She'll never, ever, see my old seat again

She's tending darling sister - I've dreamed of her all day.
And I hear my little prattler lisping, Brudder far away.
Oh God! O Chaplain, Hear me! Pray Heaven will give me grace;
to still this Dying longing To see my Mother's face.

There. Peace! I'll turn to Jesus, He never would complain -
He came to save his country, Yet Jesus too was slain.
Yes, Brother, God has heard you, He's calmed my agony.

My sins are all forgiven now: and he is all to me.
Then tell my blessed Mother, I'm dying peacefully -
Christ Jesus now is Mother! and he will take care of me."

Photo: Unidentified Confederate soldier with Bible.

North Carolina Confederates

06/08/2022

On this day in U.S. History: Richard Henry Lee, delegate from Virginia, introduces a resolution to the Second Continental Congress on June 7, 1776 for independence from Great Britain. The motion is seconded by John Adams.

The Resolution for Independence, also known as The Lee Resolution, reads in part, “That these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.”

The Second Continental Congress passed the resolution on July 2, 1776, which resolved that the 13 colonies were “free and independent States” from the British Empire and formally created the United States of America.

Twelve colonies approved the resolution and signed it. New York abstained from voting on the resolution.

The Declaration of Independence, the formal document announcing and explaining the resolution, was approved by Congress two days later on July 4.

04/19/2022

On This Day - April 18, 1775 – In Massachusetts, British troops march out of Boston on a mission to confiscate the Patriot arsenal at Concord and to capture Patriot leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock, known to be hiding at Lexington. As the British departed, Boston Patriots Paul Revere and William Dawes set out on horseback from the city to warn Adams and Hancock and rouse the Patriot minutemen.

By 1775, tensions between the American colonies and the British government approached the breaking point, especially in Massachusetts, where Patriot leaders formed a shadow revolutionary government and trained militias to prepare for armed conflict with the British troops occupying Boston. In the spring of 1775, General Thomas Gage, the British governor of Massachusetts, received instructions from England to seize all stores of weapons and gunpowder accessible to the American insurgents. On April 18, he ordered British troops to march against Concord and Lexington. The Boston Patriots had been preparing for such a British military action for some time, and upon learning of the British plan Revere and Dawes set off across the Massachusetts countryside.

Taking separate routes in case one of them were captured, Dawes left Boston by the Boston Neck peninsula, and Revere crossed the Charles River to Charlestown by boat. As the two couriers made their way, Patriots in Charlestown waited for a signal from Boston informing them of the British troop movement. As previously agreed, one lantern would be hung in the steeple of Boston’s Old North Church, the highest point in the city, if the British were marching out of the city by Boston Neck, and two if they were crossing the Charles River to Cambridge. Two lanterns were hung, and the armed Patriots set out for Lexington and Concord accordingly. Along the way, Revere and Dawes roused hundreds of minutemen, who armed themselves and set out to oppose the British. Revere arrived in Lexington shortly before Dawes, but together they warned Adams and Hancock and then set out for Concord.

03/11/2022

The winter of 1779-80 was a dark time in the struggle for American independence. George Washington’s dwindling army was short of food, clothing, and weapons. Many of the men were barefoot and there wasn’t enough ammunition for the few weapons they had. But something happened in April that would lift Patriot spirits and renew their hopes. Lafayette had returned.

The Marquis de Lafayette had first come to America in 1777, defying his king and risking his immense fortune in order to offer his service to the American revolutionaries. The idealistic young nobleman was soon commissioned a major general in the Continental Army. To this day he remains the youngest person to hold that rank. He was nineteen years old.

Lafayette’s courage, zeal, and military competence soon earned the immense respect of General Washington. Wounded at the Battle of Brandywine, Lafayette recovered and fought with distinction in the campaigns of 1778. But when news of the death of one of his young children arrived, and with pressing business matters needing his attention in France, Lafayette requested and was granted a leave of absence. He sailed for France in January 1779.

Still angry at Lafayette’s disobedience, King Louis XVI had him immediately placed under house arrest upon his arrival. When granted a royal audience, Lafayette risked further angering his king by showing up wearing his American uniform. But the young man’s charm, charisma, and enthusiasm soon returned him to the good graces of the king. And he began to lobby for French support for the American cause.

On March 5, 1780, Lafayette was thrilled to receive an order that would answer the hopes and prayers of his American comrades and change American history: “Monsieur le Marquis de Lafayette will hasten to join General Washington whom he will secretly inform that the King will send at the beginning of spring, help consisting of six ships and approximately 5,000 infantrymen.”

The duty of assuring the Marquis’ safe and expeditious return to America was assigned to Captain Louis de La Touche and the ship he commanded, the frigate L’Hermione. The Hermione was the pride of the French navy. Newly built in Rochefort, the ship could outrun any British warship she couldn’t outgun, and there were few she couldn’t outgun. La Touche was told only that his mission was vitally important and secret. On March 11, 1780, the Hermione set sail for America.

Lafayette was given a hero’s welcome when he arrived in Boston, and at every town and village he passed through on his journey from Boston to General Washington’s headquarters at Morristown, New Jersey. Although his secret message was still unknown, Patriots sensed that the fact that Lafayette had returned portended good news and better days ahead. When he reached Washington’s camp and delivered the king’s message, new life was breathed into the American cause.

Eighteen months later, in October 1781, American and French forces trapped British General Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia, forcing his surrender and assuring American independence.

Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette, boarded the Hermione at Portes-en-Barques France on the mouth of the Charente River bearing a secret message from the King promising French military assistance to America, on March 10, 1780, two hundred forty-two years ago today.

The Hermione participated in numerous fights against the British navy before being lost in a storm in 1793. In 2015 a full-size replica of the Hermione, built in Rochefort, made a triumphant recreation of the famous voyage of the original vessel. The reproduction Hermione can be visited in Rochefort today, when she is not sailing the world.

02/18/2022

A strong and courageous lady

"Mildred Harnack was beheaded on Hi**er’s direct order. Born in Milwaukee, she was 26 when she moved to Germany to pursue a PhD. As an American grad student in Berlin, she saw Germany swiftly progress from democracy to fascist dictatorship. She and her husband Arvid began holding secret meetings in their apartment. She recruited working-class Germans into the resistance, helped Jews escape, plotted acts of sabotage, and collaborated in writing leaflets that denounced Hi**er and called for revolution.

"Mildred Harnack nicknamed their resistance group “the Circle.” The group was diverse: its members were Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, atheist. They were factory workers and office workers, students and professors, journalists and artists. Over 40% were women...
"The Gestapo arrested Mildred Harnack on Sept 7, 1942 and gave her group a name: the Rote Kapelle (Red Orchestra). Postwar testimonies and notes smuggled out of a Berlin women's prison describe the daily interrogations and torture that Mildred and others in the group endured.

"Mildred Harnack and 75 of her German coconspirators were forced to undergo a mass trial at the highest military court in N**i Germany. A panel of 5 judges sentenced her to 6 years at a prison camp but Hi**er overruled the decision and ordered her ex*****on

"Before her ex*****on Mildred spent the last hours of her life in a prison cell translating poems by Goethe. The title of my book ALL THE FREQUENT TROUBLES OF OUR DAYS is a line from one of them. A prison chaplain smuggled out the book of poems under the folds of his robe

"On February 16, 1943 at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin, Mildred Harnack was strapped to a guillotine and beheaded. According to all available records, she was the only American in the leadership of the German resistance to Hi**er."

More great pictures and info here:

https://twitter.com/RRRDonner/status/1493952833846140935

12/27/2021

Laura Smith Haviland a woman of substance

Happy birthday, Laura Smith Haviland (Dec. 20, 1808 - April 20, 1898). Quaker. Pacifist. Feminist. Suffragist. Abolitionist.

In 1832, after moving to Michigan Territory from western New York, Laura helped organize the Logan Female Anti-Slavery Society, the first abolitionist organization in Michigan. In 1837 she and her husband, Charles, founded the Raisin Institute, the first racially integrated school in Michigan.

The Haviland farm also became the first Underground Railroad station in the state. Laura not only escorted escaped slaves into Canada, she made trips into the deep South and attempted to liberate the children of fugitive slaves. On one occasion a bounty of $3,000 was placed on her head, dead or alive, by a Tennessee slave-owner.

Author of "A Woman's Life-Work: Labors and Experiences" (1882). Born in Kitley, Ontario, Canada. Died in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Buried in the Raisin Valley Cemetery, Adrian, Michigan, next to Charles. The town of Haviland, Kansas is named in her honor.

~The Marginal Mennonite Society Heroes Series