Memorial Day : Remembering Those Who Served So That We Are Free Americans

Fallen Acorns takes on a new meaning for this blog today.  Normally I post about someone who has a tragedy in their life, or some sort of death has occurred that is of  unusual circumstances.

Memorial Day started as a time when this nation of ours remembered their family members, neighbors and friends who gave selflessly to serve our country at a time of war.  Those that lost their lives while serving in the military are special.  They left their homes and never returned.  Those that came back home had scars....some are seen, and many are not seen.  Scars can lurk in  the minds of those who returned with unspeakable horror etched in their memories. The Veteran's Administration was established to help those who returned home, and the families of those who did not.  The remains of the deceased were buried overseas, and many were shipped home to the families a few years after the war, so that they could be laid to rest on American soil.

Today, I wanted to focus on how our nation kept it's citizens informed of these special soldiers and their status during World War II.  I searched The St. Louis Post-Dispatch issues dated during the 1940s to experience how the journalists wrote about the lives of the soldiers that had homes in and around the city.  Searching Newspapers.com, it was not hard to find page after page of stories and articles that must had kept the news writers busy, days on end.

5 December 1944, St. Louis Post Dispatch, page 6, www.newspapers.com, accessed 27 May 2016

Can you imagine opening your newspaper to view photographs of young soldiers from your neighborhood with their status noted under their names:  Dead, Missing, Prisoner, Wounded....

This is what our nation went through during World War II.  Photos of fresh young faces with their unfortunate status printed below them.  It must have been very depressing for everyone.  That war had affected almost every household.  Everyone knew someone who was serving this nation of ours during a time when we did not have these weapons that could be implemented with remote controls and precision targeting.  This was a war the no one wanted to see repeated.

This Memorial Day weekend, take some time away from the backyard grill.  Visit a church service, a veteran cemetery, anything that makes one remember exactly why we celebrate our heroes.  Look at the faces of these soldiers and say a prayer that their suffering was not in vain, and their courage was exceptional in the eyes of the terror of their time.  We have much to be thankful for.  Let's start with a thanks to these guys.

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The Black Hand Gets It's Man

www.newspapers.com, image from St. Louis Post Dispatch, 28 February 1908

16 August 1906.....well-off grocer, Damiano Capuano, receives the first of several letters....

"We know you.   We know what money you have.  And you know us.", the note began.  It went on to give directions to place $1000 in a basket and leave it behind a garden fence in an area known as Baden, in the city of St. Louis.  It ended with a warning, if these instructions were not followed, Capuano would be killed. The message was ignored.

20 August 1906...another note is delivered. It contained the same demand. But, this time the note was marked with a red cross, and the sign of the Black Hand (a zig zag mark) with a skull and crossbones.  Again, Capuano ignored the demand.

During the following week, several similar notes were sent, each one becoming more threatening.  Capuano started to become uneasy. He did not contact the police....until a message on the final note read "Capuano will be marked for the knife".  That got his attention.

He reported the incidents to the Carr Street police station, and Sgt. Adreveno was assigned to the case by Captain Johnson. Federal authorities took possession of the threatening notes.

Words overheard late at night by patrolman Tomasso lead to the arrest of five men.  He was tipped off by an anonymous neighbor, who noticed that a group of men were meeting in the back room of a nearby building.  Tomasso listened as the men spoke Italian, and heard a conversation that most certainly had to do with the notes left for Capuano in the previous weeks. They also made several denouncing comments about the government in America.

After their arrest, it was determined that these men were imitators of the Black Hand Society.  All were questioned....in Italian....because they claimed that they did not know how to speak English.  Handwriting samples were taken of each man, and it was certain that at least one of them closely resembled the writing on most of the notes left for Capuano.

The front page of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported on the initial findings of the police department. It had not been determined that any of these men actually wrote the notes.

In the following few years, many others had received similar notes, referring to the Black Hand, and demanding amounts of money from $500 to $1000 each.  This kept the new "Black Hand Squad" in the St. Louis police department very busy.

Unfortunately, late on the evening of 24 December 1910, Damiano Capuano was shot and killed by three bullets as he was walking home.  He had just finished visiting the homes of several colleagues.  Shots rang out in the night and police were summoned into the dark streets of the city.  Capuano was found deceased, bleeding from his wounds.  The Black Hand finally got their man.

Baby Shower weekend

Sorry, but there won't be a post today.  You see, I am getting ready to attend  a baby shower for my daughter.  She is expecting my first grandchild.  I need to focus on this   instead of blogging today.  Til next week....

A Murder in Her Honor

www.images.google.com

When I started to do some research into the family ancestors of my mother-in-law, I had no idea that her maiden name would be so common.  Fuston doesn't seem to me to be a name that lots of people had, but I was proven wrong with the many hits that I had when using various databases to search for her family.

Knowing that some of the family members were among the many that lived in the Tennessee and Kentucky region around the time of the War of 1812 and afterward, I focused my attention on this area.  Of course you know by now that I use newspapers to find some of the most interesting tales.  I found this story in The Tennessean of Nashville, Tennessee in 1882.  I still have not proven any relationship between this family, and that of my mother-in-law.  But it is a very interesting story to add to my list of Fallen Acorns.

The story was reprinted from The Huntsville Independent, taking place about the 12th of October in 1882 on page 5.  A circus was visiting the area on that Thursday afternoon.  A little store house, owned by Tolbert Fuston, located underneath a row of apartments, was being manned by Mrs. Fuston.  Tolbert was out of town on business.  One man, about the age of 20, being employed by the Cole Circus, came into the store.  Mrs. Fuston was standing behind the counter, and when the young black man entered, she asked him what he needed.  He identified himself as George Steele, employee of the circus, and he wanted to buy some bread.....on credit.  Apparently she knew him from previous visits, as he had an ongoing credit account established with the store.  But, Mrs Fuston looked into the credit books and noticed that George had not made any payments on the credited purchases he had made prior to this day.  She refused his request....asking for payment instead.

George Steele, smelling of alcohol, didn't like how he was being treated by Mrs. Fuston.  He paused a moment, and in the heat of anger, he quickly moved behind the counter where Mrs. Fuston was standing.  He proceeded to beat her, and managed to throw her to the ground.

Mrs. Fuston screamed loudly, and a passerby, hearing her squeal, entered the store.  This man had been residing in the attached apartments, staying only a short while during his illness.  He yelled at George and asked him to leave her alone.  George ran from the store out into the street.  The gentleman hero helped Mrs. Fuston to her feet and proceeded to tend to her wounds.

Not long afterward, Mr. Fuston returned from his trip and he heard the whole story from his wife and the man residing in the apartment.  He armed himself and proceeded into the streets in search of this brute.  After asking persons of his whereabouts, he found him near the home of a neighbor. His intent was to have him arrested.  But first, Mr. Fuston asked George why he would attack Mrs. Fuston like he did.  What was his intent?  George did not answer Mr. Fuston, but made a move by placing his hand behind his back, as if to pull a pistol from his waist.  This startled Mr. Fuston, so he fired his gun and struck George in the chest.  The damage was done, and it was fatal.

Mr. Fuston left the scene, and ran into town to find the sheriff.  He told the whole story of the incident to the lawman.  Sheriff Cooper had no alternative but to take Mr. Fuston into custody until he could investigate the situation.  Mr. Fuston spent the night in the jail.  His arraignment would be scheduled for the next day.

The sheriff placed Mr. Fuston before the bench of Judge Barclay, D.D. Shelby was appointed as his counsel, with the State being represented by Nick Davis.

Judge Barclay heard the case, and all facts were represented just as they had occurred.  The judge decided to release Mr. Fuston, stating that he felt Mr. Fuston was well within his right to defend the honor of his wife.  She was healing from her bruises, but still shaken from the incident at the store.  Lastly, the judge decided that Mr. Fuston acted in a way to defend himself, even though it was found that George Steele did not have a gun.

Judge Barclay declared, "It is well within the right of any man to defend the honor of his wife, even if it means taking the life of an assailant".

And, so, Mr. and Mrs. Fuston were allowed to walk home after the hearing, and they lived out their lives without another incident.  No one stepped forward to represent the dead man, George.  No one stepped forward to pay off his credit account, either.

This article was found online at www.Newspapers.com, an affiliate of Ancestry.com.

No post on Friday...

I took the day off...due to the lovely weather.

1906 San Francisco Earthquake Victims : Were you related to anyone who lost their life?

In Memory of :

Filippo Busalacchi

Birth:	May 5, 1874 Sant' Elia Provincia di Palermo Sicilia, Italy
Death:	Apr. 18, 1906 San Francisco San Francisco County California, USA
He died in the famous 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, CA

Italian Cemetery Colma San Mateo County California, USA Plot: 22; Grave 25

Maintained by: Spence Burton Originally Created by: Retaggio Record added: Nov 15, 2009 Find A Grave Memorial# 44350784

information from www.findagrave.com


I browse newspapers quite frequently for items of interest....Fallen Acorns, to be exact.

San Francisco suffered through a horrible earthquake in April of 1906.  Newspapers across the nation tried to cover the story the best that they could, with what little technology they had at that time.

Lucky for us, we have OCR to use as a valuable tool when hunting for surnames in digital content.

Newspapers.com, a partner of Ancestry.com, has recently increased their content to include a very large selection of American newspapers.  If you haven't used this website, or you haven't looked at it for a while, I highly suggest that you take a few minutes to see what has been added.

I looked into the selections for St. Louis, Missouri, (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) and the Sicilian surname of my mother's family, Busalacchi.  What I found for this date is fantastic.

Are you related to anyone on the list?

19 Apr 1906, Page 3

Clipped from St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 19 Apr 1906, Thu, Main Edition

• Clipped by sreif1956 · 51 seconds ago

St. Louis Post-Dispatch
(St. Louis, Missouri)19 Apr 1906, Thu • Main Edition • Page 3