It might be time for number 8

Linda’s Monthly Monday Morning Musings for July 6, 2026.

When I finished my last Arcadia book in the spring of 2025, the ‘Lighthouses of the Southern Atlantic Coast’, I felt I might have run my limit. Normally my time frame would be to start during the summer to work on the next book, then contract by fall with Arcadia Publishing. They give you six months to research and write your book, before you send it to them for editing and ultimately publishing it. I have done in the past, my research and writing during the fall and winter months. Then I am able to deliver the finish book to Arcadia by the early spring and it will be published by late summer, early fall. It has been the first time in 8 years, without having a book published, and I feel that I might have another book in me…….

About ten years ago, I volunteered at the Archive of the Romeo District Library to do some genealogical work on the people and historic homes in the Village of Romeo, to make up some files of information, to be used if a new home owner wanted to know the history of the home they live in. While making a set of files for the archives, I furthered the research and created a set of files for myself. Now I feel I could make good use of them, by doing another book for Arcadia’s ‘Images of America Series’, on the ‘Historic Homes of Romeo’. Most of these homes were built throughout the mid 1800’s and as early as 1830’s.

Above, the George E Dewey house on Church Street, has a story to tell………

The above image here, is the George Washington Brabb House on South Main Street in Romeo. And it has a story to tell……. and I am hoping I can tell the many stories of these homes and the people who created them.

I have been able to connect with the Romeo Historical Society, for help in acquiring images of the many houses, and as a resource, and they have kindly offered their help. So I might have answered my own question on whether or not to write another book, so might have found my topic. The images used in this blog, are the author’s.

On that ‘wee note’, till next month Monday August 3, 2026.

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This is what comes next……

Linda’s Monthly Monday Morning Musings for June 1, 2026.

In April’s blog I wrote about, ‘what comes next’. I might have found what actions needed to be taken, with the mound of paper work, binders of images and files in general, that I managed to create with each and every book that I had published. Just taking a step back for a moment, I found that when working with the more than 200 images you need to have per book, that knowing how many images, and where they would be placed could be very over whelming to work with and keep straight. I decided to make a ‘mock book’ in the form of binders, where page protecters were used for each page needed, and in those pages images could be places and moved around when necessary to give me a complete look as to what I would need and what I might still be missing. I was able to number my pages and then when my images were placed, numbered the images, something very important that Arcadia insists upon.

Next came the container of file folders that I managed to collect full of information, images, contact information for individuals that were involved with the making of the books. These file boxes would hold advertising images, and anything that connected to the book I had been working on. So now what do I do with all this material, for the books that had already been published, did it still have value, but to anyone else but me?

Having finished these books, and not sure if I will write another, my thoughts turned to, what do I do with all this material, that I had acquired? In talking with the librarian, Stacie, at the Community Archives of the Kezar Library in Romeo, I was saying that I wondered if the Macomb County Library in Mt Clemens would want the material from my first three local history books, with me giving the same material from my lighthouse books to the Lighthouse Association in Mackinac. She asked me, why wasn’t I giving the material to them? All of the seven books! I guess I hadn’t thought it had any value, except to myself, because it showed all the work and commitment I had put into each and every book. To say I was overwhelmed and honored would be an understatement. The collection would be listed under my own name, that in itself, being a very humbling experience.

So what was next? Putting these files and binders in a manageable order. So three containers down, only four more to go! Now what do I do with all the shelving that was used to store this material?

On that ‘wee note’ till next month, Monday July 6, 2026.

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‘A Little Taste of a Generous Gift’

Linda’s Monthly Monday Morning Musings for May 4, 2026.

In 2017, I went to the Kezar Library in the village of Romeo, to inquire about doing research, for I had been researching my family history, for what would be now about 30 years. I was asked if I would be willing to do the genealogical research on the owners of the many Romeo historical homes in the village. It would be used when an inquiry might be made about who had lived in these homes before a present owner might have bought their home. I created files that the library could use, and found this research to be very interesting, while also ‘getting to know’ the subjects I was working on. They were stories about how this area and the village in general became the community that is thriving today.

One of these stories is about Samuel and Nancy Kezar, who originally came to the area from Turner, New York, where they built a home in the ‘Queen Anne’ style at 180 Church Street in 1894. Samuel would pass away in 1898. The Romeo Book Club and the Romeo Monday Club would organize the Romeo Public Library and be maintained by Nancy Kezar and her daughter in their home until 1908. Mrs. Kezar and her daughter eventual moved to the west coast. She would come into an inheritance and remember their time and life in Romeo, asking her agent to come up with a plan to give a free standing library building to the village of Romeo.

A well known architect named Henry Whitfield from New York created a design and local contractor Archibald H. Robertson would build the library according to a design, where the general appearance was to be ‘home like’ and imitate and ‘old English Inn’. For anyone having used this library, that was accomplished. A lot was secured on the corner of Church Street and North Main (Old Van Dyke Road). The deed contained a proviso that this gift would revert to the heirs of the Kezar’s if and when the property was no longer used for library purposes.

Original standing building

In 1911, the building was dedicated in a public ceremony, and a gift of a $1000 dollars worth of books from Henry Glover Stephens, a philanthropist and collector was added to the already 871 books in their collection. The library was to become then known as the Romeo Free Public Library. The library would acquire a new name in 1969 when the Romeo District Library was formed by a resolution of the Romeo village council, in conjunction with the Bruce and Washington Township Boards. With the village of Romeo sitting in both Washington and Bruce Townships, there would be two representatives from each entity. By 1970, it was realized that an addition would be needed that would triple the size of the structure, and a dedication ceremony would take place in March of 1971. A second branch of the library would be opened in 2001, from a generous donation from Roland and Kathleen Graubner, of land and called the Romeo District, Graubner Branch.

The Romeo Community Archives would open to the public in the lower level of the Kezar Branch in 2017, a home away from home for those of us interested in researching. It continues to expand its research abilities and now has the complete Romeo Observer Newspapers from the early 1870s, all digitized for easier access. If you are an obituary reader, you have never read an obituary until you have read the works of art that have been written all those years ago while documenting with a flair the lives of those that had passed way.

I want to thank the Kezar Community Archives for use of the documented material used here today. And on that ‘wee note’, till next month Monday, June 1, 2026.

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After Writing… What comes next?

Linda’s Monthly Monday Morning Musings for April 6, 2026.

Having seven books published through Arcadia Publishing since 2019, this is the first winter I have gone through without a book pending publication, since then. I would usually become contracted during the fall months and work on the books during the winter months, and then submit the finished book in the spring, and sometime during the late summer to early fall Arcadia would bring it to publication at that point in time. A years worth of work between my time and their’s.

At this point, my thoughts turn to whether or not I want to further my writing, which I love doing, but I have to decide whether or not I want to deal with editors and the publishing company and the ‘fun’ that brings. Have had some thoughts on going back to the ‘Images of America’ series, as I worked on with my first three books. Whereas my four lighthouse books, were part of Arcadia’s Post Card Historical Series. So what comes next? More thought needed.

One of the ‘requirements’ that Arcadia likes their authors to participate is in book presentations. If you are not a comfortable public speaker, you need to learn to adapt at becoming comfortable in talking with an audience. That was a big learn for me! But if you believe in your subject and have the passion for what you have written it does become somewhat easier. And audiences are very understanding and just want to learn about your subject matter.

On Thursday March 26th, I gave a presentation at the Graubner branch of the Romeo District Library, that had first been slated for just before covid hit. It would be seven years till we could make up that canceled presentation night. But better late than never. So instead of covid we did have a major rain storm, but having done a presentation in the middle of a snow blizzard before, there was great hope nobody would mind getting a ‘wee bit’ wet. Other than the comedic fun of a microphone that was somewhat temperamental, and my voice not stretching to the back of the room, all went off very well. Talking to residents of Washington Township, about Washington Township, did create questions and it was very pleasing to see the interest.

A large Washington Township plot map showing, all the individuals who purchased the original land grants starting in 1827, usually brings great interest in people looking for where their residences are located in today’s time.

On that ‘wee note’ till next month Monday May 4th, 2026

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The Lost Confederate Submarine

Linda’s Monthly Monday Morning Moaning’s for Monday 2, 2026

The Secret Hope of the Confederacy, the H.L. Hunley.

On 17 February 1864, after months of practice runs and weather delays, the Confederate submarine, under cover of darkness,  silently approached USS Housatonic, a 16-gun, 1,240-ton sloop-of-war, on blockade duty four miles off the entrance to Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. Carrying a torpedo packed with explosive black powder bolted to a 16-foot spar, H. L. Hunley rammed Housatonic below the water line, detonating the torpedo, tearing a hole in the Union ship’s hull and sending her to the bottom along with five of her crew. The sub would signal to those on shore, that all was well and started for shore. Then the  Hunley was not seen again for over a century.

The forty foot Hunley was designed to hold just eight men. There had been two other attempts to make this first under water attack work, but those previous subs had sunk with all hands. Captain George Dixon was in charge of this assignment to dispatch the USS Housatonic. There was a story that attached it’s self to Captain Dixon, in that he was shot on April 6 1962 while fighting a battle in Shiloh, were a twenty-dollar gold coin in his pocket, would stop a bullet from killing him. He would have it engraved with the date and area of when the shooting occurred and kept it on his person as a ‘good luck charm’.

While the H. L. Hunley began her preliminary testing, the news of the defeat at Gettysburg and loss of Vicksburg had reached Mobile. Times were increasingly desperate for the Confederacy. The Hunley was initially designed to dive completely below her target while towing behind a floating torpedo on a 200-foot tether. Once the submarine dove and passed under the keel of her target, the torpedo would impact its hull on the other side, in theory causing a devastating explosion that would sink the ship. To safely dive under a Union vessel, the Captain would need to carefully maneuver the five-foot tall submarine between the ocean bottom and the keel of the target ship.

The search for Hunley ended 131 years later when best-selling author Clive Cussler and his team from the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA) discovered the submarine after a 14-year search. At the time of discovery, the team realized that they had found Hunley after exposing the forward hatch and the distinctive ventilator or snorkel box, used for refreshing the air inside. The submarine rested on its starboard side at about a 45-degree angle and was covered in an encrustation of ferrous oxide bonded with sand and shell particles. Probing revealed an approximate length of 34 feet with most, if not all, of the vessel preserved under the sediment.

Due to concerns that the historic vessel would be disturbed or damaged now that its location was known, the decision was made to raise the Hunley from its resting place. In the summer of 2000, a large team of professionals from the Naval History and Heritage Command’s Underwater Archaeology Branch, the National Park Service,  excavated the site, measuring and documenting the hull prior to preparing it for removal. Once the on-site investigation was complete, customized slings were slipped underneath the sub one by one and attached to a truss designed by Oceaneering, International, Inc. The truss was then hoisted from the murky waters by crane from the jack-up barge Karlissa-B. On August 8 at 8:37 a.m., the sub broke the surface for the first time in over 136 years where it was greeted by a cheering crowd in the hundreds, on nearby watercraft.

Once safely on its transporting barge, Hunley finally completed its last voyage back to Charleston, passing by hundreds of spectators on the city’s shores and bridges. The recovery operation came to an end when the submarine was secured inside the Warren Lasch Conservation Center, now part of the Clemson University Restoration Institute, in a specially designed tank of fresh water to await conservation.

While the slow preservation would take many years, the eight remains of the crew were removed and given an honored burial in Charleston’s Magnolia Cemetery in 2004. Captain Dixon’s twenty dollar ‘good luck’ coin was found among his remains, still bent out of its normal shape giving credence to the long talked about rumor. A replica of that coin, can be seen on the book shown on the above left.

On that wee note till Monday April 6, 2026.

It is with great appreciation that I thank ‘The Friends of the Hunley’ at henley.org, and authors Brian Hicks for his ‘Sea of Darkness, and ‘Raising the Hunley’ with both Brian Hicks and Schuyler Kropf and also Tom Chaffin author of ‘H.L. Hunley’. These are great reads to further the information of the H.L. Hunley’s story.

The Hunley is located and in the care of the ‘Friends of the Hunley’ at: info@hunley.org
Warren Lasch Conservation Center
1250 Supply Street
(on the old Charleston Navy Base)
North Charleston, South Carolina 29405

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