Wednesday, May 5, 1899. The station at Khilkovo.

William S. Davidson, Sarah E. Smith, Maud Morphew, Eleonora Hansen, Frederick Pray, and David Clarkson at Khilkovo Station (Okeanskaia), north of Vladivostok. 

I enclose a photo I took at the station at Khilkovo-- you will recognize all but Miss Morphew and Mrs. Hansen and you can distinguish them by Mrs. Hansen's fur cape. 

Elanor Pray.

We discussed Mrs. Pray yesterday, but here too there's a warning for us moderns. Russian society of 1899 was blisteringly ignorant.  That ignorance would help fuel two revolutions, the second successful, and the rise of Communism, through its adoption by populists.

A warning on populist extremism to us all.

Last prior edition:

Thursday, May 4, 1899. The Battle of Santo Tomas and the remarkable Elanor Pray.

1890s, 1899, 1930, 1930s, China, Iowa National Guard, Kansas National Guard, Montana National Guard, Nebraska National Guard, Philippine Insurrection, Philippines, Russia, Vladivostok Russia, World War Two

Thursday, May 4, 1899. The Battle of Santo Tomas and the remarkable Elanor Pray.

 

The 1st Nebraska advancing during the Battle of Santo Tomas

The Battle of Santo Tomas was found in this day at Santo Tomas, Pampanga.  The battle resulted in the complete route of the large Filipino force, its second defeat in recent days, and the wounding of General Antonio Luna, a primary Filipino commander.

Like many battles of the Philippine Insurrection, the battle was fought, on the American side, by state volunteers, who were, for all intents and purposes, National Guardsmen.  In this case, the US forces consisted of the 20th Kansas, the 1st Montana, 1st Nebraska and 51st Iowa.

Elanor Pray, an American from Maine who was living in Vladavostock where her husband was posted to the "American store" sent a letter with photographs of some of the local scenes and her observations of them.

I think you will be interested in the photo of our premises here even if it does have to be curved to make the thing come together. Fred took it from the roof of the new P[ost] O[ffice] and the building half completed in front of us belongs also to the P.O." 

Little known in the US, Pray's heavily photographed letters have made her well known in Russia, as her long residence there, 1894 to 1930, meant that she's chronicled, and preserved, an entire epic in Russia's history which would otherwise have seen much lost.  She apparently liked the region, as she stayed on after the death of her husband in 1923 and only left in 1930 when her employer closed its facility in the area, which was also experiencing hardening Stalinist repression.

From Vladivostok she moved to China and was interned in World War Two by the Japanese, becoming part of a 1943 prisoner exchange which resulted in her return to the US. She smuggled her papers out in the process.  She died in 1954 at age 85.

Manuel won the Kentucky Derby.

Last prior edition:

Monday, May 1, 1899. Prisoners of the Philippine Republic.

1890s, 1899, Philippine Insurrection, U.S. Navy

Tuesday, April 27, 1899. The Battle of Calumpit

The Battle of Calumpit (Filipino: Labanan sa Quingua), alternately known as the Battles of Bagbag and Pampanga Rivers) concluded with U.S. forces under Arthur MacArthur Jr. combating Filipino forces under General Antonio Luna.  U.S. forces were comprised completely of state militia units, essentially the equivalent of today's National Guard, somewhat, those being the 20th Kansas Volunteers, the Utah Volunteer Light Artillery, the1st Montana Volunteers, the1st Nebraska Volunteers and the 51st Iowa Volunteers. All were probably mustered to fight against the Spanish in Cuba, and not the Filipino's in their native land.

U.S. forces prevailed with Medals of Honor, under the original standards, going to Colonel Frederick Funston, Private (later First Lieutenant) William B. Trembley, and Private Edward White.

The Filipinos, interestingly enough, grossly over reported American losses.

A terrible tornado struck:

The Kirksville Cyclone

Portrait shows event described in Eleanor Pray's letter of April 27, 1899: 

"Yesterday morning I asked Mademoiselle [Lindholm family governess] to go to the bazaar with me to take some photos, and we took Dou Kee with us. I hired a small Korean to stand in front of a stall to be photographed. The Chinese got out like lightning for they say a camera has the evil eye. The Korean wanted also to run away when he found what was up, but the Chinese were quite willing the evil eye should be cast on him so they kept pushing him back and there he stood half scared to death. In a second after I pressed the button, there were Chinese around us ten deep all clamoring to see the picture. When the small Korean found he wasn't killed, and got five kopecks for pay, he was quite in another frame of mind." Another letter, dated May 4, 1899, also mentions this event: "The group of Koreans I took near the Bazaar. They thought I was going to shoot them and the one in the edge of the picture was clearing out for his life but couldn't resist looking back to see what happened to his friends. Before that old man could get up the deed was done and I'll warrant the whole crowd cursed me by all their gods."

A statute of Grant was unveiled in Philadelphia.

May 27, 1921. Horrors in Oklahoma and Futile Acts in Russia.

The body of Anna Brown, an Osage Indian woman, in Osage County, Oklahoma led to an investigation which which ultimately determined that a large number of Osage women were killed over a period of years, but the reasons and perpetrators, and even if they were related, were largely never determined, although there white men were convicted of murders.  It is thought that the killings may have been done to effectuate inheritance to non Indians, as at the time the Osage were the wealthiest people in the world due to oil production.  As a result of that suspicion, Congress ultimately passed a bill prohibiting the inheritance rights to pass to non tribal members.

Tall Grass Prairie Preserve in Osage County, Oklahoma.

Mensheviks seized control of Vladivostok from Bolsheviks.  

The Mensheviks were a  more numerous Socialist group than the Bolsheviks, and less radical, which doesn't mean they were not radical.  They failed in their contest with the Bolsheviks and, by this time, they'd actually been outlawed due to the Kronstadt Rebellion.