Elizabeth A. Roe describes her childhood in Kentucky during the early 19th century, her life as a pioneer in northern... More > Illinois shortly after the Black Hawk War of 1832, and starting over agsin as a pioneer in Nebraska when she was in her 60s. < Less

Reprint of Richard Cordley's 1895 book on the founding of Lawrence, Kansas, and Quantrill's Raid of August 21, 1863. New... More > edition includes an editor's introduction, photos added from the Library of Congress, recent photos taken in Lawrence and Lecompton, recent articles on the Eldridge Hotel and the House Building, and a comprehensive index (the original lacked an index). < Less

In the preface to The Great Indian Chief of the West: Or Life and Adventures of Black Hawk, Benjamin Drake shared with the... More > reader the hope that his book might “contribute to awaken the public mind to a sense of the wrongs inflicted upon the Indians, and to arouse the Christian statesmen of this land to the adoption of a more liberal, upright and benevolent course of policy towards them.”

Of course, that benevolent course of policy was never adopted. Between the Black Hawk War of 1832 and the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890, numerous wars, campaigns, and massacres took place west of the Mississippi.

Benjamin Drake first published this excellent history on Black Hawk and the war named after him just six years after that war ended. This new edition, which marks the 175th anniversary of the Black Hawk War, reproduces the 1856 edition of Drake’s book, retaining the original punctuation but modernizing the spelling. < Less

Published in 1899 by the S. J. Clarke Publishing Company of Chicago. Book contains biographical information concerning... More > dozens of Ogle County's early residents. Book consists of scanned images of original pages. < Less

An illustrated history of the township and village of Mount Morris, Ogle County, Illinois,in their various stages of... More > development along with a local biological directory. Compiled and publishers by Kable Brothers in 1900. This book consists of scanned images of pages from the original book. < Less

First book on Kansas. Written in 1854, the same year Kansas became a territory.

J. Fairfax McLaughlin's 1900 biography on Matthew Lyon. Page images were scanned from original book. Lyon has the... More > distinction of being the only person to be elected to Congress while in jail. On October 10, 1798, Lyon was found guilty of violating the Alien and Sedition Acts, which prohibited malicious writing of the American government or its officials. Lyon was the first person to be put to trial for violating the acts on charges of criticizing Federalist president John Adams and disagreeing with Adams' decision to go to war against France. Lyon was sentenced to four months in jail and ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and court costs. While in jail, Lyon won election to the Sixth Congress. In the election of 1800 Matthew Lyon cast the deciding vote for Jefferson after the election went to the House of Representatives because of an electoral tie. Lyon's trial, conviction, and incarceration boosted his status among the fledgeling American Republican political elite as something of a free-speech martyr. < Less

In What Really Happened, Kevin Groenhagen presents the facts concerning Bill Clinton’s actual record on Iraq and... More > terrorism. It’s a record that is far different from what Clinton Inc, and their allies in the media have been telling the American people during the past eight years. The facts Clinton Inc. has attempted to rewrite include, but are not limited to, the following: • The Clinton administration in 1998 claimed that “al Qaeda reached an understanding with the government of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al Qaeda would work cooperatively with the Government of Iraq.” • Secretary of Defense William Cohen in July 2000 said protecting the American people from the threat posed by “axis of evil” (Iran, Iraq, and North Korea) was the most important issue to address. • Bill Clinton’s policies vis-à-vis Iraq ultimately led to 9/11 and other “messages with no words.” < Less

Reprint of 1914 book: IN “THE TOTEM OF BLACK HAWK” I have tried to do something more than just to write a story that... More > will thrill and interest—I have endeavored to put real historical value into it, to give correct pictures of how the pioneers of the Middle West lived, how they built and furnished their homes and planted and tilled their fields. The plot becomes involved in the Black Hawk War and that famous Indian chief plays an important part in the tale. In writing of this war I have sought to tell the truth, so far as I could learn it, even when the truth was discreditable to my own race; for, in this war, as in many of our other Indian wars, the white man was far from blameless. - EVERETT MCNEIL < Less

Reprint of 1914 book:

IN “THE TOTEM OF BLACK HAWK” I have tried to do something more than just to write a story that... More > will thrill and interest—I have endeavored to put real historical value into it, to give correct pictures of how the pioneers of the Middle West lived, how they built and furnished their homes and planted and tilled their fields.

The plot becomes involved in the Black Hawk War and that famous Indian chief plays an important part in the tale. In writing of this war I have sought to tell the truth, so far as I could learn it, even when the truth was discreditable to my own race; for, in this war, as in many of our other Indian wars, the white man was far from blameless. - EVERETT MCNEIL < Less