Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Bishop Andrew Byrne
Andrew Byrne was the first Roman Catholic Bishop of the Little Rock Diocese which includes the entire state of Arkansas. A diocese is a district under the pastoral care of a bishop in the Christian Church. Today, there are over 120,000 members of the Catholic faith living in Arkansas, but that wasn’t the case when…
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A Brave Ship: The U.S.S. Tyler
The U.S.S. Tyler was a timberclad warship of the United States Navy during the Civil War. She was one of three wooden steam ships purchased in 1861 by the Federal government to convert for use on western rivers. It was sheathed with 5-inch thick white oak planks and the engines and boiler were retrofitted.…
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A Short History of the Lula Baptist Church
Growing up in the Lula Baptist Church during the 70s and 80s was an amazing time. There were activities for kids of all ages and a positive feeling for the future and the present shined over everyone. There were both youth and adult groups and Sunday school was always full of smiling and happy members.…
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Skirmish at Lick Creek: January 12, 1863
Helena was a city under siege in January 1863. The Army of the Southwest had marched into the town about six months earlier in 1862. Since that day they had been fortifying Helena and making it a center of Union operations in the area around the town in both Arkansas and Mississippi. However, there were…
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Private Willie Gordon, Tunica
Like many young men from rural Mississippi, Willie Gordon was drafted and reported for training in Little Rock, Arkansas. Whether he dreamed of becoming a hero or simply living through the conflict we will never know, because he died without ever leaving the country. To understand young Willie Brown, one must look at the U.S.…
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Boyd Family of Union and Tuscaloosa Counties (Boyd family of Union County, MS)
Family trees bring out coincidences that are interesting and can lead to some confusion. Last names can be tricky. People can have the same last names, but come from different families. Thats true of the Boyd name for me. I have Boyds on both sides of my family. Mom’s Boyd branch of the family came…
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Gone But Not Forgotten
Years ago when I was a teenager, my Father and I went out to a little cemetery he knew about. I had driven by the place many times and never noticed it was there. Like so many cemeteries in the Delta, these souls had been laid to rest near a church. As people moved, the…
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Green River Deaden
Between Six Mile Lake and the Tunica/Quitman County line lies an area known as Green River Deaden. Not many people live here today. In fact, there are only a few houses left, but this region was home to hundreds of people at one time. There was a church and a store, but today that’s all…
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Forgotten Heroes at Rich: Richard Harris and Henry Lucas
Richard Harris joined Company I of the 3rd Regiment U.S. Colored Cavalry on January 6, 1865 at Vicksburg. He was enrolled the following day for 3 years or the war. On his enrollment papers, he listed his age as 30 and height as 5’9. Harris was born in Crawford, Georgia as a slave before moving…
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Bertha Lee Pate
Remembering Bertha Lee from Fanny Baker in the book Chasin’ that Devil Music: Searching for the Blues by Gayle Wardlow written in 1998. Bertha Lee was a fine looking woman and could sing better than anyone I’ve heard. She ran off with Charlie Patton. Why, Bertha Lee visited Lula only two years ago. She’s living in…
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My Delta World 