Rick McBee's Writings
Explore the magic of new ideas and books to read as well as see what books I have written, my favorite photos, my opinions on may subjects, including Science, Africa, the Caribbean, the Civil War, my Book Reviews, and Much More!
Opening a “GoodReads” Ad for “Rough Enough”
Today was another first for the old man! I actually created and opened up an ad on “GoodReads” for my Civil and Indian War Book, “Rough Enough.” One of the things that really amazed me was how specific some of the targeting can get for the audience of readers. Not only can you pick up the genres that are most closely related to your book, History, nonfiction, Biography, War, etc…, but you can also pick authors who have written books in the similar area to your so that you get to the people who already have their heads where your book is! Wow! I just went down through my bibliography and typed in names of those Civil War, Frontier and Mining authors whose works had helped me write my own book. Lo and behold… their titles popped up and a quick click added them to the list. Now I’m going to do what my PR man, Jeff said to do with my Amazon site. That is: check the rank of my book this evening and then every day for the duration of the ad and see if there is any jump in the sales on Amazon. This of course is only one indicator, but along with the data from “GoodReads”, I should at least have some idea of whether the book is even being noticed. The computer world never ceases to amaze me!
Personalities related to Richard Clow – Lucia Shepardson, Author
Lucia Shepardson was one of Richard Clow’s nieces. She is shown in a photo with the aging Richard Clow about 1920 when they travelled together through the Black Hills.
Lucia was an amateur entomologist and in 1914 wrote a brief book (see photo) called “The Butterfly Trees.” The books was revised and republished in 1939 in Monterey, California through Herald Printers and Publishers. She documents a different Monarch Butterfly migration than that described in Barbara Kingsolver’s book “Flight Behavior.”
Lucia’s migration was believed to begin in British Columbia and migrate down the Pacific coast. The migration is documented as passing through a gap in the Siskiyou mountains in late September, taking two the three days to pass that point. Then they continue on down the California coast reaching Pacific Grove and Monterey Bay in mid-October. Here they overwinter, literally coating the trees in some places.
Lucia points out that the butterflies can miss a year, either not arriving, or abandoning the coast due to human disruptions. This means that none of their offspring has been to the Monterey Peninsula, yet following the break of a year, they still return to that same section of the coast. She concludes that this phenomenon is still a mystery to man, and shows another of the wonders of nature and instinct.
Personalities related to Richard Clow: Sir George J. Clow, Capt. R.N., C.B. (1853 – 192?)
Captain George J. Clow, first cousin of Richard Headley Clow, was both a full Captain in the British Royal Navy, as well as being the Paymaster-in-Chief to the Royal Navy. He first joined the Royal Navy in 1870 and rose through the ranks as had his father, David F. Clow II. He was awarded the honor of being knighted as a Companion of the Bath by the king for his exceptional and outstanding service to the Crown during WW1. The Knights of the Order of the Bath was instituted by Henry the IV. It was allowed to lapse until 1725 when King George the I revived it. According to the Book of Statutes the original number in the Order was limited to the reigning sovereign plus 37 Knights Companions. The size of the Order was greatly increased in 1815 and again in 1847 when it was actually opened to civilians.
George J. Clow’s extraordinary career of being assigned to over 44 different Royal Navy Ships is cataloged in the Naval Historical Collectors and Research Association which describes a large paperweight engraved with all of Sir George’s postings and includes his investure into the Order of the Bath at Buckingham Palace on 12 July, 1919. His final military promotion to Paymaster- Rear-Admiral came in 1923 at the age of 70 years, four years after he had been retired from active service and awarded a pension.
Personalities from “Rough Enough” : David Ferinbaugh Clow (1779 – 1861)
David Ferinbaugh Clow was a paymaster or purser for the Royal Navy. He was the father of John Stevenet Clow, the father of Richard Headley Clow, the center of the book “Rough Enough,” a Civil and Indian War non-fiction book.
David F. Clow entered the British Navy when he was ten years old as a “ship’s boy.” He worked his way up through the ranks to the Regular Navy Officer post of Purser and spent his entire life in the Royal Navy.
David F. Clow had a long and illustrious life with the British Royal Navy in that he was at the battle of Trafalgar, fought off the S.W. coast of Spain on October 5, 1805. This was the battle in which Admiral Horatio Nelson lost his life. David Clow was also at the battle of Copenhagen, the main harbor and capitol of Denmark which was bombarded by the British Navy from September 2 – 5 of 1807. During this battle he was aboard the ship “Collossus”.
During his time in service, David F. Clow also served aboard the ships “Venus”, Swiftshure”, “Tyne”, Perseus” and finally aboard the “Impregnable” while he was stationed in the Mediterranean.
He married Ann Moore (1777 – 1855) and they lived in Haverfordwest, in Pembrokshire, Wales. Ann and David had a total of seven offspring. He died of dropsy.
After his death the family home went to his son, David Ferinbaugh Clow II, who was also a Naval Officer.
Personalities from “Rough Enough” #2 – Mary Bingham Clow
Mary Bingham Clow -1870 Wedding Picture:
Mary Bingham daughter of Lucius and Rebecca Bingham was born in 1853, just a few months after her father had dies in late 1852. The family home was in the Little Sioux, Iowa area and Rebecca Bingham fell in love with the middle aged fur trader and frontier sutler of Fort Union and later Fort Buford, Charles Larpenteur. Rebecca married Larpenteur in 1855 and he went back to Fort Union on the boarder between what is now Montana and North Dakota to work, leaving the family in his residence of Fontainbleau near Little Sioux. Rebecca grew up in that area and when she was about 17 in early 1870, Charles Larpenteur, who was now living in the large Sutler’s post at Fort Buford, decided to bring the family to Fort Buford to live. The fort had grown and it was safer to bring women into the area, so Mary, her mother, step sister Elizabeth, and her step brother, young Louis, all took the steamboat up the Missouri to the fort. Fort Buford was on the banks of the Missouri very near its confluence with the Yellowstone River coming out of Southern Montana. Just across the river was a big Sioux camp of nearly a thousand Indians, many of whom traded hides and skins at the fort.
Working at the Sutler’s post was the young ex-soldier, Richard Clow, now acting as the clerk for Charles Larpenteur. Within less than six months, Mary and Richard Clow had courted and were married. Perhaps this was at the same time that Mary’s step sister Elizabeth married another ex-soldier, Alf Knott. The picture on this page is a blow-up of the face of Mary, showing how much detail can be retained by old photographs. Truly a beautiful young woman.
By 1871 Charles Larpenteur was losing his trading post due to the political battles for that plum position. In the spring of 1871, Mary and Richard Clow accompanied Charles Larpenteur and wife on the steamboat Andrew Ackley downriver to Little Sioux Iowa. Mary was newly pregnant and the journey to Iowa was the easy part of the next nine months as the family bought land, lived with relatives, built a home and plowed up fields for late garden planting. By winter they were snug in new homes and ready to overwinter when tragedy struck the Clow/Larpenteur clan.
Young Louis Larpenteur died suddenly, Richard Clow was taken ill and recovered and then the new baby, Bertha, was born in mid winter. At this point again things seemed to ease up on the family until baby Bertie was taken ill and died suddenly, March 4, 1872. A month later Mary Bingham Clow also died, April 6, 1872. Both are buried on a hillside with white tombstones, outside of Little Sioux, Iowa. In November of 1872, Mary’s stepfather, Charles Larpenteur also died, changing the paths of life for both Richard Clow and his mother-in-law, Rebecca Bingham Larpenteur.
You can follow this story more fully in the full book, “Rough Enough: Including Richard Clow’s Letters and Diary from the Civil and Indian Wars, 1865 – 1875. http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001K8HIXI
Rough Enough by Richard H. McBee Jr.
Rough Enough by Richard H. McBee Jr..
Ionia Martin has done another wonderful review. Her sensitive understanding of the lives of our 19th century ancestors leaves the reader with the desire to pursue their own heritage after following Richard Clow through a number of years which can be described as “Rough Enough.”
John Stevenet Clow (Aug. 12, 1810 – Mar. 13, 1892: Father of Richard Headley Clow
Born in Haverford West, Wales in 1810, John Stevenet Clow studied art and then left Wales to emigrate to Nova Scotia. There he married Agnes Louise Redman in 1831 and lived with her at her farm for a number of years. The farm, in Schubenackedy (Shubenacadia) was sold and the family moved to Dartmouth across the harbor from Halifax. The family had a total of 8 live children, with Richard Headley Clow being the last of these, being born May 25, 1847. Two years later in 1849, Agnes died while giving birth to a 9th child.
Following Agnes’ death in 1849, the family moved to Boston. The passenger list for the Brig Belle in 1853 shows a portion of the family’s move including that of Richard Clow.
John Stevenet Clow worked for three years in a patent office copying documents and then worked in a photograph gallery coloring photographs. (An enlargement of this attending photo shows his reddened cheeks). While in Boston, John Clow married for a second time to a woman named
Sarah Ellis Leighton. There do not appear to be any children from this union.
In 1855, he left Boston with his wife and at least one daughter, Bertha, stopping in Erie, PA to see two older sons, Thomas and John Sherwin (Sher). Young Richard was left in Boston with his older sister (nearly 20 years his senior), Agnes Louise and her husband, Alexander Cruikshank.
John Stevenet Clow settled in Madison, Wis. where he had a small art gallery while his wife and daughter worked in a small shirt factory which they had started. He was naturalized in 1856 to be a US citizen and at the close of the Civil War was living in Milwaukee, Wis. with a short sojourn in McGregor, Iowa.
In the summer of 1870 he moved to Minnesota and lived with his son John Sherwin and other son Thomas for a period of time on the farms and then bought his own farm near Lyle in Mower Country. He paid 600$ for the farm. The next year he sold the farm for $1000 and moved for a short time to Austin, Minn.
In 1872 he picked up again and moved to San Francisco where he worked a coloring photographs for McMillan Bros. but was actually supported by his wife who had a dress making shop. Near the end of his life he was in a home for the aged and was supported by his children. He died in the San Francisco area in 1892.
Rain, Sleet, Snow or Shine – Tidy up your mess! That’s the writer’s lot.
Oregon can have a lot of varied weather and today in Hood River was one of those. Ice pebbles in the early morning rain almost forming an opaque screen on the windshield followed by a warm front with fifty degree rain interspersed with sunshine to brighten the usually dreary Hood River day. How I love to sit out on the porch for a few minutes with my eyes shut and just soak up the rays!
Today was clean-up day in the writing lab. I don’t know why most days my mind can be so organized on writing, editing, learning Civil War trivia, and methodically working on seashell classification yet leave behind a trail of chaotic note cards, open reference books, half read Scientific articles and open maps of Civil War Petersburg, VA. It seemed like today was when it all hit me at to what a pig-sty I had created. I guess in part it was also pointed out to me by my artist wife that she no longer had a place to put her oil paints and watercolors or to lay her picture mats because I had strewed the entire 400 square feet of room with my “stuff” to put it politely.
Three hours later, the room looked a lot better, I felt better about getting back to my writing and my spouse was humming away as she framed yet another of her massive collection of botanical watercolors. My gosh, if we sold a few she could keep me in the style of life I’ve become accustomed to living.
Seriously, at least now I can find my calendar to start planning the book events for the summer and get on with making plans to visit St. Louis in July or late August for a book talk about Richard Clow’s life. With any luck I can get up to the three events per week that my PR supervisor says will push the book up into the next category of sales. So, get your copy of “Rough Enough” now off Kindle, Nook, Google Books, Ibooks and in Paperback to suit your own proclivities. E-Books are the wave o the future but you will still need to do some marketing to get out of the riffraff and into the real market place where books sell like hotcakes. So warm up the blogs, get your Amazon Author and LinkedIn sites up and go for it!
Moving to the next level of WordPress Activity for Book Marketing
Today as I was thinking about having a web site with a shopping cart on it to market books, I happened to thumb open the Columbia Gorge Community College Catalog and there, lo and behold, was a class teaching how to do it! No I don’t mean …, I mean how to build a web site on WordPress with a shopping cart on it. So Wow! Now I’m going to spend a multitude of hours this next seven days getting myself up and running to be able to sell some of my own books, (the signed copies) right off of my home computer! You know the internet and the things it allows us to do today that we couldn’t do back in 1962 when I graduated from High School are just phenomenal! How I’d like to be able to push the Benjamin Buttons knob and spend another 50 years reversing my age and then click it into forward again to follow the next fifty there are going to be some exciting things happening in the next 100 years with computers and who knows what else. so I’m going to become a dedicated blogger and web site manager and self managing book seller, all of course which means I will probably have to dump my ten year old laptop and get something new.
When you get done reading this don’t forget to go to your search engine on Kindle, Google, Barnes and Noble, Ibooks or Kindle and put in “Rough Enough”: Richard Clow so that you can see my new Civil War book at your favorite store and get with the reading. There are some really good reviews on Amazon already and at most sites you can look inside the book. Be sure to go to Chapter 3 and read the letter written by Richard Clow while he is waiting to be transported to his new posting in Petersburg, VA. Kind of an eyeopener about how things were for the newly enlisted men in 1865. Read the book, then email me to say what you liked and disliked about the book. I’d love to hear from you.
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