From Japan via Panama: Satsuma Buttons
Satsuma buttons from Japan were among the “nearly every thing” Will Hobby could find in the commissaries.
Progress on “Panama and Beyond”
I hope my editor doesn’t want me to “throw out my babies” (favorite parts), but I don’t expect she’ll suggest throwing out the literal baby–The new parents with my infant mother, born September 1912.
Share this:
Fake News in 1912
““Then came the famous ‘collapse’ of the dam, wired to the American press by a Panama newspaper reporter…”
Share this:
Pedro Miguel of the Panama Canal Zone
Pero Miguel, an early Canal Zone town might have been named after a Panama Railroad section foreman because the site had been called “Pedro Miguel’s Cabin.” More likely, it took its name from the San Pedro Miguel River.
Share this:
Vacations during Panana Canal Construction
I found my grandfather’s employment record from the Panama Canal Zone!
Share this:
Panama Artifacts
A matchbox, a medallion, and a machete are my only physical heritage from Grandpa Hobby’s work on the Panama Canal.
Share this:
Will’s Wanderlust
April 10, 1913: Today is the sixth anniversary of my landing here—a long time for a “rolling stone” to stay in one place, isn’t it?
Share this:
A Rodman on the Panama Canal: 1907
Pedro Miguel Canal Zone Panama May 25, 1907 Dear Mabel,– There won’t be more than time to start this letter this noon, as I go to Paraiso in about twenty minutes. Your letter was received Sunday—intended to write same day but various things prevented. I’ve not been around a great deal yet except on my work between here and Culebra—was in Panama [City] for dinner a week ago Sunday but didn’t have time to do any thing else so haven’t…
Share this:
What is “a stick of blue Keel”?
Help! January 3, 1910, my grandfather, Will Hobby, wrote Cousin Mabel about a New Year’s Party with a “hard times” theme: “You should have been here to see our hard-times ball New Years Eve—I made a suit out of two gunny sacks——then I had a black and a white shoe with sox to not match—my collar was studded with nails—to keep them from throwing me out—The one pocket in the trousers was large enough to hold …deck of cards, dice,…
