He was called John Ned Shines when he was born, in Frayser, Tennessee. He spent most of his childhood in Memphis playing slide guitar for money on the streets. He listened to and was inspired by Blind Lemon Jefferson and Howlin’ Wolf, but he was taught to play the guitar by his mother. Shines moved to Hughes, Arkansas in 1932 and worked on farms for three years. "First time I came to Helena was 1932, I think it was. That's the time I met Robert the first time." When he met Robert Johnson, his greatest influence, that gave him inspiration to return to music. In 1935, Shines began playing with Johnson around the south and heading as far north as Ontario where they appeared on a local radio program. The two split up in 1937, one year before Johnson died. "He (Johnson) was alright to travel with, he was a good companion to travel with, 'cos he talked a lot and I didn't."
Shines played more in the U.S. South until 1941 when he decided to go back to Canada and then to Africa. He never made it past Chicago. In Chicago, Shines found work in the construction trade and continued to play in bars.
He made his first recording in 1946 for Columbia Records, but the music was never released. He later recorded for Chess was still the music was never released. He kept playing with blues musicians in the Chicago area for several more years. In 1952, Shines recorded for J.O.B. Records record label. The recordings were a failure and Shines sold his guitar and went back to construction.
In 1966, Vanguard Records found Shines taking photographs in a Chicago blues club and had him record tracks for the third installment of "Chicago/The Blues/Today!" The album has since then become a blues classic.
Shines played with the Chicago All Stars and Lee Jackson, Big Walter Horton and Willie Dixon. In the late 1960s and 1970s, Shines played with Robert Johnson's stepson, Robert Lockwood, Jr.. In 1980, Shines stopped played after he suffered a stroke. He managed to release one last album, "Back To The Country".
In 1989, Shines met a young, blues player called Kent Duchaine, and the two of them played together for the next several years until Shines died.
Shines died on April 20, 1992, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He was put into the Blues Hall of Fame later the same year.
Oklahoma State University
Oklahoma State University is a public university in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Oklahoma State's men's athletic teams are called the Cowboys. The women's athletic teams are called the Cowgirls. Oklahoma State has 16 varsity teams. They compete in the Big 12 Conference.
Mexico, Illinois
Mexico (formerly, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Cabbegeville) is an unincorporated community, in Cook County, Illinois. It lies at an elevation of 597 feet (182 m).
Oregon Trail
People traveled on the Oregon Trail in wagons in order to settle new parts of the United States of America during the 19th century. The Oregon Trail started in Missouri near the area where Kansas City, Missouri is today and ended in the Willamette Valley in Oregon. The Trail was about 2,170 miles (3,500 km) long, and could take up to six months to travel.
People went to Oregon for many reasons. Some people wanted land. Some thought Oregon would be a better place to live. Most of them went because they wanted a new life.
The Oregon Trail was first traveled around 1841. Once a railroad was built across the United States in 1869, people could take trains to the western United States, so fewer people began to travel west in wagons. By that time, about 400,000 people had crossed the Oregon Trail in wagons. However, some people kept traveling the Trail until the 1880s.
Nobody traveled the Oregon Trail alone. Instead, travelers formed groups so they could help and protect each other. Often, relatives or people from the same town would travel together. They would hire a guide that knew the Trail and would elect leaders. The groups that did best on the Trail wrote constitutions or rules that they could use to settle disagreements or problems on the Trail.
People who traveled the Oregon Trail could use three types of animals to pull their wagons: oxen, mules, or horses. Most people used oxen. They were less expensive than horses and mules, and also less stubborn than mules.
They could eat grass along the Trail, unlike horses, who needed special food. Oxen were easy to train, and they usually traveled at a steady pace of 2 miles per hour, even in mud and snow.
It was very important for travelers to carry enough food and water for the trip. However, food for the trip was expensive. To feed four people for six months, food would cost about $150 - over $4,500 in today's dollars.
Travelers often brought along a lot of dried meat and "bread stuff" (like flour, crackers, and hardtack). Boiling water was difficult on the Trail, so cooking was not always possible. Some travelers also brought other foods, like rice, peas, dried beans, or dried fruit.
Along the Trail, travelers could fish and hunt for food. Bison, antelope, and deer were the best animals to hunt for food. Travelers also ate berries that grew along the Trail, partly to help prevent scurvy.
Most travelers used covered wagons to travel the Trail. There were a few different styles of covered wagons. One common style, called the "Independence-style" wagon, was usually about 11 feet long, four feet wide, and two feet deep. Pieces of wood held up a cover, made of something like dried ox skin, that rose about five feet above the bottom of the wagon.
There were many dangers along the Oregon Trail, including disease, bad weather, drowning during river crossings, attacks by Native Americans, and many others.
It is difficult to know how many people died along the Oregon Trail. Many travelers would bury their dead in unmarked graves and would disguise the graves. For example, they would bury people right in the middle of a trail and then have their oxen run over the graves. They did this so that animals and robbers would not dig up the graves. Because of this, historians can only estimate the total number of people who died along the Oregon Trail.
Disease was the most common cause of death on the Trail. While travelers usually brought some medicines with them, they usually were not very helpful.
Cholera was the most common illness and cause of death on the Trail. From 1849-1855, there was a cholera epidemic along the trail. Up to 3% of all travelers during this time may have died from cholera. One of the causes of the epidemic was that there was no sanitation along the Trail.
For example, travelers liked to camp along the Platte River in Colorado, so they could easily get fresh water. However, as thousands of travelers used the same campsites over and over again, sewage from travelers with cholera got into the Platte River. After this, any traveler that drank water from the Platte River, or made food with that water, could get cholera. Often, cholera's symptoms would be so bad that travelers would die within 12 hours of getting sick.
Other diseases common on the Trail included:
The travelers used turpentine (a poison), vinegar, and whiskey to treat headaches, muscle pain, and coughs.
Historians do not agree on how many people died from disease along the Trail. One historian, John Unruh, estimates that 6,000 to 12,500 travelers died from disease on the Trail, and another 300-500 died specifically from scurvy. However, the United States National Park Service says that as many as 30,000 people may have died from disease along the Trail.
There were many other dangers along the Trail. John Unruh estimates the number of people who died from these other dangers:
Unruh estimates that 4 percent of the Oregon Trail travelers died: 16,000 out of 400,000 total travelers. However, the National Park Service says:
"The Oregon Trail is this nation’s longest graveyard. Nearly one in ten [travelers] who set off on the trail did not survive."