November 30, 2022 Martha Ballard, Mark Twain, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Frank Nicholas Meyer, The Wood by John Lewis-Stempel, and the Crystal Palace Fire

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Historical Events
1791 On this day, Martha Ballard recorded her work as an herbalist and midwife.
For 27 years, Martha kept a journal of her work as the town healer and midwife for Hallowell, Maine. In all, Martha assisted with 816 births.
Today, Martha's marvelous journal gives us a glimpse into the plants she regularly used and how she applied them medicinally. As for how Martha sourced her plants, she raised them in her garden or foraged them in the wild. As the village apothecary, Martha found her ingredients and personally made all of her herbal remedies.
Two hundred twenty-nine years ago today, Martha recorded her work to help her sick daughter.
She wrote,
My daughter Hannah is very unwell this evening. I gave her some Chamomile & Camphor.
 
Today we know that Chamomile has a calming effect, and Camphor can help treat skin conditions, improve respiratory function, and relieve pain.
 
1835 Birth of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (known by his pen name Mark Twain), American writer and humorist.
Samuel used the garden and garden imagery to convey his wit and satire. In 1874, Samuel's sister, Susan, and her husband built a shed for him to write in. They surprised him
with it when Samuel visited their farm in upstate New York. The garden shed was ideally situated on a hilltop overlooking the Chemung ("Sha-mung") River Valley.
Like Roald Dahl, Samuel smoked as he wrote, and his sister despised his incessant pipe smoking.
In this little octagonal garden/writing shed, Samuel wrote significant sections of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Life on the Mississippi, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, The Prince and the Pauper, A Tramp Abroad, and many other short works.
And in 1952, Samuel's octagonal shed was relocated to Elmira College ("EI-MEER-ah") campus in Elmira, New York. Today, people can visit the garden shed with student guides daily throughout the summer and by appointment in the off-season.
Here are some garden-related thoughts by Mark Twain.
Climate is what we expect; the weather is what we get.
It was a soft, reposeful summer landscape, as lovely as a dream and as lonesome as Sunday.
To get the full value of joy
You must have someone to divide it with.
After all these years, I see that I was mistaken about Eve
in the beginning; it is better to live outside the garden
with her than inside it without her.
 
1874 Birth of Lucy Maud Montgomery, Canadian writer and author of the Anne of Green Gables series.
Lucy was born on Princ