Who created Bloom County?
Bloom County
Bloom County is an American comic strip by Berkeley Breathed which originally ran from December 8, 1980, until August 6, 1989. It examined events in politics and culture through the viewpoint of a fanciful small town in Middle America, where children often have adult personalities and vocabularies and where animals can talk.
Minor characters in Bloom County
Though the strip's various compilations do not do them justice, the original cast of characters in "Bloom County" were Milo, Bess, and Major Bloom, along with a basset hound named "Rabies" whose thoughts could be read à la Snoopy; the first year of strips are mysteriously omitted from all compilations save the "Bloom Library", although a selection did find publication in a 1986 anthology collection "Bloom County Babylon: Five Years of Basic Naughtiness". Most of the strip's most memorable characters debuted later on, with Milo being the only key character to appear for the duration of the strip's run.
Alphonso Ali was the first significant African American character in "Bloom County". An ardent admirer of legendary boxer Muhammad Ali, Alphonso was first introduced as Binkley's opponent in the boxing ring. Later, Alphonso would make appearances as a friend of Binkley and Milo, as well as everyone else in the meadow, and fought in the Great Snake Massacre. He disappeared in 1983, and was replaced by Oliver Wendell Jones later that year.
Minor characters in Bloom County
Southerner yacht and baseball millionaire Ashley Dashley III was the arrogant, opportunistic owner and station manager of Bloom County TV; a "visionary", he was prone to butting heads with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and self-imposed television censors such as Otis Oracle. After purchasing the station, he made Limekiller his right-hand man with mixed results. He was a recurring character throughout 1981, then disappeared. Ash was intended as a satire of Ted Turner.
Steve Bloomer
Derby County
Franklin County, Ohio
On March 30, 1803, the Ohio government authorized the creation of Franklin County. The county originally was part of Ross County. Residents named the county in honor of Benjamin Franklin. In 1816, Franklin County’s Columbus became Ohio’s state capital. Surveyors laid out the city in 1812, and officials incorporated it in 1816. Columbus was not Ohio’s original capital, but the state legislature chose to move the state government there after its location for a short time at Chillicothe and at Zanesville. Columbus was chosen as the site for the new capital because of its central location within the state and access by way of major transportation routes (primarily rivers) at that time. The legislature chose it as Ohio’s capital over a number of other competitors, including Franklinton, Dublin, Worthington, and Delaware.
Hillsborough County, Florida
Hillsborough County was created on January 25, 1834, from Alachua and Monroe Counties, during the U.S. territorial period (1822–1845). The new county was named for Wills Hill, the Earl of Hillsborough, who served as British Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1768 to 1772. The County was created through efforts by Augustus Steele.
Bloomfield Township, Oakland County, Michigan
Bloomfield Township, officially the Charter Township of Bloomfield, is a charter township of Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the township population was 41,070. This area often referred to simply as "Bloomfield" by residents and visitors alike. This Metro Detroit township was organized in 1827, the first township to be established in Oakland County. It almost completely surrounds the city of Bloomfield Hills. In 2014, Bloomfield Township was ranked the most expensive community in which to live in the state of Michigan.
Alamance County, North Carolina
One notable textile produced in the area was the "Alamance Plaids" or "Glencoe Plaids" used in everything from clothing to tablecloths. The Alamance Plaids manufactured by textile pioneer Edwin M. Holt were the first colored cotton goods produced on power looms in the South, and paved the way for the region's textile boom. (Holt's home is now the Alamance County Historical Society.) But by the late 20th century, most of the plants and mills had gone out of business, including the mills operated by Burlington Industries, a company based in Burlington.
By the 1840s, the textile industry was booming, and the railroad was being built through the area as a convenient link between Raleigh and Greensboro. The county was formed on January 29, 1849 from Orange County.
Bloom Brothers Department Stores
In February 1900, with the extended Bloom and Conn families now settled in south-central Pennsylvania and northern Maryland, the partnership between the Conns and Blooms was dissolved and each family started its own company. The Bloom family's oldest child, Jacob Bloom (1869–1898), fell victim to tuberculosis during the company's "Conn and Bloom" phase, leaving Jacob's older brothers Ben and Isaac H. Bloom (1872–1955) to open the first Bloom Brothers store at 84 South Main in Chambersburg on March 10, 1900. Eli F. Bloom (1876–1941), treasurer of the firm, managed the company's finances from an office overlooking the main Chambersburg selling floor, while Harry H. Bloom (1880–1969) became company sales manager after learning the business as a clerk under Isaac at the Waynesboro location. Bloom Brothers opened its second store on March 21, 1901, in the former Old City Hall on Waynesboro's Town Square. The Dry Run location reverted to Conn family ownership in 1900 upon dissolution of "Conn and Bloom/Bloom and Conn".
Bloom Festival
Bloom Festival
Bloom County
At the very beginning of the strip (December 1980), the central setting was the Bloom boarding house run by the grandparents of Milo Bloom. As the strip continued, various boarders (and/or pets) moved into the boarding house. In the order the characters debuted:
"For detailed summaries of all storylines, see the entries for the individual books."
Bloomsday
In Mel Brooks' 1968 film "The Producers", Gene Wilder's character is called Leo Bloom, an homage to Joyce's character. In the musical 2005 version, in the evening scene at the Bethesda Fountain in Central Park, Leo asks, "When will it be Bloom's day?". However, in the earlier scene in which Bloom first meets Max Bialystock, the office wall calendar shows that the current day is 16 June, indicating that it is, in fact, Bloomsday.
Bloomfield, Indiana
In 1824, Peter Cornelius Van Slyke donated land to Greene County for the purpose of establishing a new county seat.
Van Slyke was born on the Mohawk River in Schenectady County, New York, on April 5, 1766. He migrated to southern Indiana in 1816. Van Slyke was a veteran of the War of 1812 and died on September 25, 1834.
Marion County, Alabama
The county was created by the Alabama Territorial General Assembly on February 13, 1818, preceding Alabama's statehood by almost two years. It was created from land acquired from the Chickasaw Indians by the Treaty of 1816. Marion County included all of its current territory and parts of what are now Winston, Walker, Fayette, and Lamar counties in Alabama as well as portions of present-day Lowndes, Monroe, and Itawamba counties in Mississippi. The county was named in honor of General Francis Marion (1732–1795), an American Revolutionary War hero from South Carolina who was known as "The Swamp Fox." Most early settlers of Marion County came from Kentucky and Tennessee after General Andrew Jackson established the Military Road. The first towns in the area were Pikeville, Hamilton (formerly Toll Gate), Winfield, and Guin.
Broome County, New York
When counties were established in the Province of New York in 1683, the present Broome County was part of the enormous Albany County, including the northern part of New York State as well as all of the present State of Vermont and, in theory, extending westward to the Pacific Ocean. This county was reduced in size on July 3, 1766 by the creation of Cumberland County, and further on March 16, 1770 by the creation of Gloucester County, both containing territory now in Vermont.
Bloomfield, New Jersey
Brookdale Park, established in 1928, covers over in Bloomfield and Montclair, making it the third-largest park in Essex County, of which are in Bloomfield. Watsessing Park, which is the county's fourth-largest park, covers split between Bloomfield and East Orange ( in Bloomfield), and features sections of the Second River and Toney's Brook flowing through the park. Both parks are administered by the Essex County Department of Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Affairs.
Hamilton County, Ohio
Hamilton County was organized in 1790 by order of Arthur St. Clair, governor of the Northwest Territory, as the second county in the Northwest Territory. Cincinnati was named as the seat. Residents named the county in honor of Alexander Hamilton, who was the first Secretary of the Treasury of the United States and a founder of the Federalist Party. Its original boundaries were those defined for the Symmes purchase contract in 1788: the Ohio River in the South, Great Miami River to the west, the Lesser Miami River to the east, and the Cayuhoga River to the North. Its area then included about one-eighth of Ohio, and had about 2,000 inhabitants (not including the remaining Native Americans). The county was greatly expanded in 1792 to include what is today the lower peninsula of Michigan. Since 1796, other counties were created from Hamilton, reducing the county to its present size.
Franklin County, North Carolina
The county was formed in 1779 from the southern half of Bute County. It is named for Benjamin Franklin. It is a part of the Research Triangle.Louisburg contains a unique monument to racial segregation, in front of the Courthouse, where a Confederate flag separates two drinking fountain, one labeled (in the granite) "white" and the other "colored".
Bloomfield, Connecticut
Originally land of the Poquonocks, the area was first settled in 1660 as part of Windsor, organized as the Parish of Wintonbury in 1736. Wintonbury comes from three names from neighboring towns Windsor, Farmington , and Simsbury. It was finally incorporated as the town of Bloomfield by the Connecticut General Assembly on May 28, 1835. Initially, the town's local economy was agriculturally based, mostly in shade tobacco, remaining as such until it developed as a postwar suburb of Hartford starting in the 1950s. Today, Bloomfield's local character varies. While the town's southern and eastern fringes are more densely populated and developed, the northern and western sections maintain a more rural feel with meadows, woods, and some remaining farmland.
Bloom, Colorado
A post office called Bloom was established in 1913, and remained in operation until 1938. The community was named after Frank G. Bloom, a cattleman.
Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania
Bloomsburg is a town in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, United States, located southwest of Wilkes-Barre along the Susquehanna River. It is the county seat of Columbia County and the only incorporated town in Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, Bloomsburg had a population of 14,855, with an estimated population of 14,519 in 2013.
Madison County, Illinois
Madison County was established on September 14, 1812. It was formed from parts of Randolph and St. Clair counties and named for President James Madison. At the time of its formation, Madison County included all of the modern State of Illinois north of St. Louis, as well as all of Wisconsin, part of Minnesota, and Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
Putnam County, Florida
Putnam County was created in 1849. It was Florida's 28th county created from parts of St. Johns, Alachua, Orange, Duval, and Marion counties. The county was named for Benjamin A. Putnam, who was a soldier in the First Seminole War, a lawyer, Florida legislator, and the first president of the Florida Historical Society. The Putnam County Historical Society has determined that Benjamin A. Putnam is the grandson of Israel Putnam, for whom other counties and places in the United States are named. Benjamin A. Putnam died in the county seat of Palatka in 1869.
Clark County, Arkansas
Clark County was the third county formed by Americans in Arkansas, on December 15, 1818, together with Hempstead and Pulaski counties. The county is named after William Clark, then Governor of the Missouri Territory, which included present-day Arkansas. On November 1, 1833, the Arkansas territorial legislature created Pike County from western Clark County and part of northern Hempstead County. It was named after US explorer Zebulon Pike.
Bloom Magazine
Bloom Magazine is a bimonthly culture and lifestyle magazine published in Bloomington, Indiana. Founded in 2005 by editor and publisher Malcolm Abrams, "Bloom" is an independent, free magazine with 12,000 copies available throughout the Bloomington area. Each issue highlights various community members, places, and events and includes stories on arts, entertainment, food and wine, fashion and shopping, health and fitness, home and family, community, and business and finance.
Bloomfield, Muskingum County, Ohio
Bloomfield was laid out and platted in 1853. The community was named for blooming orchard fields near the original town site. The post office at Bloomfield was called Sago. The Sago post office was established in 1857, and remained in operation until 1902.
Bloomfield, Virginia
The town of Bloomfield was founded by the Virginia General Assembly on January 13, 1816. The town was named for fields of wildflowers along the Blue Ridge near the town. During the Civil War, Confederate forces under Maj. Gen J.E.B. Stuart biouvacked in Bloomfield during the Battle of Unison. Later in the war Col. Mosby and his Rangers visited the town to divide up $173,000 they had robbed from a Union payroll train in West Virginia during the Greenback Raid.
Madison County Courthouse (Kentucky)
Madison County, named ultimately for the fourth President of the United States, James Madison, was created by the state of Virginia in 1785, and formed one of the nine original counties of Kentucky when the state was admitted to the Federal union in 1792. Richmond became the county seat in 1798, replacing Milford, four miles to the southwest, and was named for Richmond, Virginia, which was the birthplace of John Miller, the veteran of the American Revolution who founded the city. The first formal county courthouse, erected in 1798, consisted of a log cabin with an adjacent jail; before then, county services operated out of Miller's own barn. The following year, the log cabin was replaced by a plain, two-story brick building designed by Tyra Rhodes, which served for the following fifty years.
Tyra Rhodes' nephew William Rhodes was one of the commissioners charged with procuring plans for construction of a new courthouse in the late 1840s. He sought to retain a reputable architect and hired Major Thomas Lewinski, an English immigrant who had received some formal training as an architect and made a name for himself as a proponent of the Greek Revival style in nearby Lexington. There his commissions included several important residences, including the second house at Ashland (1854–57) for James B. Clay (son of former U.S. Senator Henry Clay), and he would go on to design several other institutional structures in the region, such as Jacobs Hall at the Kentucky School for the Deaf (1857). McMurtry was himself a well-known designer who also ran his own construction company, often employed by Lewinski for many of his designs. Earlier McMurtry had been apprenticed to Gideon Shryock, the first important architect in central Kentucky, who was responsible for several very prominent Greek Revival structures, including the old Kentucky State Capitol building in Frankfort (1827–30) and Old Morrison at Transylvania University in Lexington (1830–34), as well as the first Arkansas state capitol building (1833–42) in Little Rock. Although he had no further architectural training aside from his employment under Shryock, McMurtry himself designed and constructed the Clark County Courthouse in Winchester, the Transylvania Dormitory and Medical Hall in Lexington, and the Kentucky Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb in Danville, among numerous other commissions. He is probably best-known today for his associations with the Gothic Revival in central Kentucky at this time.
Tomilea Allison
She was the first woman to be elected, and second woman to serve as, mayor of Bloomington.
She started the Downtown Canopy of Lights.
and instigated the founding of the Community Foundation of Bloomington and Monroe County. Her leadership produced a new master plan for the city. She was a prime mover in the conversion of the 19th century Showers furniture factory into a modern facility to house the new city hall. Under her leadership Bloomington received its Tree City designation. Her support of the Parks and Recreation Department set the groundwork for the Thomson Community Park, the Twin Lakes Sports Complex, the Third Street Park, and the Kid City program of affordable summer day care for children.
Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County in the southern region of the U.S. state of Indiana. It is the seventh-largest city in Indiana and the fourth-largest outside the Indianapolis metropolitan area. According to the Monroe County History Center, Bloomington is known as the "Gateway to Scenic Southern Indiana." The city was established in 1818 by a group of settlers from Kentucky, Tennessee, the Carolinas, and Virginia who were so impressed with "a haven of blooms" that they called it Bloomington.
John Ketcham (Indiana)
In 1818, Col. Ketcham moved to Monroe County six or from Bloomington near Victor and Harrodsburg. He built a gristmill on Clear Creek the first year and became known far and wide for his service. When the city of Bloomington was laid out in 1818, Ketcham was asked to design and contract for building of the first courthouse there.
Calvin and Hobbes
In 2016 and 2017, author Berkeley Breathed included "Calvin and Hobbes" in various "Bloom County" cartoons. He launched the first cartoon on April Fool's Day 2016 and jokingly issued a statement suggesting that he had acquired "Calvin and Hobbes" from Bill Watterson, who was "out of the Arizona facility, continent and looking forward to some well-earned financial security." While bearing Watterson's signature and drawing style, as well as featuring characters from both "Calvin and Hobbes" and Breathed's "Bloom County", it is unclear whether Watterson had any input into these cartoons or not.
Bloomvale Historic District
The village (and thus the district) was named after Isaac Bloom, a landowner and politician in the area during and after the Revolutionary War who built a Federal style mansion and operated the first mill on the creek (and thus sometimes historically known as Bloom's Mill or Bloomdale). By the mid-19th century it had grown into a small industrial town around what was now a cotton mill. After a fire destroyed the mill, the community faded away in the early 20th century. A later owner was able to use the remaining facilities as a cider mill until almost the middle of the century. In 1991 the dam, the remaining mill buildings, and some of the houses were grouped into a historic district and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Brown County Art Colony
Adolph Shulz is considered to be the founder of the colony, encouraging many Indiana and regional artists to come to Brown County to paint. Though artists such as William McKendree Snyder had been coming to Brown County as early as 1870, the colony is considered to have been firmly established in 1907 when the noted painter T. C. Steele moved there. The dean of Indiana painters, Steele built a home and studio on a large plot of land west of Nashville near Belmont and made it his permanent home. Its proximity to Indiana University in Bloomington allowed Steele to accept a position as artist in residence there in 1922.
Lowndes County, Alabama
Lowndes County was formed from Montgomery, Dallas and Butler counties, by an act of the Alabama General Assembly on January 20, 1830. The county is named for South Carolina statesman William Lowndes. It is part of the Black Belt, where cotton plantations were developed in the antebellum years and agriculture continued as a dominant part of the economy into the 20th century.
Madison County, Alabama
Madison County was established on December 13, 1808 by the governor of the Mississippi Territory. It is recognized as the "birthplace" of Alabama, which was founded there on December 14, 1819. For much of the county's history, the economy revolved mainly around agriculture. Madison County was one of the largest cotton-producing counties in the state, and textile mills operated around the county.
Bloom County
On October 25, 2017 IDW published "Bloom County: Real, Classy, & Compleat: 1980-1989", collecting the complete run of "Bloom County" in two volumes. An "Ultimate Collectors Set" was also released, including the original art from a daily strip featuring Opus, a page from Breathed's sketchbooks, and a personalized sketch of Opus on the slipcover.Published by The Library of American Comics, an imprint of IDW Publishing.
Colbert County, Alabama
Colbert County was originally established on February 6, 1867 after it split from Franklin County over political issues after the American Civil War. It was abolished eight months later on November 29, 1867 by an Alabama constitutional convention and then reestablished on February 24, 1870. It is also the location of Ivy Green, the birthplace of noted author Helen Keller. Colbert County is also home of the towns Sheffield and Muscle Shoals where many popular musicians such as Aretha Franklin and the Rolling Stones recorded music. Colbert County is the home of the Key Underwood Coon Dog Memorial Graveyard established in 1937.
Portage County, Ohio
The first European settler in what is now Portage County was Abraham Honey in 1798 in the area now known as Mantua Township, followed by Asa Hall in what is now Atwater Township in April 1799. In June 1799, Benjamin Tappan, Jr. arrived and founded Ravenna, David Daniels came to what is now Palmyra Township, and Ebenezer Sheldon settled in what is now Aurora. A family group of Huguenot refugees also eventually migrated to Portage County by 1804.
When first settled, the area that presently constitutes Portage County was part of the original Jefferson County, which had been organized in 1797. In 1800, the area was made part of Trumbull County, which followed the boundaries of the Connecticut Western Reserve. In 1802, all of what is now Portage County was organized under the name of Franklin Township with other townships being formed later. On February 10, 1807 the Ohio state legislature passed the act to create Portage County from Trumbull County and it took effect June 7, 1807. Portage County remained attached to Trumbull County until June 8, 1808, when the first elections were held. Initially, the county included a large area of the Western Reserve that encompassed most of present-day Summit County, all of Medina and Huron counties, and parts of Lorain and Ashland counties. There were six organized townships in 1808: Franklin, Deerfield, Aurora, Hiram, Springfield, and Hudson with new townships organized later, reaching a maximum of 30. The present-day boundaries of Portage County were established in 1840 following the 1812 creation of Medina County, a slight boundary adjustment in 1827 with Cuyahoga County, and finally the creation of Summit County in 1840, which took 10 townships from Portage County along with 3 townships from Medina County and two from Stark County.
Bloomfield, Indiana
The town of Bloomfield was laid out in 1824 when Greene County needed a new county seat due to the lack of a reliable water source for the town of Burlington. Burlington was located west of Bloomfield near the west fork of the White River.
Bowling Green, Kentucky
Present-day Bowling Green developed from homesteads erected by Robert and George Moore and General Elijah Covington, the namesake of the town near Cincinnati. The Moore brothers arrived from Virginia "circa" 1794. In 1798, two years after Warren County had been formed, Robert Moore donated of land to county trustees for the purpose of constructing public buildings. Soon after, he donated an additional surrounding the original plot. The city of Bowling Green was officially incorporated by the Commonwealth of Kentucky on March 6, 1798.
Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington is the principal city of the Bloomington Metropolitan Statistical Area, a metropolitan area that covers Greene, Monroe, and Owen counties and had a combined population of 175,506 at the 2000 census.
Bloom County
Breathed was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in editorial cartooning in 1987 for "Bloom County". The win was disapproved of by many members of Association of American Editorial Cartoonists.
Bloxham County, Florida
Bloxham County was a proposed Florida, United States county which was never created. Bloxham existed as a county on paper only, the voters refusing to approve its establishment. The County seat was to be Williston, Florida. There might have been a Call County but for a gubernatorial vote. Bloxham County was named for William D. Bloxham, who was the thirteenth and seventeenth state governor. Call County was named after Richard Keith Call, who was the third and fifth territorial governor. Bloxham was proposed in 1915 and consisted of land taken from Levy and Marion Counties. The county idea was abandoned in 1916 after failing to receive enough votes in a referendum.
Bloom County
Breathed decided to end the strip in 1989. In keeping with the continuity of the Bill the Cat/Donald Trump storyline, Trump "buys out" the comic strip and fires all of the cast. In the strip's final weeks the cast found new "jobs" with other comic strips. A "goodbye party" was held over the course of the week where characters talked about joining new strips. Portnoy and Hodge Podge get jobs as janitors behind the scenes at "Marmaduke"; Steve Dallas joins the cast of "Cathy" and attempts to pitch himself as a new superhero, but is quickly fired from both jobs; Michael Binkley becomes a wild boar skinner for "Prince Valiant". Lola Granola says that she's been invited to pose for "Playboy", which Opus dislikes. Milo Bloom is seen with a snake swallowing him head first and informing Opus he would be appearing Tuesdays in "The Far Side". Oliver Wendell Jones is seen with the distinct features of "Family Circus" characters. He informs Opus he is being "bussed in" to the strip as part of a court order. Once "Bloom County" characters are scattered, only Opus is left as part of a plot to transition to Breathed's next strip in "Bloom County"'s final week.
Bloomfield (Pittsburgh)
Bloomfield does not appear to have been an independent borough prior to its annexation by the City of Pittsburgh in 1868. The land here was stolen from the native Delaware tribe by Casper Taub, one of the area's earliest European settlers. Taub sold the land to his son-in-law John Conrad Winebiddle, whose descendants divided it into lots and sold it for development beginning around the time of the 1868 annexation. The community most likely was named for the abundant blooming flowers near the original town site.
Berkeley Breathed
On December 8, 1980, "Bloom County" made its debut. It featured some of the characters from "Academia Waltz," including former frat-boy Steve Dallas and the paraplegic Vietnam war veteran Cutter John. At its start, the strip's style was so similar to that of another popular strip, "Doonesbury", that Doonesbury's creator Garry Trudeau wrote to Breathed several times to indicate their similarities. Breathed has acknowledged that he borrowed liberally from Doonesbury during his early career. In the "Outland" collection, "One Last Little Peek", Breathed even put an early "Bloom County" side-by-side with the "Doonesbury" comic strip from which it obviously took its idea.
Bloom Brothers Department Stores
The Old Reliable Dry Goods Store, Conn and Bloom, Proprietors, opened on April 24, 1897, at 84 South Main Street in downtown Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Simon Conn (1860–1932) and Benjamin Bloom (1861–1904), an uncle and his nephew, respectively, whose immediate ancestors had emigrated from western Lithuania to Louisiana and Kansas in the 1840s, opened the store after peddling goods from farm to farm in south-central Pennsylvania and northern Maryland since the mid-1880s. A second store in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, called "Bloom and Conn", succeeded the first (1898–99) but did not flourish; a third, also known as Bloom and Conn, which doubled as a grocery store for its remote Path Valley community, thrived in Dry Run, Pennsylvania, northwest of Chambersburg, at the same time as the Waynesboro store, and the fourth Bloom and Conn began and ended its existence in April 1899 in the Fulton County hamlet of Burnt Cabins, Pennsylvania, for lack of space. The fifth and sixth Bloom stores opened in East Baltimore between 1900 and 1905, offering finer men's clothing and furnishings, respectively, but they closed after less than a year.
Leflore County, Mississippi
Leflore County was formed in 1871 during the Reconstruction era from portions of Carroll, Sunflower and Tallahatchie counties. It was named for Greenwood Leflore, a Choctaw chief. During the period of Indian Removal in the 1830s, he was one of the chiefs who signed the Treaty of 1830, by the terms of which the Choctaw sold to the US their remaining lands east of the Mississippi River. Most Choctaw migrated to the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), but Leflore and some others remained in Mississippi. He became a state and US citizen, a planter owning African-American slaves, and at times served as a politician.
Asahel Gridley
During his Senate career, he became acquainted with J. Young Scammon, who encouraged him to start his own bank. Gridley founded the McLean County Bank in 1853 with Scammon and J. H. Burch, later purchasing the interests of the other investors. In November 1856, Gridley commissioned Thomas Carlyle and George W. Kent to plat a town north of Bloomington. In his honor, Carlyle and Kent named the new settlement Gridley, Illinois. Gridley himself laid out two towns near Bloomington: Le Roy and Lexington. Gridley purchased the Bloomington Gas Light and Coke Company in 1857. Gridley died in Bloomington on January 25, 1881 and is buried in Evergreen Memorial Cemetery.
Jefferson County, West Virginia
Jefferson County was formed from Berkeley County in 1801 because the citizens of southeastern Berkeley county felt they had to travel too far to the county seat of Martinsburg. Charles Washington, the founder of Charles Town and brother to George Washington petitioned for a new county to be formed. It was named for Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and third President of the United States. Virginia previously had a Jefferson County, which is now part of Kentucky. Accordingly, in the State records of Virginia, there are listings for Jefferson County from 1780-1792 and Jefferson County from 1801-1863, neither of which is still in Virginia.
Bloom County
Shortly after "Bloom County" ended, Breathed started a Sunday-only strip called "Outland" with original characters and situations introduced in "Bloom County"'s final days. However, Opus, Bill and other characters eventually reappeared and slowly took over the strip. "Outland" ran from September 3, 1989, to March 26, 1995. Another Sunday-only spinoff strip called "Opus" ran from November 23, 2003, to November 2, 2008.
Bloomington Convention
The Bloomington Convention was a meeting held in Bloomington, Illinois, on May 29, 1856, establishing the Illinois Republican Party. It was an attempt to unite Anti-Nebraska members of the Opposition Party into a single party. The convention adopted a party platform and nominated a ticket led by William Henry Bissell for Governor of Illinois. Bissell would be elected later that year, making him one of the first governors elected as a Republican.
Bloomingdale, Florida
Bloomingdale was settled some time before 1850 by John Vickers, John Carney, and others. Carney was killed on April 17, 1856, by Seminoles during the Third Seminole War. Bloomingdale School was founded in 1884, which in 1897 became a teacher's institute, training an average of 54 teachers at a time from as far north as Gainesville and as far south as Dade County. In 1890 the railway was routed through Brandon, and Bloomingdale began to decline as businessmen like D.J. Galvin, who owned a feed store on the property that is now Mulrennan Middle School, moved to Brandon for access to all the benefits provided by the railroad. In 1910, the post office closed. In 1920, the school closed and the students were sent to Brandon instead. The community declined, or at best remained stable until the 1960s, when it became a bedroom community for Tampa.
Bloom Festival
What to see and do
Bloomington, Indiana
Traditional music is popular in Bloomington due to the presence of the Archives of Traditional Music and Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University. Bloomington has been home to a number of musicians and "scholars" over the years, including Strawberry McCloud, Lotus Dickey, Miles Krassen, Anthony Seeger, Bob Lucas, Caroline Peyton, Mark Bingham, Willy Schwartz, Jessica Radcliffe, Hawk Hubbard, Linda Higginbotham, Brad Leftwich, Ruthie Allen, Grey Larsen, Cindy Kallet, Bruce Anderson, Pete Sutherland, Malcolm Dalglish, Sam Bartlett, Jamie Gans, and Ken Perlman. From 1985-1993 Bloomington was home to the one-time Drum Corps International champion Star of Indiana. In 1993, the corp moved to musical theatre which created the group Blast!.
Arthur Bloom
Bloom created the original "Concert Curriculum," "An Orchestra's Guide To The Young Person", a program in which whole grades of students pursue a special curriculum that culminates in their performance with a professional orchestra. Working with NASA, Bloom created "An Orchestra's Guide To The Universe", a science version of the Concert Curriculum.
Lenhart Farmhouse
The third son of Ansel Blossom was Benjamin Franklin Blossom who was born in Maine in 1806 and died in Decatur, Indiana in 1875. In 1836 Benjamin Franklin Blossom at the age of 30 was issued the patent on the property in question which is located 1.5 miles from Monmouth, Indiana. There were subsequent sales and purchases by B. F. Blossom of several tracts of land in Root Township as documented in the Adams County Auditor's office. Clearly B. F. Blossom was instrumental in the settlement of Adams County Indiana which was founded in 1836 and it is conjecture of the officer that Benjamin Franklin Blossom named the oldest town in Adams County, Monmouth after Monmouth, Maine from whence his parents and siblings emigrated in 1822.
Minor characters in Bloom County
W. A. Thornhump III was introduced as the fictional CEO of "Bloom County Industries" in 1986. Thornhump was Breathed's attempt at satirizing the perceived hypocrisy of money-grubbing corporate America, as well as the unreasonable demands of the cartoon syndicate bosses. Typical examples of this hypocrisy were his replacing characters with scab workers when they decided to go on strike and a Sunday strip that showed the results of drug tests of employees of the cartoons and even Berke Breathed himself, who Thornhump thinks should be executed because the drug test revealed that he ate "one marijuana brownie six years ago." Thornhump's test, of course, reveals that he is a serious alcoholic. This point is driven home when Opus appears with his six-martini lunch. Nevertheless, the final verdict of his test declares him to be "drug-free."
Bloom Consulting
Bloom Consulting is a consulting firm, specialized in Nation Branding. It was founded in 2003 by José Filipe Torres. Bloom Consulting is currently represented in 3 countries Spain, Portugal and Brasil. The company's work focuses mainly Nation branding and Place branding projects, including research for Tourism, Foreign Direct Ivestment and Public Diplomacy, collaborating directly with OECD competitiveness program and the World Economic Forum in the matters of Nation Branding. Among Bloom Consulting's list of clients are the governments of Andorra, Australia, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ecuador, Finland, Poland, Spain and Sweden, the region authorities of Algarve, Herzegovina, Oporto and Madrid, as well as the cities of Abu Dhabi, Helsinki, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Munich, Peru, Miami and Riga.
Columbus County, North Carolina
The county was formed in 1808 in the early federal period from parts of Bladen and Brunswick counties. It was named for Christopher Columbus.
Madison County, Indiana
Madison County was formed in 1823. It was named for James Madison, co-author of "The Federalist Papers" and the fourth President of the United States (1809 to 1817).
Bloomington metropolitan area, Indiana
The Bloomington, Indiana, Metropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area comprising three counties (Monroe, Greene, and Owen) in south-central Indiana. The city of Bloomington in Monroe County is the area's principal municipality and its anchor. At the 2010 United States census, the MSA had a population of 192,714.
As of the census of 2000, there were 175,506 people, 68,552 households, and 40,269 families residing within the MSA. The racial makeup of the MSA was 93.22% White, 2.11% African American, 0.29% Native American, 2.38% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 0.64% from other races, and 1.34% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.52% of the population.
Roanoke Region
Botetourt County was established in 1770, carved out from Augusta County. The county was named for the popular governor of the Virginia Colony, Lord Botetourt. The county's boundaries extended west all the way to the Mississippi River including most of Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. The town of Fincastle in Botetourt served as the gateway to the American West and was the starting point for Lewis and Clark's famous exploration of the Louisiana Purchase. Botetourt's early role is preserved in the Fincastle Courthouse, designed by Thomas Jefferson.
St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana
In 1810, President James Madison claimed West Florida as part of Louisiana and sent William C. C. Claiborne to claim the territory. Claiborne established the boundaries of the Florida Parishes. He created St. Tammany Parish and named it after the Delaware Indian Chief Tamanend (c.1628-1698), who made peace with William Penn and was generally renowned for his goodness. Among the nine Louisiana parishes (counties) named for "saints" (see "List of parishes in Louisiana"), St. Tammany is the only one whose eponym is not a saint of the Roman Catholic Church, the ecclesiastical parishes of which formed the basis for the state's civil parishes. In fact, Tamanend is not known to have been a Christian, and was certainly not a Roman Catholic. However, he became popularly revered as an "American patron saint" in the post-Revolutionary period (long after his death).
Franklin County, Illinois
Franklin County was established on January 2, 1818 and formed from parts of Gallatin and White counties. It was named for Benjamin Franklin.
Bloomfield, New Jersey
Bloomfield was incorporated as a town on February 26, 1900. In 1981, the town was one of seven Essex County municipalities to pass a referendum to become a township, joining four municipalities that had already made the change, of what would ultimately be more than a dozen Essex County municipalities to reclassify themselves as townships in order to take advantage of federal revenue sharing policies that allocated townships a greater share of government aid to municipalities on a per capita basis.
Bloom, Kansas
Bloom was established by Thomas J. Vanderslice and Samuel O. Albright in 1887 or 1888. Vanderslice named it Bloom after his hometown of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. The small town sprang to life when the Rock Island Railroad pushed west. The town's original train depot can still be found in Bloom.
Sol Bloom
Bloom's role in helping to develop the fair had been at the behest of Mayor Carter Harrison, Sr., who was assassinated only days before the exposition closed. Bloom then rose in stature in Chicago's tough First Ward among the Democratic party's bosses "Bathhouse" John Coughlin and "Hinky Dink" Kenna. Soon, he became Chicago branch manager of M. Witmark & Sons, the largest publisher of sheet music in the United States, and by 1896 he was publishing under his own name and introducing photolithographs to make the scores more visually appealing. In 1897 he married Evelyn Hechheimer and settled in a fashionable district on South Prairie Avenue, billing himself as "Sol Bloom, the Music Man". At the turn of the 20th century, he was awarded, to much fanfare, the first musical copyright of the new century for "I Wish I Was in Dixie Land Tonight" by Raymond A. Browne.
Burlington, North Carolina
Alamance County was created when Orange County was partitioned in 1849. Early settlers included several groups of Quakers, many of which remain active in the Snow Camp area, German farmers, and Scots-Irish immigrants.
Collier County, Florida
Collier County was created in 1923 from Lee County. It was named for Barron Collier, a New York City advertising mogul and real estate developer who had moved to Southwest Florida and established himself as a prominent landowner. He agreed to build the Tamiami Trail for what was then Lee County (comprising today's Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry, and Lee Counties) in exchange for favorable consideration with the state legislature to have a county named for him. After Collier County was named, Collier was quoted as saying: "When I first came here on holiday with Juliet, I never expected that I would buy a whole region of it, nor did I expect to pay for the new Tamiami Trail, or half the things I've done. But I really didn't expect to have a whole county named after me."
Bloomfield, Kentucky
The community on the east fork of Simpson Creek originally grew up on sites purchased from Leven Powell's land grant, which he received from the state of Virginia in 1779 and surveyed in 1781. The community on the east bank of the creek was known as Middlesburg when its first post office opened in 1803; the west bank was known as Gandertown from its sport of "ganderpulling". Dr. John Bemiss of Rochester, New York, had settled in the area in 1799; in 1817, he laid out the town and renamed it Bloomfield, supposedly after his wife's maiden name (Bloomer) and his daughter's married name (Merrifield). The post office adopted this name the next year, but, according to the state's Land Office, the town was still formally incorporated under the name Middlesburg in 1819.
Wayne County, Indiana
Richmond hosts Earlham College, a small private liberal arts college.
The first settlers in the area were Quakers from North Carolina. They settled near the east fork of the Whitewater River, including what is today the city of Richmond about 1806. Wayne County was formed in 1811 from portions of Clark and Dearborn counties. It was named for Gen. "Mad" Anthony Wayne, who was an officer during the Revolutionary War. Wayne is mainly remembered for his service in the 1790s in the Northwest Indian War, which included many actions in Indiana and Ohio.
Bloom High School
The present Bloom High School building, erected during the Great Depression, was named to the National Register of Historic Places on June 3, 1982. It is an Art Deco structure with six WPA murals.
The frescoes were created by Edgar Britton in 1935. The two limestone sculptures were designed by Curtis Drewes. The main structure of the high school was designed by the architectural firm of Royer, Danley, and Smith of Urbana, Illinois. Major additions were finished in 1956 and 1976.
Wyoming Valley
The Yankee-Pennamite Wars were eventually settled in the 1780s. The disputed land was granted to Pennsylvania. The Wyoming Valley became part of Northumberland County. However, Connecticut settlers wanted to create a new state in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Massachusetts businessman Timothy Pickering was sent to the region to politically examine the situation. This led to the Pennsylvania Assembly passing a resolution which created Luzerne County. This ended the idea of creating a new state. On September 25, 1786, Luzerne County was formed from part of Northumberland County. It was named after Chevalier de la Luzerne, a French soldier and diplomat during the 18th century. When it was founded, Luzerne County occupied a large portion of Northeastern Pennsylvania. From 1810 to 1878, it was divided into several smaller counties. The counties of Bradford, Lackawanna, Susquehanna, and Wyoming were all formed from parts of Luzerne County.
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
On June 28, 1820, Oakland County was divided into two townships: Pontiac Township and Bloomfield Township, the latter covering the southern part of the county that would include West Bloomfield Township, Royal Oak and Southfield. What is now Bloomfield Hills was a farming area until the turn of the 20th century when wealthy Detroit residents bought up the land. The settlement became a village in 1927, and in 1932 residents voted to become a city to avoid being incorporated into growing Birmingham.
DeKalb County, Indiana
DeKalb County was formed in 1837. It was named for the heroic General Johann de Kalb, a Continental Army officer from Bavaria, who was fatally wounded at the Battle of Camden, South Carolina. The original settlers to arrive in DeKalb County were migrants from New England who were settling the wilderness of what was then known as the Northwest Territory. These people were "Yankee" migrants, that is to say they were descended from the English Puritans who settled New England in the colonial era. In the 1870s immigrants from Ireland and Germany began arriving in DeKalb County, in large numbers.
Barry Bloom
Past service
Sugar Creek Township, Vigo County, Indiana
Bloomtown was a village of fifty inhabitants six miles (10 km) west of Terre Haute on the Paris road, and a half mile north of the Vandalia railroad. It is located in a rich and extensive bottom, through which the waters of Sugar creek flow. It was laid out in 1858 by Hiram Bloom, after whom it was named. When Mr. Bloom settled here is not ascertained. He is reputed to have been a very active and enterprising man. In the earlier days of Bloomtown a saw-mill, and in later years a merchant flour-mill, were the pride of the villagers. The mills were destroyed by fire. The dates of their founding and destruction we could not ascertain definitely. For a number of years the manufacture of lumber was a leading source of employment and revenue, as the bottom was densely covered with black-walnut timber. It contains a blacksmith shop, which is opened occasionally to the public, and one store, the proprietor of which is postmaster. The name of the post-office is Nelson. It has a semi-weekly mail.
Blaine County, Idaho
Blaine County was created by the territorial legislature on March 5, 1895, by combining Alturas and Logan counties; it was named for former congressman and 1884 Republican presidential nominee James G. Blaine. Its present boundaries were set on February 8, 1917, when a western portion was partitioned off to form Camas County.
Bloom County Babylon
Bloom County Babylon: Five Years of Basic Naughtiness is the fourth collection of the comic strip series Bloom County by Berkeley Breathed. It was published in 1986.
Owen County, Indiana
Owen County is part of the Bloomington, Indiana, Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Owen County was formed in 1819. It was named after Abraham Owen, a colonel who died at the Battle of Tippecanoe.
Bloomfield, California
Bloomfield is located on part of Rancho Cañada de Pogolimi. In 1853, William Zellhardt built a house on the site of present-day Bloomfield, which attracted other immigrants and led to plans for a town in 1856. At one point in the late 1850s, Bloomfield was the second largest town in Sonoma County, and in 1877 it had four hotels and a population of 250. However, the town never recovered from being bypassed by the railroads, and its growth tapered off.
Bloomfield, Indiana
Bloomfield is a town in Richland Township, Greene County, Indiana, United States. The population was 2,405 at the 2010 census. The city is the county seat of Greene County.
Franklin County, Massachusetts
Franklin County was created on 24 June 1811 from the northern third of Hampshire County. It was named for Benjamin Franklin. Franklin County's government was abolished by the state government in 1997, at the county's request.
Bloom, Wisconsin
Bloom is a town in Richland County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 487 at the 2000 census. The unincorporated communities of Bloom City and West Lima are located within the Town of Bloom. The unincorporated community of Ash Ridge is also located partially in the town.
Cook County, Illinois
In 2004, Blue Island Mayor Donald E. Peloquin organized a coalition of fifty-five south and southwest suburban municipalities to form a new county, also proposing the name "Lincoln County". The county would include everything south of Burbank, stretching as far west as Orland Park, as far east as Calumet City, and as far south as Matteson, covering an expansive area with a population of over one million residents. Peloquin argued that the south suburbs are often shunned by the city (although Chicago is not bound or required to do anything for other municipalities) and he blamed the Chicago-centric policies of Cook County for failing to jumpstart the somewhat-depressed south suburban local economy. Pending sufficient interest from local communities, Peloquin planned a petition drive to place a question regarding the secession on the general election ballot, but the idea was not met with success.
William Blount Mansion
The United States created the Territory South of the Ohio River, usually called the "Southwest Territory", in 1790. President George Washington appointed North Carolina businessman and land speculator William Blount as the territory's first governor. Blount initially governed from Rocky Mount (in the Tri-Cities area), but began searching for a permanent capital for the territory. After Blount selected White's Fort for the site of the capital, James White, the owner of the fort and adjacent lands, and his son-in-law Charles McClung drew up a grid of 64 half-acre lots that would eventually become the city of Knoxville, and in 1791 held a lottery for parties interested in purchasing a lot. Lot 18, the future site of Blount Mansion, was originally sold to John Carter. Blount purchased the lot from Carter in 1794, although it's believed they had a verbal agreement for sale of the lot much earlier, and thus construction of Blount Mansion began sometime around March 1792 when Blount relocated to Knoxville.
Bloom County
In the comics, the county is presented as a stereotypical American midwestern small town. The small town setting was frequently contrasted with the increasing globalization taking place in the rest of the world; though Bloom County contained the likes of farmers and wilderness creatures by default, it was frequented by Hare Krishnas, feminists, and rock stars.
Bloom filter
and
Jefferson County, Indiana
Jefferson County was formed in 1811. It was named for Thomas Jefferson, principal draftsman of the Northwest Ordinance and President of the United States from 1801 through 1809.
Holmes County, Ohio
Holmes County was formed on January 20, 1824 from portions of Coshocton, Tuscarawas and Wayne counties. It was named after Andrew Holmes, an officer in the War of 1812. In 1863, during the Civil War, numerous small anti-draft riots took place, mainly in the German-speaking areas. Holmes County at the time was a Democratic stronghold, dominated by its Pennsylvania Dutch settlers, along with many recent German immigrants. With the passage of the Conscription Act in March 1863, Holmes County politicians denounced both Congress and President Lincoln as despotic, saying that forced military service was little different than slavery. Conscription had been common in their former German homelands, and it was one of the reasons they had moved to America. Violent protests broke out in June, and they continued until the Union Army marched into the county and declared martial law.
Bloom County
"Opus" also takes place in Bloom County.
Bloom County
On the return of the strips Breathed stated, Breathed originally had no plans of publishing the new strips outside of his Facebook page, commenting that “Newspapers need deadlines, alas. Like my departed friend Douglas Adams used to say, the only part of deadlines I enjoyed was the whooshing sound as they sped by.” An archive of the new strips has started at GoComics since then. A new book was announced in June 2016, "Bloom County Episode XI: A New Hope" will be a compilation of strips from 2015 and 2016.
Minor characters in Bloom County
Tom Binkley was Binkley's divorced father, who is seen in a mid-life crisis and frequently suffered the misfortune of being awakened in the early morning hours to hear Binkley repeat dubious celebrity rumors until he became dependent on those episodes to sleep at all. Tom desperately wants Binkley to be tough and athletic. Tom gives Binkley the nickname "Mad Dog" and takes him on ill-fated hunting trips. He is a solid Democrat and refers to himself as "liberal and modern", though he had a crisis of faith and extreme guilt when he admitted that he didn't like Jesse Jackson. He has disapproved of his son's taste in music, namely when the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd came to Bloom County; Tom simply tells Michael he will not argue over the music as he "does not converse with pagans". His son's interracial relationship with Blondie was a bone of contention, but Tom ultimately elected not to make a case of it. Tom is also concerned with his approaching middle-age and can be seen fretting about his life and his son Binkley's often well-meaning attempts to help his father accept his aging but in fact making him feel even worse. He drove a '74 Chevrolet Vega and later a Chrysler LeBaron, mentioned in "Bloom County Babylon".
Benjamin Crowley
Benjamin Crowley helped found Greene County, Arkansas, was its first postmaster and also founded the first church. He has many descendants living on Crowley's Ridge to this day, and his land, now Crowley's Ridge State Park, is a very popular tourist destination. Arkansas also built the Crowley's Ridge Parkway, linking many of the parks and popular attractions throughout eastern Arkansas.
Huntington Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania
Finally, following the Revolutionary War, under the acts of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania passed in 1799, Huntington Township was created along with seventeen other certified townships in the counties of Luzerne, Lackawanna, Wyoming, Bradford, and Susquehanna. Previous to the acts of the Assembly, Huntington Township was known as Bloomingdale Township and considered part of Connecticut. However, in 1799, once the township was inducted into Luzerne County, Bloomingdale Township was renamed Huntington Township after Samuel Huntington (one of the original signers of the Declaration of Independence).
Monroe County, Indiana
Monroe County was formed in 1818 from portions of Orange County. It was named for James Monroe, fifth President of the United States, who was serving at the time the county was organized.
James County, Tennessee
James County was created by an act of the Tennessee General Assembly on January 30, 1871. Lands were taken from a small portion of Bradley County and the eastern third of Hamilton County. James County was named in honor of the Rev. Jesse J. James, the father of Elbert Abdiel James, who introduced legislation for the formation of the county. Ooltewah was selected as the county seat.
Bloom County
For example, Scott Kurtz, creator of the webcomic "PvP", acknowledged Breathed's contributions at one point with a strip expressing the opinion that "so many webcomics. ..are nothing but "Bloom County" ripoffs", then lampooning itself by mimicking Breathed's art and dialogue style in the final panel.
Franklin County, Mississippi
Franklin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2010 census, the population was 8,118, making it the fourth-least populous county in Mississippi. Its county seat is Meadville. The county was formed on December 21, 1809 from portions of Adams County and named for Founding Father Benjamin Franklin. It is bisected by the Homochitto River, which runs diagonally through the county from northeast to southwest.