elainegrey

Fascinating stuff! As I read the creek sickness excerpt, milk sickness was my first thought. At my old place in the woods, white snakeroot grew everywhere -- I can certainly picture creekside glades that might be nothing but snakeroot. When my daughter was in fifth grade, her "academic talent" class did an entire semester of really inventive hands-on activities learning about Lincoln and the Civil War. I gave her a sprig of snakeroot in bloom that October, and said "Tell your teacher that this is the flower that killed Licoln's mom!" But she was (and is still) very shy, so I'm guessing she pitched in once she got to class and never said a word.