User:Vincekoers

Vincekoers is a nom de plume for an individual of German extraction whose family was originally from Meppen, Germany. Portions of his family date to service in the revolutionary period in central and western Pennsylvania, and he has researched and written extensively on the period as it involved the area, the politics, botany touching the Buffalo Nut, (and the Buffalo Nut Rider, Francois Michaux), the Archbold family, and other related families.

His interests include many activities which involved former family members, including inclusion in the Whisky Rebellion as a participating member, the notable public disobedience of blocking public highways with either deep ditches or five-foot mountains of manure to deter the collection and sale of farming animals and implements at county sheriff's sales in western Pennsylvania, which involved more than 60 documented instances of such civil disobedience aimed at preventing the seizure and sale of destitute farmer's assets. This group's activities, which slowed, and sometimes stopped dead the confiscation and resale of personal properties might well be characterized as among the first civil rights activities in our country.

Also of interest are the whys and wherefores of big-bore game hunting rifles, and the wildcat ammunition for them, such as those made by John Riley Buhmiller, a notable rifle barrel maker, eventually from Kalispell MT, and his many hunting trips to various parts of the African continent assisting local farmers, both whites and native tribesmen, in defending their crops, when their own government would not.

Buhmiller was eventually invited into secret Mau Mau ritual celebrations, because of his service to the tribes, and he captured unforgettable color film footage of some of these at a time that most outsiders feared the tribes, and for good reason. His story is largely as yet untold.

And the struggle for truth continues...