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Inside the Earthwork

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Kentucky, Clark County, near Winchester

An Unanswered Question
Was there a blockhouse at the Boonesboro earthwork? Because no written records have been found only intensive archaeological investigation can answer that question. However, Captain Thomas Brooks' recommendation specifically called for "...an enclosed earthwork, surrounded by an abattis and enclosing a blockhouse...." If Brooks' plan was carried out, a blockhouse was built at Boonesboro. In all likelihood it was similar to those designed by Colonel William E. Merrill for the Kentucky Central Railroad.

Blockhouse Construction
The blockhouse would have occupied the entire interior of the earthwork. Merrill's blockhouses were flat-roofed rectangular log structures measuring about 18 x 25 feet. The floor was dirt. The roof was made of a layer of logs laid side by side and covered with dirt. On top of that was a roof of shingles, if they could be procured, or boards and battens.

Blockhouses were designed to house the garrison assigned to them. To this end, they were equipped with ventilators, water tanks and bunks. The only wall openings were the loopholes, which were just large enough to fire a rifle through. The interior would have been dark and stuffy, not the most pleasant of accommodations.

(War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 10 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Hastings UMWA - District 2 Labor Chautauquas

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Pennsylvania, Cambria County, Hastings
From 1924 to 1926 the United Mine Workers of America held innovative workers’ education programs in bituminous coal towns throughout western Pa. Hastings recorded the largest attendance in 1925. With the leadership of district President John Brophy, the Chautauquas featured nationally prominent speakers and educators as well as local entertainers. They received national press attention and recognition from progressive activists.

(Industry & Commerce • Labor Unions) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

The Hotz Estate

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Wisconsin, Door County, near Ellison Bay
In 1917, Ferdinand Hotz of Chicago purchased 1,015 acres of land which later became Newport State Park. He thought this was the finest place on earth, and in 1919 he began building an estate that would include the log cabin, carriage house, and outhouse that you see here. The estate overlooked Europe Lake.

Under the careful stewardship of the Hotz family, the land recovered from the logging era. In 1967, the family began selling their land to the state of Wisconsin for Newport State Park. Hotz's stewardship ethic is carried on today in the wilderness management philosophy of the park.

(Notable Places) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Preston County / Pennsylvania

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West Virginia, Preston County, near Glade Farm
Preston County. Formed from Monongalia in 1818 and named for James Preston, 13th governor of Virginia. Here is model Federal homestead project, sponsored by Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President.

Pennsylvania. Named for William Penn to whom it was granted in 1681 by Charles II. In 1682, Penn made his first settlement Philadelphia. Early settlements had been made by Swedes in 1838. It was one of the thirteen original colonies.

(Political Subdivisions) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Dedicated to the 77 Men

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Pennsylvania, Cambria County, Spangler
Dedicated to the 77 men named here who died in an explosion November 6, 1922 in Reilly's colliery #1.
Spangler, Penna.
and to the many others who lost their lives before and since in area coal mines.

(Disasters • Industry & Commerce) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

The Japanese Garden

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British Columbia, Capital Regional District, near Brentwood Bay


The first of Jennie Butchart's formal gardens, the Japanese Garden was started in 1906. A Japanese landscape artist, Isaburo Kishida, assisted her with the design. Under the supervision of Hugh Lindsay the first of Mrs. Butchart's head gardeners, labourers from the cement works implemented Kishida's plan. Jennie installed a torii gate to mark the entrance to the garden. The magnificent purple beech on each side of the gate and the Japanese maples at the head of the stone stairs down into the garden are the oldest non-native trees in The Butchart Gardens.

(Environment • Horticulture & Forestry • Man-Made Features) Includes location, directions, 13 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Henry Clay Furnace

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West Virginia, Monongalia County, Coopers Rock State Forest
West, in Coopers Rock State Forest, is the Henry Clay cold blast furnace, built 1834-36 by Leonard Lamp. It had capacity for four tons pig iron per day, and furnished employment for 200 people. Sold to Ellicots in 1837. Operated until 1847.

(Industry & Commerce) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Henry Clay Iron Furnace

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West Virginia, Monongalia County, Coopers Rock State Forest
Henry Clay Furnace, located on Quarry Run, was built between 1834 and 1836 by Leonard Laws for Tassey and Bissell. It was a cold-blast furnace and produced 4 tons of pig iron each 24 hours. It was one of several furnaces that were operated in this area during the nineteenth century and was used until about 1847.

About 200 people were employed at the furnace. It was the center of a community of over one hundred dwellings with a store, church, and schoolhouse.

Ownership of the furnace was conveyed in 1839 to the Ellicotts, who built a system of wooden railed tramways that ran through the mountains connecting the furnaces and ore pits. Until 1845 all of the iron produced was floated down the Cheat River.

The pattern of industrial development is constantly changing. The iron industry cycle in this area is now complete.

(Industry & Commerce) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Fighting on the Tennessee River

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Tennessee, Benton County, Camden
During the Civil War, several engagements occurred along the strategically important Tennessee River within about five miles of here. In each one, cavalrymen engaged naval forces.

On April 26, 1863 near the mouth of the Duck River east of here, Confederate Maj. Robert M. White with the Texas Rangers and its four-gun battery attacked a Union flotilla from the river bank. The gunboats Autocrat, Diana, and Adams and several transports came under heavy fire. When the vessels drove the Confederate cannons out of range with small-arms and artillery fire, Union Gen. Alfred W. Ellet ordered the gunboats to land their forces, signalmen on the exposed decks “wig-wagged” the orders with flags. The Mississippi Marine Brigade quickly disembarked and engaged the Rangers, who “who were driven back and pursued some 12 miles in the interior, with the loss of Major White, mortally wounded and left near the field and 1 lieutenant and 8 men killed.” White, a Tennessee native who had lived in Texas since 1834, was buried in Belton, Texas.

Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest successfully attacked the Union supply depot at Johnsonville on the east bank of the Tennessee River five miles north of here, on November 4, 1864. Forrest earlier commandeered two Union vessels at Paris Landing near the Kentucky border and ferried his command across the river. Opposite Johnsonville, Forrest placed batteries above and below the depot, and an intense artillery duel erupted with the defenders. Three Union gunboats caught fire, and Col. Charles R. Thompson ordered the transports destroyed to prevent their capture. Wind-shipped flames spread to the warehouses, causing millions of dollars in damage. Forrest then crossed Birdsong Creek near here en route to join Gen. John Bell Hood’s army near Florence, Alabama.

(captions)
(upper center) Gen. Nathan B. Forrest and Gen. Alfred W. Ellet Courtesy Library of Congress
(upper right) Confederate infantry and artillery firing on Union gunboats Courtesy U.S. Naval Historical Center
(lower right) Union gunboat fleet on the Tennessee River, Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (1896)

(War, US Civil • Waterways & Vessels) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Harris-Collier-Holland Farm

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Tennessee, Carroll County, McKenzie
Albert Gallatin Harris purchased this farm in 1829 and built the present house in 1857. After camping on the land during the Civil War, Union troops ransacked the farm, killing or stealing all the livestock. They did not burn the house because the Harris family had cared for a sick Union officer and nursed him back to health. When Union soldiers stole Harris’s nine-year old daughter Ada’s pony, she angrily shouted after them, “I hope he throws you and breaks your damn neck!”

According to a former slave, Harris and his son John hid silver coins under the brick floor in the basement and paper money underneath the horse troughs. The slave and Lucy Pernecia, Harris’s wife, checked each day to make sure it had not been stolen by passing Union soldiers. At age fifteen, John Williamson Harris ran away from home in 1863 and joined the 20th Tennessee Cavalry under Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest’s command. Harris served as a courier for the remainder of the war.

Family members have found oak trees on the property with long metal spike driven into them by the troops who camped there, as well as ax heads and a bayonet. The farmhouse is the only remaining residence in McKenzie that sheltered both Federals and Confederates. Family receipts confirm that members of Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest’s cavalry frequented the farm between 1862 and 1865. Confederate Capt. William Lindsay purchased corn for $2.50 per bushel to feed Forrest’s horses and procured the services of Harris’s blacksmith to “nail on sixty-two horseshoes.”

(sidebar)
Although remodeled in 1957, the house still retains the original frame beneath the brick, as well as the basement fireplace, hand-hewn beams, and the foundation. This Tennessee Century Farm has been placed under a permanent conservation easement with the Land Trust for Tennessee.

(captions)
(lower left) Ada Harris Collier and John W. Harris
(upper right) Harris House
(lower right) Receipt for property February 11, 1865
All images courtesy of Kermit Holland Family

(War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

First Baptist Church

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Michigan, Kalamazoo County, Kalamazoo

(Side One)
Constructed in 1853, this is the oldest church building in Kalamazoo. Titus Bronson, the city’s founder, donated this site on Church Square. The Baptist faith reached the Kalamazoo River Valley in 1826 when missionary Leonard Slater preached to the Indians. In 1836 fourteen settlers led by Jeremiah Hall, a Baptist minister from Vermont, met in the home of Ezekiel Ransom to organize the First Baptist Church.

(Side Two)
The history of the First Baptist Church and Kalamazoo College are closely interwoven. The same year that the church was organized, the Reverend Jeremiah Hall persuaded the Michigan and Huron Institute, now Kalamazoo College, to settle in this city. The second pastor, Dr. James H.B. Stone, was an early president of the college and many of his successors in that office have been active in this congregation. Over the years the First Baptist Church has served as the parent church of several parishes in outlying areas.

(Churches, Etc.) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

William Grossman & Co. Coffee and Tea Mill

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Wisconsin, Milwaukee County, Milwaukee
This property has been placed on the
National Register of Historic Places
William Grossman & Co.
Coffee and tea mill
Designed by H. Messmer & Co.


(Notable Buildings) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

F. Mayer Boot & Shoe Co.

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Wisconsin, Milwaukee County, Milwaukee
This property has been placed on the
National Register of Historic Places
F. Mayer Boot & Shoe Co.
Designed by Schnetzky & Son


(Notable Buildings) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Goll & Frank Co. Notions and Dry Goods

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Wisconsin, Milwaukee County, Milwaukee
This property has been placed on the
National Register of Historic Places
Goll & Frank Co.
Notions & dry goods
Designed by Ferry & Clas
1896

(Notable Buildings) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

S. Jung Company Liquor Wholesale

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Wisconsin, Milwaukee County, Milwaukee
This property has been placed on the
National Register of Historic Places
S. Jung Company Liquor Wholesale
Tour Site 24
1906

(Notable Buildings) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Patek Brothers, Paint, Oil & Glass Manufacturers

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Wisconsin, Milwaukee County, Milwaukee
This property has been placed on the
National Register of Historic Places
Patek Brothers paint, oil & glass manufacturers
Designed by Schnetzky & Son
Tour Site 25
1914-15

(Notable Buildings) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

South Street Historic District

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Michigan, Kalamazoo County, Kalamazoo

(Side One)
This tree-lined neighborhood, today nestled between the business district and college campuses, recalls a quiet but prosperous Kalamazoo at the turn of the century. The street was platted in 1841. Its beautifully preserved houses, which were built between then and 1915, reflect the spectrum of fashionable domestic architecture of the period with the Italian Revival style most prevalent.

(Side Two)
Many prominent middle class families lived in this neighborhood which runs two blocks along South Street. Here were the homes of professors, lawyers, journalists, businessmen, and others active in the civic, commercial, and professional life of Kalamazoo. Today the district houses community service organizations as well as businesses and families, thereby retaining its traditional cultural and civic orientation.

(Notable Buildings) Includes location, directions, 7 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Kalamazoo College

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Michigan, Kalamazoo County, Kalamazoo
The first classroom building for the Michigan and Huron Institute, now Kalamazoo College, was erected on this site between June and September of 1836. The charter bill for the school had been introduced in the Michigan Territorial Legislative Council on January 18, 1933, and signed into law by Governor George B. Porter on April 22, 1833. Village pledges supplied funds for the two-story frame classroom structure, which was the start of Michigan’s first church-related college.

(Education) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Myeerah Trail / Historic Logan County

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Ohio, Logan County, Bellefontaine
Myeerah Trail
A former Indian trail connected Blue Jacket's Town (site of Bellefontaine) and Zanestown (now Zanesfield). The highway was named by the County Commissioners in honor of Princess Myreerah, daughter of Chief Tarhe and wife of Isaac Zane, White Eagle of the Wyandots.

Historic Logan County
Highest point in Ohio. Site of: Ten Indian towns: Wapatomica, Blue Jacket, Mackachack, Moluntha, Lewis, Old, Zane, Solomon, McKee and Buckongehelas. Zane-Kenton Monument: Squaw Rock; Ft. Wapatomica; Kenton's Grave. Here first organized Methodist Church Mission movement began, 1819.

(Native Americans • Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Pioneer Cemetery

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Michigan, Kalamazoo County, Kalamazoo
South Westnedge Street Park is actually Kalamazoo’s first cemetery. The pioneer leader, Cyren Burdick, and his wife Mary Ann in 1833 donated this land as a common burial ground. From this time until 1862 hundreds of pioneer settlers were buried here in what was then known as South West Street Cemetery. Later an unknown number of bodies were removed to other cemeteries in the village. In 1884, after years of neglect, Kalamazoo’s pioneer cemetery was converted into a park.

(Cemeteries & Burial Sites) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
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