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Edison’s “Florida Paradise”

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Florida, Lee County, Fort Myers
Famous inventor and businessman Thomas Edison visited Forty Myers in early 1885. He planned to find a warm retreat to escape the cold winters of his home base in West Orange, New Jersey. Along with friends, he made way to Fort Myers from the cooler climate of Jacksonville.

Real estate agency Hueisenkamp & Cranford helped Edison find a 14 acre property along the Caloosahatchee River, in the countryside one mile south of the city of Fort Myers. Through the grounds were mostly scrub and wild vegetation, the plants included Giant Green Bamboo, a natural fiber Edison was experimenting with a filament for the incandescent light bulb.

After buying the property from cattleman Samuel Summerlin for $2,750, Edison made plans by creating a notebook that included a sketch illustrating his ideal winter retreat. His sketch included not only the homes, but also a laboratory, maintenance shop, and gardens for exotic and edible plants.

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

Muncy Mills

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Pennsylvania, Lycoming County, Muncy
The nearby memorial is at the site of this valley's first grist mill. It was built by John Alward about 1772 and burned by Indians 1779. Other mills built on the site in 1783 and 1800. Last mill was used until 1872.

(Native Americans • Colonial Era • Industry & Commerce) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Inside the Ford Home

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Florida, Lee County, Fort Myers
The Henry Ford Home was built in 1911 and is an example of the “American Bungalow” architectural style. From the exterior one sees the characteristics of cedar-shingle siding, wide covered porches, gabled metal roof, and dormers with decorative beams, and sturdy porch columns. Interior finishes included the cypress ceiling beams and yellow pine moldings, built in benches and window seat, as well as cabinet and shelf storage.

Although most of the furnishings on display are not original, records indicate they are in the style of the Ford residences. The grandmother clock in the living room is understood to be original to the Ford Home in Fort Myers.

In the late 1920’s Ford added two bedrooms and bath suites to the first floor as wings to the original building. These areas were necessary space for guests and staff such as Ford’s secretary, Frank Campsall, who accompanied him during several trips. On the second floor were bedrooms for the Fords, son Edsel, a study, indoor bathroom and a wonderful sleeping porch.

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

Henry Ford's Florida Estate

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Florida, Lee County, Fort Myers
Thomas Edison and Henry Ford first met in 1896 at a New York conference of the Edison Illuminating Companies. Ford worked as a mechanic at the Detroit Edison plant. The two were not reacquainted again until 1910, when Edison responded to Ford’s request for an autographed photo for his new office. Along with the photo, Edison invited the Ford family to his New Jersey home, in 1914.

In 1916 Edison’s neighbor, Robert Smith, wrote to Ford relating, “Personally, I would prefer to have you buy it and in this I express the sentiment of the people of Fort Myers. We are all proud to have Mr. Edison spend his winters here and would be just as proud to have Mr. Henry Ford become one of our winter residents.”

With the sale completed in July 1916, Killian Melber, a local florist, became Ford’s first agent in Fort Myers. Ford purchased the home furnished. As Melber prepared the property for the Fords’ visit in 1917, he related to them that all they needed was silverware, bedding, and table linens.

The gardens were well-developed at the time Fords purchased the estate. They included 100 grapefruit and 50 orange trees, as well as mangoes, paw-paws, lemon, limes, guavas, tangerines, coconuts, and bananas. Smith named the property “The Mangoes” due to the abundance of mango trees.

Ford’s Caretaker’s Cottage as it appears today evolved from a garage built in the style of the Ford house with accommodations for a good-sized car, a sleeping room for staff, a pump room and a storeroom overhead.

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

Shoemaker Bridge

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Pennsylvania, Lycoming County, Muncy
At this place was the first flour mill in this valley. Built by John Alward about 1772. Destroyed by Indians, 1779. The second mill built on the same site by Henry Shoemaker, 1763. The third mill built about 1800 by Jacob, son of Henry Shoemaker. Owned and operated by Shoemakers until 1872. Mill demolished and materials sold 1918.

(Native Americans • Colonial Era • Industry & Commerce) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Henry Ford

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Florida, Lee County, Fort Myers
In 1914, Thomas Edison invited Henry Ford, wife Clara, and son Edsel to the Edison Florida estate. In 1916, the Fords purchased their Fort Myers estate, The Mangoes. The Ford family visited regularly with good friends and neighbors, Thomas and Mina Edison. Time was spent discussing business and invention but also on leisure actives, such as fishing, boating, and camping. Together they explored southwest Florida in the 1916 Model T Touring car Ford gave to Edison.

This statue, by Fort Myers sculptor D. J. Wilkins, was donated to the Edison & Ford Winter Estates by patron Orvall McCleary in honor of Henry Ford on July 30, 2007.

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

Glen Burnie

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Virginia, Winchester

This Property Has Been
Placed on the
National Register
Of Historic Places

By the United States
Department of Interior

(Man-Made Features) Includes location, directions, 8 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Kennedy-Matin-Stelle Farmstead

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New Jersey, Somerset County, Basking Ridge
Lying along the Passaic River, the farmstead was first developed early in the second half of the 18th century. At one time, the property encompassed 340 acres with 14 structures including a Dutch framed farmhouse, wagon house, and large English framed barn.

The first notable resident was Reverend Samuel Kennedy, a distinguished local minister and founder of a prestigious classical school who purchased the property in 1762. Later the property was acquired by Colonel Ephraim Martin, an officer in the Continental Army and highly respected politician who was instrumental in the ratification of the federal Bill of Rights. The Stelle family acquired the property in 1794 and farmed the land through 1852. The property was actively farmed for over 250 years before being acquired by Bernards Township in 1999.

(Agriculture • Churches, Etc. • Colonial Era • War, US Revolutionary) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.


Muncy

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Pennsylvania, Lycoming County, Muncy
Laid out, 1799, by Benjamin McCarty. Named for the Monsey Indians, tribe of Delawares, who inhabited this area before arrival of the whites. Four Indian paths - Shamokin, Wyalusing, Wyoming, Towanda - formed a junction here

(Native Americans • Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Muncy

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Pennsylvania, Lycoming County, Muncy
Laid out, 1799, by Benjamin McCarty. Named for the Monsey Indians, tribe of Delawares, who inhabited this area before arrival of the whites. Four Indian paths - Shamokin, Wyalusing, Wyoming, Towanda - formed a junction here.

(Native Americans • Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Capt. John Brady

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Pennsylvania, Lycoming County, Muncy
The famed Indian fighter and hero of the colonial wars and the Revolution was killed in ambush by Indians near here April 11, 1779. He was in charge of Fort Brady at present Muncy at the time

(Native Americans • War, US Revolutionary • War, French and Indian) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Capt. John Brady

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Pennsylvania, Lycoming County, Muncy
Capt. John Brady was ambushed and killed by Indians near this spot while bringing supplies to beleaguered Fort Brady • Capt. John was an officer in the Pontiac and French and Indian Wars • Major of Associations in 1775 • Captain under General George Washington at Brandywine in 1777 • Seriously wounded at the Battle of Germantown • Father of four sons all of whom rendered distinguished service in defense of their country from Concord to New Orleans. Men of this type founded America’s greatness.

(Native Americans • War, US Revolutionary • War, French and Indian) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Pennsdale Meeting

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Pennsylvania, Lycoming County, Pennsdale
The Friends Meeting House opposite was built in 1799. It was erected to provide a place of worship for the numerous Quaker settlers of this region

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

City of Temple

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Texas, Bell County, Temple
Founded in 1881, on the Santa Fe line, Temple, like dozens of Texas towns, owed its beginning to the railroad and was, in fact, named for a Santa Fe official, B.M. Temple. On June 29, 1881, a gala town lot sale, with free barbecue, was held by promoters. In 1882, the Missouri Kansas, & Texas built through and soon after, Santa Fe made Temple a division point.
     For some time, however, Temple was a town of shacks and tents with the usual large number of saloons and tough characters found in the early West. Locally, it was called “Tanglefoot”, because some citizens found that the combination of muddy streets and liquor made walking rather difficult at times.
     In 1882, the town was incorporated and two private schools began. The Temple Academy was soon organized and a public school was established in 1884.
     In 1893, the annual Temple “Stag Party” began, growing out of a private Thanksgiving celebration attended by the town’s leading men. It was held until 1923.
     Today Temple is known as a major hospital center of the South, for located here are Santa Fe Hospital (founded 1891), King’s Daughters Hospital (1896), the Scott and White Hospital (1904), and the Veterans Administration (formerly McCloskey) Hospital (1942).

(Settlements & Settlers • Railroads & Streetcars) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Site of Organization of the Texas Forestry Association

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Texas, Bell, Temple
One of Texas’ oldest conservation organizations. W. Goodrich Jones (1860-1950), who came to Temple as a banker in 1888, felt need for trees in this prairie town. He led planting drives in Temple, and in 1889 saw to establishment of a statewide Arbor Day.
     Asked by the chief U.S. forester to survey Texas forest resources, Jones later enlisted aid of friends. On Nov. 1, 1914, he and about 20 associates met in the Carnegie library, then adjacent to the Temple public square, and organized the Texas Forestry Association. This body’s original aim, to gain public support for a state department of forestry, was accomplished within a year. The department was created by law in 1915; it was later retitled “Texas Forest Service”.
     The Texas Forestry Association has since aided in the restoration of 11,500,000 acres of commercial forests—lifeblood of a large segment of the Texas economy. Over 2,000 woodland owners, tree farmers, industrialists, professional foresters, and concerned citizens are TFA members. Under such leaders as Jones, who served as president in 1914-21, the TFA has been the voice of forestry in Texas, urging expansion, protection, proper management, and wise use of all forests and related resources.

(Horticulture & Forestry • Environment) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Sheep Ranching

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Wyoming, Carbon County, near Sinclair
The first authentic sheep wagon was built by James Candlish in Rawlins in 1884 from an idea given him by George Ferris. Caddish, a Canadian blacksmith, followed the Union Pacific construction to Fort Fred Steele and lived there until the troops moved out when he moved to Rawlins and opened his own blacksmith shop.
Modern day sheep herders still use newer versions of his sheep wagons throughout this region of Wyoming.
The sheep herders were often referred to as the "Nomads of the Plains" as they moved and followed the large herds of sheep from one spot to another so that the sheep could graze on the vast open ranges. They would let the sheep graze on lush mountain meadows during the summer months and then move back down to the milder valley climates for the harsh winter months.
The sheep wagon provided a warm and dry shelter, a place to cook & store grub and a place to sleep & rest for the isolated & lonely herders. Locally it is though that the sheep wagon of yesterday played a large roll in developing the use of the modern day travel trailer, mobile homes, and motor homes in America.

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

Sheep Industry

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Wyoming, Carbon County, near Sinclair
Sheep ranching came in to the Rawlins & Ft. Steele area in the 1880's with I.C. Miller being one of the earliest. He owned the first flock in 1875. In 1882, about 16 large sheep outfits were listed in the Rawlins area and numbers rapidly grew.
The Cosgriff Brothers of Ft. Steele & Rawlins, WY were one of the largest sheep firms in Wyoming, who at the peak of their career ran 125,000 head of sheep in addition to their mercantile & banking interests. Their flocks ranged across most of southern Wyoming from the Encampment area to Rock Springs. Their pioneer mercantile finally extended as far west as Salt Lake City, UT. In 1903 they had one of the single largest shearing plants in the state of Wyoming at Fort Steele; it employed 30 American and 30 Mexican shearers. In 1905 they shipped the largest single shipment of wool from Wyoming by special train from Fort Steele. WY to Boston, MA; it was 800,000 pounds of wool. One of the Cosgriff Bros, James, also owned the Cow Creek Outfit west of Saratoga, WY.
In the spring of 1892, L.W. Vivion went into partnership with George Ferris in sheep production. Six years later they dissolved the partnership and each had clear title to forty-four hundred sheep. In 1915 after the deaths of Thomas & John Cosgriff, Vivion purchased the Cosgriff Bros holdings south & east of Rawlins except for a parcel of land that was sold to Producers & Refiners Oil Corporation which is now the Sinclair Oil Refinery and the Town of Sinclair - formally Parco. The Leo Sheep Company later moved most of its shearing & shipping operations to Wolcott further east on the Union Pacific Rail Road where Vern & Della Vivion were able to get the sheep & shearing barns on the National Historic Register in recent times.

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

Ranching

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Wyoming, Carbon County, near Sinclair
The cattle industry was also large in the area with some very large cattle companies that owned land in and around the area. One of the largest, the Swan Land & Cattle Co. owned by the Swan Brothers stretched from near present day Scottsbluff, NE to Ft. Steele, WY. Bennett & Hunter was another large outfit to whom L.E. Vivion first went to work for and he then later worked for I.C. Miller Sheep Co. before starting his own cattle company. The great "Cattle Boom" lasted from 1878 to 1886 when eight mild winters had made the large companies consider Wyoming a year around grazing paradise. Then came the homesteaders and/or small ranchers, cattle rustling, and the bad winter blizzards of 1886-1889 in which thousands of cattle were lost when they were cornered then drifted over at the new fence corners in deep snow drifts. At one time the Swan Land & Cattle Co. of Chugwater, WY also owned 112,000 ewes. This made way for the sheep industry to further prosper as well.
The Vivion sheep/cattle operation remains in family ownership and the Ft. Steele State Historic Site was donated to the State of Wyoming by Charles G. & Grace M. Vivion, principal owners of the Leo Sheep Co. on 19 Nov. 1974. Another smaller portion of the site was donated by Grace A. Werner, Marialyce Tobin & Richard Tobin of the Bolton Ranch on October 11, 1974. Smaller lots of land that were owned by several others were also donated later on.
The ranching industry still lives on in this area thanks to the hardy pioneers that settled in this harsh climate and roughed it out. Today you still see cattle, sheep, horses and the bison are now making a come back as well. You will even see some goats, lamas and emus on a smaller scale. Most of the ranches are still rather large due to the amount of ground that it takes to adequately graze the livestock. The area's wildlife still roam free and is often mixed in with the livestock.

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

The Founding of Spencerville

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Ontario, Leeds and Grenville Counties, Spencerville

By 1821 Peleg Spencer was operating a grist-mill and sawmill on the South Nation River on a Clergy Lot he had leased in 1817, having previously owned a sawmill on the site from 1811 till 1814. David Spencer, son of Peleg, took over the mills in 1822 and patented the mill lot in 1831. By 1828 an inn was located near "Spencer's Mills" and a settlement developed. David Spencer had a village plot surveyed in the 1840's and a post-office, called "Spencerville", had been opened by October, 1846. In 1851 the village number to some 250 inhabitants with a tannery and other industries, as well as Spencer's mills, which were later rebuilt in stone across the river.

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

Roebuck Indian Village Site

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Ontario, Leeds and Grenville Counties, Roebuck

Approximately 500 years ago an Iroquoian agricultural community of about 1600 persons occupied this site. Archaeological excavations suggested approximately 40 communal longhouses, averaging nearly 100 feet in length, stood in this village, palisaded with a stout double stockade. The farmers on the site grew corn, beans, squash, sunflowers and tobacco. A similar village, Hochelaga, on the present site of Montréal, was visited by Jacques Cartier in 1535. After this first contact with Europeans, these Indians, related to other Iroquoian-speaking peoples in northern New York and southern Ontario, disappeared, although archaeological evidence suggests that some of the survivors were absorbed by the Hurons on the Trent River system.

(Agriculture • Native Americans) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
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