How Kentucky [and Maryland and Delaware] Became a Confederate State

 

(NYTimes) ... On Feb. 20, the president wrote to Missouri’s new governor, Thomas C. Fletcher, troubled by persistent violence and distrust among civilians there. “Waiving all else, pledge each to cease harassing others, and to make common cause against whomever persists in making, aiding or encouraging further disturbance.” The president implored. “At such meetings old friendships will cross the memory, and honor and Christian charity will contrive to help.” Less than two months later, Lincoln was dead, at the hands of a Marylander, John Wilkes Booth. Had he lived, he would have learned, painfully, in slaveholding border states that amity would be difficult to find, especially over the end of the peculiar institution there. Continued

Delaware Votes Against Secession

(Wikipedia) ... During the American Civil War, Delaware was a slave state that remained in the Union (Delaware voters voted not to secede on January 3, 1861). Delaware had been the first state to embrace the Union by ratifying the constitution, and would be the last to leave it, according to Delaware's governor at the time. Although most Delaware citizens who fought in the Civil War served in regiments on the Union side, some did, in fact, serve in Delaware companies on the Confederate side in the Maryland and Virginia Regiments.
Two months before the end of the Civil War, however, Delaware voted on February 18, 1865 to reject the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution and so voted unsuccessfully to continue slavery beyond the Civil War. Delaware symbolically ratified the amendment on February 12, 1901—40 years after Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. Slavery ended in Delaware only when the Thirteenth Amendment took effect in December 1865. Delaware also rejected the 14th amendment during the Reconstruction Era. Link

Photo: Fort Delaware & Pea Patch Island (Library of Congress)

Historical blizzards

The Baltimore Sun has a nice little slide show of snowstorms that hit the region over the years.
Falmanac has also covered the Great Blizzard of 1888 and the infamous Knickerbocker Storm of 1922. The Knickerbocker storm was named for a Washington D.C. theatre which collapsed in the blizzard, killing 98 people and injuring 133. Also, check out this odd story from a snowstorm in 1772. And please, whatever you do, don't forget the snacks!

Photo: The Great Blizzard of 1888 (NOAA)

New Blog, “DelMar History” Focuses on Sussex Co & Nearby Areas in MD & Delaware

(RoDP) Thanks to Delmar Dustpan an informative blog concentrating on Delmar, MD/Delaware, we have came across a new weblog of interest. It is Delmar History and its publisher Harrison Howeth says it focuses on Sussex County and surrounding counties in Maryland and Delaware. The blogger is a volunteer at local historical societies in the area and he has posted some informative articles. It’s been added to our list of regular places to visit. Continued

"We thought you was a toad!" Oops, wrong Delmar.

Daniel Nathans

(Wikipedia) Daniel Nathans (October 30, 1928 – November 16, 1999) was an American microbiologist.
He was born in Wilmington, Delaware, the last of nine children born to Russian Jewish immigrant parents. During the Great Depression his father lost his small business and was unemployed for a long period of time. Nathans went to public schools and then to the University of Delaware, where he studied chemistry, philosophy, and literature. He received his M.D. degree from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri in 1954. Nathans served as President of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland from 1995 to 1996. Continued

George Read

(Wikipedia) - George Read (September 18, 1733 – September 21, 1798) was an American lawyer and politician from New Castle in New Castle County, Delaware. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, a Continental Congressman from Delaware, a delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787, President of Delaware, and a member of the Federalist Party, who served as U.S. Senate from Delaware and Chief Justice of Delaware.
Read was born in Cecil County, Maryland, near North East, the son of John and Mary Howell Read. John Read was a wealthy English resident of Dublin, Ireland who came to Maryland as a young man and was one of the founders of Charlestown, Maryland in Cecil County. Continued

Photo: Wikipedia

Big day for museums, parks on Sept. 26

(msnbc.com) - If you can’t get free admission to a museum, a park, or some sort of walking tour, music performance or a national park on Saturday, Sept. 26, then you’re just not trying. Smithsonian Magazine’s fifth Annual Museum Day and National Public Lands Day both fall on the same day this year, and that means entry fees are waived and special events are planned at museums, cultural attractions, historic sites and parks across the country. Continued

Photo: Display at the National Watch & Clock Museum, Columbia, PA (Falmanac).

NASA rocket scheduled to create noctilucent clouds tonight

(NASA) - A rocket experiment that may shed light on the highest clouds in the Earth’s atmosphere will be conducted Sept. 15 from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
The Charged Aerosol Release Experiment (CARE) will be conducted by the Naval Research Laboratory and the Department of Defense Space Test Program using a NASA four-stage Black Brant XII suborbital sounding rocket. Using ground based instruments and the STP/NRL STPSat-1 spacecraft, scientists will study an artificial noctilucent cloud formed by the exhaust particles of the rocket’s fourth stage at about 173 miles altitude.
The launch is scheduled between 7:30 and 7:57 p.m. EDT. The backup launch days are Sept. 16 through 20. The rocket flight and the resulting cloud may be seen throughout the mid-Atlantic region. The artificial noctilucent cloud also may be visible the following morning just before sunrise. Continued

Photos: NASA

William Penn Acquires the Lower Counties

(LoC) - On August 24, 1682, the Duke of York awarded Englishman William Penn a deed to the "Three Lower Counties" that make up the present state of Delaware, recently transferred from Dutch to British jurisdiction. Penn acquired this tract of land just west of the Delaware Bay in order to ensure ocean access for his new colony of Pennsylvania. While Delaware established its own assembly in 1704, it was not until shortly after July 1776 that Delaware became a separate state. On December 7, 1787, Delaware was the "first state" to ratify the new U.S. Constitution, thereby earning its current proud nickname. Continued

Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr

(Wikipedia) - Thomas West, 3rd (or 12th) Baron De La Warr (July 9, 1577 – June 7, 1618) was the Englishman after whom the bay, river, American Indian tribe, and U.S. state, all later called "Delaware", were named.
... After the Powhattans murdered the colony's governor, Lord Ratcliffe, and attacked the colony in the first First Anglo-Powhatan War, Lord De La Warr headed the contingent of 150 men who landed in Jamestown, Virginia on June 10, 1610, just in time to persuade the original settlers not to give up and go home to England. Continued

MUSKRAT: The other white meat in Md., Del.

CHESAPEAKE CITY, Md. (AP) — Is eating muskrat on your list of things to do before you die? It is for Carolyn Manning. An associate professor in the department of health, nutrition, and exercise sciences at the University of Delaware in Newark, Manning is no stranger to exotic food choices. Continued

Howard Pyle

(Wikipedia) - Howard Pyle (March 5, 1853 – November 9, 1911) was an American illustrator and writer, primarily of books for young audiences. A native of Wilmington, Delaware, he spent the last year of his life in Florence, Italy.
In 1894 he began teaching illustration at the Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry (now Drexel University), and after 1900 he founded his own school of art and illustration called the Howard Pyle School of Illustration Art. The term the Brandywine School was later applied to the illustration artists and Wyeth family artists of the Brandywine region by Pitz (later called the Brandywine School). Some of his more famous students were Olive Rush, N. C. Wyeth, Frank Schoonover, Elenore Abbott, and Jessie Willcox Smith. Continued

Obama train to include vintage rail car "Georgia 300"

(NYTimes) - The shiny blue vintage rail car that carried Barack Obama on a whistle-stop tour through Pennsylvania during the presidential campaign will take him on a pre-inaugural ride from Philadelphia to Washington on Saturday, the symbolic last leg of his road to the White House. Continued

See also: Railfanning the Inauguration Train & Whistle Stop Tour Event Details Announced

Railfanning the Inauguration Train

If you are planning to watch the "Obama Train" pass by, here are some good locations:

Perryville, Maryland: Just over the Susquehanna River Bridge, in Cecil County, the Perryville MARC station is the largest train station north of Baltimore. It has a wide platform, and if the station is unlocked (which isn't a certainty), indoor bathrooms. There are two large parking lots at the station. Perryville is a quiet town with little crime. The view of the tracks is pretty much from the left side, if you're facing north. Highly recommended.

Havre de Grace, Maryland: There is a small fishing park just under the bridge. Not a great close up view of passing trains, but pretty. Not my first choice.

Aberdeen, Maryland: Aberdeen features a small gem of a station, but it's a bit crowded. There is a platform on both sides of the tracks and a walkway that goes under the tracks. Meh.

Edgewood, Maryland: Just a parking lot and platforms, but it's a pretty large viewing area. There is access to both sides of the tracks. The station features two outhouses. Rumor has it that Mayor Quimby will be there making speeches (around two in the afternoon), which at the very least, may heat the surrounding atmosphere a degree or two. Recommended, though that area has been a bit crimey lately, I doubt it will be a problem on Saturday. The Baltimore Sun reports that Obama will stop in Edgewood at 2:30. Or maybe not.

Martin State (Essex), Maryland: Wide open on one side, the right side, when facing north. Recommended.

There haven't been many details released on the train times or equipment being used, but one can assume the consist will be all, or mostly, Amtrak equipment. However, there is a local rumor that an observation car will be placed on the rear of the train. Who knows, maybe those E-8's will be pulling the thing? Anyway, have fun, if you go, and please don't step past the yellow line on the platform (see top picture), and stay off the tracks. Amtrak trains run fast and quietly. "It’s a chance to witness history. Whether or not it goes by in a blur is still to be determined." - Delaware County Daily Times

Update: The Baltimore Sun/WJZ reports that Obama is scheduled to arrive in Baltimore at 4 p.m.

Update 2: Whistle Stop Tour Event Details Announced

Update 3: The Baltimore Sun reports that "People who can't make it downtown can see the president-elect (joined by Vice President-elect Joe Biden) at the Edgewood train station in Harford County, where the Democrats will address the crowd from the back of the train. Gates there open at noon for the 2:30 p.m. event."

Update 4: ABC2News.com reports the following official spots to watch the Obama train: "Harford County has designated three locations where people can gather to greet Obama as he makes his way to D.C. They are behind Havre De Grace Middle School on Lewis Lane, the Aberdeen train station on Route 40, and the Marc station in Edgewood. ... Cecil County has also designated two locations. They are the Perryville Marc Station and the Old Pennsylvania Railroad Depot in Elkton."

Update 5: Another Sun report states 'Mary Ann Lisanti, a member of the Harford County Committee to Elect Barack Obama, said the train will make a "rolling stop" in Edgewood. She says the train will slow to about 1 mph.'

Update 6: Obama train to include vintage rail car "Georgia 300"

Update 7: See Here comes Obama! There goes Obama! for some pictures of today's roll-by in Perryville, Maryland.

Photos: MDRails

Amtrak prepares for crowds along Obama train route

(AP) - Throngs of well-wishers are expected to line the tracks as President-elect Barack Obama travels by train from Philadelphia to Washington the weekend before his swearing-in as the 44th president, prompting heightened security along the rails.
The 137-mile route will be manned by thousands of police officers from the 40 jurisdictions in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Washington, D.C., that Obama's train will pass through, officials with Amtrak said today as they outlined security plans for the inauguration.
Crowds are expected to gather at numerous spots, including overpasses, parking lots and commuter train stations, as Obama retraces the journey of Abraham Lincoln, who also rode to his inauguration on a train from Philadelphia. Continued

Photos: MDRails

Pennsylvania Ratifies the Constitution

(Library of Congress) - On December 12, 1787, delegates to the Pennsylvania ratifying convention meeting at the Pennsylvania State House (now known as Independence Hall) voted to ratify the Constitution of 1787. Five days earlier, Delaware had become the first state to adopt the work of the Constitutional Convention.
Pennsylvania's early approval of the proposed document helped create momentum for ratification in the rest of the thirteen states. In Pennsylvania, however, opponents of the Constitution bitterly opposed the legislature's hasty action. "The Address and Reasons of Dissent of the Minority of the Convention…," signed by twenty-one of the twenty-three members of the state legislature who voted against ratification, outlines the grievances of the anti-Federalists. Continued

Annie Jump Cannon

(Wikipedia) - Annie Jump Cannon (December 11, 1863 – April 13, 1941) was an American astronomer whose cataloging work was instrumental in the development of contemporary stellar classification. With Edward C. Pickering, she is credited with the creation of the Harvard Classification Scheme, which was the first serious attempt to organize and classify stars based on their temperatures.
The daughter of shipbuilder and state senator Wilson Lee Cannon and his second wife, Mary Elizabeth Jump, Annie grew up in Dover, Delaware. Mary gave birth to two more daughters after Annie, in addition to the four stepchildren she inherited in the marriage. Annie's mother had a childhood interest in star-gazing, and she passed that interest along to her daughter. Continued

Benjamin Chew

(U of P) - Benjamin Chew was born in Maryland, but his Quaker father soon moved the family to Philadelphia. After receiving a classical education and then studying law with Andrew Hamilton in Philadelphia, young Chew travelled to London to continue his legal studies at the Middle Temple. While abroad he made many important connections that advanced his career down the road; most important among his new ties were those to the proprietary Penn family.
When he returned to America in 1744, Benjamin Chew settled in Delaware, where he established a successful law practice. Additionally he was elected Kent County representative to the Assembly of the Lower Counties, serving as speaker of that body from 1753 to 1757.
In 1754 Chew moved to Philadelphia and again established a thriving law practice. During this period, Chew represented the interests of the Penn family, and like them, left his Quaker faith to join the Church of England. Continued

Image: University of Pennsylvania

John Dickinson: President of Pennsylvania and Delaware

(Wikipedia) - John Dickinson (November 8, 1732 – February 14, 1808) was an American lawyer and politician from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Wilmington, Delaware. He was a militia officer during the American Revolution, a Continental Congressman from Pennsylvania and Delaware, a delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787, President of Delaware, President of Pennsylvania and served from 1782 to 1785 as an ex officio member and president of the board of trustees of the University of Pennsylvania.
Among the wealthiest men in the British American colonies, he is known as the Penman of the Revolution, for his Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, where he eloquently argued the cause of American liberty. Although refusing to vote in favor of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, he supported the establishment of the new government during the American Revolution and afterward in many official capacities. Continued

Caesar Rodney

(Wikipedia) - Caesar Rodney (October 7, 1728 – June 26, 1784), was an American lawyer and politician from St. Jones Neck, in Dover Hundred, Kent County, Delaware, east of Dover. He was an officer of the Delaware militia during the French and Indian War and the American Revolution, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, a Continental Congressman from Delaware, and President of Delaware during most of the American Revolution. Continued