Secrets of Duffy’s Cut Yield to Shovel and Science

 

(NYTimes) They laid his bones in a bed of Bubble Wrap, with a care beyond what is normally given to fragile things. They double-boxed those bones and carried them last month to the United Parcel Service office on Spruce Street in Philadelphia. Then they printed out the address and paid the fee.
With that, the remains of a young man were soon soaring over the Atlantic Ocean that he had crossed once in a three-masted ship. His name is believed to have been John Ruddy, and he was being returned to the Ireland he had left as a strapping teenage laborer in 1832.
His voyage home is the latest turn in the tale of Duffy’s Cut, a wooded patch that is little more than a sylvan blur to those aboard commuter trains rocketing past. It is a mass grave, in fact: the uneasy resting place for dozens of Irish immigrants who died during a cholera epidemic, just weeks after coming to America, as an old song says, to work upon the railway. Continued

Photo by smallbones 

 

Poe Toaster Remains A Mystery

(WBAL) From the tombstone of Edgar Allan Poe, one can reach the street by taking a narrow dirt path between two tall stone mausoleums and crouching for a few steps underneath a portion of Westminster Hall.
This was a favorite getaway route for the Poe Toaster, the mysterious man in black who for decades left three roses and an unfinished bottle of Martell cognac at Poe’s grave on the birthday of the father of macabre fiction.
The tradition ended four years ago, just as mysteriously, when the visitor failed to appear.
Ahead of Poe’s 204th birthday on Saturday, the person who has overseen an annual cemetery vigil since the 1970s talked in detail about the story behind it. Continued

Credible Amelia Earhart radio signals were ignored as bogus

(Discovery) Dozens of previously dismissed radio signals were actually credible transmissions from Amelia Earhart, according to a new study of the alleged post-loss signals from Earhart's plane. The transmissions started riding the air waves just hours after Earhart sent her last in-flight message.
The study, presented on Friday at a three day conference by researchers of The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR), sheds new light on what may have happened to the legendary aviator 75 years ago. The researchers plan to start a high-tech underwater search for pieces of her aircraft next July. Continued

Identity of Arlington Cemetery remains might rest on Army search for girl in photo

(Washington Post) The girl in the photo is young and lithe, a figure skater in a short blue dress, striking a pose on the ice. She keeps her head high as she arches her back, and her right arm reaches up, like a ballet dancer’s in a Degas painting.
But who is she?
If Army special agents can determine her identity, they believe they’ll be able to solve a mystery that has hung over Arlington National Cemetery ever since a mass grave was discovered there almost a year ago. Continued

Ambrose Bierce

(Wikipedia) Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842 – after December 26, 1913) was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist and satirist. Today, he is best known for his short story, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and his satirical lexicon, The Devil's Dictionary. The sardonic view of human nature that informed his work – along with his vehemence as a critic, with his motto "nothing matters" – earned him the nickname "Bitter Bierce."
Despite his reputation as a searing critic, however, Bierce was known to encourage younger writers, including poet George Sterling and fiction writer W. C. Morrow. Bierce employed a distinctive style of writing, especially in his stories. This style often embraces an abrupt beginning (see cold open), dark imagery, vague references to time, limited descriptions, the theme of war, and impossible events.
In 1913, Bierce traveled to Mexico to gain a firsthand perspective on that country's ongoing revolution. While traveling with rebel troops, the elderly writer disappeared without a trace. Continued

Historians on the hunt for frozen, 86-year-old camera

(boingboing) Did George Mallory and Andrew Irvine make it to the top of Mt. Everest three decades before Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay? A group of historians hope to finally have proof—one way or the other—sometime next year, when they will set out to investigate what they believe is Irvine's body. Continued

Photo by Arkku, some rights reserved.

Superman-atee: Did Ilya the Manatee Swim to Virgina?

According to today's Richmond Times Dispatch, a manatee has been spotted in the James River. Could it be Ilya? According to what I've read online, manatees typically travel just 18-20 miles a day - Ilya's last confirmed location was in New Jersey on Friday. But maybe manatees can swim faster when under duress? Stay tuned.

Photo: Faster than a speeding blimp! Can manatees cover more ground than previously thought? (U.S. Department of the Interior, via Wikipedia).

Ready's Calf

My mom likes to say, when we're preparing to go out, "Are you ready or are you Ready's calf?" When I ask her about the origin of the expression, she says she doesn't know, it was something her mother used to say. Her mother was born 120 years ago. Anybody know where this phrase came from?

Photo: Russell Lee FSA/OWI/LoC

A new clue to mystery of sunken Civil War sub

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - It's long been a mystery why the H.L. Hunley never returned after becoming the first submarine in history to sink an enemy warship in 1864, but new research announced Friday may lend credence to one of the theories.
Scientists found the eight-man crew of the hand-cranked Confederate submarine had not set the pump to remove water from the crew compartment, which might indicate it was not being flooded. Continued

The American Wanderer, in All His Stripes

(NYTimes) - ... Even the log cabin might be seen as a symbol of transience; the stone house speaks to wealth, permanence and belonging, and as often as not comes later. "Alexis de Tocqueville said Americans start building a house and leave before the roof is built," said the historian Eric Foner of Columbia University.
Failing to strike out for unknown parts was sometimes taken as lack of gumption. To remain in a New England town square or a sun-baked cotton town in Oklahoma was to risk soul death. "And I made myself a promise when I was old enough to run, that I'd never stay a single day in the Oklahoma Sun," Johnny Cash sang in "I Never Picked Cotton."
None of which is to argue, precisely, that Americans are at peace with the rootless. ... Continued

Photo: Washington Boro, PA, Canon EOS 20D

Tomb of the Unknowns caught in battle

ARLINGTON, Virginia (CNN) - The Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery is at the center of combat between preservationists and cemetery officials.
The giant marble sarcophagus marking the location of unknown U.S. service members has been battling the elements since it opened to the public in 1932. More than 70 years later, it is showing the scars, with cracks encircling it. Continued

Photo: John Collier 1943, FSA/OWI

"Gone to Croatan"

On this day in 1587 the first English child was born in North America - Virginia Dare. Coincidentally on this same date, 3 years later, her birthplace, Roanoke colony, was found deserted.

We were taught in elementary school that the first settlements in Roanoke failed; the colonists disappeared, leaving behind them only the cryptic message "Gone To Croatan." Later reports of "grey-eyed Indians" were dismissed as legend. What really happened, the textbook implied, was that the Indians massacred the defenseless settlers.
However, "Croatan" was not some Eldorado; it was the name of a neighboring tribe of friendly Indians. Apparently the settlement was simply moved back from the coast into the Great Dismal Swamp and absorbed into the tribe. And the grey-eyed Indians were real--they're still there, and they still call themselves Croatans.
So--the very first colony in the New World chose to renounce its contract with Prospero (Dee/Raleigh/Empire) and go over to the Wild Men with Caliban. They dropped out. They became "Indians," "went native," opted for chaos over the appalling miseries of serfing for the plutocrats and intellectuals of London. - Hakim Bey

Image: Statue of Virginia Dare, sculpted by Maria Louisa Lander in 1859. Photo by LEARN NC

Can you identify this mystery school, believed to be in York County?

"Tammy Naylor of Yoe submitted this photo for publication in the soon-to-be-released York Daily Record/Sunday News' book on one-room schools.
Trouble is, she found it in a book she acquired at a yard sale, and she can't identify the school.
The back of the picture gives credit to York's Shadle studio, 58 S. Beaver St. The boy at the blackboard is Andy." Continued

Country Churches: ???

Being that it sits on Trinity Church Road, just a little east of Wrightsville, Pennsylvania, I guess we can assume that it is indeed Trinity Church, but I don't know that for sure. There's no sign and I didn't see a cornerstone.

Canon EOS 30D & EF-S 17-55 f/2.8 IS lens

More finds: Cows, bicycles, & a horse

From the same batch as yesterday. One photo is obviously from the Loch Raven area, the rest are probably from Baltimore County, Maryland too, but that's just a guess.

Found History: Hydes Station

A friend stopped by the other day and brought us some pictures. He didn't know who took them, who's in them, and some of the locations are a mystery. Please leave us a comment if you know anything about them. This first one looks like Hydes Station on the old MA&PA line in Baltimore County. More to follow.

My own unknown

This is the only photographic record I have of my family's Civil War service. It is a picture of a picture, and a poor one at that. I can tell you from the records that he was very young at the time. That he was a Union - or Confederate soldier. That he was from Arkansas or Illinois. That he lived or was wounded or was captured or was killed. And that his last name was either Bost or Surguy.
You can't change anything with a wish, especially the past, but when I see this picture, I always wish him luck. I can't help myself.

What is that?

While taking pictures of Poplar Hill in Aberdeen (along Route 7, across from Walmart), Maryland, we noticed the structure pictured above. I guess we could have walked over to it, but we don't like tresspassing, especially on land that may be owned by Amtrak, or worse, the DOD. And after all, that's what telephoto lenses are for. Still, I'd sure like to know more about it. We figure it's probably one of three things:

1. An old produce packing shed. The open structure and close proximity to the railroad favor this theory.

2. An old greenhouse.

3. An old barn that had its roof canabilised for other purposes.

Anybody know fer sure?

Photo by Kim Choate ©2006

Missing: Have you seen this woman?

White female, approximately 150 years old. Last seen on 449 Vine Street in Cincinnati, Ohio at the studio of J. H. Reinhold, photographer, wearing a dark sepia colored dress.

The blockhouse

I don't know how old it is or why it was built, but we've always called it the blockhouse. It sits along U.S. 1, just north of Bel Air, Maryland. Anybody know its history?

Photos: Canon EOS 5D with Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lens © 2006 Falmanac