17 Matching Annotations
  1. Feb 2021
    1. History of the U.S. Telegraph Industry - Tomas Nonnenmacher, Allegheny College. Has a good section about the telegraph and its relation to the railroad

    1. In 1881, a company known as the Postal Telegraph Company will be established by MacKay, leveraging the market position of the undersea cables and built with the remnants of some defunct companies. It was a private company that at times financially struggled and finally was acquired by Western Union through an agreement with the US Government.

      Postal Telegraph Company was a competitor to the Western Union monopoly. Eventually was acquired by WU

  2. Dec 2020
    1. The Rogers company, on average, would produce about 70 shows a summer. Most of operations focused on small town America where local communities would pay a fee for the Rogers company to design a celebration plan for them, that included not just an outdoor historical pageant, but would also give them an organization “plan of action” with which the townspeople could use to stage the entire year-long celebration. Those festivities always included beard contests, vintage clothing sales, commemorative dinner plates, historical programs and photos, wooden nickels, and other souvenirs of the community’s celebration. In the final six weeks of the event, the company would assign a director-business manager to the town to direct the pageant and generally oversee the celebration to ensure that company procedures and fiscal policies were being followed.   This writer became very familiar with the Rogers Company when I went to work for them in the summer of 1969, as a wet-behind-the-ears 20-year-old freshly minted “director”.

      The Rogers Company orchestrated the Monongahela "bicentennial" for the city of Monongahela in 1969.

    1. Did you know: The Stogie was invented in Wheeling, Virginia, West Virginia. In 1819, Joseph Kirk of Wheeling began manufacturing cigars and in 1825, he was listed as a Cigar and “Stogie” manufacturer. Mifflin Marsh in relating the history of the Stogie tells us, “Some inventive genius here in Wheeling, (Kirk maybe) conceived the idea of making a cheap smoke for the (Conestoga) driver.”
    1. It was the Marsh Wheeling Stogie. Founded in 1840 by Mifflin Marsh, Marsh Wheeling (from Wheeling, Virginia at the time it didn’t become West Virginia until the Civil War) initially made cigars that were affordable for the average person. Marsh made cigars that sold for less than a penny a piece. Marsh also was the first marketer in the cigar business, handing out free samples to Conestoga wagon drivers on the National Road—which ran from Baltimore to Wheeling connecting the east coast with the Ohio River – and to Captains of the river boats that dotted the Ohio River and he then sold the rest to passengers of the boats and wagons. The following year, the Wheeling Suspension Bridge was completed across the Ohio River. As a result, Wheeling’s business really took off and as did Marsh’s. In 1848, Marsh developed what became the icon, the Stogie. At the time, the cheapest cigars were Boston Cheroots selling for $3.50 to $4.00 per thousand. They also were made out of scraps. Mifflin came up with an affordable long filler cigar named in honor of the Conestoga wagons that traveled through Wheeling taking pioneers and settlers out into the west. The Marsh Wheeling Stogie was the result, measuring 7 inches with a 34-ring gauge. (And yes, the use of the word stogie today to mean a cigar comes from the Marsh Wheeling Stogie.) Marsh also came up with the slogan because of the Stogie’s length “longer enjoyment.”

      Cigar manufacturer, M. Marsh & Son, invented the brand "Marsh Wheeling Stogie". M.Marsh & Son invented the Marsh Wheeling Stogie brand because it was initially marketed to conestoga wagon drivers on the National Road between Baltimore and Wheeling.

  3. Nov 2020
    1. covered wagon

      The Wikipedia article links to this discussion. Note that the author, Martha Sandweiss never mentions a Conestoga wagon. Rather she calls the wagon depicted as a "covered wagon"

    1. He might also say "haw" to tell the horse to turn to the left or "gee" to tell it to turn to the right.

      origin of term "hee haw"?

    2. Excellent old HTML page. Photo showing man on a Lazy Board. A few topics discussed:

      • evolution from the small farm wagon to the Conestoga wagon. Bowed bottom.
      • Large wheels. Largest wagons between 14-16" long and pulled by 6 large horses.
      • Colors often blue body, red wheels, white top.
      • What equipment was carried - tool box, grease, jack for the wheels.
      • Lead horse was on the front left. Driver would walk on left - thus wagons passed slower traffic on the left.
      • Wheel lock chain on back wheel to keep wagon from overtaking the horses.
      • Canals began to appear in the 1820's
    1. A finished wagon, approximately twenty-six feet long, eleven feet high, weighing between three thousand and thirty-five hundred pounds, and capable of holding five hogsheads or thirty barrels of flour, cost the equivalent of about $250— an incredibly low figure by today’s standards. By contrast, the four to six powerful Con- estoga horses that pulled the wagon were valued at about $170 to $200 each.

      One wagon cost about the same as one horse so a team of horses was worth much more than one wagon.

    1. Conestoga facts in this article

      • 18 wheeler truck of its day
      • "scientifically designed" - high tech
      • up to 5 tons cargo
      • main way to get freight from Philadelphia and Baltimore to ports on Ohio river
      • made a crunching sound over the gravel on the National Road
      • Conestoga wagons morphed into the Prairie Schooner with no curved bottom. Identities often confused.
      • beautiful - colorful with decorative iron work
      • provided new opportunities to earn a living
      • The wagoner, like his wagon was tough, robust and picturesque with colorful flannel shirts.
      • Conestoga wagon era ended around 1850's when railroads connected east coast to Ohio river.
    1. Nice intro to Conestoga wagons. Some nice old photos. Shows an antique original disassembled and being moved.

    1. A slide show type video. Mainly talking about Prairie Schooners but does explain why Conestoga wagons were not used by emigrants families.

    1. Excellent video about a Conestoga Wagon at the Berks History Center in Reading PA near Lancaster. Docent stressed that Conestoga wagons were used to move very heavy things. They were the tractor trailer trucks of the time. Describes that the large wheel in the back helped in muddy conditions. No seat for driver. Most drivers were too proud to ride on the wagon but there was something called a "Lazy Board" for the driver to use occasionally.

    1. Describes several types of wagons and the animals used to tow them. Best concise article.

    1. Trails to Trains exhibit at Meadowcroft Rockshelter. Transportation exhibit. 19,000 years of transportation history. Conestoga wagon and Stage coach on display. Not much info on line but a nice photo clearly showing the curve of a conestoga wagon bottom.

    1. Death of Thomas Tregombo At his home in Riverview yesterday .' occurred the death of Thomas Tre- ; gombo, aged 80 years.

      Just a test to see if you can use the OCR version of a clipped story on Newspapers.com