History

The Old National Pike

The Telling Hour Program brings you live interviews with people from the past who helped shape our nation’s history.  Please join us now as our special investigative team travels back in time to the National Turnpike, a road that stretches from Cumberland, Maryland to the present-day city of Wheeling, West Virginia.  This road was frequently traveled by stage coaches, carriages, and Conestoga Wagons, all pulled by teams of horses.

The year is 1849, it is a cold, snowy February night, and we are about to join an on-site interview in Cumberland, Maryland.  Travel back in time with us, as we take you to the Burman Hotel and our special investigative reporter, Morley Roper.

Put yourself in this scene and go back to 1849.  What would Morley ask the driver of a coach on the old National Pike.  To see what might have been said on this occasion, visit our blog and read the interview Alf imagined (Emma's Workbasket Blog), or put yourself in the picture and write a story of your own.

Covered Bridges

A covered bridge is made of wood, and it has a roof and siding as well as a deck.  Inside, you will see the trusses and the complicated network of beams that are the backbone of the structure.  These trusses provide stability for the bridge.  The roof has shingles like a house, and this keeps the weather off the wood.  

Driving through a covered bridge is like going back in time.  Where a modern concrete bridge seems to blend into the roadway, a wooden bridge has personality and presence.  There is the creaking of the planks, the echo of your passing, the sound of the river rushing underneath, and the faint aroma of old wood.  The architecture is dramatic, and it seems to call up the days of horse-drawn vehicles, weary travelers, and maybe, the whispered secrets of lovers.

In addition to enjoying the experience of a covered bridge, it is also fun to memorialize that experience in some creative fashion.  These bridges seem to be surrounded by the histories of the people who used them, so you might find that you want to write a story about the bridge and the things that happened there.

Floor Rushes

Once upon a time, medieval people put down rushes and straw on their floors instead of using carpets or rugs.  Now, this seems pretty odd to us, as we have to wonder why it would be a good idea to haul in grass cuttings and herbs to scatter over the floor.  Usually, this is the sort of thing that we are quick to sweep out.

There are a number of explanations for this practice.  Some say that this was a way of keeping unpleasant smells to a minimum.  Each time the floor rushes were renewed, they brought garden aromas into the castle. 

The herbs were also of some use as pest control.  Several herbs are noted for keeping down fleas and ticks, and they make natural insecticides.  Unhappily, some of the aromatic plants used for strewing were toxic to humans as well.  Lily of the valley, water hemlock, and oleander are all poisonous, but people may (or may not) have known that.  

All this is fine, but when the herbs and grass got old and filthy (as they were bound to do), they were more of a harbor for vermin and a cause of stink than a deterrent.  Apparently, by the end of the winter, the whole business had to be taken out and burned—rats, fleas, excrement, mud, food droppings, and all.  

When people stopped sleeping on the floor, people wanted bedsteads.  Some put sheep’s wool in their mattresses, and then ropes were slung underneath to make a softer sleeping surface.  By the Elizabethan era, a lot of people had chimneys and bedsteads, and floor rushes were becoming a thing of the past.

Medieval table Manners

If you were invited to dinner at a well-to-do medieval manor, you would be expected to act in a civilized manner.  It was common for strangers to share a bowl, a glass, and a trencher (which might be a piece of stale bread, a wooden board, or a pewter plate), though you would probably be granted a spoon of your own.  

Hopefully, one’s tablemate was decent and didn’t just grab all the best cuts of meat for himself.  Guests were expected to eat with dignity and self-control, but that might not have always been the case.

It was the general rule for diners to wash their hands before and after eating, and it was considered good manners to carve a portion of the meat for your table mate.   Most things were just picked up and eaten with the fingers, as there were no forks for personal use. 

The well-born gentleman was expected to act correctly at meals. He was not to speak with his mouth full or drop his meal in his lap, and he was to wipe his lips (and his spoon) after eating, taking care not to leave the spoon in the serving dish.  

He was not to pick his teeth with his knife, put too much food on his trencher at once, or put a piece of meat back on the serving plate once he had tasted it.  Belching and slurping were also frowned on--unless the person was extremely rich and powerful.

Since there were usually no napkins, it was permissible to wipe your fingers on the tablecloth, but it was not in good taste to blow your nose with it.  There were limits.

What I do on My Summer Vacation

by Alf

Sometimes it is fun to write a story from the point of view of someone else altogether.  This might be one of your own characters, a personality in a book or movie, or a fictional person in a historical setting.  This is Alf’s story about a young boy whose family lives and works on the C & O Canal.  The time is the 1800s—just before the railroad made the canal a memory.  Feel free to write one of these stories for yourself.

Here is part of Jody's story.

My name is Jody Smith.  I am twelve years old, and I come here to school in the winter when it is too cold and icy for my family to travel up and down on the canal.  This is my story about last summer that I am writing for my teacher.

I can only go to school for about four or five months each year because the rest of the year I drive the mules for my family on the C & O Canal.  We have a canal boat, and we travel back and forth, taking loads of coal from Cumberland to Georgetown; then we come back from there with finished products, like linen, to sell.  We make between twenty-five and thirty trips a year.

It is my job to harness the mule teams in tandem to pull a load that can weigh up to a hundred and twenty tons.  The mules walk in front of the boat along the towpath.  We own two teams with two mules each that work in six-hour shifts.  When one team is working, the other team rides in its own little stable in the front of our boat.

Well, to finish up, I’ll just say that if I had my way, I think I’d like to keep hauling cargo on our boat for the rest of my life.  It’s just so nice there.  So now I’m looking forward to the spring again when school is over, and we can start another trip down the old C & O Canal.

General Braddock's Treasure

    by Alf

With a good dose of imagination, we would like to take you back in time to the days of the French and Indian War.  This particular battle ended in the defeat of British and Continental troops.  Now, send your thoughts back to 1755.  It is time for the 6 o’clock news.

BUCK: “Hello there, Jimmie.  Would you please tell the viewers about the battle.  You didn’t expect this outcome, did you?”

JIMMIE: “No sir, none of us expected to lose.  We all thought we’d be celebrating at Fort Duquesne by now.  But General Braddock and his officers, they come a-sitting up on their horses in their bright, red suits, and they made perfect targets.”

BUCK: “Well, Jimmie, we won't keep you; is there anything else you want to say?”

JIMMIE: “Well, I just wanted to ask if anyone saw what happened to Braddock’s payroll wagon.  It’s gone missing, and rumor has it that it was full of gold coins.”

***

To this day (as far as anyone knows) the payroll chest of Major-General Edward Braddock has never been found.  Over the past two and a half centuries, countless rumors still swirl around the story, and there are many theories as to where that gold might be.  

Others insist that the chest was sent back to Fort Cumberland and buried there.  In any event, the next time you travel around Allegany County, Maryland, remember that General Braddock’s treasure might be right there under your feet.  You never know—there might still be gold in them there hills.