Trains and planes

TL;DR -- Trains first, and then planes. These move from place to place, carry people and goods, or just amaze us like the fighters. Children play with toys representing these. The train is from our first century and helped build the country. The plane is later and serves similar roles but speeds up the process. 

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Last post, we reiterated on coach travel (Butterfield, for example). Now, let's take the engines of trains, first, as they're on the ground doing real work. The 250th has been an occasion to bring out some big iron. This type of locomotive was designed to pull up to a mile of loaded railcars over the mountains, in the western part of the U.S. 

Big Boy is Union Pacific 4014 which was built in 1941. This photo is from 2026 when a rebuilt engine started to travel the country while we all celebrate the 250th of ink on paper (declaring independence). It was several years before the conflict was over with the Mother Country. 

In the photo, the 4014 was leaving Denver, CO. Its size is apparent from the photo. 

"rebuilt" was from the state of last use after which the engine sat in a Museum. Once it was decided to revive the engine, it was taken to New York and dismantled. There are several things to look at with respect to that, including tooling, handling things of matter of this size, 

Big Boy, Leaves Denver, CO

Now planes are added to the topic of the post. We have mentioned some aviation themes in our posts and will do more. This is where technology excels. But, the Big Boy is heavier than the Boeing 747 which is to be expected. One slogs along the ground for miles and miles. The other jumps into the sky and moves across the Earth to another site that is configured for its arrival and eventual departure. 

Big Boy moves about on rail. That was a topic as it was not until after the Civil War that the rail industry boomed. And, at a later time, there was one track of rail from the east to the west coast. We have had many posts on the technology and history of railroad 

To end this introductory post, as kids play with toys of rails and trains: both are featured in children stories which includes multi-media. 

But, let's look at mountains. We have covered rivers for a while. These carry water out of the higher elevations. Some of those elevations were troublesome to early travelers. 

The Wasatch Range
viewed from Jordan Campus of
Salt Lake Community College, March 2006

That brings up another topic, namely Trails. We will look at another (Mormon trail) as we add to the list of note, Oregon, California, Sante Fe. 

Nowdays, one can still take a train from Denver to the west coast. But, the plane schedules are literally 1000s a day domestically. 

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Postnote: Ships on water? That's how we got here. Movement by foot? Earlier inhabitants migrated without our conveniences. 

Remarks: Modified: 10/11/2026

10/11/2026 -- Review and edit. 

Butterfield, again

TL;DR -- The 250th even was, mostly, ink on paper. The turmoil was mostly after that day (though, we have the earlier times to remember, too). Later in the history of the country, technology brought ideas. Like, going from St. Louis to San Francisco (through the south, of course) and back. This post briefly looks at the segment that ran through the Choctaw Nation. This is our first of many coming posts on the eastern side of that long trek.  

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One thing that we expect is that as time goes on from the 250th start, we will be seeing stories related to the history of the U.S. and its people and events that start to have a more personal touch. 

We have mentioned in several posts about the regular coach run from St. Louis, MO to San Francisco, CA. Today, we just saw a post on FB (Diamond Station) about the first run of the coach, westward. It left St. Louis on 16 Sept 1858. As we have mentioned, it went down to TX and across to El Paso and then across lower NM and AZ into CA. Sometimes, it ventured into Mexico. A major stop was LA at the bottom of Bunker Hill West. Then, the coach went on up to San Francisco. After a quick breather, they turned around to go back, carrying people, mail, and small freight. 

This map is of a recent post about the route through the Choctaw Nation. The route went from Ft. Smith, AR to the "Red River" in TX via "Boggy Depot".That segment was 192 miles of the total distance of 2,800 miles of arduous travel. Most of our posts have been of the western side and mostly from El Paso onward. It will be a great change to look at the eastern portion. 

Butterfield route,
from AR to TX

We will be looking more closely at this segment with respect to the logistics of the times. This post sponsored by the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma provides a lots of important information. 

Remarks: Modified: 09/30/2026

09/30/2026 -- Butterfield was of an old New England heritage; the line by him and his associates joined up with a regular route out of Houston that went through El Paso and west which was, again, of new England (kin). Butterfield's company had a station in LA in the area where the Mirror Company established itself; the eventual Times-Mirror Company published the LA Times. Details? Similar to what we know of the Pony Express, there was regular change of horses/mules (and wagons - as needed). The people traveling had little comfort. In fact, Mark Twain went out by a similar route over the northern landscape that was set up after the Civil War started (and stopped the Butterfield route - 1861), but took a ship back to the east coast. Whereas, by the time that R W Emerson went out, the railroad's line to the west coast had been established. Just considering the realities of the travel ought to be fully described to compare those days against our own. 

Philly

TL;DR -- Adaptability is a quality of life. With the 250th here, we have many ways to turn for material to consider.  Today, we let the announcement of the closing of a Museum give us pause as we consider the many roles of Philadephia. The public access might be stopped, but the Academy involved is now associated with Drexel University and will continue with its research. 

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Our focus was Essex County of MA in the beginning. Then, surrounding counties were added. And, the State of MA. And, then New England and its genealogical and historical perspectives. Then, the northeast was the area. A sidetrack of "All Things Gardner" came to be due to queries from researchers. Then, the approaching 250th got the whole of the US in perspective driven by the years after COVID where we focused on the interior plus the left coast way out there. 

This past summe, we saw this theme, time and again: visitors come in; want to bounce out from NY to LA. By car. In a few hours. The social media is full of videos with this theme. Having driven all over the country from there are lots of tales that can be told. 

That's the interesting thing now. Communications has come a long way. Some still talk "literature" in terms of research in the academic style. Books, in a row. Libraries. Hopefull, that will not quit. 

But, the new index is on the buckets'o'bits with a little more. The training has lots of the "literature" plus flim-flam from 20 years of collecting tidbits on the internet, say with social media. Screen scraping became a way of life (though not condoned nor seeming allowed). 

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Then the 250th came. Philadephia was the focus of activity then. We have had a few posts mentioning the town but will have more. 

Today, we mention an academy that was founded in 1812, in Philadelphia, with a museum that opened in 1828: Museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences.  In 2011, the Academy became associated with Drexel University. 

The Academy and its collection will still exist, though the Museum is closing to the public on 30 Sep 2026. 

As we have mentioned, the 250th event kicked off seven plus years of special interest. Philadelphia will feature in this blog until 2040 (and after). That was when the U.S. Capital was moved over to Washington D.C. 

From the end of the conflict in 1783 to 1790, Philly will  have governed. Too, we can go back now and look at the pre-Revolution time from the perspective of Penn's town.   

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Back to the 250th, the President in 1812 was James Monroe from a southern state. In 1828, we saw the focus switch back north. The President was John Quincy Adams (cousin of Grizzly Adams). 

Remarks: Modified: 09/26/2026

09/26/2026 -- 

22 Sep 1692

TL;DR -- Streets of Salem published a post about this day and the hangings in Salem, MA of witches. We have had several posts on the subject. Two of those victims are in the pedigree chart of a TGS, Inc. Founder. 

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We have had several posts on witches: Gallows Hill (2019); Essex Recollections (2013); Pressing Day (2018); Imagine a meeting (2012); Meeting, again (2013); ...

Donna Seger wrote recently on the hangings of the 22nd in her blog, Streets of Salem. She pointed to several poems written about this day. 

At the top of Donna's post is a list of names, minus one which she adds later in her text. On that list are two names that are in the lineage. One was Mary Parker who was a widow with sons and property left her by her husband. 

Evidently, that property was motive. After the boys matured, they got their land back in court. 

Remarks: Modified: 09/25/2026

09/25/2026 -- 

KBE_ICAD_MSJO

TL;DR -- GenAI/LLM was on the horizon and now is actively involved day to day. Concerns for advanced software continue which need attention. Pushing forward can cause a break with former methods even if they are crucial to necessary qualities. Let's look at recapturing some of the former ways in terms of future stability. 

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Since Nov of 2022, the world has adapted to the biologically-framed "nightmare" of GenAI/LLM. If you have not paid attention, we'll summarize. There are post here going back to Feb of 2023, when I first heard of the event of Nov of 2022 and went to look at ChatGPT and others. 

Why was I not paying attention? My first reaction was, what? Idiocy. One AI Researcher of note said: this is a train-wreck waiting to happen. Some jumped on the bandwagon. I went back to review all that I learned the past 20 years as computing morph'd to use the gifts of DoW/D, namely TCP/IP, GPS, and  more. Like, the GPU. And, more. 

Lately, there is a post, who pays (9 Aug 2026)? We have to look at that. We said, technology will be our focus. It has been for a while. But, we're getting more specific as time goes along. 

This image shows a Gemini response. Note, it's labelled. I am not using AIn't (with its 'tAIn't) for writing or research. This was merely to see if work of the past few weeks has taken hold. 

These three items will be heard of constantly. A few decades ago, AI (with the provenance going back to Dartmouth) had a good handle on things. One of those things was mathematics in the applied sense as it pertains to things like tools of design and analysis (CAD, CAE, ...), machining (CNC, ...), and more. 

While CAD vendors were working to close the gap between the 2 1/2D state and full 3D modeling, people had to still do the work of modeling. And, one project pushed the envelope with respect to model requirements that had to meet the strict was of solid geometry. ICAD helped in that case. And, MSJO (multiple-surface join and offset) was a particular approach to allow hugely complication collections of surfaces to be pulled into the framework of a solid model while meeting the requirements of fit, form and function. 

 

One caveat? We didn't try to build a general intelligence. Nope, the focus was to support engineers in their work while honoring decades of software development of a mathematical and engineering nature. 

More to come. The "agentic AI" of late is full of errorful ways. We were able to meet precision necessities and to actually develop and deliver complex products, some of which are still extant in term of superior performance. 

That type of thing ought to be the goal anyway. 

Cornerstone project: Truth Engineering. 

Remarks: Modified: 09/06/2026

09/06/2026 -- 

Announcement

TL;DR -- Our cousin, DTG, has switched to another LLM with provenance on his mind. One area of focus will be Dorset in the time before and after the Dorchester Company's effort on these shores. 

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Announcement, at WikiTree

This is the "announcement" mentioned in WikiTree as a Comment in the Thomas Gardner (of Salem) Profile. It pertains to the two-person choice and how we will proceed in our work using modern techniques. 

David Todd Gardner, for the past two years, has been working with one of the GenAI/LLMs (we'll reveal later). We had reported on his work with the Richard III incident. Was there a Gardner involvement? The TGS blog has posts on this topic. 

DTG noted by Mar/Apr of 2025, that that LLM (using the vernacular of those heavy into "agentic AI" which I will write about, too, having spent several decades in KBS/KBE where knowledge systems were powerfully effective with precision that engineers dream about. Of course, the approach was engineering support. What happened there? Essentially, for those interested, digital engineering came forth but is now being seen as messy. Lots to discuss there.) was more than 95% not verifiable. Actually, less than 2% was okay. 

Typical. Frustrating. ... But, on discussing this result, we agreed that DTG would start over and put more emphasis on provenance. How to do that is an ongoing task to figure out. 

How does this pertain to this Profile? Well, the US gave the world this stuff; the US ought to help clean it up. And, the US of 250 years (ink on paper, folks, the turmoil went on until 1783)? It was principally New England (south - VA and north - MA) that got it started. 

Back to DTG's work. He is now using Gemini/Gemma. And, DTG reports seeing records related to a bankruptcy of the Dorchester Company that references Thomas Gardner. Well, we knew a Thomas was here. 

Now, we don't need to conjecture, yet. But, on the coming over, being brought back from here to there for that review would bring an interesting set of conditions. 

Related post in the blog: Modern techniques. Also,we will report our progress in DTG's blog as well as our own. 

A whole lot of adjustment will become known with respect to this technology. How much real reward can result from the efforts? At least, the work will be entertaining.

Remarks: Modified: 08/30/2026

08/30/2026 --  Truth Engineering, a historic view -- post to summarize and to start to bring the old back to fore for several motivations. 

 

Modern techniques

TL;DR - Techniques related to research will continue to changte along with technology as it progresses by whatever means drives that energy. So, with respect to "origins", we are seeing an LLM used to ferret out information from that time based upon records that were digitized. Of late, information about the children was discoverd in recently digitized records. On the other hand, there was a house associated with Thomas Gardner. A proxy for this? Of course, the Fairbanks House, oldest wood structure in the US.  

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Some background on the "Announcement" today at the Thomas Gardner (of Salem) Profile of WikiTree. 

Back in the beginning, I puzzled about missing information. Say, as compared to some families with respect to origins. The NEHGS series (Anderson) had come out before our time. Some of the information in that series conflicted with what we saw with Dr. Frank's efforts. We had started there, as he was 1st cousin of a grandfather. 

But, we had more than those 2 books, we had the articles in The Massaschusetts Magazine (principally from Dr. Frank's sister, Lucy Marion Gardner - Lucie following Sidney, May, 2017) where she picked up the work of Sidney Perley, the great walkabout of Essex County. There was more. Having started in 2010, the internet had only a few years of Web 2.0. Older material was there. I have pointers based upon general trolling back when the "search engines" were behaving. Too, there were notes from families about the material that they had accumulated (some living in the UK, and even near to Dorset). 

Early on, we knew that there would be the 400th. We'll look at that. How would it compare to the 300th and the Pageant of Salem (6 Jun 2018)? As we went to look at that effort where people of Salem played roles from 300 years prior, we added the Label of OpEd (Opinions count?, Dec 2023) as we explained after the 2023 reveal of data from Sherborne, Dorset, UK.  

As an aside, we added "OpEd" to this post in order to associate it with the ongoing research. Okay, to the gist of the matter. We look at two items which represent a slew of potential work and information. It's a matter of work. 

• Let's start with Gardner Family Trust (Apr 2026). In late Mar of 2025, we heard from DTG about his work with one of the GenAIs that had come on the scene in late 2022. 
• I was not paying close attention to that crowd (and still consider the release to be premature). The 400th of Gloucester was approaching and we were considering what to do. Having finally settled on the notion of featuring Margaret (wife of Thomas Gardner and mother of the children that we know), we were working on that set of material. On 1 Feb 2023, I heard of that release from a friend and went to look (mainly focusing on ChatGpt and Bard).This is all documented. 
• So, I knew of the AI/ML hype (biological pipedream); due to having known this stuff for decades I was amazed and appalled at the uses that people were discovering. So, mark that up for human creativity and the US as founded by those ones of Cape Ann. Anyway, DTG's work was along this line. He had found lots of information from digitized records in the UK; retrieved the scanned data, used OCR to transcribe, and then even worked translations (from Welsh, Latin, et al). It was remarkable. ... A little later, after some scrutiny, it was hard to tell the reality with most of the content being fictional. ... We discussed matters and decided for him to start over while concentrating on provenance. 
• Of late, DTG has switched to Gemini/Gemma. As such, he has been verifying the information. He confirmed the news about the Gardner involvements at Bosworth and Richard III's demise. There has been a lot of information on the London side of the family. Too, he found Thomas of Sherborne. ... Now, keeping this brief, for now, one bit of information deals with a bankruptcy of the Dorchester Company in which Thomas Gardner is involved. That has my focus, right now. 
• Thomas was here, at Cape Ann. Now, was Margaret and the three boys here. If so, John was born here. The family went back. Or if he came alone, she had John in the UK. His baptism was delayed until Thomas returned. We favor that the family came over. Thomas and family then came back with the children except for Seeth who was born in Salem. 

Now, technology will be the key. We are doing this right. Who knows what data will come to fore. The information of the births was a nice surprise as John, himself, said that his father had told that they came from Sherbourne. Sure enough. The response of WikiTree? The two person split is okay, for now. But, as we find out more, we'll make sure that it is published. 

A recent post looked at the Fairbanks house which is in Dedham, MA. It dates from the 1630s. The image is from the website for the Fairbanks House. 

Jonathan Fairbanks (WikiTree) came to Boston in 1633, stayed a few years, and settled in Dedham in 1636. 

Remarks: Modified: 08/30/2026

08/30/2026 --  Minor correction, will be back for more.