Lord Fairfax

TL;DR -- Little known facts are around and about upon the landscape of the U.S. Our normal attention is west (west is best; east is least - sort of thing ;>). However, there has been and will be attention to the eastern activities as the western part came about 150 years later where the Revolution became a central theme. This post touches upon the time that Braddock came over. Evidences abound due to preservation efforts. Otherwise, the landscape has been abused (data centers abound, for instance). 

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We had to mention the 400th (Jamestown, et al) so as to set a stage that will be permanent. We would not have had the 250th without the earlier phases. So, Fairfax? His name is all over northern Virginia as are others of the upper class (kin/cuz, as well). But, the main thread will be dual. For this post, let's use "French, Indian affair" which we have touched upon before. 

While researching people who went out west from the older east side of the country, we had to bring in other cultures, such as New France and New Spain. From each, the U.S.obtained land that had to be incorporated into the Union. Too, there had to be maps that to allow reasonable control of land use (or misuse). We looked at some of this in a post titled Practice for carving about the work that went on for decades, starting in St. Louis. 

Now, in the interior, we usually think about things that happened after Lewis & Clark and the War of 1812. However, there was earlier activity out there by Europeans, for the most part related to involvement as trapper, trader, and rancher. In that regard, prior to what we are now celebrating (the 250th anniversary), there was the conflict that trained colonists for the coming Revolution. 

Namely, we consider the French, Indian affair which seems to have been mostly forgotten. Dr. Frank wrote about this conflict in his series on the Regiments that were at the Boston Siege. But, stepping back, we have had posts on this affair.  A grandpappy kept a diary that was later published: Nathaniel Knapp's diary about his time with the Louisbourgh Expedition. Some who were involved participated in the later Revolution, many times in a leadership role. 

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With the French, Indian affair, we have taken a New England focus since Quebec was the principal establishment of New France. But, the conflict involved all of the colonies. An example is Virginia. 

Today while at a park, we read a historic sign. It mentioned Braddock. But, being in Virginia, there were two other names of note: George Washington; Daniel Boone. We last mentioned the former (Washington) here in this blog in a post on Col. John Glover who was featured in the series by Dr. Frank. But, Washington mapped and surveyed the Potomac River which we have to consider further. This post is a start as we have covered many of the rivers of the west. 

Now, the latter (Boone) has been mentioned many times in posts about the early settlement of the west. Boone, well-known explorer: opened a pass; served in the French, Indian affair and the Revolution; settled areas from the east to western Missouri; ventured out into the west.  

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Washington was also involved with a conflict between the British and the French. The resentments that led to the Revolution are thought to have resulted with the arrival of Edward Braddock  and the reaction of the colonists to his methods. One of Braddock's early campaigns involved a planned attack on Fort Duquesne, French facility, near the start of the Ohio River. This expedition did not go well which left lasting impressions on both Washington and Boone. Braddock was mortally wounded which meant that he had no say in subsequent matters nor in the trashing of his reputation. 

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Braddock arrival into Virginia was near Hampton Roads. After some meetings in Virginia, there was preparation for the attack on the Fort. Now, accomplishing this required going over a moutainous region that impeded traffic. Washington was familiar with the area due to his duties with the surveying crews that mapped the Potomac. 

But, let's look at the route that was set up for Braddock's forces by using a couple of images. 

Braddock's route from 
Alexandria, VA to Braddock, PA

Braddock's route from
Cumberland, MD to Braddock, PA

The first images shows the "approximate" route from Alexandria (on the coast) which is on the Potomac to the final destination near Fort Duquesne. It passes through the interior of Northern Virginia and climbs up into the Blue Ridge mountains. This map gives us the elevations. At Cumberland, the elevation is much higher, and we see the route through western Maryland into Pennsylvania. 

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Braddock's route went through the Keyes' Gap which is over 900-feet high. Formerly, that route from Alexandria to the mountains was called Vestal's Gap. Parts of the trail can be seen in eastern Loudoun County of Virginia. This area is near Dulles Airport outside of Washington, DC. 

The route follows an old Indian trail which is 65 miles in length from Alexandria to the  mountains. 

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In terms of historic preservation, Loudoun County has provided historical markers with notes in the area. Too, they have a website which is of interest. This is an example of the web/cloud being useful to education at several levels. One example (2019, LoudounNow): 

• In Our Backyard: Preserve the Vanishing Vestal’s Gap Road - property of Lord Fairfax, originally, almost 400 acres are preserved surrounded now by heavy residential and commercial development including Dulles International (and recently, the heavy foot of data centers trample the countryside). Pieces of the trail still exist (with an interest not unlike those remnants that we can see of the Santa Fe and Oregon trails in the middle of the country. 

We have written of New England (south) for several reasons, such as people from New England (north) going south. As well, the culture is the same. The south was more swashbuckling and plantation driven, not that the north was heaven on earth, let alone a beacon as desired by John Winthrop. 

Now, finally, for this post, the Native trail ran from the coast up into those things called the Blue Ridge mountains where we find things like the Shenandoah River and artifacts related to the Civil War that was mentioned on historical markers too. Right by the above-mentioned site runs a modern highway that was prototyped (real life) in the early 1800s since the traffic was heavy. It bears the name, in areas, realated to one of the early towns. 

• Leesburg, Virginia - county seat of Loudoun County. Town of the Carters, Lees, and Masons. was in an area that was good for farms and plantations. In the War of 1812, federal documents were brought from DC for safety. 

As we proceed being involved with the eight years of the 250th and then the long trek to 1820 and Boone's western influence taking hold, there is no end to the topics to cover. One theme will always relate to the influence of New England and it families that contributing to the establishment of the U.S.  

Remarks: Modified: 06/12/2025

06/12/2025 - 

250th, U.S. Army

TL;DR -- We have the 250th of the U.S. Army to celebrate this month. Later in the year, we will see the Navy and Marines feated with respect to their heritage. The Revolution was long going into 1783 so we have several more years to explore themes of Independence. 

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This month (soon) will be the 250th of the U.S. Army. "army mil" has information related to the anniversary that will be of interest over the next few years. An example, the presented timeline is wonderful. 

https://www.army.mil/1775/timeline.html  

• The first entry is from 24 Mar 1774 which was the Boston Port Act. Our post: Boston Tea Party. 
• The next entry from 20 May 1774 is for the Massachusetts Government Act. 
• Then,  there is an entry from 19 Apr 1775 for the Lexington & Concord incident. Our post: Where was Salem? 

The current entries are few and go up to 1789, but the site is undergoing updates. Hence, there will be lots of material to cover including those from this U.S. Army site. 

Other 250th sites:

https://www.navy.mil/Navy-250/ 

https://www.marines.mil/Marines250/   

We have been in the 250th mindset for a long while, from before this post on Real daughters who were children of Patriots and members of D.A.R. Also, D.A.R. had an initiative related to tracking lineage from a Patriot back to the Mayflower whose 400th was in 2020. We took that and adapted it to Cape Ann to Patriot. 

Remarks: Modified: 06/10/2025

06/10/2025 - 

Arkansas River

TL;DR -- The Arkansas River ought to get some attention. Hernando de Soto saw the river. The French saw it back in the 1500s on their journey out of the northern regions through the Great Lakes and then the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers. Cattle drivers saw the river on their way from Texas to the railroad yards of Kansas for shipment of their product to the eastern markets. 

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The Arkansas River has been mentioned a few times so we need to look at it specifically. Hence, this post will spawn many others. One early mention was about the French crew who came down from the Great Lakes but turned around when they got close enough to the Gulf to see the Natives having goods from Spain. Then, we looked at Zebulon Pike's journey and work in the early 1800s with respect to him passing through the area of the Osage Mission of southeast Kansas. Jedediah Strong Smith was killed in the Arkansas River basin in southwest Kansas.  

As an aside, Hernando de Soto saw the river in his exploration of the area.   

Since we have more than 250 years to cover, we thought that we would look at cattle and its influence. The drives from Texas up to the rails had to cross the Arkansas River. Let's let the FB group, Be Texas Proud, be our source for material about things cattle, ranch, and more. 

Chisholm Trail (brown)
bifurcates, twice
courtesty of Be Texas Proud

They had recent posts on the Chisholm Trail that passed through Wichita, KS.

On This Day in Texas History – May 27, 1870

The Kansas Daily Commonwealth made the earliest known printed reference to the Chisholm Trail, the now-legendary cattle route that helped shape Texas and the American West.

 Named after trader Jesse Chisholm, who originally blazed parts of the route for wagons and trade—not cattle—the trail became the backbone of a booming cattle drive era. Between 1867 and the early 1880s, millions of Texas longhorns were herded up this trail to railheads in Abilene, Ellsworth, and Dodge City, where they were loaded onto trains bound for eastern cities.

There were several "ford" areas for the Arkansas River in or near Wichita, KS. Depending upon the weather, the water was low enough for easy crossing. However, storms could raise the water level very quickly. 

Quoting the The Chisholm Trail – Herding the Cattle: 

The long trips up the trail from Texas were hazardous for the cattle and the cowboys. The trip took two to three months as the drives crossed significant rivers, including the Arkansas and Red Rivers, and traveled through canyons and low mountain ranges. In addition, the drovers also had to be concerned about Indian attacks, outlaw cattle rustlers, and cattle stampedes.

Further posts will look at origins and the trail of this river as it runs from the Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi River. 

Remarks: Modified: 06/03/2025

06/03/2025 - 

2021, time of the pandemic, II

TL;DR -- Continuation of the pandemic theme from before. We look at posts from the remainder of 2021 and at the themes covered which are of a wide variety. 

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Part 2 of 2 (Part 1). 

In 2020, restrictions changed our activity. Like most, we did computer work over the time of the pandemic but had been doing such work anyway. What was different was the focus. 

We looked more at local issues. But, we had anyway (to wit, our post of Flyover country). By 2021, we were rolling along and did more posts. Part 1 looks at those from Jan through Jun. Now, we'll pick up with posts from Jul through Dec.

The 250th came more into focus. We also spent a little time looking at S.A.R. which is the sons version of what the daughters did with D.A.R. But, AI started to come into focus after almost a decade of making headway (according to some views - the jury is still out) and claiming attention: Jeopardy win; Go win; modeling complicated lab work (Google had several of these); ... 

But, we had a post (Carving the land) which was motivated by our study of the activities out of St. Louis which was a hub for land management of the U.S and its west.  At the same time, Gloucester was approaching its 400th. We had an interest in that as the Dorchester crew came into that area in 1623. But, the great northwest? Michigan was approaching its 200th. 

Another twist was diving into the history of Harvard starting with an introduction to James Bryan Conant. He was a chemist and professor. He had wanted the Rumford chair. But, ended up in Europe and came back to become a Head of Harvard. At the same time, we decided that the long reach of New England was a theme of interest, as we had settled on All Things Gardner (22 Aug 1485) with respect to the many families with the name. 

Oh yes, AI was proposed for genealogy work. Again, that is an ongoing bit of study. But, we started to look at the genealogy of Harvard Heads. Many were of old New England families. D.A.R. found an interest in the 400th as well by starting work on identifying Patriot to Passenger (in this case, Mayflower) families. We took on Cape Ann to Patriot. 

Houses? While looking at the Dudley family, we got into houses of note. There were two in New Hampshire of interest. Both were built by relatives of descendants of Thomas and Margaret. One is now associated with the Society of Cincinatti. That brings up the other side of a coin. We honor the Loyalists of the family. Count Rumford mentioned above was a Loyalist who found success in Europe and left money to Harvard. 

The technology focus became more prominent. IEEE had an article: How dumb is AI? A few years later, we saw a general amount of interest. One observaton? Humans degradate themselves to make technology look good. Yes. Expect to see that theme periodically. 

A photo of the grandmother Dr. Frank (and 2nd great of Ann and her siblings) was found. We got that published. Generations? An eternal topic. Looking at this, we can say that the Revolution (250th now in progress) was done by the 5th generation. More on these. 

We picked up Dr. Frank's series on the Siege of Boston that were published in The Massachusetts Magazine, with issues four times a year for a decade. He started the series with Col. John Glover of Marble head. One of his vessels was the first vessel of the U.S. Navy. 

We continued our interest in rivers, as we mentioned in Part 1. The trails and railroads are always of interest, as well. But, jumping to technology now, we looked at John's favorite site dealing with the mathematics of physics. It was of the old style until a few years ago. The old stuff is still there and serves as the basis for the new. 

Aside, we are seeing lots of websites being done using new methods. Our prediction is that this method is not as stable as claimed and so have failures that are hugely visible and that will have negative repercussions. But, other than be aware, we have to wait and see. 

Why? If one looks at the whole campus of techies, there is no solution yet. Experiments have become a mainstay of life. But, take a plane, experiment types of these are not used to carry passengers. 

Remarks: Modified: 06/01/2025

06/01/2025 -