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 --