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 - 

2021, time of the pandemic, I

TL;DR -- The pandemic started. Life was restricted. We did local things. And, worked on the web/cloud in various modes. 2021 culminated in the most posts that we had since our start with topics that cover a very wide range. Knowing the U.S. and its history is one motivation. 

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Part 1 of 2 (Part 2). 

In 2020, we found out about the coming restrictions after being in one of the cities where the disease was reported and said to be related to someone returning from overseas. Then, we endured the restrictive period with access to the outdoors as well keeping busy with "web/cloud" activity along several lines of research. 

Our focus on technology was one line of study for the Thomas Gardner Society, Inc. The next year, 2021, had the most, 105, posts published since the start of our work. Below, we provide a list by month of the titles of the posts. As can be noted, the topics varied greatly which we will comment on below. 

First, here is a list of the topics for the first six months. 

A subject of lots of focus was the travel of folks from the east to the west through the middle. Of course, looking further at the west coast got our attention to New Spain. The rivers of the interior were of particular interest as the Missouri River starts out in the far western mountains, closer to the Pacific than to the Mississippi River which it joins at St. Louis. Not far from there, the Ohio River comes in from the distant east having started in Pennsylvania. But, there is more. The Arkansas is a little south of that area and had eastern visitors from (what became) Canada early on. That exploratory group from New France headed back up north when they started to see evidence of New Spain. 

Naturally, looking at the Missouri, we had to consider other rivers near its origin, such as the Gardner River (Yellowstone, plus) which flooded recently. We looked at several tales related to the area, including that which motivated the movie, The Revenant. Our earlier focus was there, namely Jedediah Strong Smith. 

Going back up north from the Arkansas on the Mississippi, we get to the Wisconsin River that joined above St. Louis. The French group had traveled over the Great Lakes to the mouth of the Fox River. About one-half way to the Mississippi River, there was a portage which was brief, comparatively, being only two miles or so between the Fox and the Wisconsin (on the western part of the trip).  

In work related to family history and genealogies, we decided that there was a frontier century which is observant now with respect to missing documents. St. Louis was a hub of movement. The U.S.Government was early there with land management. Think of the time of Daniel Boone who was out, with his family, to western  Missouri (Kansas City area) as a settler. But, he also ventured further out past the Rockies. Other federal activity was military: Fort Larned, KS. 

Speaking of which, there was a stage line that ran from St. Louis to San Francisco. Not across the middle of the country. No, this one went south and joined regular movement from Texas to Los Angeles through Tucson in Arizona. In Los Angeles, the activity was in the Bunker Hill West area which has a long history that we have written about (Mirror building). Of course, then we had to look at mail and freight. Too, newspapers were delivered. 

We didn't forget the sea as the California cities were largely populated by ship in the beginning. Once the internal trails were established there was a huge flow across the middle. The Pony Express carried mail and small material. Several stage lines carried people and freight. We looked closely at the Butterfield Express. 

Why? All of this activity was seriously associated with, or driven by, New England influences. In fact, Kansas was a Massachusetts project with its University being founded by a group that included women who came to set up a free State. We have a lot more to write of that. 

Everywhere in the unmapped territory, we had trappers. Some were even venturing down from New France and Canada. Then, the next phase was trader as folks moved across the country, many of them stopping at locations that exist today having been started by the pioneers. 

Along came the railroads which have a special interest due to family involvement. That facilitated one of the major memes of the west, driving cattle to the markets. So, rancher/farmer would be the next phase continuing today, in the flyover country (had to menton that - it's from an earlier post). 

Next up, we'll look at the second half of 2021 in terms of posts. These posts cover the U.S. and its history. Interspersed are posts on technology, which increased with the release of OpenAI's GenAI/LLM. 

Remarks: Modified: 06/03/2025

06/03/2025 - Clarify that the journey on the Fox to the Mississippi starts at the Great Lakes and runs upstream in IL to a point where the Fox is close enough to the Wisconsin for a reasonable portage. The Wisconsin then runs down, and connects, to the Mississippi. In the reverse, the journey goes up the Wisconsin to the portage and down the Fox to the Great Lakes. Modern technology has improved that route with locks allowing the height changes to be managed. 

Regimental Series

TL;DR -- Bunker Hill is around the corner. The 250th starts eight years of rememberance and learning. 

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The Battle of Bunker Hill is a well-known historical event which started with the turmoil at Lexington and Concord. This time around, we are at the 250th. Even the Memorial Day program by PBS last night emphasized that anniversary, with regard to the Army, Navy and Marines. 

Earlier we wrote that Dr. Frank had included a part of his series in each of the issues of The Massachusetts Magazine which published from 1908 to 1918. 

• The Patriot Army at the Siege of Boston -- in this introductory issue, he provided an overview of the regiments that were to be covered. 

He also provided his thoughts that the American side was not an armed mob. 

Our addition might be that the 5th generation did the deed as we bring the whole of the U.S. history to bear at any moment.  

Through the next eight years from now, we will cover each regiment with respect to the activities (by time and place) of that year. Dr. Frank gave us the roll of each regiment plus information about the service of each officer. 

He starts the series with the Regiment of Col. John Glover (Wikipedia) of Marblehead. George Washington chartered his schooner, USS Hannah, to be a privateer. Hence, it may be considered the "first vessel" of the, soon-to-be, U.S. Navy.  

Context:

Massachusetts Magazine
Vols I and II                      see Vol I for Col. John Glover's regiment 
Vols III and IV
Vols V and VI
Vols VII and VIII
Vols IX and X/XI

Remarks: Modified: 05/26/2025

05/26/2025 - 

Memorial Day, 2025

TL;DR -- We have took special interest each May since 2019 with respect to Memorial Day. Its weekend in May serves as the start of the summer season. 

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We are coming up on the first weekend of summer. For many, the school season is over though many go into June. Too, many college graduations have taken place. 

Memorial Day in the U.S. aligns well with summer activities and is a traditional time with activities such as visiting and decorating graves of family and friens, honoring graves of veterans with the U.S. flag; trips to the park or other journey; BBQ in the backyard; and such. Many locations have parades and ceremonies at their cemeteries. 

In this post, we started a regular post for the Holiday starting in 2019. See the list below. For each year, we summarize the content of the post. 

Also, in 2019, we provided information about the burial of Dr. Frank in the Gardner/Dennet plot at the Greenlawn cemetery in Salem, MA. The post is titled Gallows Hill with respect to Thomas' remark about seeing the water at his favorite relaxing place and recapitulates some of the issues remaining open about the location of Thomas' remains. We will update that information during this pause to reflect. 

Today is the Visitation/Memorial of Eric W. Gardner, recently of Rapid City, SD. about whom we wrote earlier this month. 

Memorial Day, 2019 --  as we were researching Ann's genealogy, we gathered information about her grandparents who were three generations back. One finding was that a "findagrave" record about a burial at the G.A.R. cemetery at Saugus, MA held a veteran with no ties. After documenting the links, we updated his findagrave record: Walter A. Ingalls. If you pick his spouse, you will find information about his in-laws as we requested that links be updated. Too, we tied records in WikiTree with the ones at findagrave. 

Memorial Day, 2020 -- in the Covid times we were researching families in the middle of the country where they had stopped. Others had flowed on west. We mentioned the absence of graves. Or, as we see out here, there are unmarked graves. findagrave is full of these. We mentioned the record that we did for Dr. Frank. We can honor people through virtual memorials. 

Memorial Day, 2021 -- a brief recap of the two prior years and then a look at the many conflicts which produced veterans to honor. 

Memorial Day, 2022 -- we looked at a cemetery in the west as a photo from the area could have been taken in New England. It is at the site of an early mission to support Native tribes, some of whom had been in the area for centuries as well as newcomers from replacement efforts. We looked at William Whites Graves who was honored by the Natives for his support of the Osage Mission. 

Memorial Day, 2023 -- we looked at a few posts from May since our beginning in 2010. We asked the question which is still being researched: was Thomas at Cape Ann? See the post, Restart somewhat. We say, yes; but, the story will need to be altered with new information which will result from structured research. Stay tuned. 

Memorial Day, 2024 -- we looked at Nantucket and heard from Diana Davidson. She descends from the Gardners of Nantucket and lives in England, near Dorset. 

Over the rest of the month, we will work to find pertinent information with regard to the theme of this post. As we write on that, we will come back and update this post.

Remarks: Modified: 05/21/2025

05/21/2025 - 

Bunker Hill

TL;DR -- We're in the time of the Siege of Boston with the Bunker Hill incident on the horizon. But, the Siege went on until March of 1776. So, we have a few more items to look at prior to the hubbub of the Declaration of Independence whose inspiration was, in part, brought by kin from almost 100 years prior.  

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Siege of Boston

The first thing to remember is that we are at the 250th of the Siege of Boston. Earlier, we looked at an event that led up to this: Lexington and Concord. This start of the turmoil on April 19th attracted support of able-bodied men in the area, except for Salem troops under the command of Col. Pickering (Where was Salem?).  

In our research, we ran into the battle of Bunker Hill (17 Jun 1775) early on through reference to Col. Thomas Gardner who was killed in that conflict. His 25th Continental Regiment was involved in several engagements. 

This brings up Dr. Gardner's look at the Regimental history through a series of articles that appeared in each of the issues of The Massachusetts Magazine. In the first article, he discusses the Siege of Boston and notes that the revolutionaries were not solely rebels. Many officers had served the Crown in early conflicts. 

The Siege was almost a year, going to March of 1776. We have time to look further with respect to our themes. 

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Los Angeles (LA) of California (CA) has a neighborhood that is called Bunker Hill west. We have had several posts on the area which represents the history of LA from the time of Spanish rule to the current age of skyscrapers that have populated Bunker Hill West area. Early English involvement the area was in the 1830s. After that, many New Englanders showed up in the area. We have been researching this influx and have reported on some families. 

A stage line came into LA from Arizona (AZ) that was part of a freight/mail business with an eastern terminal at St Louis of Missouri (MO). Pre-Civil-War activity on the line followed a tight schedule and was supported by stops along the way through several current States, including Texas (TX). The area in LA where the line had their stop and supporting businesses, such as those that provided horses, stage maintenance, and more, was at the bottom of Bunker Hill West. 

The Butterfield Express, and many other Express companies, were New England in origin. Of interest is that many of these are still in existence. 

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The Revolutionary War started in 1776 and went until 1783. So, we will have several years to look at this history in all aspects including families and their genealogies. So, let's remember Rev. John Wise of Ipswich, MA who was seen, almost 100 years later, as the inspiration for the document normally associated with the War, the Declaration of Independence. The Col. Gardner mentioned above was related to Rev. John through their Gardner lineage. Both are kin. 

 

Remarks: Modified: 05/18/2025

05/18/2025 - 

Eric W. Gardner

TL;DR -- Eric Wright Gardner, descendant of two sons, George and Samuel, of Thomas and Margaret, died recently. We offer condolences to the parents, family and friends of Eric and provide some information about Eric. His father wrote of the Magna Carta for The Gardner Annals in 2016. In that regard, we find ourselves at another milestone for that memorable document. 

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We have covered a sampling of descendants through the generations since time of Thomas Gardner and Margaret Fryer. Our brief look at each of the children and their descendants can be considered a start. 

As an example, the following link is to information about the 5th son and his descendants over the four centuries.  

Samuel Gardner -- Dr. Frank, the author, whose work led to the 1907 and 1933 books is of this line. As well, Dr. Frank was an editor, and a major force behind the publication, of The Massachusetts Magazine.  

Today, we commemorate Eric W. Gardner (1965-2025) who is a descendant of both George and Samuel, through his mother and father, respectively. In terms of the book, the 1933 edition was of the family of George while the 1907 book principally covered known descendants of Samuel. 

Obituary

A nephew of Ann, Eric grew up in Fort Worth, TX and attended school in TX and OK. Eric's career as a weatherman was inspired by Harold Taft of Fort Worth and took him from Texas to Wyoming, Montana, and South Dakota where he was a meterologist at KOTA-TV of Rapid City. 

Eric's other interest were music, cooking, and wine. With his musical interest in the piano, Eric continued his involvement by helping to arrange local performances for visiting pianists. He held regular broadcasts concerning recipes, healthy eating, and cooking lessons. He was knowledgeable about wine and arranged local support for wineries of NAPA Valley and other locations.   

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Eric's father, Jonathan Gardner, authored our article on the Magna Carta (800th Anniversary), The Gardner Annals, Volume III, Number 1. In 2025, we have the celebration of the 810th aniversary related to King Henry I, son of King John, and his interest in the Magna Carta which needs an update related to technology (Magna Carta, technical).  

Remarks: Modified: 05/21/2025

05/21/2025 - Visitation/Memorial, today. Guestbook.