[RP TownTalk] Charles Benedict Calvert, Riversdale & the telegraph

Tue May 5 21:25:58 UTC 2009

Yes the wires are still up in my attic that 
were used to communicate with the Meyers
house at bedtime.  But I will have to get 
back to  you about anything else.  I am 
sure the mansion knows all about it & 
could fill us in.  Talk to you later. Em

In a message dated 5/5/2009 11:43:07 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
ABragg7393 at aol.com writes:

The old Town of Riverdale Book, 1970 mentions the diary of Harold Burrhus  
and states that "The former Burrhus residence still stands on Ravenswood  
Rd.  Harold Burrhus' friend, William Meyer, lived diagonally across the  
street.  Harold's ingenuity was evident when he ran a telegraph line  connecting 
the two houses/.  At times they used it for pre bedtime  conversation."  (I 
believe Em lives in that house and her son owns the  other one.  I think at 
one time she told me the wires were still up there  in the attic)  So Emily, 
let's hear the history of the first telegraph in  Riverdale Park!

In a message dated 5/5/2009 11:11:33 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
dwightrholmes at gmail.com writes:

RE the  first telegraph, this is the version I'd read and heard  before:
http://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=6072
(That's the text of  the historical marker at Bladensburg Waterfront)

On some belated and  not-so-profound reflection, it seems that Mr Weber
must of course be  wrong. Since they didn't have WiFi in the day,
presumably the first  telegraph must have been sent from where the
wires were laid - and those  would have been next to the RxR tracks -
not on the property of the  mansion.  So, yes, "near the mansion" but
not "from" the  mansion.

That being said, I'm glad to know of Mr Calvert's role in  getting
funding for the telegraph project. He obviously had appreciation  for
things like science, education, infrastructure...

On Tue, May  5, 2009 at 10:25 AM, Dwight Holmes <dwightrholmes at gmail.com>  
wrote:
> OK, this passage comes from the draft of a
>  never-finished/never-published book by George O. Weber who was the
>  Director of Physical Plant for the University of Maryland at the
>  College Park campus from 1946 until 1972.  I got that info from  here:
> http://cgl-md.com/gow.html
>
> On Tue, May 5, 2009  at 10:16 AM, Dwight Holmes <dwightrholmes at gmail.com> 
 wrote:
>> poking around dusty corners of the Internet for  references to the Old
>> Post Road and Washington-Baltimore  Turnpike, I came across this very
>> interesting book that someone  has put on line. It's not clear what the
>> title or who the author  is, but it is a history of what is now the
>> University of  Maryland.  I found this passage interesting, for I've
>> not  previously heard this historical claim for the role of Calvert  and
>> Riversdale in the history of the  telegraph.
>>
>>  http://cgl-md.com/GOWbookUMD.pdf
>>
>> "By all accounts,  the hardest working and most influential planner was
>> Charles  Benedict Calvert of Prince George’s County. A descendant of the
>>  Lords Baltimore and a graduate of the University of Virginia, Calvert  
had
>> returned from school to manage his father’s 2,200 acre  “Riversdale” 
estate.
>> An advocate of the newly popular scientific  approach to farming, he 
helped
>> gain national attention for the  plantation by use of machines, 
fertilizers,
>> irrigation and  experimental crops. He also helped the struggling Samuel
>> Morse  get congressional backing for his experimental telegraph, and the 
 first
>> successful message was sent from his mansion, which still  stands on
>> Riverdale road about 2 1/2 miles from the University.  A president of the
>> Maryland Agricultural Society, a leader in  the United States 
Agricultural
>> Society, he had earlier offered  to donate 200 acres to endow a national
>> college of agriculture.  He served in the state legislature and in 1861 
in
>> congress,  where he led the fight to establish the United States Bureau 
of
>>  Agriculture, the forerunner of the present Department of Agriculture.  
The
>> first to advocate the cause of the Maryland Agricultural  College, the 
most
>> persistent in pleading for its support,  Calvert would provide the 
college with
>> a home, supervise the  initial construction and later serve as its second
>> president.  Wealthy and well educated, he was a “patrician in the finest
>>  Jeffersonian tradition,” as were most of his fellow founders. And he,  
like
>> they, believed that science and education held solutions  for the 
problems of
>> impoverished  farmers."
>>
>
>
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