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<DIV>Yes the wires are still up in my attic that </DIV>
<DIV>were used to communicate with the Meyers</DIV>
<DIV>house at bedtime. But I will have to get </DIV>
<DIV>back to you about anything else. I am </DIV>
<DIV>sure the mansion knows all about it & </DIV>
<DIV>could fill us in. Talk to you later. Em</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 5/5/2009 11:43:07 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
ABragg7393@aol.com writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
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<DIV>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!</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 5/5/2009 11:11:33 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
dwightrholmes@gmail.com writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>RE the
first telegraph, this is the version I'd read and heard
before:<BR>http://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=6072<BR>(That's the text of
the historical marker at Bladensburg Waterfront)<BR><BR>On some belated and
not-so-profound reflection, it seems that Mr Weber<BR>must of course be
wrong. Since they didn't have WiFi in the day,<BR>presumably the first
telegraph must have been sent from where the<BR>wires were laid - and those
would have been next to the RxR tracks -<BR>not on the property of the
mansion. So, yes, "near the mansion" but<BR>not "from" the
mansion.<BR><BR>That being said, I'm glad to know of Mr Calvert's role in
getting<BR>funding for the telegraph project. He obviously had appreciation
for<BR>things like science, education, infrastructure...<BR><BR>On Tue, May
5, 2009 at 10:25 AM, Dwight Holmes <dwightrholmes@gmail.com>
wrote:<BR>> OK, this passage comes from the draft of a<BR>>
never-finished/never-published book by George O. Weber who was the<BR>>
Director of Physical Plant for the University of Maryland at the<BR>>
College Park campus from 1946 until 1972. I got that info from
here:<BR>> http://cgl-md.com/gow.html<BR>><BR>> On Tue, May 5, 2009
at 10:16 AM, Dwight Holmes <dwightrholmes@gmail.com>
wrote:<BR>>> poking around dusty corners of the Internet for
references to the Old<BR>>> Post Road and Washington-Baltimore
Turnpike, I came across this very<BR>>> interesting book that someone
has put on line. It's not clear what the<BR>>> title or who the author
is, but it is a history of what is now the<BR>>> University of
Maryland. I found this passage interesting, for I've<BR>>> not
previously heard this historical claim for the role of Calvert
and<BR>>> Riversdale in the history of the
telegraph.<BR>>><BR>>>
http://cgl-md.com/GOWbookUMD.pdf<BR>>><BR>>> "By all accounts,
the hardest working and most influential planner was<BR>>> Charles
Benedict Calvert of Prince George’s County. A descendant of the<BR>>>
Lords Baltimore and a graduate of the University of Virginia, Calvert
had<BR>>> returned from school to manage his father’s 2,200 acre
“Riversdale” estate.<BR>>> An advocate of the newly popular scientific
approach to farming, he helped<BR>>> gain national attention for the
plantation by use of machines, fertilizers,<BR>>> irrigation and
experimental crops. He also helped the struggling Samuel<BR>>> Morse
get congressional backing for his experimental telegraph, and the
first<BR>>> successful message was sent from his mansion, which still
stands on<BR>>> Riverdale road about 2 1/2 miles from the University.
A president of the<BR>>> Maryland Agricultural Society, a leader in
the United States Agricultural<BR>>> Society, he had earlier offered
to donate 200 acres to endow a national<BR>>> college of agriculture.
He served in the state legislature and in 1861 in<BR>>> congress,
where he led the fight to establish the United States Bureau of<BR>>>
Agriculture, the forerunner of the present Department of Agriculture.
The<BR>>> first to advocate the cause of the Maryland Agricultural
College, the most<BR>>> persistent in pleading for its support,
Calvert would provide the college with<BR>>> a home, supervise the
initial construction and later serve as its second<BR>>> president.
Wealthy and well educated, he was a “patrician in the finest<BR>>>
Jeffersonian tradition,” as were most of his fellow founders. And he,
like<BR>>> they, believed that science and education held solutions
for the problems of<BR>>> impoverished
farmers."<BR>>><BR>><BR>><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>TownTalk
mailing list<BR>To post to the list, send mail to
TownTalk@riverdale-park.org<BR>TownTalk-request@riverdale-park.org is for
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only<BR>http://riverdale-park.org/mailman/listinfo/towntalk<BR><BR>For more
information about Riverdale Park, visit
http://www.riverdaleparkmd.info</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></FONT><BR><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>TownTalk
mailing list<BR>To post to the list, send mail to
TownTalk@riverdale-park.org<BR>TownTalk-request@riverdale-park.org is for
automated subscription processing
only<BR>http://riverdale-park.org/mailman/listinfo/towntalk<BR><BR>For more
information about Riverdale Park, visit
http://www.riverdaleparkmd.info<BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></FONT><DIV CLASS="aol_ad_footer" ID="cfbd68c9f04e8638e0ca44b4f2c172a4"><br/><font style="color:black;font:normal 10pt arial,san-serif;"> <hr style="margin-top:10px"/><B>A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. <A HREF=http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1221322931x1201367171/aol?redir=http://www.freecreditreport.com/pm/default.aspx?sc=668072%26hmpgID=115%26bcd=May5509AvgfooterNO115>See yours in just 2 easy steps!</A></B></font></DIV></BODY></HTML>