Sandra Merville Hart's Blog, page 103

The La Vale Toll House on the National Road

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Work on a National Road near the Potomac River in Cumberland, Maryland, to the Ohio River in Wheeling, Virginia (later became part of the newly created state of West Virginia during the Civil War) in 1811. This section of road was completed in 1818 though the road continued into Ohio after that.

High traffic caused lots of wear and tear on the road, making it difficult to maintain. The federal government turned over the maintenance of the road to the states in the early 1830s. To cover the cost, the states built toll houses to collect tolls.

Maryland built its first toll house, the La Vale Toll House, about six miles from Cumberland around 1833. This toll house is the state’s only one still standing on the National Road (also called Cumberland Road.)

Tollkeepers collected tolls there until the early 1900s. Included in their $200 annual salary were free living quarters.

It’s fun to read the toll rates. For example, horse and riders paid 4 cents for ten miles or 14 cents for thirty-five miles. Travelers paid 8 cents for ten miles or 28 cents for thirty-five miles for every sleigh, sled, chaise, or Dearborn “drawn by one horse or pair of oxen.”

Dearborn wagons contained four wheels generally drawn by a single horse. The vehicle usually had one seat, with top curtains and sometimes side curtains. From 1819 to 1850, truck farmers and peddlers used the affordable Dearborn.

Gateposts are all that remain of a second Maryland toll house outside of Frostburg. This one was located thirteen miles from Cumberland. There’s a nice photo of the toll house on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum site.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Day, Reed B. The Cumberland Road: A History of the National Road, Closson Press, 1996.

“Dearborn Wagon.” Dictionary of American History.. Encyclopedia.com. 23 Apr. 2017<http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

Edited by Raitz, Karl. A Guide to The National Road, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.

“First Toll Gate House,” The Historical Marker Database, 2017/04/22  http://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=442.

Schneider, Norris F. The National Road: Main Street of America, The Ohio Historical Society, 1975.

“The La Vale Toll House,” The Historical Marker Database, 2017/04/22 http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=443.

“The National Road & Toll House near Frostburg, MD,” Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum, 2017/04/22 http://www.eduborail.org/nps-1/image-1-nps-1.aspx.

 

 

 

 

Filed under: From Our Past Tagged: Cumberland Maryland, Cumberland Road, historic toll rates, Historical Nibbles, La Vale Toll House, Maryland, National Road, Ohio River, old toll rates, Potomac River, Sandra Merville Hart

Crazy about Cait by Nancy J. Farrier

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Cait Sullivan loves training the horses on her father’s ranch and does not understand his decision to hire someone else Hall to do the with her—especially Jonas Hall, the man who broke her sister’s heart.

Jonas excels at his job. He loves horses as much as Cait.

The cavalry officer isn’t interested in the horses Cait trains, but will come soon to buy all the horses Jonas can train.

Cait realizes the sale of the horses to the cavalry is their only chance to save her family’s ranch.

The lovable, believable characters captured my heart as the story captured my interest. I enjoyed this historical romance.

This novella is part of The Cowboy’s Bride Collection published by Barbour.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Christianbook.com

Filed under: Review Tagged: Book Review, Historical romance, Nancy J. Farrier, Sandra Merville Hart

Almost an Author Post – Dialogue Contractions in Historical Novels

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Recent discussions among historical novelists about dialogue contractions prompted me to do a little digging. I pulled a variety of novels from my bookshelf that were written in earlier eras to discover how those authors handled dialogue contractions. The results surprised me. Read about them here.

Filed under: On Another Blog Tagged: Almost An Author Blog, Historical Nibbles, historical writing, Sandra Merville Hart

Chicken Gumbo Soup Recipe

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I prepared chicken stock using a recipe found in The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, giving me cooked chicken and chicken stock. I decided to make chicken gumbo soup.

4 cups chicken stock

1 cup okra, frozen or fresh

2 stalks of celery, sliced

½ cup carrots, bite-sized slices

1 can (about 16 ounces) diced tomatoes

½ cup uncooked rice, brown or white

2 cups cubed or shredded chicken

Salt

Pepper

Fresh minced parsley (optional)

[image error]As Fannie warned, my chicken stock gelled in the refrigerator. Also, it had only made about 3 ½ cups of stock. I added enough water to make 4 cups into a large kettle. I warmed this over medium heat until in liquid form again.

Add okra, celery, carrots, and tomatoes to the warmed stock. Stir in the uncooked rice. Cover and cook on medium heat for thirty minutes, stirring occasionally to keep the soup from sticking.

[image error]Reduce heat to low. Add chicken. Salt and pepper to taste. (Since I had not salted my chicken stock, I used a teaspoon of salt—the perfect amount for me.) Cook on low for about ten minutes to heat the chicken.

Garnish with a little minced parsley, if desired.

This made a hearty soup that I found delicious. One bowl is plenty for a meal.  I think an extra cup of stock would have been perfect, so I will use 5 cups of stock next time.

I’d love to hear from you if you try these recipes. Enjoy!

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Revised by Cunningham, Marion and Laber, Jeri. The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, Alfred A Knopf Inc., 1983.

 

Filed under: Historical Nibbles Tagged: chicken gumbo soup, chicken gumbo soup recipe, chicken stock, Fannie Farmer, Historical Nibbles, Sandra Merville Hart

Colonial Travel with Pack Horses

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Magnificent forests lined the hillsides and valleys in Colonial America. Their beauty didn’t make them easier to navigate. Pioneers blazed trails to the west by foot and then by horseback.

Settlers heading westward during this time traveled before roads had been cut. Skinny paths left no room for wagons. They hauled their worldly possessions on pack horses.

By tying each horse to the tail of the one immediately in front, one driver led a line of pack horses. Drivers controlled up to a dozen horses in one line.

[image error]Each animal could carry up to two hundred pounds on primitive pack saddles. Pioneers created their own saddles using sturdy, forked limbs, trimmed to fit a particular load. Some frontiersmen made a living by selling their pack saddles in the back woods.

Once these courageous souls settled in Western Pennsylvania or the Ohio country, they made yearly trips back east to sell their produce and replenish supplies. Traveling in caravans, they took ginseng, rye, bear’s grease, snakeroot, and hides back east. They returned with such goods as gunpowder, salt, nails, and iron.

Early U.S. military operations utilized pack horse trains in traveling to confront Native Americans. Captain Robert Benham served as Conductor General of pack horses in the late 1700s, taking part in expeditions with Wayne, Harmar, St. Clair, and Wilkinson.

While at Fort Harmar (near present-day Marietta, Ohio) in June of 1787, Colonel Harmar wrote that the cheapest cost of hiring pack horses was fifty cents a day.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

“Fort Harmar,” Ohio History Central, 2017/04/22  http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Fort_Harmar.

Schneider, Norris F. The National Road: Main Street of America, The Ohio Historical Society, 1975.

Venable, W.H., LL. D. Westward by Hoof, Wheel, and Keel. Extracted from Footprints of the Pioneers in the Ohio Valley, originally published in 1888.

 

Filed under: From Our Past Tagged: American history, Colonial America, Fort Harmar, history, pack horse saddle, pack horse train, pack horses, pioneer travel, Sandra Merville Hart

Rescue Me by Sandy Nadeau

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Ronnie Spencer, a first responder, rescues firefighter Steve McNeal when his foot is pinned by a rock. She has avoided him since breaking up with him shortly after her father’s death.

Steve had been working with her father the day he died. Her dad, as an experienced firefighter, never would have died if Steve had ignored orders and rescued him.

Ronnie blames both God and Steve for not saving her father’s life. She refuses to date anyone who shares her dad’s profession. Who knew when they’d be killed?

Circumstances and tragedies in their city throw the couple together. Steve loves Ronnie. How can he help her overcome her bitterness?

This is a well-written contemporary romance that drew me in immediately.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Rescue Me by Sandy Nadeau

Filed under: Review Tagged: Book Review, Contemporary romance, Sandra Merville Hart, Sandy Nadeau

Preparing Chicken Stock

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I recently ran across The Fannie Farmer Cookbook in an antique store. This book was originally published in 1896. Fannie Farmer’s name is still well-known today.

Reading Fannie Farmer’s recipe for stock intrigued me. I’ve made chicken broth from chicken but realized that is different from Fannie’s chicken stock.

Instead of making stock using chicken wings, necks, backs, and bones, I decided to use a whole chicken. This gave me boiled chicken to make soup for an easy supper the following day.

A local butcher cut up the chicken for me. Included in the package were the neck, heart, gizzard, and back. I used the legs, breasts, thighs, wings, neck, and back and discarded the rest.

[image error]Wash the chicken and put into a large pot, holding out the breasts and wings to be added later. Add eight cups of cold water. Cut one peeled onion in half and place in the pot. Add six baby carrots or peel two carrots and cut them into thirds.

Slice in half three celery stalks, including the leaves. Add a bay leaf, a teaspoon dried thyme, and six crushed peppercorns.

Cook on medium high heat until water begins to boil then reduce to simmer. Since white meat cooks more quickly than dark meat, add breasts and wings after the stock has simmered for twenty minutes.

[image error]Cover and simmer until chicken is done. Mine was ready in about an hour. Remove chicken from pot. Debone. Add bones and skin back into the stock and continue simmering.

Refrigerate the chicken for later use in another recipe.

The total simmering time is four to five hours, which includes the time it takes to cook the chicken.

Fannie suggests waiting to add salt until using the stock in a recipe. This allows for salty flavors of other ingredients.

Should you choose to season the stock itself, add salt to taste just before it is done.

Strain the stock and allow to cool. Refrigerate or freeze until ready to use. Stock made from bones will gel in the refrigerator. When the broth thaws out, skim off the top layer of fat.

This smells and tastes delicious, even without salt. The stock smells so aromatic and appetizing that your family may be hungry for supper a little early.

Enjoy!

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Revised by Cunningham, Marion and Laber, Jeri. The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, Alfred A Knopf Inc., 1983.

 

Filed under: Historical Nibbles Tagged: chicken stock, chicken stock recipe, Fannie Farmer advice, historical cooking, Historical Nibbles, Sandra Merville Hart

George Washington’s Vision for a National Road

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George Washington’s vision for a major road westward likely built over time.

The Ohio Company of Virginia owned a trading post on the Monongahela River, which is now Brownsville, Pennsylvania, in the 1750s. George and his half-brother Lawrence were members of this organization that hired Colonel Thomas Cresap to oversee the blazing of a trail from Cumberland, Maryland, to its trading post in 1752. Cresap hired Delaware Indian Nemacolin who performed the task. The new trail was called Nemacolin’s Path.

The following year, the French occupied Fort Le Boeuf (currently Waterford, Pennyslvania), an area in British territory. Major George Washington, sent by Virginia Governor Robert Dinwiddie to order them to leave, rode his horse over the future National Road. The French ignored the warning.

In 1754, Washington commanded a small army with orders to remove the French from Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh.) Washington’s small army traveled over ground that would become the National Road. He was ambushed and eventually surrendered.

As aide to British General Edward Braddock, Washington again found himself traveling toward the French at Fort Duquesne in 1755. Braddock ordered 500 axmen to clear a road for his supply wagons and infantry. The army was ambushed again and Braddock was killed.

The road his army blazed, marked by stumps and brush, was called Braddock’s Road. It ends near Pittsburgh. Early pioneers preferred packhorse trails over the rough road.

[image error]After the Revolutionary War in 1784, Washington focused on his western holdings. He took the same difficult route westward as he’d taken in 1754. Then he called a meeting at a land agent’s cabin on the Cheat River (currently Morgantown, West Virginia) in September of 1784. He asked for opinions on the best route between the upper Potomac to an Ohio River tributary.

A young surveyor, Albert Gallatin, was present at that meeting. He surprised Washington by agreeing that a passage through the mountains of northwestern Virginia (now West Virginia) was the best route. Washington agreed.

Our first President died in 1799 without seeing his vision for a national road realized, but Gallatin didn’t forget. President Thomas Jefferson selected him to become Secretary of the Treasury. One of Gallatin’s duties was the disposition of western public lands.

Gallatin lived in southwestern Pennsylvania. He approved of a road there and assured Jefferson that this type of road was “of primary importance.”

Congress voted on March 29, 1806, to lay a road from Cumberland, Maryland, to Ohio.

Perhaps Gallatin thought of a long-ago meeting in the Virginia wilderness with a famous Revolutionary War general and future President as the National Road was voted into law.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Day, Reed B. The Cumberland Road: A History of the National Road, Closson Press, 1996.

Schneider, Norris F. The National Road: Main Street of America, The Ohio Historical Society, 1975.

 

Filed under: From Our Past Tagged: American history, British General Edward Braddock, Cumberland Maryland, Delaware Indian Nemacolin, Fort Duquesne, Fort Le Boeuf, General George Washington, National Road, Nemacolin's Trail, Potomac River, President George Washington, Sandra Merville Hart

The Cowboy Poet by Susan Page Davis

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Rilla Lane dreams of becoming a published writer as she cares for her ailing mother on her father’s ranch. She writes in the evening after all her chores are finished and has submitted her work to contests.

Her poetry intrigues Bat Wilson, a cowboy on the Lane ranch. He knows Rilla’s father will never allow a cowhand to court his daughter. His feelings for her must remain hidden but he tries his hand at poetry. The other ranch hands discover he is writing and tease him mercilessly.

Rilla falls in love with the hard-working Bat but realizes her father will never approve.

The characters in this story were believable and likable. I enjoyed this historical romance set on a large Texas ranch in 1880.

This novella is part of The Cowboy’s Bride Collection published by Barbour.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Christianbook.com

Filed under: Review Tagged: Book Review, Historical romance, Sandra Merville Hart, Susan Page Davis

Fannie Farmer’s Tips on Preparing Stock for Soups

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I recently ran across The Fannie Farmer Cookbook in an antique store. This book was originally published in 1896. Fannie Farmer’s name is still well-known today.

Stock, water enriched by the food cooked in it, is an important ingredient in numerous sauces and soups. Homemade stock brings full-bodied flavor to recipes.

Though stocks may take all afternoon to cook, they are not difficult to prepare. Once the ingredients simmer in a pot, simply check periodically that the stock isn’t cooking too quickly.

Use fresh ingredients. Preparing stock allows cooks to use beef bones, chicken bones, and necks. Onions, parsley, dill, mushroom stems, and celery—including celery tops are foods that go into stock.

Start with cold water as it draws the meat juices into the soup as it comes to a boil. After this initial boil, reduce heat to a simmer.

Partially cover during simmering to maintain the simmer. This reduces the liquid without losing nutrients.

Wait to season with salt until the stock is almost done if you know how you plan to use it. If storing it for later use, do not add salt now because it won’t reduce after being salted. The rule of thumb seems to be to season when you are ready to prepare it for your family.

Strain stock after cooking and set aside to cool, uncovered. It’s best to cool the stock quickly and it can be placed in the refrigerator. Covering the stock while it cools may cause it to sour.

If the stock is stored in the refrigerator, reheat it every three days. Boil for two minutes.

Stock freezes well for future use. One of Fannie’s tips was to freeze the stock in ice trays and then bag the cubes in the freezer—easy to grab a few when needing a small amount!

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Revised by Cunningham, Marion and Laber, Jeri. The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, Alfred A Knopf Inc., 1983.

 

 

 

 

Filed under: Historical Nibbles Tagged: Fannie Farmer advice, historical cooking, Historical Nibbles, preparing stock, preparing stock for soup, Sandra Merville Hart, tips for preparing soup stock