Nature trail guide—Greenbank’s Hollow Historic Park

June 26, 2014Posted inHistorical sites

By Dave Houston

A field-use trail guide for the Greenbank’s Hol­low Nature Trail is avail­able at the His­tor­i­cal Park. How­ev­er, the fol­low­ing descrip­tion con­tains added detail and pho­tos (click on pho­tos and fig­ures to enlarge). Even so, this is a work in progress as more infor­ma­tion will be includ­ed as it becomes available.

Exam­ples of things to come:

  • Lists, descrip­tions and pho­tos where appro­pri­ate, of plants and ani­mals found here along the trail or sur­round­ing area, includ­ing birds, mam­mals, amphib­ians and  rep­tiles, and insects, as well as oth­er bio­ta such as fun­gi and archaea.
  • Detailed descrip­tions and loca­tion (map) of the soils present here, includ­ing their suit­abil­i­ty for sup­port­ing plants, etc.
  • Infor­ma­tion relat­ed to Joe’s Brook includ­ing sea­son­al flow data, water chem­istry, suit­abil­i­ty for fish habi­tat, and his­tor­i­cal use of water power.
  • Addi­tion­al geo­log­i­cal details con­cern­ing the ori­gin, for­ma­tion and char­ac­ter­is­tics of the bedrock beneath the Park.
  • The influ­ence of the bedrock and the last glacia­tion on the shape of our land­scape and the soils that blan­ket it.

THE SETTING:

Joe's Brook as it comes tumbling down just below the bridge.
Joe’s Brook as it comes tum­bling down just below the bridge.

Geology

March 1864–The Richmond Boondoggle and Tales of Assassination

March 19, 2014Posted inHistorical events, Historical people

By Gary Far­row, Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

Union Brigadier Gen­er­al Hugh Jud­son Kil­patrick had big plans and even big­ger dreams. In des­per­a­tion, Lin­coln approved a raid by the 1st Ver­mont Cal­vary upon Rich­mond that even the Com­man­der of the Army didn’t sup­port. It was a star-crossed ven­ture with con­se­quences that no one could foretell.

March 19, 1864 Danville North Star

DEATH OF COL. DAHLGREN

Colonel Ulric Dahlgren
Colonel Ulric Dahlgren

The fol­low­ing is the arti­cle in the Rich­mond Sen­tinel of the 5th, announc­ing the death of Col. Dahlgren: “The gal­lant Dahlgreen is dead. After leav­ing Rich­mond, he pro­ceed­ed with a por­tion of his men toward the penin­su­la through the coun­try of King and Queen, where he met Lieut. Col. Pol­lard of the 9th Vir­ginia, and had a sharp encounter, in which Col. Dahlgren was shot dead. Some sev­en­ty or eighty of his men were cap­tured. The remain­der has joined Kil­patrick as has been already stat­ed. Col. Dahlgren was one of the bravest men of Amer­i­ca, and his death will be regret­ted by all who ever knew him. He had lost a leg in the ser­vice and had just arrived at that peri­od of con­va­les­cence when he could take the sad­dle, when he was cut down by war’s relent­less hand.

Upon his per­son were found an address to his men and a mem­o­ran­dum of the route he was to take with his com­mand, when he left Kil­patrick, where he was to go, what he was to do, when he was sup­posed to be there, and when he was to rejoin the main force.

The address to his men is a most spir­it-stir­ring and patri­ot­ic appeal to his sym­pa­thies and val­or on behalf of their fel­low sol­diers who are suf­fer­ing impris­on­ment in the loath­some dun­geons and upon the desert islands of the Con­fed­er­a­cy. He begs them not to fal­ter or flag, but to fol­low him to open prison doors and putting arms into the hands of their released brethren, they would march togeth­er to kill Davis and Cab­i­net, and then return home to their friends, ready and anx­ious for fur­ther deeds of valor.”

Lat­er accounts rep­re­sent that there is no doubt that the pre­tend­ed address said to have been upon the per­son of Col Dahlgren was a bold forgery. This decep­tion was nec­es­sary to excuse the bru­tal­i­ty with which his body was treat­ed. He was a brave, spir­it­ed young offi­cer, and noth­ing but the fear his true chival­ry inspired could have induced the cow­ard­ly revenge grat­i­fied in the abuse of his life­less remains.

A Woman of Uncommon Generosity–Mary Elizabeth Goff Robinson

February 5, 2014Posted inDanville Green, Historical people, News from Choate-Sias house, NSM articles

By Sharon Lakey, Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

“Until I began to com­pile life­long infor­ma­tion, I didn’t real­ize the full range of gifts Meg was giv­ing to oth­ers through­out her life, with­out the slight­est wish for praise.” Charles A. Robin­son, 2013

Meg shares the joy at the dedication of the stained glass window she commisioned for the Danville Congregational Church, dedicated to mother, Eva Crane Goff, in 1988.
Meg shares the joy at the ded­i­ca­tion of the stained glass win­dow she com­mis­sioned for the Danville Con­gre­ga­tion­al Church, ded­i­cat­ed to moth­er, Eva Crane Goff, in 1988.

On July 2, 2013, a mys­tery came to an end in Danville: our anony­mous donor passed at 88 years of age in Penns­bury Town­ship, Penn­syl­va­nia, and the require­ment of her anonymi­ty was lift­ed. It is with humil­i­ty and plea­sure that I relate some of what I have learned about this remark­able woman, Meg Robin­son. Much of this knowl­edge comes to us through her hus­band, Charles, who has gra­cious­ly answered ques­tions and, as a good his­to­ri­an him­self, pro­vid­ed doc­u­men­ta­tion of the impor­tant events of her life.

February, 1864–The General and His Demons

February 4, 2014Posted inHistorical events, Historical people, Historical sites, NSM articles

By Gary Far­row, Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

A com­pli­cat­ed fam­i­ly and men­tal ill­ness pushed and pulled a man who became one of the most accom­plished gen­er­als in the Civ­il War.

Sherman's Meridian campaign was a practice run for his march-to-the-sea.
Sher­man’s Merid­i­an cam­paign was a prac­tice run for his march-to-the-sea.

The news was slow in Feb­ru­ary ’64: Lincoln’s Eman­ci­pa­tion Procla­ma­tion decree, free­ing slaves only in rebel states, had become law Jan­u­ary 1, but its true con­se­quences had yet to be deter­mined; the win­ter months had closed down the war in Vir­ginia and reports from the east­ern-cen­tric press about events in the low­er South, absent some epic bat­tle, con­tin­ued to be spot­ty. How­ev­er, there was a minor cam­paign in mid-Feb­ru­ary against a town in Mis­sis­sip­pi that helped cement the improb­a­ble rise of a Union com­man­der. His rela­tion­ship with U.S. Grant would cat­a­pult him to become the Gen­er­al and Chief’s co-archi­tect and col­lab­o­ra­tor in a new mil­i­tary strat­e­gy that was waged against the South.