The Pony Express

     During the Civil War days the Union and the Conferdacy both wanted the state of California. California's population had grown to 380,000 because of the gold rush. The Union tried to find a way to communicate and West mail delivery was the best way of communication. The problem was that it took 6 to 9 weeks to deliver mail. They had to find a faster way to deliver mail.

     B. F. Ficklin had found a way to transport mail and knew it would work. He shared his plans with Senator William Gwin. Gwin introduced it to the Senate in 1855 and it was approved. They called this plan The Pony Express.

     It took five years to set up the Pony Express. They had to put ads in the newspaper and on signs to advertise for riders, station men, and stations. In 1860 they were ready to start with 190 stations, 420 horses, 400 station men, and 80 riders.

     On April 3, 1860 the Pony Express started his first ride. Nobody knows who the first riders were but they have boiled it down to Johnny Fry and Billy Richardson. Most of the riders rarely weighed over 120 pounds so that the horses could run faster. Even though it was a good paying job, with about $50-$150, there was still dangers. One danger was Indians that wanted to stop white men for anything even if it meant death. The trails had bandits that wanted to steal the mail and kill the rider. Also the rider could get lost and starve to death.

     At each station the rider would get a new, fresh strong horse. It took about two minutes to put the mail on another horse and start off again. Sometimes another rider would take the rider's spot and ride off while the other rider rested. The fastest mail ever deliver was a letter written by Abraham Lincoln. It took the letter five days to go from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California which is 1,966 miles!!

     Sadly after 18 months the pony express had to shut down because of the telegraph and the $700,000 debt they were in.The Pony Express will be remembered by all Americans through history as "the mail delivered by men and horses 10 in days".

Big Daddy Redtail!!!

 Big Daddy Redtail on the rocks.

Trying to find a good spot to put the hickory.

Big Daddy Redtail is a Fox Squirrel and is the biggest squirrel we have ever seen!! He looks like a beaver climbing in the trees he is so big.  We found his nest and love to watch him climb through the trees. We will not kill him because he is the only squirrel that lives around here and we are hoping he finds a mate and has kids so there can be more squirrels. I took these pictures when one day I was watching him get all these hickories that Elijah and I put behind a rock. I wanted to take more pictures so that I might get a better picture but I had school to do. I hope ya'll love the pictures and that ya'll can come back to read some more post.

God's Beautiful World

 Walking through a meadow.

Elijah picking a flower.

MOO!

Here little calf!

A spider web with dew on it.

SWEET SMELLING FLOWERS!

I love taking a walk through a meadow! You can see God's amazing world. It is very beautiful. My family (except my dad) walked though a meadow beside our house. God is so AMAZING!

Genesis 1
In the Beginning God created the heavens and earth... And saw that it was good.

Sarah

Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr.

This is Rosa Parks on the bus.

This is her after the boycott.This Martin Luther King Jr. on the March.

Even though the civil war had ended, black people still were not treated nicely. A group named the Ku Klux Klan or the KKK did not like black people. They started to scare them with gunshots, beat them, and put burning crosses at the front of their houses. Some times they even killed people inside and some times they escaped.

Rosa McCauley Parks was born in 1913. She lived with her grandmother, grandfather, brother, and mother. When Rosa was a little girl, she was afraid to sleep at night because of the KKK. before she was maried her name was Rosa McCauley. She maried Raymond Parks. Black people had to sit in the back of buses and the white got to sit in the front. The bus drivers made the decision where people sat. Then Rosa was tired one day. She got on a bus and sat down and the bus got packed. She had to move because a white person got on and black and white can not sit to together, but she refused to move. Then the bus driver called the police and they arrested Rosa. Then the black people begain to boycott because of her faith on the bus. The leader was Martin Luther King Jr. He also lead a March on Washington. He spoke a famous spech called "My dream."

Sarah

Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr.

This is Rosa Parks. She was a big part in the blacks having equality. Rosa Parks was a brave woman. She lived in Alabama most of her life. Her father left her when she was a baby. So her family went and stayed with her uncle and aunt. Rosa grew up when the triple KKK (Ku Klux Klan) was in Alabama. At night she would sit beside her uncle (which had a loaded shotgun) because she was afraid. When she got married she was 19 years old!! As she grew older she was the secretary for the NAACP. On December 1, 1955 Rosa boraded a bus coming home from work, the bus driver's name was James Blake. She sat in the black section of the bus and at first it was fine until the white section was full. Then the bus driver told four black people to move and stand up in the back of the bus. At first nobody moved. Then he said it again. This time three people got up, but Rosa would not move. He told her he would call the police if she did not get up. Rosa said "That is fine.". So he called the police and they took her to jail.

This is Martin Luther King Jr. He also helped the blacks to equality. While Rosa Parks was in jail all the blacks became very upset about what happened that they decided to boycott the buses. The blacks chose to make Martin Luther King Jr. their leader of the boycott. The boycott continued for a year and the buses did not have enough money. They did not have enough money to pay the drivers. Soon Rosa was out of jail and Martin Luther King Jr. did a speech about "I have a dream" in Washington, D.C. After 13 months of boycott the white and black people were sitting together on the buses and having the same water fountain! It was a joyful moment for the United Sates.

Isaac Camp

My information came from the following: Rosa Parks and The Montgomery Bus Boycott, Martin Luther King Jr. and The March on Washington, and other library books.

George Washington Carver

This is a picture of George Washington Carver.



George Washington Carver was born in 1859?. He was born a slave on a farm near Diamond Grove, Missouri. One night some raiders stole George and his mother. The owner of George and his mother, Mary, was Moses Carver. Moses Carver knew a man that could help find slaves that had been taken by raiders. So Moses Carver payed the man to find George and his mother. All he could find was baby George. The Carver's took care of the baby. George was not a very strong boy like his brother Jim, so he helped around the house with Mrs. Carver. Every thing that someone could do he would say "I can do that." and went and did it. His nickname was "The Plant Doctor" because if anyone had a dead plant they would call on George. Back then there were no schools for black people in Diamond Grove. When he was about ten years old he said to Mrs. Carver "I want to go to school. Can I go down to Nesho and go to school?" So Mrs. Carver helped George pack his things. When he was all packed up he waved his good-byes and started down the road to Nesho. When he got to Nesho it was not time for school yet so he sat on some wood to wait till school started. He was startled by a woman beside him. She asked him "What are you doing there on my wood?". So George told her why and that he was very hungry. The woman smiled and told George to come in. The woman's name and her husband's name was Andy and Mariah Watkins. The Watkins deiced to let George stay with them while he was going to school. On Sundays they went to church. When George had learned all he could from the little school it was time to find a bigger school . With sad good-byes he was on his own again. He set up a laundry business in the towns he went to. It was said that he could do laundry better than any woman in town. George entered college and did laundry for the students so he could pay for school. After graduating from college George received a letter from Booker T. Washington asking him to come and teach at Tuskgegee Institute. . Tuskegee is in Alabama. Well George was a teacher in the plant department. He was disappointed because he started off with just 13 students. When the years went by George Washington Carver had over 20 students! He discovered flour and vinegar from sweet potatoes. These are just two ways of the 118 uses of for sweet potatoes. He found over 300 uses for peanuts!! One time he made a whole meal from peanuts by putting peanuts in different things. These are some of the things he made with peanuts peanut milk, ink, shampoo, rubbing oil, peanut cream, peanut butter, peanut cheese, peanut oil, and metal polish. George Washington Carver died in 1943 in Tuskegee, Alabama. The students buried him not far from the Tuskegee Institute.

Isaac Chandler Camp

Resources:
ABeka History (Our American Heritage)
The World Book Encyclopedia
The Story of George Washington Carver (Scholastic Biography)

Booker T. Washington

This is Booker T. Washington.
This is him and his family

This is Tuskegee Institute today

Booker T. Washington was an African American born in April 5, 1856 into slavery. After slavery ended his mother moved them to Malden, West Virginia. There he taught himself to read and he worked different manual labor jobs. Slaves were not given last names when they were born. On his first day of school his teacher was asking what everybody's names were (including their last name). When it got to be Booker's turn he said "Booker Washington". From that day on his whole family used Washington as their last name. His mother had wanted to name him Booker Taliaferro but had only called him Booker (that is where the T. comes from). In 1881 he was invited to serve as president of Tuskegee Institute. He served there until his death on November 14, 1915.

Sarah

Resources:
ABeka 3rd grade History (Our American Heritage)
World Book Encyclopedia

George Washington

The Constitution.

A picture of George Washington praying to God.

A picture of George Washington in his army suit.

Another picture of the Constitution.

Another picture of George Washington.

George Washington as you know is our first President. He was first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of our country men. He was born to Mary and Augustine Washington on February 22, 1732 and if he was still alive he would be turning 280 years old. George's occupation was a planter and a soldier. In 1754 he was apart of the French and Indian War. On one battle his horse was shot out from under him but that did not stop George. He got on a second horse and went back to fighting, then that horse was shot out from under George. So he got on a third horse and went back to fighting. He married Martha Dandridge Custis in 1759. George and Martha were 27 years old when they got married. George was also known for his leadership in the army. In 1763 he lead the untrained farmers to the American Revolution and won the battle against trained British solders. George Washington became our first President on April 30, 1789 and served two terms as President. George's nickname was"Father of His Country". He was as tall as a giraffe and as strong as oxen! George Washington was a brave, true, strong, and honest man. George Washington died from a severe cold in 1799. Martha lived to be 70 years old (1732-1802).

Isaac

books that we used in our study on George Washington:

George Washington; Heroes of America-Illustrated Lives

Our American Heritage (Abeka 3rd grade History)

we also used:

www.ipl.org (presidents of the united states)