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Archiver > NEIKIRK > 2004-09 > 1095877922


From: L B Hansen <>
Subject: A.B. Newkirk letters - Michael of Hagerstown
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2004 11:32:02 -0700 (PDT)


Hi everyone - I thought since summer break was over - I would try another A.B. Newkirk exerpt. This one has no date - but is included with the rest. It doesn't give much genealogy but paints an interesting picture. I don't know who John or Victor Neikirk are - if anyone has any information on them - will you please post it? Maybe it will help to give us an approximate date for the letter.

"Michael of Hagerstown (Pennsylvania)

The Neikirks are a family of farmers. Only in recent years the young men have gone into the towns for merchanting, banking etc. Washington County as well as Berks County PA is very beautiful and wonderfully fertile soil. Old Homestead on the Harrisburg and Winchester Va turnpike which runs straight from the North down in the Valley of Virginia. It lays one mile south of the National Road which the Government constructed from Baltimore to Terra Haute, Indiana. It was originally intended to go to St. Louis Missouri, but the invention of the Railroad killed the project. It was a famous road for two generations, coaches, great men from the the south up the Mississippi and Ohio by steamboat to Wheeling, thence by coach to Washington and the East. Effort of the imagination to picture the traffic, coaches crowded each other. The passengers used to amuse themselves pretending to have letters for the simple minded country people who would run after the coach, affording great a!
musement.
One day a robust lanky countryman caught up with the flying coach, dragged the joker out, and handed him a handsome pummeling. This helped break up the practice. Henry Clay etc were familiar persons.

There were frequent taverns, great hospitality, rare old days and nights. Victor Neikirk lives in a comfortable ancient house on the National Pike four miles west of Hagerstown. John is near. No trees for John. The "leaves get into the gutters, the roots spoil the sod."

One hundred miles from Washington, 70 miles from Harrisburg, 500 ft. above tidewater. Limsetone soil, clay, fruit.

For a number of years annual reunion in Hagerstown Park. Today moters(?) crowd the pike from every state. Feature this year the children and the careful preparation made for their pleasure. They contributed largely to the program, music and recitative. I made pictures."

I hope you had a nice summer. Linda







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