How Columbus Began.

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Came in 5th at the local poker tournament last night. Pocket Kings killed me this time. It was pocket Aces last time.
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The interesting thing was I had given the guy that runs the tournament a couple of bottles of my Flat Squirrel. He walks into the bar, slaps me on the back and says "That beer you gave me a couple weeks ago? That was the best beer I have ever had. Can I buy a case?".

This comes on the same day when a coworker stops me in the hall and says "I finally popped open one of those beers you gave me and it was outstanding, can I buy some of that?"

WOW - talk about swelling up my head a little. I do have to take it with a grain of salt because most people just have never tasted "well aged non filtered yet fresh" beer. But I'll take all the compliments I can get!!

Shakes - Hazelnut Nectar has not been bottled yet - I should get to it Monday and then it need 3 weeks min to carb up and age. As I have noticed 2 months seems to the prime amount of time for the best flavor for complex beers. Too bad I can't keep any around that long!
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I know many of you think Christopher Columbus discovered . . . . . Columbus. After all, when he died they did bronze him outside of town where nobody can see him.

But the real story is brought to us in an article written by Alice Schmidt.

The Beginnings of Columbus.

Major Elbert Dickason was born in Virginia in 1799 and with his family moved to Ohio and eventually to Illinois. He was married to Obediance Maxwell in 1831. It is known that he had a son Jackson and a daughter Ruth Jane.

By those knowing him, including Imogene McCaffery, he was described as standing over 6 feet tall and having shoulder length light colored hair. He was said to have a military bearing and was a man with a soul of honor, a genial manner and a kind heart.

He became an officer in the Illinois Militia during the Black Hawk War. In the course of his duties following the war he stopped for a rest along the banks of the Crawfish River and fell in love with the site.

Although much of the area was unsurveyed, in the spring of 1839, he returned and settled on the banks of the Crawfish. He built a house of logs covered with bark and Indian bedsteads lined the sides of the single room. In had no floor or fireplace, simply a fire pit near the back wall. It was located in a small clearing among oak trees near the site of the present railroad depot. The writer of this article remembers that as part of the 1940 Columbus Centennial celebration a plaque mounted on stone was placed on the site. The school children were in attendance at the dedication ceremony.

Dickason, with assistance from his two helpers plowed the land around the cabin and sewed it to wheat. They harvested the native grasses as hay. In the fall the wheat was gathered in stacks. Dickason and his helpers then returned to Illinois for the winter. He returned in the spring with his family. He brought with him sixty to seventy head of cattle, twenty horses and four or five wagons.

He took possession if 1,300 acres of land for which he was to pay $2.50 per acre ($48.11 in today's money). He staked out twelve lots near his home and called them Columbus. He plowed the land and put in crops, but the primary need of the settlement was lumber.

Unfortunately, the Major was no real farmer or businessman and soon discovered he needed financial backing to continue his project, which was to be a sawmill. The money was borrowed from Lewis Ludington and his son-in-law John Hustis. They sold him the rights to the land he had settled but had not filed a claim on. They advanced Dickason the funds required to build a dam across the Crawfish River and to build a sawmill, the grain mill and also a blacksmith shop.

Dickson occupied the property and operated the mill for four years without paying taxes or interest on the loans. Finally Ludington gave Dickason $600.000 and the income of the sawmill for a year and took over the property. Ludington leased the mills to Colonel Jeremiah Drake.

Elbert Dickason moved a few miles west and founded the Village of Wyocena where he remained until his death August 9, 1848. His grave is located in the village cemetery.
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SO there you have it. I read somewhere that He called his lots Columbus because he liked the guy and was sort of "discovering" his little area.

More on Lewis Ludington in another blog.

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I'll mention this now because I tend do forget cool stuff. This coming Monday will mark the 33 year Anniversary of the sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald (The Mighty Fitz as it was nicknamed).

The reason for the sinking is now attributed to a rogue wave. Reports show three large waves were detected, two of which were reported by the Edmund Fitzgerald. The investigation theorizes that the Edmund Fitzgerald was badly battered by the first two waves, damaging the radar and hatch covers. It was surmised that it then took on water through the damaged cargo hold covers, which flooded the ore cargo and severely stressed the ship's hull, and then was then overwhelmed by the third wave that snapped the weakened ship in half.

The REAL interesting thing is that my mom on the night that the Fitz sunk became extremely ill and could not stop shaking. Ill enough so that my dad took her to the Fort Atkinson hospital.

The Doctors could find nothing wrong but made her stay overnight. She got better and was released. It was not until a week later that my parents learned that the Fitz had sunk. My mom had a distant relative that was on that ship and with more investigation she became ill and could not stop shaking at about the same time as the Edmund Fitzgerald sunk.

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I try to be a good guy and look at the bright side's of most things but I have been ITCHING to write a letter to the editor about this one.

I'm not a super patriotic guy but if I think this way others must. The American flags of Columbus are just irritating me. I really dislike the fly and forget policy in Columbus. If you are going to fly American flags all over the town, take care of them. They are dirty and stuck on light polls.

I think having a town show it's patriotism with flags is great but if you do that you MUST keep the flags clean and free of light polls. Yea - it takes a little more work and money but a dirty flag tells me they are there only for show. It tells me we love America but not really enough to take care if it.

A town of CLEAN flags makes me proud.

Rod