CEDRIC McMILLAN 05

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The Hump Day Blog Hop!

Hey guys! I am so excited you have come over. We are halfway through the week and the hump day camel is too freaking cool, so I decided to start a weekly blog hop to celebrate.

This is a little different than a link up. To participate, simply add your blog link. There is no required entry or anything like that. This is about networking, making new friends, and finding new blogs.

All I ask:

1) "The Hump Day" blog hop button button be displayed anywhere on your blog page or a specific entry with a link back to me or the weekly co-host. (Please do this. These blog hops take a lot of work and preparation.)
2) You don't have to follow me, but in the words of Blake Shelton: it'd sure be cool if ya did.
3) Please follow the co-host. I love helping and promoting these amazing women in the blog world! I do this to not only meet new people, but help my friends make new friends and readers.
4) Mingle with your fellow Bloggers.

<div align="center"><br /><a href="http://www.fitnessblondie.blogspot.com" title="The Hump Day Blog Hop"><img src="http://i1285.photobucket.com/albums/a593/fitnessblondiel/humpday_zps418f63f6.jpg" alt="The Hump Day Blog Hop" style="border:none;" /></a></div><br />

Please join me in welcoming this weeks co-host: Whitney!

Whitney's blog is "Everything Happens For a Reason". I have known Whitney since I first start my own personal blog last year! She was one of my first friends on Blogger and we have been close ever since. She has been in the blog world a long time, so she has helped me a lot with the layout and doing things on my blog. I love how Whitney not only shares her life and awesome fashion choices, but entries that are vulnerable and really come from the heart. Be sure to pop over and tell her hi!

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When Did the Yarnall Tavern Open?

I hope I'm not boring anyone with this, now the third post related to the Conestoga Wagon Inn, also known as the Yarnall Tavern. It was truly a minor establishment with a short lifespan, important more for what came after it (the Brandywine Springs Hotel and then the amusement park) than for its own sake. But one of my first gateways into local history was Brandywine Springs Amusement Park, so things related to it have a special place for me. This whole investigation was originally just supposed to be a quick mention of the mysterious second tavern, covered in the last post, which I only became aware of (and its connection to the Conestoga Wagon) recently. Then Walt Chiquoine had to go and do some great work piecing together the early history of the Yarnall family in MCH and of property ownership in the area, so I had no choice but to do a separate post covering that and the founding of the first tavern. (Just go with me on the "no choice" thing, OK.)

Then, while putting the pieces together for that, a few things seemed like they just didn't fit. After consulting with Walt again, I decided that the conventional wisdom about the Conestoga Wagon was almost certainly not correct. I don't mean to harp on this again, but if you'll recall there was very little if anything ever written about Holton Yarnall's tavern that didn't have to do with its final years, the sale of the property in 1827, and the coming of the big, new hotel. Just about the only thing ever said about Yarnall's establishment was that it was a "Colonial Era tavern". As we saw, just going by Holton Yarnall's birth year (1774) should tell you that he didn't run a tavern in the Colonial Era. But there were other things, too....

I probably should preface this (and hedge my bet) by saying that this whole thesis could be upended by one solid account of the Conestoga Wagon being in operation prior to about 1810. However, I've not yet seen any such thing. Lots of circumstantial evidence and extrapolating the inn back in time, but no direct evidence that it was open then. To the contrary, we have several points that all seem to indicate that Yarnall's tavern didn't open until at least about 1810.

One clue comes from the sale ad seen below, published in the Delaware Gazette in late 1814. In the ad, Holton Yarnall describes the property and at the bottom it states, "The house is now occupied as a public inn." But the more pertinent part for us now is further up, where he writes, "There is on the premises a new stone house [emphasis mine], 33 feet square, 2 stories high, and well finished...". It's obvious that this new stone house he's refering to is the tavern. I know that "new" is a relative term (especially in advertisements), but I don't think Yarnall would say that if the house was 30, 50, or more years old. This seems to indicate that the house (and therefore the inn) had not been around for too long before 1814.

And as it turns out, there's a good reason why there was probably not an inn at this location too much before 1814 -- there wasn't really a road there! As noted in the post about the Newport and Gap Turnpike, the turnpike company was incorporated in Delaware in 1808. Construction started soon thereafter, but wasn't completed until ten years later. Parts were done earlier, and the section near Yarnall's property was probably completed sometime between 1810 and 1813. Common sense would say that Yarnall wouldn't open an inn until there was a need for one, meaning travellers, meaning a road.

Now, the turnpike didn't come out of nowhere. There would have been a reason why it was placed where it was, and there certainly could have been a small country lane running approximately where the turnpike is now. However, there is good evidence that prior to the construction of the Gap and Newport Turnpike, the main north-south road in the area was situated just west of there. Much more about this idea can be found in the next post (yes, one more, but this one is Walt's fault work). But even if there was a small lane there before c.1810, I don't think there would have been enough traffic to justify an inn being there.

This is not to say that house couldn't have been a little older. Holton Yarnall did take a 600 pound loan in 1802 for some reason. It's not out of the question that he may have taken the money to build a new home, maybe with the idea that a turnpike would be built, maybe not. Again, the "new" in the ad could easily be stretched to cover a 10 or 12 year old house. Perhaps the lengthy delays in the construction of the road lead to some of his financial problems and to his desire to sell his land and new house.

The final piece of evidence I'd lay out for the idea that the Conestoga Wagon had a c.1812 opening is more a lack of evidence to the contrary. I'm aware of the concept that "an absence of evidence is not evidence of absence", but here it's just one more point. Later historians knew that Yarnall was running a tavern by the mid-1810's and that his family owned the property for several decades before that. I think those points just eventually ran together into the idea that he had been running the tavern for a lot longer than I think he did. I'm perfectly willing to change my thinking if I see concrete evidence that a Yarnall was operating an inn prior to 1810, but as of yet I've not. For now, I'm putting the opening of the Conestoga Wagon Inn, aka the Yarnall Tavern, at approximately 1812.

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MAVEN uzay aracı Mars yollarında

Mars, yıldızlara açılan kapımız olabilir.


Gökbilimcileri uzun zamandır meşgul eden bir soru var? Milyarlarca yıl önce, Güneşimiz
henüz çok genç, Dünya’mız ise hâlâ içinde var olan patlamalarla çocukluk dönemi
geçiriyordu. Böyle bir Güneş sistemindeydi Mars’ın gençliği. Mavi bir gökyüzü
ve lacivert okyanuslarla kaplı bir yeryüzü vardı… bundan birkaç milyar yıl
önceki Mars’ın durumu böyle

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Tasty Tuesday! Another Fabulous Slow cooker Recipe!

I have tried this recipe many times and made it on the stove top and in the oven.  This is the first time I have tried it in the slow cooker and I must say, it was delicious and easy!  I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

Coq au Vin 

6             medium carrots cut into ½ inch chunks

8             oz sliced baby bella mushrooms

2             dried bay leaves

¼            cup all purpose flour

½            tsp dried thyme

8             bone in chicken thighs – skin removed

1             tbs plus 1 tsp olive oil

3             tbs tomato paste

2             cups dry red wine

8             oz peeled pearl onions (about 1 ¾ cups)

4             cups baby arugula – for serving

Combine carrots, mushroom slices and bay leaves in the slow cooker. 

In large bowl combine flour and thyme.  Season chicken with salt and pepper.  Add chicken to bowl with flour mixture and toss until evenly coated. 

In large skillet heat tsp oil over med – high heat.  Add half of chicken and cook, turning once until brown.  About 3 o4 minutes per side.  Repeat with other half and transfer chicken to slow cooker. 

Add tomato paste and wine to skillet and cook, stirring and scraping browned bits.  Boil for one minute and pour over chicken in slow cooker.  Cover and cook on low for 3 to 5 hours until meat is tender.

Serving Size 1 thigh, ½ up cook veggies and ¼ cup of sauce – 327 calories, 9 g fat, 2g fiber, 35g protein, 

14 g carb

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CEDRIC McMILLAN 04

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