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Samuel Mason
Samuel Ross Mason, also spelled Meason (November 8, 1739 – 1803), was a Virginia militia captain, on the American western frontier, during the American Revolutionary War. After the war, he became the leader of the Mason Gang, a criminal gang of river pirates and highwaymen on the lower Ohio River and the Mississippi River in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was associated with outlaws around Red Banks, Cave-in-Rock, Stack Island, and the Natchez Trace. Early life Mason was born in Norfolk, Virginia, and raised in what is now Charles Town, West Virginia, formerly a part of Virginia. According to Lyman Draper, in the 1750s Mason got his earliest start in crime as a teenager, by stealing the horses of Colonel John L. Hite, in Frederick County, Virginia, being wounded and caught by his pursuers. He moved from Charles Town to what is now Ohio County, West Virginia, also at that time a part of Virginia, in 1773. American Revolutionary War service During the American R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk ( ) is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1705, it had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in Virginia after neighboring Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, and the 94th-largest city in the nation. Norfolk holds a strategic position as the historical, urban, financial, and cultural center of the Hampton Roads region, which has more than 1.8 million inhabitants and is the thirty-third largest Metropolitan Statistical area in the United States. Officially known as ''Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC MSA'', the Hampton Roads region is sometimes called "Tidewater" and "Coastal Virginia"/"COVA," although these are broader terms that also include Virginia's Eastern Shore and entire coastal plain. Named for the eponymous natural harbor at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, Hampton Roads has ten cities, including Norfolk; seven counties in Virginia; and two counties in No ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Frontier
The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of United States territorial acquisitions, American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonization of the Americas, European colonial settlements in the early 17th century and ended with the admission of the last few western territories as states in 1912 (except Alaska, which was not Alaska Statehood Act, admitted into the Union until 1959). This era of massive migration and settlement was particularly encouraged by President Thomas Jefferson following the Louisiana Purchase, giving rise to the Expansionism, expansionist attitude known as "Manifest destiny, Manifest Destiny" and the historians' "Frontier thesis, Frontier Thesis". The legends, historical events and folklore of the American frontier have embedded themselves into United States culture so much so that the Old West, and the Western ge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), gaining independence from the British Crown and establishing the United States of America as the first nation-state founded on Enlightenment principles of liberal democracy. American colonists objected to being taxed by the Parliament of Great Britain, a body in which they had no direct representation. Before the 1760s, Britain's American colonies had enjoyed a high level of autonomy in their internal affairs, which were locally governed by colonial legislatures. During the 1760s, however, the British Parliament passed a number of acts that were intended to bring the American colonies under more direct rule from the British metropole and increasingly intertwine the economies of the colonies with those of Brit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frederick County, Virginia
Frederick County is located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 91,419. Its county seat is Winchester. The county was formed in 1743 by the splitting of Orange County. It is Virginia's northernmost county. Frederick County is included in the Winchester, VA- WV Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Washington-Baltimore-Northern Virginia, DC- MD-VA-WV- PA Combined Statistical Area. History The area that would become Frederick County, Virginia was inhabited and transited by various indigenous peoples for thousands of years before European colonization. The "Indian Road" refers to a historic pathway made by local tribes. Colonization efforts began with the Virginia Company of London, but European settlement did not flourish until after the company lost its charter and Virginia became a royal colony in 1624. In order to stimulate migration to the colony, the headright system was used. Under this system, those who funded ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Hite House
John Hite House, also known as Springdale, is a historic home located at Bartonsville, Frederick County, Virginia. The original house was built in 1753, and is of native limestone laid in irregular ashlar with some random-coursed limestone rubble used on its secondary walls. The stone was quarried from a nearby field. The house faced east, overlooking the Indian Trail/Great Valley Road, where Jost Hite's tavern was situated at the ford of the Opequon Creek. The Springdale property was originally the home of Jost Hite, the earliest white settler in the lower Shenandoah Valley. Jost Hite was Pennsylvania Dutch and moved to the Valley in August 1731. His son, Colonel John I. Hite, built the Springdale house. Also on the property are the contributing stone ruins of what is believed to be Jost Hite's tavern/house of the 1730s, a stone shed, and small wood-frame spring house A spring house, or springhouse, is a small building, usually of a single room, constructed over a spring. Whi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lyman Draper
Lyman Copeland Draper (September 4, 1815August 26, 1891) was a librarian and historian who served as secretary for the State Historical Society of Wisconsin at Madison, Wisconsin. Draper also served as Superintendent of Public Instruction of Wisconsin from 1858 to 1860. Biography Lyman Copeland Draper was born on September 4, 1815, in Evans, New York, a descendant of early Massachusetts settler James Draper (1618–1694). Growing up he often heard about the exploits of his grandfathers and father in the Revolution and the War of 1812. He developed a keen interest in the history of those times. Starting in the 1838, Lyman Draper corresponded with people who were early settlers in the Trans-Allegheny region during the second half of the 18th century. He also traveled extensively in the region to gain a better feel for the territory. Draper's professed purpose was to shed light on the era and gain knowledge before it was completely forgotten. He planned to write a series of biograp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Town, West Virginia
Charles Town is a city in Jefferson County, West Virginia, United States, and is also the county seat. The population was 5,259 at the 2010 census. It is named for its founder Charles Washington, youngest brother of President George Washington. History 18th century "Charlestown" was established by an act of the Virginia General Assembly in January 1787. However, for about two decades, confusion arose because the same name was also used for a town established in Ohio County at the mouth of Buffalo Creek, and authorized in the 1791 term of that local court. That area in 1797 became known as Brooke County, with that "Charlestown" as its county seat until a December 27, 1816 act of the Virginia General Assembly changed its name to Wellsburg, to honor a trader and his son. Charles Washington, the founder of Charles Town, was born in Hunting Creek, now Fairfax County, Virginia, on May 2, 1738. He was the youngest full brother of George Washington. He came to what is today Jeffer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Natchez Trace
The Natchez Trace, also known as the Old Natchez Trace, is a historic forest trail within the United States which extends roughly from Nashville, Tennessee, to Natchez, Mississippi, linking the Cumberland, Tennessee, and Mississippi rivers. The trail was created and used by Native Americans for centuries, and was later used by early European and American explorers, traders, and emigrants in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. European Americans founded inns, also known as "stands", along the Trace to serve food and lodging to travelers. As travel shifted to steamboats on the Mississippi and other rivers, most of these stands closed. Today, the path is commemorated by the Natchez Trace Parkway, which follows the approximate path of the Trace, as well as the related Natchez Trace Trail. Parts of the original trail are still accessible, and some segments are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Origins Largely following a geologic ridge line, prehist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stack Island (Mississippi River)
Stack Island, also known as Crow's Nest and Island No. 94, is located in Issaquena County, Mississippi, in the Mississippi River, near Lake Providence, Louisiana and nearly 200 miles north of New Orleans. History Beginning, in the late 1790s, the island became associated with river pirates and counterfeiting. Outlaws associated with Stack Island include; Samuel Mason, Little Harpe, and father and son counterfeiters Philip and Peter Alston. Island No. 94, or Stack Island, or, as it is sometimes called, "Crow's Nest." 170 miles above Natchez, was notorious for many years as a den for the rendezvous of horse thieves, counterfeiters, robbers, and murderers. It was a small island in the middle of "Nine Mile Reach." From thence they would sally forth, stop passing boats, murder the crew, or, if this seemed impracticable, would buy their horses, slaves, flour, whisky, etc., and pay for them. In 1809, the last major river pirate activity, on the Upper Mississippi River, cam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henderson, Kentucky
Henderson is a home rule-class city along the Ohio River and is the county seat of Henderson County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 28,757 at the 2010 U.S. census. It is part of the Evansville Metropolitan Area, locally known as the " Tri-State Area". It is considered the southernmost suburb of Evansville, Indiana. History Early settlements Archaeological research shows that people were living in what is now Kentucky by at least 9,500 BCE, although they may have arrived much earlier. The settlers of the area after the start of the 1st millennium CE were of the Mississippian culture, a Native American civilization that flourished throughout what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States, from approximately 800 CE to 1600 CE. The population of most settlements of this culture had dispersed or were experiencing severe social and environmental stress by 1500. The area that is now Henderson County was later inhabited by the Yuchi, Shawnee and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it flows generally south for to the Mississippi River Delta in the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains all or parts of 32 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces between the Rocky and Appalachian mountains. The main stem is entirely within the United States; the total drainage basin is , of which only about one percent is in Canada. The Mississippi ranks as the thirteenth-largest river by discharge in the world. The river either borders or passes through the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Native Americans have lived along the Mississippi River and its tributaries for thousands of years. Most were hunter-ga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
