We returned from our first Electric Car Road Trip just barely in time for a Ladie’s Tea that Cherryl was hosting at our house! She was very grateful to Linda, who helped tremendously. I was told they had a great time. Drinking tea. Right. I went bowling with Kevin and we had a super time!
Over two weekends, we watched Dayna in her YMCA Volleyball tournaments. I don’t remember all the games’ scores, but they did very well! Fun to watch!
Cherryl’s sister Jeanne wound up in the hospital for a week… When we visited I got this nice view of the Nebraska Capitol. Jeanne is better and home now.
One Friday evening our kids suggested roasting hot dogs (and S’mores) in our backyard… with their fire pit! They brought over the fire pit, wood, and some food. We added chairs, tables and more food, and we had an awesome evening! In fact, we had so much fun we repeated it the following night with leftovers! The most fun we’ve had in our new backyard! (Someday there might be a fence between our house and the neighbor’s…)
In my continuing documentation of the open space near us being converted to housing, I present this dramatically boring 25 seconds of ditch digging. First a big backhoe digs a hold for junctions to be engineered, then the digger digs a trench between junction holes, then a worker lays the brightly colored conduits in the trench. They are burying electrical, internet cable, and internet fiber optic conduits here. Exciting stuff! Grab a nice drink and put your feet up for a while!
I have worked at making my garage a good place to work on cars. I’d love to offer help to those who need it. This week I’ve had a couple of instances… One gal had been told she might need a VERY expensive repair, that was not needed at all. Another gal needed an oil change, that I was able to do for her. I haven’t changed my own oil for a decade or two, so I thought I’d better do mine first, to make sure I remembered how it goes. So the Suburban got its oil and filter changed, and I saved a bunch of money, and converted a work shirt into a rag. That meant for the next car, same day, I was able to use the same rag/shirt and everything went fine!
The highlight of the last few weeks was my granddaughter Dayna’s baptism! I’ve been waiting until I got pictures that were promised, and they are not coming through… so here is the best that I have. It was a very nice baptism, and after church we had a little dinner celebration, including an amazingly large donut as well as a bunch of cupcakes. A wonderful event. So proud of our super granddaughter dedicating her life to Jesus!
Okay, this next bit is a bit of a departure for me… I picked up a little freebie newspaper in North Platte, Nebraska, and found this article. I have condensed it quite a bit, but perhaps not quite enough. Whatever. Read my paraphrase if you feel like it.
Edward Creighton, Singing Wire Chief
Edward Creighton was born in 1820 in Barnesville, Ohio, as the fifth of nine children.
He first entered the telegraph business by contracting to deliver poles and wire to new lines. Soon he was a line builder, with crews at his command. Between 1847 and 1859, Creighton built thousands of miles of lines, connecting Buffalo, Louisville, St. Louis, Chicago, Pittsburgh and, well, you get it.
To make wire service more efficient, many independent short lines pooled their equipment into one system, becoming Western Union. Creighton built many of their lines.
Creighton had really big plans…getting telegraph wire all the way to California was just part of his dreams. Twice ships trying to lay cable across the Atlantic had failed, and he thought he could string wire from California, north through Canada, across Russian Alaska, cable the Bering Strait to Siberia, then wire across Russia to the capitals of Europe. Easy, huh? But first he had to string wire to California. Just that stretch would be the longest wire in the world.
He decided, as America’s leading telegraph line builder, he would personally scout out the route. Along the way, he encountered some opposition… at one outpost, when hearing about Creighton’s mission, a grizzled character said a man should have the right to make a new start out west, without some telegraph contraption telling a law man where he could be picked up. When Creighton left, he found his pack horse was missing – its hitch rope had been cut. And his rifle was missing. He mounted his horse and followed tracks in the snow to where the broken ice suggested thieves had crossed a frozen river. He decided to follow, but the combined weights of his horse and himself cracked the ice further. Then he heard a rifle shot, and his horse fell through the ice, and Creighton barely made it out of the icy water. His clothes froze stiff as he walked back to Dobytown. “Lung Fever” developed, and his life was hanging in the balance. Some miners brought him to Denver to recuperate.
A few months later, he left to continue his scouting, and made it to Salt Lake City. He met with Brigham Young, who was excited to think of telegraph coming to Utah. He would be happy to help.
Creighton finally made it all the way to California as a bearded, trail worn skeleton.
The U.S. government approved his plans and route, and appropriated $400,000 for its immediate construction. The new line would go from Julesburg, Colorado (the westernmost extent of the eastern lines) to Sacramento, California.
Work on the lines would start from both ends on July 4, 1861, and meet in Salt Lake City. The tremendous feat was completed by October 17. (Other historians say they started in earlier in the year, making the time frame a still impressive 8 months.) The line reduced time for coast-to-coast messages from weeks, with the Pony Express, to minutes. This was about 8 years before the Transcontinental Railroad was completed.
The early years proved difficult for the new wire… fires and storms were bad enough, but bison would rub on poles and push them over. Indians considered the “Singing Wire” an evil power. They watched gloved linemen handle the wire, but were shocked (literally!) when they touched the wire barehanded. Sometimes cowboys would lasso the top of the pole, and pull it down.
The Civil War took Creighton’s mind off the plan to run the long wire over the top of the world to Europe, and in 1867 cable was successfully laid across the Atlantic, negating need for his trans-Russian route.
By 1870 Creighton was considered Omaha’s leading citizen. He promoted projects, built stores, business blocks and hotels. He was acutely aware of his own lack of education, and wished to build a college in Omaha. He also felt they needed a hospital. And a livestock market. His wife told him to quit dreaming… he couldn’t do Everything!
He died in 1874, at age 53.
The family organized the Creighton Foundation, which put many of his plans into action. His brother was a sponsor of the Union Stock Yards. St. Joseph’s Hospital thrived with their help, and Creighton College opened in 1878 with 120 students. Creighton University now has more than 4,400 students.
I had no idea the story behind Creighton University, a very respected institution today. And no idea that anyone would reach this longer-than-I’d-planned missive. Feel free to comment if you’d like more or less of this sort of thing.
Congratulations on your lovely granddaughter’s baptism!
Thanks for the run-down on Creighton. What a life. He died just a year before my grandfather was born. How far technology has come in just three generations, from a thin wire that transferred dots and dashes, to glass fiber optics and whole movies magically flying through the air over Wi-fi!