Author: Tom
Elzie Segar’s Story
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/08/01Sep21-Chester-Illinois-Popeye-1.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)The name Elzie Segar doesn’t resonate with most folks, unless you happen to live in Chester, Illinois. Folks there know…
Secret Routes to Freedom
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/08/31Aug21-Alton-Illinois-Underground-Railroad-2.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)Imagine unearthing history from nearly two centuries ago to find the secret routes people used to gain their freedom. That’s…
The Path to Freedom
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/08/30Aug21-Alton-Illinois-Underground-Railroad-1.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)Railroads spanned these two cities on opposite sides of the Mississippi River, but it was a secret railroad that had…
One of the Worst Places on Earth
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/08/27Aug21-Andersonville-Prison-2.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)Today’s rolling hillsides are serene and peaceful, yet it was this very place that was once one of the worst…
A Place Called Andersonville
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/08/26Aug21-Andersonville-Prison-1.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)By the end of the Civil War, the conditions inside this prison grew so bleak as to compel one soldier…
The XIT Ranch
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/08/25Aug21-XIT-Ranch-3.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)Just off the courthouse square in Dalhart, Texas you’ll find a small museum devoted to a very large subject –…
Thousands of Miles of Fence
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/08/24Aug21-XIT-Ranch-2.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)Imagine a ranch so large it took thousands of miles of wire just to fence the pastures. It was a…
Raising Money for a New Capitol Building
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/08/23Aug21-XIT-Ranch-1.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)When the state of Texas needed to build a new state capitol building they had a plan in place to…
Civil War in New Mexico?
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/08/20Aug21-Glorietta-Pass.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)When you think of the American Civil War you probably don’t think of battlefields in states such as New Mexico?? …
Fighting for What Was Owed
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/08/19Aug21-Harriet-Tubman-4.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)You may soon see her face on our currency. She is a lady who’s story inspires young and old –…
The Illegal Farm Sale, That Wasn’t
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/08/18Aug21-Harriet-Tubman-3.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)In the late 1850s there was a sale of a farm that was against the laws of the country. Both…
Heroin of the Underground Railroad
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/08/17Aug21-Harriet-Tubman-2.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)She is one of the best known figures associated with he Underground Railroad. Her courage led her to become well…
Cruelties of Slavery
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/08/16Aug21-Harriet-Tubman-1.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)At the age of five she was already being leased out by her slave owner to check muskrat traps in…
Silent Hero of the Game
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/08/13Aug21-Cooperstown-Bat-Company-3.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)Many of us played the game of baseball as a kid. Perhaps you had a baseball hero…for me it was…
The Man Behind the Bats
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/08/12Aug21-Cooperstown-Bat-Company-2.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)A baseball bat is, of course, a critical part of the game – but did you ever wonder where those…
The Story Behind Baseball Bats
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/08/11Aug21-Cooperstown-Bat-Company-1.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)Major league baseball players are required to use wooden bats – aluminum bats are not allowed. For many decades the…
The Vice President Who Dueled
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/08/10Aug21-Vice-President-Center-2.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)There are plenty of interesting stories to be found in the history of the U.S. presidency…and if you take a…
The Unknown Vice Presidents of the United States
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/08/09Aug21-Vice-President-Center-1.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)Elbridge Gerry, Rufus King, Schyler Colfax…they’re names probably not that familiar to both of us…yet at one time they were…
Creating a German Town
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/07/06Aug21-Herman-Missouri-2.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)Why did one family move their piano making business from Philadelphia to a fledgling community in the Midwest? In may…
Advertising for Settlers
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/07/05Aug21-Herman-Missouri-1.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)Today we might look at a travel guide for insights on where to take a vacation. Those who looked at…