October 2008

            John B. Jervis.   John B. Jervis.  That name was new to us.  What he told us about himself made us think.  He said he was an engineer.  What does an engineer do, we wondered?  And what the dickens happened on May 7, 1831 which made him so excited?  He mentioned "contracts for materials for construction".  The more we thought about his words, the more confused we were.  But, we didn't really get much time to solve the puzzle he had created because his words interrupted our thinking.

            "Say, as I look at you, I see you're very tired.  So.........let's solve that problem immediately.  He turned, started up the small incline and motioned for us to follow.  Ben whispered loudly enough so many of us heard his whispered voice.  And Mr. Jervis did too.  He turned, laughed uproariously and said, "No, no.  Don't worry.   I'm not leading you on a walk back to your homes."  He stopped at the top of the small hill where we saw a rough strip of land.

            "Here we are, he said excitedly!  Right by the dirt road."  Again Ben whispered, but very softly this time.

            "Dirt road!  Dirt road!  Looks like a cow path to me."

            Mr. Jervis turned toward us.  "Look!  Look!"

            We did look, and we saw what looked like a very old wagon pulled by two sleek, black horses.

            "Come on"

            He motioned for us to follow him over to the horses and wagon, standing on the uneven, dirt road.  Just than a young man appeared on the smooth grass on the other side of the wagon.  It seemed as if he had suddenly arrived there by magic.  Not a one of us had seen him working up to the other side of that crusty, delapidated, old-looking wagon.

            Mr. Jervis spotted him.

            "Jim, I'm glad to see you, just as you promised.  Now Daisy and Molly here, can take us home.  I know!  I know!  You never expected to see all this company.  And, of course, I know you and I had quite different plans."

            Mr. Jervis motioned for all of us to climb up on the wagon.  When we were all seated, he nimbly jumped up between Frank and Jonah, motioned to Jim, and away we went.  We were going so slowly that we barely felt the wagon jumping up and down over the pebbles and rocks.

            Mr. Jervis leaned back against one of the tall, heavy posts on the wagon.  He pulled up his knees and looked quite comfortable as we rumbled along.  He checked to be sure we all had plenty of room to be comfortable, too.

            "Now, I can tell you the story."

            Even though the wagon was bumping around on the rough "road", we could still here Mr. Jervis' powerful voice.

            "Now," he said, "Let me think.  Where did I leave off?"  He rested his head on his right hand for a moment.  Suddenly his arm dropped down, his head shot upward, and he shouted, "Hey, I know exactly what I said in my last sentence to you!"  I asked, "What was constructed?  Remember?"

            He laughed as we all shook our heads up and down.

            "What was constructed," he repeated.  "Well, here's part of the explanation."

            "It's 1831.  People had begun to come to this area.  Why, there was more than 2000 people in Saratoga Springs already.  Schenectady, on older settlement just a few miles away, had an active commercial life as the chief port on the lower Mohawk River.  Many farmers and businessmen needed a way to get their farm products and other items to the Western part of our country.  Some events also began to happen south of us which changed our way of thinking, and most especially changed our way of moving people and various goods from place to place.  One of the most important words n this country at that time was anthracite.

            Ben must have been in one of his talkative moods again because he spoke right up and asked for the answer we all needed.

            "What's anthracite?"

            "Well...well..."  He reached up with his left hand and seemed to be scratching the thick, white hair on the top of his head.

            "Well, I'll tell you the definition I learned long ago.  Anthracite, I was told, when I was much younger, was a hard, compact variety of mineral which burns with a blue flame.  But, let's make it a bit easier and say, anthracite is a hard, shiny substance used to make heat."

            Mr. Jervis had barely closed his mouth after saying heat, when Josiah quickly asked, "Why is anthracite so important?"

            Mr. Jervis looked directly at Josiah as he said, "Most people burn wood to heat their houses because they can go out in the woods near their homes and cut down a tree.  But, as they say, "Things are a changin."

            "How?"  This came from Marion, usually a quiet, reserved young lady, whose face turned bright red as her classmates stared.

            At this question, Mr. Jervis turned his head to the far right where Marion sat with her friend Sarah.

            "Well, in 1806, we were traveling in this country about the same as we had traveled for the previous 150 years, using boats on the water and horses and buggies on land.  This was fine until the substantial growth of the American colonies began to attract more and more people from Europe, sometimes called the "Old Country".  Many of these people came here as farmers, but gradually we saw the development of businesses.  And, along with business activities, came the demand for a way to send and receive things from nearby communities and most especially from far away places.

        "Ow!  Ow!  Ow!" Jenny jumped up, screaming loudly.  Jack grabbed her around the knees to keep her from falling off the wagon.  She continued to scream as she clutched her right arm.

        "What's the matter?  What happened?" shouted Mr. Jervis.

        "A hornet stung me!"  Tears of pain ran down her cheeks.

        "Here."  Mr. Jervis handed her a large, pure-white handkerchief which she put on the reddened, swelling bump on her arm and began to slowly rub the cloth back and forth over the reddish lump.

            Mr. Jervis looked a Jenny but also let his gaze circle all around the front, back and sides of the wagon.

            "Oh, my gosh!  We're back!  We're almost back!"  All other eyes also circled round and round.

            "Jim, it's time for Whoa!  Pull the reins!  We're here!"

            "Wait!  Wait!  Wait!"  Mr. Jervis was shouting.  "Sit down a minute, just a minute." as we all began to scramble off.

            Everyone sat back down on the rough floor boards of the wagon.  The only sound in the cool air came from Jenny, still on the verge of tears as she massaged her very painful hornet bite.

            "Please accept by apology,"  he said.

            Ben's voice again sailed over our heads.

            "For what?"

            "This is 'what'!  Last month I got ahead of myself in promising to tell you what would be constructed.  In giving it more, much more thought, I realized that we should talk about what was happening before construction, why these events created a need for some type of construction, what goals had been set up for this task, and what results were expected when the construction was completed."

            "Oh!  Ben quietly uttered just this one word, and only those close to him heard it, as we all jumped off the wagon.

            "Yes, we're back, right where we started", he said.  "I mean we're right back as the spot where we jumped on the wagon.  But, our minds have moved way, way beyond where they were then."  Jim shouted "Giddup."  The horses took off back down the road.  "Will we find out what was constructed?"  Mr. Jervis yelled "Come on back next month and we'll see."  He laughed, waved his hand and yelled "Goodbye."