Famous influential People

This evening I taught a pre-GED reading lesson about influential people. The lesson did not go the direction I wanted which sometimes happens when the mood is right or wrong however you want to look at it. I dumped my plans and moved into something else that I thought would still accomplish the same goals. Earlier in the day, I found an old clipping from a newspaper just part of a page no name date or other identifiers. The page was important because it listed Historical Famous Influential People that were residents of Maryland. I decided a history lesson would be helpful especially because the class ends in a few weeks and I want these people to find things of interest to read over the summer.

I read off the first name and saw a lot of head shaking and thought occurring but in the end I had to tell these people that have worked all year to learn who Francis Scott Key was. The next name was one I had never heard of but found him very interesting and I think my students did as well. Tench Tillman a Marylander and better yet an Eastern shoreman having been born just outside of Easton was from a famous local family, but his unsung claim to fame was to have the honor of being the person selected to deliver the message to congress in Philadelphia at the time that Cornwallis had surrendered in Yorktown. I didn't know this then and find I rather amusing that while most of us know of the man riding horseback screaming "the British are Coming" like some lunatic, very few know of this man that delivered the news that alerted the country that we had accomplished our goal of separation from England.

I read a few others and we discussed at length that very famous women "Black Moses" of her time Harriet Tubman. This leader of people worked tirelessly to achieve freedom for a persecuted and mistreated race. I found this PDF file when I Googled Tubman's name. I was surprised to learn her parents were rescued from certain death by hanging in the very small town I was teaching tonight "Denton, Maryland"

Many other names Like Frederick Douglas, Edgar Allen Poe, Colonel William Richardson, Johns Hopkins (did you know he made his fortune in the Railroad and by hauling whiskey over the mountain from West Virginia.)

So while Maryland will most likely always take a back seat to our more populous northern Yankee, New England States, We do have very influential people that tread on the lands we now tread.