{"id":2644,"date":"2022-05-19T15:07:08","date_gmt":"2022-05-19T15:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/?p=2644"},"modified":"2022-05-19T15:07:11","modified_gmt":"2022-05-19T15:07:11","slug":"did-railroads-unite-the-country-in-a-good-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/?p=2644","title":{"rendered":"Did railroads &#8216;unite&#8217; the country in a good way?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/book.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/book-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2645\" srcset=\"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/book-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/book-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/book.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/a><figcaption>photo by Joe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I just wrote a newspaper article about Maysville, Ohio, pop.: not much.  It&#8217;s just a small cluster of homes that are loosely configured around an intersection on Rte. 309 here.  But Maysville wasn&#8217;t always like that.  In the mid-1800s, it was a bustling town with two general stores, one shoe store, two blacksmith shops, two hotels, one small manufacturing plant&#8230;  It was a day horse\/buggy ride west of Lima, Ohio, and travelers would stop here for the night.  What&#8217;s more, many were simply employed and lived here.  It was, primarily, a good model of a decentralized community.  Then the railroad came, and passenger trains bypassed the town, freight trains bypassed the town, and the town, incrementally, died &#8212; as did many other towns across the nation at the time.  According to a book I&#8217;ve been recently reading (see photo), &#8220;&#8230;the railroad was warmly embraced by the American people almost from its inception.  Its utility in unifying the nation and creating a strong national economy were apparent to nearly everyone.&#8221;  Everyone except, of course, and apparently, the merchants in Maysville, Ohio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I just wrote a newspaper article about Maysville, Ohio, pop.: not much. It&#8217;s just a small cluster of homes that are loosely configured around an intersection on Rte. 309 here. But Maysville wasn&#8217;t always like that. In the mid-1800s, it <span class=\"excerpt-dots\">&hellip;<\/span> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/?p=2644\"><span class=\"more-msg\">Continue reading &rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2644"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2646,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2644\/revisions\/2646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}