Dorchester Star from Cambridge, Maryland • 6

6 Friday, March 10, 2017 REGIONAL REGIONAL REGIONAL Dorchester Star The family of Alan Wa de Ruark woul like to thank everyone who sent prayers, food, cards, flowers, and donations, and stopp ed by We also would like to thank the staff of USMC of Dor chester chester chester he Nu rs es and doc to rs, and ER Doctor and nurses wer ee xtra special to him. They gave wonderful car ef or ef or ef him. We also like to thank Rev Rev Rev oug Ridley for an awesome service. Thank you to Ne wc omb Collins Funeral Home for making us feel like family family family ha nk you also to the Hooper Island Vo l. Fir eC ompany for serving food and for Hosier Memorial Chur ch for letting us have the service st her e.

Again, thanks to everyone By CHRIS POLK CAMBRIDGE The person whose picture will be on the new $20 bill is Harriet Tubman from Dorchester County, and a group of nature lovers set out last June to get a sense of some of the challenges she faced traveling her home ter she faced traveling her home ter she faced traveling her home ter ritory. Many imagine Tubman to be a brave, determined woman trying to escape slavery, making her way to freedom and leading others, traveling by foot, hiding in the woods, wading through swamps and hiding under bridges as she was guided by the North Star. Experts such as Donald Pinder, president of Dorchester Harriet Tubman Organization, say Tubman varied her routes and even helped some fugitive slaves escape by boat. Pinder led a kayak and canoe paddle in home territory and talked about role as a famous Underground Railroad He gave an inside view on what life was like on the water in Dorchester County when Tubman was enslaved. The paddle trip is the first in the annual Tour the Shore Paddle Series that allows nature lovers to explore local rivers, creeks and parks.

It is sponsored by the Mid shore Riverkeeper Conservancy. Paddlers get a chance to learn about local ecology while reconnecting with nature and meeting new people. Most people picture escape efforts to be mainly land- based, but along an Eastern Shore of many watersheds, the rivers and shoreline figured prominently into several of her escape plans, Pinder said. Tubman could have helped escaping slaves by boat through tangled central systems of rivers and on to Fishing Bay and Baltimore, on at least one occasion, he said. Legend has it that she sometimes encouraged escaping slaves to enter the water along the shoreline to avoid being tracked by bounty hunters.

The June 2016 paddle began at the boat ramp on Drawbridge Road south of Cambridge at the base of a bridge that passes over the Transquaking River. The Transquaking River is a thin tributary which meanders south, passing at one point about a mile from the Bucktown Village Store. The store is the famous location where a young Tubman received a blow to her head that fractured her skull while she was trying to help another enslaved person. The head injury plagued her for the rest of her life. Pinder said Tubman tried to escape with two of her brothers twice, but intuition convinced her to turn back because conditions were not right.

She escaped successfully in 1849 with help from those working in the Underground Railroad who planned her connections and set up a time for her to go, he said. Pinder said it is believed she traveled, hidden in a horse cart with a false bottom, to the home of Rev. Samuel Green in East New Market. From there she probably went on foot to Preston. were 10 to 15 miles Pinder said.

would not have been unusual or a hardship for people to walk there. And then they rested by day and then moved on by In Preston, it was established that the home of Jacob Leverton, a Quaker who lived on what is now Seaman Road, was an Underground Railroad stop. The old brick home is still used today. Tubman ended up in Philadelphia, and began to think about helping her family escape, Pinder said. As the group paddled on June 4, they passed by wild and wooded shoreline that looked very similar to that of time.

Pinder said that Tubman was very good at interpreting noises in the nighttime forest and could tell when they were made by animals or humans. This bode her well one time, he said, when she was approaching the bridge to Wilmington and heard sounds not made by animals. She knew she had a price on her head. A group of bounty hunters were waiting for her, Pinder said, but she laid low for three hours until they finally gave up and left. Pinder said counts of the num bers of people Tubman led to freedom vary, from 60 to 70 as report dom vary, from 60 to 70 as report dom vary, from 60 to 70 as report ed by author Kate Clifford Larson to 300 as reported by author Sarah Bradford.

He told the group to keep an eye out for wildlife and semi-aquatic creatures as they paddled. have to know that people lived years ago here without supermarket he said. they lived off the land and the wa they lived off the land and the wa they lived off the land and the wa ter. Whatever you see, you have to consider, what they Fish that were plentiful in time would have been yellow perch and black bullhead cat low perch and black bullhead cat low perch and black bullhead cat fish, he said. There would also be deer, musk There would also be deer, musk There would also be deer, musk rat and foxes preying upon bullfrogs.

Other reptiles included snakes and leopard frogs. Pinder said that in times past, the central part of the Transquak the central part of the Transquak the central part of the Transquak ing River above the bridge on Drawbridge Road was brackish and could be fresh enough during low tide for farmers to use for ir low tide for farmers to use for ir low tide for farmers to use for ir rigation. He said that of the many rivers in Dorchester, farmers would call the thin, central swampy rivers the legacy and popularity continues to spread throughout the United States with numerous sites named for her. Last paddle trip was held under the guidance of MRC naturalists Elle Suzanne Sullivan and Elizabeth Brown. For more information, visit www.

midshoreriverkeeper.org. Follow me on Twitter stardem. Email me at stardem.com. Paddling the historic path of Harriet Tubman PHOTO BY CHRIS POLK Kayakers and canoe paddlers take off on the Transquaking River to explore the territory where Harriet Tubman was enslaved and helped others escape. The Tour the Shore Paddle series is sponsored by the Midshore Riverkeepers Conservancy.

By VICTORIA WINGATE CAMBRIDGE The U.S. Treasury Department announced in April 2016 that the redesign of the $20 bill will feature abolitionist and Dorchester County native Harriet Tubman. Representatives of the Harriet Tubman Organiza Harriet Tubman Organiza Harriet Tubman Organiza tion in Cambridge said they are very pleased with the news. are very, very ex are very, very ex are very, very ex said Bill Jarmon, a member of the organiza member of the organiza member of the organiza board. woman went out of her way to prove that if you have a mission you can fulfill it.

We want to share with the rest of the world who she was and what she did. no better way to do that than to put it on some he said. is another way to share her legacy, along with the Harriet Tubman National Historical Park, the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway and the national been waiting so long for her to be recognized. This is a celebration of a woman whose story continues to touch and change said Charles E. T.

Ross, great-great- grand-nephew of Tubman. are finally celebrating her life and work as other countries have for a long time. The national park is going to be a big change. More and more people are learning about her all the In 2016, then U.S. Sen.

Barbara Mikulski, urged the treasury depart urged the treasury depart urged the treasury depart ment to act quickly to implement the redesign of the bill. is long past time that a woman be featured on American she said. helped introduce a bill to honor Harriet Tubman on the front of the $10 bill by 2020, in time for the centennial of the 19th can think of few people more deserving to be fea more deserving to be fea more deserving to be fea tured on the redesigned $20 bill than Harriet said U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md, in 2016.

Mary D-Md, in 2016. Mary D-Md, in 2016. Mary lander from the Eastern Shore, a conductor on the Underground Railroad with a 100 percent success rate, a Union scout during the Civil War and a champion of the Suffrage Movement, Harriet Tubman is one of greatest patriots. likeness on the new $20 will serve as a constant reminder of the courage and self-sacrifice on which this nation was he said. Treasury Depart said.

Treasury Depart said. Treasury Depart initiative to more accurately reflect the diversity of Americans who played pivotal roles in our history should be The design of the bill is expected to be released publicly in 2020, just in time for the centennial anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote. Follow me on Twitter victoriadorstar and on Instagram U.S. Treasury marked 2016 by placing Tubman on new $20 bill CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Harriet Tubman is pictured in this photo from about 1885..