Lyman HallThe Stewards of West River: A Maryland Family During the American Revolution
The source of information for my book, The Stewards of West River, was created through a lifetime of adventure. I spent the first 18 years on a farm. One of our large fields had Arrowheads all over. This indicated a possible Indian village in the past and created a deep interest in me about their history. I also had a deep interest in airplanes. I built model airplanes during my teens and had them hanging all over the ceiling. During the Korean War, I enlisted in the Airforce and served four years active and four inactive as an S/Sgt on an RB36 Strategic Air Command [SAC] during the cold war. The commander of SAC was General LeMay, and we were at war with Russia. It was the atomic age, and our goal was Mutual Assured Destruction [MAD] with Russia. From my SAC career, I joined a major airline and retired thirty-six years later. For 40 years, my office consisted of a windshield that opened the world to me. I visited many countries, created many new friends, and had many exciting adventures. In 1960 I was furloughed, and I took a 6-month contract as a flight instructor for the Syrian Airlines. Flight schedules and layovers through the Holy land created a vast knowledge of Africa and the Mediterranean. When that contract was over, I went to work for a nonscheduled airline called United States Overseas, which had a contract to fly troops to Berlin, Germany. During my airline career. I had a flight school with five planes, and I taught ground school, primary flight training, and commercial and multi-engine. Sailing was also another adventure. Living in Annapolis, Maryland, was almost a requirement. I had a 38-foot Columbia sloop. With an experienced sailing buddy, we explored the Chesapeake Bay from Elkton to Norfolk. Then we headed south to New Providence, where I kept the ship for a year. I lived onboard and commuted to work. My experienced sailing buddy wanted a larger ship and more incredible adventures. When I got my sailboat back to Annapolis, he had bought a 60ft Trawler in Los angles, California. We sailed from Los Angles through the Panama Canal to Florida and Annapolis, Md. In 1985, I bought a historical site on the West River in Maryland called Norman's Retreat. It was recorded as a historical 19th-century farm and raised my past interest in 20th-century farming. It wasn't long before I learned that the site had extensive archival remains of an 18th-century shipyard through fortunate events. Shipwright Stephen Steward owned and operated the shipyard as the naval base for Maryland's navy during the American Revolutionary War. On March 31, 1781, the British attacked and burned the shipyard. This excited my love of history and soon led to extensive research: people, places, traveling to the Revolutionary War battles, and researching historical persons associated with the Steward shipyard. This research led to the shipwright's son, who fought under Generals Washington and Green from Brooklyn Heights to Yorktown. The grandson of the shipwright Stephen Steward accompanied Francis Scott Key through the rescue of Doctor Beames and the bombardment of Fort McHenry. After many years of research, I was encouraged by many to put it in print as a viable documentary of Maryland's history. Thus, I began the journey of writing this book.
