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The Magical
History Tour
PHOTOS COURTESY OF DOUG AND TERRY LYTTON
Doug and Terry Lytton pose in Gadsby’s Diner where several Founding Fathers feasted. It’s just one of many throught-
provoking stops made throughout colonial America on their Magical History Tour!
F By Doug Lytton pair of glasses. by the harsh British military garrison
estive crowds greeted George Wash- IRUFHGWKHVHWWOHUVLQWRVHOIVXIÀFLHQF\
ington when he traveled to and from While reading the history of our nation’s WKHSHRSOHÀQDOO\IRXQGDSURGXFWWKDW
Philadelphia. Yet on this crisp, clear beginnings and the men and women who would underpin the colony’s economic fu-
March morning, he and his wife Martha VDFULÀFHGVRPXFKLQLWVRULJLQDWLRQP\ ture – tobacco. Cultivated by John Rolfe
rode almost unnoticed as their carriage wife Terry and I felt compelled to travel (an English settler who married Pocahon-
rattled across the brick and cobblestone all the way back to where it began, The tas in 1614), the lucrative tobacco plant
streets. John Adams was president now, Magical History Tour. established the character of Jamestown
and the Washingtons were leaving for and the colony for the rest of the 1600s.
Mount Vernon, their home in Virginia. JAMESTOWN
Given the swings in tobacco prices, boom
Following Adams’ inauguration on March It all began at Jamestown in 1607. It and bust proved the rule. The town’s role
4, 1797, Washington had remained in ended and began anew at Yorktown in DVSRUWRIHQWU\DQGKRVWLQJRIÀFLDOVGXU-
WKHSUHVLGHQW·VPDQVLRQIRUDQRWKHUÀYH 1781. One hundred and seventy-four years ing General Assembly provided some eco-
days while his successor stayed at a lo- of hope, adventure, discovery, settlement, nomic stability.
cal boarding house. He helped Martha struggle, suffering, war and growth that
pack 97 boxes and 14 trunks and twice saw the country expand from a lonely Eng- Jamestown’s growth from precarious
called on Adams. The Washingtons said lish settlement of 104 men and boys on commercial outpost to colonial port and
goodbye to old acquaintances and enjoyed the James River into 13 British colonies. administrative center was an early step in
a last-minute shopping spree just before It ended for Great Britain in a port town the greatest migration in modern history.
departing. Martha bought shoes and fur- on the York River, where independence Over the next 300 years, tens of millions
niture, and George purchased wine, nuts, for the new United States became reality. of European, African and Asian peoples
medicine, a smoking jacket and a new arrived on American shores to begin their
It is hard to overstate the desperate early lives anew. John Rolfe’s success at culti-
years at Jamestown. After the imposition
68 | SUNRAYS AUGUST 2017 ONLINE: SCTEXAS.ORG
