May 9, 2023 • 37 mins
Send us a textLocated in the Ohio River is one of the most unique state parks that West Virginia has to offer. While some of the standard state park attractions such as hiking and fishing will draw some visitors in, it is the history of this fascinating island that will draw most of the visitors. Home to Harman and Margaret Blennerhassett in the late 1800's, a replica of their home stands today. The real draw comes from their partnership with Aaron Burr who was full of scandalous events including a major step towards treason according to some at this very island. So, join us as we head to Parkersburg, WV for this exciting trip.Support the show
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:12):
All right, everyone, welcome into another episode of West Virginia
Talk with James and Jerry.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I'm James and I'm Jerry.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
And today we're going to go to Wood County, West Virginia,
along the Ohio River, and that is site to blinterer
Hassett Island.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Definitely something you don't think about a lot when you
think the state of West Virginia. I'm sure to an island.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
A lot of people have never heard of it. They
don't know what it is or why it's significant. So
we're going to profile blinter Hassett Island and why you
should go visit this island and see what it all
has to offer. So there's a really interesting backstory with
this thing, and it has a lot to do with
(00:52):
some revolutionary War figures, most notably Aaron Burr.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Right. And this was a shocking story to me because
I didn't even know about this island.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
I remember talking to some of these guys. I know,
I was talking to one person and some others heard
what I was saying and they stared at me when
I was talking about it, and I said what and
they said that really happened? Yeah, I did. They said,
that's interesting. I'm like, yeah, that's why we're gonna do
an episode on it.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Well, like I said, I hadn't even heard this place.
I'm pretty familiar with a lot of the state parks
and to never heard of this, And the more you
talked about it and then researching, I was floored by
the story.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Right. So, Aaron Burr, he is a The name is known,
and they may know that he was a vice president
under Jefferson, but they don't know a lot about Burr.
They probably know that he, you know, was in a
duel with Alexander Hamilton came out on the winning side
(01:59):
of things, but they don't know much else about him.
So let's discuss Aaron Burr a little bit. Okay, so
very well known in the Revolutionary War, but he was
not recognized as often as he should have by General Washington.
So he disliked Washington because of that. He felt like
(02:22):
he should have been recognized and given more accommodations for
his service in the.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
War, but he was not. He was feeling slighted.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Definitely, definitely. So when he ran for president after the war,
he came in fourth. Now this is the seventeen ninety
nine election.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
So he was vice president first before running for office.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Yeah, no, see, not seventeen ninety nine, seventeen ninety six.
So in the first two or three elections, they didn't
have a running man. It wasn't like the Biden Harris ticket.
They ran by themselves and whoever came in second was
(03:10):
named vice president. Okay. So he ran for president in
the seventeen ninety six election and was fourth behind John Adams,
Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Pinckney. And he didn't like it.
He thought that there was some rigging in the voting.
(03:33):
Refused to acknowledge the outcome of it.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Are you saying this was the first coming of Trumply,
we're not political people, so don't take it this way.
It's a good joke though, you got admit.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Right, Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, he held out on that.
So he didn't win presidency. So he had some state
positions in the state of New York. And if you've
ever seen the movie Gangs of New York, you know
what Tammany Hall is, and that's where he was at.
(04:09):
It was called the Tammany Society then and then it
became the Tammany Hall. But he was there for a
few years and then he ran for office again in
eighteen hundred as president and lost. Who do he lose to?
I have no clue, Thomas Jefferson.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Oh, because he was second place, and.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
This time burb was second, not fourth. So Aaron Burr
became the vice president.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
I'll be honest with you, you just lost me there. I
was like space, and so when you asked it, I
was like, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
I can't even hold my co host attention on this.
All is lost. So he became vice president, but once
again he didn't like the outcome of the vote, and
he held out and then finally conceded, but it was
a long holdout, almost like when Bush beat Clinton's vice
(05:00):
president Gore. When Bush beat Gore, you know, he didn't
concede right away because there was a question about the
hanging Chad's in Florida, right But Burr just didn't didn't
acknowledge that he lost. That he held out for a
while and then he's like, okay, I'll take vice president.
But it was a tumultuous relationship between he and Jefferson.
(05:21):
He didn't like Jefferson, he didn't like Washington, so he.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Didn't like anybody besides himself exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
So, like I said, he felt it was almost like
the air of about him. He felt like he deserved more.
And and you know this whole duel with Alexander Hamilton,
that wasn't his only duel.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
What else did he have, do you know?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Well, he had a duel with John Church. So John
Church accused Burr of taking a bribe from this company.
And as for political influence, right burden like that. So
they doled, they did the ten paces thing, they turned,
they both fired and both missed. Well, this gave John
(06:13):
Church the time to say, okay, I almost died here.
You know what I was wrong for accusing you of that.
Let's just let bygones be boxed. So they shook hands
and that was the end of it. So neither one
of them got shot in that.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Okay, so this was his first successful duel.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Yeah, because he didn't die well, I.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Mean the first one. He didn't even kill anybody, right right, right?
Speaker 1 (06:40):
So also at this time he was a bank owner,
you know, so a lot of things going on for
some of these founding fathers, you know, like Ben Franklin.
I mean think I think he did everything you could
do at that time, you know, inventor and his statesman
in France, and except president, you know, he was the
(07:01):
only one, you know what I mean, It seemed like
the founding fathers.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
But Burr was definitely in the aristocratic society.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Then that's an understatement. Yeah, you know, if if you
look at his childhood growing up, I mean his uh,
his parents were both dead and his grandfather, they were
all dead. By the time he was two years old,
his very young uncle took him in to raise him.
His uncle was only twenty one and he rolled with
(07:27):
an iron fist, and a lot of people nowadays would
say he was raised on her child abuse and stuff
like that. He ran away and da da da da da.
But he wound up making something of himself. Although yeah
he did, yeah, although he didn't. He wasn't liked. He
was not well liked. So as vice president, he and
(07:48):
Jefferson were always in disagreement and they didn't see each
other much, you know what I mean. Just because you're
the vice president back then doesn't mean you have to
hang around the guy that beat you. So so as
far as a you know, a government role, he didn't
have much of it. You know, if you look back
to what Thomas Jefferson said, or not Thomas Jefferson John
(08:09):
Adams when he lost to Washington, and He's like, so,
I'm really a nobody, you know, second place. That doesn't
mean anything.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
I'm a joke.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
No one takes me seriously. Aaron Burr definitely felt that
way in every aspect of life. So if you lose
the presidency twice and you're at odds with the man
that beats you, yeah, you definitely feel like, you know,
you don't matter. You're always trying to prove yourself, right,
you know. Okay, So Thomas Jefferson was a two term
(08:36):
president and then they had it to where you could
pick a running mate, right, So Jefferson said, you're not
gonna be my guy. Sorry, it was nice knowing you.
So he sent him on his way, right, So I
left the bad taste in Arabirr's mouth. So he started
having these aspirations of if I can't join these guys.
(08:59):
It's kind of a reverse thing, you know, it's always
if you can't beat him, join him. Well, he couldn't
join him, so he thought about beating them. Okay. So
one of the most famous things that happening happened in
our country under Jefferson was the Louisiana purchase.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Right.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
You know, we got a huge chunk of land for
almost no money from France. And and I don't know,
I guess it's arguable Burr didn't like that Jefferson had
this success, right.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
He didn't like him having all the power in him
having none. Right.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
So he's like, well, let's see if we can mess
things up a little bit, Okay. So he decided that
he was going to find some financial backers, not so
much for land acquisition, but for taking it by force.
He wanted to start a war.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
This is this is really what's incredible to me.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Who did he want to start a war with America? America? Yeah, yes,
Now I'm gonna throw this disclaimer out. This is this
is all word of mouth. None of this was proven,
none of it. Absolutely none of what was proven. But
we'll get into that later. So he frequent in the
(10:16):
Ohio River, and he started his journey from Pittsburgh, made
some stops, went to Wheeling, made some stops, and then
he made this stop at this island in the Ohio
River which belonged to Harmon Blinner.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Has it?
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Now, who's Harmon Blinner? Has it?
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Okay, So Harmon Blinner has it is a very intriguing
character to me. This man is he's born in Ireland
and he married his wife Margaret. Now what's really neat
about this relationship, or you can kind of say gross
or sick, is that Margaret was his niece Harmon. Yeah,
(11:00):
she was his niece. She was eighteen years old when
they got married. Harmon was thirty one, so really kind
of messed up she was. How old she was eighteen
years old?
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Oh okay, okay, Yeah, So.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Here's Harmon who's really well to do. I mean, he's
aristocratic for that side of the ocean. His wife comes
from a well to do family. But they have to
leave because one of their marriage caused a lot of
social issues. Needless to say, the family wasn't exactly excited
(11:38):
about this. The friends weren't excited about this society, the
people around in the towns that knew them weren't excited
about this arrangement. And just like Burr felt the need
to have his own country, Harmon was known to have
a very strong stance of in the politic communities of
(12:02):
being an activist for Irish independence from.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
The UK, and that really hasn't changed much.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Right, So they leave and this is, of course, this is
before seventeen ninety seven. I think they got an American
in seventeen ninety six. They come across up through Ohio
and down where they end up purchasing part of the island,
and they build this absolutely stunning mansion.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Which was the greatest private residence west of the Alleghany Mountains, right,
And that's that's not an opinion, that's fact.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
It's still considered probably one of the most beautiful homes
in West Virginia.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
And we'll also get to that later.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Yeah, But anyway, they end up settling there, and of course,
being aristocratic, they're always bringing in friends. And that, of
course is where Burr comes into the picture. He shows
up to one of their parties.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
So, I mean, Burr must have been a very charming
person to have affluence after being I guess embarrassed in Washington.
You were sought after by the government after this this
duel with Alexander Hamilton, which Burr fatally shot, right, Alexander
(13:21):
Hamilton and people, if you don't know who Alexander Hamilton
in is besides the musical Hamilton, Uh, he's on your
ten dollars, Bill the first US Treasurer, another founding father.
But I'm telling you, man, a lot of these founding
fathers back in the day, they didn't just disagree. They
were like adamant about, you know, proving the other one wrong.
(13:45):
And sometimes it led to gunfire. Right, That's what you
know happened there between Burr and Hamilton. But that happened
right at the end of his vice presidency. So all this,
you know, seeking some financial backers, and not just financial
but just people who had affluence that had the same
vision as Burr, you know, because you got to remember
(14:08):
this country was barely a country, right, and there was
a lot of flexibility as far as like expansion or division.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Well that's when you were talking about him being a
person that was easily conversated with and such forth, you know,
with the aristocratic parties and stuff coming and showing up.
It's also to me a sign that maybe he's not
the most well liked. A lot of people hate him,
but he he could find the people that had that
(14:38):
same anger inside of them.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Well. Plus, I mean, if you look at Harmon Blenner
has it you know, he hasn't been in the country
very long, right, he hasn't lived here long. He doesn't
have allegiances to the United States, you know what I mean.
He doesn't have a love for it. He didn't have
to fight for it. You know. It's it's But.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
He seemed like a divisive person to me because of
the fact that he was fighting overseas for a split
of a of I guess it wasn't really a split
of a country, would it, or would it have been
back then? Yeah, it had been the split of the
country back then. So there was a United country and
he's wanting to divide it. And here he's making friends
with somebody in America. Yeah, that wants to do the
(15:18):
exact same thing, but in a different country.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Yeah. And I mean he he was one of these
people that didn't want to live around other people. You know,
he hated people. Yeah, and he didn't want to I
don't know. He just wanted to live in a place
that he could call the shots, right right, Okay. So
he and Burr met several times on blinter Hassett Island,
(15:40):
and what they came to was an agreement that they
would raise some money so they would hire men to
train on blinter Hassett Island and in hopes that eventually
they could launch a war. But in order to do that,
to invade the Louisiana purchased part of America, they had
(16:04):
to get more men. So what they were thinking was,
let's go down and raid Mexico and try to get
some of that for ourselves against the Spanish. Right then
we could start building, we could start to expand it.
So they wanted to start in Mexico and then expand
into the Louisiana Purchase. So what it comes down to
(16:28):
is they're like, we're going to start our own country
and a country that already exists, you know. So that's
the most treasonous thing to do.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Oh absolutely, you know.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
I mean that's what the Civil War was all about.
You know, we're seceding from the Union. This is our
country now where the Confederate States of America. Huge war
over that. So this would have been if he was
successful and even launching it, he never got that far.
It would have been America's first civil war, right, and
(17:01):
then the eighteen sixty one Civil War had been the
second civil war. But it never got that far. So
why didn't he get that far? Well, some snitches, some
snitches got back to Jefferson. Hey, uh, your old pow Aaron.
He wants to uh attack Mexico and then eventually the
United States. So they sent out warns for his arrest.
(17:25):
Now all these other co conspirators they got arrested too,
But Harmon Blenner Hasset left the island. What are you
shaking your head for?
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Lennar has got arrested.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Well, he left the island.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
With Barr or Burr. They got caught together.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
That's right. He never went back to the island. The
locals caught wind of this whole trees and conspiracy and
they were going to come Burns house, so they fled. Yeah,
they didn't right away, but there was like a five
year gap. They eventually did get to the island and
burn it to the ground because it fell in disrepair.
(18:03):
I don't know why they just wouldn't take it over
for themselves. It's like the grandest home most of the alleghenies.
Why would they just burn it? Well, it was more
because of who it belonged to. They didn't want any
reminders of this conspirator. They hanged Aaron Burr and Harmon
Blennerhasset an effigy because of what was going on.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Right, Even they went to court, there wasn't enough within
the case to prosecute them, so they were released from that,
but the society itself never forgave them, and so, like
you said, they couldn't return because society would not allow it.
And one of the things that could have also played there.
(18:47):
Now this is speculation, clearly, because there's nothing art of
as far as facts goes, but there is proof that
he had slaves too on that property, which was just
south of Ohio that the following year had banned slavery.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Well, and you know it's weird. He he partnered up
with Burr, right, Burr whenever he ran for president, he
wanted to end slavery. If he was elected president, he
was going to push ending slavery.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
That's crazy, But money talks, Yeah, it makes strange bedfellows.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Yes, yes, yeah, here's another thing too. So Blenner Hassett
fled to Mississippi with his wife, and Burr fled somewhere
that you probably wouldn't expect. Who did he want to attack? First?
The Spanish? Right, Well, he fled to Spanish controlled Florida
to hide from the United States. Yeah, but he knew
(19:55):
that they wouldn't be able to get him in Florida
because it was Spanish controlled. Okay. So eventually Burr was
found and arrested. Okay, there was a warn for his
arrest issue by Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson wanted the absolute highest
charges brought against Burr, you know, And what's the ultimate
punishment for treason?
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Death? Death?
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Right?
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Okay. So the weird thing is they passed this law
a few years before that, called the Neutrality Act. What's
the Neutrality Act. Here's what the Neutrality Act says. Okay,
if any person shall, within the territory or jurisdiction of
the United States, begin or set on foot, or provide
(20:40):
or prepare the means for any military expedition or enterprise
against the territory or dominions of any foreign prince or
state of whom in the United States was at peace,
that person would be guilty of a misdemeanor. Did you
hear that part?
Speaker 2 (20:58):
A misdemeanor?
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Mis demeanor. So forget the fact that he wanted to
start a war with the United States. The fact is
he wanted to start a war with Mexico first. Okay.
So because of that, if he was found and prosecuted.
It was for a misdemeanor, not a felony.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Yeah, So the star witness for this whole trial against
Aaron Burr was this gentleman who had a letter that
had all the plans that Burr had. Okay, all the
other evidence against Burr was hearsay, and this man had
(21:41):
a letter from Burr that had all of his plans. Right,
it's a damning piece of evidence. Correct. Well, the attorney
for Burr said, wait a minute, this isn't Aaron Burr's handwriting.
And the witness said that's true. He said, well, who
wrote it? He said I did. He said why? He said, well,
(22:04):
because I had the letter and I don't know where
it is, so I just wrote it verbatim. Well that's
not evidence, right, right, so he just made it up.
So well he maybe made it up. We don't know
that he could have made it up. Regardless, it's not evidence.
So he was acquitted. And this was all in the
(22:26):
Supreme Court, right. So Jefferson was not happy with this
outcome at all because he despised Aaron Burr. So he
challenged the authority of the Supreme Court. Wow, this, you
don't hear this stuff okay, and he especially challenged the
authority of Chief Justice John Marshall, and of course the
(22:49):
Supreme Court decision was upheld. So Aaron Burr got off
scott free, except for the fact that you know, he
couldn't show his face in public for the rest of
his life. And where did Harmon Blunder Hasset end up.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
He ends up going back home basically, I mean he
goes back over.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Seas, not back to Blunder Acid Island, No.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
But he goes back overseas, the place that he fled
from for his divisiveness with Ireland and England, along with
his crazy marriage to his niece after trying to cause
division in the United States, which I think is just
ironic and crazy in itself right. But he goes back.
(23:31):
Things never go well for him. Their level of aristocratic
you know, standing in society, that money and everything's gone.
They have nothing to their name now. So he ends
up dying over there, never making it again financially. Somewhere
along the line, his wife and I'm assuming they're only
(23:53):
child because it's the only one I've ever heard of
Harmon Jr. Both come back to America and not back
to Blunter Hasset, I know, back to America. I believe
it was in New York City and where she would
end up dying and her son along with her were
(24:13):
buried in New York for a long period of time
and then I don't exactly know the dates, but they
did move their bodies. Harmon Junior and Margaret's Lennar has
an island where they're buried now, gotcha.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
So it's funny how that ended up for them. Because
Aaron Burr kind of followed the same path, you know,
he kind of lived in exile right after the whole
thing went down. He went to live in Europe, okay,
and he again unsuccessfully tried to put together money and
(24:49):
power to invade Mexico again, which he couldn't do, right,
And he lived all over Europe, mostly in England. But
he went back to the United States to finish out
his life, right. But you can't go back as Aaron Burr.
So he went by Edwards that was his.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Last name, grabbed himself an alias.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Well actually, I mean there is a there is a
basis for that, and it was his mother's maiden name.
It wasn't just pulled out of thin air. He had
a reason for that. But yeah, so he also died
in New York, so you know what I mean, it's
pretty pretty wide.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
The only way this story could have really gotten much
stranger is.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
If they were actually in Mexico.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
No, if Margaret and Burr would end up getting married
after she lost her husband, that's true, that would have
been very weird.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Yeah, but didn't happen that way. As far as we know,
it didn't. We don't know could have. It's all hearsay. Absolutely,
they didn't kiss and tell as much as they do now,
so who knows.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
But what a great backstory to this island right now.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Earlier we talked about Blender Hassett being burned to the ground,
right right, So, in an effort to kind of like
a phoenix out of the ashes, the state of West
Virginia decided to let's kind of revitalize that area and
bring it back to what it was. So they went
(26:22):
back to Blendterer Hassett and over the course of a
couple of years, they rebuilt the mansion that the Blender
Hassets had. And now if you look at the really
really old drawings of the house and what it looks
like now, it's very close there's some differences, but not many.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Well, they had to use they used modern equipment. Of
course when they built, they tried to stay as original
to form as they could, but they did use some
modern equipment, and so it shows in the building. If
you look closely, you're gonna be able to see where
(26:59):
certain things were built in a means, in a way
in which it couldn't have happened back in the eighteen hundreds.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Right, So there's I mean, if you look at when
it was burned to the ground eighteen eleven and when
it was rebuilt, it was rebuilt on its original foundation,
and it was like a full one hundred and seventy
years after it was burnt to the ground. I don't
(27:26):
know if i'd feel safe about putting a structure on
a foundation that was that old.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
This is the interesting thing though, it's on the foundation,
but they raised the leveling of the ground because it
was in its flood prone It was flood prone, so
the foundation was raised. So it's over the same exact spot.
But I don't necessarily know that it's the original foundation.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Well, from what I read, it said that a detailed
replica was built on its foundations.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Right, so I mean, maybe they put the foundation on
top of the other foundation to build up.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
I don't know. So it's pretty wild. If you look
at the house, it looks a lot if you've ever
been to Mount Vernon, which was George Washington's home, it
looks a lot like that, which is also kind of
ironic because Burr was blunder Hasset's friend and he hated
George Washington and his friend had a house that looks
a lot like pretty strange. So anyway, this thing, it's this,
(28:24):
it's a state park. It's a blunder Hasset Island Historic
State Park. It's in uh really really close to Parkersburg.
Parkersburg one of the bigger towns in our state. Right,
it's like two and a half miles I guess down
the Ohio River from Parkersburg.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
I think. Really though, this is what makes this island unique.
One of the mansion. The backstories just fantastic. And like
we've said earlier, this is all hearsay because it wasn't.
The plans and stuff were never they were never, never
able to prove this happened. That's why he's released. Yeah,
(29:04):
so it's it's all hearsay, but it's a great backstory.
But the other thing that really intrigues me, Like you said,
is it Parkersburg, is how you're gonna get there. Yeah,
but you're gonna get there in style. You're gonna take
a boat, but it's not gonna be an ordinary boat either. No,
I like this kind of it's gonna be a throwback. Yeah,
(29:25):
it's you're going stern wheel. Yeah, exactly when it's in
itself is fun. Yes, I mean where else can you go? Hey,
let's go ride a stern wheel and then go to
the stern wheel. Doc say, let's let's ride. So you're
this is included in going to blinter Hassett. So it's
a it's an all.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
Inclusive kind of thing. You know, you're gonna go to
very beautiful Parkersburg, West Virginia. Uh, you're gonna get to
the dock, You're gonna get on this stern wheel and
and in itself, it's it's a great time. You get
to the island, it's it's really pretty. It's a big island.
When you think River Island, you're thinking something small, some
trees on it, but it's huge.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
It's four miles a little it's over over three hundred acres.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
It's five hundred and eleven.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
At five hundred and eleven, I think it's five.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Hundred eleven acres. It's five hundred plus let me okay,
oh five hundred and nine. Okay, five hundred and nine
acres big, I mean it's a lot of land.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
You can tell people. I did my research really well.
I sit three hundred and something A good thing. We
got the fact.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Man here five hundred and nine acres. There's still four
miles right right, So uh, you can. You can tour
the house and of course there's a lot of people
that work there that you know. They have interactive tours
and you know anything you need to know. You're gonna
be educated on this thing. And they addressed to the
time they do. It's time period. And you go around
(30:46):
the island on a horse drawn carriage.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
You can, you can. That's extra So what I don't know,
I'm just saying. I'm just telling the people. You'll pay
you can do that. Take the horse and wagon tour
and they will give you a great tour. They'll tell
you all about it as they're driving you around.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
But if you're not into that, they've got plenty of hiking, biking,
all that stuff. They have picnic grounds out there also
also fish you can fish. It's surrounded by water. There's
also another house I'm not exactly sure what the significance
of it is. It's the Putnam House, built in eighteen
oh two. It's been revamped. Also, they didn't burn that
one to the ground in eighteen eleven, but it's there
(31:23):
also for a tour. So they also have a museum
dedicated to the blender Hasset Island and it's not on
the island, it's in downtown Parkersburg.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
There's a lot of Blenner Hasset in Parkersburg.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Yeah, so, I mean it's a lot of age antiquities,
you know, time periods, Yeah, memorabilion guns, china, silverware, what
have you, garments, It's got everything that you would see
in the year eighteen what was it eighteen oh five? Right, Well,
they built.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
It in seventeen ninety nine, so roughly it probably finished
around the early eighteen.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
It's crazy, you know, just in a nutshell. Be careful
if you associate yourself with you know, because these people
came from Ireland and in seventeen ninety nine built the
most exquisite home west of the Allegheny Mountains, highly respectable people.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Yeah at the time.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
Six years later it's abandoned, and then a total of
twelve years after it was built, it was burned to
the ground. So this guy, if he and his wife
hadn't got mixed in with the wrong crowd, you know,
the original one would probably be sitting there and it
would probably be more of a well known name in
(32:40):
our state. Oh, absolutely, everyone's heard of blunter hass At
Island in our state.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
People may not be what people may not want to
go to blunter Hasset though if things wouldn't have gone
the way they went, we got so many state parks
that are honestly just a lot larger and probably have
a lot more activities to do. But from a historical standpoint,
this is gonna be one of the best historical state
(33:07):
parks that we have, right and so history buffs are
gonna absolutely go nuts for this place. I think it's
a wonderful thing to take your kids out, let them
see what things look like. Then you know, the mansion,
the attire that people wore. And outside of that, though,
(33:28):
like you said, there's gonna be hiking, you can do
some fishing, and so forth. But you're talking about three
hours probably tops on a good day. This is gonna
be about a three hour trip for you and your
family if you go out.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
But the stem wheel's in it too, and the horse dr.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
That's part of the three hours trip for me, you
know me.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Yes, the whole drawl is what happened, the history, Yes,
what happened.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
And I think it's gonna be a large draw to
a lot of people that do go to visit. It's
like I said, I think this is a fantastic state park. Yeah,
with just an immense amount of crazy yep.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Plus I'm a fan of architecture and it's it's awesome.
So in a nutshell, guys, blinter Hassett Island former site
of a conspiracy to attack the United States and Mexico,
and that's why we like to call it trees and Island.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Absolutely absolutely yep.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
So he we appreciate listening in. Also want to give
out some props to some of our newest countries that
have downloaded us. Hong Kong's in there. Love it, Thailand
is in there, and so on and so on. Once again,
people around the world and in the United States that
listens to us. Please tell us where you live, who
(34:48):
you are, why you like listening to us, because we
have a dedicated following, at least in Germany, New Zealand.
Tell us who you are, why you listen to us,
and why you will keep listening to us.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
And if you could do us a really huge favor,
we'd greatly appreciate, and that favor is to rate rate
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So if you're listening on Spotify, if you're listening on Apple,
rate us, give us ratings, give us reviews. That helps
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(35:23):
we need a bigger ego than what we have, but
it helps us to monetize our podcast and to get
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we can continue to do this research, continue to get
the equipment that's needed us to process and put this
out to you.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Yeah, check out our Facebook page, hit that message button,
give us a shout out, and our email address is
West Virginia talk at yahoo dot com. Get in there.
Tell us who you are, where you're from, why you
like to listen. So, once again, that was blenter Hasset
Island aka Trees in Ireland.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
I'm James, I'm Jerry.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
You've been listening to a J and J production?
Speaker 2 (37:01):
Yes many money, yes many nice ny n many A
(37:21):
fool voice
All right, everyone, welcome into another episode of West Virginia
Talk with James and Jerry.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I'm James and I'm Jerry.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
And today we're going to go to Wood County, West Virginia,
along the Ohio River, and that is site to blinterer
Hassett Island.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Definitely something you don't think about a lot when you
think the state of West Virginia. I'm sure to an island.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
A lot of people have never heard of it. They
don't know what it is or why it's significant. So
we're going to profile blinter Hassett Island and why you
should go visit this island and see what it all
has to offer. So there's a really interesting backstory with
this thing, and it has a lot to do with
(00:52):
some revolutionary War figures, most notably Aaron Burr.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Right. And this was a shocking story to me because
I didn't even know about this island.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
I remember talking to some of these guys. I know,
I was talking to one person and some others heard
what I was saying and they stared at me when
I was talking about it, and I said what and
they said that really happened? Yeah, I did. They said,
that's interesting. I'm like, yeah, that's why we're gonna do
an episode on it.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Well, like I said, I hadn't even heard this place.
I'm pretty familiar with a lot of the state parks
and to never heard of this, And the more you
talked about it and then researching, I was floored by
the story.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Right. So, Aaron Burr, he is a The name is known,
and they may know that he was a vice president
under Jefferson, but they don't know a lot about Burr.
They probably know that he, you know, was in a
duel with Alexander Hamilton came out on the winning side
(01:59):
of things, but they don't know much else about him.
So let's discuss Aaron Burr a little bit. Okay, so
very well known in the Revolutionary War, but he was
not recognized as often as he should have by General Washington.
So he disliked Washington because of that. He felt like
(02:22):
he should have been recognized and given more accommodations for
his service in the.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
War, but he was not. He was feeling slighted.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Definitely, definitely. So when he ran for president after the war,
he came in fourth. Now this is the seventeen ninety
nine election.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
So he was vice president first before running for office.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Yeah, no, see, not seventeen ninety nine, seventeen ninety six.
So in the first two or three elections, they didn't
have a running man. It wasn't like the Biden Harris ticket.
They ran by themselves and whoever came in second was
(03:10):
named vice president. Okay. So he ran for president in
the seventeen ninety six election and was fourth behind John Adams,
Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Pinckney. And he didn't like it.
He thought that there was some rigging in the voting.
(03:33):
Refused to acknowledge the outcome of it.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Are you saying this was the first coming of Trumply,
we're not political people, so don't take it this way.
It's a good joke though, you got admit.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Right, Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, he held out on that.
So he didn't win presidency. So he had some state
positions in the state of New York. And if you've
ever seen the movie Gangs of New York, you know
what Tammany Hall is, and that's where he was at.
(04:09):
It was called the Tammany Society then and then it
became the Tammany Hall. But he was there for a
few years and then he ran for office again in
eighteen hundred as president and lost. Who do he lose to?
I have no clue, Thomas Jefferson.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Oh, because he was second place, and.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
This time burb was second, not fourth. So Aaron Burr
became the vice president.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
I'll be honest with you, you just lost me there. I
was like space, and so when you asked it, I
was like, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
I can't even hold my co host attention on this.
All is lost. So he became vice president, but once
again he didn't like the outcome of the vote, and
he held out and then finally conceded, but it was
a long holdout, almost like when Bush beat Clinton's vice
(05:00):
president Gore. When Bush beat Gore, you know, he didn't
concede right away because there was a question about the
hanging Chad's in Florida, right But Burr just didn't didn't
acknowledge that he lost. That he held out for a
while and then he's like, okay, I'll take vice president.
But it was a tumultuous relationship between he and Jefferson.
(05:21):
He didn't like Jefferson, he didn't like Washington, so he.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Didn't like anybody besides himself exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
So, like I said, he felt it was almost like
the air of about him. He felt like he deserved more.
And and you know this whole duel with Alexander Hamilton,
that wasn't his only duel.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
What else did he have, do you know?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Well, he had a duel with John Church. So John
Church accused Burr of taking a bribe from this company.
And as for political influence, right burden like that. So
they doled, they did the ten paces thing, they turned,
they both fired and both missed. Well, this gave John
(06:13):
Church the time to say, okay, I almost died here.
You know what I was wrong for accusing you of that.
Let's just let bygones be boxed. So they shook hands
and that was the end of it. So neither one
of them got shot in that.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Okay, so this was his first successful duel.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Yeah, because he didn't die well, I.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Mean the first one. He didn't even kill anybody, right right, right?
Speaker 1 (06:40):
So also at this time he was a bank owner,
you know, so a lot of things going on for
some of these founding fathers, you know, like Ben Franklin.
I mean think I think he did everything you could
do at that time, you know, inventor and his statesman
in France, and except president, you know, he was the
(07:01):
only one, you know what I mean, It seemed like
the founding fathers.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
But Burr was definitely in the aristocratic society.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Then that's an understatement. Yeah, you know, if if you
look at his childhood growing up, I mean his uh,
his parents were both dead and his grandfather, they were
all dead. By the time he was two years old,
his very young uncle took him in to raise him.
His uncle was only twenty one and he rolled with
(07:27):
an iron fist, and a lot of people nowadays would
say he was raised on her child abuse and stuff
like that. He ran away and da da da da da.
But he wound up making something of himself. Although yeah
he did, yeah, although he didn't. He wasn't liked. He
was not well liked. So as vice president, he and
(07:48):
Jefferson were always in disagreement and they didn't see each
other much, you know what I mean. Just because you're
the vice president back then doesn't mean you have to
hang around the guy that beat you. So so as
far as a you know, a government role, he didn't
have much of it. You know, if you look back
to what Thomas Jefferson said, or not Thomas Jefferson John
(08:09):
Adams when he lost to Washington, and He's like, so,
I'm really a nobody, you know, second place. That doesn't
mean anything.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
I'm a joke.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
No one takes me seriously. Aaron Burr definitely felt that
way in every aspect of life. So if you lose
the presidency twice and you're at odds with the man
that beats you, yeah, you definitely feel like, you know,
you don't matter. You're always trying to prove yourself, right,
you know. Okay, So Thomas Jefferson was a two term
(08:36):
president and then they had it to where you could
pick a running mate, right, So Jefferson said, you're not
gonna be my guy. Sorry, it was nice knowing you.
So he sent him on his way, right, So I
left the bad taste in Arabirr's mouth. So he started
having these aspirations of if I can't join these guys.
(08:59):
It's kind of a reverse thing, you know, it's always
if you can't beat him, join him. Well, he couldn't
join him, so he thought about beating them. Okay. So
one of the most famous things that happening happened in
our country under Jefferson was the Louisiana purchase.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Right.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
You know, we got a huge chunk of land for
almost no money from France. And and I don't know,
I guess it's arguable Burr didn't like that Jefferson had
this success, right.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
He didn't like him having all the power in him
having none. Right.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
So he's like, well, let's see if we can mess
things up a little bit, Okay. So he decided that
he was going to find some financial backers, not so
much for land acquisition, but for taking it by force.
He wanted to start a war.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
This is this is really what's incredible to me.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Who did he want to start a war with America? America? Yeah, yes,
Now I'm gonna throw this disclaimer out. This is this
is all word of mouth. None of this was proven,
none of it. Absolutely none of what was proven. But
we'll get into that later. So he frequent in the
(10:16):
Ohio River, and he started his journey from Pittsburgh, made
some stops, went to Wheeling, made some stops, and then
he made this stop at this island in the Ohio
River which belonged to Harmon Blinner.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Has it?
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Now, who's Harmon Blinner? Has it?
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Okay, So Harmon Blinner has it is a very intriguing
character to me. This man is he's born in Ireland
and he married his wife Margaret. Now what's really neat
about this relationship, or you can kind of say gross
or sick, is that Margaret was his niece Harmon. Yeah,
(11:00):
she was his niece. She was eighteen years old when
they got married. Harmon was thirty one, so really kind
of messed up she was. How old she was eighteen
years old?
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Oh okay, okay, Yeah, So.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Here's Harmon who's really well to do. I mean, he's
aristocratic for that side of the ocean. His wife comes
from a well to do family. But they have to
leave because one of their marriage caused a lot of
social issues. Needless to say, the family wasn't exactly excited
(11:38):
about this. The friends weren't excited about this society, the
people around in the towns that knew them weren't excited
about this arrangement. And just like Burr felt the need
to have his own country, Harmon was known to have
a very strong stance of in the politic communities of
(12:02):
being an activist for Irish independence from.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
The UK, and that really hasn't changed much.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Right, So they leave and this is, of course, this is
before seventeen ninety seven. I think they got an American
in seventeen ninety six. They come across up through Ohio
and down where they end up purchasing part of the island,
and they build this absolutely stunning mansion.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Which was the greatest private residence west of the Alleghany Mountains, right,
And that's that's not an opinion, that's fact.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
It's still considered probably one of the most beautiful homes
in West Virginia.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
And we'll also get to that later.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Yeah, But anyway, they end up settling there, and of course,
being aristocratic, they're always bringing in friends. And that, of
course is where Burr comes into the picture. He shows
up to one of their parties.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
So, I mean, Burr must have been a very charming
person to have affluence after being I guess embarrassed in Washington.
You were sought after by the government after this this
duel with Alexander Hamilton, which Burr fatally shot, right, Alexander
(13:21):
Hamilton and people, if you don't know who Alexander Hamilton
in is besides the musical Hamilton, Uh, he's on your
ten dollars, Bill the first US Treasurer, another founding father.
But I'm telling you, man, a lot of these founding
fathers back in the day, they didn't just disagree. They
were like adamant about, you know, proving the other one wrong.
(13:45):
And sometimes it led to gunfire. Right, That's what you
know happened there between Burr and Hamilton. But that happened
right at the end of his vice presidency. So all this,
you know, seeking some financial backers, and not just financial
but just people who had affluence that had the same
vision as Burr, you know, because you got to remember
(14:08):
this country was barely a country, right, and there was
a lot of flexibility as far as like expansion or division.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Well that's when you were talking about him being a
person that was easily conversated with and such forth, you know,
with the aristocratic parties and stuff coming and showing up.
It's also to me a sign that maybe he's not
the most well liked. A lot of people hate him,
but he he could find the people that had that
(14:38):
same anger inside of them.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Well. Plus, I mean, if you look at Harmon Blenner
has it you know, he hasn't been in the country
very long, right, he hasn't lived here long. He doesn't
have allegiances to the United States, you know what I mean.
He doesn't have a love for it. He didn't have
to fight for it. You know. It's it's But.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
He seemed like a divisive person to me because of
the fact that he was fighting overseas for a split
of a of I guess it wasn't really a split
of a country, would it, or would it have been
back then? Yeah, it had been the split of the
country back then. So there was a United country and
he's wanting to divide it. And here he's making friends
with somebody in America. Yeah, that wants to do the
(15:18):
exact same thing, but in a different country.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Yeah. And I mean he he was one of these
people that didn't want to live around other people. You know,
he hated people. Yeah, and he didn't want to I
don't know. He just wanted to live in a place
that he could call the shots, right right, Okay. So
he and Burr met several times on blinter Hassett Island,
(15:40):
and what they came to was an agreement that they
would raise some money so they would hire men to
train on blinter Hassett Island and in hopes that eventually
they could launch a war. But in order to do that,
to invade the Louisiana purchased part of America, they had
(16:04):
to get more men. So what they were thinking was,
let's go down and raid Mexico and try to get
some of that for ourselves against the Spanish. Right then
we could start building, we could start to expand it.
So they wanted to start in Mexico and then expand
into the Louisiana Purchase. So what it comes down to
(16:28):
is they're like, we're going to start our own country
and a country that already exists, you know. So that's
the most treasonous thing to do.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Oh absolutely, you know.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
I mean that's what the Civil War was all about.
You know, we're seceding from the Union. This is our
country now where the Confederate States of America. Huge war
over that. So this would have been if he was
successful and even launching it, he never got that far.
It would have been America's first civil war, right, and
(17:01):
then the eighteen sixty one Civil War had been the
second civil war. But it never got that far. So
why didn't he get that far? Well, some snitches, some
snitches got back to Jefferson. Hey, uh, your old pow Aaron.
He wants to uh attack Mexico and then eventually the
United States. So they sent out warns for his arrest.
(17:25):
Now all these other co conspirators they got arrested too,
But Harmon Blenner Hasset left the island. What are you
shaking your head for?
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Lennar has got arrested.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Well, he left the island.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
With Barr or Burr. They got caught together.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
That's right. He never went back to the island. The
locals caught wind of this whole trees and conspiracy and
they were going to come Burns house, so they fled. Yeah,
they didn't right away, but there was like a five
year gap. They eventually did get to the island and
burn it to the ground because it fell in disrepair.
(18:03):
I don't know why they just wouldn't take it over
for themselves. It's like the grandest home most of the alleghenies.
Why would they just burn it? Well, it was more
because of who it belonged to. They didn't want any
reminders of this conspirator. They hanged Aaron Burr and Harmon
Blennerhasset an effigy because of what was going on.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Right, Even they went to court, there wasn't enough within
the case to prosecute them, so they were released from that,
but the society itself never forgave them, and so, like
you said, they couldn't return because society would not allow it.
And one of the things that could have also played there.
(18:47):
Now this is speculation, clearly, because there's nothing art of
as far as facts goes, but there is proof that
he had slaves too on that property, which was just
south of Ohio that the following year had banned slavery.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Well, and you know it's weird. He he partnered up
with Burr, right, Burr whenever he ran for president, he
wanted to end slavery. If he was elected president, he
was going to push ending slavery.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
That's crazy, But money talks, Yeah, it makes strange bedfellows.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Yes, yes, yeah, here's another thing too. So Blenner Hassett
fled to Mississippi with his wife, and Burr fled somewhere
that you probably wouldn't expect. Who did he want to attack? First?
The Spanish? Right, Well, he fled to Spanish controlled Florida
to hide from the United States. Yeah, but he knew
(19:55):
that they wouldn't be able to get him in Florida
because it was Spanish controlled. Okay. So eventually Burr was
found and arrested. Okay, there was a warn for his
arrest issue by Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson wanted the absolute highest
charges brought against Burr, you know, And what's the ultimate
punishment for treason?
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Death? Death?
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Right?
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Okay. So the weird thing is they passed this law
a few years before that, called the Neutrality Act. What's
the Neutrality Act. Here's what the Neutrality Act says. Okay,
if any person shall, within the territory or jurisdiction of
the United States, begin or set on foot, or provide
(20:40):
or prepare the means for any military expedition or enterprise
against the territory or dominions of any foreign prince or
state of whom in the United States was at peace,
that person would be guilty of a misdemeanor. Did you
hear that part?
Speaker 2 (20:58):
A misdemeanor?
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Mis demeanor. So forget the fact that he wanted to
start a war with the United States. The fact is
he wanted to start a war with Mexico first. Okay.
So because of that, if he was found and prosecuted.
It was for a misdemeanor, not a felony.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Yeah, So the star witness for this whole trial against
Aaron Burr was this gentleman who had a letter that
had all the plans that Burr had. Okay, all the
other evidence against Burr was hearsay, and this man had
(21:41):
a letter from Burr that had all of his plans. Right,
it's a damning piece of evidence. Correct. Well, the attorney
for Burr said, wait a minute, this isn't Aaron Burr's handwriting.
And the witness said that's true. He said, well, who
wrote it? He said I did. He said why? He said, well,
(22:04):
because I had the letter and I don't know where
it is, so I just wrote it verbatim. Well that's
not evidence, right, right, so he just made it up.
So well he maybe made it up. We don't know
that he could have made it up. Regardless, it's not evidence.
So he was acquitted. And this was all in the
(22:26):
Supreme Court, right. So Jefferson was not happy with this
outcome at all because he despised Aaron Burr. So he
challenged the authority of the Supreme Court. Wow, this, you
don't hear this stuff okay, and he especially challenged the
authority of Chief Justice John Marshall, and of course the
(22:49):
Supreme Court decision was upheld. So Aaron Burr got off
scott free, except for the fact that you know, he
couldn't show his face in public for the rest of
his life. And where did Harmon Blunder Hasset end up.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
He ends up going back home basically, I mean he
goes back over.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Seas, not back to Blunder Acid Island, No.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
But he goes back overseas, the place that he fled
from for his divisiveness with Ireland and England, along with
his crazy marriage to his niece after trying to cause
division in the United States, which I think is just
ironic and crazy in itself right. But he goes back.
(23:31):
Things never go well for him. Their level of aristocratic
you know, standing in society, that money and everything's gone.
They have nothing to their name now. So he ends
up dying over there, never making it again financially. Somewhere
along the line, his wife and I'm assuming they're only
(23:53):
child because it's the only one I've ever heard of
Harmon Jr. Both come back to America and not back
to Blunter Hasset, I know, back to America. I believe
it was in New York City and where she would
end up dying and her son along with her were
(24:13):
buried in New York for a long period of time
and then I don't exactly know the dates, but they
did move their bodies. Harmon Junior and Margaret's Lennar has
an island where they're buried now, gotcha.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
So it's funny how that ended up for them. Because
Aaron Burr kind of followed the same path, you know,
he kind of lived in exile right after the whole
thing went down. He went to live in Europe, okay,
and he again unsuccessfully tried to put together money and
(24:49):
power to invade Mexico again, which he couldn't do, right,
And he lived all over Europe, mostly in England. But
he went back to the United States to finish out
his life, right. But you can't go back as Aaron Burr.
So he went by Edwards that was his.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Last name, grabbed himself an alias.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Well actually, I mean there is a there is a
basis for that, and it was his mother's maiden name.
It wasn't just pulled out of thin air. He had
a reason for that. But yeah, so he also died
in New York, so you know what I mean, it's
pretty pretty wide.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
The only way this story could have really gotten much
stranger is.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
If they were actually in Mexico.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
No, if Margaret and Burr would end up getting married
after she lost her husband, that's true, that would have
been very weird.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Yeah, but didn't happen that way. As far as we know,
it didn't. We don't know could have. It's all hearsay. Absolutely,
they didn't kiss and tell as much as they do now,
so who knows.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
But what a great backstory to this island right now.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Earlier we talked about Blender Hassett being burned to the ground,
right right, So, in an effort to kind of like
a phoenix out of the ashes, the state of West
Virginia decided to let's kind of revitalize that area and
bring it back to what it was. So they went
(26:22):
back to Blendterer Hassett and over the course of a
couple of years, they rebuilt the mansion that the Blender
Hassets had. And now if you look at the really
really old drawings of the house and what it looks
like now, it's very close there's some differences, but not many.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Well, they had to use they used modern equipment. Of
course when they built, they tried to stay as original
to form as they could, but they did use some
modern equipment, and so it shows in the building. If
you look closely, you're gonna be able to see where
(26:59):
certain things were built in a means, in a way
in which it couldn't have happened back in the eighteen hundreds.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Right, So there's I mean, if you look at when
it was burned to the ground eighteen eleven and when
it was rebuilt, it was rebuilt on its original foundation,
and it was like a full one hundred and seventy
years after it was burnt to the ground. I don't
(27:26):
know if i'd feel safe about putting a structure on
a foundation that was that old.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
This is the interesting thing though, it's on the foundation,
but they raised the leveling of the ground because it
was in its flood prone It was flood prone, so
the foundation was raised. So it's over the same exact spot.
But I don't necessarily know that it's the original foundation.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Well, from what I read, it said that a detailed
replica was built on its foundations.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Right, so I mean, maybe they put the foundation on
top of the other foundation to build up.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
I don't know. So it's pretty wild. If you look
at the house, it looks a lot if you've ever
been to Mount Vernon, which was George Washington's home, it
looks a lot like that, which is also kind of
ironic because Burr was blunder Hasset's friend and he hated
George Washington and his friend had a house that looks
a lot like pretty strange. So anyway, this thing, it's this,
(28:24):
it's a state park. It's a blunder Hasset Island Historic
State Park. It's in uh really really close to Parkersburg.
Parkersburg one of the bigger towns in our state. Right,
it's like two and a half miles I guess down
the Ohio River from Parkersburg.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
I think. Really though, this is what makes this island unique.
One of the mansion. The backstories just fantastic. And like
we've said earlier, this is all hearsay because it wasn't.
The plans and stuff were never they were never, never
able to prove this happened. That's why he's released. Yeah,
(29:04):
so it's it's all hearsay, but it's a great backstory.
But the other thing that really intrigues me, Like you said,
is it Parkersburg, is how you're gonna get there. Yeah,
but you're gonna get there in style. You're gonna take
a boat, but it's not gonna be an ordinary boat either. No,
I like this kind of it's gonna be a throwback. Yeah,
(29:25):
it's you're going stern wheel. Yeah, exactly when it's in
itself is fun. Yes, I mean where else can you go? Hey,
let's go ride a stern wheel and then go to
the stern wheel. Doc say, let's let's ride. So you're
this is included in going to blinter Hassett. So it's
a it's an all.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
Inclusive kind of thing. You know, you're gonna go to
very beautiful Parkersburg, West Virginia. Uh, you're gonna get to
the dock, You're gonna get on this stern wheel and
and in itself, it's it's a great time. You get
to the island, it's it's really pretty. It's a big island.
When you think River Island, you're thinking something small, some
trees on it, but it's huge.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
It's four miles a little it's over over three hundred acres.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
It's five hundred and eleven.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
At five hundred and eleven, I think it's five.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Hundred eleven acres. It's five hundred plus let me okay,
oh five hundred and nine. Okay, five hundred and nine
acres big, I mean it's a lot of land.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
You can tell people. I did my research really well.
I sit three hundred and something A good thing. We
got the fact.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Man here five hundred and nine acres. There's still four
miles right right, So uh, you can. You can tour
the house and of course there's a lot of people
that work there that you know. They have interactive tours
and you know anything you need to know. You're gonna
be educated on this thing. And they addressed to the
time they do. It's time period. And you go around
(30:46):
the island on a horse drawn carriage.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
You can, you can. That's extra So what I don't know,
I'm just saying. I'm just telling the people. You'll pay
you can do that. Take the horse and wagon tour
and they will give you a great tour. They'll tell
you all about it as they're driving you around.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
But if you're not into that, they've got plenty of hiking, biking,
all that stuff. They have picnic grounds out there also
also fish you can fish. It's surrounded by water. There's
also another house I'm not exactly sure what the significance
of it is. It's the Putnam House, built in eighteen
oh two. It's been revamped. Also, they didn't burn that
one to the ground in eighteen eleven, but it's there
(31:23):
also for a tour. So they also have a museum
dedicated to the blender Hasset Island and it's not on
the island, it's in downtown Parkersburg.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
There's a lot of Blenner Hasset in Parkersburg.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Yeah, so, I mean it's a lot of age antiquities,
you know, time periods, Yeah, memorabilion guns, china, silverware, what
have you, garments, It's got everything that you would see
in the year eighteen what was it eighteen oh five? Right, Well,
they built.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
It in seventeen ninety nine, so roughly it probably finished
around the early eighteen.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
It's crazy, you know, just in a nutshell. Be careful
if you associate yourself with you know, because these people
came from Ireland and in seventeen ninety nine built the
most exquisite home west of the Allegheny Mountains, highly respectable people.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Yeah at the time.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
Six years later it's abandoned, and then a total of
twelve years after it was built, it was burned to
the ground. So this guy, if he and his wife
hadn't got mixed in with the wrong crowd, you know,
the original one would probably be sitting there and it
would probably be more of a well known name in
(32:40):
our state. Oh, absolutely, everyone's heard of blunter hass At
Island in our state.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
People may not be what people may not want to
go to blunter Hasset though if things wouldn't have gone
the way they went, we got so many state parks
that are honestly just a lot larger and probably have
a lot more activities to do. But from a historical standpoint,
this is gonna be one of the best historical state
(33:07):
parks that we have, right and so history buffs are
gonna absolutely go nuts for this place. I think it's
a wonderful thing to take your kids out, let them
see what things look like. Then you know, the mansion,
the attire that people wore. And outside of that, though,
(33:28):
like you said, there's gonna be hiking, you can do
some fishing, and so forth. But you're talking about three
hours probably tops on a good day. This is gonna
be about a three hour trip for you and your
family if you go out.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
But the stem wheel's in it too, and the horse dr.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
That's part of the three hours trip for me, you
know me.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Yes, the whole drawl is what happened, the history, Yes,
what happened.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
And I think it's gonna be a large draw to
a lot of people that do go to visit. It's
like I said, I think this is a fantastic state park. Yeah,
with just an immense amount of crazy yep.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Plus I'm a fan of architecture and it's it's awesome.
So in a nutshell, guys, blinter Hassett Island former site
of a conspiracy to attack the United States and Mexico,
and that's why we like to call it trees and Island.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Absolutely absolutely yep.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
So he we appreciate listening in. Also want to give
out some props to some of our newest countries that
have downloaded us. Hong Kong's in there. Love it, Thailand
is in there, and so on and so on. Once again,
people around the world and in the United States that
listens to us. Please tell us where you live, who
(34:48):
you are, why you like listening to us, because we
have a dedicated following, at least in Germany, New Zealand.
Tell us who you are, why you listen to us,
and why you will keep listening to us.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
And if you could do us a really huge favor,
we'd greatly appreciate, and that favor is to rate rate
us on the platform that you're listening to us on.
So if you're listening on Spotify, if you're listening on Apple,
rate us, give us ratings, give us reviews. That helps
us immensely, not just from an ego standpoint, not that
(35:23):
we need a bigger ego than what we have, but
it helps us to monetize our podcast and to get
some revenue to support us in our endeavors so that
we can continue to do this research, continue to get
the equipment that's needed us to process and put this
out to you.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Yeah, check out our Facebook page, hit that message button,
give us a shout out, and our email address is
West Virginia talk at yahoo dot com. Get in there.
Tell us who you are, where you're from, why you
like to listen. So, once again, that was blenter Hasset
Island aka Trees in Ireland.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
I'm James, I'm Jerry.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
You've been listening to a J and J production?
Speaker 2 (37:01):
Yes many money, yes many nice ny n many A
(37:21):
fool voice
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