7-24-12: Just Who Was Elisha Tyson?

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Tyson-0724.mp3

You can live in Baltimore and care about history, and still have never heard the name Elisha Tyson.

The Quaker businessman who was active 200 years ago left behind a rich history that almost nobody knows about. He was a radical abolitionist. A self-made millionaire. He founded the first abolitionist society in Maryland, and helped launch the Falls Road Turnpike. He helped free hundreds of fugitive slaves, and today, his name is largely forgotten.

But in 2005, Mark Thistel and his wife Robyne Lyles acquired an 1804 mill home in the Stone Hill section of Hampden. As they discovered who had built it, the stories about its first owner began to trickle through.

Wayne Schaumburg also joins us for the conversation. He taught social studies in the Baltimore schools for 39 years and now, in retirement, teaches history parttime at a half-dozen local college and universities.  He’s also a member of the Maryland and Baltimore Historical Societies.