Home Sweet Home

there are folks like Richard. Richard was born in England around eighteen hundred, but his family moved to the United States when he was twelve, choosing Virginia as their new home. He worked different jobs as he got older, opting for occupations where he could put in a hard day's work. Richard eventually got a job painting houses, which may have contributed to his later problems. Remember, paints in those days were packed with hazardous chemicals, and in Richard's case, they

apparently went straight to his head. His mental health got worse as he grew older. He once told his family that he was going back to England, disappearing for a while, and then came back and said that he had changed his mind. A short while later, he planned another trip to England and instead decided to stay in Philadelphia before going back to Virginia. His excuse for coming home well, he claimed to have read negative articles about himself in

a Philadelphia newspaper, forcing his early return home. Not long after, Richard gave up painting houses. He was under the belief that he no longer needed a job because the US government was about to dump a huge windfall in his lap, what with him being King Richard the third of England and all. Unfortunately, there was one man standing in his way,

President Andrew Jackson. Jackson was apparently preventing his payout because he was an opponent of the Second Bank of the United States in Philadelphia, which was where Richard's money was supposedly going to come from. However, if Jackson was removed from the picture, then a national bank could be established under a new President, Martin van Buren. This national banquet finally paid Richard the money he was owed for the

English estates he thought he possessed. Not the simplest of plans, I know, but Richard wasn't the simplest of men either. Time went on and Richard's behavior grew more erratic. He started blowing money on fancy clothes and picking fights with random people. Each day he grew more and more paranoid about his neighbors. And then there was still the issue of that pesky Andrew Jackson sitting in the White House. Something had to be done. Richard spent weeks tailing Jackson

through Washington, monitoring his comings and goings. It was at a rainy, dreary January eighteen thirty five when he finally decided to carry out his plan. He followed Jackson to the U. S Capital, where a funeral was being for the late Warren R. Davis of South Carolina. Richard waited behind a pillar for the service to end while everyone sat inside. After it was over, Jackson emerged, kane in hand.

As his target passed the pillar, Richard jumped out, drew his pistol from his coat, and aimed it at Jackson's back, and then he pulled the trigger. Allowed bang sounded outside the Capitol, startling the crowd and Jackson, well, he was just fine. The gun had misfired. Rather than run away, though, the President lunged towards his attacker his cane held high above his head. Richard pulled out a backup pistol and aimed again, this time at Jackson's chest. Another bang and

another dud. Twice Richard Lawrence had tried to assassinate the President of the United States, and twice he had failed. He tossed his guns and bolted into the crowd, but was unable to get away in time. He was promptly arrested, and later that day his guns were examined. One theory suggested that they were both highly susceptible to moisture. The humidity in the air might have contributed to their misfiring. Another possibility was that Richard had been sold bad gunpowder

that simply failed to ignite. It turns out that Richard wasn't the only paranoid person in Washington. Though Jackson himself believed that Richard had been put up to the assassination by his own political opponents, such as Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina or Georgia Senator George Poindexter. Even though all the evidence pointed to Richard acting alone, there actually was one connection between himself and point Dexter. Apparently that senator had hired Richard to paint his house in

the months leading up to the assassination attempt. When his constituents found out, point Dexter lost his re election and the only thing Richard Lawrence was guilty of killing was a senator's political career. Home, as has so often been said, is where the heart is. It doesn't matter where you live. As long as you're with the people you love in a place that you love, you can make anywhere feel

like home. Sometimes though, it's hard to make a home someplace new, different sites and a different atmosphere can make settling down in a new place more difficult. But if you remember what made your last home special, you can usually find a way to enjoy the new one. Lord Davis remembered what made his home of Red Oak, Missouri special.

He'd grown up there during the nineteen thirties. He remembered how neighbors waved to each other each day and helped each other out, how people in town supported themselves by making their own clothes and cannying their own food. It was a simpler time until World War Two arrived. That is, after the war, Red Oak looked less like a quaint, friendly place to live and more like a ghost town compared to the big city. It was quiet, too quiet.

People who had in what the larger world had to offer while fighting overseas, suddenly wanted more from their life. No more sewing patches on old dresses and jarring their own preserves. They wanted fancy clothing shops and find cuisine. Even Davis left town for a while. He found a job in the Dallas Fort Worth area of Texas, where

he lived for almost thirty years. When it finally came time for him to retire, though, he could think of no better place than his old hometown of Red Oak, Missouri, except it was a lot more run down by then than it used to be. The shops and homes he remembered growing up were still there, but in serious need of repair. There was the blacksmith shop where Davis's great grandfather had worked, and a general store his father ran and where Davis would spend his time lending a hand.

It was also the place where he loved honing his artistic skills. You see, it didn't matter what materials were available, paints, clay, pastel's Lowell Davis was an artist. Now back in Red Oak for good, he saw a way to put his talents to use by sprucing up the old buildings from his youth. He gave them fresh coats of paint and repaired their roofs. He cleaned them inside and out, and restored them to their former glory. And he was able to do all of this because he was the only

person living there. The town had all but been abandoned after the war, but thanks to his fancy city job, Davis had the means to bring the town he loved back to how he remembered it in the good old days. For people driving through Red Oak today, well they won't find much. There's quite a lot of farmland and several houses along the main roads, but the blacksmith shop, the diner, and many of the houses belonging to Davis's former neighbors

are all gone. Everything now lives about twenty miles northwest near the town of Carthage. Davis dubbed his new home Red Oak Too, and brought up as many of the original properties as he could, moving them to a larger plot of farmland that he owned. He even brought in buildings from other areas around the original Red Oak, including a Philip sixty six gas station that had lived along

the Old Root. Sixty six, Davis himself moved into a house that once belonged to notorious nineteenth century outlaw Bell Star. He saw his project as a way to rebuild the town he'd lost, although he knew he'd never get his old neighbors back. No one would be canning foods or attending their gardens, and he never had anyone to wave hello to each morning because there was no one to

come out and collect their milk deliveries. Red Oak two was an art installation, a way for Davis to use unconventional materials like houses and storefronts to make the ultimate form of American art. His was an expression of nostalgia for a time gone by, and like all worthwhile efforts, it literally took a village. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by

visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at the World of Lore dot com and until next time, stay curious, Yeah,