July 15: Clement Moore’s “Trifle” That Became A Masterpiece

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse…”

With these words an obscure scholar from penned a work for his children that became a classic piece of literature read to children generation after generation.

Clement Clarke Moore was born on July 15, 1779, the only son of Benjamin and Charity Clarke Moore. The Moore family was a family of wealth and education. His father was a professor, then president, of Columbia College as well as an Episcopal bishop in New York City and the rector of Trinity Church.

Moore was home schooled during his early years, with his father tutoring him and both of his parents encouraging his natural tendency toward languages and music. Later he would attend Columbia College, and would graduate first in his class in 1798. At Columbia he would earn a BA and in 1801 a M.A.

He was thirty-four when he married nineteen-year-old Catharine Elizabeth Taylor in 1813, settling at Chelsea, in a country estate in Manhattan. They would have 9 children. Catharine would pass away in 1830 and leaving Moore with seven children between the ages of three and fifteen. Moore would not remarry, and would be solely responsible for his children’s upbringing and education.

The Moore family owned extensive land in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. Moore’s gift of sixty acres of land in 1819 made possible the establishment of the General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1819. In 1821 Moore was made a professor at the Seminary, a position he would hold until 1850. While at the Seminary he taught Oriental languages, biblical learning, and the interpretation of scripture. Ten years before his helping to establish the Seminary, he would compile a two-volume Hebrew dictionary in 1809 to assist in the translation and understanding of the Old Testament titled “A Compendious Lexicon of the Hebrew Language”. Volume I contained "an explanation of every word which occurs in the Psalms"; while volume 2 was "a lexicon and grammar of the whole language." The Preface offers a mode of study which will enable "any person acquainted with the general principles of language, without the aid of a teacher, to read and understand the Holy Scriptures in the original Hebrew."

Moore is also considered as the savior of Greenwich Village in New York. When the state government was planning to extend a grid of streets into the Village, Moore anonymously authored a sixty-page pamphlet that contained such persuasive arguments against the plan that the street network never entered the Village, preserving its unique culture and atmosphere.

In 1822 Moore penned a story as a Christmas gift for his children. “A Visit From Saint Nicholas”, which later became recognized and popularly known from its first line “Twas The Night Before Christmas”, was intended for his family, and might never had been shared with the world if not for one of Moore’s relatives, a Miss Butler, who copied the poem and who would take the copy to the Troy Sentinel. There it would be published anonymously in the Sentinel on December 23, 1823, with Moore accepting credit of authorship in 1837. He did not want the poem published because he felt, as an academician, that the poem was a mere trifle, and it was beneath his professional dignity to have it published. Yet, the poem when published anonymously a year later, it was an overnight sensation. The Troy Sentinel would hint that Moore was the author in 1829. Moore would reluctantly include his poem in a book of poetry that he wrote in 1844.

An anecdote on the origin of the poem goes as follows:

“On Christmas Eve 1822, Reverend Clement Moore’s wife was roasting turkeys for distribution to the poor of the local parish, a yearly tradition discovered that she was short one turkey, she asked Moore to venture into the snowy streets to obtain another. He called for his sleigh and coachman, and drove “downtown” to Jefferson Market, which is now the Bowery section of New York City, to buy the needed turkey. Moore composed the poem while riding in his sleigh; his ears obviously full of the jingle of sleigh bells. He returned with the turkey and the new Christmas poem. After dinner that evening, Moore read the new verses to his family, to the evident delight of his children.”

As often happens, claims arose that Moore was not the author of the famous poem. In 2000 – nearly 180 years after the fact, Vassar professor Don Foster published a book claiming that “The Night Before Christmas” was actually written by a different New Yorker, Major Henry Livingston Jr. For details you can read the article here and arrive at your own conclusion. Despite the rise of other claimants, scholars in general still attribute the poem to Moore.

Moore would pass away at his summer residence in Newport, Rhode Island, on July 10, 1863 – just five days before his eighty-fourth birthday. He was buried at the Trinity Church Cemetery, Manhattan. Oddly enough, as much as he regarded his poem as a trifle, it is his poem that he is remembered – not for his academic works.

LOCAL LIBRARY RESOURCES:

There are no Clement Moore biographies at our local library.

WEB RESOURCES:

Jewish Virtual Library
New York Institute for Special Education
The Night Before Christmas
Urban Legends
Virtualogy
Wikipedia

PHOTO SOURCES:

01. Handwritten copy of Twas the Night
02. Portrait of a young Moore
03. Portrait, Wikipedia

04. Cover by Mary Clement Ogden, Moore’s daughter
05. Gravestone, Find-a-Grave by Erik Lander

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July 13: The Wizard of the Saddle: Nathan Bedford Forrest

"War means fighting and fighting means killing." -Nathan Bedford Forrest

He was the eldest of eleven children born to Chapel Hill, Tennessee, who – upon the death of his father – became the head of the family when he was sixteen years old. He would become a businessman, a planter, and a feared Confederate Civil War general.

Nathan Bedford Forrest was born in a rough-hewn frontier cabin on July 13, 1821 to William and Mariam Beck Forrest. When Forrest was thirteen, his parents moved the family to the edge of the settled frontier in northern Mississippi. His father established a farm there, clearing the forests and plowing the virgin land. Then, three years later in 1837, died – leaving sixteen year old Nathan as the head of the family, consisting of his widowed mother, seven brothers and three sisters. Mariam would eventually remarry around 1840 to Joseph Luxton.

Forrest and his older brothers continued to clear the land and plant crops. Gradually they raised corn, wheat, and cotton – and began to raise cattle. The farm became successful, and profitable. Because of the frontier conditions while growing up, and then his role as head of the family, Forrest found that he was limited to about six months of formal education.

When he was twenty, Forest went into business with his uncle, Jonathan Forrest, in Hernando, Mississippi. Forrest’s natural fighting instincts and ability came to the forefront when his uncle was about to be attacked in 1845 during an argument with the four Matlock brothers. Forrest interceded before the attack began, but one of the brothers drew a pistol and shot Forrest’s uncle, mortally wounding him. The other brothers turned their pistols toward Forrest, wounded him, and he returned fire with a double-barreled pistol, killing two of them, then wounded two others with a bowie knife thrown to him by a bystander.

That same year Forrest married Mary Montgomery – a sophisticated and intelligent woman who became his most ardent supporter and a buffer between her husband and the social set that made up Southern plantation society.

Forrest proved to be an astute businessman, settling in Memphis and increasing his wealth and property through investments, speculation, and managing his varied business interests. By the time the Civil War broke out his activities in buying/selling of slaves, speculation in land, horse trading, and more had provided him with two plantations, a hundred slaves to work them, standing as one of the richest men in the South, and the potential of living life as a country gentleman.

When the Civil War broke out and Tennessee seceded from the Union, Forrest – even though he was exempt from military service because of his standing as a planter - enlisted as a private in Company E, Tennessee Mounted Rifles, led by Captain Josiah White. His natural leadership, imposing physical appearance, and natural grasp of cavalry tactics soon led Governor Isham G. Harris to authorize Forrest to raise a regiment of mounted troops – even though Forrest had no formal military training. He would write in 1865: “I ain’t no graduate of West Point & never rubbed my backside up against any college.”

By December 1861, Forrest had recruited and equipped his new command, largely at his own expense. His unit differed from many other Southern cavalry outfits at the start of the war in that each member was outfitted with two Colt repeating revolvers, greatly enhancing their firepower and reducing the need to reload in combat.

Forrest initiated many other changes as well. He became one of the first to truly grasp the concept of mobile warfare. He would his cavalry into dismounted infantry – embodying the strategic concept, so aptly expressed by Forrest, of “getting there first with the most”. He also didn’t hesitate to brazenly bluff his opponents, sometimes capturing a Union position where the Union forces actually outnumbered his own. Finally, close, hand-to-hand fighting became a hallmark of Forrest’s cavalry, as did strategic raids far behind enemy lines.

Forrest’s audacity was shown early in the war when Union General U.S. Grant surrounded Fort Donelson in western Tennessee. The commander of the fort wanted to surrender, but gave his men the option of trying to escape. Forrest was the highest-ranking officer to lead troops out of the trap – both his cavalry and infantry – saving these men to continue the battle for the Confederacy.

Forrest was wounded on April 8, 1862, as his troops formed a rear guard covering the Confederate retreat after the battle of Shiloh. He recovered, and was wounded again June 14, 1863 – this time by a disgruntled subordinate, Andrew W. Gould, whom Forrest mortally wounded with his penknife.

By July 1862 Forrest had been promoted to Brigadier General. He had success as an independent commander, but did not fare as well when under the command of others. He would suffer a major defeat at Dover, Tennessee while under the orders of CSA General Joseph Wheeler. Appointed to his own command, he continued raids and actions against the Union, until placed under the command of Braxton Bragg for the battle of Chickamauga. Again not getting along under the command of a superior, Forrest requested and was granted a command in western Tennessee. There he bedeviled Union forces to the point where Union Commander William Tecumseh Sherman was said to exclaim in a letter to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton: "I will order them to make up a force and go out and follow Forrest to the death, if it cost 10,000 lives and breaks the Treasury. There never will be peace in Tennessee till Forrest is dead."

As word of the surrender of General Lee slowly filtered west, the question on the minds of the Union commanders was: What would Forrest do? To the surprise of many, he agreed to the surrender, bid an emotional farewell to his men, and went back to Memphis. His war, which he had fought in so valiantly, and led so brilliantly, was over.

Forrest was involved in two great controversies: one during the war, the other after. The first was the Fort Pillow Massacre on April 12, 1864. After a day-long intense battle – in which Forrest had three horses shot out from under him – Confederate forces forced the Union defenders, consisting of the 2nd U.S. Colored Light Artillery and the 6th U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery and the white 13th Tennessee Cavalry, to retreat. The accusations of massacre were trumpeted by the Northern press, while the Confederacy stated that there was continued resistance. The full truth may never be known. Forrest did deny a massacre in public speeches for the rest of his life.

The second was his involvement with the Ku Klux Klan. The KKK rose after the war in a bid by disenfranchised southerners initially for protection, and ultimately to retain some element of control over their former slaves. Forrest was actually named Grand Wizard at the 1867 KKK convention in Nashville. But Forrest publically separated himself from the organization. Forrest publically stated several times a desire for equality and harmony between black and white Americans.

After leaving the army Forrest attempted to recoup his pre-war fortune. He became president of a railroad (which ultimately failed), and would live with his wife in a log cabin. His health began to deteriorate and he would pass away when he was fifty-six years old, on October 29, 1877. For a special A Tribute To Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest posted on YouTube, click here.

LOCAL LIBRARY RESOURCES:

Our local library has the following resources on Nathan Bedford Forrest

-Bradley, Michael R., Nathan Bedford Forrest's Escort and Staff
-Davison, Eddy W., Nathan Bedford Forrest : In Search of the Enigma
-Henry, Robert Selph, "First with the most" Forrest
-Hurst, Jack, Men of Fire : Grant, Forrest, and the Campaign that Decided the Civil WarWyeth,
-John A. (John Allan), That devil Forrest: life of General Nathan Bedford Forrest

WEB RESOURCES:

Ancestry
Google Books: Life of General Nathan Bedford Forrest
New York Times Obituary
Tennessee Encyclopedia
Wikipedia

PHOTO SOURCES:

F 01. Forrest Civil War portrait, Wikipedia
F 02. Forrest’s Signature, Google Books
F 03. Gravesite, Find A Grave photo by Selk
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July 10: Jack "Legs" Diamond

Do you know who this is?
-He would survive four attempts on his life.
-He was pardoned for desertion from the Army by President Harding.
-He was nicknamed ‘Legs’ and ‘Gentleman Jim’.

He was a criminal – a kidnapper, bootlegger, numbers man, and much more – but he caught the public eye and fancy during the decade known as the Roaring Twenties. He would survive four attempts on his life in six years, and finally succumb to an attack in a rooming house in Albany, New York. While a popular figure to the public because of his flashy style and charismatic manner, he was an anathema his underworld brethren because of his self-centered acts – that included double-crossing and robbing them!

He was born on July 10, 1897 to John and Sara Diamond, Irish immigrants who settled in Philadelphia after their arrival in the United States in 1891. They would have their two children – Jack and Eddie - in Philadelphia. Both of the boys would struggle in school, and after their mother died in 1913 the father packed up the family and moved to Brooklyn, New York.

Lack of supervision allowed the boys to run wild, with their eventually joining a local gang called the “Hudson Dusters”. While his brother was more physically capable of surviving fights and feuds, Diamond’s specialty was creativity.

Jack “Legs” Diamond was seventeen when he had his first arrest was for the burglary of a jewelry store he broke into on February 4, 1914. Diamond would be in and out of jails for arrests until his death in 1931. He even served in the US Army during World War I, but would be convicted and jailed for desertion and theft from Fort Dix, New Jersey. After the war was over President Warren G. Harding released him under a blanket parole that was issued for more than two dozen Federal prisoners.

No one knew where “Legs” received his nickname. Perhaps it was because of his long legs – and his ability to use them to run from pursuing police officers. Or it may have been because of his ability on the dance floor of the nightclubs he loved to frequent. Or it might have been the nickname given to him by one of his gangland bosses. But, Legs was one of several nicknames Diamond had, including “Gentleman Jim”.

New York beckoned after Diamond was released from the ‘pen’, and soon Diamond found himself again involved in the ‘easy money’ criminal world that flourished during Prohibition. He worked with Lucky Luciano before Luciano hit the big-time, and in 1922 went to work for Arnold “The Brain” Rothstein. Diamond also worked for “Little Augie” Jacob Orgen, a New York gangster involved in bootlegging and labor racketeering. He began to form his own gang and began hijacking the trucks of other mobsters that were transporting illegal alcohol – a side-line that caused the first ‘hit’ to be ordered against him, almost ending his life.

Orgen had to fight to keep and expand his territory – and wealth and prestige. Diamond was hired as a bodyguard by Orgen, and then later spearheaded bootlegging activities that supplied many of the speakeasies in New York with illegal alcohol. However, there was a gangland struggle over the labor racketeering, and in 1927 Diamond was hospitalized during a drive-by shooting while walking with the target of the assassination – Little Augie. Little Augie died, Diamond was shot twice.

After recovering, Diamond went to work for Louis Buchalter – the man who had ordered the assassination of Little Augie. Diamond supervised bootlegging supplies to Manhattan speakeasies and night clubs. This job brought him into a running battle with his nemesis, Dutch Schultz. Schultz wanted to expand his criminal base of operations - and Diamond was one of those in his way. Diamond was shot on two separate occasions by Schultz’s men – once at a private dinner, where he was hit five times, and another when machine gun fire erupted at the Aratoga Inn, killing two bystanders and wounding Diamond three times. Through this series of attempts on his life, Diamond became known as the ‘clay pigeon of the underworld’.

Schultz actually wondered aloud at one point if there wasn’t anyone who could kill Diamond.

There was – and it occurred in the pre-dawn hours of December 18, 1931, in a room in Albany, New York, rooming house. Diamond had toured Europe after being shot in 1929, and while there his gang was forced out of New York by other gangs. When he returned, he decided to set up headquarters in Albany – a decision that was not appreciated by the city officials or police.

Diamond’s death hit the news racks through newsboy’s hawking “Extra, Extra” on the street corners.

Under a Albany Times Union newspaper banner headline that read "JACK DIAMOND SLAIN IN DOVE ST. HOUSE; KILLERS' WEAPON FOUND", a byline credited to H.L. Wood stated:

"Jack 'Legs' Diamond, survivor of a dozen skirmishes with the law and the lawless alike, today went from a clandestine tryst with Marion 'Kiki' Roberts, his showgirl sweetheart, to a tryst with death in an Albany rooming house.

"Unknown assassins, stalking down their prey with cool deliberation, pumped a stream of leaden pellets into the racketeer's head as he lay asleep in a small room at 67 Dove St.

"Death was instantaneous as the bullets furrowed the brain that had been set at rest a few hours earlier when a Rensselaer county Supreme court jury acquitted Diamond of a charge of kidnapping James Duncan, a Cairo youth."

The killers shot Diamond three times in the head while he was asleep. The killers were never identified, and could have been from rival gangs or the Albany police. He was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery, Queens, New York.

LOCAL LIBRARY RESOURCES:

There are no biographies available on 'Legs' Diamond at our local library

WEB RESOURCES:

Find A Grave
Gangster City Profiles
Kiki’s Love
La Cosa Nostra
Mobster’s Murder
Murder Inc. blog
Paddy Whacked

Wikipedia

PHOTO SOURCES:

D 01. Full Length Photo from 1931, Find-A-Grave by Ron Moody.
D 02. Mug Shot from the NYPD, Wikipedia
D 03. During Court appearance, Musicals
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July 7: “Nothing between my soul and my Savior…”

Do you know who this is?
-He was a founding father of American Gospel music
-He was known as the ‘people’s pastor’.
-He was largely self-educated.

Raised with slaves in Worchester County in the pre-Civil War border state of Maryland, considered free because his parents were a slave father and free mother, he would become the self-educated minister of a 10,000 member multi-racial Methodist Church – in an era where most churches were segregated based on race.

Charles Albert Tindley was born on the Joseph Brindell farm near Berlin, Maryland, on July 7, 1851 to Charles and Hester Miller Tindley. When he was less than five years old his mother died, and he would be raised by his sister. Because economic conditions were poor for the African Americans in the mid-19th Century, Tindley was ‘hired out’ as a young boy by his father, receiving pay for working in the fields alongside slaves – providing young Tindley with the experiences of working on a slave plantation, and his family with a much needed income.

As a youth Tindley would be denied the opportunity for an education. First: he was in the field helping his family during the day. Secondly, although he was considered ‘free born’, schools in his area were for white students – so he taught himself how to read and write.

When he was about seventeen, Tindley married Daisy Henry. He would move to Philadelphia with his family in order to better support them. Working during the day as a janitor and attending school at night, he strove to achieve the American ideal. He once commented “I made a rule to learn at least one new thing—a thing I did not know the day before—each day.”

Tindley had varied educational experiences. He put himself through night school. He earned a Divinity Degree through a correspondence course. He never graduated from a college or seminary. In his seeking the source of truth from the Bible, he studied Greek at the Boston School of Theology. In order to better understand the Old Testament, Tindley studied Hebrew through a synagogue in Philadelphia. He would ultimately be awarded two honorary doctorate degrees: one from North Carolina, the other from Maryland.

He was employed as a janitor from 1880 to 1885 at the Bainbridge Street Methodist Church in Philadelphia. The same church granted him a license to preach – and he would be assigned there as its pastor in 1902 after pasturing in Delaware and New Jersey. The church had 130 African American members when Tindley was appointed as its pastor, and the congregation would reach 10,000 members under his guidance – and would be a multiracial congregation that included African Americans, Europeans, Jews and Hispanics. He led his church in ministering to Philadelphia’s poor – by establishing soup kitchens and a clothing ministry - as well as advocating civil rights in the early 20th century. As a tribute to the accomplishments of the man who led the church for over thirty years, Bainbridge was renamed Tindley Methodist Episcopal Church in the 1920s - over the objections of Tindley.

Tindley was preached powerful messages, and – although technically musically illiterate - began writing hymns that reflected his background – music that later became known as gospel music, which was based on feelings engendered by a history of oppression. He would dictate the words and tunes to a transcriber who would write down the formal musical notes and words. Eventually he would write over forty-five hymns, and while he apparently did not intend for his music to be sung congregationally, some of his hymns wound up in the Methodist hymnal and are sung around the world today. Perhaps one of the most famous of his hymns is “Stand By Me”.

When the storms of life are raging, stand by me;
When the world is tossing me, like a ship upon the sea,
Thou who rulest wind and water, stand by me.

Other well-known hymns by Tindley include “We’ll Understand Better, By and By”, “Lord, I’ve Tried”, and “I Shall Overcome”. Many believe that the words and intent of “I Shall Overcome” was the basis of the anthem for the Civil Rights movement, “We Shall Overcome”.

While many of his sermons are lost, the messages found in his songs remain. These messages are based on his past, and the events occurring in his life, ringing true to us today – over seventy years after the death of their author.

From “We’ll Understand Better, By and By”:
We are often destitute of the things that life demands,
Want of food and want of shelter, thirsty hills and barren lands;
We are trusting in the Lord, and according to God's Word,
We will understand it better by and by.

Or “Nothing Between”, written in 1906 when the church was negotiating to buy a new site for its growing congregation.

Nothing between my soul and my Savior,
naught of this world’s delusive dream;
I have renounced all sinful pleasure;
Jesus is mine, there’s nothing between.
Nothing between my soul and my Savior,
so that his blessed face may be seen;
nothing preventing the least of his favor;
keep the way clear! Let nothing between.

Tindley would pass away on July 26, 1933, from a gangrene infection in his foot. He was 82 years old. It was at the deepest point of the Great Depression when Tindley was buried in Eden Memorial Cemetery in Collingdale, Pennsylvania, and the congregation could not afford a marker for his grave. The situation was rectified in 2002 when 3000 members of his church met in a memorial to Tindley that met, provided a headstone, and remembered Dr. Tindley.

LOCAL LIBRARY RESOURCES:

There are no biographies of Charles Tindley in our local library.

WEB RESOURCES:

Christian History Timeline
Cyber Hymnal
Lower Shore
Preparing for Eternity
Taylor House Museum
Thinkquest
United Methodist Portal
Wikipedia
World Wide Faith News

PHOTO SOURCES:

T 01. Charles Tindley portrait, Find a Grave, by Curtis Jackson
T 02. Charles A. Tindley, Cyberhymnal
T 03. I Shall Overcome songsheet, Thinkquest
T 04. Tindley Memorial, Find a Grave, by Curtis Jackson
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July 3: “I hope I can beat the men.”

Do you know who this is?
-She was known as ‘the modern Nellie Bly’.
-She was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
-Her death is shrouded in mystery.

Dorothy Mae Kilgallen was born on July 3, 1913 to Hearst newspaperman James Lawrence Kilgallen and Mae Ahern Kilgallen. The family moved often during her childhood years – moving from Chicago to Wyoming, then to Indiana, then back to Chicago. They finally settled in New York City, where Kilgallen would spend one semester at the College of New Rochelle. After that semester she would leave college to follow in her father’s footsteps by accepting a job as a reporter for the New York Journal-American.

Twenty-three year old Kilgallen would skyrocket in notoriety and readers in 1936 when she would compete with to other (male) New York reporters in a race around the world. The trip was to be completed by using means of transportation what was available to the general public – no special charters or use of government transportation. The reasons for the race were threefold: to break existing around-the-world travel records; to become some of the first travelers to use the China Clipper to cross the Pacific Ocean; and to increase the circulation of their respective newspapers at home. Kilgallen attracted quite a bit of attention, as she was the only woman in the ‘race’.

Before leaving she said, “I'm off to race around the world - a race against time and two men. I know I can beat time. I hope I can beat the men.”

The New York Evening Journal printed her reports on her journey daily and, through the headlines, became known as the ‘modern day Nellie Bly’. She traveled via the Hindenburg from New York to Germany, and then used different airlines to fly to Rome, Hong Kong, and Manila. At Manila she booked a flight on the Pan Am China Clipper to Hawaii, then San Francisco, finally catching a commercial flight back to New York. She completed the trip in twenty-four days, placing second to Bud Elkins of the New York World Telegram (who took twenty-one days) and beating Leo Keiran of the New York Times. She became the first woman to fly around the world. Later that year she published an autobiographical book titled Girl Around the World chronicling the event, moved to Hollywood, and the following year wrote a screenplay for the movie Fly Away Baby. The movie would star Glenda Farrell as a character which was inspired by Kilgallen’s travels called Torchy Blane.

Kilgallen gave up her film-writing career in 1937 returned to New York to work for the New York Journal-American where she was given her own column, the Hollywood Scene. The next year She would start a new column titled The Voice of Broadway, and would write it for the next twenty-seven years, until her death in 1965. The Voice of Broadway focused on the news and gossip of the New York show business industry, but it also included articles on politics and organized crime. The column appeared in 24 other newspapers by 1941, and eventually the column was syndicated to 146 newspapers through the King Features Syndicate. She had an estimated twenty-million readers by 1950, and was being recognized as one of the most important columnists in America. Her columns were an unusual mixture. As Midwest Today article by Sara Jordan stated:

“The Kilgallen approach was a mixture of catty gossip ("A world-famous movie idol, plastered, commanded a pretty girl to get into his limousine, take off all her clothes"), odd tidbits of inconsequential information ("The Duke of Windsor eats caviar with a spoon"), and dark warnings ("Anti-American factions are planning to blow up the Panama Canal").”

Kilgallen was married in 1940 to actor Dick Kollmar – who played Boston Blackie in a popular radio crime show. The couple would have three children – two of which can be seen in this snippet from an episode of What’s My Line.

In 1945 the couple started Breakfast with Dorothy and Dick, a morning live radio show broadcast that would be on the air until 1963. The program discussed plays, books, films – the various social activities that were available to New Yorkers.

Kilgallen was invited to become a panelist on a television game show originating in New York called What’s My Line?, airing from 1950 – 1967. She would remain on the show from 1950 until her death in 1965. While the show was designed for entertainment – with a priority on getting a laugh and providing entertainment for the audience – Kilgallen’s main interest was very competitive: guessing the right answers, and the name of the mystery guest - even if it was her own father. While she was popular on-air, she often was in conflict with her co-panelists because of her competitive nature, her using information overheard in the dressing rooms in her gossip column, and her being a ‘Hearst girl’. Arlene Francis was soon brought on the show as a regular panelist to counter-balance Kilgallen.

During the 1950’s Kilgallen continued to publish her columns and perform in her radio and television shows. She extended the scope of her articles by attending the coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953, as well as covering criminal trials. It was her investigative reporting that got Sam Shepard a new trial. Shepard’s case was later the basis for “The Fugitive”, a popular television series and movie. Her articles during this time were the basis of her nomination for a Pulitzer Prize.

She was also the only reporter to privately interview Jack Ruby, who was in jail accused of murdering the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas in November 1963: Lee Harvey Oswald. Kilgallen had been impressed with President Kennedy, and used her investigative talents to start to raise some hard questions, especially about the thoroughness of the Warren Report. She interviewed witnesses to the shooting that the Warren Commission – headed by Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Earl Warren – had neglected to interview. Much of what she discovered remained unpublished – her claim was that she was gathering the information for a book.

After she had obtained a copy of Ruby’s testimony to the Warren Commission and shocked the public with her revelations of the inept questioning of Ruby by Warren, Kilgallen found the FBI on her doorstep. An FBI memo reported that when asked to reveal the name of the individual who leaked the 102 page transcript of Ruby’s testimony to her, "she stated that she was the only person who knew the identity of the source and that she 'would die' rather than reveal his identity."

America loves conspiracy theories, and Kilgallen’s death – connected to her investigation of Kennedy’s assassination – provided a wonderful one. Kilgallen was found dead in her apartment on November 8, 1965. While the official verdict was suicide, many believed that it was murder – the fact that her notes on the Ruby interview were never found and other inconsistencies in her death keeping the conspiracy theory alive over forty years later.

Kilgallen died as she lived – making the news.

LOCAL LIBRARY RESOURCES:

Our local library has no biographies available on Dorothy Kilgallen.

WEB RESOURCES:

Bambooweb
Find A Grave
Midwest Today
Smithsonian
Spartacus
Wikipedia

PHOTO SOURCES:

01. Portrait, FanPix
02. China Clipper: Flying Clippers
03. American Airlines
04. Masked Dorothy
05. Typewriter
06. Gravestone: Find A Grave, picture by Elliot

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June 30: “When there is no hope tell the man so.”

Do you know who this is?
-He was the 19th Vice President of the United States.
-While he was involved in state and national politics for thirty years, he was virtually unknown outside of his home district.
-He resigned from a House Committee in order not to be tempted by bribery.

Like many of our Vice Presidents – the ‘forgotten men’ of American political history who’s sole job, as described by a wit, was to ask every morning “Is the President alive?” – there is not a huge amount of online information available on William Almon Wheeler, 19th Vice President of the United States. Yet Wheeler – like Gerald Ford in the 1970s – was a crucial element in restoring confidence in the government after a series of national scandals shook the nation.

He was born in Malone – Franklin County – in northeastern New York, on June 30, 1819. His father, Almon Wheeler, was an attorney and postmaster of Malone, who died when Wheeler was only eight years old, leaving his mother in debt. His mother, Eliza Wheeler, took in boarders from Franklin Academy to support her two children. Because of his father’s early death, Wheeler would be concerned over his health during his entire life.

Wheeler himself would attend Franklin Academy in Malone, and as a teenager would study at the University of Vermont for two years (1833-1835), but was forced to leave the college before graduation because of the an eye ailment. Subsequently, he returned to Malone and began to study law under Asa Hascall as well as to teach school. He also met and married Mary King. In 1845 he was admitted to the bar. He also became politically active, receiving the positions of town clerk, school commissioner and school inspector. He succeeded his mentor, Hascall, as the United States district attorney of Franklin County, New York from 1846-1849.

A serious throat infection caused Wheeler to abandon his legal practice in 1851. While he would serve in the political arenas of New York and Washington D.C., he would also hold positions in private industry. Wheeler would be an officer of a bank in his hometown of Malone from 1851 until 1866 as well as a President of the Northern Railroad in New York.

His political sympathies at the start of his political career – like Abraham Lincoln’s – lay with the Whig Party. Under their political banner he was elected to the New York state assembly in 1849, serving 1850-1851. In 1856 he moved into the newly formed Republican Party, remaining a Republican until his death. He was elected as a Republican to the New York State Senate, 1858-1860 - where he was the President pro Tempore from 1858-1859. He was elected as a Republican to the thirty-seventh Congress, March 4, 1861 to March 3, 1863 – where he was as the opening shots of the Civil War were fired. He only served one term, then returned to his railroad and banking interests.

He would return to politics in 1867, first as the president of the New York constitutional convention, then returned to the US House of Representatives in 1869 where he served continuously until 1877.

While in Congress Wheeler was involved with several important committees. He was chairman of the Committee on Pacific Railroads – with a special interest in the railroad lines stretching across the nation to bind east and west together. He was also a member of the Southern Affairs Committee, which dealt largely with the prostate South after the Civil War. It was as a member of the latter committee that he devised what became known as the Wheeler Compromise, settling a violent and potentially divisive election issue in Louisiana in 1872.

He did maintain a reputation for honesty during an era noted for its graft and corruption in local, state, and national politics. When agents for Credit Mobilier – a railroad construction company – began bribing members of Congress for favorable legislation, Wheeler not only turned them down: he resigned from the Committee on Pacific Railroads in order to avoid temptation. When the scandal broke, many prominent members of Congress were found to have accepted bribes. In another example of Wheeler’s exemplary honesty: In 1873 Congress voted itself a pay raise, making it retroactive for five years. Wheeler voted against the raise – then returned his pay raise to the Treasury department.

Wheeler generally maintained a low profile as a Congressman, and few outside of his district knew of him. He preferred to be cautious, and to work behind the scenes, in committees, rather than to battling issues publically. Perhaps it was because of this low profile that he was asked to run for Vice President with Rutherford B. Hayes as President in 1876. National politics had hit a new low as the scandals of the Grant administration became public, and the restlessness of the South for full reinstatement into the Union was increasing. Wheeler was a delegate to the July 1876 Republican convention.

Both political parties were looking for honest candidates to counter the public perception of and disgust with corrupt politicians. While several names were mentioned, it was decided that in the search for untarnished candidates and men with a reputation for honesty, Wheeler was an excellent choice. However, Wheeler was surprised when his name was nominated by acclamation the next morning, winning the position with 366 votes. His nearest rival, Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, would receive 89 votes. Frelinghuysen would later serve on the Electoral Commission.

Supposedly Governor Hayes said of the matter: “I am ashamed to say: Who is Wheeler?”.

Wheeler would not be involved in active campaigning. Citing his ill health, he wrote:

“I greatly regret my physical inability to do little in the way of speaking on his canvas. But I have no reserve of strength to draw upon.”

He would be inaugurated, along with the President, on March 4, 1877. A widower – his wife passed away three months before the inauguration, Wheeler would become a frequent guest of the Hayes’ at the White House. He would fulfill his Constitutional job as the President of the Senate faithfully, even though he found the job to be tedious. He also would give solid advice to the President. When dealing with job seekers, Wheeler advised the Administration to tell job seekers:

“When there is no hope tell the man so. He will be disappointed at the time, but it is the best way.”

When Hayes declined to run for reelection, Wheeler too stepped down. He was a tired and ill sixty-two year old. He retired from politics and his business interests, and would pass away in Malone on June 4, 1887. He was buried at Morningside Cemetery, Malone, New York.

LOCAL LIBRARY RESOURCES:

No biographies of William A. Wheeler are available at our local library.

WEB RESOURCES:

Biographical Dictionary of the US Congress
Famous Americans
Find A Grave http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=2901
Vice Presidents of the United States
Wikipedia

PHOTO SOURCES:

01. Portrait: Library of Congress
02. Portrait: Library of Congress
03. Campaign poster
04. Gravestone: Find A Grave

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June 26: “…I never like to do things by halves…”

Do you know who this is?
-He signed the Declaration of Independence.
-He was imprisoned by the British for treason.
-He was appointed Governor of his state – but declined the offer.

Born to wealth on a family estate located on the Ashley River near Charleston, South Carolina, and educated in England, one would think that he would be a supporter of the Crown. However, he became an avid revolutionary, and he risked all that he had to support the American Revolution – his property, his wealth, his health, and – ultimately – his life.
Arthur Middleton was born on June 26, 1742 at Middleton Place, the family estate. His parents were , and his father owned a score of plantations that embraced over 50,000 acres of land and used over 800 slaves – making him one of the wealthiest and most politically active men in the colony.

While his earliest education was from private tutors and private schools in Charleston, Middleton was sent to England for an education as a young boy twelve years of age, attending Hackney School and Westminster School, then graduating from St. John’s College, Cambridge University, and studying law at the Temple in London. He opted not to practice law, instead choosing to tour Europe for two years before returning to South Carolina when he was twenty-two. While in college Middleton acquired a passion for classical literature, and during his tour of southern Europe he developed a taste for music and painting that would stay with him for the rest of his life. He also became knowledgeable in the concepts of sculpture and architecture.

Within a year of his return from Europe, Middleton would meet and marry Mary Izard on August 19, 1764. Mary was the daughter of Walter Izard, and cousin to an influential South Carolina congressman, Ralph Izard. She was seventeen at the time of the marriage, and Middleton was twenty-two. Her father – deceased at the time of the wedding – had been a wealthy plantation owner and involved in politics. He owned Cedar Grove plantation, which was across the river from Middleton Place. The Middleton family would raise nine children. With his love of travel firmly implanted from his formative years spent aboard, Middleton and his wife would leave South Carolina in 1770 on a three-year extended tour of Europe.

While living in South Carolina during the mid-late 1760s, Middleton oversaw the planting process on the plantations as well as becoming involved in local politics. He was appointed Justice of the Peace of Berkeley County in 1765, and was a member of the provincial House of Commons for three years, from 1765 -1768.

After his return from his European tour in 1772, Middleton discovered political tensions rising between the colonies and their colonial government as well as the monarchy of England. He was again elected to the South Carolina provincial House of Commons from 1772 – 1775, and helped form the new state constitution in 1776. He was a more radical thinker than his father had been, and became a leader in the “American Party” in South Carolina as well as a member of the Council of Safety in 1775 and 1776.

During the 1775-1776 period of time, Middleton helped to organize a night raid on government weapons supplies in Charleston, raised money to buy the supplies necessary to support armed resistance against the Royal Governor, and recommended a variety of defense measures for Charleston Harbor.

Middleton was elected to succeed to his father’s seat in the Continental Congress in 1776. Both Middleton’s – father and son – knew that the upcoming revolution against England could and would have an effect on their wealth and position in the community. Yet, in the face of potentially losing everything they had – their wealth, prestige, and very lives – both Middleton’s agreed that they had to take the risk in order to protect the rights and liberties they had as citizens in America. Arthur Middleton would sign the Declaration of Independence, pledging everything he had to the success of the Revolution. That same year Middleton and William Henry Drayton would collaborate to design the Great Seal of South Carolina.

In his passion for the Revolution, Middleton would become a ruthless anti-Loyalist. The Loyalists – those who wanted to remain under the authority of the Crown and often supported the Crown by money and personal service – would be persecuted by Middleton. He would advocate the tarring and feathering of Loyalists as well as support the confiscation of the estates of those Loyalists who had fled the country.

He was nominated – at the age of thirty-six - as governor of South Carolina in 1778, but declined because of a new constitution the state legislature had enacted – and which he opposed. He was re-elected to the Continental Congress in 1789 – though he failed to attend because of British threats to South Carolina. He did remain in the state legislature from 1778 until his capture by the British in 1780.

The latter years of the American Revolution found much of the action moving southward. States that had not seen a lot of fighting – such as South Carolina – became the focus of the British plan to win the war. By 1779 the British and their Loyalist allies were seeking to end the rebellion in the South and to force those supporting it to flee, be captured, be killed, or turn and support the British. Middleton Place was one of the many plantations that were ravaged during this time. While the buildings remained intact, the British and Loyalists stole anything of value they could carry, and destroyed anything they could not carry. The Middletons escaped capture by fleeing to Charleston ahead of the British raid on their home.

Middleton actively served as a member of the state militia in the defense of Charleston, South Carolina, during the Revolutionary War. He was captured when the city fell to the British in May 1780 and was sent as a prisoner of war to St. Augustine – along with fellow Declaration of Independence signers Thomas Heyward and Edward Rutledge. In July 1781 he was freed through part of a prisoner exchange and returned to South Carolina. Upon his release he would become a state senator, serving from 1781 – 1782.

His health was broken by the imprisonment he had suffered at the hands of the British, and after a brief fever he passed away in January 1, 1787, at the age of forty-four.

He was buried at the family graveyard at Middleton Place, an honored patriot and Revolutionary War hero. He risked all in the support of Independence – and paid the price of separation from his family, the stress involved in the making of a new nation and of fighting a war, the destruction of his possessions and home, as well as his health.

Yet, how many Americans today have heard of this hero?

LOCAL LIBRARY RESOURCES:

There are no biographies of Arthur Middleton available from our local library.

WEB RESOURCES:

1911 Encyclopedia
Biographical Dictionary of the US Congress
Colonial Hall
Middleton Place
National Park Service
Wikipedia

PHOTO SOURCES:

01. Color drawing: Wikipedia
02. Middleton Place: Virtualogy

03. John Trumbull: Declaration of Independence
04. Signature

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