Showdown- Marshall vs. Scalia?

Sometimes history collides with current events in ways that make us think that we are experiencing  "Deja Vu."  Two events happened in Texas on Saturday that make me wonder if history is about to repeat itself.

The author of the "The Butler", Wil Haygood was in Houston on Saturday promoting his new book, "Showdown" about the appointment by LBJ of civil rights leader, Thurgood Marshall to the U.S. Supreme Court.  Haygood's premise is that the nomination of Marshall to the highest court profoundly changed the racial politics of our nation.  He tells the story using the framework of the dramatic and contentious five-day Senate hearing on the confirmation of Thurgood Marshall as the first African American Supreme Court justice.

Wil Haygood and Nick Cimino 2/13/2016, Texas Southern University, Houston, Texas

As my wife and I walked off the Texas Southern Campus, the news alerts appeared on our phones that Justice Antonin Scalia had died at a hunting ranch near Marfa, Texas.  Republican presidential candidates began making statements about blocking the nomination of Scalia's replacement. The president said on Saturday that he will nominate a successor to Justice Antonin Scalia, ignoring the protests from Republicans. The dynamics of the Supreme Court will be fundamentally changed by the death of Scalia.  To learn of Scalia's death after hearing stories about the Thurgood Marshall nomination was uncanny.  Another "showdown" is about to happen in the Senate.  If there is a heaven for esteemed jurists, perhaps another debate is about to begin.

I have to say that I was riveted by the humor and historical insight of Wil Haygood's lecture on Saturday.  I bought a copy of the "Showdown" book in hopes of getting his autograph.  The lecture was held in the Sawyer Auditorium of Texas Southern University which is also the site of the Thurgood Marshall School of Law.  The introductory speakers included the new Houston Mayor, Sylvester Turner, Congressman Al Green and Dannye R. Holley, Dean of the Marshall Law School.  I was impressed by the Dean's introduction of Mayor Turner that described him as "super qualified" and "super prepared."  Among his many qualifications, Mayor Turner graduated  Magna Cum Laude with a B.A. degree in Political Science from the University of Houston.  This contrasted humorously with Haygood's self described qualifications as graduating "magna cum lucky" in urban planning from Miami University in Ohio.

In the spirit of the past being prologue, Haygood shared several anecdotes from the writing and the filming of the "The Butler."   One of the luckiest moments in Haygood's life was when he decided to write a newspaper article about Eugene Allen, the butler who served in the White House during the terms of eight presidents.  Haygood wanted to explore this unique moment in American history by profiling a person who was raised in an era when segregation was so ingrained into American life, that the thought of a black president was incomprehensible. He was covering the Obama campaign as a reporter for the Washington Post and he saw the tide turning toward election of the first African American president.  Haygood drew inspiration from the quote of Dr. Martin Luther King: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice."

One of the anecdotes about the research and writing of Showdown that I found particularly inspiring as a genealogist, was about the discovery of a very prescient letter in an Arkansas archive.  Haygood stated that sometimes in the writing process "you just have to go there" to find the hidden research gems.  Texarkana resident, Barbara Ross, wrote a letter to Sen. John McClellan, after listening to the racist tone of the Senate hearing on the radio. Haygood read the words that Ms. Ross wrote with  her new typewriter in 1967: "If he doesn't get the nomination, there will be others who seek after the same opportunity when it is there. There will be hundreds, Senator, and you can't fight them all…One of these days, the President of the United States will be a Negro."

Image from the dust jacket of "Showdown" by Wil Haygood.

The new book about the Marshall appointment is mandatory reading towards achieving a well-informed citizenry especially given current events with the passing of Justice Scalia.  The efforts of southern senators to block the Marshall nomination in 1967 are about to be replayed in the Senate in the coming weeks.  The Washington Post has described Justice Scalia as a "brilliant legal mind who snubbed civil rights at nearly every turn."  Perhaps the prophetic words of MLK are about to resonate once more.

Mugbooks- Genealogical Gold or Tall Tales?

Sometimes I wish I had a time machine to go back in time and interview my ancestors. But even if this were possible, it would still be oral history.  Oral history is subject to the unreliability of human recollection.  It is not uncommon for different branches of the family to have very different versions of the family oral history.  But I do get excited when I find a biographical sketch for an ancestor in a 19th century mugbook.


According to the Family Search Wiki:

Mugbooks (commonly referred to as County Histories) often include family and biographical sketches in addition to historical information. These sketches were solicited by subscription and often required a fee for inclusion. The addition of photographs or additional text was available at a higher cost.

A majority of the information included in the printed sketches was gathered from pre-printed forms and gathered a variety of genealogical and biographical information. Once submitted, sketches were usually compiled in a standardized format by an in-house editor  working for the publication company (examples include Lewis Historical Publishing Company, S. J. Clarke and Co, and others). 

Because documentation was not required for submission, these sketches require intensive verification and should not be taken at face value.

SOURCE: https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Mugbooks

I recently ran across an example of one of these biographical sketches while doing some research for my friend, Brad Stone.  His ancestor, George W. Stone was featured in the Reminiscent History of the Ozark Region published in 1894.  In addition to the fact that these biographies require verification, they can also be very confusing in the way that they are written.  The George W. Stone biography has been edited below as a first step toward verification.  The added information is contained in brackets.

George W. Stone Biography in 1894 publication of Reminiscent History of the Ozark Region

GEORGE W. STONE. This gentleman who resides in James Creek Township, [Marion County, Arkansas] is the owner of a fine farm, which attests by its value and productiveness the excellent qualities of thoroughness and system which mark the owner. [G.W. Stone] is a native of Ozark County, Mo., where he was born in 1848, a son of John and Maria (Bayless) Stone, natives of Tennessee,where they were reared and married. [1850 census says John was a native of Virginia and "Mariah"  and daughters Sarah and Louisa  were natives of Tennessee. Mary Jane age 9 in 1850 was the first child  born in Missouri indicating an arrival date in Missouri before 1841.]  

From [Tennessee] [John and Maria (Bayless) Stone] removed to Greene County, Mo., and [before 1848] to Ozark County, [Missouri], where Mr. [John] Stone died when the subject of this sketch [G.W. Stone] was very small [Estimated death date is before 1860 based on the fact that he is missing from the family in the 1860 census.]. In 1862 [Maria Bayless Stone and her children] removed to Marion County, Ark., where Mrs. Stone breathed her last about 1882, having long been a member in good standing of the Christian Church. Her father was a farmer of Tennessee and died in that State. 

The paternal grandfather [Robert Stone] was also a Tennesseean and reared four sons: John, Edward, William and David, all of whom died in Missouri. [G.W. Stone] was the youngest save one of the following [children of John and Maria (Bayless) Stone]: Sarah, who died in Marion County, the wife of James Cain; Louisa, who also died here, the wife of Robert Long; Mary Jane, who became the wife of Andrew Benton, and died in Marion County; Adaline, who died in Marion County, the wife of A. C. Musick; Julia Ann, who became the wife of William Lance, also died in this county; Edward Marion, died in this county in 1863; Amanda, became the wife of Joel A. Presley and died in Marion County; George W. and Serepta, who died young. 

George W. Stone remained with his mother until he reached manhood, but owing to the fact that he assisted her in every way in his power and to the scarcity of schools, his education was not of the best. In 1873 he married Marinda Jane, daughter of John Porter, who died in Woodruff County, Ark., when Mrs. Stone [Marinda Jane Porter] was quite small. She was born in that county and there died about 1876, leaving two children: Marion and Druscilla, the latter named for her grandmother Porter, who now [1894] lives in Marion County, the wife of G. B. Forrest. 

In 1881 Mr. Stone married Lucina[Lusana], daughter of Robert and Rachel Forrest, who were born and spent many years of their lives in Ozark County, Mo., but are residents of the State of Washington [since 1880], where they have become comparatively wealthy during their fourteen years' residence there. Mrs. [Lusana Forest] Stone was born in Ozark County, and by Mr. [G.W.] Stone is the mother of seven children: Everet Clarence, Walter, Ida Belle, Frank, Cora, Charley and Nora. 

Since the time of his first marriage [1873] Mr. [G.W.] Stone has resided on his present farm, but at that time only a few acres had been cleared and a small log cabin erected thereon, for which he paid the sum of $25;. He now has a fine bottom-land farm of 152 acres, about seventy of which are cleared and under cultivation. His place is nicely improved with excellent buildings of all descriptions and he always has an abundance of fruit of various kinds. In 1893 he erected a gin, saw and corn mill, all of which net him a satisfactory income. Besides this valuable property he is the owner of some extremely desirable mineral claims. He has followed farming all his life, has made it a success, and is considered one of the substantial men of his section. For the past fourteen years [since 1880] he has been a director in his school district, and he has ever been an earnest advocate of the free-school system, and is a patron of all progressive measures generally. He and his worthy wife are members of the Christian Church and politically he has been a lifelong Democrat, and his first presidential vote was cast for Horace Greeley in 1872.


MLA Source Citation:
A Reminiscent History of the Ozark Region: comprising a condensed general history, a brief descriptive history of each county, and numerous biographical sketches of prominent citizens of such counties. Chicago: Goodspeed Brothers Publishers. 1894. AccessGenealogy.com. Web. 31 January 2016.

https://www.accessgenealogy.com/missouri/biography-of-george-w-stone.htm

George W. Stone Biography
ncimino1 originally shared this on 25 Jan 2016
LINKED TO GEORGE WASHINGTON STONE 

The first problem that I noted in the transcript on Access Genealogy was that it did not cite a page number so I looked for an original version in the Family Search Book collection.  George W. Stone was not listed in the table of contents so I downloaded the PDF and a did a search of the document for "George W. Stone."  The biography was found on page 640 and 641.

This biography is packed with information about the family and ancestors of George W. Stone.  Most of the information has been substantiated by census and other sources.  One particularly vexing problem is that an 1870 census record has not yet been found for G.W. Stone or his mother.  This is probably due to a transcription error.

After the writing of this biography, George W. Stone and Lusana Forest Stone had two more daughters.  George W. Stone died on October 10, 1901 in Marion County, Arkansas.  He was originally buried in the Wildcat Cemetery but the grave had to be relocated due to the construction of Bull Shoals Reservoir.

His FindaGrave Memorial has a photo and tells the story of his burial, exhumation and reburial.

G.W. Stone Gravestone FindaGrave Photo
29 May 2014
Flippin, Marion County, Arkansas, USA
Find A Grave Memorial# 59726957
George Washington Stone Birth: Apr. 17, 1848 Ozark County Missouri, USA
Death: Oct. 10, 1901 Marion County Arkansas, USA

G.W. Stone was buried in the Wildcat Cemetery. This cemetery was located on a public road to Flippin behind Wildcat Church and located at the junction of Wildcat Creek and Jimmie Creek in T20N, R16W, prior to the building of Bull Shoals Reservoir. The graves in this cemetery were then relocated to the Fairview Cemetery. If the grave included a tombstone the tombstone was moved with the body. Walter Stone of Yakima, WA was listed as next of kin. Family links: Children: Rachel Cora Stone (1887 - 1901)* *Calculated relationship Burial: Fairview Cemetery Flippin Marion County Arkansas, USA Plot: # 293
 Created by: Barb Henderson
Record added: Oct 07, 2010
Find A Grave Memorial# 59726957
Photograph was taken on May 29, 2014 by Lee Witt #48135475

Robin's DNA- Scandinavian Surprise!

Our biggest hope for Robin's DNA test was that it would confirm that she has Native American ancestry.  The biggest surprise was there was not even a trace amount of Native American shown in her ethnic mix.  Other surprises were that the Irish ancestry was only 6% and Scandinavian was 9%.  Now she is ready to go out and buy a Volvo!

Apparently, Robin is not the only one who had the Scandinavian surprise.  The Ancestry.com blog includes a post: Got Scandinavian? Why your DNA results may have unexpected ethnicities  The Scandinavian link is actually from the British Isles as shown in this pie chart:

Pie Chart of Average British Admixture - SOURCE: Ancestry.com

I loved this quote and comment in the blog post:  “The people of this region are a real genetic cocktail,” says Oxford Professor Peter Donnelly.  "So, if you hail from the British Isles, don’t be shaken if your genetic ethnicity results are decidedly stirred," adds Nick Cifuentes.

AncestryDNA is rolling out a new feature called "New Ancestor Discoveries" which is in the Beta testing phase.  Here are the three ancestors that are in DNA Circles for Robin:

John Nicholas Whisenant and Nancy Thompson are husband and wife but how is Robin connected to them?

I searched our tree to find a Whisenant ancestor but could not find anyone with that name in our family tree.   My old Personal Ancestral File (PAF) software has a feature that will search in the notes field of thousands of ancestors.  The PAF search revealed that Robin's ancestor, Charles Thomas Pritchard was buried in the Whisenant Cemetery in Snowball, Searcy County, Arkansas.  That seems like a good place to focus the search for the new ancestors discovered by the DNA test.

We are now in the process of getting Robin's mom, Irma Fitzpatrick tested.  Robin expected a little more Irish due to the Fitzpatrick ancestry.  It will be interesting to see how much Irish shows up in Irma's ethnicity results.  We are also encouraging all of our siblings and cousins to get tested. We are excited to find more pieces in our Ancestor Puzzles!