Footnote to Local History

One of my favorite quotes by Harry Truman is, "the only thing new in the world is history you don't know." Well, this morning I became aware of some "history I didn't know."

A few years ago I devoted one of my newspaper columns to the story of the 1938 robbery of the Minden Bank and Trust. The gist of that story was that the bank was robbed by a gang from Indiana who worked with a local family that helped hide them after the robbery.

This morning I received an invitation to take part in a seminar being held in Houston in April, about a biography that has been written about one of the main particpants in that bank robbery, Truman Mahoney. It seems that Mahoney had an infamous career as bank robbers. He was a prolific and deadly robber and ended up spending many years in Federal prison.

Later in life Mahoney found Jesus Christ as his savior and changed his way of life. The biography, Hounded: Truman's Story, was written by the minister who helped lead Mahoney to Christ.

Not sure about attending this seminar, I really don't have much to offer, other than the story of the local robbery, but I am ordering a copy of the book. It found it fascinating to learn the "rest of the story" about this criminal who has a small place in local history and look forward to reading his story.

Census Time

Yesterday I spoke to the meeting of the Dorcheat Bistineau Chapter of the DAR on the topic, "The 1900 Census of Minden." The point of my talk was about how the Population Schedules of the Census provide a wonderful snapshot of life in a community at a given moment at time. By examining the information contained on those schedules one can gain great insight into the life of a community. The demographic profile -- age, race, national origin -- allows you to get an idea of "who" the people of the town were. The economic information, including the various types of jobs and the number in each field, can give you an idea of how the people lived and in the older schedules that included measures of personal wealth a gauge of the prosperity of the town and its residents.

However, part of my talk dealt with the upcoming 2010 Census -- actually the blanks are "in the mail" so I guess upcoming is an incorrect characterization -- and the slight air of controversy surrounding the process among some conservatives. Within the past two weeks I have seen comments posted on the Internet by several conservatives from this area indicating they are not going to return their Census blanks. I have heard Moon Griffon suggest to his listeners that they just tell how many people live in their home and no more. (I don't have my blank in hand, but from what I can gather the form really asks little more than that basic information.)

I'm not here to fight that political battle, my view of government and its role gives me no problem with supplying information to my goverment; however, I do understand how those who are fearful or distrust government might not want to provide such data. The interesting thing to me is how the information collected by the Census has varied over time, and not necessarily in line with the seeming political trends of the nation. As I tell my American History students, no one can deny that the power and the instrusion of the Federal government into the life of its citizens has dramatically increased over time. I suggest that prior to the 20th Century, outside of the U.S. Mail, few Americans ever dealt directly with the Federal Government or its agents. Today, if one merely goes to work as a wage earner, the IRS is withholding potential taxes from you every second of your working day. The increased contact with the Federal government saw its beginnings with the Progressive movement of the early 20th century that led to the income tax, waxed with the coming of the New Deal and in the last half of the 20th Century mushroomed.

Yet, the Census didn't exactly follow that pattern. From 1790 through 1840, the Census Population Schedules worked at the household level, rather than the individual level. In the Schedules one finds the name of the head of household and the other members are merely identified by numbers in a chart categorized according to age and gender. Slaves are also counted merely by number.

In 1850, still in the era of "small" Federal Government, the Census switched to the individual level. All household members are listed by name and much more personal information is included. During the years from 1850 - 1930 at various times the schedule will tell you age, gender, race, marital status, years married, number of children born, number of children who are still alive, place of birth, place of parents birth, occupation, employer, home ownership, years of schooling, literacy, whether or not the person fought for the Confederacy, amount of personal property, amount of real estate, number of slaves, street address of residence, and -- in the 1930 Census -- whether or not the household owned a radio. It is true that in the recent past, as our concerns about privacy have grown, the Census more and more only requires the bare minimums on the form that contains personal information. The other data is obtained from scientific data methods that do not include names.

As we prepare to answer the Census this year, and I hear folks objecting to even providing their name and household members, I wonder how was it possible that once citizens willingly provided details of their personal wealth on the Census, with apparently little question of how the government might use that information. So. as a historical researcher who has spent hundreds or perhaps thousands of hours straining to read Census schedules and who is anxiously awating the 2012 release of the 1940 Census (Population Schedules are sealed for 72 years)  to see what info it will reveal, I hope all of you will at least include the basic information requested by the Census this year, for the sake of the researchers of 2110.

Another Puzzler - Updated

I finally got a chance to work with those images of the Minden Democrat from September 11, 1868. I learned that I was not yet completely senile; the images could not have been in possession of Hill Library when I last visited in early July 2008, or at the least could not have been available to researchers. The date of creation on the TIFF files was June 26, 2008. So the images are relatively new to the LSU Libraries collections.

I had hoped that there would be some news of great significance in the newspaper, but from what I can tell it seems to be just "run of the mill" news. There were some interesting tidbits that actually will help in other projects. A front-page editorial about the looming threat of integrated schools in light of the new Louisiana Constitution of 1868 -- ironically I taught about that this morning in Louisiana government and will be coming to that point within a couple of weeks in Louisiana History.

There were also at least three or four notices of business closing or changing hands. One of those was the store of Nicholas J. Floyd, who will be mentioned in my program on Confederate Minden for the Dorcheat Museum in April. Floyd was leaving Louisiana to return to Virginia. He turned his business over to his father-in-law, J. W. Morrow.

But perhaps the most interesting tidbit to me was a brief mention of the death of a child, and a public mention of tragedy I had observed years ago. Along the eastern edge of the old Minden Cemetery, there is the Loye family plot. The Loyes, along with the Chaffes and Goodwills, were among the British émigré community in antebellum Minden. The families had intermarried and were prominent in local affairs. Long ago I looked at that plot and was stunned by the presence of so many graves of children from the family -- none of which survived beyond childhood.  Just "guesstimating" from the spacing of the children, I wondered if any of the Loye offspring lived to be adults, as they were so closely spaced in birth I could not see how any other children could have reached maturity and I also knew that the Loye name disappeared from local records.

The September 11, 1868, Minden Democrat discussed the tragedy of the death of little Johnnie Loye and confirmed what I has suspected. Sadly this family lost seven children to death. A truly tragic situation indeed; but unfortunately, not unprecedented in those “frontier” days of primitive medicine. I know Schelley is probably reading this and I guess now that I know, I'd better start getting a Ghost Walk script ready . . . . LOL!!! What follows is the Democrat's account of Johnnie Loye's passing:

"It is seldom that the death of a little child saddens a whole community. When we think of the many trials and troubles through which we have to pass the verdict is universal that the little one is better off, but little Johnnie was the last child out of seven interesting children. We had helped to bury them one by one, and it was in this way that we all felt a special interest in this dear little boy who was the idol of his parents and around whom all their earthly hopes seem to cluster."

Another Puzzler

Some reading this blog may be aware of the many gaps in the collections of old Minden newspapers. The first local paper was published in the late 1840s, yet we have few issues preserved anywhere until 1878, when a five year run of one local paper exists in microfilm, then we go into a fifteen year gap until 1898. From 1898 forward, there are some papers preserved from nearly every year, but with some very "untimely" gaps at moments when significant events occurred locally.

Before last night, so far as I had known, prior to 1878 we had one or two issues of the Minden Herald from the 1850s, and nothing else (despite the fact that on a couple of occasions during the 1860s as many as three papers were being published in Minden.) While I was organizing my research plan for a Saturday morning trip to Hill Memorial Library at LSU, I stumbled across an item in the archival collection I had not recalled seeing before - a listing for a single copy of the Minden Democrat dated September 11, 1868. I have been a fairly regular researcher at Hill and I did not recall seeing that listing in my prior visits. The last time I had been to Hill was in the summer of 2008. Seeing this "new" listing, I made a note to add that item to the top of my research list for this morning.

This morning when I got to Hill and requested the item, the really puzzling part began. The catalog listing said that the issue was in a format I had never before seen in my research. When I asked the librarian what the format abbreviation meant, she told me that it indicated the newspaper was on a CD -- very odd. Almost all the newspapers in the collections at most archives are in either bound hard copy form or in microform where the copies were made from the hard copies in the library's possession. She, like me, had never before seen a newspaper archived in CD format. This issue of the Democrat was given to the LSU libraries in the form of scanned TIF images burned onto a CD. The library does not have and never has had the original paper copy. The year of donation is not clear, either, but I am almost certain (as certain as a confused old man can be) that this record was not part of the collection two and one-half years ago when I last visited.

To "get" a copy, all I had to do was simply copy the four images to my laptop and I am bringing them back home to read and enjoy. However, I have already submitted a request to the LSU libraries to see if they can tell me the source of the images. Somewhere out there, someone has an issue of the Minden Democrat in great shape that they chose to share with the LSU library. The historian -- or maybe just the plain old nosy person in me -- has to wonder who they might be and what other local history treasures they might own. I'm looking forward to getting home and working with the actual newspaper image, but I'm more excited over the possibility that this newspaper copy might open the door to more of our lost historical record emerging from the mysts of the past.

Wonders of Digital Documents

It seems lately every time I begin to research a topic I am amazed at the volume of digital documents that are becoming available and can be accessed and printed from one's computer desktop.

Yesterday, while researching on Ancestry.com, I stumbled across a relatively new listing for Confederate Pardon Applications. Intrigued, I ventured over and out of the 400+ Louisiana applications in the collection, two had obvious ties to Minden. One was that of John C. Chaffe, the emigree from England who became a prominent businessman in Minden and then moved to New Orleans where he enjoyed even greater success. He was a brother of Christopher Chaffe, Thad Andress' direct ancestor.  John Chaffe's appeal to President Andrew Johnson was brief and effective. A single letter resulting in a pardon being granted within a few weeks.

The second file dealing with Minden history was more involved and more fascinating. It was the pardon request of Gen. Thomas Moore Scott, of Homer, the namesake of Minden's Sons of the Confederate Veteran's chapter. Scott's road to a pardon took the better part of two years and many documents that contain tidbits and clues to local history. Probably the most "bizarre" is Scott's request for a recommendation from W. Jasper Blackburn, the "scalawag" newspaper publisher and Congressman from our area. Blackburn, the former editor of the Minden Herald during the 1850s and the editor of the Homer Iliad through the war years, was a staunch foe of the Confederacy. He even stood trial for a capital offense against the Confederate government. After the war, he became prominent in Republican politics and served part of a term in Congress representing Northwest Louisiana as a Republican. It was during this time that Scott appealed to Blackburn for help, and Blackburn complied, sending a very personal letter to the U. S. Attorney General in Scott's behalf. The strange part is that at this very same time, Blackburn's newspaper office was being vandalized by former Confederates in Homer -- where Scott was residing.

Not going to share any more, because this is obviously going to be fruit for future newspaper columns. But the sources one can now access, without leaving home, are truly amazing to someone who began doing this kind of research nearly 40 years ago in what now seems like the "Stone Age" compared to modern research. I think it makes the promise of understanding more about our past very exciting. I'm also reminded of a line in Ken Burns' Civil War, discussing the enigmatic nature of Robert E. Lee. That particular quote discusses Lee's penchant for not revealing his innermost feelings and says the General kept those secrets from the "picklocks of biographers." I have to wonder if one day the Internet and digitization (if that's a word) might well get past those locks and place hidden and forgotten documents at our fingertips to give us greater insight into Lee and other iconic figures of our history.

Germantown Colony Museum - Update

Secretary of State Jay Dardenne came to Minden today to swear in the members of the Board of the Germantown Colony Museum, returning a official local voice to the governance of the museum as it moves forward under control of the Secretary of State's office. He also annouced that finally, the architect for the planned Visitor's Center has been selected and confirmed, removing yet another stumbling block to starting work on the museum construction project. He expressed the hope that perhaps the Visitor's Center could be finished by the end of 2010.

I'm sure that's a very, very optimistic hope. This is a government project, with all the red tape involved, plus we are in a time of budget cuts that is going to cause much distress for all spending involving cultural promotion. In addition, the Secretary may well be moving up to become Lieutenant Governor after the fall election, which could cause further delay while the transition takes place and some staffers move on with their boss to his new job.

But with all that said, this is still excellent and exciting news. When the first shovel of dirt is turned on the project, of course, the news will be even better. Once a government project starts it seldom is completely abandoned. Seeing work underway will reassure some that still have grave doubts about the future of the Colony. Considering the rocky history of the Colony, those doubts are understandable, but I think the Colony is more secure than it has ever been, under state control.

At the top of this post is a picture of the Countess' Cottage at Germantown in May 1940, when the remains of the colony were in ruins. Today, after the intervention that began in 1975 with the generous donation of the Krouse family and the establishment of the Germantown Colony Museum under the Webster Parish Police Jury, things look very different on site. The deterioration was stopped and progress was made. But it was always a slow, unsteady progress, simply because of the scarcity and uncertainity of funding. I truly hope and believe that the placing of the museum under control of the State of Lousiana will one day create a positive change that will continue and enhance the efforts made since 1975 to preserve the remaining buildings at Germantown. The story of the Germantown settlers, their trials, tribulations, self-sufficiency and endurance is truly the story of the values and work ethic that made our nation great. (And that's coming from a bleeding-heart, liberal Democrat . . . . LOL!!!)

So, keep your eyes open for big things coming at the Germantown Museum.

(By the way, for anyone who read my earlier post about the consequences of Secretary Dardenne's possible rise to become Lieutenant Governor and its impact on the two museum systems in Louisiana, I did get to ask him that question this afternoon. He said it is something that is on his mind, and -- quite properly -- it is way too early to consider the consequences of him winning higher office. I am just very pleased, as a local historian, to see ANY state official show interest and support for local historical attractions. I appreciate his efforts and he might well get me to vote for him, even if he is a Republican -- sorry Gorman supporters, nothing against Chris if he does decide to run in the fall.)

Gleason's Crater

Back with another cry for help, hoping that someone who reads this blog might have some information to help on a longstanding question. Yesterday afternoon, after discovering precise directions on a GeoCaching site, I finally took a visit to Gleason's Crater, the big "hole in the ground"  near Shongaloo, caused by an oil field explosion in the early 1920s. The location still remains on the Federal contamination sites, but seems to be largely forgotten except by Shongaloo/Evergreen folks and the GeoCachers.

This was a tremendous explosion and the fire burned for either days or weeks, depending on who is telling the story. The explosion was felt as far away as Shreveport, again depending on who is telling the story.

That's the point of my blog today, I want to find primary source accounts of "the story." Within the space of two months late last year I was contacted by the Town of Sarepta, seeking information about the story to include in the new information kiosk being erected as part of the Scenic Biway program, and by a descendant of the Gleason family from Maryland, seeing if I knew anything more than when he had first contacted me years ago. My response to both had to be a plea of mostly ignorance.

The problem is that the explosion took place sometime in 1923 or 1924 (I think) during the period when the Minden newspapers are all lost. So, without a more precise date trying to find contemporary news stories is looking for a needle in a hay stack. It has been suggested that one locally published source has that information, and I'm hoping that someone here may know the date.

So, if you know when Gleason's Crater was created, let me know.