Eleven Days of Hellish Heat
I know, I know …. it’s summer. It’s supposed to be hot, but I’m ready for a break in this heat. This article was originally published in the August 2018 issue of Digging History Magazine (on sale at a reduced price). It was a contrast to several articles also included in this issue related to the 1898 Alaskan Gold Rush.
Today, with widespread availability of air conditioning this weather nightmare which occurred 107 (now 115) years ago might seem a bit far-fetched as everything east of the Rocky Mountains, including areas of Canada, was baking under intense heat in July 1911. In Iowa and Nebraska the oat and corn crops were burning up, with temperatures between 102 and 108.
On the East Coast, as residents prepared to head to the beaches for an extended Fourth of July holiday, things were heating up as well. New York City recorded temperatures between 94 and 100 degrees on July 2. As of early morning July 3 at least ten victims were thought to have died as a direct or indirect result of the heat (9 had drowned) with numbers expected to climb.
The Midwest continued to bake and one location in Ontario, Canada had hit a record 108 degrees. Four hundred thousand had descended on Coney Island the day before, seeking relief from the heat. There was no wind to speak of and the overcrowding probably made it even hotter. Animals suffered as well as policemen were forced to shoot dozens of horses.
The New York Tribune observed how civility abounded despite the searing heat. That was about to change as the heat spell dragged on for several days. Hartford, Connecticut hit an all-time high of 100 degrees on July 3; Beverly, Massachusetts recorded a temperature of 108. Other cities around the country hit the century mark as well. Generally speaking, it was hot from coast to coast, yet the East Coast seemed to suffer the most. The heat reminded one of the fire and brimstone of early Methodism, the Tribune opined.1
Dying from excessive heat and the inability of one’s body to maintain normal fluid levels and such or drowning while out for a swim to cool off were tragic ways to die, but some people literally went insane and committed irrational acts, including suicide, in response to soaring and unrelenting temperatures. One of the ways those supposedly overcome with excessive heat decided to end it was by swallowing carbolic acid.
At the time it appears ingestion of carbolic acid was one of the preferred methods for offing oneself. A search at Newspapers.com for “carbolic acid” during the month of July 1911 will yield well over 1,500 results. Since the turn of the twentieth century it was one of the most commonly used poisons in suicide cases (a similar search for the phrase, plus the word “suicide” in the time period 1900-1920 will yield over 109,000 results).
Carbolic acid, a common household disinfectant at the time, was also being touted as a means to rid one’s home of the pesky housefly – “twenty drops of carbolic acid on a hot shovel. The vapor is deadly to the pest.”2 Here are just a few examples of heat-crazed acts of suicide by carbolic acid (or so it was said):
- In Baltimore, where temperatures hovered near 100 degrees, a heat-crazed man swallowed carbolic acid.3
- Mrs. August Kiehl of Oshkosh, Wisconsin was preparing breakfast and at 5:15 a.m. Committed suicide by drinking carbolic acid in the basement of her home. “No particular reason can be assigned for the act, except that the excessive heat unbalanced her mind, the temperature going considerably above 100 degrees.”4
- “William A. Rausch [of Chicago], told his wife he could not endure the heat; went into basement and swallowed carbolic acid.”5
Swallowing poison was by no means the only insanity-driven method used to escape heat prostration. And, to be fair, not all of the suicides during the time period in question may have actually been heat-driven. However, when normal, well-adjusted people suddenly decided to end it all, soaring and sustained heat was blamed.
Across the country record temperatures were being recorded, but the eastern seaboard seems to have suffered the most and, in particular, Hartford, Connecticut.
Hartford, Connecticut
The alarming heat, and the public’s response, moved officials in Hartford to open fire hydrants and allow residents to ride ferries and trolleys for free – anything to generate a personal breeze or some means to find relief. Some would ride the merry-go-round for the same reason.
Parks were filled with people seeking heat relief, even choosing to sleep (what little sleep could be had) there at night. Mothers walked the streets at night trying to comfort their crying babies, all the while afraid to lay them down for fear they wouldn’t wake up.
Desperate to get above the heat, some would climb up fire escapes, head to the hills or ascend to the rooftops in hopes of finding relief. In Hartford, John Merlo, an Italian railroad worker, climbed to the roof of his tenement building to sleep. Amazingly, one newspaper account noted the building had a tin roof (which hardly seems to be a good idea in a heat wave!) and Merlo had taken nightly refuge there since the heat wave began. That alone seems a bit “insane”!
Around midnight one night he was sleeping and apparently rolled over the shallow gutter and fell to his death. Merlo fell four stories, striking his head directly on the concrete below and was instantly killed, apparently unaware of falling.
One of the most shocking incidents of death by insanity occurred near the end of the heat wave. Thousands had been adversely affected and more than a few said to have been driven mad. However, when Hartford resident Lyman Dudley Smith suddenly snapped on the morning of July 10 it caused quite a stir.
Smith, a highly respected school teacher and author of the Smith System of Penmanship, was vacationing at his brother’s summer cottage in Maine, no doubt trying to escape the heat – to no avail. Maine, as well as parts of Canada, were breaking heat records as well. Although he had been suffering from an attack of grippe, his actions were attributed to the heat. Smith committed suicide by slitting his own throat with a penknife.
The heat took a toll on infrastructure as well. Asphalt streets oozed and “pitched boiled out of wood block pavements.”6 The heat was also literally bending railroad and trolley tracks, causing derailments. On the other side of the country, a deadly incident was reported in Oregon when a “sun kink” caused rails to spread under the hot sun.7 “Spreading rails” caused an accident in St. Louis.8
As one might imagine, ice was in great demand and headlines announcing “ice famines” were common during that 11-day stretch, especially in Indiana. The ice shortage was compounded in New Castle, Indiana by a number of typhoid fever cases. In Muncie, Indiana ice was sold only in 5-cent quantities and soda shops were closed. Only those homes with children could expect to purchase up to 25-pound quantities.
Demand for ice attributed to a horrific accident in Boston when two children were attempting to get some ice chips off an ice cart. A four-year-old boy was standing on the wheel when the horses started. He was “ground to death” under the wheel while a five-year old girl was crushed by a falling block of ice.9 Ice plants were running at full capacity in Kansas City, yet an ice shortage still loomed.
The Fourth of July held promise of even more heat and the annual celebration’s own brand of insanity. Still, one newspaper reported on July 5 that the Fourth had actually been “sane” in comparison to previous record-setting years. President Taft had admonished citizens to “refrain from dangerous celebration” and apparently it had an effect. In 1910 131 deaths had occurred around the country as the result of “over-celebrating” with fireworks, canons and other explosive devices. In 1911 only 24 deaths had been reported – 12 by fireworks; 7 by firearms; 2 by gunpowder and 3 by toy pistol.10
One incident of attempted murder was blamed on heat craziness when bookbinder George Besal attacked his mother with shears and threatened his cousin. It took four men to get him loaded into an ambulance, and while en route to the hospital he managed to break out of the straitjacket he’d been fitted with. Although Besal had attacked his mother the month before, this attack was blamed on the heat.
The heat disrupted everyday life during the heat wave as services such as coal and mail delivery were suspended. Early 1900s fashion still meant men wore suit jackets (shed those) and women long skirts and corsets. Some women switched to a decidedly breezy undergarment called a summer undermuslin instead.
On the evening of July 6 a violent, but heat-relieving, storm pounded parts of Connecticut. One tenement house in Litchfield County was struck, severely injuring two women hit by a bolt of lightning. While the storm brought rain and a measure of relief and an all-too-brief respite, two days later heat was again the topic of conversation.
Unique, even strange, headlines continued to appear in newspapers around the country, but especially in New England. On the morning of July 10, the Norwich Bulletin reported:
FIFTY MADE INSANE BY HOT WAVE
A retired drug merchant was one of the victims and physicians claimed the cause was “paralysis of the brain, caused by heat”11 Reports of heat-crazed suicide were still being reported, BUT one column over was a hopeful bit of news:
COOLER WEATHER IS DUE THIS WEEK
Kansas and Oklahoma had just received much-needed rain and it was heading east. Indeed, rain and cooler weather did eventually come.
Boston too had been overwhelmed with the heat wave. Boston Commons was dubbed the largest boarding house in New England – as many as five thousand men, women and children slept there nightly.
By July 11, Boston was looking forward to the promise of rain and cooler temperatures. In fact, it was the only answer to a situation which had become a crisis. The state’s bathhouses had been overwhelmed with thousands of bathers and thousands more were still waiting in line.
Demand far exceeded the number of available bathhouses and citizens were up-in-arms. On the evening of July 12 Hartford residents heard distant thunder, although nothing happened. Some time later, however, lightning began to flash and rain poured for over an hour.
Then, something happened that hadn’t occurred in several days – a refreshing breeze followed the storm. The New England heat wave was over!
What a relief, but what had caused the aberrant weather patterns? It wasn’t that New England didn’t experience hot weather in the summer, but normally cool ocean breezes made it tolerable. According to the New England Historical Society, “hot, dry air from the southern plains flowed into Canada and then swept south and toward the [east] coast.”12
While newspapers made much of the 1911 heat wave (as well they should have), in terms of deaths from the heat it was reminiscent of another New England heat wave which had occurred fifteen years earlier in 1896. That stretch of heat (with up to 90 percent humidity) lasted almost two weeks. More than 1,500 people died from heat-related illnesses – and suicide. Headlines like this one appeared:
Scores of Persons Stricken Down by the Heat
Insanity Drives to Suicide and Murder
In St. Louis one man who was said to have become demented from the heat jumped off a roof. A domestic servant ran screaming down a levee, jumped in the river and drowned, obviously demented from the heat it was reported. In Baltimore Richard Lyons, a car builder, “driven insane by the heat . . . beat out with a hammer the brains of Jennie Shipley.”13
Much like the 1911 event, the morning of August 13 brought a little breeze and by the following morning rain had fallen in some places, the heat wave ended. As many as 1500 had died in New York City alone. In a strange twist of fate – weather and politics – police commissioner Theodore Roosevelt made a name for himself by passing out free ice to the city’s poor, no doubt ingratiating himself to the New York’s teeming masses.
The 1911 heat wave wasn’t the first, nor would it be the last to make headlines. The introduction of air conditioning would, or course, eventually make “heat-crazed insanity” characteristic of the 1896 and 1911 heat waves less common, but can you imagine what it would be like today if we, like our ancestors, had to live under those conditions. Would we go crazy too?
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Footnotes:
Documenting Family History: July Was a Busy Month
July was a busy month. After wrapping up the latest issue of Digging History Magazine, featuring the Prairie State of Illinois, I tackled a number of client projects — genealogical research, writing family stories and designing family history charts. Here are some examples.
Family Stories: The Fine Print
I’ve recently developed a new service to accompany the custom-designed family history charts. I call it “The Fine Print” which tells the stories represented on these custom-designed charts (no two are alike!). A name, date or newspaper clipping only tells part of the story. This project is still ongoing, but here are a few page samples:
Custom-Designed Family History Charts
The latest custom-designed family history charts were part of a unique project, one which included documentation of birth parents as well as adoptive parents. It was truly an honor to help document this family’s amazing history — from missionaries to numerous American patriots (including close relatives of the father of our country, George Washington) to a Salem witch. By the way, these charts were designed for subscribers to Digging History Magazine making them eligible for a significant discount (20% off all services, including charts).
For more information about my services, including custom-designed family history charts (and the stories behind them): https://digging-history.com/services/
Thanks for stopping by! Please consider subscribing to Digging History Magazine. The current series features the history of individual states and how to find the best historical and genealogical records. Purchasing a subscription entitles you to subscriber benefits (20% off all services, including custom-designed family history charts) AND a chance to win your very own custom-designed family history chart! Details here (or click the ad below).
Believe it or not . . . . stranger things have happened: Ocular Explosions
In June of 1932 a column appeared in newspapers across the country, entitled “Questions and Answers from Washington”. Apparently it was a chance for everyday citizens to ask a burning question which was answered by someone in Washington, D.C. The questions ranged from “How is Italian salami made?” To “Can fleas be trained?” – and everything in between.
One question posed was “Can a glass eye explode?”. The answer: “A glass or porcelain eye might explode due to some chemical change in the material used, but the recorded occurrences are extremely rare.”14 Hmm . . . tell that to Frank R. Minner, an Allentown, Pennsylvania building inspector whose glass eye exploded, “with a report like a pistol shot.”15
Very few who knew Minner were aware he even had a glass eye after losing his left eye in a building accident twenty years before the freakish accident in 1911. The man who was receiving a building permit was shocked to observe Minner remove his hand from the eye and see him bleeding profusely. Minner was in shock and fainted.
Dr. Eugene M. Kistler had no idea what caused the glass eye to explode, nor could the original optician. Minner remained in shock but was expected to recover unless tiny splinters of glass had been blown back into his brain. Allentown doctors and scientists were truly baffled as to what caused the exploding glass eye.
This wasn’t the first time, nor the last, an exploding glass eye made headlines. According to a column16 by Dr. Van Dellen, glass eyes were first produced in the sixteenth century, although some believe the practice dates back to the fifth century B.C. when Egyptians crafted ocular prostheses called Ectblepharons.17 These were made from painted clay or enameled metal, attached to a piece of cloth and worn outside the socket. Ambroise Parê, a French surgeon, is most often credited as the father of artificial eye design in the sixteenth century. The first ones weren’t particularly comfortable to wear, however, causing the eyelid to protrude.
The term “glass eye” was mentioned in a 1743 British weekly newspaper, advertising the services of surgeon Joseph Baker who claimed adeptness at his profession: “He likewise infallibly cures deafness, takes out teeth with a touch, and puts in ivory teeth, also artificial glass eyes, so as not to be discernable.”18 In the mid-1800s German glass artisans developed a technique for making the artificial prostheses and German immigrant ocularists are credited with bringing them to America. American ocularists continued to make their own, but the material (kryolite) was imported from Germany.19
One story surfaced during the Civil War of a soldier with a glass eye who had enlisted and was discharged twelve different times. He was referred to as a “bounty jumper” because he would repeatedly enlist, pass the physical, get his bounty and then convince the camp doctor he should be discharged due to defective vision. This occurred repeatedly, but when Everett Babett attempted it a thirteenth time that proved to be the unlucky one apparently. Denied a discharge, he deserted, was captured and sentenced to be shot, although one source reported his sentence was commuted and he would be banished to the Dry Tortugas (Florida) for three years.20
In 1869 glass eyes were made of enamel, a type of glass, designed to last, at the most, only a year.21 In late 1869 it was reported that six hundred men were employed in the manufacture of glass eyes in America, not surprising since many soldiers lost eyes during the Civil War.22
I love browsing through nineteenth century newspaper archives. You never know what stories and headlines will pop up. Much like, “Saved by Her Corset” or “Killed by Her Corset” and “Saved by His Collar” or “Killed by His Collar” (look for those stories in future articles), stories about glass eyes began to appear in the 1870s:
- A gentleman from the East experienced something unusual in November of 1872 while visiting Wichita, Kansas. A gust of wind blew his glass eye right out of his head! “He wants to know if we have a blind asylum in Kansas, and if that zephyr was unusually heavy for this latitude.”23
- “A singular story of coincidences”: In 1873 Boston police were searching for a man by the name of W.H. Johnson who reportedly had a glass eye. They found a W.H. Johnson in Bangor, Maine with a glass eye, but he was the wrong man. Another man, totally innocent, with the same name and a glass eye was located in Salem, Massachusetts. A telegram reported that a W.H. Johnson with a glass eye was arrested in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and “he likewise proved to be the wrong customer.” Authorities were baffled, knowing that somewhere out there was a fourth W.H. Johnson with a glass eye, “that is, unless he happens to be the wrong W.H. Johnson with a glass eye.”24
Of course, men weren’t the only ones to utilize glass eyes, but one man in Rochester, New York was unnerved to the point of seeking a divorce over his wife’s glass eye which was inflicting “unendurable torments upon him.” His specific complaint was the fact his wife slept with her glass eye wide open at night. The New York Times sympathized, albeit tongue-in-cheek, with him:
At first sight this may seem a trivial matter, but a little reflection will lead us to deeply sympathize with the aggrieved husband. It is not unpleasant for a man to return home from a political meeting at 2 o’clock in the morning, knowing that however softly he may remove his innumerable boots, or however skillfully he may avoid tumbling over the chairs on which he had deposited his hats, the sleepless glass eye of his wife will gleam in the light of the two bedroom candles, and follow his wandering movements with a pitiless glare. The most sober of men cannot awake in the stillness of the night and feel quite at ease when he finds a glass eye watching him as sternly as though its owner knew all about his rash bet on the election of Mr. Tilden, and was waiting to explain how a man who had refused to buy a new parlor carpet could justifiably throw away his money in gambling.25
The man had tried everything he could think of to keep his wife’s eye closed, but to no avail. While expressing a sort of mocking sympathy, the Times hoped that he would lose his suit since it would cause the courts to be overwhelmed with others seeking divorces for similar reasons. They surmised that a court could grant a separation for a wife who found out her husband wore false teeth or a divorce over a wooden leg.
Clearly, the Times had a little fun with that story.
Women may have been a bit self-conscious, however, about wearing a glass eye. A “street-car mystery” was reported by the Detroit Free Press in 1877. Four women and a man were riding together when one of the women sneezed. The man discovered a glass eye under a parcel and asked “who sneezed her glass eye out?” The women turned either red or pale and cast sly glances. One by one each of the women denied having sneezed out her glass eye and exited the trolley, leaving the man to wonder why the woman hadn’t claimed it.26
Several hundred glass eyes were reported to have been sold annually, and eventually animals would be fitted with the artificial prostheses, the demand for them “much larger than most people would imagine.” While dogs and horses were most frequently fitted with glass eyes, the result of accident or disease, cats might also be candidates.27
Glass Eyes. Their Manufacture, Sale and Ruse
By the 1880s the operation for replacing a natural eye with a glass one enabled skilled surgeons to fit the glass eye on a stump following amputation of parts of the eye, allowing the glass eye to move naturally, and presumably appear less “creepy.” Clearly, some people were self-conscious, disguising the fact they were wearing one by utilizing a glass eye for daylight hours with a small pupil and one for night with a larger pupil “to offset the dilation”.28
Suffice it to say that glass eyes were becoming more common as articles mentioning them abounded in newspapers across the country. A story might mention someone’s glass eye shattering as the result of it falling out or being knocked out, but never until the early twentieth century did the headline “Glass Eye Explodes” begin to appear. It did seem rather curious and comical in some instances.
One of the first articles appeared in 1910 when, coincidentally, a man was walking up stairs for an appointment to visit his eye specialist. It just suddenly burst with a “loud report” with, quite fortunately, no injuries reported.29 For a period of several years, these types of headlines would appear with all-too-similar stories:
HIS GLASS EYE EXPLODES.
A man in Austin, Texas experienced the “most peculiar accident on record” when Arthur Nichols’ left glass eye exploded while he was sitting at the supper table in early 1914. Slivers of glass were embedded in his face and an oculist removed them. As it turned out, Nichols had not one glass eye but two for he was totally blind.30
GLASS EYE EXPLODES WHILE FARMER READS.
M.C. Canterberry, a Huntingon, West Virginia farmer, escaped without a scratch when his glass eye exploded while reading the morning newspaper. With his good eye he had espied an article of interest, and leaning forward to get a better look, the artificial eye exploded and fell onto the paper. He described it as similar in nature to an electric light bulb bursting, albeit on a smaller scale. One doctor believed it may have been caused by a muscular contraction. Canterberry had heard of hogs blowing up after eating dynamite or men injured by exploding golf balls and doubted the veracity of those stories – now he said he would believe anything!31
GLASS EYE EXPLODES AFTER YEARS WEAR.
In Boulder, Colorado a man was reclining on the courthouse square when his glass eye suddenly exploded. Fortunately, the glass eye exploded outward and he only suffered minor cuts. An eye specialist believed a small amount of celluloid in the glass eye and the heat from his body caused it to explode.32
HIS GLASS EYE EXPLODES.
While the nation was on pins and needles awaiting news of whether Woodrow Wilson had been re-elected, a New Jersey man was watching an automobile go by when his glass eye suddenly exploded. An elaborate theory held that “a sunray from the automobile wind shield, or perhaps the headlight reflection, created a penetrating flash which generated enough heat to cause the explosion.”33
HIS GLASS EYE EXPLODES WHEN HE LOOKS AT A PIE
Farmer is Made Unconscious by Miniature Blast as He Eats in Restaurant.
An Indiana farmer had days earlier received a glass eye after losing his natural one as a result of a dynamite explosion. “Just as he was gazing with interest yesterday at a piece of pie, F.K. Cosgrove’s glass eye exploded and he fell from his chair to the floor in a restaurant. He was soon revived.”34
GLASS EYE “EXPLODES” WHEN HE GETS BAD NEWS.
Tony Sara of Freeport, Long Island had previously injured his eye with a screwdriver and had a glass eye inserted. In September of 1921 he received news that his brother had been struck while riding a bicycle and injured. Upon hearing the news, Tony’s glass eye exploded, apparently from internal stresses in the glass (or perhaps his own “internal stress”?).35
GLASS EYE EXPLODES
Indianan, Awakened By Report, Thought He Had Been Shot).
Cleve Willis was awakened one night by a sharp report and feeling blood stream down his cheek thought he’d been shot. His glass eye had shattered while he slept.36
GLASS EYE EXPLODES INJURING GOOD ONE
A Novel Accident Charged Against the Cold.
A Ranger, Texas man had stepped outside of a warm house during near freezing weather when his glass eye apparently exploded due to the sudden temperature change.37
It seemed more often than not the cause of exploding glass eyes was blamed on sudden temperature changes, although in 1931 a North Carolina man blamed his doctor and sued for $15,000 in damages and lost wages.38 The “glass eye explodes” stories began to taper off, however, in the 1940s.
World War II brought about difficulties in importing kryolite glass from Germany, and necessity being the mother of invention, scientists began developing other materials. The Department of the Navy began developing medical grade acrylic plastic for use in making artificial eyes. Technology gradually improved until today most ocular prostheses are made of acrylic.
Still, it’s curious that after years of widespread usage, those “Glass Eye Explodes” headlines started popping up around 1910. Things that make you go “hmm”.
Thanks for stopping by! Please consider subscribing to Digging History Magazine. The current series features the history of individual states and how to find the best historical and genealogical records. Purchasing a subscription entitles you to subscriber benefits (20% off all services, including custom-designed family history charts) AND a chance to win your very own custom-designed family history chart! Details here (or click the ad below).
Footnotes:
Oh, The Stories I Find: In a Dead Woman’s Eye
As a genealogist and writer, I absolutely LOVE researching newspaper archives. I’m finding new resources for historic newspaper archives all the time, but my favorite sites include Newspapers.com, GenealogyBank and Newspaper Archive. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve come across some of the most unusual headlines. Sometimes, I’m inspired to do a little extra digging and write an article. This is one of those articles. Read on.
This intriguing headline appeared in The Sun (New York) on December 27, 1894, followed by an even more intriguing subtitle:
THE SUPPOSED IMAGE OF HER MURDERER SEEN IN THE RETINA 39
First of all, was this even possible? In the late nineteenth century the idea wasn’t as far-fetched as one might think. The possibilities had intrigued scientists for some time, especially since photography was invented in the 1840s, although amazingly the idea had been around since the 17th century when a Jesuit priest, Christoph Scheiner (also a physicist and astronomer), claimed to have noted an image on the retina of a frog he was dissecting. Was the faint image he observed perhaps the last thing the frog saw upon death? Nevertheless, the idea had been introduced and would eventually play a role in the evolution of photography.
It wasn’t much of a leap to realize the concepts of photography and the inner workings of the human eye were related. In May 1863 Mr. Warner, a London photographer, wrote a letter to the Photographic News (later reprinted in other newspapers) after reading an account of a young woman’s murder. He had immediately written a letter to the detective in charge of investigating the crime, informing him “that if the eye of a murdered person be photographed within a certain time after death, upon the retina will be found depicted the last thing that appeared before them, and that in the present case the features of the murderer would most probably be found thereon.”40
Warner was sure it was possible, since four years earlier (for reasons unclear) he had taken a photograph of the eye of a calf not long after its death. Upon placing the negative under a microscope he found what he believed to be an image, imprinted on the animal’s retina, of pavement lines on the slaughterhouse floor, which he assumed must have been the last scene
viewed by the animal prior to death. Unfortunately, the negative had since been broken and the pieces lost. With the permission of detective James F. Thompson he proceeded to share his photographic discovery with colleagues.
Warner considered “the subject is of too great importance and interest to be passed heedlessly by, because if the fact were known through the length and breadth of the land, it would, in my estimation, tend materially to decrease that most horrible of all crimes – murder.” Thompson agreed the possibilities were of the “greatest importance”. However, in the case of Emma Jackson’s murder it was “unavailing in this instance” since he had first seen her body forty hours after the crime and her eyes had already been closed. A post mortem examination had been made and she had already been buried earlier that week.
Thompson had been informed by an “eminent oculist some four years ago” that a decedent’s eyes must be photographed within twenty-four hours of death. Otherwise, whatever object might have been imprinted would have vanished “in the same manner as an undeveloped negative photograph exposed to light.”41 French journalists picked up the story which eventually made its way to the United States, at the time embroiled in the Civil War.
In September stories began appearing in United States newspapers about a reported attempt to solve a horrific crime near Evansville, Indiana by examining the retinas of a murdered German family.
Horrible Homicide! A Father and Three Children Murdered! 42
On August 29 a German man named Henry Herke and some of his children were brutally murdered. Herke’s wife, Louise, was away at the time, having gone to market earlier in the day. When she returned home around 11:00 a.m. a horrific, bloody scene awaited.
All victims had been brutally murdered – first reports indicating they had been struck by an axe, their heads nearly severed from their shoulders. Neither the cause nor the identity of the perpetrator(s) was known to authorities, although neighbors had observed two men exiting the home earlier that morning around daylight, headed toward a nearby swamp. The house had been ransacked.
The sheriff and several deputies, plus a group of citizens who formed a posse comitatus, were soon scouring the area in search of the murderers. The following day two soldiers were arrested at a nearby hospital, one named Crow and the other H.C. Roberts.
Justice was, of course, swifter in those days. A preliminary trial commenced on the morning of September 2. Louise Herke was the prosecution’s first witness. She had gone to market that day with her oldest son and left five children with Henry, one of them her niece. When she arrived home she found the gate open, although the house door was closed.
Upon entering the house her two youngest daughters ran to her and told Louise how two men had cut them with an axe.
I then discovered the oldest girl, daughter of my sister, lying on the floor in a pool of blood. I picked up the girl, who died in my arms; the boy lived till evening, but neither of them spoke. My little girl told me that two men, one big one and one little one, had come to the house; the little one stayed outside, and the big one went into the house and turned everything over. They then went out around the corner and returned. The big one staid [sic] outside, and the little one picked up the axe and “chopped them down.” I saw the axe on the porch. It was bloody and had hair on it. My little boy showed me the axe as the one he was killed with [apparently before he died]. . . My neighbor, Carl Hines, came by the fence, and discovered my husband’s body. I went and saw him, all bloody, and the axe by him on the fence.43
The newspaper account of the first day’s proceedings made special note of the defendants’ heights – Crow being about 5 feet, 4 inches tall and Roberts about 5 feet, 8 inches tall with a mustache. In addition, other details following their arrest certainly seemed to incriminate the two soldiers.
Tracks leading away from the house had been discovered and upon arresting the two the sheriff had taken them to the tracks and “found that the shoes fitted exactly in the prints; they were army shoes.”44 Additional tracks suggested the perpetrators had been running away, and in one track they found the imprint of three nails which corresponded with the nails in their shoes.
The following day a photographer named Joseph Adams testified that a photograph of Henry Herke had been taken by his father [unclear if Adams’ or Herke’s father] from which Adams produced a magnified picture. Adams claimed (and presented it as evidence) that it showed “the figure of a man in the eye of the victim. He testified:
The outlines are dim; moustache blacker and heavier from effects of chemicals used in magnifying; looks to me as much like one man as another; you can observe high cheek bones, a moustache; think the chin had no beard on; looks to me like a crazy, wild or drunken man; seems to me no sane man in a state of excitement could look that way; in my mind, picture should not convict any man, it is too indistinct; bears no resemblance to prisoner, Roberts, except the ears and high cheek bones.45
Despite Adams’ admission that the supposed image was too indistinct to serve as proof, and the favorable testimony of several witnesses for the defense, Crow and Roberts were bound over for trial. However, in late October the two were released, “the Grand Jury having failed to find bills against them.”46
Nevertheless, Joseph Adams had caused quite a stir and continued to investigate and experiment, although some thought his claims quite incredulous. Still, one noted member of the medical profession, Dr. J.P. DeBrueler, who was also a member of the medical faculty at the Medical College of Evansville, took a painstakingly close look for himself and saw a human face.
Subsequent newspaper accounts provided additional details of Adams’ experiment:
He had taken an ambrotype picture of the eye of the deceased, and then rubbing out everything but a single object apparently in the centre of the eye, this was placed under an ordinary magnifying glass. At the first glance the object appeared blurred and indistinct, but, getting the proper focus, the outlines of a human face were at once distinguishable. The image was apparently the face of a man with unusually prominent cheek bones, long nose, and rather broad forehead. A black moustache was plainly seen, and also the direction of the eyes, which seemed to be looking at some object sidewise. One of the eyes was as clearly seen as the eyes in a common ambrotype or fenotype.47
Perhaps dead men did tell tales. Still, it wasn’t C.S.I., Victorian-style. In the 1870s the idea was pursued once again by two German physiologists, Franz Christian Boll and Wilhelm Kühne. Boll discovered rhodopsin, a light-sensitive protein retinal receptor which facilitates absorption of green-blue light. He found the pigment in the rods of the retina and when exposed to light would “bleach”, yet could be restored in the dark even following death.
Kühne saw potential in Boll’s research and believed it “could be used to preserve images in the eye from the moment of death, as the images would remain etched into the pigment unless exposed to light.” If a process could be developed whereby the last retinal image could be preserved, then much like the image projected on a photographic plate, it could be analyzed.
The process was called optography and Kühne continued to pursue the possibilities of advancing forensic science by finding a way “to pry these last images from the eyes of the dead and develop them, just like a photograph.”48 He truly believed it possible to develop a method whereby heinous crimes could be solved using his research.
His first experiments were with animals – and, of course, the animal had to be killed, decapitated and its eyes removed, the quicker the better. His most promising result occurred in 1878 when the removal and dissection of a rabbit’s retina yielded an image of a barred window. Kühne had purposely turned the rabbit so it would be staring at the window. Further experimentation proved inconclusive and images were often indistinct and blurry. The goal, of course, was to produce an image from a human retina and Kühne got his chance when a man was executed by guillotine on November 16, 1880 for drowning his young children.
Following the decapitation Kühne was allowed to immediately retrieve the man’s left eye to begin dissection of the retina. While he observed what he thought to be the blade, his findings were later disputed – the man had been blindfolded at the time, so perhaps the last image was the steps leading to the executioner’s blade. Inconclusive results did not deter Kühne, nor other researchers.
Families and some members of law enforcement continued to hope it would somehow be able to solve violent crimes via optography, although more than a few medical experts cast aspersions. In early 1880 one Manchester, England doctor came forward immediately and threw cold water on a reported theory: “The theory expressed in this morning’s paper is quite erroneous. It is quite impossible to form any judgment from a photograph so taken.” Although complimentary of Kühne’s research, it had yet to be proven possible for a human retina to produce an image. Still, the doctor was hopeful more research would bring optography “to a much more perfect state.”49
The topic would come up from time to time over the years, although one wonders what was to be gained in the case of the Brown murders which occurred in September 1879 in West Winchester, Ontario. Clark Brown, the oldest son, had been found guilty of brutally murdering his father and sister. Clark Brown was hanged for the deed, but in January 1880 the bodies were exhumed so that photographs of their eyes might be taken to determine if someone else had committed the murders. The father’s eyes showed nothing and surmised that he had been killed in the dark. However, experts claimed to have observed images on the little girl’s retina.
Shockingly, the two objects were believed to be Clark and his mother. In late 1879 another witness had come forward who implicated the mother, alleging she had conspired with another woman to kill her husband. The plot thickened!
Authorities were hopeful of finding proof and arrested the mother, the supposition being Clark and his mother had killed the father and the little girl had seen the crime before she was killed. Clearly, “the whole case reads like one of Edgar Allen Poe’s romances of crime and mystery”, one newspaper opined.50
The topic came up yet again in conjunction with the infamous “Jack the Ripper” crimes after a British newspaper suggested the possibility of an incriminating image imprinted on the retina of victim Annie Chapman.
PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE WHITECHAPEL MURDERS
Commenting on the fact that Dr. Bagster Phillips, the police-surgeon who was called as a witness in reference to the murder of Annie Chapman, was asked as to the possibility of obtaining a clue to the murderer by photographing the eyes of the dead woman, and that he gave no hopes of any useful result, the Photographic News says – Although we may pretty confidently say that photographs of the eyes of the murdered woman would have been useless, there can be no doubt whatever that a series of photographs of the body and of the mutilations ought to have been taken, and in the face of these it would have been difficult to conceal essential facts. It is to be hoped that even now the camera will be brought into requisition, especially as there are several experienced anatomists who are also competent photographers.51
The possibility of solving crimes with optography came up more than once in ensuing years as references were woven into works of fiction. Rudyard Kipling inserted the idea of taking an optogram of a dead man’s eye “with a Kodak camera”52 in his short story entitled, “At the End of the Passage” (1891). Jules Verne and James Joyce would also utilize the concept in early twentieth century writings.
So prevalent was the lingering hope that one day someone might discover a way to extract an incriminating image from a victim’s retina, it became common practice in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to photograph the eyes. Police weren’t taking any chances and perhaps criminals didn’t either, at least as long as the hope for breakthrough persisted.
In 1927 Constable P.C. Gutteridge was shot and killed in the East End of London. After discovering shots had been fired through each eye, Scotland Yard investigators wondered whether the murderer had done it out of superstition to ensure the man’s retina would not reveal incriminating evidence to police.
Thus, in 1894 the headline “In a Dead Woman’s Eye” wasn’t at all unusual. Jamestown photographer Fred Marsh took credit for the idea of examining Mrs. Shearman’s eyes. Subsequent reports indicated with the assistance of a powerful microscope “an apparently big man [was] presented, with bushy whiskers, and wearing a long overcoat. The trousers appear[ed] to be badly wrinkled.” Unfortunately, no distinct, identifiable features were observed – “no impression was discoverable”.53
Optography was eventually debunked as nothing more than pseudo-science at best, despite renewed attempts in 1975 to once again explore the possibilities. Today, it’s merely discussed as an obscure oddity.
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Footnotes:
When Red Meant Radical: Oklahoma Red Dirt Socialism
While historians are more likely to refer to this radical part of American history as “Agrarian Socialism”, I like to call the Oklahoma version “Red Dirt Socialism”. Red is, after all, associated with Socialism and Communism (the Cold War term “red menace” comes to mind) – and there is lots of red dirt in the Sooner State!
I had never paid much attention to this piece of Oklahoma’s past, except discovering while researching for a friend that her great grandfather had been an Oklahoma Socialist and avowed atheist. However, not long afterwards I discovered my great grandfather had campaigned as a Socialist in Okfuskee County for the office of Constable, and then my interest was personal. A simple political ad started my research:
I have to tell you I was a bit startled to see this ad in the August 5, 1910 edition of The Weleetka Democrat. Noah Seborn Young was born in Alabama and migrated to Indian Territory with his family in the 1880s. Noah married Telitha Pugh in 1898 and had two children, one of them my grandfather, Roosevelt “Bud” Young, before Telitha died in 1904.
Noah died in 1936 in Littlefield, Texas, about a year and half after my mother’s birth. All I had ever heard about him was he had been a farmer and sometimes Holiness Church (lay) preacher. After seeing the ad I’ll admit to checking the Okfuskee County census records for 1910 more than once to make sure there was no one else in the county who could have possessed those same initials. I found no one else except him.
Another surprising aspect of discovering my great grandfather once ran for political office as a Socialist was the fact that today, politically speaking, Oklahoma is the most reliably “red state” (meaning conservative). How could a state with such a radical past turn out to be one of the most reliably conservative?
Oklahoma wasn’t yet a state when the nineteenth century rolled over into the twentieth. The Victorian Era, as defined by the reign of Queen Victoria of England, came to an end when the monarch died on January 22, 1901. Some might argue it had ended sooner since in later years the Queen was seen less frequently in public, her son and future king Edward more visible and capable of influencing society, much as his mother’s reign had done for over six decades.
In America the rise of Progressivism, the idea that social reform can bring about the betterment of society, began around 1890 and was advocated strongly until around 1920. Woodrow Wilson, America’s most progressive president, shepherded the country through a tumultuous period of economic, political and geopolitical change.
Socialistic thought, some historians would point out, began prominently appearing in America early in the nineteenth century with various Utopian societies like Oneida in New York or Amana in Iowa. It wasn’t until 1901, however, until the Socialist Party of America was established.
Before that, labor activism and anarchy had been on the rise since the mid-nineteenth century. The socialist and labor movements seemed destined to collide as working classes were impacted by a “mini-Era” near the end of the Victorian – the so-called Gilded Age. Industrialists like Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt and Jay Gould – derisively referred to as “robber barons” – employed unscrupulous methods to obtain and maintain their massive wealth.
Many in the working classes, feeling left behind, turned to socialism in an attempt to achieve some measure of economic equality. In today’s parlance you might say they were “woke” to the unscrupulous, monopolistic business practices which threatened to shut out the common, everyday working man or woman. Socialism made many promises, but could it really deliver the solution? Was it destined to change Oklahoma, or for that matter any other state of the Union?
Today, some historians cast aspersions on Oklahoma’s brand of socialism as a less-than-legitimate form of radical ideology which permeated larger urban areas in the eastern United States. Perhaps it seemed less legitimate since the Oklahoma Socialist Party was dominated by farmers, hence the term “agrarian socialism”.
Farmers who became Socialists weren’t necessarily “hicks from the sticks”, however. Some had been members of nineteenth century movements like the Farmers Alliance, which by the 1890s had morphed into the People’s Party (“Populists”), or the Farmers’ Union established in 1902. The Farmers’ Union began in Pilot, Texas and spread to Oklahoma, established and dedicated “to improving farm incomes through cooperative action.”44
Around the time of Oklahoma statehood in 1907 some farmers migrated to the Socialist Party, according to Jim Bissett’s Agrarian Socialism in America. Those who defected were some of the most skilled social activists and seen as a boon to the Oklahoma movement. Plus, these activists knew whereof they spoke – been there, done that, so to speak. They knew what reforms had been attempted and were well aware of what had succeeded and what still required reform (in their estimation).
As Bissett points out, another key element to Oklahoma Socialist Party successes was rooted in “genuine dialogue between the leadership and the rank and file. . . . In the process, participants in the Oklahoma socialist movement attempted to create a kind of working democracy, where organizational authority was exercised according to the demands of the membership.”54 Where other American political movements fell short of such ideals, the Oklahoma Socialist Party excelled.
Want to learn more about Oklahoma’s flirtation with socialism? This article is excerpted from the September 2018 issue of Digging History Magazine, available for purchase here at a discounted price.
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Footnotes:
Digging History Magazine – Illinois: The Prairie State
The third issue of 2026 features articles on Illinois, “The Prairie State”. Digging History Magazine is a bi-monthly digital publication which combines the disciplines of history and genealogy, our philosophy being that in order to be adept at one discipline (genealogy) one must be well-versed in the other (history). The latest issue is available by individual purchase here or by subscription (three options). Subscribers are entitled to 20% off all services, including custom-designed family history charts.
This issue, like all issues in this continuing series, features the state’s history, including how to find great historical and genealogical records and more:
● Mining Genealogical Gold: Finding Historical Illinois Records (and the stories behind them). Nature has bounteously spread her gifts before the sons of men in the “country of the Illinois.” The location of the land as well as its fertility has shaped its destiny. The territory of the state touches the watershed of the Great Lakes on the north, is washed on the west by the Mississippi river, and extends to the Ohio on the south. Resting in the heart of the Mississippi valley, the Illinois country has been shaken by every great force stirring the continent; the north and the south, the east and the west have exercised formative influences on its destiny. . . . the history of Illinois in a very real sense typifies the development of the American west.
● Citizen Soldiers: The Prairie State’s Legacy of Service . Illinois, the “Prairie State”, has a long and distinguished legacy of sending its citizen soldiers into conflicts near and far. This article discusses the state’s involvement in four nineteenth century conflicts, beginning with the War of 1812 through the Civil War.
● New Discovery vs. Deepening Mystery: A Tale of Two Illinois Civil War Pensions. I’ve recently had the opportunity to review two sets of Civil War pension files for Illinois veterans, one yielding new discoveries and the other a deepening mystery. It seemed a great opportunity to highlight what I found (and what I didn’t find) and turn it into a feature article for this issue.
● The Dash: Mary Ann Bickerdyke (1817-1901). General William Tecumseh Sherman declared at one point during the Civil War that she outranked him. She was not a push-over and wasn’t about to be pushed aside by Army regulations either. The Union soldiers she tended called her “Mother Bickerdyke” and they cheered her presence as they would their commanding generals.
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Give Me That Old Time Socialism
Socialism has once again made its way into the national conversation of late (Has it really ever left? After all, the Pilgrims gave it a try and it didn’t go so well.). Today, Oklahoma is often cited as the nation’s “reddest” (most conservative) state based on its voting patterns. Who would guess that once upon a time Oklahoma turned “red” in another way.
It wasn’t that adherents believed in socialism as a religion. In fact, many who trekked out in the Oklahoma woods in the early 1900s likely participated in religious “camp meetings” or “brush arbor meetings”. These meetings were common in the summertime:
Sometime in the summer, usually in July after the crops had been “laid by,” the plain folk would often gather to sing, preach, and pray together in great “protracted meeting” with the worshipers, of necessity, camping on the meeting grounds.55
The concept was appropriated by Populists for political purposes in the late nineteenth century. These Populists would target Baptists, Methodists, and some of the Holiness sects, and actively recruited preachers from these religious traditions to participate in their Populist gatherings. By the early 1900s the concept had been likewise appropriated by the Socialist Party as a means to further its political agenda.
These meetings consisted of a fair amount of indoctrination, but not unlike the strictly religious versions, also included preaching and singing – to go along with all the propaganda. It brings to mind the old song, “Give Me That Old Time Religion” doesn’t it – except for these meetings maybe it was more like “Give Me That Old Time Socialism”! In 1904 this announcement appeared in The Labor Signal, a weekly Oklahoma City journal devoted to the interest of organized labor:
There will be a Socialist Encampment and Picnic at Crutcho Park, six and a half miles South East of Oklahoma City on August 11th to 14th inclusive. Good Speakers and Ministers will be in attendance, and one day will be set apart for the discussion of politics by inviting Democratic, Republican, and Populist Speakers to take an hour each in showing up the good points in their political beliefs. Let everybody attend. Conveyance will be in waiting at all trains to carry passengers to the park, where ample facilities will be provided for food and sleeping accommodations.56
Farmers seemed to be the primary focus of the Oklahoma Socialist Party, and these meetings were geared not only to issues of concern to this particular constituency, but ensured these protracted meetings were conveniently scheduled so as not to disrupt farm operations and concerns:
SOCIALIST ENCAMPMENT
Will Be Held in Lincoln County – Chance for Candidates to be Heard
Arrangements are being made to hold a socialist encampment in Lincoln county late in July or early in August as may be found most convenient for the farmers . . .Good speakers will be in attendance to entertain the people and a chance will be given candidates of all tickets to engage in joint debate with the socialist speakers.
Everything for the comfort of those in attendance will be carefully looked after and the indications are that many people will avail themselves of this opportunity for recreation after the hard work of summer on the farm and to hear live issues discussed.57
In conjunction with the Oklahoma Socialist Party convention in August 1906, an encampment would again be assembled at Crutcho Park. While the 1904 encampment and picnic had promised all political persuasions would be given a platform, this one would feature prominent Socialists like Eugene V. Debs and “Mother” Jones. This encampment may have been a “barn burner” for fervent Socialists. Members of the Western Federation of Miners, a radical labor union active in the West and parts of Canada, had been arrested and charged with murdering Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg on December 30, 1905 – or rather William “Big Bill” Haywood, Charles Moyer and George Pettibone were being tried for paying someone to murder the governor.
The prosecution would rely heavily on the investigative skills of James McParland, a Pinkerton Agency detective, and whether or not they could prove Harry Orchard had been paid by the three prominent union members to plant a bomb on a side gate at Steunenberg’s home in Caldwell. The union would bring in bigger guns in the form of renowned attorney Clarence Darrow. All three men escaped prosecution. Darrow had at one time represented Eugene Debs.
Oklahoma Socialists were none too happy either as the upcoming statehood bill was moving forward. The bill did not recognize their party, and in order to be placed on ballots of future elections they would need to secure it by petition.58
Still, for the most part all political persuasions were welcome at the encampments. However, socialist encamp-ments were not at all unique to Oklahoma. According to a Kansas left-wing (later Socialist) newspaper, the first such meeting had been held at Grand Saline, Texas in 1904. For the uninitiated the newspaper provided background:
The term encampment is applied to this annual event from the fact that hundreds of families who come in covered wagons, and a per cent of those who come by rail as well, camp right on the grounds for the entire week to hear the message of industrial liberty. The encampment idea originated at Grand Saline. The first Socialist encampment on record was held by the Socialists of that town in 1904. It is a unique example of constructive Socialism and the best self-sustaining propaganda institution yet devised; and one that will in time be adopted by the Socialists throughout the United States. It is a means of carrying on agitation and organization for Socialism at the expense of the general public, and without cost to the Socialist organization that controls and directs the meeting.59
How clever it was that these meetings were held “at the expense of the general public”! (In actuality, it was good old-fashioned capitalism!) To be sure, attendees could expect enough propaganda to last them until the next year’s encampment with nationally-known Socialists like William “Big Bill” Haywood or the man himself, Eugene V. Debs.
In 1908, Reverend Reddin Andrews was a featured speaker. In 1910 the former president of Baylor University ran for governor on the Socialist ticket. A number of speakers were slated, and although the list was incomplete, attendees could expect to hear “fresh” speeches daily as no speaker would appear more than once. In a spirit of fairness, “a division of time will be accorded any endorsed representative of capitalism.”60
Organizers were expecting at least ten thousand attendees on average per day, having recorded between four and nine thousand the year before. People would pour in from Texas and surrounding states.
Thousands [would] come for the speaking and other thousands merely for fun and enjoyment, but even the pleasure-bent crowd take in a little Socialism by absorption, for the atmosphere is surcharged with revolutionary sentiment.61
Family-oriented entertainment for the thousands or pleasure seekers included shows, drink stands, restaurants and various other attractions. This is where the “general public” paid for these encampments since those who ran the entertainment attractions paid for the privilege of entertaining the masses.
The Grand Saline encampment was held in Richardson Park ‘where there are pearly springs and flowing wells of limpid water for every purpose. This large, well shaded location, fanned by refreshing breezes, admirably provides comfort for the thousands who will attend. No admission is charged. There is a spacious camp ground wood and water free and open for everybody. Take a vacation, bring your family and enjoy camp life for a week.“62
East Texas, and especially Van Zandt County, seemed to be the hotbed for Texas Socialist fervor, although as time went on encampments were held elsewhere in the state. In 1910 Yoakum, located in both Lavaca and DeWitt counties, was expecting a “monster encampment.”63 In 1910 the Socialist vote was “Growing to Some Proportions in Milam County.”64
Indeed, by the 1910s “Southwestern Socialists had perfected such gatherings throughout Oklahoma and Texas. The largest such gathering in East Texas boasted an attendance of 50,000 during a week’s worth of preaching, singing, and propagandizing. For those not religiously or politically inclined, the East Texas Socialists promised a hamburger stand, a Socialist rodeo, and a Ferris wheel.”65
While the Socialist Party had grown to become the nation’s third major political party, their support was strongest in the American Southwest – Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana. In 1912 Eugene Debs ran for President, and these four states gave him about ten percent (over 80,000) of the total votes he received throughout the nation.66 However, “Socialists did not manage to win any statewide elections anywhere in the country in 1912” – although one congressman, Victor Berger, was elected in Wisconsin.67
If a Socialist managed to win an election in 1912 or 1914, it was most likely to fill local positions such as justice of the peace, constable, and perhaps mayor and county judge (Texas and Arkansas). In 1914, however, Oklahoma elected six Socialists to the state’s legislature – five representatives and one state senator.68
Annual socialist encampments would eventually fade away. By the late 1910s fewer notices were appearing in newspapers. World War I was a contributing factor with crackdowns on radical groups, most notably, anarchists. In 1919 several newspapers carried a story of how a few hundred former Socialists of Eastland County had been “converted” away from “their Socialist faith”. As it turned out, a good dose of old-fashioned capitalism changed their fortunes:
SOCIALISTS GIVE UP THEIR FAITH IN SHORT ORDER
Interesting Story of How Texans Were Converted From Their Socialist Faith
For many years the hotbed of Socialism in Texas was in Eastland County, with Hog Town now called Desdemona, as the storm center of agitators who preached the doctrine of equal distribution of wealth among all the people. Now these very same men, who cast their votes for Eugene Debs for President, and prior to becoming Socialists, were pioneer members of the Populist party, are simply reeking with wealth – not imaginary prosperity but real coin – oodles of it. Incidentally, it may be mentioned that not one of them is saying a word about dividing up his fortune with the “downtrodden poor.”69
What caused this sudden transformation? In a word, oil – “black gold, Texas tea” as the old Beverly Hillbillies theme song goes. An annual encampment had been held in Ellison Springs for several years and many of the county’s cotton and corn farmers no doubt were in faithful attendance.
Between 1910 and 1916 cotton production had declined precipitously as boll weevils devastated crops. In 1917 a major oil discovery at Ranger changed everything. In 1919 twenty-two million barrels of oil were produced in Eastland County.70 By 1922 production had dropped, about the same time agricultural interests were improving.
While newspaper accounts were estimating more than one hundred men, who just a year ago had been “preaching Socialism and struggling to make both ends meet”, were multi-millionaires ($10 to 25 million), most weren’t that wealthy. Referring to them as “Socialist millionaires” was a bit of a stretch in some cases. Still, the money was good while the oil flowed.
One of the more interesting “Socialist millionaires” (he wasn’t, by any stretch of the imagination) was Thomas Aloysius “Red Tom” Hickey, described as a “socialist journalist, lecturer and West Texas oilman.”71 Born in Dublin, Ireland in 1869, Hickey immigrated to America in 1892 and joined the Socialist Party in 1893. He would be one of the regular speakers on the Socialist encampment circuit.
In 1907 he moved to Texas and in 1911 launched The Rebel, a Hallettsville newspaper which would eventually be considered the state’s official Socialist newspaper. After World War I put the quietus on many Socialist publications, Hickey was about to revive publication of The Rebel in Dallas when news of the oil strike in Eastland County became headline news. In a roundabout, capitalistic way Hickey would come into a bit of cash himself:
A number of socialist farmers lived in the area and sponsored a yearly encampment at Ellison Springs, where Hickey was the featured orator. The Desdemona socialists also had a baseball club, which played on a field owned by S.E. Snodgrass, a leading local Democrat and avid antisocialist. When Snodgrass banned the socialists from his land and demanded the exorbitant sum of fifty dollars for the 1½ acre ballpark, they raised the purchase price of fifty dollars by popular subscription. When oil was discovered, the baseball field suddenly became worth $40,000 to its socialist owners. It was soon surrounded by producing oil wells also owned by the socialists.72
Apparently, Hickey had chipped in on the price of the ball field and now was part-owner, although he would by no means become a “Socialist millionaire”. Instead, he doubled as advertising manager for the Desdemona Oil News and correspondent for several other newspapers. He died of throat cancer on May 7, 1925.
The “Socialist millionaire” article ended by announcing the end of encampments at Ellison Springs:
As a result of this wealth, or perhaps because they are too busy piling up more, there will no Socialist encampment at Ellison Springs this year. If by any chance these men should get together, it would be a convention of more millionaires than ever before assembled at one time in Texas.73
Socialism was by no means dead, but many so-called agrarian Socialists had moved on by the 1920s, with annual encampments remembered only as passé in “50 Years Ago” articles of the 1950s and ‘60s.
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Footnotes:
July 4, 1876: It Was (Literally) a Blast!
July 4, 1876 – The United States was celebrating its centennial, eleven years following the end of the Civil War. In Philadelphia, soldiers from the North and South, “the Blue and the Gray”, marched together. There were lively and soul-stirring festivities held throughout the country, speeches galore, fireworks – or “Gunpowder and Glory”60
As cannons were fired and firecrackers lit, explosions and costly fires marred the festivities for some. In Philadelphia one
headline read “A Salute That Cost Several Hundred Thousand Dollars.”61 Around one o’clock on the afternoon of the Fourth, some boys fired off a cannon salute which ignited a pile of chips behind a flour mill. Within fifteen minutes the entire block was
engulfed in flames.
“A Dynamite Horror” occurred around the same time elsewhere in Philadelphia. A druggist, Dr. H.H. Bucher, was apparently
experimenting with explosives in an attempt to create his own pyrotechnics:
The doctor, who was a man of scientific mind, had accumulated in the cellar of the house a considerable quantity of dynamite, the properties of which, with sulphuric acid and other combustible chemicals, he had for some time been endeavoring to unite, to effect a pyrotechnic result. It was his ambition to complete his experimenting yesterday, that the people of the lower section of the city might be treated to a grand display of fireworks.62
Around noon, the doctor believing he had achieved just the right mix, sent word for his next-door neighbor to come see the
result. Meanwhile, the doctor’s brother came downstairs from their living quarters and two other gentlemen happened to enter the drug store at about the same time. Dr. Bucher held a can of dynamite which exploded and killed the four men instantly.
The result was catastrophic, as evidenced by the newspaper’s account:
The arms of Edward Bucher and Bernard Klosti were blown entirely from their bodies; Young’s body was cut almost in two, and Bucher himself was burned to a crisp. The only one whose features could be recognized a moment after the explosion was Young. The fire did not approach him. The doctor’s identity was established by a heavy seal ring, bearing the mark of the thirty-second degree of Masonry, the Scottish rite. The other two bodies were recognized by the clothes they wore only.63
Dr. Bucher’s wife was sitting near a window in their second story residence when the explosion occurred. She narrowly escaped death herself – an eight by ten foot hole was blown in the floor – but a neighbor rushed into the burning building and rescued her. One can only wonder, what was Dr. Bucher thinking by playing around with dynamite?!?
Elsewhere in Philadelphia, suffragists were conducting a lively meeting – touting “The New Declaration of Independence.” Their speeches, including those of Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, harangued “the national government and society in general for the deaf ear they have turned to the clamorers of universal suffrage.64
Mrs. Stanton read “The Woman’s Declaration of Rights and Articles of Impeachment against the Government of the United States”. In contrast to the 1776 Declaration of Independence the suffragists were making their own declaration. While the latter spoke of colonists determined to “throw off the yoke of tyranny”, the former demanded “the equal determination of the female portion of this great republic to resist the hard-heeled oppression of the then oppressed but now oppressors.”
Their declaration impeached the federal government for its insertion of the word “male” in the Constitution. If these “incongruities” were not remedied they believed it would “result in the total dissolution of the social fabric of the nation.”
One of the attendees, a Washington, D.C. lawyer named Mrs. Belva Lockwood, defended the cause from a constitutional standpoint. She was hopeful, however, that the following century, unlike the first which had been “governed by brute force”, would usher in the age of reason and the names of Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony would be rewarded for their efforts on behalf of “suffering women” – and indeed, they eventually were, albeit not until the next century.
Fireworks
DESTRUCTION: What the Centennial Cost Brooklyn
Clearly, the doctors of Brooklyn were kept busy on the 4th, as was the fire department. The reported incidents included:
Fourteen year-old Patrick Malley decided to have a little fun with a bottle of powder. He placed the bottle on the sidewalk, lit a match – his hands and feet were badly burned.
Struck By a Sky Rocket – A boy standing on a hill observing the fireworks display was struck on his right side by a mis-fired sky rocket, fracturing two of his ribs.
Explosion of a Cannon – In two separate incidences, two boys were badly burned by an exploding cannon fired in the yard of their residences.
Shot in the Thigh – A sixteen year-old boy fired a one-barrel Smith & Wesson pistol from the rooftop of his parents’ home, accidentally shooting himself quite seriously in the thigh.
Shot in the Eye – A man was shot in the eye while standing on his front stoop. The bullet lodged behind his eye and a doctor quickly arrived to perform “an exceedingly painful and dangerous operation, in which he was successful. He removed the optic and extracted the ball, and then replaced the eye in its natural position.”67
A Child Shot – A one year-old boy was shot while being carried in his mother’s arms outside their home. The bullet grazed his temple, causing a severe wound.
Shot in the Forehead – A fifty year-old night watchman was shot in the forehead by an unknown person.
Bursting a Barrel – Two boys, aged sixteen and twelve, sustained injuries “of a painful nature” after using firecrackers to explode an empty barrel.
Many of the fires which occurred throughout the city were due to a combination of fireworks and carelessness, including: firecrackers thrown into a cellar, firecrackers thrown onto a roof, firecrackers thrown on a wooden awning, firecrackers thrown into a basement, a burning sky rocket setting fire to the roof of Catholic orphanage, firecrackers thrown through a bedroom window, firecrackers thrown down a coal chute, a barrel of firecrackers in a wood shed ignited and more. The fire department had a busy night as well.
I Gave Him a Match
The most shocking of all the accidents stemming from perhaps an “over-celebration” of the “Glorious Fourth” occurred about eight o’clock that evening on Smith Street. Frederick Somerville owned a store on the ground floor of a three-story building, selling cigars and stationery. With the upcoming Centennial celebration he had decided to increase traffic to his store by adding a “large stock of flags, firecrackers, rockets, and all the other combustibles used in the celebration of the day.”
Somerville had also purchased a large quantity of powder, thinking he would place it in small packages and sell it to the neighborhood boys. By the Monday before the Fourth business was so brisk he needed to hire some help. A young man by the name of Francis Lent was recommended to him “for honesty and smartness.” Frank arrived soon afterwards and worked until six o’clock that evening when he left for dinner at his nearby home.
Francis returned around seven o’clock and continued to stand outside the store selling flags and fireworks. Mr. Somerville returned after stepping away for a few minutes and told Frank it was dark enough to light the lamps. Frank replied, “Yes, sir” and went into the store while Somerville took over the stand.
Frank went behind the counter, climbed onto a chair, filled a lamp with oil and lit it. While attempting to climb the chair again, he carelessly threw the match to one side. KABOOM!! “In the twinkling of an eye the store was lighted with the brightness of a furnace, followed by a noise of the explosion of powder, and a rumbling sound, as though the walls of the building were giving way.” Mr. Somerville, “at first stunned and stupefied” recovered consciousness to discover his store was in flames.
Within minutes a crowd of over two thousand people arrived at the scene. Firemen were called and while frantically attempting to extinguish the fire someone realized that Francis had not been seen – “Where’s Lent?” Firemen rushed into the store, groped around in the flames and nearly suffocated, but found no sign of the young man. They concluded he must have escaped unnoticed – that is until one of the firemen stumbled over something resembling a “rotten log of wood.” Upon touching it, a sickening odor was emitted. “My God!” he exclaimed, “I guess this is Lent.”
Other officers rushed to examine the body but were unable to distinguish it from a roll of black cloth or a human frame. They removed his body on a stretcher and took it to the police station. Most of the crowd forgot about the conflagration and rushed to the station house, crowding around the stretcher. The Lent family, frantic and overcome with grief, arrived. Mr. Lent could not identify his son.
He sank into a chair and Mrs. Lent fainted. The crowd, as well as the officers, were visibly affected. All the clothing had been burned from his body – all flesh burned to a crisp and black as jet. Meanwhile, the fire was still raging.
The rear of the store had been blown away and apparently Frank was the only casualty although dozens of others were injured. The following day the fire marshal began an investigation. Somerville gave him the details:
My young man, Frank Lent, a clerk, asked for a light and I gave him a match and saw him trying to put out a fire in a torpedo box; I said, “leave that for God sake, think for your life.” I dragged him to the door between the back room and the front store; then the explosion took place and I did not see him any more; I rushed upstairs to save the child and the explosions kept going on all the time. I had about $300 work of fireworks on the premises. I did not attempt to make a light, I gave Lent the match and he attempted to light the kerosene lamp suspended from the ceiling in the back room. The powder was in a keg near the back window. I had no license to sell powder or fireworks.68
The Fires of Patriotism
On July 6, the Brooklyn Eagle praised the heroic efforts of the city’s fire department. During the period from nine o’clock on Monday the 3rd, until nine o’clock Tuesday the 4th, thirty houses had been set on fire by firecrackers. Damage estimates weren’t complete yet, but the Eagle was questioning “whether the damage is not greater than anything rational in the celebration justified?”71 Was the destruction of property, the injuries and deaths cause for the discontinuation of the firecracker business?
Hereafter we trust there be an abundance of decoration and a rational indulgence of social and generous impulses, but unless we desire to go down to posterity as lunatics at large, let the firecrackers be discontinued. The disposition which finds pleasure in noise is childish at the best, but when to be gratified it involves the spreading of tun and personal suffering, common sense is bound to suppress it.72
Maybe the editorial rant made its point – the following year there were no such incidences reported during the Fourth of July celebration. From the headlines, it appears the one hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence was indeed “a blast”.
Today fireworks are still potentially dangerous – but not THAT dangerous. As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our nation’s independence, remember we have much to be thankful for – be safe and GOD BLESS AMERICA!
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Footnotes:
Celebrating America 250: The First Men of the Revolution
These men died on April 19, 1775, more than a year prior to the day we are about to celebrate, commemorating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. They were the first to give their lives for our freedoms.
It was a lop-sided skirmish that lit the fuse – about 700 British against 77 militiamen assembled on the Common. A British officer yelled, “Throw down your arms! Ye villains, ye rebels.”62 Shots were fired. The British claimed they were fired upon; however, militia Captain John Parker later testified he ordered dispersion of his troops. Fifty years later he recanted; shots had been fired by his troops, but the British had still fired upon his men.
The Redcoats suffered one injury while eight militiamen died and nine were wounded. Most of the eight casualties have since been immortalized, their names attached to various Lexington public buildings. Briefly, their biographies (some briefer than others):
Samuel Hadley
Samuel Hadley was born on July 9, 1746 to parents Benjamin Thomas and Ruth (Lawrence) Hadley, one of twelve children. Four of their six sons served in the Revolutionary War, including Samuel who died on April 19, 1775.
In 2009 a Lexington public building was dedicated to the memory of Samuel Hadley. It was noted the Hadleys were farmers and pioneers who raised livestock for wool and crops such as flax which they wove into fabric. They were active members in community life, were prominent in local religious activities and served in a variety of military groups.68
Two hundred years later historians noted that Samuel Hadley and John Brown were “killed before they could clear the green.”72
Caleb Harrington
Caleb Harrington was born on October 27, 1751 to parents Moses and Sarah (Foster) Harrington. Though his family was poor and not prominent in the community, Caleb managed to acquire a piece of property to rent in 1771, perhaps the result of an indenture agreement entered into as a teenager.73
On that fateful day in 1775 Moses Harrington was on the green with his youngest son, as well as other family members (nephews and cousins). As Caleb and two other men went to the meetinghouse for more powder they were approached by a group of British officers on horseback.
In danger of being cut off, the three men decided to flee. One escaped harm, another was hit but survived. Caleb, a member of Captain Parker’s company, was shot and killed near the west end of the meeting house.
Jonathan Harrington, Jr.
He was one of three men named Jonathan Harrington present that day.74 Jonathan Harrington, Jr. was born in 1745 to parents Henry and Sarah (Laugthon) Harrington. He later married Ruth Fiske. Apparently their home was not far from the common green, as various legends claim that Jonathan, mortally wounded, crawled to his home and died at Ruth’s feet.
However, several years later John Munroe,son of Robert Munroe, testified that Harrington, along with his father, was killed on the Common.75 Orator Edward Everett gave a different account several years later, one which mirrored the legend:
Harrington’s was cruel fate. He fell in front of his own house, on the north of the common. His wife, at the window, saw him fall, and then start up, the blood gushing from his breast. He stretched out his hands towards her, as if for assistance, and fell again. Rising once more on his hands and knees, he crawled across the road toward his dwelling. She ran to meet him at the door, but it was to see him expire at her feet.76
An early twentieth century account would state Harrington fell near his barn, yet nine years later the same historian embellished the story thusly:
He is mortally wounded on the northerly end of the Common. Across the road is his home. He struggles to reach it, falls, but with renewed effort rises and staggers to his own door-stone. His wife meets him there, and he dies in her arms.77
Dramatically so or not, there is no doubt Jonathan Harrington, Jr. was a casualty that day.
Robert Munroe
As was the case with the Harrington family there were various members of the Munroe family on the common that day as well – and related by marriage or blood to the Harringtons.78
Ensign Robert Munroe appears to have been the oldest man killed that day, he having been born in 1712 to parents George and Sarah Munroe, and descended from Scottish immigrant William Munroe. He was also the first man killed:
The first man killed was Ensign Robert Munroe, sixty-four years old and a veteran of the French war. He had been a British color bearer in 1745. He had two sons, two sons-in-law and seven other relatives in the Lexington fight.79
Isaac Muzzy
Isaac Muzzy was a distant cousin to members of the Munroe family present that day80 and born to parents John and Rebecca (Reed) Muzzy on December 16, 1744. He was descended from immigrant Abraham Mussey who arrived in Massachusetts in 1633.81
Several buildings and landmarks in Lexington are named for this family.
Asahel Porter
As one source notes the parentage of Asahel Porter is unclear, but perhaps the son of William Porter.82 It is known, however, that Porter was a farmer from Woburn who, you might say, was at the wrong place at the wrong time.
On the morning of April 19 he and Josiah Richardson were on the road to Boston to sell their goods when they were accosted and arrested by British soldiers. Forced to march amongst the ranks heading to Lexington, Asahel Porter appears to have been attempting escape as they neared the Common. One historic account recorded:
They [Porter and Richardson] started for Boston and their route lay through West Cambridge. They were mounted on horses with their market stuff in panniers. Near West Cambridge they were halted by the advancing column of the British. In spite of their assertion that they were peaceable citizens, they were made prisoners and made to accompany the troops to Lexington. Here the British set them at liberty on condition they should go peaceably about their business. Richardson, walked off slowly, but Porter, after walking a few steps, started to run, when he was shot by soldiers.83
Felled near a wall, Asahel Porter was immortalized with a marble stone on April 21, 1875, one hundred years following his burial.84
Jonas Parker, Sr.
Jonas Parker was born on February 6, 1721, along with twin sister Sarah, to parents John and Sarah (Whitney) Parker. He and Sarah were the oldest children of twelve. Jonas became united with the Munroe family in 1745 when he married Lucy Munroe. John Parker, captain of the militia, was his cousin.
Jonas, while not as wealthy as his kin, is assumed to have been employed as some sort of woodworker or perhaps a wheelwright as noted by the inventory of his estate. He was also of strong character and unafraid:
Jonas Parker, the strongest and best wrestler in Lexington, had promised never to run from British troops and he kept his vow. A wound brought him to his knees. Having discharged his gun, he was prepared to load it again, when as sound a heart as ever throbbed for freedom was stifled by a bayonet!85
Jonas, Jr. was also present on the Common and is said to have witnessed his father’s death.
John Brown
Unfortunately, little seems to have been written about John Brown. While he may have had relatives present on the common that day, he was not related to the Munroe family.86 According to Massachusetts birth records, John Brown was born on August 12, 1751 to parents Daniel and Ann (Bright) Brown in Lexington.87
These were the first men of the Revolution to sacrifice their lives for the cause of liberty. Many like them died on future battlefields of the Revolutionary War, while some lived long enough to become pensioners. Some outlived them all. More on these war veterans and their amazingly long lives in a series which begins in the weeks following July 4, entitled “Celebrating America 250: The Last Men of the Revolution”.
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Footnotes:
Women of the Revolution: Patience Wright
History is filled with stories of “feisty females”. Many lived their lives skirting societal norms to carve out their own piece of history. It seems so much more has been written about the brave men who served during the Revolutionary War, yet women served in various (and important) capacities as well, even on the battlefield. One of the more interesting characters, however, was thought to have assisted in the years leading up to the war by passing information to Benjamin Franklin in a purportedly unique way.
Patience Wright
Patience Wright (née Lovell) was born in 1725 in Oyster Bay (Long Island), New York. Her parents were Quakers who moved to Bordentown, New Jersey when Patience was four years old. Her parents insisted that she and her sisters dress in white, symbolic of their purity, and the family followed a strict vegetarian diet.
Patience, spirited and headstrong, managed to escape her home and head to Philadelphia where in 1748 she married an older man, Joseph Wright, a barrel maker. The age difference came to be an issue as she would later remark to a friend “that [he had] nothing but Age and Money to recommend himself to her favour.”75
When Joseph died in 1769, she found herself in need of income. At a young age, Patience and her sister Rachel sculpted small figures out of bread dough to amuse themselves. She, along with her sister Rachel, also a widow, began to produce wax sculptures to sell. They soon became well known for their amazing life-like sculptures.
Patience had a unique method of “birthing” her art pieces. This method would become as well known as the sculptures themselves. Wax must be kept warm in order to be pliable. She would work the wax in her lap and under her skirts, and then reveal fully formed heads and torsos as if they were being birthed. She then gave special attention to minute details of her sculptures, adding lip and cheek colors and eyelashes.
The two sisters opened two businesses, one in Philadelphia and one in New York, in 1770. Their shop in New York was located on Queen Street, but in 1771 the entire block was destroyed by fire, leaving Patience financially devastated.
Patience met Jane Franklin Mecom, Benjamin Franklin’s youngest sister, and through Jane she was able to obtain an introduction from Franklin to London high society. After her move to London, his letter opened doors of opportunity and her work was soon in demand. To the lords and ladies of England she was thought to be eccentric, most notably because she wore wooden shoes and kissed both male and female on the cheek, regardless of their class. Some were accepting of her eccentricities while others expressed disdain.
Wright’s informal manner was something of a shock to the courtly set, and yet not entirely unwelcome. Her base language and friendly liberties, coupled with her work in a medium distinct from any art yet seen, made Wright something of a novelty – wholly American. Rough-hewn but strong, coarse but honest, she was the New World made flesh.76
Not everyone was enthralled with her, however. Abigail Adams remarked to her sister after meeting Patience at a London party: “Her person and countenance resemble an old maiden in your Neighbourhood Nelly Penniman, except that one is neat, the other the Queen of sluts.”77
In 1775 The London Magazine called her a “Promethean modeler” and described her work:
In her very infancy she discovered a striking genius, and began with making faces with new bread and putty, to such excellence that she was advised to try her skill in wax. . . Her natural abilities are surpassing, and had a liberal and extension education been added to her innate qualities, she had been a prodigy.86
Patience cheekily referred to King George III and his wife as “George” and “Charlotte” and they were devoted patrons, at least until she became more outspoken in her criticism of his handling of colonial matters. Even though she lived and worked in London, she was still very much an American patriot.
She corresponded with Benjamin Franklin and is said to have relayed information she overheard in her sculpting sessions regarding members of Parliament and their views on possible war with the colonies (verbatim as written originally):
to say the parlement will not meett untill more explicit acount comes from Ld. How, by a vesel sent for that purpose to bring Inteligens &c. This deception has gave meney of the wise English membrs to go on ther pleasures some one way some to ther Contry seats, that by thir means only about 50 membrs will attend at the cokpitt nor be ready at the House to apose the renewil of the aCursed act that keeps poor Platt confind in Newgate with others of our Contry men.88
After Patience’s death, Rachel would claim her sister passed letters to America in wax heads and busts: “how did she make her Cuntry [sic] her whole attention, her Letters gave us ye first alarm…she sent Letters in buttons & pictures heads to me, ye first in Congress attended Constantly to me for them in that perilous hour.”89
Her work as a “spy” was later impacted when the war began and she fell out of favor with her loyal patrons because of her strident patriotic sentiments. She wrote many letters to Franklin while he was in Paris, but apparently she had fallen out of favor with him as well (or had at least wearied him):
This is the 5th lettr I have wrot to Dr. Frankling and meny other to mr. Scayrs [Sayre], Bankcroft &c. none of which I have Recd. any answr. Mrs. Wright most respectful Complnts to dr. Frankling and hopes he is well, and most humbly begs some direction how to proced.90
She even suggested at one point that Franklin encourage a rebellion in England as well. She never received a response. In 1780 she moved to Paris, seeking to open a wax works there. Her attempts at establishing a patronage were largely rebuffed, for after all France at the time was on the brink of its own revolution. The French were also not as enthralled with Patience Wright and her unique talents as were her English patrons. She returned to London in 1782.
In an apparent attempt to “drum up some business” she wrote letters to both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson:
I most sincerely wish not only to make the likeness of Washington, but of those five gentlemen, who assisted at the signing the treaty of peace, that put an end to so bloody and dreadful a war. The more public the honours bestowed on such men by their country, the better. To shame the English king, I would go to any trouble and expense to add my mite in the stock of honour due to Adams, Jefferson, and others, to send to America.91
She never received a response from either man. A Smithsonian web site article entitled “The Madame Tussaud of the American Colonies Was a Founding Fathers Stalker”, tongue-in-cheek implies Patience was a stalker.
Patience Wright died in London in 1785 at the age of sixty. According to the Smithsonian article, Rachel wrote to Benjamin Franklin asking for funds to bury her sister, but no record exists of a response. Patience was buried somewhere in London and much of her unique work forgotten by history. Wax is not a particularly enduring substance, although some like those sculpted by Madame Tussaud have been preserved. Patience Wright’s only remaining wax figure is of William Pitt, a.k.a. Lord Chatham, on display in Westminster Abbey.
P.S. Here are two more articles featuring other “feisty females” of the American Revolutionary War: Mercy Otis Warren and Nancy Morgan Hart.
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Footnotes: