GoogleNews unearths 88-year-old family scandal

Here's an online research tool that I recently discovered and thought I would share with ye socks.

The next time you go to http://www.google.com/, click on the "more" option on the toolbar. Then select the last item on the list, "even more." This will take you to a page crowded with icons that will help you narrow your internet searches. If you scroll down to the NEWS icon, click on the hypertext link "archive search." This will let you search thru a bunch of old newspapers whose indexed images are available online.

But, be forewarned. You never know what you're going to uncover when you start rooting around ye olde family tree.

In my case, I uncovered an 88-year-old family scandal surrounding my great-grandfather's cousin Dr. William M. Strother. (The doctor's mother was Roberta Morgan Strother, daughter of my Civil War ancestor James Lorenzo Morgan.)

Anyway, here's a transcript of an article published in the New York Times back on 25 September 1921 that gives the (somewhat cryptic) details of the doctor's murder:

KILLS PHYSICIAN IN OFFICE

Lynchburg Man Then Helps Own

Wife Carry Body to Veranda.

Special to the New York Times

LYNCHBURG, Va., Sept. 24. -- Dr. William M. Strother was shot and almost instantly killed this morning at his home by Jesse Ford, Lynchburg superintendent for the J.R. Ford Company, contractors, who was living near Dr. Strother's home.

Ford surrendered, and a Coroner's jury, at which his wife testified, held him for the murder. Ford went to Dr. Strother's home, and after talkin with him briefly shot him several times. It is said that Dr. Strother fired twice at Ford as the latter walked away and then fell dead.

Mrs. Ford is said to have come out of Dr. Strother's house, and at her solicitation Ford Assisted her in carrying the body of the physician to the veranda of the house.

Dr. Strother was a native of Lynchburg and a member of one of the most prominent families of the city.

As with any new tidbit of genealogical information, this one leaves yours truly with more questions than it answered. The only question I ever had about Dr. Strother before finding this article was wondering why he died at such a relatively young age (38). Well, now I have THAT answer. But, what about the questions the Times article fails to answer. Like, what was Mrs. Ford doing in the doctor's home to begin with? And, was Ford ever tried for the murder? If so, what was the verdict? And, if found guilty, what was his sentence? I couldn't find any more articles on the subject, so would welcome any light ye socks can shed on the case!

Carnival of Genealogy, 57th Edition

Well, ye socks, one of my old posts has been selected for the current edition of the "Carnival of Genealogy."

The topic was "I read it in the news," and posts were gleaned from across the blogosphere to demonstrate how news articles can shed light on our family histories.

To see the complete listing of selected stories, check out the 10/4/08 post at:

http://creativegene.blogspot.com

The selection they chose from yours truly was originally published right here in the dryer back on 6/23/08, and featured a transcript of an old New York Times article about the secret marriage of my grandparents Tom and Lil Norton.

But, that story pales in comparison to some of the others in this little carnival.

Enjoy!

The New York Times loses MORE credibility

I am so angry with NYT editor Bill Keller today, I could just spit nails.

Not because his paper ran an article yesterday about a rumored affair between Senator John McCain and lobbyist Vicki Iseman.

No, what makes me angry is that Keller and his editorial board SAT ON THIS STORY for months. In fact, Keller actually met with McCain to discuss the details last year.

But, he didn't bother putting it into print in his yellow rag until McCain had won enough GOP presidential primaries and caucuses to make him the party's presumptive nominee.

I think he did it INTENTIONALLY.

He didn't want GOP voters to catch a whiff of a potential scandal until after every Democrat's favorite Republican was far enough ahead in the delegate count.

In so doing, he and his editorial board have failed the public trust.

By denying the public access to this type of information, which could very well sway a voter's opinion, Keller and his cronies at the New York Times are tinkering with our democracy.

That's the real story here, not some supposed extra-marital affair being pimped by a disgruntled former aide. (The Washington Post at least identified the source for the rumor: John Weaver, who left--or, was asked to leave--the McCain campaign last year.) My question is, if the allegation makes McCain a flawed candidate, why did the Times endorse him? I would suggest it is because that is exactly what they want atop the GOP ticket this fall, because it will make it easier for their beloved Democrats to achieve a victory at the polls.

So much for the lofty pretensions of the most self-satisfied organ of the Fourth Estate.

The Times outrageously claims to publish "all the news that's fit to print." It seems it may only be defined as "fit" if it keeps the American public in the dark long enough to suit their patently partisan agenda.

For ye socks living in states that haven't held their primaries yet (are you hearing me TEXAS?!), I encourage you to send a message by voting for Mike Huckabee.

And, if you have a subscription to the Times, cancel it!

It's finally starting to dawn on the media

If you don't believe me, check out Bill Kristol's op-ed piece in today's New York Times.

Like most folks in the "major media," he is not too thrilled about the rise of Mike Huckabee. But, at least he/they are finally forced to take notice. And, they're giving the former Arkansas governor grudging respect.

Kristol points out Huckabee's calm, measured response to a question posed at Saturday night's debate at St. Anselm's College up in New Hampshire. He was asked how he would contrast himself to Barack Obama if the two of them ended up being the two major parties' nominees. Without missing a beat, he gave three issues where they differ: guns, abortion, and same-sex marriage.

As Kristol put it, Huckabee's choice of these themes show he is in tune with the "work-hard-to-get-ahead strivers" that made up the core of Regan voters twenty-odd years ago.

This is how Republicans win national elections. You have to appeal to a broader base than Wall Street and Washington. You have to connect to Main Street. And, Huckabee is doing that.

Mitt Romney: You can't buy the truth, you can't even rent it!

It is no secret that former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has been outspending Mike Huckabee by a margin of 20 to 1 in his efforts to buy the presidency by winning the Iowa caucuses.

And, rather than using all that money to tell the folks in Iowa why they should caucus FOR him, he's spending it all on spreading lies about Huckabee.

So, let's begin to set the record straight:

1. As Governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee signed a bill in 1999 that doubled sentences for production and distribution of methamphetamines. In fact, they were FOUR TIMES longer than sentences imposed in Massachusetts under Romney's "leadership." Huckabee is tough on crime.

2. Arkansas' state budget did increase during Huckabee's 10+ years as governor, but that increase was less than 4%--a rate even the New York Times has acknowledged as astonishingly low.

3. Mike Huckabee actually CUT overall taxes in Arkansas. There were a few examples when court orders and a public referendum forced increases to improve education and infrastructure. But, Romney conveniently "forgets" the 94 other taxes that Huckabee cut, including: elimination of the marriage penalty, indexing for inflation, and doubling the childcare tax credit.

4. Romney actually RAISED the tax burden in Massachusetts. He did so by calling his increases "FEES" instead of "TAXES," merely a matter of semantics, perhaps. But, it cost his constituents an extra half-billion on top of what was already one of the highest rates of taxation in the country.

Romney plays fast and loose with the truth, and not just when it comes to attacking Mike Huckabee. Notice his recent gaffe, in which he claimed his father had marched alongside Martin Luther King during the Civil Rights Era. What a whopper that was, and it was uncomfortable watching him try to squirm his way out of it when the media held him to account.

With everything going on in the world today, what America needs more than anything in its new president is someone they can trust. And, given Romney's pattern of lying to the folks in Iowa, I don't see how anyone could trust him in the Oval Office.

I am not alone in hoping caucus goers reject Romney's lies and, instead, choose to support the only candidate on either side of the aisle who has the executive experience to govern this country and the honesty we should demand from our leaders: Mike Huckabee.

Go, Mike, go!

Amplified Words

Quite a few folks on the campaign trail are learning the meaning behind the old adage, "Choose your words wisely." When you're on the national stage, everything you say is amplified.

The primary example is our favorite presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, who recently submitted to a interview with the unbiased folks over at the New York Times. During their long conversation, they tried to bait him into talking about rival Mitt Romney's religion. Fortunately, the former Arkansas governor is a little too savvy to be drawn into that kind of discussion. But, he did offhandedly ask a question that he should have kept to himself and googled it later: "Don't Mormon's believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?"

Well, the Times isn't planning on printing the entire interview until this Sunday's edition. But, they have been gleefully spreading Huckabee's out-of-context question all over the media. Fortunately, the governor had the opportunity during yesterday's final Iowa debate to cross the stage and apologize to Romney in person in advance for any offense.

My thing is it was a parenthetical question Huckabee was really asking himself. But, now that he's in the "big leagues," he needs to be more careful about his mutterings. The media (not to mention his adversaries) are going to be looking for ANY reason to pounce on him, and he shouldn't be giving them the opportunities. And, the upside of this (which I hope our Mormon friends will appreciate) is that it has given their church a higher national profile, and will result in a lot of non-Mormons doing some googling of their own to find out more about them. I would hope they would welcome people asking for more info.

Ok, that unpleasantness aside, there was an even more awesome example of amplified words out in Austin, Texas, yesterday!

It seems Governor Rick Perry, who made the mistake of endorsing Rudy Giuliani back in October, personally filed the former NYC mayor's papers to put him on the state's primary ballot. While doing this, a reporter asked him about the potential impact the next President of the United States will have on the Supreme Court. Here is his EXACT response:

"The issue becomes very, very clear to me from the standpoint of who I want to support, and it is MIKE HUCKABEE."

That's right! I think Governor Perry let his true preference slip! Officially, he is still somewhat obligated to back Rudy. But, in his heart of hearts, I think we know who he really supports!

Or, maybe, we should give him the benefit of the doubt . . . sometimes, folks just slip-up under the glaring media spotlight . . . nobody's perfect.