Solving a Puzzle

            One of the incidental pleasures of working on old documents is solving puzzles. Often that means identifying a person either unnamed or named only by a first or last name, and often it means establishing a date where none is given. Many such puzzles are doomed to remain unsolved, but the satisfaction of figuring out the answer is like the thrill of decoding a clue in a cryptic crossword. Here’s an example that I enjoyed recently.

            A letter from Anna Maria (Saunders) Preston (1825-1911), written from Abingdon, Virginia, to her mother Alice (Watts) Saunders (1793-1867), at her home at Flat Creek, Campbell County, Virginia, tells of a difficult journey home from a visit with her uncle and cousins, Edward Watts (1779-1859) and his family, at Oaklands, in Roanoke County, Virginia.

Soon after leaving Christiansburg our driver made a reckless & sudden attempt to pass the front stage, the horses in this stage became frightened at his noisy approach, started off suddenly, the wheels struck our leaders, who shied off violently, & before we hardly knew what had happened, we were thrown down a bank 15 or 20 feet high.

            Luckily, no one was killed. The writer and her husband, Thomas Lewis Preston (1812-1903), sustained bruises and cuts, and were badly shaken, but no worse. Some other passengers suffered fractures; one had to be taken to a near-by house to be cared for, while the rest rode on, some moaning with pain. They learned that the driver had a record of drunken driving, and Mr Preston determined to sue the company.

            The letter is dated Abingdon, Monday the 17th

 

No month, no year. If you substituted large trucks for horses, it could have been this year. The road they were traveling is pretty much the same as I-81, which the Washington Post described in horrific terms in a 2009 article headlined “Accident-Plagued Interstate 81 in Virginia”. But there were some clues to narrow the range of possible years. Toward the end of the letter, the author writes: 

Give much love to Papa, Caryetta & my brothers.

The writer’s father, Fleming Saunders (b. 1778), died on 26 May 1858. Caryetta was her sister-in-law, Caryetta (Davis) Saunders (1825-1894), who married Robert Chancellor Saunders (1827-1902) on 28 May 1851. So this letter must have been written between 1851 and 1858.

Gravestone of Fleming Saunders 

(replacement carved in late 20th century)

            There are also clues to the month. It was spring, but the weather was terrible:

The weather has been very unfavorable for gardening, the hail storm injured the shrubbery & destroyed all the peaches. We will have apples, I suppose. Yesterday it commenced snowing & today we have a deep snow upon the ground, & the weather very uncomfortably cold. What a terrible spring. I expect to be very busy, as soon as I can get out. There is a great deal to have done. Tell Washington we have delightful asparagus. 

These indications point strongly to the month of April. Turning now to a perpetual calendar, I find that 17 April was a Monday only in the year 1854 within the required range.

            That is strong evidence, but I needed some confirmation. If the weather was that bad, it was probably mentioned elsewhere. And here I was fortunate; among the Watts papers at the Historical Society of Western Virginia, there is a letter from the addressee of this one, Alice (Watts) Saunders, written at Flat Creek, on 18 April 1854, to her brother Edward Watts at Oaklands, asking, 

 Have you ever seen such dreadful weather in April?

Never has news of dreadful weather been so welcome to me!

The letters quoted in this post belong to the Historical Society of Western Virginia.

The letter from Anna Maria (Saunders) Preston is Flat Creek Collection 83202-83205.

The letter from Alice (Watts) Saunders is Watts Letters 2007.32.84.

James Breckinridge, landowner in Washington, DC

            General James Breckinridge (1763-1833), my 4-great grandfather, has appeared before in this blog as the owner of Grove Hill plantation in Botetourt County, Virginia. But he also owned real estate in Washington, DC. I first discovered this fact two years ago, transcribing documents from the Watts Collection of the Historical Society of Western Virginia. Item 1998.26.202 is a letter of August 8, 1838, from one C. Smith, apparently an officer of the Farmers and Mechanics Bank of Georgetown, to Edward Watts, enclosing a statement of the account of James Breckinridge, deceased. Edward Watts (1779-1859), husband of Elizabeth Breckinridge (1794-1862) and thereby son-in-law of James Breckinridge, was one of the executors of the estate. Smith’s account statement contained a line reading: 

            By sale of City lots to Mr Swann                           $2390.31

                 Int on same from 1 Oct 1826 to 12 Feby 29         338.60  2728.91

 

and a section reading:

            My Com[missio]n on sales to Doct Hunt & to Mr Swann

            1825 say 2000 & 1000 $             3000.

            Sale to Mr Swann 1826               2390.31

                                                             $ 5390.31 @ 5%      269.50

            There was enough information there, I felt sure, to track down the deeds, but it seemed to entail more effort than the results would merit. These lots were not the Breckinridge homestead, after all, probably not even a temporary residence, but more likely investment property acquired while the General was serving in the U. S. Congress, as Representative from Virginia, from 1809 to 1817. Just a few years before he arrived, the city of Washington did not even exist. Pierre Charles L’Enfant  drew his plan for the city in 1791, and it was decades before even the relatively small space in L’Enfant’s map was fully urbanized. It was entirely possible that Breckinridge’s lots had no interesting history at all until well after he sold them, if then.

            A more recent discovery led me to reconsider. Document 1998.26.467 is a letter from an unidentified man named Walter S. Leon. He wrote to General Breckinridge’s son Cary (1796-1867), a co-executor of the estate, on November 29, 1850, as follows:

I addressed you some time since to communicate Mr Corcoran’s offer of 8 cents pr square foot for lots 14 & 15 in square 186 & have had no reply from you. Supposing that you may have changed your residence I write again enclosed to the postmaster at Fincastle. I think the price now offered is as much as you can expect to get.

            Square 186 designates the block at the corner of Connecticut Avenue and H Street. It is on the north side of Lafayette Square, which was originally intended to be part of the White House grounds. In the early nineteenth century, it was one of the most elegant neighborhoods in Washington. The first house on the square was built for Commodore Stephen Decatur in 1818; it is also the last one still standing, and now houses a museum devoted to White House history.

Decatur House

           Furthermore, the name Corcoran is immortalized in Washington by the art gallery that William Wilson Corcoran (1798-1888) endowed and filled with his art collection, one of the first public art museums in the nation. Corcoran was a banker, born in Georgetown, at the time still a separate village from Washington. He prospered throughout his career, but became fabulously wealthy in the 1840s, when his bank financed the Mexican-American War. He was a philanthropist in many other areas besides his museum, and made large gifts to several universities.

Renwick Gallery, original home of the Corcoran collection,

17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue

Corcoran Gallery, present location,

17th Street and New York Avenue

           In the late 1840s, Corcoran bought a large house on Lafayette Square, which had been built by Thomas Swann, whose name appears as a buyer from James Breckinridge in the first document cited above. Swann (1765-1840) was a prominent Maryland lawyer; his son, also named Thomas Swann, later became governor of Maryland. After Swann’s death in 1840, the house was occupied for a time by Daniel Webster. Corcoran remodeled and enlarged it, creating an imposing Victorian mansion. Unfortunately, it was demolished in 1922 to make room for the U. S. Chamber of Commerce Building.

U. S. Chamber of Commerce Building

            Finally (at least so far), document 1998.26.480 is a letter from Corcoran himself, dated March 13, 1851, once again pressing Cary Breckinridge to respond to his offers. Cary was apparently not a punctual correspondent. Here is the text of Corcoran’s letter:

Dear Sir, I enclose a press copy of a letter addressed to you on the 21 Feb to which I have had no reply. I would prefer taking the lots for the reasons stated; and keeping the matter open subjects me to inconvenience, having delayed the building of a stable on that a/c; but now that the Spring is opening, I would not like to delay it much longer. I have therefore to ask an answer by return mail, and if the price I offer is not satisfactory, state the lowest figure, & I will determine, at once, whether I will take them.

            With that much information, I went to the District of Columbia Archives, where land records are kept, confident that I would find what I was looking for without much trouble. I was wrong; but the saga of my trouble at the archives will have to wait for another posting. After two visits, I nonetheless found the deed. It was signed on August 28, 1827, in Botetourt County, by James and Ann (Selden) Breckinridge, and recorded in the District of Columbia clerk’s office on December 8, 1827. The deed also yielded the indispensable first name of Mr. Smith, who kept the accounts. He was Clement Smith (1776-1838), a prominent banker, president of the Farmers and Mechanics Bank of Georgetown, and also a real estate developer. Several of his buildings survive in Georgetown, such as these Federal style townhouses on N Street, known as Smith Row.

Smith Row, N Street

            The deed contains several parts. As was customary, Ann (Selden) Breckinridge was questioned apart from her husband, to ensure that she was signing of her own free will. She was interviewed by Francis Taliaferro Brooke  (1763-1851), a judge of the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals from 1804 to 1851. The signings were witnessed in Botetourt County by Samuel Lewis Southard (1787-1842), a U.S. Senator from New Jersey, who had worked as a tutor for the Taliaferro family after his graduation from Princeton in 1804, and became acquainted with many Virginia political figures. In 1823 he was named Secretary of the Navy by President Monroe, and was briefly governor of New Jersey, before returning to the Senate in 1833. After watching the Breckinridges sign the deed, Southard swore before two justices of the peace in Washington, DC, on October 19, 1827, that the signatures were authentic.

            James Breckinridge’s lots in Washington were in the heart of a very elite neighborhood. After her husband’s death, Dolley Madison moved back to Washington and lived on Lafayette Square. Benjamin Ogle Tayloe also had a house there; he was a son of John Tayloe, who built the Octagon House just a short walk to the west on New York Avenue; and he was a brother of George Plater Tayloe, who moved to Roanoke County and became a good friend of the Watts family. Although little is left of the original elegant residences, one can see online an artist’s reconstruction of the square as it looked in 1902, when many of the old buildings were still standing. There are even interactive buttons with information about the residents.

The Octagon House, built by John Tayloe

           There is much more I’d like to know about James Breckinridge’s property. When did he acquire it, and from whom? Did he own land elsewhere in Washington? When did Cary Breckinridge finally sell the lots to W. W. Corcoran? Eventually, I intend to answer all those questions. When you read the story of my initiation into the District of Columbia Archives, however, you will understand why I don’t think I can finish the research before we go to London this summer. Elaine and I are leaving July 5 and returning August 11. The trip may disrupt or delay my blogging, but I will continue as best as I can. In the intervals, best wishes to everyone for a happy and productive summer.

Cousin Buck, or the Showalters at Milligan College, part 3

            Are there any baseball fans among my readers? If so, you will already know that “Buck” Showalter is currently manager of the Baltimore Orioles. He has also managed the New York Yankees (1992–1995), Arizona Diamondbacks (1998–2000), and Texas Rangers (2003–2006). Back in the 1990s, when I lived in the New York area, strangers used to ask me quite often if I was related to Buck Showalter. I assume that all Showalters are related one way or another, but I really didn’t know the answer. Elaine suggested I say, “When he’s winning,” and everyone thought that was a very clever response.

Buck Showalter

Photo by Keith Allison from Wikimedia Commons

            Now I know the answer, and thought I would share it with you. Furthermore, Buck is usually winning, so we can all proudly claim him as a cousin. Over the eleven and a fraction seasons he has managed, his teams have a collective record of 916 wins, 856 losses, or .517. That would not be a brilliant record for a team in a given year, good enough usually for third or fourth place in the division, occasionally squeaking into second against weak competition. But one has to remember that Buck took over teams with a collective 175-254 record the previous year or in the unfinished part of the current year. The Diamondbacks had no previous record, because they were an expansion team in 1998, and expansion teams are notoriously weak. With the Orioles in 2010, he was the first manager in twenty years to take over a team in August and have a winning record. When he became manager, the Orioles were 32-73; they finished with a 34-23 run, or .600. If  they had played that well all season, they would have had the best record in the major leagues. Buck was named manager of the year for turning around the Yankees in 1994, and for a similar feat with the Rangers in 2004. In short, Buck is a really good manager.

            His real name is William Nathaniel Showalter III. His great great grandfather was David Showalter, who is also my great great grandfather. We are therefore third cousins. Here is the chart:

David Showalter b. 31 Dec 1801, d. 12 Apr 1877

Nathaniel Pryor Showalter                                          Josiah Thomas Showalter

b. 4 Oct 1848, d. 10 Dec 1935                                   b. 24 Jul 1839, d. 25 Sep 1915

William Nathaniel Showalter I                                   C. D. M. Showalter

b. 4 Jun 1886, d. 5 Oct 1980                                      b. 17 Feb 1866, d. 7 Jan 1948

William Nathaniel Showalter II                                  English Showalter

b. 23 Sep 1919, d. 15 Nov 1991                                 b. 15 Oct 1897, d. 4 Mar 1986

William Nathaniel Showalter III (“Buck”)                 English Showalter Jr

b. 23 May 1956                                                           b. 14 May 1935

William Nathaniel Showalter I

            If you know how many generations down the line you are located, you can determine what cousin you are to Buck.

            Buck did not attend Milligan College, but his father did. He came as a freshman in the fall of 1939, in the class of 1943, and quickly became a star fullback on the football team. The semi-monthly campus newspaper, The Stampede, mentioned him often, usually as “Big Bill” Showalter. In 1940, the team went undefeated, and Big Bill was one of two Milligan players named to the A.P. Little All America team. They lost a heart-breaker late in the 1941 season, but for these three years Milligan was a powerhouse in the small-college league where it competed.

Big Bill Showalter

 “The Buffalo” (Milligan College yearbook), 1942

            The year 1941 was, however, one of the most fateful in history to be a young man in America. Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7, 1941, and immediately men like Bill Showalter were drafted. Bill himself was called up in Virginia on January 19, 1942. From that date until August 15, 1945, he had no furloughs and did not see his family. He took part in the U. S. Army’s campaign in North Africa, in the invasion of Sicily, then in the D-Day landing in Normandy, and in the Battle of the Bulge. He was one of the thousands of Americans who risked their lives in the Second World War and to whom all Americans today must be grateful.

            Bill had two brothers who also served in the military, and one of them also attended Milligan. Donald Pryor Showalter was born in 1921; he served in the Air Force, as a flight engineer in the Pacific theater. Robert Henry “Bob” Showalter was born in 1923; he was also in the Air Force, as a turret gunner on a Flying Fortress bomber, carrying out missions over Germany. Before entering the Army Air Corps in 1943, Bob had attended Milligan and played on the tennis team. After he was discharged in October 1945, he returned to Milligan in January 1946 and was a stalwart of the tennis team until his graduation in 1947. Milligan itself had been taken over for war service in the intervening years by the Navy. Malinda Showalter, their younger sister, also went to Milligan before the war; she is mentioned in The Stampede in the fall of 1942, when she played Miss Willoughby in J. M. Barrie’s play Quality Street.

Robert Henry Showalter

“The Buffalo” (Milligan College yearbook), 1947

Malinda Showalter

“The Buffalo” (Milligan College yearbook), 1943

            Bill also returned to Milligan in 1946, and was once again a stand-out football player. He also played on the baseball team, was president of the Physical Education Club, and was included in Who’s Who in American College and Universities in 1947. He graduated on May 21, 1948, with a major in physical education. He considered a career as a professional football player, but elected instead to become an educator, as many Showalters who went to Milligan had done before him. He went first to Pensacola, Florida, as a high school baseball coach and biology teacher. He later earned a degree in educational administration at Peabody College, and spent most of his life as a coach, teacher and principal in Century, Florida, at the western tip of the panhandle. And he raised a son whom I greatly admire.

William Nathaniel Showalter II

“The Buffalo” (Milligan College yearbook), 1948

Marginalia and afterthoughts

Who is the most famous Showalter?

            I thought Buck Showalter was probably the most famous Showalter, so I did some scientific research, which consisted of searching for “[firstname] showalter” on Google and noting the number of hits. Buck returned an impressive 347,000, but he’s not number 1. That honor goes to Gena Showalter, who racked up an astonishing 688,000 hits.

            Gena writes best-selling paranormal romance novels. She has a blog, which includes pictures of the covers of her books; many of them feature very hot beefcake. According to Wikipedia, she was born in Oklahoma in 1975, published her first novel when she was 27, and has by now published more than 25 books. Are we related? I suppose so, but I don’t yet know how.

cover of The Vampire’s Bride, by Gena Showalter

Why has Buck Showalter changed jobs so often?

            Wikipedia raises this question, and quotes as an explanation the opinion that Buck micromanages. If I owned a team and my manager produced the results Buck has had, I would tell him to micromanage all he wanted. But that’s me.

            In fact, Buck has not changed jobs more often than most baseball managers. According to an article by Lynn Zinser, “One Loss Away From a Dismissal”, in the New York Times of December 20, 2008, the average tenure of a manager in professional baseball is 3.78 seasons, but that figure is skewed upward by a tiny number of managers who have lasted a long time. The median figure is 2 seasons; in other words, half of all managers are fired at the end of their second season.

Buck as a Yankee, a Diamondback, a Ranger

Can you trust Wikipedia?

            From time to time I cite Wikipedia. Is it a trustworthy source? No. So why do I use it? Because it is convenient. For very contemporary subjects, like Buck Showalter, it’s the likeliest place to find a succinct summary of key information. If you don’t have the reference room of a big research library handy, Wikipedia combines the contents of many shelves of almanacs, bibliographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, gazetteers, and the like.

            Wikipedia is written by amateurs, however, and the content is unedited. When I looked up Buck Showalter, I found a flagrantly implausible passage about his family. I won’t repeat it, lest it find its way back into circulation. It involved a confusion between his father and his grandfather, and some exaggeration of the facts. The Wikipedia entry cited a source, which was a newspaper story written by a free-lance sportswriter, whose memory had clearly played some tricks on him. And like Wikipedia, his newspaper had no fact-checker. The entry has now been corrected, but many entries containing similar errors have not been corrected.

            So I use Wikipedia, but I try to check the sources, and the sources’ sources. For those who are wondering, most of my information on Buck Showalter comes from members of his branch of the family. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them, especially Marina and Kathy.