dual personalities

“I find that a great part of the information I have was acquired by looking up something and finding something else on the way.”
–Franklin Pierce Adams

FPA made that comment back in the 1930s–what would he have made of Wikipedia?

For instance, I looked up May 10 on Wikipedia and found out that in 1863 Confederate General Stonewall Jackson died eight days after he was accidentally shot by his own troops. So I clicked on Stonewall Jackson:

I read all about Stonewall, including this fascinating bit about his ancestry:

Thomas Jonathan Jackson was the great-grandson of John Jackson (1715 or 1719 – 1801) and Elizabeth Cummins (also known as Elizabeth Comings and Elizabeth Needles) (1723 – 1828). John Jackson was a Protestant in Coleraine, County Londonderry, Ireland. While living in London, he was convicted of the capital crime of larceny for stealing £170; the judge at the Old Bailey sentenced him to a seven-year indenture in America. Elizabeth, a strong, blonde woman over 6 feet tall, born in London, was also convicted of larceny in an unrelated case for stealing 19 pieces of silver, jewelry, and fine lace, and received a similar sentence. They both were transported on the prison ship Litchfield, which departed London in May 1749 with 150 convicts. John and Elizabeth met on board and were in love by the time the ship arrived at Annapolis, Maryland. Although they were sent to different locations in Maryland for their indentures, the couple married in July 1755.

The family migrated west across the Blue Ridge Mountains to settle near Moorefield, Virginia, (now West Virginia) in 1758. In 1770, they moved further west to the Tygart Valley. They began to acquire large parcels of virgin farmland near the present-day town of Buckhannon, including 3,000 acres in Elizabeth’s name. John and his two teenage sons were early recruits for the American Revolutionary War, fighting in the Battle of Kings Mountain on October 7, 1780; John finished the war as captain and served as a lieutenant of the Virginia Militia after 1787. While the men were in the Army, Elizabeth converted their home to a haven, “Jackson’s Fort,” for refugees from Indian attacks.

John and Elizabeth had eight children. Their second son was Edward Jackson (March 1, 1759 – December 25, 1828), and Edward’s third son was Jonathan Jackson, Thomas’s father.

Stonewall’s ancestors sound awesome, don’t they? Then I saw this picture of a stained glass window depicting Jackson’s life in the Washington National Cathedral.

This took me over to the National Cathedral page:

Did you know that Woodrow Wilson, 28th U.S. president and a Presbyterian, is the only American president buried in the Cathedral and, in fact, the District of Columbia? His grandson, Francis Bowes Sayre, Jr., later became dean of the Cathedral and was also buried here. I also found out that “Stuart Symington, U.S. senator, presidential candidate” and the grandfather of a boy who was in my Sunday School class, is buried there.

I went back to Stonewall Jackson’s page.

Stonewall” Jackson statue, Manassas National Battlefield Park

Very cool indeed. But where were we? Oh yes. May 10! Lots of interesting people from Karl Barth and Fred Astaire to Dimitri Tiomkin and Maybelle Carter have birthdays today. Well, you see how it goes. Have a good day.