Saturday, January 29, 2011

Liar!

Turn of the century newspapers always provide a more colorful reading than today's fare.  This particular article concerns matters before the city council of Elyria, Ohio in 1902, where my paternal great-granduncle, W.C. LeMaster was a councilman.


Source : The Weekly Chronicle (Elyria, Ohio), April 5, 1902, page 7.



LIAR! 


Yells Grundy - The Mayor Brings out Complaint Against Grundy


The tragic moment of Tues. night's council meeting was reached when the mayor arose in a very deliberate manner and stated that it was his painful duty to notify the council of certain irregularities of the senior councilman from the Second ward.


He stated that complaints had reached his ears that this councilman had been giving city property to certain people in his ward, namely, that stone owned by the city had been given to individuals and hauled at the city's expense on order from the senior councilman from the Second ward.  He stated that he had investigated it and found that such was the case.


President Smith asked who this man was and Grundy jumped to his feet, stating, "I'm the gentleman."


He said that a stone and a half had been taken out of a cross walk and a citizen had asked for it.  Grundy said he consulted with others on the street committee who agreed it would be all right if the party would be willing to pay for it if it was of value.  Grundy then called the mayor a liar and a scoundrel and was proceeding to say that this act was done at this time for political effect when the chairman requested that he confine himself to courteous language.  Grundy wanted to know why they had kept quiet four months and spring it at this time.


Eady said such things as alleged were done often and he thought that no great harm had been committed.


LeMaster emphasized in a general way what Grundy had said, and said Grundy had always done his duty.


The mayor then said that it was his duty to call attention to such matters and he would do so whether it were LeMaster or Grundy.  He said that three stone had been hauled from the stone yard by the city teams for Mr. Monroe, and that cinders had been placed on walks at certain points on Lake avenue at the city's expense.


Mr. LeMaster moved that the matter be referred to the street committee.  Lersch suggested that inasmuch as these complaints were against one of this committee that it appeared a little ridiculous to refer the question to them.  The matter was referred.

Candidate for Fourth Ward, Elyria, Ohio (1902)

Source: The Weekly Chronicle (Elyria, Ohio), April 5, 1902, page 4.

This snippet listing the candidates for 4th Ward of the City of Elyria, Ohio in 1902 lists my paternal great-granduncle, William Clifford LeMASTER (1871-1922) as a candidate.  He was successful in the election.

I have enjoyed scouring through the newspaper collections of Elyria at Ancestry.com, obtaining tidbits of information about his life.

William was born in Darke County, Ohio, grew up in Jay County, Indiana and moved to Elyria, Lorain County, Ohio shortly after his marriage in 1892.  He lived there until 1904, when he moved west to Colorado.

SNGF : The Date You Were Born

Randy Seaver at Genealogy Musings has issued another one of his Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenges:
1) What day of the week were you born? Tell us how you found out.

2) What has happened in recorded history on your birth date (day and month)? Tell us how you found out, and list five events.


3)  What famous people have been born on your birth date?  Tell us how you found out, and list five of them.

4)  Put your responses in your own blog post, in a comment on this blog post, or in a status or comment on Facebook.

1. I was born on a Tuesday, November 5th.  I found out it was a Tuesday because my mother told me so, and I've since verified it.


2.  I was born the day that Richard Milhous Nixon (7th cousin 3 times removed) became the 37th President of the United States.  He defeated Vice President Humphrey and George Wallace.


Also on this date, pitcher Denny McLain became the American League MVP after posting a 31-6 record.


It was pretty much downhill for both McLain and Nixon after this point....


3. Famous people who share a birthday with me include:



    Birthdays
  • 1963 Tatum O'Neal (actress)
  • 1959 Bryan Adams (singer, songwriter)
  • 1958 Jon-Erik Hexum (actor)
  • 1947 Peter 'Herman' Noone (singer, musician)
  • 1946 Gram Parsons (Cecil Connor) (singer, songwriter)
  • 1943 Sam Shepard (Sam Shepard Rogers) (actor, playwright)
  • 1942 Elke Sommer (Schletz) (actress)
  • 1941 Art Garfunkel (songwriter, singer, musician)
  • 1941 Barry Sadler (songwriter, singer)
  • 1936 Billy Sherrill (songwriter, musician)
  • 1931 Ike Turner (musician, singer)
  • 1913 John McGiver (actor)
  • 1913 Vivien Leigh (Hartley) (actress)
  • 1912 Natalie Schafer (actress)
  • 1912 Roy Rogers (Leonard Slye) (actor)
  • 1905 Joel McCrea (actor)
  • 1893 Raymond Loewy (inventor, engineer, industrial designing)
  • 1885 Will Durant (author)