Peering into the Past

#52 ancestors Week 5 — At the library

Peering into the Past

By Myra Vanderpool Gormley © 2019 

It’s all my sister Jo’s fault. She was the scholar in the family and during her high school years (I was five years behind her), she often spent time after school at the city public library, which was kitty-cornered from our dad’s business. 

We lived in the country and rode the school bus, but on those days when she studied at the library, from about four to six, we’d catch a ride home with dad. I wasn’t allowed to ride the bus home without her so I trudged along to the library. I really didn’t have to be coaxed as I was a avid reader, but as a typical kid, I’d go off exploring for new books and any treasures at the library that were available. 

That’s how I discovered stereograms and the old newspapers on microfilm. It was fun looking at the images of the “olden days” of my locality and state, but the library had a limited supply of them.

However, the discovery of old newspapers on microfilm opened an enthralling adventure for me. Quite by accident, because I don’t recall any index being available, I discovered my maternal great-grandfather (N. B. Fricks) listed as a juror on some U.S. Court cases in the late 1890s, when the area was part of the Creek Nation of Indian Territory. 

Many of the crimes the juries heard were for larceny, forgery, counterfeiting, horse stealing, introducing and selling liquor (a no-no in Indian Territory, but a widely prevalent occurrence). Other crimes, some of which required me to use the “big” dictionary in the reference area, were: sodomy, gaming and seduction. 

A plea of guilty to horse stealing for one fellow resulted in him being sentenced to 5 years and 1 month in the Ohio state penitentiary (which lead to more questions about why he was sent to Ohio, when another man who pled guilty to forgery was sent to two years at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and yet another was sent to 2 years at reform school at Cheltenham, Maryland). The law was confusing, but I was fascinated by it, the local history, and of course, my family’s part. 

For the crime of “introducing liquor” a guilty plea could result in a sentence of $25 fine and one month in jail, or 90 days in jail and a $1 fine, but on the other hand, one Charles Anderson, charged with “selling whisky,” as opposed to “introducing liquor,” and who pled guilty and was given a sentence of $1 fine and one month. It didn’t say where the “one month” was to be spent. 

A “seduction” case went to trial and the verdict was “guilty,” but the man was not sentenced. The reason? He was charged with seducing Emma Hamilton under promise of marriage, but since conviction, he married the girl and the sentence was suspended and “he will avoid the penitentiary if he supports and cares for his wife.” A sidebar to this case: A witness in this case who testified for the defendant was arrested and placed in jail on charge of perjury.

 The old newspapers also were filled with ads and humor. One of the latter, and my favorite, appeared in 1893 just about the time my maternal grandmother and her family arrived in Muskogee from

Alabama. I doubt that she was into “high fashion” as a teenager, but I wish I had pictures of what she and her sisters were wearing in these “good old days.” 

The newspaper article, most likely written by a man, reads:

 “Muskogee girls know what’s what and any attempt on the part of shrunken and distorted and ill-proportion old maids of New England to get them to adopt hoop-skirts or any other device that will prevent a respectable display of face, form or figure won’t work worth a cent. We are with the anti-crinoline brigade.” What? I thought “hoop-skirts” went out of fashion after the Civil War. 

Sis, the librarians and those old newspapers are responsible for me becoming a genealogist, a history buff, and having a long newspaper career. How can I ever thank them enough?