The
title of the primary work that this is based upon is called the
"Strangest Names In American Political History." The written project
highlights various American politicians, judges and candidates with
strange, unusual and sometimes humorous names. The time frame consists
of the colonial era to the present day. This project was started on
December 31, 1999 by my cousin and myself and has since expanded to
lengths we couldn't have possibly imagined.
This
project/website allows only American political figures to be added, and
while the exact definition of strange or unusual will consistently be
in flux, the aforementioned rule will not be. Biographies of the men and
women in question will be added here regularly, and a portrait of the
person will usually accompany the biography, as its always nice to have a
face to place with the name. Besides the aforementioned written work,
this project also took the form of a Yahoo group, titled
groups.yahoo.com/uspoliticalstrangenames/. Although the group was
established in November 2010, the format soon proved quite limiting.
Eventually I decided to make a webpage/blog based around all these
oddly named political figures I've collected information on over the
years.
This site will contain pictures and information related to the following:
- Members of the federal government (U.S. Senators, Representatives), the Federal Judiciary (U.S. Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, U.S. District Attorneys, District Court judges), as well as the Cabinet.
- Holders of state/territorial offices (Governors, Lieutenant Governors, state cabinet officials, members of the state senate, members of the State House of Representatives, Assembly, Delegates. Members of the state judiciary (state Supreme Courts, State Appeals Courts, Circuit Courts, county judges, county attorneys), and also city and town mayors or burgesses.
- Members of the Confederate government.
- American diplomatic officers (Ambassadors, Ministers, Charge d'Affairs, Consuls, Vice Consuls, Consular agents.)
- Members and delegates to the State Constitutional and National Party Conventions (Republican, Democratic and various third parties) and Presidential Electors.
- And lastly, the candidates (people who ran or were nominated for the particular offices listed above but weren't elected.)
The
purpose of this site is mainly to point out some of the silly named
individuals that have held or ran for public office since the founding
of our country. As an amateur historian, its something that I've been
truly fascinated by for the majority of my life. For example, the
current United States Congress is made up of 435 members of the House of
Representatives and 100 Senators. Exactly two hundred years ago in
1811, the U.S. Congress was home to 36 Senators and 143 representatives.
Amongst these 179 persons were men with such names as Harmanus Bleecker (a Representative from N.Y.), Epaphroditus Champion (a Representative from Connecticut), Barzillai Gannett (a Representative from Massachusetts), Outerbridge Horsey (a Senator from Delaware) and Arunah Metcalf (a Representative from New York) amongst others.
Overall,
I find it fascinating that some of the aforementioned people were
elected to public office with names like those. The primary aim of all
this is to create yet another corner of internet silliness, albeit with a
historical/political bent to it. Most of the politicians that will be
profiled here are extremely unknown, and some are so obscure that maybe 1
in 1,000,000 people have heard of them. Any prospective readers/lurkers
are welcome to contribute comments or politicians that I might not know
about, but as there are nearly 2500 politicians on the written list
already, that might prove to be difficult.
The
origins of this site stem from the aforementioned "Strangest Names In
American Political History List", established by myself and my cousin
(another political history buff) in 1999. The list in question began
while we were perusing a book entitled "Facts About the Presidents", written by one Joseph Nathan Kane
(1899-2002), who himself lived to be 103 years old. In said book were
various writings on each of the Presidents, including their cabinets,
relatives, statistics on their elections, and pertinent information on
the U.S. Congress.
While
sorting through this book, both of us began to notice some of the
persons mentioned that had served in some political capacity had very
unusual names. For example, on page 30 we found that James Madison (our
4th President) had a Postmaster General named Return Jonathan Meigs Jr., who is shown below.
From there, we managed to find other oddly named politicians in the book, including Cave Johnson (Polk's Postmaster General), Reverdy Johnson (Taylor's Attorney General), Galusha Aaron Grow (a Speaker of the House during the 1860s) and Absolom Madden West (a Greenback candidate for Vice President in 1884.)
With
all of these oddly named individuals popping up, we decided to start
making a list of our findings, and the number one slot was given to Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar (1825-1893),
a cabinet member and later Supreme Court justice. Lamar retained the
top slot on the list for over a decade until being usurped by an even
more unusually named politician: Auxencico Maria Pena Venezuela Hildreth Dickeson
(1842-1879), a member of the New Jersey state assembly. The original
list encompassed about fifty or so individuals, and it now stands at
over 3000 politicians of varying notoriety.
The list/book itself was typed into a digital format (i.e. a very lengthy Microsoft Word document) beginning in 2003, and another
point that should be addressed is what exactly constitutes a "strange"
name. While all of the men and women featured here have names that
nowadays would be considered unusual, back in the 18th, 19th and early
20th century, some of these names probably wouldn't have raised
eyebrows! While the definition of strange or unusual is certainly not
absolute, I can guarantee that a good majority of the names posted here
will have you pondering "why would anyone give a child that name!"
The Names.......Where do they come from?
I'm
not expecting this blog to break any record for number of views or
anything, but most everyone reading will probably wonder.....where
exactly were all these people found? The answer is somewhat lengthy, as a
multitude of sources help me in my findings.
1.) Who Was Who: Besides Joseph Nathan Kane's Presidential Fact Book mentioned above, one of the earliest books I used to find some of these names was the Who Was Who In America book
series. In my opinion, the most valuable book of the series was the one
that yielded the most names for our list, which was the Historical Volume, 1607-1896, which is pictured below.
Throughout this wonderful book were many oddly named politicians, many of them congressmen (Narsworthy Hunter and Selucius Garfielde are
two that come to mind.) Also listed in this book were individuals who
attained other political offices, such as Connecticut Governor Luzon Burritt Morris and Iowa state representative Coker Fifield Clarkson.
Words cannot describe how much of a boon this book was to me in terms
of research. Other Who Was Who editions (mainly from 1896-1968) proved
to be just as useful biography wise, and all remain a great source for
biographical information on any number of historical figures, political
or otherwise.
2. The Political Graveyard:
www.politicalgraveyard.com. This wonderful website was discovered
around the same time as the book series mentioned above (2000-2001 or
so) and it has been a valuable tool to me many times over. I can't even
begin to think of how many great names (many of them not listed in the
Who Was Who series) I've been able to discover through this site. I'd be
remiss in mentioning that in 2001 and 2003 this website came in handy
when I was looking for the graves of congressmen Orange Ferriss and Ner Middleswarth while
I was on vacation. The site contains nearly 250,000 politicians of
varying notoriety, and my one hope is to make a blog/website that is as
history-conscious as the Political Graveyard. There really isn't any
other site like it out there, and
it remains one of my most frequent internet haunts, and I urge anyone
with an interest in political history or cemeteries to check...it...out! Please visit it here! http://politicalgraveyard.com/
3. Google Books: This
excellent apparatus has helped me discover the wonderful world of state
registers, directories and manuals. Numerous old books have been
scanned into Google, and for someone like me, this provided a wealth of
new information. The state registers and legislative manuals mentioned
above were developed in each state to better educate citizens on who
exactly was serving in their state government, along with what laws were
being passed. Its only drawback is that some of the books aren't
fully viewable, which I find a bit stymieing on occasion. It is also
very time consuming poring over pages and pages of old statebooks, but
part of the fun of this project is the digging! These state books and
manuals have truly been a blessing to find, as they list many
politicians that aren't listed in Who Was Who or on
politicalgraveyard.com.
4. www.archive.com:
Following on the heels of Google books is this wonderful website, and
it isn't called archive.com for nothing. This site is a repository for
many pieces of information, including various texts, live music and
moving images. Unlike Google books, I've been able to find more fully
viewable state manuals and biographical directories here, and many
aren't even available on Google books.
5. Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections, Volume II:
This huge book was brought to my attention by my cousin, who discovered
a copy while attending college. The book in question lists numerous
election results (senatorial, congressional and gubernatorial) since the
founding of America, and also lists thousands of failed candidates for
public office over the past 200 years or so. To date, this wonderful
book has yielded many good names, including unsuccessful candidates Jerothmul B. Barnaby and Rhamanthus Menville Stocker.
I'd be remiss in mentioning the actual "literature" behind all of these great name finds. Here's a small snippet......
Copyright stuff
I'd be remiss in mentioning the actual "literature" behind all of these great name finds. Here's a small snippet......
- State Registers: These works are similar to Almanacs, and the majority of them that I've used to help find new politicians for the list date from the 1820s until the turn of the 20th century. They often have a small roster of state officials/legislators/candidates for a particular year, but aren't as in depth as some of the succeeding works. Nearly every state published a register at some point, with special mention going to Connecticut, New York, New Hampshire. Each of these states have numerous registers available on Google books and www.archive.com
- Bluebooks/Red Books/State Legislative Manuals: Pretty much everyone knows what a Bluebook/Redbook is, but in case you don't........ its has a similar set up to an almanac and lists pertinent information on a particular state's government. This usually takes the form of a state government/legislative roster with small biographies of the incumbent office holders, and on occasion, pictures of these officials are also included. Legislative manuals are quite similar, but center on various statutes, bills, regulations and laws that were the topic of discussion during a particular legislative session.
- Legislative Souvenirs: Not every state produced a souvenir of their legislative bodies, but the ones that have I owe a great debt of gratitude to! A legislative souvenir is a moderate sized book profiling each individual legislator, giving a proper biography of each, along with their birth dates, family, town/village of origin, political/religious faith, election statistics, and almost always a portrait. Massachusetts and Connecticut are two states that produced these wonderful treasure troves of info, and are available online at Google books and www.archive.com.
- County histories: Throughout the latter part of the 19th century, nearly every state produced a series of books chronicling each county within its borders. The title of these works was usually something along these lines: "A History of So and So County and Some of its Prominent Men and Pioneers". These books have pertinent info on some the elected officials from a particular county, and often have portraits accompanying the articles.
Copyright stuff
Finally.....I
think it best to address various info/copywright issues, and the amount
that I know on such matters could fill a thimble! While the writing
about the individuals contained herein comes from my own hand, the facts
and the pictures of the various politicians have been gathered from the
multitude of sources mentioned above (an exception to that rule will be
the various grave site pictures that pop up from time to time, as those
will have been taken by me, or sent to me.) The majority of the books
used are (if you decide to take a look for yourself) quite old, with
most dating from the 19th century. Most of the pictures posted here were
scanned/copied/saved from these obviously old books, and I try to make a
point in mentioning where I found said picture/information, in case
others may want to read more on "so and so". As a lot of work and
research went into the creation of this blog, I hope that anyone reading
it will in turn use it for interest and research. All I ask is that
anyone who might a peak and finding an interesting tidbit about "so and
so" and decides to make mention of it elsewhere, don't forget to give us
a mention! Providing links to the site here is also encouraged, as is
all forms of comment and messages. In addition to this, I also try to
provide where I found a certain tidbit or factoid (hence the red links) and
take special note to mention where I located a particular portrait of
someone. Give credit where credit is due I always say!
All in all, the feedback on this very goofy project has been greater that I could have ever imagined. I hope that anyone who may stumble across this zany corner of the internet can get some laughs and knowledge out of the many men and women that will be posted here. I also hope that this site can be a good source for anyone interested in doing genealogical research. If you enjoy reading about some of these strangely named individuals and are a history buff, please follow the Strangest Names In American Political History by e-mail or the Google friend connect thingy on the right side of the site here. In mid January 2012 this site made its first appearance on Facebook. If you decide to take a peak, don't forget to like us on Facebook!
All in all, the feedback on this very goofy project has been greater that I could have ever imagined. I hope that anyone who may stumble across this zany corner of the internet can get some laughs and knowledge out of the many men and women that will be posted here. I also hope that this site can be a good source for anyone interested in doing genealogical research. If you enjoy reading about some of these strangely named individuals and are a history buff, please follow the Strangest Names In American Political History by e-mail or the Google friend connect thingy on the right side of the site here. In mid January 2012 this site made its first appearance on Facebook. If you decide to take a peak, don't forget to like us on Facebook!
And in conclusion.....enjoy the historical weirdness!
The Strangest Names In American Political History Book, established 1999.
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