{"id":1619,"date":"2016-10-28T16:19:13","date_gmt":"2016-10-28T22:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/casbonjourney.wordpress.com\/?p=1619"},"modified":"2020-05-01T16:44:56","modified_gmt":"2020-05-01T16:44:56","slug":"a-tale-of-three-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/casbon.one-name.blog\/wp\/a-tale-of-three-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"A Tale of Three Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a brief interlude in the \u2018From England to Indiana\u2019 series of posts. Now that Thomas Casbon and his family have arrived in Indiana<\/a>, I thought it would be a good time to step back and look at the story from a different perspective.<\/p>\n

Growing up, I always considered Indiana the ancestral home. It\u2019s where we went to see \u201cthe farm\u201d and to visit my Dad\u2019s relatives. Until I started researching my family history, I never gave much thought to where the family came from before Indiana. Of course, now I know that we originated in Meldreth, England, and spent time in Ohio before finally settling in Indiana.<\/p>\n

This raises a basic question: why did they do it? Why did Thomas decide to leave England? Why did he go to Ohio? Why did he leave Ohio (when he was over 60 years old) for Indiana?<\/p>\n

Let me assure my readers that I don\u2019t know all the answers to these questions. Future posts in the series will give some insights about why he left England and went to Ohio. With this post and the next I\u2019ll look\u00a0at why Thomas went to Indiana.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with a newspaper clipping that I\u2019ve had for a number of years.<\/p>\n

\"Martineau
\n<\/a>“Fate’s Hand Can Be Far Reaching.” The Vidette-Messenger<\/em>. Valparaiso, Indiana, 22 March 1957. Newspaper Archive<\/em> http:\/\/ezproxy.ppld.org:2083\/us\/indiana\/valparaiso\/valparaiso-vidette-messenger\/1957\/03-22\/ (Click on image to enlarge)<\/h6>\n

I really like this story. For many years I assumed it was a factual account of my family\u2019s journey. However, once I started to \u2018fact-check,\u2019 I realized that a lot of things didn\u2019t add up. After more research I\u2019ve concluded that the author (The Stroller<\/em>) took three different stories and skillfully combined them into one tale.<\/p>\n

The first story is about the British author Harriet Martineau (1802-1876). She is a fascinating person, a woman who found success in a man\u2019s world, writing about all manner of social topics including politics, economics, religion, the family, and slavery. These days she would be considered a feminist and social activist.<\/p>\n

\"Harriet_martineau_portrait\"
Harriet Martineau<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1834 (not 1844 as stated in the article), she began a 2-year tour of the United States, including the new states of the \u201cNorthwest\u201d \u2013 Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. She later published two books about her travels, Society in America<\/em> (1837) and Retrospect of Western Travel<\/em> (1838). These books can be found online on Google Books<\/em> and other sites, and are very interesting reading.<\/p>\n

The Stroller must have had access to a copy of Society in America<\/em>, because he accurately portrays Miss Martineau\u2019s description of her travels from Detroit to Michigan City, and then across the northernmost portion of Porter County (although she does not name the county) on her way to Chicago. She gives a brief description of Door Prairie, near La Porte, Indiana, as well as the Indiana Dunes.<\/p>\n

Although his description of her travels is accurate, the implication that she described the area as a Vale of Paradise<\/em>. is not. Harriet Martineau never used the term Vale of Paradise<\/em> to describe Indiana or any other location in her travels.<\/p>\n

This brings me to the second story woven into The Stroller\u2019s tale, i.e., how the city of Valparaiso got its name. Porter County was\u00a0established by the Indiana General Assembly in early 1836.[1]<\/a> The county was named for Commodore David Porter (1780-1843), who gained fame during the War of 1812 as commander of the USS Essex. [2]<\/a> A committee selected the location for the new county seat and named it Portersville.[3]<\/a> In 1837 the town was renamed Valparaiso<\/em>, which means \u2018Vale of Paradise\u2019 in Spanish. This was also done to honor Commodore Porter, who gained fame in the naval Battle of Valparaiso, Chile.<\/p>\n

\"David
Commodore David Porter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to local legend, the name of Valparaiso came about when a group of marines and sailors from the South Pacific Ocean started telling stories in Hall\u2019s Tavern in Portersville. Their tales included the Chilean seaport of Valparaiso, where Commodore Porter fought his battle. One of those present in the tavern suggested renaming the county seat after the place of the battle, and this led to a bill in the General Assembly making the name change official.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

The third story used by The Stroller is the actual story of Thomas Casbon\u2019s journey from England to Indiana. This narrative is based on earlier published sources. Although basic elements of the story are factual, he exercised a great deal of creative license in order to weave the other two stories into this one.<\/p>\n

First of all, the story of Thomas reading about the Vale of Paradise in a Meldreth pub is probably a myth. As I said above, Harriet Martineau never used the term Vale of Paradise<\/em>, and to the best of my knowledge, she did not write about her travels in The London Times<\/em> or any other newspaper (believe me, I\u2019ve looked!). Even if she had done so, recall from an earlier post\u00a0<\/u><\/a>\u00a0that Thomas signed his marriage record with his mark, suggesting that he was not proficient at reading or writing. This just doesn\u2019t mesh with the description of him casually reading The Times<\/em>. It\u2019s possible<\/em> that he read Harriet Martineau\u2019s book, or that someone read it to him, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s likely. It\u2019s almost impossible that he learned of a place called the Vale of Paradise<\/em> before leaving England.<\/p>\n

Also, it seems highly unlikely that Thomas sold a farm in England before coming to America. His occupation in 1841 was Agricultural Labourer[5]<\/a>, meaning he was in the lower rungs of society and not a landowner. Another error made by The Stroller is to describe Thomas and Emma\u2019s son Jesse as a daughter, Jessie.<\/p>\n

The Stroller\u2019s claim\u00a0that Thomas and his family were motivated to come to Indiana based on reading about Harriet Martineau\u2019s description of a Vale of Paradise<\/em> is simply false. The truth is a bit more complicated than that, and will be the subject of the next post.<\/p>\n

After digging into this story, I decided I wanted to know a little more about The Stroller and where he got his information. It turns out his name was William O. Wallace, a journalist and historian who wrote more than 700 Stroller articles in the Vidette-Messenger<\/em> between 1956 and 1962. He used \u201cingenuity and creativity to eliminate the usual \u2018dryness\u2019 of historical accounts. \u2026Dressed up in an original Wallace styling, his accounts carried a triple impact to his readers, containing true historical matter, some partially true, and some legendary.\u201d[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

That certainly describes his version of Thomas Casbon’s story. Unfortunately, he left it\u00a0to the reader to determine which parts are true and which parts are legendary.\u00a0Nevertheless, it is entertaining reading.<\/p>\n

Do any of my readers remember The Stroller? I think if there had been an internet at the time, William O. Wallace would have been a blogger!<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Skinner, Hubert M. January 15, 1878. \u201cComplete History of Porter County, Indiana.\u201d Valparaiso, Indiana: Valparaiso Messenger. Reprinted in Porter County, Indiana<\/em> http:\/\/www.inportercounty.org\/Data\/Misc\/PorterCountyHistory-1878.html<\/a> [accessed 27 October 2016]
\n[2]<\/a> \u201cDavid Porter (naval officer).\u201d Wikipedia<\/em> https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/David_Porter_(naval_officer)#War_of_1812<\/a> [accessed 27 October 2016]
\n[3]<\/a> Skinner, H. M. January 15, 1878. \u201cComplete History of Porter County, Indiana.\u201d
\n[4]<\/a> \u201cThe Founding of Porter County\u2026\u201d The Vidette-Messenger<\/em>, Valparaiso, Porter County, Indiana; August 18, 1936; Section 2, Page 6. The Newspaper Archive<\/em> http:\/\/ezproxy.ppld.org:2083\/us\/indiana\/valparaiso\/valparaiso-vidette-messenger\/1936\/08-18\/page-13<\/a>? [accessed 27 October 2016]
\n[5]<\/a> “England and Wales Census, 1841. ” FamilySearch https:\/\/familysearch.org\/ark:\/61903\/1:1:MQR8-6LR<\/a> [accessed 13 May 2016]
\n[6]<\/a> Bernhart, R. \u201cStroller Ending Series.\u201d The Vidette-Messenger, 22 June 1962. The Newspaper Archive <\/em>http:\/\/ezproxy.ppld.org:2083\/us\/indiana\/valparaiso\/valparaiso-vidette-messenger\/1962\/06-22<\/a> [accessed 28 October 2016]<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a brief interlude in the \u2018From England to Indiana\u2019 series of posts. Now that Thomas Casbon and his family have arrived in Indiana, I thought it would be a good time to step back and look at the story from a different perspective. Growing up, I always considered Indiana the ancestral home. It\u2019s… Continue reading A Tale of Three Stories<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[152,286,474,536,537,637,639,650,651],"class_list":["post-1619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-genealogy","tag-david-porter","tag-harriet-martineau","tag-meldreth","tag-porter-county","tag-portersville","tag-the-stroller","tag-thomas","tag-vale-of-paradise","tag-valparaiso"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbXrZc-q7","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/casbon.one-name.blog\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/casbon.one-name.blog\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/casbon.one-name.blog\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casbon.one-name.blog\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casbon.one-name.blog\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1619"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/casbon.one-name.blog\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7256,"href":"https:\/\/casbon.one-name.blog\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1619\/revisions\/7256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/casbon.one-name.blog\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casbon.one-name.blog\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casbon.one-name.blog\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}