The founding fathers had faults, a great book reveals

By Scott Beveridge,

The book “Founding Brothers” is easy to put down after a few pages of dry, historic reading, academia style.

But, that should not come as criticism to its author, Joseph J. Ellis, who does a brilliant job in his national bestseller of analyzing and critically reviewing letters and documents that were left behind by the founders of the United States. His efforts won him a Pulitzer Prize for crying out loud.

For those reasons, this book first published 10 years ago will periodically find its way back into the hands of readers who are interested in the lives of such revolutionaries as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and James Madison.

Ellis peels off the layers of history that has placed these men on pedestals, as if they were mythical gods, to reveal them as real men with faults and political ambitions that sometimes blinded them from the better good of the young nation. They made silly predictions and bad judgments while also laying the foundations of a new nation, sometimes flying by the seats of their pants.

My generation was never taught in public school that Jefferson could have been a back-stabber who often undermined President John Adams when he served under him as vice president. Some of his behind-the-stage maneuverings involved Jefferson’s disagreement with Adams over the president’s support of a peace treaty with France, giving birth to bitter bipartisan politics would become their legacies.

The polarization is made clear in the book near its end when Adams, in his waning years, wrote to Jefferson about the public outrage over a decision during his presidency to send a peace delegation to France.

Angry mobs had surrounded Adams’ house over that decision, while he stated he was certain Jefferson was “fast asleep in philosophical Tranquility.”

“What think you of Terrorism, Mr. Jefferson?” Adams stated in the letter. “Both parties have excited artificial Terrors.”

His words sound familiar these days when President George Bush has faced accusations of embracing a “politics of fear” in wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, acts of terrorism in New York and Washington, D.C.

And all anyone has to do today is turn on CNN to get a steady diet of the ugly divisions that exist between Republicans, Democrats, teapartiers and independents over heath care reform, bailouts, big government and spending.

Washington and Johnson

A new bronze statue of U.S. Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson at a college bearing their names has students laughing because, from all angles, it looks as if there is a serious man crush between the country’s founding fathers. Students and alumni at Washington and Jefferson College have been posting comments on an Internet group at Facebook that one of the school’s mascots appears to be involved in some self-gratification, too.
The self-taught sculptor responsible for the design, Alan Cottrill of Zanesville, Ohio, included a rolled up version of the U.S. Constitution in Jefferson’s hand and made the two presidents appear to be strolling arm-in-arm at the corner of Beau and Lincoln streets in Washington, Pa. But many people in the small city have also been sharing in the joke that the placement of the scroll, when seen from points east and west, looks a bit like an giant baby-maker held comfortably in Washington’s hand.
Cottrill said it was not his intention to craft something that would make the esteemed presidents appear as if they were gay. “No, no, no,” he said, adding that anyone who sees something erotic in his work is “stretching it.” It’s not the first time that Cottrill received wide attention over the nature of his figures. About 10 years ago, students were aghast because his rendition of Cro-Magnon man at nearby California University of Pennsylvania had an exposed dart of love, the size of which was grossly exaggerated. Before that work was completed, Cro-Magnon’s private parts were covered with a vine.
What really makes the touchy-feely George and Tom statue odd is the fact that history tells us that the men were not even friends in life to begin with.
Washington and Jefferson College spokesman Bob Reid said he was aware that people were whispering about the 10-foot-tall statue shortly after it was unveiled May 18. The school, however, had not received any complaints about its appearance, he said.

Old Main is an old friend

The atypical twin towers of Old Main at Washington and Jefferson College represent the merger of two schools from which it takes its name. Scott Beveridge photo

By Barbara S. Miller

WASHINGTON, Pa. – Many a person has probably returned to their old school years later and remarked, “I wouldn’t have recognized the place.”

While this could be said about parts of Washington and East Washington after Washington & Jefferson College’s more recent building booms, it doesn’t apply to the school’s landmark, Old Main.

Every campus has an Old Main, but W&J’s is atypical because of its twin towers, symbolizing the union of Washington College and Jefferson College.

I don’t believe a single semester of my four years passed without schlepping to a class somewhere on one of its four floors.

Driving past the college every workday, I venture inside any building on the campus only occasionally and when reporting news.

I hadn’t been inside W&J’s Old Main for decades. Serving for a few years on a committee awarding the Vira I. Heinz scholarship for study abroad brought me back to its august halls after graduation, but even that was quite a while ago.

I went back inside Old Main at the end of May to show my daughter around before she attended a June math class.

After the end of a semester and commencement, Old Main was deserted, and I couldn’t believe how little the place had changed after all those years.

The long, narrow classrooms still have soaring ceilings, expansive slate chalkboards and antique-looking glass-front wooden bookcases. I swear some of the student desks were the same ones in which I sat for four years worth of history lessons, economics, art history, French and psychology and a single semester of Russian.

In one classroom stood an overhead projector, a long-necked, audio-visual equipment dinosaur in a world where professors and students had packed away their Powerpoint presentations and laptops for the summer.

Twin staircases spiral snail-like on either side of the building, and the gigantic visage of Thomas Jefferson still looks out onto the second floor. The only change I noticed was the addition of a cozy seating area on the third floor with an oriental-looking rug.

The college chapel was locked, so I could merely peer through the skinniest of openings between two doors. It still can’t be redolent of the pipe smoke of Dr. Carl Laun, a regular at the Tuesday night classic film series, can it?

In preparation for writing this column, I checked the W&J Web site for background information on Old Main. Matt McNally, a junior English-psychology major, compiled a definitive Web page on Old Main for a professional writing course. He did a fine job, informing his readers that a single-towered Old Main looking “nothing like it does today” was constructed between 1834 and 1836. “The original Old Main consisted of only the back center part of the current building,” McNally wrote.

It was in 1875, after the merger of the two colleges, that the aforementioned twin towers were added. Rounding out McNally’s piece was an interview with none other than my history adviser, Dr. Robert Dodge. Who better to discuss the topic than a great historian?

As luck would have it, I ran into the professor on our visit and caught up on some recent history.

As it turned out, Old Main’s lack of air conditioning deems it impractical for summer classes.

No matter. I was glad to see the inside of Old Main for an hour – traveling back in time.

A view down one of two spiral stairways inside Old Main. Scott Beveridge photo

(This story originally appeared in Living in Washington County, a publication of the Observer-Reporter. It was reprinted with permission.)

Partying presidents

These touchy-feeling statues of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington appear ready to head off to a toga party where the beer flows freely while guests lose their inhibitions. The sculpture stands at the entrance to Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, Pa., a school that is currently marking Greek Week. I look for these presidents to be wearings all sorts of clothes this term because of the jokes about their embracing that have been circulating the campus. One student, on a Facebook group, is promising to dress one in a wedding gown. Read more.

The ghost of Dolley Madison ranks No. 1 in D.C.

Binnie the unconventional ghost tour guide leads a group of tourists in July around spooky LayFayette Square in Washington, D.C. (Scott Beveridge photo)


WASHINGTON, D.C. – Former U.S. First Lady Dolley Madison is spotted more around the nation's capital than many of Washington, D.C.'s, elites, even though her body has been interred in Congressional Cemetery since her 1849 death.


"The city of Washington is just in love with Dolley," said a tour guide named Binnie, who leads paying visitors around supposed haunted sites near the White House. "She's one of the most prolific ghosts in D.C."


The nation first became enamored with Dolley when she served as First Lady under Thomas Jefferson. Her first husband had died three years into their marriage, leaving her alone to raise a son until she became the famous bride of James Madison, the nation's fourth president who authored the Constitution.


Binnie wears a long red period dress as she discusses Dolley in Layfette Square, where Mrs. Madison spent her remaining years after that son squandered their money and left her to charity. But, Binnie has an unconventional style, chattering away sometimes in ghetto lingo, while sporting a tattoo on her right forearm and a modern blue paisley cotton tote bag off a shoulder.


She admits her style is her own. She insists the history behind her stories actually happened.


While destitute, men delivered free baskets of food to Dolley, probably the same guys she helped to educate when they were children under her platform of improving the schools in poor, local neighborhoods. Her educational charity work defined the roll of the First Lady, Binnie explains while working for Washington, D.C. Ghost Tours.

Today visitors to Lafayette Square claim to see the ghost of Dolley Madison rocking on a porch at the pale-yellow Cutts-Madison House at 721 Madison Place NW, where she spent her final years. Others claim to see her headless ghost in town, staring from a window. Her ghost apparently also has been spotted roaming the White House gardens, becoming angry at the sight of a gardener merely plucking a rose.


People have reported witnessing so many ghosts in this part of town that it has become known as "Tragedy Square."

The Mon City Renaissance Man

 

Plumbers advertise their wares on Main Street in Monongahela in a photo in the Taylor collection at the Monongahela Area Historical Society.

By Scott Beveridge

MONONGAHELA, Pa.  – William Playford Taylor could have been called the Renaissance Man of Monongahela a century ago, having been a dental surgeon, inventor, traveler, stage show producer and collector of everything.

And he wanted to make sure his legacy was remembered through 42 large scrapbooks he assembled over his lifetime in a fashion only he could have understood at the time.

“I thought I was a collector of useless things,” said Noel Sawyer, vice president of the Monongahela Area Historical Society, which owns the Taylor collection.

The books for years were rarely shown to the public for fear the pages would fall apart. That day has come as the paper holding the collection disintegrates while the society attempts to duplicate in a digital format the rare documents, which define the historic city through the eyes of its upper class.

“There was a lot of idle rich in Monongahela and they got around,” said Charles Talbert, a program director at the society. The local wealthy, he said, contributed to Taylor’s collection as people learned about what he was creating.

Taylor went as far as to clip and save mundane local newspaper advertisements, including one announcing the January 1919 showing at the Anton Theater in Monongahela of the movie “A Hoosier Romance,” starring Thomas Jefferson and Colleen Moore.

However, he also kept old photographs that are important to American history, including one of Benjamin Parkinson, whose uncle of the same name was indicted for high treason for his participation in the Whiskey Rebellion in the late 1700s. Beside the photo is a copy of a document signed May 3, 1797, by President George Washington pardoning the elder Parkinson for his role in the farmers’ revolt on a national tax on the whiskey they produced.

The rebellion was quelled in Monongahela in 1794 on a bluff overlooking the Monongahela River where the Parkinsons once operated a ferry.

“It’s just like opening a time capsule,” Sawyer said of the books prepared between 1902 and 1954.

“This is like a pictorial history of everyone and everything that went on in Monongahela during that time,” added society President Susan Bowers.

Taylor was born in Washington County January 19, 1882, and went on to earn his degree to practice dentistry at the University of Pittsburgh. He married Delnorta Frye in 1903, and they had two children, Harold and Mary Virginia.

A few years after his marriage, U.S. Patent Office records indicate he invented a roller coaster powered by gravity. He also collected more than 20,000 advertising cards that came with packs of cigarettes or in cans of coffee, according to an old story in a Rotarian publication. Later in his lifetime he became a public speaker on the evidence he collected to support his belief of life on other planets.

“Something strange has invaded our atmosphere,” he was quoted as having said during a speech on flying saucers at the Charleroi American Legion.

Unfortunately, Talbert said, the books were not organized neatly and have no table of contents. Many of the photographs only carry a name, leaving the society questioning their connection to the local story.

Sawyer said he is considering placing copies of the photos in the storefront windows of the society’s museum at 230 W. Main St. beside a sign asking for help in identifying the people in the images. He said he also wants to offer Ringgold High School students extra credit for helping to copy and input the scrapbooks into a searchable computer database.

“What good are they sitting in a box?” Bowers said.

The society has expanded its museum hours. It is open from 3 to 8 p.m. Tuesday; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday; and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

Click here to see two more photos from the collection.

(This story first appeared in the Observer-Reporter  newspaper in Washington, Pa.)

James Madison hid his slaves behind his case for freedom

The National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington, D.C., is rebuilding slave cabins, which once were shielded behind trees to the right of James Madison's Montpelier in the Piedmont of Virginia. (Scott Beveridge photo)


By Scott Beveridge


ORANGE, Va. – The father of the U.S. Constitution left behind a conflicting legacy in terms of equal rights when it came to slave ownership.


As a young lawmaker James Madison argued in support of abolishing slavery, only to later seek a compromise on the issue to hold the young, divided nation together, said Mike Dickens, a guide at the fourth president of the United States' beloved plantation, Montpelier.


"He died knowing he failed," Dickens said while leading a tour on a hot, muggy July afternoon of the property in Orange, Va., undergoing intense restoration by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.


Dickens' tour focuses exclusively on the enslaved community here, where as many as 110 slaves lived at any given time to run the house and work the tobacco fields.


He begins with the murky story about Madison's grandfather, Ambrose, supposedly having been poisoned by three of the family's slaves six months after he acquired the property in the Piedmont of Virginia in 1723. While the science of proving cause of death then proved unreliable, one of the slaves died by execution, while two others would be convicted, too, only to be returned to the plantation and work there for the remainder of their lives.


"It raises all sorts of questions," Dickens said, including one about why slaves at that time would have even been afforded their day in court.


"These were real people," he said. "They had certain rights."


Years later, James Madison would plant an alley of pine trees on each side of his stately brick mansion to shield from view the buildings where his skilled slaves worked and also the tiny cabins where they lived. Montpelier's slaves bedded in six, two-room duplexes, which each measured 19 feet by 20 feet and slept 10 people, Dickens said.


Madison shielded the outbuildings, having stated his house did not "look tidy" sandwiched between them, Dickens said.


Meanwhile, Madison would write the draft of the U.S. Constitution in the second-floor library of the big house under the direction of America's founding fathers. He did so while reading books written in several languages on the topic of governmental policies sent to him from abroad by Thomas Jefferson.


He would later author the Bill of Rights after the First Congress convened in 1789, with a personal master slave at his side. On one trip to Philadelphia, he wrote home that his slave Billey "has been tainted by freedom" and argued in support of setting the man free.


Once freed Billey chose the name of William Gardner, went on to become a shipping agent and did business with the Madison family - while his parents remained enslaved at Montpelier. Gardner likely wanted to keep a good relationship with the Madisons to ensure his parents were treated properly on the plantation, Dickens said.


Gardner soon went missing at sea during a storm, and Madison "had enough decency in his soul that he wrote to Gardner's parents that he had perished," Dickens said.


He ends his tour in the slave cemetery, where tombstone are barely visible on grounds covered in periwinkle. He breaks off a piece of the green vine and says, quietly, that most slave cemeteries like this one are buried under the plant because its leaves break off in fours and resemble a Christian cross.


"Madison deserves some postmortem credit," Dickens said.


Madison authored the 14th Amendment, which states the federal government cannot take away a man's liberties without due process, he said.


"And he helped to form the U.S. Supreme Court, which used it to put an end to the Jim Crow era," he said.

If you go make sure to set aside time to also visit the nearby segregated 1910 Southern Railroad train depot, shown above, which has been restored by the Montpelier Foundation without changing its separate entrances for coloreds and whites. Its two waiting rooms, one smaller for black people, were required by segregation laws on the books in Virginia from the 1890s until the 1960s. And don't miss the freedman's cabin, either. It's one of just two such remaining log houses built by an emancipated slave in this state about the time of the Civil War. The house, shown below, was built by George Gilmore, a slave born at Montpelier after he was freed in 1865 during federal occupancy of the area.

Washington's troops died here

FLOREFFE, Pa. – Federal soldiers took viciously ill and died in the late 1790s while preparing to battle with militiamen who were bitterly opposed to a tax on the whiskey they produced in the hills above the Monongahela River.

A smallpox epidemic killed the soldiers after the Whiskey Rebellion was settled in a long-winded speech by then-U.S. Sen. Albert Gallatin to rebels in nearby Monongahela in August 1794. President George Washington’s troops were then buried in a mass grave in an area of Jefferson, Allegheny County, that came to be named Lobbs Cemetery.

The young West Jefferson Hills Historical Society hopes to use sonar to pinpoint the exact location of the soldiers' graves in the cemetery without a church or association to ensure its upkeep. In their spare time, society members have been working with a volunteer archaeologist to map the locations of other graves at the property along Walton Road, just off Route 837.

“We want to cut back the growth that is slowly encroaching the cemetery,” society member Deb Marinello said. “It’s really historic. There are veterans there from all wars, probably up to Vietnam.”

They know that two Virginia soldiers from the early federal encampment, Capt. Thomas Walker of Albermarl County and Lt. Alexander Bell of Berkley County, both 20, died of smallpox and were buried there in January 1795.

And so were at least 900 others over the years before the cemetery would find itself listed on the National Register of Historic Places because of its ties to the rebels who launched the first protest against the U.S. government.

A friend in need

Fifteen-year-old Daquwan plays with Big Brother mentor Anthony Gianettino at Washington & Jefferson College. (Scott McCurdy photo)

By Karen Mansfield

Anthony Gianettino knows a thing or two about unbreakable bonds as a mechanical engineer.

But it’s the strong bond he has forged with 15-year-old Daquwan as a mentor in the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Pittsburgh program that Gianettino, 29, has found especially rewarding.

When he moved to Canonsburg, Pa., five years ago, Gianettino began exploring volunteer organizations, and Big Brothers Big Sisters, with its one-on-one mentoring, appealed to him.

Since 2007, Gianettino has been a volunteer Big Brother for Daquwan (the Big Brothers organization asks that youths’ last names not be revealed) and has provided a positive, consistent relationship.

“I used to be very shy at times, but whenever I’m with Anthony, I can express myself better. I’m not as shy as I used to be. I do feel comfortable talking with him about anything,” said Daquwan. 

Anthony has taken Daquwan to Pittsburgh Pirates and Penguins games – they met Sidney Crosby at a hockey game two years ago when they sat in owner Mario Lemieux’s private box, courtesy of tickets provided by Big Brothers – Pitt basketball games, movies, plays and the circus. They also spend time talking about school, girls and other issues.

Gianettino, as a Big Brother and confidant, has stepped in as the adult male role model Daquwan’s older sister believed was absent from his life when she signed him up for the program. 

“Daquwan talks about how he’s come out of his shell. Looking back, I’ve definitely seen that. And for me, that’s just more encouragement to stick with it. He comes from a very good home.

"I think it’s pretty obvious that it’s been good for both of us to have this relationship,” said Gianettino.

Big Brothers Big Sisters has been in this area since 1965. In that time, it has matched more than 17,000 youths with adult mentors.

Currently, Big Brothers has about 110 matches in Washington and Greene counties.

The Greater Pittsburgh agency (which includes Allegheny, Greene and Washington counties) is one of 18 agencies nationwide to be named a Gold Standard Award winner in 2010. The honor, awarded by the Nationwide Leadership Council of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, recognizes agencies that have demonstrated revenue growth and an increase in the number of children served in long-term, mentoring relationships.

And research shows that “Bigs” really do have an impact on children.

Sara Thomas, program coordinator for Big Brothers Big Sisters in Washington and Greene counties, said kids in the program are more likely to graduate from high school, refrain from using drugs and have better attendance records, and  less likely to have discipline problems.

It doesn’t take a huge time commitment, or a special person, to make a difference in the life of a child as a mentor. Big Brothers must make a one-year commitment to mentoring, which involves getting together with the little brother at least twice a month. 

Big Brothers also offers a site-based program where Bigs and Littles share one hour each week, usually at school, during the academic year.

“You just need to be someone who cares about a kid and can make a commitment to be there,” said Thomas.

The average length of a match is 24 months, but matches can last a lifetime.

Bill Bothe of Upper St. Clair has been a Big Brother to Taylor, 18, for 11 years. Taylor’s father was killed in a car crash when Taylor was 2 1/2 years old, and Taylor’s mother, Elizabeth Bush, was looking for a strong male presence in his life.

“We just hit it off, right off the bat,” said Bothe, Pennsylvania’s 2010 Big Brother of the Year and father of two grown children who live out of state. 

Bothe, 79, has kept a scrapbook full of photos, report cards, Father’s Day cards and letters, and ticket stubs that chronicle the experiences they’ve shared. He helped Taylor buy his first suit and get his first passport, and taught him how to invest in the stock market.

But Bothe, the retired president of RTI International Metals Inc., also has helped Taylor deal with difficult real-life issues. When Taylor’s mother was diagnosed with cancer, the first person he called was Bothe. And when Taylor fell off his bike and broke his arm, Bothe accompanied him to the hospital.

Each year, Bothe and Taylor volunteer their time to direct parking for the Race for the Cure.

“Bill has ensured my happiness and I am eternally grateful for having this amazing man in my life,” Taylor wrote in his nomination letter. 

Life will change for Bothe and Taylor this summer, when Taylor graduates from Canon-McMillan High School and the Big Brother program. He plans to attend California University of Pennsylvania and study secondary education. Taylor is an active member of the Army Reserves and has applied for admission to the Army ROTC.

As for Gianettino, he plans to continue his mentorship commitment.

“When I started this, I didn’t have a goal for any length of time, but I think certainly the longer that we hang out and the more our friendship has grown, the less I would even consider ending it for any reason. He’s like a part of my family now,” said Gianettino. “So I think even after he’s 18 years old, I’ll be around. I’m going to make sure he finishes college. We’re going to be friends forever.” 

(Big Brothers Big Sisters needs volunteers. For information, call the Big Brothers Big Sisters Washington office at 724-228-9191.)

Karen Mansfield writes for the Observer-Reporter. This story first appeared in the May/June 2011 edition of its Living Washington County magazine.