Another Mess

Dr. Owen Wilson as a young doctor and Dr Wilson in middle life

McCrory Lane was clear and you could venture out if you wanted too. NOT.

Second Chapter of Reminiscences of Dr. Wilson

Grant's administration was notoriously corrupt and even children could not avoid hearing the discussions- especially as 1876 was the first general election that old confererates were allowed to vote. After 38th ballot Rutherford B. Hayes was chosen and Samuel J. Tilden was his Democratic opponent. I (aged 6) was much interested in the election. I named my pointer pup Tilden. The first electoral reports gave Tilden 185, Hayes 184. Congress was called on and decided that South Carolina had not been sufficiently reconstructed and threw her vote out and it was discovered that one Oregon elector had been a citizen of the state too short a time to qualify as an elector and so by throwing these out it reversed the vote, Hayes 185, Tilden 184 and so Hayes was elected.

The next presidential election 1880 James A. Garfield, a compromise candidate, elected on the 33rd term and John Sherman ( a brother of William Tecumse Sherman).

Four months after inauguaration Garfield was shot by a disappointed office seeker in a railroad station, I think Rochester, NY. He was taken back to Washington where he lingered ten weeks. The daily papers furnished reports of his condition. Dr. Agnew, Professor of Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania, was in charge. The wound was in the upper chest, rather in the left shoulder. Their chief idea was to locate the bullet and by frequent probings managed to spread infection and after ten weeks he died. They used a proble (Nelaton's) with an unglazed porcelain tip which would show contact with lead.

Next his letter his Aunt Fannie in 7-12-1887. A little background before I begin the letter, Uncle Owen at age fourteen in 1884 entered Vanderbilt University and in 1889 graduated in Engineering as a Founders' Medalist. He went on to become a Professor of Pediatrics as he was the first pediatrician in Nashville.

Dear Aunt Fannie

According to my promise I write you this letter, hoping that a few days will prove that you have not forgotten yours.

I arrived safely at Danville at 10:10 Friday night. As I intended to stay that night with John, I wrote to Tom that I would come Saturday night, and so no one was at the train to meet me Friday night. I went immediately to the hotel, "The Outlaw House," the character to which you may justly infer from the name.

The furniture in the room, given to me, consisted of a bed, washstand, and a piece of a table. There was also a pan and tier pitcher, a box filled with old clothing, a pair of old pants, two pieces of combs, a brush, somewhat the worse for wear and a shelf on which there was a empty match box, a bottle half full of Pangone an empty bottle, a SOILED paper collar and a cruvat.

The bed was not at all inviting and from its outward appearance etc., I think a little time might be successfully employed in hunting "crabs," like the man in the "comet" but in my case, there was neither time nor inclination for such amusements.

Tired as I was it was sometime before I could go to sleep under such CIRCUMSTANCES;You know I was thinking of the the "Old Folks at Home," "The Girl I left behind me"

The next morning, I happened to place a light bundle on one end of the table, and the top was overbalanced and fell on the floor. The lamp broke and oil ran out over the foor.


More of the letter later as today it will be BEAUTIFUL OUTSIDE. Yesterday they said it would be in the sixties and it got up to 72 degrees. Today is suppose to be warmer.

The Kitty Justice is that it is hard to believe that Saturday there was snow everywhere.