"Before They Were Famous"

[sam H]

Re: "Before They Were Famous"

Thomas A scott. He was Andrew Carnegie's mentor, Asst. Secretary of War and went on to be the famous railroad robber baron. This probabally is not the type of celebrity you are looking for but after reading this thread I stumbled across that while trying to find other celebritys and thought it was pretty interesting.

[Shockoe Hill Cats]

Re: "Before They Were Famous"

John S. Pemberton (inventor of Coca-Cola) - Lt. Col, 3rd GA Cavalry

I don't think Charles T. Pepper, M.D. (1830-1903) was named either. Pepper received his medical degree from the University of Virginia and served as a surgeon during the war. Wade Morrison named a carbonated beverage after him in Waco, Texas which came to be known as "Dr. Pepper".

George Humphrey Tichenor (1837 -1923) might be worthwhile too. Tichenor served with the 22d Texas Cavalry Regiment until he was wounded in 1863. He treated his own wounds with an alcohol-based solution that, allegedly, was the first antiseptic surgery in the Confederacy. Dr. Tichenor's Company still bottles topical antiseptic and mouthwash today.

[Gary of CA]

Re: "Before They Were Famous"

Samuel Clemens was a steamboat captain. He served briefly as Confederate for the state of Arkansas before deserting the war, going west, and penned many stories under the name Mark Twain.

[FortyRounder]

Re: "Before They Were Famous"

Thank you, Sam and Jason. Gary, I mentioned Mark Twain but thanks anyway.

[boozie]

Re: "Before They Were Famous"

As Mr. Hermann has stated Lew Wallace is very well know throughout the country for several things. Here in Crawfordsville, Indiana he is very popular, I live 1/2 mile from his study.

Maybe I can add to this thread by adding information of someone you don't know much about, but had a very big impact on modern bow hunting.Over 60 ex-Confederates moved to Montgomery County, Indiana after the war. Two brothers Maurice and Will H. Thompson came to Crawfordsville from Georgia. Both had served in the Confederate Army; Maurice served in the AoT, and Will A.N.V. They were both writers and loved to hunt. The brothers are known as the fathers of American Archery, our bow hunting roots go back to these two ex-soldiers. Maurice is buried here in Oak Hill Cemetery; where Gen. Lew Wallace is also buried. The two were friends and there is a photo of the two of them in the library. Brother Will would live here for some time and then move to Seattle, WA.

Here are some links on Maurice's service, their impact on modern archery, and a great ex-Confederate poem he wrote and gave at a G.A.R. gathering.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Thompson

http://www.stickbow.com/FEATURES/HISTORY/maurice-waryears.CFM

http://www.realtree.com/community/feature.php?ID=411

http://www.civilwarpoetry.org/confederate/postwar/gar.html

Citation: The Indiana GenWeb Project, Copyright ©2004, Montgomery County Website http://ingenweb.org/inmontgomery/


Montgomery County, Indiana USGenWeb Project

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BIOGRAPHY
Maurice Thompson

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From: Zach, Karen Bazzani. Crawfordsville: Athens of Indiana. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing Company, 2003.

One of the most prominent male writers of Crawfordsville was Maurice Thompson. Although not a Crawfordsville native, having been born in the South, Thompson, nonetheless considered himself a Crawfordsvillian. Thompson joked about his first publication in this way: "The Civil War had left me a rather bewildered and certainly a very callow bit of jetsam stranded on the shore of poverty…the thought came into my head that I might write a novel and get money for it…I sailed into the task with furious ardor…when the story of The League of the Gudaloupe was finished, I felt sure that I had made a mighty fine story, but somehow the editors and publishers did not see into its wonderful qualities…a year or more dragged past…some good angel directed me to offer my firstling to the New York Weekly…in a few days a letter reached me, bearing to my emaciated fingers a check for $100. The earth appeared to have been made a present to me…I was famous and rich.' Oddly, it was 20 years later before the story finally made the press. Thompson wrote, "I had forgotten its title and I could not recall the name of a single character.' Obviously, he did not consider it one of his best works, but Thompson did become an accomplished and distinguished writer. Lew Wallace wrote of Thompson: "Maurice never lost his student ways, not even when a lawyer. His education was everlasting going on, himself his teacher; and that I think one of the bonds between us. Success as a writer of prose and poetry was his; but not all of him; he became a Latin scholar and knew the literature of France, like a Frenchman. Still…he grew an all-around man, lawyer, politician, geologist, engineer…a genius, in short.' His Alice of Old Vincennes became a best seller. Thompson was elected the first president of the Western Association of Writers in 1886. He wintered in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi and summered in Crawfordsville, where he often entertained well-known authors. In 1900, Wabash College conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature upon Thompson. After a lingering illness, Thompson died at his home in Crawfordsville on February 15th the next year.

In January of 1879, Maurice and Will Thompson (both writers) held a get together in Crawfordsville to form the National Archery Association. Representatives from clubs throughout America were here and Maurice was chosen President. The Thompson brothers are considered to be the fathers of American Archery. They were tagged as The Wabash Merry Bowmen. Today, archery clubs are named for them. The 1870´s ended with the start of the annual County Fair, organized by the Union Agricultural Association. Dorothy Russo and Thelma Sullivan, in their book, Bibliographical Studies of Seven Authors of Crawfordsville, Indiana commented, "It remains an interesting fact that a town with a population of little over 5,000 in 1880, when Ben Hur was published could have made this book possible. All Indiana cities, including Indianapolis, must bow to the astounding high rate of scholarship in Crawfordsville.

Montgomery County, Indiana

The New York Times,
New York, Ny
February 15, 1901

Crawfordsville Ind., Feb. 16.

Maurice Thompson, the novelist, died a 3:25 AM. Today, after an illness of many weeks. He had been kept alive several days by the use of stimulants.

Mr. Thompson became unconscious at about 9:30 o'clock last night, and passed away without a sign of pain. All the members of his family were at the bedside.

It Is expected that the funeral will be held here on Monday.

In the eyes of his admirers, Maurice Thompson held a place in literature distinctly his own, belonging to no school, truly having no imitators. His style was light and graceful and his insight into nature, gained through years of outdoor life, is mirrored in all his works. Though born in the North, he came from an old Southern family, his first American ancestor, Nicholas Thompson, having settled at Fleur de Hundred in 1623. His boyhood was spent in Northern Georgia, and though the home of his mature years was in Indiana, his winter months were almost always spent somewhere along the Gulf coast, and the first works to bring him into prominence dealt With the Southland of his forefathers.

Mr. Thompson came of fighting stock too, many of his ancestors having fought in the Revolution and others in the war of 1812. He recently referred to them in discussing current affairs, saying: "They were expansionists, and I, too, am an expansionist." He himself fought in the Confederate Army from the beginning to the end of the civil war.

Mr. Thompson was born in Fairfield Franklin County, Ind., Sept. 9. 1844. I. His father was the Rev. Matthew Grigg Thompson, a Baptist clergyman. The family moved to Kentucky in Maurice's early infancy, and to "Cherokee Georgia" when he was eight years old. He was educated principally by a tutor, Though he had various short experiences at different schools. It was a passion with him to study out of doors while a boy, and in later years the material for his best works was sorted out and arranged in his mind by the light of lonely campfire. He gained a good knowledge of the dead languages, and also of French, Spanish, and Italian, from his preceptor, and still found much time for hunting, and fishing. Robin Hood was a favorite character with him, and the bow appealed to his fancy more than the gun. He became proficient as an archer, and it was largely his writings that twenty years ago brought about such a revival of the Sport as to cause targets to spring up like mushrooms on fashionable lawns the land over. An English naturalist heard of his Prowess as a sportsman and engaged him to get a collection of American birds, including the great black woodpecker, now extinct or nearly so. He forwarded thirteen specimens of this bird before one was satisfactory to his employer. He was to get £10 for the whole undertaking, but wrote for the best gun to be had In England for the amount of money instead. He had obtained a knowledge of civil engineering by the time the war opened, and he went to the front. Sherman's army swept away his father's property, yet he accepted defeat without bitterness, having already concluded that the spirit of the nineteenth century was against human slavery. Then he went to Crawfordsville, Ind., to make his living, and there married Miss Alice Lee, daughter of a prominent railroad man of that place, who survives him with two daughters and a son. He subsequently became chief engineer of one of the Indiana roads, and was for a time a member of the State Legislature, and afterward State Geologist. His profession took him too much away from home, and he took up the study of law, becoming a successful attorney. He wrote much at this time. This is the first verse of the poem which, forwarded to W. D. Howells, introduced him to Boston and to the literary world:

I heard the woodpecker pecking,
I heard the sapsucker sing,
I turned and looked out of my window,
And lo, it was Spring.

Soon after there followed a collection of newspaper sketches reprinted under the title "Hoosier Mosaics." and several papers on archery, including the "Witchery of Archery" which appeared In 1878 and started the craze. His novel of "A Tallahassee Girl," printed anonymously, served to make the half-forgotten capital of Florida a popular Winter resort. When Mr. Thompson confessed the authorship, he received many hearty acknowledgments from the townspeople.

"By-Ways and Bird Notes," published in 1885, met with great success, and other notable works are "His Second Campaign," "Stories of the Cherokee Hills" "Songs of Fair Weather," and "Sylvan Secrets."

The gathering of material for Thompson's generally considered greatest accomplishment, "Alice of Old Vincennes." extended through four years, and there ls historical warrant for every important incident of this story of Col. George Rogers Clark's heroic expedition of 1779. Actual records furnish the incidents of the hero's life being saved by a miniature and the Indian charm which turned the bullet aside from Alice. Present indications are the Thompson's later work, "The King of Honey Island." which cleats with the War of 1812 will have an even greater sale than " Alice of Old Vincennes." Mr. Thompson for many years held an editorial position on 'The Independent' of this city, yet did his work mostly at his home, "Sherwood Place" Crawfordsville, an old mansion which came down through his wife's family. The building is in sight of the home of Gen. Lew Wallace, Mr. Thompson was a member of the Ouiatenon, a literary society in Crawfordsville. He was a frequent attendant at the Centre Presbyterian Church but to most he asked of the future he embodied these lines:

So, when I fall like some old tree,
And subtle change makes mold of me,
There let earth show a fertile line
Where perfect wildflowers leap and shine.



1878 Montgomery County, Indiana Atlas (Chicago: Beers) p 54

THOMPSON, Mauris (sic-Maurice), PO Crawfordsville, Attorney, native of Franklin Co, Ind. settled in this co. 1868.

The website management appreciates all the contributions provided for use here.

Citation: The Indiana GenWeb Project, Copyright ©1997-2007, Montgomery County Website http://ingenweb.org/inmontgomery/



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[Shockoe Hill Cats]

Re: "Before They Were Famous"

Titre du document / Document title
Robert W. Morgan, DDS : U.S. Army Dental Corps, founder and creator of Dental snuff = Robert W. Morgan, dentiste de l'armée américaine, fondateur et créateur du Dental Snuff, un chewing-gum qui élimine les caries dentaires
Auteur(s) / Author(s)
CHRISTEN Arden G. (1) ; CHRISTEN Joan A. ;
Affiliation(s) du ou des auteurs / Author(s) Affiliation(s)
(1) Department of Oral Biology at the Indiana University School of Dentistry, ETATS-UNIS
Résumé / Abstract
During his early adulthood, Robert Withers Morgan (1844-1904), a lifelong resident of Lynchburg, Virginia and a Civil War veteran, worked as an apprentice-trained dental practitioner. He did not become a professional dentist until 1881, when he graduated from the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery. In the late 1870s, Morgan developed the first medicated, therapeutic, anticariogenic chewing gum which he marketed as Dental Chewing Gum. Although he did not reveal the exact preventive ingredient, it appeared to be some form of antiseptic or antacid which he claimed could retard or eliminate dental caries. His advertising motto for this product was: Preserves the Teeth. During the same time frame, Dr. Morgan added the identical preventive ingredients to snuff and chewing tobacco. His product, Dental Snuff, was widely ballyhooed by means of advertising cards which claimed that it would relieve toothache, cure neuralgia and scurvy, prevent decay and preserve and whiten the teeth. This product, also called Dental Sweet Snuff or Dental Scotch Snuff, is still being produced in Tennessee. However, the manufacturer no longer makes claims concerning its therapeutic efficacy. In 1898, Dr. Morgan proposed and authored the first military dental bill ever presented to the U.S. Congress. This action eventually led to the creation of a full-fledged U.S. Army dental service. Because of his efforts, Morgan was chosen as one of the three examiners and supervising dental surgeons to select the prescribed quota of thirty Army dentists. In July 1901, Dr. Morgan was assigned as a dental surgeon in Havana, Cuba. Three years later, he died of an unspecified tropical disease which was contracted during this assignment. - See more at: http://snuffhouse.org/discussion/218....Jw24xjKo.dpuf

[CompanyWag]

Re: "Before They Were Famous"

Regarding #1 on the list: Elias Howe. Wouldn't it be fair to say that Howe won his fame (and fortune) before serving as a private during the war? He died in 1867 after all.