Legends of the Trees

During a recent weeding session, I ran across an obscure little book titled Legends of Famous Trees. Published in 1963, this is an older book, but it’s filled with all kinds of tidbits about trees, particularly trees with ties to history. Among the trees discussed are trees connected to presidents as well as trees linked to other historical events and people. There’s even a section about odd "freak" trees. Here are some of my favorite entries:

The Forest of Fame
Located in Mount Vernon, Wisconsin, this forest features trees that have been transplanted from the homes of many presidents, famous generals, and important people associated with religion, science, music, and commerce. The forest was started by a University of Wisconsin professor on Arbor Day 1916 when he planted trees from George Washington’s home.

The Tree that Owns Itself
Located near Athens, Georgia, the owner of this tree bequeathed it to itself in a will in the late 19th century. It’s even recorded in the town clerk’s office!  The original tree fell in 1942, but a new tree, known as the Son of the Tree That Owns Itself, was planted on the site of the old in 1946.

Old Moses
One of the largest trees in the world, Old Moses is located near Tule River in California. 240 feet tall with a 12-foot diameter where its top is broken off, it’s named for a nearby mountain and is estimated to be over 4,850 years old. The hollow of its trunk is 111 feet and can supposedly hold 150 people.

“Freak” Trees
Found in many parts of the country, some of these trees have been trained to grow in unusual shapes, while others have always been odd. Some examples include an old elm in Connecticut that grew around a grave stone and the Cannibal Tree in Oregon, a Douglas fir that encloses an oak.

The Courthouse Tower Tree
Trees grow from the top of the tower at the courthouse in Greensburg, Indiana. By the time this book was written, a total of 11 trees had sprouted from the courthouse at various points in time. All but one had been removed at the time of this book’s printing in 1963, and one still grows from the tower today!

Unless you're a hardcore tree enthusiast, I wouldn't count any of these sites as ultimate road trip destinations.  But if you enjoy nature, and you're passing through any of these places on the way to somewhere else, it seems like it'd be worth a side trip to see some trees you can't find in your own backyard.

Harris, Jessie Eubank.  Legends of Famous Trees.  Philadelphia:  Dorrance and Company, 1963.

Old-Timey Superstitions

While researching a recent genealogy question, one of our reference staff came across some interesting tidbits in an old Mississippi newspaper.
Apparently, around 1889, folks believed some pretty crazy things about the cause of certain common ailments. The Fayette Chronicle out of Jefferson County, MS, was good enough to publish these superstitions.

Superstitions About Diseases

Earrings were considered a sure cure for sore eyes.

Fried mice were looked upon as a cure for smallpox.

Ague was frequently treated with spiders and cobwebs. Fright was looked upon as a cure for ague.

Warts, it was averred, could be cured by rubbing bacon on them, the condition being that the bacon would have to be stolen.

Mice seem to have been a popular cure for several centuries. Another reference book, The Encyclopedia of Superstitions, mentions using the blood of a mouse to cure warts. And a lot of folks actually prescribed any manner of cooked mouse-meat to cure any type of ailment.

Of course, we do not advocate the use of any of these cures. Their reprint here is simply for your enjoyment. Makes modern medicine really seem like a miracle, doesn't it?

The Encyclopedia of Superstitions. ed. Christina Hole, Hutchinson & Co.: 1961

Hometown Mississippi: Attala County

This blog post originally appeared 10/24/07.

This post of unusual and unusually acquired place names comes from the great county of Attala in the Brown Loam Soil Area of the state.


Kosciusko
Can you pronounce this? The natives say Kah-zee-es-ko. It's even trickier to spell. Many name changes took place before settling on the current one. To try and dignify the little village, settlers first chose Peking. Then the meager village became known as Paris. None of these efforts attracted more settlers, unfortunately, and so it became Kosciusko after Thadeusz Kosciusko, a Polish American Revolution hero (and grandfather to a council member).

Earlyville
The founding family of this settlement, the Temples, got up very early in the morning. No, really. In 1906, the town lost its post office and thus became extinct.

McVille
This town first went by the name Yockanookany. It was renamed for the McMillian brothers. Guess that's better than YockaMcMilliannookanyville. Maybe they were going for simplicity.

Pansy
The name was chosen from a possible list of ten. The postmaster's 5-year-old daughter offered the name Pansy. The post office existed from 1899 to 1912.

Pickletown
This town was settled by Lewis and Frank Pickle, who also began the Pickle Jug Factory on this site. Sadly, Pickletown went the way of the dodo about 1890 (side tidbit: the dodo became extinct in the mid-1600s).

Possumneck
This establishment was so named for a local troublemaker named Herod. Herod, in court for a trial, was referred to by the witnesses as "King Herod." The judge asked, "King of what?" and the witness cried, "King of Possumneck!"(32) The name apparently stuck.

We conclude with four town names starting with the letter "z". These are merely four of the fourteen "z" names in the state:

Zama
Originally known as Ayres, the town was named for a Miss Zama Franklin.

Zebulon
Named for Zebediah Guess, uncle of the founder, H.M. Guess.

Zemuly
Named for Zemuly Morgan, wife of the postmaster.

Zilpha
Named for the creek of the same name, Zilpha exists today as a voting precinct.

It can be concluded that the early 20th-century popularity of personal names beginning in "z" directly affected several of the town names in Attala County.
If you buy that conclusion, what would some popular town names be today?

Brieger, James F. Hometown Mississippi, 1980.

Try Wheaties Instead

Over the weekend a meebo patron asked why his doctor advised him against eating grapefruit while on a certain medication. The website for the American Family Physician explains that grapefruit can cause medications to enter your body faster than necessary. This may cause an increased risk of side effects. Please, meebo guest, listen to your doctor and put down the grapefruit.
Here's the link: http://www.aafp.org/afp/2006/0815/p611.html

General Lee, Dr. Freud, and PlayStation

For the past two years I’ve flirted with the idea of purchasing a video game system. I once had Sid Meir’s Civilization for my then new PlayStation 2 and played it for hours on end. When I turned 25, I decided it was time to put away video games and devote myself to more manly hobbies like playing the banjo and reading The National Review. Eventually though, I started to miss my PlayStation and the hours spent in a TV glow coma. I still haven’t decided whether to buy a system or not, so, naturally, I spent some time searching for counsel in MLC’s stacks.

To get a historical perspective on how a southern man should spend his leisure hours, I went straight to Bertram Wyatt-Brown’s Southern Honor: Ethics and Behavior in the Old South. Brown argues the southern notion of honor created the foundation for all institutions, most notably, masculinity. Brown explains a typical southern man spent his down time by gambling, drinking, and fighting.

What’s striking is that the leisure activities of this time were so much more, what’s the word, serious? To die in a game of Mortal Combat is one thing but to get your eye gouged out during a fight is quite another. And, ultimately, that’s why video games are unsatisfactory: they lack the visceral experience of a good eye gouging. Given this, I don’t see Nathaniel B. Forrest getting too worked up over a game of Wii Tennis.

In order to save some time let’s see what Dr. Freud might say about the Xbox360. Freud, of course, does not discuss video games but he does share opinions on why children participate in activities known as “play” (play being a key word here because we do indeed “play” video games rather than “work” them). Freud notes that “children repeat in their play everything that has made a great impression on them in actual life, that they thereby ab-reach the strength of the impression and so to speak make themselves masters of the situation”(643). So, Freud would probably argue the pleasure gained from conquering a video game is an extension of a childish desire to control our lives.

Do I believe this? I’m not sure. All I know is that whenever I have a problem, I peruse the stacks here at MLC to find the answer. After reading Brown and Freud I decided, for now, not purchase a PlayStation. Instead, I’ve decided to grow a beard. Now there’s a decision I know both Freud and General Lee would get behind.

Freud, Sigmund. Beyond the Pleasure Principle. London: The Hogarth Press, 1939. p. 643

Library Links

This blog post originally appeared 10/19/07.

Warning: some of these links are almost unbearably nerdy -- but that's the name of the game here in the Reference Department!

• If you'd like to see what a day in the life of a librarian is like, play one of these exciting library games.
• Remember Samuel Pepys, the famous diarist who chronicled 17th-century English life? Read his diary online here.
• It may have a scandalous name, but Bookslut is a great--if a wee bit irreverent--place to find reviews and discussions of recent books and publishing gossip.

Art Is In The Eye Of The Beholder

Last week, a patron called with a question about mud painting and I was off, digging for answers and learning about art along the way. I had never heard of the technique--painting with mud? are you sure?--but after reading about Jimmy Lee Sudduth and talking to Charles Jenkins, I had a different perspective. These two men, along with others who use the "mud method," simply mix mud with other natural ingredients (like berries) and not-so-natural ingredients (like motor oil) to make a new sort of "paint." Here's one of Mr. Sudduth's mud paintings of his dog Toto:

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/04/05/Weekend/Folk_art__Simply_prof.shtml

Turns out, the earth figures into art a lot more than you might initially think. Of course, there is pottery, Mississippi itself having a plethora of talented potters. We can even lay claim to George Ohr, the so-called Mad Potter of Biloxi! By the way, did you know that George liked the fact that the first three letters of his name-G-E-O-were the same as his initials-George Edgar Ohr-so much that he starting following the same naming system with his third child?! (http://www.askart.com/)

I enjoyed sifting through all that mud to find people becoming downright whimsical and creative. There are shiny balls of mud.  I found furniture made of mud. One of my favorites, I think, are the take-offs off low rider art, in mud. Take a little trip with me, indeed!