Nevada Daily Mail: Columns: Patrick Brophy

The Archaic Art of Discourse (04/23/09)
I was first going to call it simply "talk." But the word carries too much baggage. There's talk, and there's talk. Discourse and drivel, shall we pejoratively say? It's revealing, I'm sure, that at least one dictionary defines the sort of discourse I mean as "coherent reflection or thought". . . only to brand it "archaic."...

Where have all the grownups gone? (04/09/09)
I was once challenged in these pages to name a characteristic of my father and men of his generation which I found sadly lacking in latter-day men. The assumption was that I wouldn't be able to do it. "He put his feet on the coffee-table?" I was sneeringly asked...

Another book about John Brown (03/26/09)
As with Jesse James, one's first thought was, "Does the world really need another book about that old mad-dog?" (as Vernon Countians knew him). The answer, for better or worse, is, yes. On most serious subjects, there's always something new to be learned about something old...

Vernon County was up-and-coming in 1888 (03/12/09)
A frayed, fragile solitary copy of a unique little booklet has lain neglected for some years in the Bushwhacker Museum archives. "Missouri," it's simply titled on the color cover, "Southwest Missouri" on the title page, and "Handbook of Southwest Missouri" on the individual pages...

Belle Starr's Vernon County connection (02/26/09)
Of all the major figures in the history and folklore of Old West outlaws, perhaps the most little-known and poorly understood is Belle Starr, "the bandit queen." Amid the floods of sensationalist popular articles and dime novels which began appearing in her lifetime, only one serious biography has seen the light of day since her violent death in 1889...

Livingston a respected bushwhacker (12/24/08)
Northern partisans strove hard, and largely succeeded, in blackening the names of their opponents. Most journalism of the period would have us conclude that Benjamin Stringfellow (Missouri's ex-attorney general) was an ignorant, demagogic nobody. Northern publicists portrayed David R. ...

Fall's Crop of Genealogical Inquiries (12/11/08)
Summarized below are some of the genealogical inquiries received by the Vernon County Historical Society in recent months. If you have information about, or an interest in, any of these individuals or families, please contact the inquirer directly, or if you prefer contact the Historical Society at the Bushwhacker Museum, 212 West Walnut, phone (417) 667-9602...

Ringing the changes on 'change'-- yet again (10/16/08)
They're at it again. What else should I expect? It's an election year, isn't it? You'd know it even if you didn't know it, when you heard all the ringing of the changes on "change." (To ring the changes: to keep varying how one says something, alluding to the ancient art of change-ringing, which it's said only a few English can understand or appreciate, where a series of church bells are rung in as many sequences, or "changes," as possible.)...

J. Hurley Kaylor's inspired years (08/20/08)
Not long ago, making room for new accessions in the Bushwhacker Museum's crowded, rather chaotic. archival and library space, this writer unearthed a thick sheaf of manuscript, reminiscent of a papyrus roll right out of the Great Library of Alexandria...

History gains new life (07/12/08)
Hi neighbors. There are a couple of new books soon to be available that you might want to check out. Patrick Brophy, curator of the Bushwhacker Museum, has written a new book titled "Fire and Sword," containing many of his past columns. He chose those columns that were relevant to the history of Vernon County's role in the Civil War and has revamped and updated them all. He has also included some first person recounts of those times that he has gleaned from primary sources...

At last, a book on Osceola's burning (06/05/08)
Surprisingly, a whole book has never been devoted exclusively to one of the pivotal incidents of the Civil War in western Missouri. Till now, that is. Richard F. Sunderwirth has filled the gap with "The Burning of Osceola, Missouri." It's a timely publishing event for more than one reason. ...

Another ex-Vernon Countian heard from (05/22/08)
A slim volume, as the poets put it, recently turned up at this newspaper, not particularly pertinent to Vernon County's present, or even its past, but of interest nevertheless. The author spent some of his early years in Rich Hill and Metz, followed by a year in Nevada, where he was graduated with the NHS Class of 1938...

SCV to hold triple observance (05/06/08)
Weather permitting, May 10 should be an enjoyable as well as a historically significant occasion for those who participate. And all interested folks are invited. The Col. John T. Coffee Camp No. 1934 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (incidentally, the largest camp in the state) has won an award for finding and marking more lost Confederate graves than any other camp. Compatriot Eldon Steward won a personal award for the same reason, having marked many of the graves singlehandedly...

The Other "Dismal Science" (04/17/08)
Economics may be the proverbial "dismal science," but to my mind it's lost out bigtime toanother: Politics! What could be "dismaler" than the spectacle daily confronting us, politelycalled a presidential campaign? And what could be more unaccountable than the obsessiveattention being lavished, by otherwise sensible millions, on this civic freakshow? It's a trial, going on being a responsible citizen, all the while in terror of being tarred by the touch of the political tarbaby. ...

I had a friend (04/11/08)
I had a friend. We worked together in the greatest harmony. She entertained me in her home. We enjoyed a day-trip together. She's the only person ever to read my major literary effort and actually seem to understand it, and had good things to say about it...

Men to match the moment (02/21/08)
It's amazing, the many men, average men, tried and proved in the crucible that was 1860s Vernon County. Ordinary men who turned out extraordinary, as it were. One who only lately came to our notice makes a threesome: three men all once known for their doings in the Civil War's aftermath, all now sadly forgotten...

On not suffering schools gladly (02/07/08)
"You don't write English," Carl Simpson once complained to this English-loving scribbler. He meant, I trust, the likes of Mark Twain' s "English as she is spoke." I use too many long and strange words, others grumble. My sentences are too long, too full of obscure allusions, subordinate clauses, phrases in Latin yet! Sorry about that, chief. ...

Anglo-Saxons have come a long way (01/25/08)
Noted art expert Bernard Berenson sat out World War II in his Italian villa. One day, he admonished a German officer friend, "The Anglo-Saxons will be here in a few days." Regularly he noted in his diary the approach of the "Anglo-Saxons." Say what? Those Teutonic tribes who invaded Britain in A.D. 449 were invading Italy in 1943?...

Town and Gown, Home Edition (01/10/08)
"Town and Gown" are ancient opposites and adversaries. In the Middle Ages, at Oxford and the Sorbonne, it actually came down to street-gang warfare. American academics no longer wear gowns, save for ceremonial occasions; and we no longer argue our differences in street-battle. ...

A hero and 'we' killed him (11/29/07)
Just in time for last-minute Christmas gift-giving comes a highly recommended new book about an important figure in Vernon County history. Joseph Bailey, Union war hero, became one of only two local peace officers to be slain in the line of duty, when, on Mar. 26, 1867, as Vernon County sheriff, he went out to arrest two suspected hog-thieves...

Custer, like the Indians, got a raw deal (11/15/07)
The best way to put a new war in perspective is to compare it to older wars. The conclusion's soon reached that "there's nothing new under the sun." Early on, the Iraq war reminded me of the Mexican War. That war, too, involyed putting into a very foreign country a small but technologically superior army whose real enemy was opposition politicians and peaceniks back home...

Remembering (old) Bryan School (11/01/07)
Not being one for personal reminiscences, this writer has never rhapsodized nostalgically on his school days. My memory is too good to imagine they were a happy time. But a NHS class reunion suggested the subject just might be of some interest to others...

Take a walk on the historic side (10/20/07)
Hi neighbors. For the next two Saturdays you will have a rare opportunity to see “real” ghosts in Deepwood Cemetery! Better grab your hats and jackets and go take a peek. No need to be afraid �" these are young ghosts, most only 17 years old to be exact, and all as friendly as Casper...

Marking two more Confederate graves (07/12/07)
June 10 began with rainstorms; but it soon cleared up, turning into a rare June day for the worthy task of marking the graves of two notable Vernon Countians of Civil War times. Sons of Confederate Veterans Eldon Steward, Jerry Fast, and the present writer were joined by Terry and Tom Ramsey, representing the Vernon County Historical Society...

Books For Bushwhacker Days (06/14/07)
By all means, include a little pertinent reading in your observance of Bushwhacker Days 2007. There's no shortage of really good, new titles. The following are, or will be, purchasable from the Bushwhacker Museum, 212 W. Walnut, or from booksellers...

Is it bye-bye forever to bipartisanship? (05/10/07)
Comparing today's national political scene with that of the not-so-distant past, one can't help being struck by the contrast in the behavior of the "opposition" party. Sixty years ago, the Republican-controlled Congress, led by Robert Taft and Arthur Vandenburg, consistently supported the foreign policy of the Democratic administrations of Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman. Differ as the parties might on domestic policy, in foreign affairs America spoke with one voice...

Yes, there are 'Aristocrats' (04/26/07)
"Aristocrat" comes from the Greek aristos, "best." Who's "best"? In most of history it was defined by heredity. If your parents were "best," so were you, even if you were the most worthless lout on earth. The modern world rejects this "best," only to replace it with a "worse." The pop culture's "best" are the "rich and famous," most of whom are no better than that titled worthless lout. ...

Write your obituary in 'Talkese' (04/05/07)
"Doing Our Own Thing: The Degradation of Language and Music, and Why We Should, Like, Care" (Gotham Books, 2003). Anything but a catchy title. The author, John McWhorter, seems to go out of his way to perpetrate the very linguistic sins he laments. He gives no real reason "why we should, like, care." And he ends with no suggestions for reversing or even halting the "degradation."...

Book sheds light on an important subject (03/01/07)
Notwithstanding its soporific title, its origin as a doctoral dissertation, and its suggestion of a pricey, slickpaper "coffeetable" book, "Evolution of the Missouri Militia into the National Guard of Missouri," by Dr. John Glendower Westover, turns out a surprisingly readable as well as informative volume. A publication of the Missouri Society for Military History, it tells much about an important subject of which most people know far too little...

Sorting out the 'great ice storms' (02/08/07)
Invariably a new ice storm provokes recollections of those of past years. Just how that of 2007 really rates alongside the truly memorable ones, it's too early yet to tell. But most of those of recent years, with which 2007 has already been compared, aren't even in the running...

'The Collapse of American Power' (12/14/06)
For some years I've possessed, and often browse, a book titled, "The Collapse of British Power," by well-known British writer on war, Corelli Barnett. I was telling a friend of Barnett's thesis: that the British (who seems to have done everything, built an empire and lost it, in "a fit of absent-mindedness") absent-mindedly collapsed just because they'd let their industrial plant decay. ...

Eliza Gabbert, Lady Bushwhacker, found (11/30/06)
On a mild November Saturday, Tom and Terry Ramsey and I were in the old Montevallo cemetery, pursuing our odd hobby, "cemetery crawling." We'd already stopped by the Sandstone cemetery to photograph the newly discovered burial place of Lt. Joe Wood. Now Terry was photographing the gravestones of Lt. Wood's children by his first wife, Susan...

Drywood: The 'Battle of the Mules' (11/19/06)
Special to the Herald-Tribune Why a Civil War marker at Deerfield? Two reasons in particular, another just in general: Contrary to popular conceptions, Vernon County was as embroiled in that great event as any out-of-the-way comer of Virginia. Little tragedies and stirring dramas took place almost everywhere. The two bigger brushups are known to history buffs by name. And both of them took place in the Deerfield vicinity, more-or-less book-ending the war between them...

This 'Diversity' Can Kill Us (10/20/06)
I can't hear that vogue word "diversity" without recalling the case, a year or two ago, of a Muslim FBI agent assigned to "wire" himself and eavesdrop on some Muslims suspected of terrorism. He refused: "A Muslim doesn't spy on fellow Muslims!" He wasn't fired, oh no! That would have lowered the FBI 's "diversity" quotient. He was merely reassigned. "Diversi-ty" trumped all else, such as his service oath...

The 'Three Stooges' of bankrobbing (10/05/06)
By Patrick Brophy Nevada Daily Mail Passing through the drowsy hamlet of Dederick today, it's hard to believe it was the scene of one of the most bizarre criminal melodramas in Vernon County history. Tragic as it was, at least for the major players, The Gang That Could Do Nothing Right, it comes across rather as slapstick comedy, almost too broad to be believable...

The season's genealogical inquiries (08/31/06)
Summarized below are some of the genealogical inquiries received in recent months by the Vernon County Historical Society. Readers interested in, or having information about, any of these families are invited to contact the inquirer directly, or the VCHS, at Bushwhacker Museum, open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., weekdays, telephone (417) 667-9602...

That venerable Southernism, the double name (08/15/06)
Once or twice ere the hit July 23 program by our native-born musicologist, I found myself referring to "Marsha Ann," and with blank looks being asked, "Who?" Last time I'd really looked (listened, rather), she was "Marsha Ann" for true. What else to be expected of one whose mother was always "EdnaFlorence" (never just one or the other) when she wasn't merely "Sister," sib of best friend Salem Wilson? What had happened indeed? Marsha Ann, I could only speculate darkly, had strayed off into the trackless Massachusetts marshes and there been robbed of (or, knowing not what she did, cast off) her distinctive linguistic birthright, the "binary" (two-part) name.. ...

You think it's hot, think about the summer of '36 (07/27/06)
The long hot summer got you down? Pity yourself as you rush from air conditioned house to air conditioned car while the temperature flirts with 100? All aboard the time machine, you wimps, for a 70-year trip back to 1936, when hot was hot! 1936, of course, was in the depths of the Great Depression, and it was as if nature had decided to step in and remind us that all hardships and disasters aren't manmade...

A slighted bicentennial, part 2 (07/13/06)
With 24 whites and 30 Osages, Capt. Zebulon Pike left the Osage towns (in modem Vernon County) on Aug. 26, 1806, traveling an old Osage trail west-by-south up Little and Big Drywood creeks over to the Neosho watershed. (Some historians have him heading due west up the Little Osage River, having misread Pike's vague mention of the Little Osage village ) Seeing the prairies in the year's driest month, Pike would confirm the myth of the "Great American Desert," an expanse "on which not a speck of vegetable matter existed." His next objective, the Pawnees, under Caracterish (White Wolf), were then centered on the Republican River in north central Kansas. ...

A slighted bicentennial, part I (07/06/06)
Poor old Zeb Pike! A pioneering Rodney Dangerfield, he just gets no respect. Lewis and Clark hogged all the exploratory glory in their own time. Now, it seems, they've managed to hog it even during this, the bicentennial that's more nearly Pike's than theirs...

He fought alongside Vernon Countains (04/27/06)
He was Cedar County's first sheriff, played a pivotal part in the Battle of Wilson's Creek, fighting alongside Col. DeWitt C. Hunter and his Vernon Countians, and there gave his life. He will be commemorated, and his new gravestone dedicated, Saturday in a ceremony staged by the Col. John T. Coffee Camp No.1934 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans...

Then and Now (11/04/04)
2005: Another birthday besides the 150th Nothing can make one feel one's years quite like finding oneself "a part of history," being rudely reminded that happenings which to oneself are but the doings of day-before-yesterday, not really different from those of yesterday itself, to others are "history."...

Then and Now (10/21/04)
Every Child Left Behind Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurrit. Having read the Oct. 8 Daily Mail, it occurred to me old Horace might well have been commenting on its article "Stamping Out Bullies." To paraphrase, with poetic license: "You can stamp the bullies out, but they'll soon find a way back."...

Then and Now (10/07/04)
The long-ago murder in 'Ghost Hollow' "Murder will out," runs an old saying. And it will "out" not just once, it seems, but over and over, forever. Hardly another six months can go by without interest stirring afresh in some Vernon County murder case from long, long ago...

Then and Now (09/24/04)
Ringing the changes on 'Change' -- again The alltime best-received column in this series appeared, appropriately enough in another election year, under the title "Change is Good? Not Always." Predictably they're at it again, those folks so unchanging in their devotion to "change." John Kerry sanguinely put the bite on a cashless friend with the cheery assurance, "We're sending a powerful message: Change is coming!" I'm sure Caesar said much the same thing to a Rome already punchdrunk from "change," over 2,000 years ago.. ...

Then and Now (09/10/04)
Jefferson comes off poorly from 'Hamilton' "Alexander Hamilton" by Ron Chernow (Penguin Press, 2004) would be recommended reading anytime, but above all in an election year. It's well worth reading for its titular subject alone, but also for the historical perspective it brings to American politics as a whole, and the light it sheds on others, one above all, among the founding immortals...

Then and Now (08/30/04)
A heathen's well-wishes for St. Mary's School I was pleased to read the little article "St. Mary's school begins 100th year of classes" in the Aug.18 Daily Mail, but historically appalled at the blooper (or perhaps, to be kinder, oversight) perpetrated in the first two-line paragraph...

Then and Now (08/13/04)
Drat those buttons! Full speed ahead! Willynilly, a series of columns seems to be developing on, as we might say, "rediscovered treasures" in the Bushwhacker Museum. Last year it was the so-called "surveyor's transit" that turned out to be a vernier compass made by the well-known St. Louis instrument maker Jacob Blattner, only the fifth such known to survive at all, and in far better condition than the other four...

Then and Now (07/29/04)
Iraq War eerily evokes the Mexican War That "there's nothing new under the sun" has been expressed in dozens of different ways. Yet specific instances often come as a surprise. Happening on a book about the Mexican War of 1846-48 ("Gone for Soldiers," by Jeff Shaara, author of the more recent bestseller "Gods and Generals"), the present writer was struck by the many eerie parallels between that war and the recent one in Iraq...

Then and Now (07/15/04)
Confessions and/or apologies of a novelist Publishing, above all of fiction, can have the feel of disrobing in public. It's embarrassing! One almost wants to apologize for the indelicacy. Who am I anyway, one asks himself, to inflict yet another self-revelation on the world, above all on one's friends?...

Then and Now (07/01/04)
'The White Man's Burden' reconsidered Rudyard Kipling, a Nobel Laureate for Literature, has been "politically incorrect" almost since he won the award, back in 1907. All the more reason for his many admirers, including the present writer, to like and respect him. His "Gunga Din" alone proves he wasn't the "racist" he's accused of being; and his countless would-be "sexist" remarks ("A woman is only a woman but a good cigar is a smoke"), taken in context, read quite otherwise...

Then and Now (06/10/04)
Editor's note: A newly released book, "Peninsula of Lies," by Edward Ball (Simon and Schuster, 2004) delves into the truth and consequences woven into the story of Gordon Langley Hall, who lived in Nevada some 50 years ago. Following is local historian Pat Brophy's take on .....

Then and Now
Patrick Brophy