Wednesday, October 27, 2010

The 27th

So, according to the wikibots, it was on this day in history, in 1682, that Wm. Penn founded the C. of B. L. a.k.a. Philadelphia. Sometime that year, Wm. Blackledge, another Englishman, settled himself in PA, Bucks County, to be a little more exact. If I remember rightly [be dubious] here's how my mother line goes: Wm. B. > Thos. > Jos. > another Joseph > Emma Blackledge m. Jake Brown > Eulah > Elaine > Me. There you go. When my great-grandmother, Emma B. Brown of Cameron, MO, was 39 yrs. old, her country got itself a new president by way of a nasty bit of tragedy, the murder of Wm. McKinley in Sept. 1901. I most happily wrote about our 26th President in not one but two books of mine, the latter being The Remarkable, Rough-Riding Life of Theodore Roosevelt, which, not so by the way, began on this day, 102 yrs. ago. scholar, reader [voracious when it came to books and all else] naturalist, athlete, rancher, soldier [would be awarded the Medal of Honor], passionate husband & father [passionate in every role incl. warmonger] police commissioner, NYC, big-game hunter, historian, author, NY governor, US president, 1st American to be awarded Nobel's Prize for Peace. Here, Theo, you say something:

"There must be the keenest sense of duty and with it must go the joy of living; there must be shame at the thought of shirking the hard work of the world, and at the same time delight in the many-sided beauty of life. With soul of flame and temper of steel, we must act as our coolest judgment bids us." TR 1858-1919

Do, dear, dear Readers, read this book or somebody's book and learn more about one of the most interesting Americans who ever, ever lived - as far as I know anyway.

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