Me in a Maserati? Going places with story [Guest Post!]

The month of May has been a very busy month with traveling and relocating to a new destination that will be the part of a later blog post. In the chaos of trying to pack everything up and resettled, as well as relearning and training at an exciting new career, I have decided to ask David Connon to write a guest blog post to cover the May edition of the blog. After numerous edits and delay, the written piece should post on May 29th, 151 years after Albert H. Newell's death, detailed below. 

Me in a Maserati? Going places with story

Guest blog post by David Connon

I wear the hats of researcher, historical interpreter, and blogger but I lack formal training in history. My degrees are in English and Education. In addition, I have read about the Civil War all my life, but always from a Northern perspective. To compensate for my deficits, I have looked to authors that I admire, editors who have given encouraging feedback, and colleagues who have offered insights and hope. I am passionate about good stories. A good story is a Maserati with the top down, waiting to be taken for a drive. Many of the world’s greatest teachers, including Jesus Christ and the Buddha, have tapped into the power of story, and so can you. Good stories can make history relevant, illuminating, and powerful.

Fourteen years ago, I began walking a historical path, munching an energy bar of stories. My experience has fleshed out a principle from Freeman Tilden’s insightful work, Interpreting Our Heritage. Tilden wrote:

The purpose of interpretation is to stimulate the reader or hearer toward a desire to widen his horizon of interests and knowledge, and to gain an understanding of the greater truths that lie behind any statement of fact.

It started when I opened Dorothy Schwieder's book, Iowa Past and Present. She included the letter of an eyewitness to the first riot in Grinnell, Iowa, which was an abolitionist town. The riot occurred over the presence of fugitive slaves in the public school, about a year before Fort Sumter. I read the following excerpt:

Men maddened with hate and rage ran through the streets with insulting words ever on their lips. When I bade my husband good morning, I did not know but he would be the first victim of the fury. - Sarah Parker to her mother, March 1860

The riot was in stark contrast with present-day Grinnell, a peaceful town with a progressive college. The events leading up to the riot captured my imagination. Dramatic elements included the Underground Railroad, a religious revival, and a contentious school board meeting. I wanted to know who was responsible the riot and who he was as a person. Eventually, through patient research, it was clear: The chief instigator was Captain Nathaniel W. Clark, a former New England sea captain and father-in-law of a co-founder of Grinnell. I was convinced that I might find clues about him that others had missed. I also studied Leonard F. Parker, the school superintendent who stood up against Capt. Clark and the rioters. Months of research turned into years, and I ended up with a Frankenstein-like database, with hundreds of primary and secondary sources. 

During my Grinnell research, I learned about an unusual crime. In fall 1864, during Iowa's first draft, three men did not report for duty. Two deputy marshals went to round them up. Bushwhackers killed the deputy marshals. My imagination was again engaged. I asked," Did any Iowans actually leave the state and serve the Confederacy?" Answering that question has kept me busy for the better part of seven years.

So far, I have documented seventy-five Iowa residents who left the state and served the Confederacy. They are doppelgangers (shadow images) of their Union counterparts. The most powerful stories touch upon our common humanity, and they may be surprising. For example, 22-year old Albert H. Newell was a long time resident of Danville, Iowa. He was the son of an itinerant preacher and farmer.  Albert spent time with cousins and uncle in Tennessee. After the war came, Albert followed his cousins' lead and enlisted in the 2nd (Woodward's) Kentucky Cavalry [CSA]. Albert was returning from furlough when he was captured on the banks of the Tennessee River. He was taken to Fort Delaware Prison - the thing he feared most. Albert got sick and died May 29, 1865, and his body was buried on the New Jersey shore.

His sister, Fredonia, traveled to New Jersey to bring Albert's body back to Danville. According to family tradition, when Fredonia arrived with Albert's body at the train station, no one would load his casket onto the wagon. Then a gentleman helped (a lady should not have to man-handle a casket). Albert and Fredonia's parents were out of town, so she handled the burial arrangements. But the cemetery committee told her," No rebel in OUR hallowed ground." So she finally buried his body just outside the cemetery fence. 

Family tradition relates that the cemetery expanded to include Albert's grave. Years later, when feelings had begun to soften, the most decorated grave was that of Albert H. Newell.

Four principles have guided me as a researcher, interpreter, and blogger. 

"The past is indeed and foreign country; it is well worth a visit precisely because of that fact." - Carl R. Trueman.
I am naturally curious about life and Trueman's quote stimulates that curiosity. 

Historians engage in "evidence identification, verification, interpretation, and narrative construction." - Carl R. Trueman.
I need Trueman's "guard-rails" as I maneuver the Maserati [the story or narrative] around hair-pin turns and through dark tunnels. 

The best historian has "discovered and weighed all the important evidence available [and] has the largest grasp of intellect, the warmest human sympathy, the highest imaginative power." - G. M. Trevelyan.
Setting aside my books filled with notes in the margins, Trevelyan encourages me to think hard, feel deeply, and use my imagination in historical interpretation.

"You do not invent history, nor apologize for it. You recognize forces behind facts, and instincts and desires behind actions; and you record in the vignettes which you try to make alive and understandable." -Ariel Durant.
Following Durant's advice, I can trust that the Maserati's engine is well tuned.  

Three things I have learned

• It is very useful to focus on an individual and/ or his or her family
• Context is king
• It is best to appeal to all three learning strengths (visual, auditory, tactile/kinesthetic)

Author's background: David Connon in an independent historical researcher, writer, and speaker. His blog "Confederates from Iowa: Not to defend, but to understand" is found at Confederates From Iowa. He works as a historical interpreter at Living History Farms. He is listed on the Humanities Iowa Speakers Bureau and his topics are “Josiah Bushnell Grinnell and the Iowa Underground Railroad” and “Iowans who Fought Against the Union.”