These are my notes for the podcast. Listen to the episode here.
Now that I’ve switched over to extemporaneous speaking with no edits, I tend to forget a thing or two. In this episode, I forgot to drive home the point that I might be the only human being on the planet who remembers Bridget McCormick. That knowledge carries with it a desire to carry her memory, which drives my investigation into her death.
I also forgot to follow up on my comment about the whiffletree. Here’s what I meant. Presumably the horse-drawn cars of the Syracuse and Geddes Railway looked something like the setups in these pictures. Note how, in a compound whiffletree system, the whiffletree directly behind each horse juts out beyond the plane of the car. Looking at them closely, it’s easy to see how the whiffletree hit Bridget and knocked her under the wheels.
(Trigger Warning: This episode focuses on the accidental violent death of a little girl.)
(Thoughts about quarantine with a toddler as a possible reason why I was finally ready to take the leap into doing the podcast extemporaneously)
(Why my research focuses on Syracuse)
(150 years ago yesterday, beginning with LOC Chronicling America)
(Tried different keyword combinations in LOC and FultonHistory)
(I finally had the names. That allowed me to find the couple and their children in Ancestry.com.)
(Using historical newspaper archives as survey tools, and to answer questions of accuracy and bias.)
1870, April 13
Syracuse NY Daily Standard 1870 Grayscale – 0356.pdf
…crushed; the accident took place in front of Mr. Charles McCormick’s house, in the townoi Geddes; I was not driving fastoi than usual. bad not been …
…o! the company, hut have not driven since (he accident; McCormick’s house is seven or eight rods Lrom the corner …
…or 200 tccl; I saw the young ono run from McCormick’s in a ‘slanting direction to tho track; when it
1870 April 13
Newspapers Syracuse NY Daily Courier 1870 – 0367.PDF
…lama ycBterday held an in- quest on tbe body of Bridget McCormick, tbe little girl not yet three yeara old and who …
1870, April 13
Troy NY Daily Times 1869-1870 – 0653.pdf
…Auburn. —A little girl, three or four years old, named McCormick, while attempting to cross ths track of the Syracuse and Geddes street railway on Sunday last, was knocked down by the …
…Newspaper 18\Troy NY Daily Times\Troy NY Daily Times 1869-1870\Troy NY Daily Times 1869-1870 – 0653.pdf …
Feb. 14
Syracuse NY Daily Journal 1871 – 0279.PDF
…fcGarfield, for plaintiff; Gardner«fc Burdick for defendants. Two sho bears came out of the wood, but thep didn’t kill … …little children. On tlio con- trary, they wcro two young cubs tamed by the plolntills for shows, etc. Tho plaintiff In …
…tho de- fendants company from Syracuse to Sandy Creek, In Oswego county. Tho plaintiff* sny they were smothered to death by …
…suit was brought to re- cover tho valuo of tho bears. Tbo plnlntllTSpor- ry tc.tiflcd that tho boars wcro richly …
Feb. 16, 1871
Rochester NY Evening Express 1870 Oct-May 1871 – 0441.pdf
…which a father sustained in consequence of having his little four-year old girl run over by a street car aud killed, and they found that he sustained damages to …
Feb. 21, 1871
Syracuse NY Daily Standard 1870-1870 – 1082.PDF
…setting ibis mailer In a stroog light- A little girl four years old. was ran over by a street car and killed. The father brought a suit aod the damage …
Chicago, Ill., February 22, 1871
Chicago tribune. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.), February 22, 1871, Image 2
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82014064/1871-02-22/ed-1/seq-2/#date1=01%2F01%2F1870&sort=date&date2=03%2F20%2F1871&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&index=8&words=infant+Syracuse&proxdistance=50&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=Syracuse+infant&phrasetext=&andtext=&dateFilterType=range&page=1
(same as LOC version)
Chicago IL Tribune 1871 – 0872.pdf
…apiece, and the price of an infant, tilled by a street car, at poo. —Three or four month ago an I tail an Daher. n a n …
Feb. 25
Jamestown NY Daily Journal 1871 – 0090.pdf
…apiece, and the price of an, infant killed by a street car, at $200. But then bears are property.
Feb. 28
Brooklyn NY Daily Eagle 1871 Grayscale – 0231.pdf
…apiece, and the pfice of an infant, killed by a street car, at $200.
New Orleans [La.], March 05, 1871
The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]), March 05, 1871, Morning, Page 5, Image 5
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86086284/1871-03-05/ed-1/seq-5/#date1=01%2F01%2F1870&sort=date&date2=03%2F20%2F1871&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&index=9&words=infant+Syracuse&proxdistance=50&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=Syracuse+infant&phrasetext=&andtext=&dateFilterType=range&page=1
Lexington, Lafayette County, Mo., March 11, 1871
The weekly Caucasian. [volume] (Lexington, Lafayette County, Mo.), March 11, 1871, Image 3
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85033995/1871-03-11/ed-1/seq-3/#date1=01%2F01%2F1870&sort=date&date2=03%2F20%2F1871&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&index=10&words=infant+Syracuse&proxdistance=50&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=Syracuse+infant&phrasetext=&andtext=&dateFilterType=range&page=1
(same as Feb. 21, 1871 – Syracuse NY Daily Standard 1870-1870 – 1082.PDF)
Now that the public mind is turned to subject of valuation… reprint from Baldwindville Gazette
March 16, 1871
Corning NY Journal
1871_03_16 – p3 – girl and bears valued – Corning NY Journal 1870-1872 Grayscale – 0100.pdf.pdf
…little girl four years old was run over by a street car and killed. The father brought a suit and the damage was set at $200. Two cubs from the North Woods were put on the …
March 16
Yonkers NY Statesman 1869-1871 – 0910.pdf
…railway, at 4$0 apiece, and the price of an infant killed bv a street car at t».
Oregon City Weekly Enterprise
March 31
Oragon State Misc Newspaper Titles 1871 00002187.pdf
…and th<j price of an infant, killed by a Street car, at §200′
July 3, 1871
New York NY Evening Telegram 1870 Oct – 1871 Sep Grayscale – 0933.pdf
…tali way. afc$liO apiece, aud the price ol an infant, killed by a street car, at *20V. . An orthodox Boston girl, age six, ia confident …
(So I have no reason to suspect that the Weekly Caucasian printed that article as snark at the immoral Northern sensibilities of Syracuse. Judging from its representation in Northern papers, it seems to have reflected a general animus against an unfair court system.)
(Aside from that broad question, the investigation allowed me to answer the specific question of where the article fell on the accurate-to-sensationalized spectrum. The answer was “somewhere around the middle”. The comparison between the girl and the bears is a bit apples-and-oranges, since one involves the American Merchants Union Express and the other involves a local horse-drawn railway company.)
(The people on that jury probably knew Hart, and didn’t want to bankrupt the railway.)
(So I came back with unexpected answers. I get unspeakable satisfaction from answering all these broad and and narrow questions, from carrying history forward with fidelity, from fighting lies and disinformation, and from showing people our historical pattern of racial violence and of reckoning with it. And. My motivations are not purely rational.)
(Did you notice that I was vague? I buried the lede.)
(This is extremely ugly.)
(Note the difference in tone between these articles and the articles from the Syracuse Daily Journal in the previous episode, published the previous day.)
(Asymmetry of tone, asymmetrical warfare, KKK)
Syracuse On This Day 