The photo of the member badge came from Wikimedia Commons. It was posted by Tmccoydc.
The painting was obtained from picryl.com, courtesy of the Library of Congress. The artist was F.O.C. Darley and the engraver was Alexander Richie. This 1868 picture depicts General Sherman’s March to the Sea.
Transcript
Vern: Hi Vern Hall back here again. And let’s talk about another subject. In the process of doing the theater project and everything. I was in the…and it was To Kill a mockingbird. To kill a mockingbird was kind of interesting, really, because as we did the readings to see which role you would have Julia came up to me and she says, Vern, would you mind playing this role? And the role was the role of the bad guy, the bad guy who was the antagonist or the protagonist? Yeah, no, he was the antagonist. He was actually stooping his daughter, and he tried to blame it on the black guy. And that’s really what to Kill a mockingbird is kind of about. It’s a father who’s probably molesting his daughter and trying to blame it on the black guy who the daughter hit on. That was a difficult role to play, because in some ways, I had to play my stepdad and then hope never to go there again.
But, the role, the main role in the play was played by Pete Lindemann. Pete Lindemann is very well known. He’s an author himself. And, as we played together in the role, he mentioned that he was a son of the Union Veteran of the Civil War. And I had done my genealogy, you know. Oh, well, my second great grandfather, he was in the Civil War, and he rode with Sherman from the very beginning, all the way through Georgia. And, you know, those railroad neckties. And he was an interesting person, actually, his name was Truman L Hopkins. They had… his mom and dad had migrated from Vermont in 1803 and settled in Canton, New York. He wasn’t born yet. His daddy was one of 13 children, and some of the family moved to what was then called Western Canada, which is what we call the province of Ontario today. And actually they had a farm very near, what became the national capital, Ottawa. And he was born in 1838.
By 1850, they’re relocated in western Ohio near the Indiana… Well, actually right next door to the Indiana border, where there are three counties there who are named for the captors of Major Andre during the Revolution. And, my great great grandpa had a farm. And one of those is Williams County. And the interesting part of that, of course, here’s another connection. Roger, my love, was a descendant of [David Williams] at the old stone fort, the big monument in front of Major Andre. Well, it was him and his two cousins, first cousins. And as it turned out, I’m descended from Mr. Van Wart, who is another one of the captors of Major Andre, Mr. Van Wart. And they’re all first cousins.