Amanuensis Monday: Jasper Fulkerson and the Wind Mill

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

Despite an absence of Amanuensis posts for awhile, I continue my project to transcribe family letters, journals, newspaper articles, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts. Not only do the documents contain genealogical information, the words breathe life into kin - some I never met - others I see a time in their life before I knew them.

I began this project back on February 16, 2009.  Since I began, many others have joined in on the meme. I am thrilled that this meme I started has inspired so many to transcribe their family history documents. Why do we transcribe? I provide my three reasons in the linked post. You may find others.

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This week I look at a newspaper article found at ChroniclingAmerica, mentioning a possible relative of my wife's.

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The Thomas County cat. (Colby, Kansas)

Thursday, July 26, 1888

What was nearly a fatal accident happened [to] Mr. Jasper Fulkerson on Wednesday morning. In putting a wind mill in gear on the Brinley place just west of town, the ball on the shaft above suddenly fell and struck him a glancing blow over the eye, severely cutting and stunning him. Dr. Edwards was immediately called, and sewed up and dressed the wound, and Mr. Fulkerson is getting on as well as could be expected. Had the ball, weighing about 20 pounds, and falling as it did some 20 feet, struck him fairly, it would surely have killed him. Mr. Fulkerson is to be congratulated on his narrow escape.

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Notes:

1) My wife's second great grandfather, Newton Jasper Fulkerson (1857-1929), had a twin brother named Jasper Newton (1857-1928). However, Jasper Newton lived in Pope County, Illinois most if not all of his life. There were actually three Jasper Fulkersons in the 1900 census, one in Illinois, one in Kansas, and one in Missouri. I'm currently not sure how, or if, the Jasper Fulkerson in Colby, Kansas is related to my wife.