Whatever Happened to Putnam Park?

Back in 1963 when I was mid-way through the third grade, my family moved to Poughkeepsie, NY.  One of the best things about living at our new location on Dwight Street was a park about 300 yards away.  There was no sign indicating the name of this park, but none was needed. Everybody called it Putnam Park, and it was fantastic. My grade school friends and I had epic two-on-two football games there. My older brother and I hit hundreds of fly balls to each other there. My younger brother skated there in the winter when the city turned a natural depression in the southern end into an ice rink. Most important, I fell in love with basketball there, playing on a black-topped full court in its northern end.   

Sometime in the early 1970's, though, some city official decided that the park simply had to have a sign. Accordingly, a cheap wooden sign was installed at the corner of Hooker and Hanscom Avenues. To our amazement, the sign read "Bartlett Park" which totally mystified us. Why did they rename our beloved park, and who the hell was Bartlett? For that matter, who the hell was Putnam?  These and many other questions remained a mystery for over 45 years until a high-school friend challenged me to figure it out. So here you go, Tom. This blog's for you!

Brooks Seminary for Young Ladies

 

The story of the park begins back in the 1800's when Poughkeepsie was a thriving city chock-full of impressive schools.  According to this publication from 1937, Poughkeepsie was actually referred to as the "City of Schools".  One of these schools was the Brooks Seminary for Young Ladies, also informally known as the Brooks Institute or the Brooks Seminary.  According to Wikipedia, it was founded in 1871:

"Mary Bryan Johnson was its founder.  She and her future husband, Edward White, erected a building on six acres of elevated grounds in the southeastern section of Poughkeepsie at the corner of what then was Southeast and Hanscom Avenues."

At its peak, the Brooks Seminary was advertised in newspapers across the United States and was regarded as one of the best schools of its kind. Per this review in 1872, the New York Times wrote that, in many respects, it was even superior to Vassar College, a highly regarded institution only a mile away from the Brooks Seminary:

"While there are a great many schools of a high order in most respects, probably there are few that equal, and fewer still that as a whole excel, the Brooks Seminary at Poughkeepsie, New-York, a city on the Hudson, of extraordinary advantages in many respects, more especially as to health.

"Next door to Vassar, both in location and standing, and in some sort a preparatory school, it in some respects excels, and many would deem it superior to, that great institution."

Despite reviews like this, the Brooks Seminary found it difficult to compete with Vassar's preparatory school. In 1880, the seminary relocated to 11 Montague Terrace in Brooklyn, New York where it appears to have survived for only a year or two.

 

Ellen Clizbe Bartlett and the birth of Putnam Hall School

According to "The Eagles History of Poughkeepsie" by Edmund Platt, after Brooks Seminary vacated the building, it was used as hotel and as a dormitory for Vassar students. In 1901, however, Ellen Clizbe Bartlett and Frances A. Welbasky established a new boarding school for women at this location, renaming it the Putnam Hall School. It's unclear who the school was named after. Putnam County of New York was named after Israel Putnam, a Revolutionary War hero. There was also another hero of the Revolution, Israel's cousin Rufus Putnam, who was appointed by George Washington in 1776 as the nation's first Chief Engineer. In this position Rufus helped design the fortifications of Fort Putnam and West Point in New York. It seems highly unlikely that a boarding school for women would be named after one of these long-dead military men. I'm guessing the school was named in honor of a rich patron or benefactor named Putnam. Below is a colorized postcard photo of the Putnam Hall School, circa 1907:

In the early 20th century, the Putnam Hall School and Miss Bartlett were held in high regard, both locally and nationally. As such, when Miss Bartlett announced her intention to close the school on May 31, 1912 due to financial difficulties, it was news coast to coast: 

Locally, the reaction to Miss Bartlett's announcement was swift. On April 15, 1912, the Poughkeepsie Eagle News reported that "Prominent Men" were going to try and save the school:

It's not clear who these "prominent men" were, but the results they achieved were spectacular. As reported in the Poughkeepsie Eagle-News on September 23, 1912, the school was out of financial difficulties and had been"greatly improved for the fall term":

The school continued to operate through the 1933 school year but then closed abruptly, possibly due to Miss Bartlett's retirement. In 1940, the school was torn down and, a few years later, Miss Bartlett deeded the property to the city with the stipulation that it be "used only for public purposes by the citizens of the city of Poughkeepsie". The event was captured in the photo, below, in the June 15, 1943 edition of the Poughkeepsie Journal:

 On March 16, 1944, Ellen Clizbe Bartlett died at the age of 87. Her obituary was carried in the New York Times:

Creating the Park

Almost immediately, the local government took action to utilize Miss Bartlett's gift to the city. As shown in the article below from the Poughkeepsie Journal, the Department of Public Works was asked to clean up the grounds, plans were made for a dedication ceremony and the Planning Commission suggested that a sign proclaiming the area as "The Ellen Clisby Bartlett Memorial Park" be erected. The fact that the Poughkeepsie Journal misspelled Miss Bartlett's middle name indicates that perhaps the park needed a simpler name.

As stated in the article, the Planning Commission didn't have the authority to name the park, so the issue was transferred to the Common Council. They, in turn, transferred it to the Public Property Committee, suggesting that it be called "The Ellen Clisbie Bartlett Memorial Park", again misspelling her middle name. 

Apparently, though, little was actually done to create a functioning park. On June 27, 1947, the headline of the Poughkeepsie Journal indicated that the area might become the location of the new Poughkeepsie High School.

Seven years later, a 1954 Poughkeepsie Journal article stated that the Board of Directors of the Jewish Community Center agreed that Bartlett Park would be "acceptable .. in exchange for its College Avenue property which has been designated as part of a site for a new Poughkeepsie High School".

On February 20, 1958, a Poughkeepsie Journal article made it very clear that very little had been done to create a functioning park. A former alderman, Mrs. Cummins, proposed that the city give back the site to the heirs of Miss Bartlett who could then sell the land for housing:

In 1961, the city considered using Bartlett Park as the site for its new YMCA:

In 1963, the city finally began taking steps to honor the stipulations made by Miss Bartlett that the area be "used only for public purposes by the citizens of the city of Poughkeepsie". In April 30, 1963, the Poughkeepsie, Journal reported that a public discussion would be held to demand "improved playground facilities for the Clinton-Sixth ward area". Bartlett Park was mentioned as a possible site for improvement. Per one of the organizers of the event, there had currently been "no offer of Bartlett Park for play purposes" prior to that meeting. Apparently, the discussions were fruitful because on August 12, 1964,the following small article appeared in the Poughkeepsie Journal:

A sign identifying the area as Bartlett Park would not be erected until a decade later.

Postscript

Two final points worth mentioning. First, even though the area was officially referred to as Bartlett Park (or a variation thereof) since 1943, those who visited the park well into the 1970's always called it Putnam Park. Even the Poughkeepsie Journal occasionally referred to it as Putnam Hall Park: 

Second, this article began with fond memories I had of playing basketball at Putnam Park in the late 60's and early 70's. Strangely enough, I can find no documentation whatsoever that the City of Poughkeepsie ever planned, built or maintained an outdoor basketball court at that location. The only proof I have that the court even existed is this tangential mention in a Poughkeepsie Journal article in January of 1983:

Not the type of documentation I was looking for, but I'll take it.

 

Keeping Grocery Workers Safe

The risks being taken by grocery store workers these days are all too real. On April 13 the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), representing over 900,00 grocery store workers, estimated that 30 of their members have died from COVID-19 and nearly 3,000 are not working because they are quarantined, hospitalized or awaiting test results. When asked what could be done to improve their safety, here's how members responded:

• Limit the number of customers (72%)
• Ban unruly customers (49%)
• Hire more security (41%)
• Hire more workers to meet demand (26%)
• Create advertisements with customer safety tips (23%)

The UFCW has also asked shoppers to take the "#ShopSmart Pledge" which includes wearing masks, keeping 6 feet or more from workers and other shoppers, and proper disposal of safety gloves.

Blissfully unaware of the #ShopSmart Pledge

All of these suggestions make tremendous sense. The biggest risk by far to grocery store workers is their constant and close proximity to shoppers, any of whom could easily infect them via airborne transmission of the coronavirus. What doesn't make sense is this memo, sent by the President and CEO of the NJ Food Council to mayors of many townships in New Jersey. Inexplicably, the memo concludes that reusable bags are a major health threat to grocery store workers, an issue that wasn't even mentioned by UFCW members. Almost certainly, this memo was motivated by this bit of propaganda created by the Plastic Industry Association. While a dirty reusable bag could conceivably pose a safety issue to its owner, there is no link whatsoever between reusable bags and grocery worker safety.

There's no denying that a shopper's reusable bag could become infected with the coronavirus. But so could every other object within the store, including the paper and plastic bags that are provided. That's why everything you purchase should be washed or put into quarantine when you return home.
   
While the State of New Jersey hasn't banned reusable bags, my local grocery store now forbids their use, even for customers willing to do their own bagging. Rather than argue the illogic of this policy with an overworked and over-stressed cashier, I settled on a workaround. When asked whether I wanted paper or plastic I responded, “No bags at all, please!” and unloaded my groceries onto the conveyor belt. I then went to the end of the checkout and loaded my groceries back into my shopping cart as soon as they were scanned. I think the cashier really appreciated it. I was done loading and out of her way seconds after she had scanned the last item. I rolled the cart out to my car, loaded everything into reusable bags that were stored in my trunk and went home. I was happy, the store was happy, and the environment was happy.

The Ten Plagues Easter Eggs

Two years ago, Marilynn and I drove to Massachusetts to attend our first-ever Seder with my son, his wife and members of her family. As a (lapsed) Catholic, I figured that the perfect way to bridge the two faiths was to bring our set of Easter eggs based on the Ten Plagues of Egypt.We made them back in the late 90's when all of our kids were either in high school or college. They quickly became a family heirloom, always good for a laugh during the holiday season.

Sadly, that particular family heirloom never got to experience a Seder. On our way to the event, our 2017 Toyota Prius caught fire in West Hartford and, to quote the incident report, "burned to a shell". Within that burned shell were 10 tiny shells as crispy as potato chips. The heirloom was toast. Worse, we never took a picture of this heirloom, something unheard of in these days of smartphones and Facebook.

This year we had once again planned to travel to Massachusetts to attend another Seder. Afterwards, we planned to swing over to New Hampshire to spend Easter with my daughter and her family. But another disaster (named COVID) intervened, forcing all of us stay sequestered for the holidays. But desperate times call for desperate measures. It was time to recreate the Ten Plagues of Egypt Easter Eggs!

Since we all had some time on our hands, we decided to turn this into an event.  The first step was the plague selection process. We quickly determined that the plagues had to be assigned randomly; otherwise we'd all fight over the flagship plague, the "Angel of Death". Each participant's name was written on a Domino Rally tile and all 10 tiles were loaded into another Mullen heirloom: my 1994 Rangers Stanley Cup mug. (They were on well on their way to winning the Cup again this year too!) I then opened a Zoom meeting to allow everyone to bear witness as I randomly drew holy tiles from the Sacred Cup. The resulting Scripture (showing the results of the assignation process) has been preserved and is shown below. If you click on it, you might have a few questions.
The first thing you'll note is the unique numbering sequence. Rather than the usual boring 1-10 format your grandfather would use, this list breaks into freestyle following "5". Next, you'll note that two plagues were assigned to families. With 10 plagues and 8 adults, we decided to give an extra plague to families with kids living with them. (No symbolism intended!).

Then there's the assignment of the flagship 10th plague. Somehow, this plague was assigned to the Angel of Death himself! I'm not sure what happened here but clearly the note taker was under more stress than the group realized. Finally, the list also reflects an issue that has bedeviled biblical scholars for thousands of years: What the hell was that Fourth Plague anyway? Some believe that the original Hebrew should be translated as "swarm of insects". However, per the  English version of the Passover Haggadah, this plague should be translated as a "swarm of wild animals". In an attempt to broker a truce between these two warring factions, let me just point out the obvious. When you categorize an item as "animal, vegetable or mineral", an insect is an animal. Therefore, both translations are accurate.  Q.E.D.

As a bonus, each participant was also tasked to create a "COVID-19 egg". Not all participants participated, though. Some just assumed the role of "idea man" and let their spouse do the actual work. At any rate, we only ended up with six COVID-19 eggs. All the eggs are shown below (click to enlarge). There was talk of having an elaborate scoring system to determine the Ultimate Egg of the contest, but everyone's jaw dropped when they saw the egg at the top of this post. Game over, man. Some of the other plague eggs are superb: the lice, the flies; hell, the Angel of Death works as comic relief and even the River of Blood is surprisingly artistic in an Yves Klein sort of way. But there's no topping that frog in a teacup.  Congratulations, Sara! And congratulations to the entire family for recreating a true Mullen Heirloom!

Shopping in the COVID-19 World

 

At this point, everyone living in the COVID-19 world undoubtedly understands the importance of sequestering, thoroughly washing your hands, covering your mouth when coughing or sneezing, and keeping a "social distance" from other human beings. You should also be shopping online as much as possible and wiping down packages once they arrive. But what exact procedure should you follow when you have to leave your house to pick up urgently needed items such as food, medicine or home supplies?  The procedure below may seem like overkill but think again. When it comes to the coronavirus, being safe and being "pretty safe" may be the difference between life and death. This procedure will only take a few additional minutes of your time.  You'll get used to it.

Goal:

Minimize the chance of catching the coronavirus while shopping

Assumptions:

1. You are clean (you don’t have the coronavirus), your house is clean and your car is clean.
2. You don’t want to disinfect your car, wash your clothes or take a shower when you return home.
3. You’re wearing a pair of pants with 2 deep pockets.
4. You have two keys/cards/fobs to operate your car.

Going out to Shop:

1. Scrupulously plan your shopping trip.  You want to spend as little time as possible in the store.Before leaving, put a credit card and one of your car “keys” into a small reusable, washable cloth bag. 
2. Put on your “outside” shoes (i.e., shoes you never wear inside the house).
3. Put your other car “key”, your wallet and your phone completely in your pockets.
4. Pack a bunch of reusable washable cloth bags to hold your purchases.
5. When you arrive at the store, put on a pair of disposable medical gloves. 
6. Once the gloves are on, don’t touch your face or your clothes.
7. Bring only what you absolutely need into the store: shopping list; the small bag containing your credit card and key; and reusable shopping bags. Your wallet, phone and second "key" are in your pockets.
8. Be sure to keep the small bag and your shopping list in your hand or in the shopping cart at all times.  Do not put either item in your pocket!
9. Shop as you normally would, but maintain a 6’ distance from all other human beings. 
10. Don’t sit, lean against a wall, or allow your clothes (other than shoes) to come into contact with anything.
11. When checking out, maintain a 6’ distance from the cashier (your biggest risk on this trip). Put all of your purchases on the checkout counter and bag your purchases at the other end of the counter using reusable washable bags. Use separate bags for items that can be left in quarantine for 3 days to decontaminate.
12. To pay, use the credit card in the small bag. After paying, put the credit card back in the bag and put that bag in the top of the shopping cart or in a shopping bag where it can be easily reached later.
13. Put your groceries in the cart and walk to your car. Take the “key” out of the small bag, unlock your car and load your groceries into the trunk. At no time let any of the bags come into contact with your clothing.
14. Safely take off your gloves (see the graphic below) and discard in a nearby trash can.  If no trash can is available, drop them into a shopping bag for disposal at home. 
15. Close the trunk without touching the same spot that you used to open it.
16. Using the key in your pocket, get in your car and drive home. (Your hands and car interior should be clean.)

Once You Arrive Home:

1. Put on your “inside” shoes.
2. Take your purchases out of the trunk. Discard gloves if you still have them.  Your hands are now contaminated.
3. Bring all non-essentials to a special quarantined area within your house and don't touch them for at least 3 days.  If no area exists, leave them in your garage.
4. Bring produce, items needed immediately, items needing refrigeration/freezing and the small bag containing your key and credit card to a pre-defined “dirty” counter near your kitchen sink.
5. Wash your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds.
6. Thoroughly rinse all produce with cool/cold water; no soap or disinfectant should be used.
7. Fill a basin in your sink with warm soapy water. Submerge and wash all purchases that can be cleaned in this manner (bottles, cans, items sealed in plastic packaging, etc.)
8. Spray and wipe down all other items (including your credit card and “key”) with soap and water or disinfectant solution. 
9. Place all washed items on a pre-defined “clean” counter to be used only for cleaned items.
10. Put all reusable washable cloth bags into your washing machine.
11. Wash your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds.
12. Thoroughly clean all countertops used in the cleaning process.
13. Since you can’t be sure you won’t need your car within the next 3 days, clean any external areas of your car that you touched while unloading. Cleaning your trunk is optional, but remember that it will be“dirty" for at least the next 3 days!
14. Clean any doorknobs that you touched and any place that was touched while cleaning your purchases.
15. Clean the spray bottle and any other items you used during the cleaning process that weren’t discarded.
16. Put all washcloths and towels that were used in the washing machine.
17. Clean the places that were touched on the washing machine; throw that cloth in the wash too!
18. Wash your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds one more time.
19. Have a drink. I don’t care what time it is. You’ve earned it.

Nancy (Mullen) Benco Oswald (1928 - 2018)

On Saturday morning, February 18, 2018, , Nancy (Mullen) Benco Oswald died at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, PA. She was one month shy of her 90th birthday. Nancy was the daughter of Patrick Mullen (born in Ballina, County Mayo) and Bridget McHugh (born in Glangevlin, County Cavan). She lived her entire life in the Philadelphia and Allentown areas and is predeceased by two husbands, Joseph P. Benco and Walter T. Oswald.

Although her health had been failing over the past couple of years, Nancy was determined to attend the wedding of her granddaughter, Laura, last May. A few months after attending that wedding, she set her sights on another goal: attending the annual Mullen Christmas Party this past January. She accomplished that goal, participating in a rousing Irish sing-a-long lead by her son, Joe.

She died peacefully in her sleep surrounded by all of her children. Below is her official obituary, along with a few photos of her throughout the years.

 Nancy T. (Mullen) Benco Oswald, 89, of Allentown, died Saturday, February 17, 2018 at Lehigh Valley Hospital - Cedar Crest. She was the beloved wife of the late Joseph P. Benco, Sr. to whom she has now rejoined in Heaven. Born in Philadelphia, March 13, 1928, Nancy was the daughter of the late Patrick J. and Bridget Agnes (McHugh) Mullen. She was employed as a unit clerk at Lehigh Valley Hospital - Cedar Crest for 17 years before retiring. Nancy was a member of St. Joseph the Worker Roman Catholic Church, Orefield serving as Lector, Eucharistic Minister and sang with the funeral choir. She volunteer as a religious counselor at the Lehigh County Prison. Survivors: Loving and devoted mother of Maureen T. Benco of Allentown, Elaine P. Benco Hersh and her husband, Frederick of Emmaus, Janet A. Benco McShane and partner, Robert S. Lavin of Macungie, Joseph P. Benco, Jr. and his wife, Mary of Hampton, NJ, James Patrick Benco of Allentown; brother, Joseph Mullen of Wayne; sister, Patricia Sears of Willow Grove; grandchildren, William, Laura, Christopher, Andrew, Julie, Joseph III, Jessica; predeceased by siblings, Jack, Mary, Thomas, James.

Service: A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated 10:30 am. Friday, February 23, 2018 at St. Joseph the Worker Roman Catholic Church, 1879 Applewood Drive, Orefield. The Rev. Joseph P. Becker will be the celebrant. Family and friends may pay their respects from 6 - 8:00 pm. Thursday and 9 - 9:45 am. Friday in the Heintzelman Funeral Home, Inc., 4906 Route 309, Schnecksville. Interment will take place at 2:00 pm. Saturday, February 24, 2018 at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Philadelphia. Online expressions of sympathy may be recorded at www.heintzelmancares.com. Contributions: In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to St. Joseph the Worker Angel Fund c/o the funeral home, P.O. Box # 196, Schnecksville, PA 18078-0196.

Nancy at the wedding of my parents in 1948

With her husband, Joseph Benco, at the same wedding

At the 2005 Mullen Christmas Party

Reviewing passenger ship manifests at the 2006 Mullen Christmas Party

A better photo of Nancy at the 2006 Mullen Christmas Party

Checking in at the 2008 Mullen Reunion in Ballina

At the "family farm" in Ballina in 2008

With her son, Jim, in Puerto de Cádiz in 2014

At her birthday party in March, 2017

At her granddaughter's wedding in May, 2017

Kathleen Duffy (1923-2017)

It is with sadness that I report the death of Kathleen Duffy on October 26, 2017, from complications caused by pneumonia.  Although she lived to the age of 94, her sudden sickness and death still caught me by surprise.  When I spoke with her on her birthday last August she still sounded strong and clear of mind. Her obituary, written by her nephews Patrick Mills (standing, center, in the photo above) and  Brian Fowler (standing, upper right) can be found here.  

From a genealogical perspective, Kathleen Duffy was my third cousin once removed, but from every other perspective she was much closer than that.  I first "met" Kathleen back in 2005 after my first visit to Ireland.  During that visit my interest in genealogy was fueled by a meeting in Ballina with Vince Duffy who showed me a large family tree that had been put together by his late father (Sean Duffy) and his father's cousin (Madge Messenger).  When I returned to the States, I sent a packet of information to Madge describing my interest in genealogy and asking for her help. A few months later, though, that packet was returned to me unopened with a note stating that it had never been claimed.  I decided to send the packet to Madge's sister, Kathleen Duffy, who called me at my home a week or so later.  She informed me that Madge's health had deteriorated to the point that she could no longer participate in detailed genealogical discussions, but that she would help me if she could.  This phone call initiated a friendship between us that would last until Kathleen's unexpected death. 

Letter to Aunt Mary

In early 2006 I began to organize a reunion of the extended Mullen Family in Ballina. Kathleen was overjoyed when she heard of this.  She stated that she was battling a number of physical ailments but that she would try her best to be there. I told her that I completely understood if she could not attend and mentioned that my Aunt Mary (a year older than Kathleen) was facing a similar dilemma.  A day or two later I received an email from Kathleen.  Embedded within was a note that Kathleen asked me to forward to Aunt Mary, a woman that Kathleen had never even met!  Click on the image on the right and take a minute or two to read this note.  It will provide you with a small inkling of Kathleen's unique personality and her ability to connect with others.  Ultimately, Aunt Mary's illness prevented her from attending the Reunion and meeting Kathleen.  Still, Kathleen would often ask me about Aunt Mary in her emails. 

At the 2008 Reunion

Kathleen and I finally met face-to-face at the Mullen Reunion in Ballina in 2008. While that event was, in many ways, a tremendous success, I didn't spend as much time as I would have liked with Kathleen.  Thankfully, my extended family had a chance to talk with her at length, and she made a deep and lasting impression on them -- and vice-versa.  This was epitomized on the morning after the Reunion as the U.S. contingent was climbing on a bus for a tour of western Ireland.  Kathleen, of course, had insisted on being there to see us off.  As the bus pulled away from the Downhill House Hotel, the last thing we all saw was Kathleen waving goodbye to us with her handkerchief.  I didn't capture that moment in a photo but I can still see it in my mind's eye as I type these words.  

In the years which followed, we continued to stay in touch, but it was mostly by email (Kathleen was very good with email into her 90's!)  She would often ask when Marilynn and I would return for another visit.  Sadly, we only managed to get back to England twice -- once during a week long vacation in 2009 (when the photo at the top of the post was taken) and again in 2015 when we attended Maire Davies' 70th birthday party.  It was during the 2015 visit that we had the pleasure of meeting Bridie Simkins, a woman whom Kathleen called "my best friend".  Marilynn and I had brought some gin and tonic with us as Bridie had told us that it was Kathleen's favorite drink.  We spent a lovely evening with Kathleen at Bridie and Ernie's house but, somehow, forgot to drink a gin and tonic!  After we returned to the States, Bridie sent us a short video of Kathleen.  I think it's fitting to end this memorial to Kathleen by clicking on the link below and hearing a few words from Kathleen herself -- sitting around with her best friend while enjoying a gin and tonic.

Kathleen and Bridie enjoying a G&T:  November 2015

My Day of Living Dangerously

A couple of days ago I inadvertently sliced my finger while unwrapping an Oster blender / food processor that I got for my birthday.  (Damn!  I should have looked at that YouTube unboxing video first!)   It wasn't a huge slice but it was bleeding like a sonovabitch, so I hustled to the medicine cabinet for a BAND-AID® (registered trademark of Johnson & Johnson) and some kind of ointment.  Sadly, the cabinet contained only a box of minimally sticky CVS bandages and no antiseptic ointment of any kind. With no real option, I decided to use a CVS bandage sans ointment.  Then I spotted a little bottle hiding in the corner of the cabinet containing a substance that I had almost forgotten about, something that -- if you're under 30 -- you've probably never heard of.  Its chemical name is "merbromin" but it was mass-marketed in the United States for the better part of a century under a different name: Mercurochrome. 

Opening the Oster blender box without assistance took courage, but what happened next was truly living dangerously.  I unscrewed the top off of the bottle, removed the glass applicator and placed a daub of Mercurochrome on my cut finger.  And there you have it.  I have just admitted to self-medicating myself with a drug that has been banned in the United States of America.  #politicalcareerover.

 

Click to enlarge

At this point you're probably wondering why Mercurochrome is a banned substance. Well, there's a short answer and a long answer.  The short answer is that it contains mercury, a substance identified by the EPA as a neurotoxin which, in sufficient quantities, is detrimental to your health.  The long answer is much more interesting.

The Long Answer

After extensive research via that fake-news pipeline known as the Internet, I learned that, in 1889, a John Hopkins professor named Ira Remsen created a substance called phenolsulfonphthalein (as difficult to pronounce as it looks).  In 1919, Hugh H. Young, another John Hopkins professor, built on that discovery to create merbromin, a related compound containing a trace amount of mercury. Finally, a third guy named Dr. H.A.B. Dunning developed a two percent solution of merbromin that would become known as Mercurochrome.  While initially used as a urinary antiseptic, Mercurochrome was soon sold to the public as an all-purpose antiseptic for small cuts and scratches.  Its trace amount of mercury acted as a disinfectant, disrupting the metabolism of microorganisms that could infect an exposed wound.

Mercurochrome quickly became a staple of every first aid kit in America. The FDA, which in those days didn't have the power or the resources to effectively regulate every drug, classified it as "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS).  Things stayed that way until 1978 when the FDA began a twenty year review of all over-the-counter antiseptics. While it found no evidence that Mercurochrome caused mercury poisoning, the FDA removed it from the GRAS list in 1998 anyway.  It also reclassified it as a "new drug.  This meant that a company wishing to continue producing Mercurochrome had to go through the FDA's onerous (and expensive!) approval process.  Unsurprisingly, no company elected to go through this process since:

• There were already many other non-mercury based antiseptics available to consumers.
• The patent on Mercurochrome had expired.  If a company chose to invest the time and money and managed to persuade the FDA to approve Mercurochrome, any other  company would then be able to produce a generic version. 
• Mercurochrome was a very inexpensive drug to make with a very low profit margin.
• The public had become wary of anything that contained even a trace amount of mercury.

Is it Safe?

According to this publication on a website called ISPUB (Internet Science Publications), Mercurochrome is as safe as bath water:

"Generally speaking, methylmercury is the poisonous form which is not the form of mercury found in Mercurochrome, thermometers, dental fillings, electrical switches, or vaccines. Mercurochrome contains mercury in a disodium salt form which is considered to be perfectly safe."

Despite it's impressively sounding name, ISPUB has all of the earmarks of a fake news site or, at bare minimum, a site without the proper amount of scientific oversight.  I resorted to quoting from it because, after 4 hours of searching the web, it was the only site I could find that even attempted to address the safety question.  Every other site avoided the issue with variants of "If the FDA banned it, it must be dangerous!" or "Better safe than sorry!".  While I understand those sentiments, there still should be some objective scientific evidence as to whether Mercurochrome is safe or not, especially since it is still being produced and used by other countries.   But as far as I've been able to determine, the effect of Mercurochrome on humans has never been rigorously tested and documented.

Since there appears to be no medical proof for the relative safety of Mercurochrome, let me leave you with the following logical proof:

• References to Mercurochrome describe it as a 2% aqueous solution of merbromin containing a "trace amount of mercury".
• Per FDA documents, a "trace amount" of mercury must be less than 1 part per million.
• The FDA has also set the maximum permissible safe level of mercury in seafood at 1 part per million.  
• A drop of Mercurochrom (which is mostly water) weighs approximately 0.050 grams.
• A recommended serving size of swordfish is approximately 100 grams.
• Therefore, eating a meal consisting of a recommended serving size of swordfish will expose your body to 2,000 times the amount of mercury that is contained in a drop of Mercurochrome. 
• Stated another way, you can put 2,000 drops of Mercurochrome on your body before it becomes a mercury health-hazard greater than a single FDA-approved swordfish dinner.

  Q.E.D.                             

PS:  Mercurochrome remains banned in the United States, France, Germany and Switzerland.

William J. Behrens and the Man of Steel

About four years ago, I joined a genealogical research site called Ancestry and began investigating the Hugues branch of my mother's family tree.  In a relatively short period of time, that tree has grown to over 1,100 verified names.  That may sound like a lot of names but, in genealogical terms, it's not that impressive.

Think of it this way:  Assume that you want to build a comprehensive family tree that extends from the present day back to the signing of the Declaration of Independence (1776).  That's a span of 241 years or approximately 10 generations.  Let's also assume that, as you progress down through the generations, three children from each family marry and have (on average) three children of their own who marry,  and so on, down through the generations.  The chart on the left shows how quickly a family tree based on these simple assumptions can explode into almost 200,000 names!  All of this is a roundabout way of saying that there are quite a few names on my Hugues Family Tree that have not been fully explored.  One such name belongs to a man named William J. Behrens.

William J. Behrens was my mother's second cousin.  He was the son of Henry Behrens and Martha Mehan and was born in San Francisco, CA, on September 12, 1921.  Per Ancestry's California Marriage Index, William married a woman named Noel Heill in Los Angeles, CA, on August 27, 1953.  He died in Los Angeles on February 12, 2011, at the age of 89.  That, in a nutshell, was everything I could find out about William J. Behrens.  Ancestry contained no other information about his wife and no leads at all regarding children.  After a while, I marked William Behrens as a "cold case" and moved on to other names. 

Who called him "Papa"?

Last week, though, a colleague on Ancestry (and also my third cousin) posted a photo of the gravestone of William J. Behrens.  I already had this photo but I clicked on it anyway, just for the hell of it. Surprisingly, I saw something I hadn't noticed before.  Above his name was the word "Papa".  To me, this was a strong indicator that he had, indeed, fathered at least one child.  The game was once again afoot!  I dusted off my Ancestry research skills and dove in. 

Pay dirt!

It had been quite a while since I'd done any research on this guy so I was hoping to find a fresh, new lead.  That hope was quickly dashed.  After about an hour of searching I hadn't turned up anything meaningful on him or his wife, Noel Heill.  In fact, other than that reference in the California Marriage Index, I had absolutely nothing on his wife, not even a date of birth!  I decided to bring up a scanned image of that marriage index to see if it contained anything else of use ... and did it ever!  William's wife was not named Noel Heill.  Her name was Noel Neill!  If that name means nothing to you, it's probably because you weren't born before 1960 and didn't watch the Superman TV show on channel 11, WPIX, starring George Reeves as the Man of Steel.  Noel Neill was the name of the actress that played Lois Lane!

All this seemed a little too good to be true.  Before I could announce this monumental discovery, I needed ironclad proof.  Now that I had Noel's correct name, this turned out to be pretty simple: 

1. The California Birth Index confirmed that William J. Behrens, with a mother whose maiden name was Mehan, was born on September 12, 1921.
2. The Minnesota, Birth Index confirmed that Noel Darleen Neill was born on November 25, 1920.
3. The California Marriage Index (above) confirmed that William Behrens (age 31) and Noel Neill (age 32) were married on August 27, 1953.  Both ages correspond exactly to the information contained in their birth index records.

On top of that, there's this excerpt from a Wikipedia entry on Noel Neill:

Personal life
In 1943, Neill married makeup artist Harold Lierley in Hollywood, California. The marriage was annulled shortly afterward. Neill then married William Behrens in 1953 in Santa Monica, California; the marriage ended in divorce in 1962. While still married to Behrens, the Superman television program was cancelled. 

That sealed the deal for me.  In the TV series, Lois Lane never married Superman.  But in real life, William J. Behrens was her Man of Steel! 

George Reeves and Noel Neill in the 1950's

Noel Neill died last year. In her obituary, the New York Times failed to mention any children, noting only that she had "no surviving family members".  Since Behrens was in his 40's at the time of their divorce, it's probably a safe bet that he, too, died without children.  Maybe the word "Papa" on his gravestone was simply his nickname:  "Papa Behrens", a play on "Papa Bear".  Whatever.  It's time to close this case again and move on to a new name.  

---

Postscript:

Here we go again.  While writing this story, I couldn't resist the urge to continue researching.  When the Ancestry well ran dry I switched to a second genealogical site called Family Search.  I created a search using everything I now knew about Noel Neill and William Behrens and hit ENTER.  Unbelievably, my results included a copy of their actual marriage certificate from a database called "California, County Marriages, 1850-1952":

Mind blown ... again!

This document confirms beyond a shadow of a doubt that William John Behrens, my mother's second cousin and the son of Martha Mehan and Henry Behrens, married Noel Darleen Neill in 1953.  But it also raises a brand new issue:  Before marrying Noel Neill, William Behrens had been married twice before!  So maybe he does have descendants after all!

The game is afoot!