Wrong Photo in Porter's Book?

augusta · Post by **augusta** » Thu Dec 25, 2008 8:49 pm

I believe I read in Rebello a few weeks ago that one of the photos Porter has in his book is the wrong one. It isn't Dr. Bowen, is it?

mbhenty · Post by **mbhenty** » Thu Dec 25, 2008 11:15 pm

WILL THE REAL MR ROBINSON PLEASE STEP FOWARD.......

Harry · Post by **Harry** » Fri Dec 26, 2008 8:45 am

Rebello's book has this on page 359:

"The photograph of Att. Robinson in Porter's book is actually Oliver Ames of Easton, Massachusetts. (See Chafflin, History of Easton, p. 258)"

An Oliver Ames was the Governor of Mass. following Robinson. There was also an Oliver Ames, Jr. The son was questioned during jury selection (page 24 of the trial):

"OLIVER AMES, 2nd, Easton. Not related to the parties.
Q. Have you formed or expressed any opinion in relation to the case?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Have you any bias or prejudice?
A. Yes, sir.
Excused."

From newspaper accounts he was opposed to the death penalty.

The photo of Governor Ames, IMO, doesn't seem to resemble the photo in Porter's book. Perhaps this is not the Oliver Ames mentioned in Rebello.

augusta · Post by **augusta** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 10:17 am

Thanks, mb and Harry!

Thanks for posting the photos, too!

"Boy! We're gonna have ourselves a time here! ... Uh, what're we gonna do?" - Gene Hackman as 'Buck Barrow', Bonnie & Clyde.

Stefani · Post by **Stefani** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 10:33 am

Harry, the photo you have is from the dreaded Wikipedia. I cannot find an online copy of the History of Easton, so perhaps the image you post is also not him. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts site does not include a portrait of the former governor either.

Ames was governor after Robinson, by the way, which is an interesting tidbit in and of itself.

doug65oh · Post by **doug65oh** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 12:06 pm

Here's a park service site with a photo of Oliver Ames, at http://www.nps.gov/archive/gosp/research/ames.html

Harry · Post by **Harry** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 12:10 pm

This photo of Ames is from Find-A-Grave and closely resembles the man in Porter's book:

Here's the URL for Find-A-Grave:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cg ... d=15300593

There appears to be several men with that name.

doug65oh · Post by **doug65oh** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 12:48 pm

Harry,

If you hop over to http://www.archive.org, select "American Libraries" as a source from the dropdown then search for Oliver Ames, one result will come up - a small book titled A memorial of Oliver Ames. The gent in question was apparently born at Plymouth, Mass 5th November 1807, deceased at North Easton 9th March 1877. Not many pages into the volume there's a photo of Ames - or what appears to be a photograph anyway - sometimes it's not easy to tell in the older books. The image, however, appears identical to the one on the nps.gov site I found.

(That FindaGrave image looks more like Oakes Ames than Oliver to me.)

Harry · Post by **Harry** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 1:00 pm

If he died in 1877 it can't be our Oliver Ames. Our "Ollie" was governor after Robinson in 1887.

I'm pretty satisfied the photo from Find-A-Grave is our man. The fellow who posted it has a long history of posting to that site.

BTW, remove the comma after .org. It makes the URL invalid.

doug65oh · Post by **doug65oh** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 1:22 pm

Harry, the link/memorial volume I found seems to concern Oliver Ames, Sr. Appears to be the same family though.

Oh this is interesting: If the information at http://www.eastonmass.net/historic/oliver3.htm is correct, the information I located, the feller was Governor Ames's grandfather.

augusta · Post by **augusta** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:44 am

Interesting posts, Doug and Harry. The park site Doug found gives a good history of the family background. (I did have to laugh seeing that this family, mentioned in conjunction with the Borden case, were in the shovel making business.

)

Geez, I just opened this book of New Bedford Evening Standard articles I bought at the FRHS a while back for a totally different purpose, and on June 9, 1893 I find:

"A New Jury
Rev. Dr. Edward Everett Hale and ex-governor Ames are on a new jury for the Borden trial. The New York Recorder has asked these two gentlemen and John F. Andrew, George Fred Williams, Colonel A.A. Pope, and Mrs. Lucy Stone, all of Massachusetts, and General Thomas L. James, Hon. J. Edward Simmons, Hon. William Sulzer, Hon. De Lancey Nicoli, Mr. Samuel Gompers, and T.S. Robertson, all of New York, to say, after the trial, whether the case against Lizzie Borden is "proven" or "not proven", and the twelve had consented."

Stefani · Post by **Stefani** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 11:13 am

So are we in agreement that Wikipedia is incorrect . . . . again . . .

Harry · Post by **Harry** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 11:48 am

And again.....

augusta · Post by **augusta** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 11:53 am

I never use Wikipedia. It is no friend of a good researcher.

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 3:23 am

Thanks for the extra little snippet you found, Sherry!

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 4:59 am

Frank Ames and Oliver Ames
I've included the Title page with the excerpt.
It is a Google book, btw.

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 5:10 am

Speaking of Google Books...

Just an aside: I had downloaded a book called Famous Mysteries, by John Elfreth Watkins, 1919 and upon looking at it, near the very beginning is this handjotted notation:

"This is a rather amusing book, but if the percentage of rot and mis-statement is as high throughout, as it is in the cases I know about, the book is worse than worthless as even near-history."-- it wasn't me!

Stefani · Post by **Stefani** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 4:23 pm

Wikipedia is a MESS.

http://valleywag.gawker.com/5122766/wik ... t-of-a-job

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 2:41 am

How come there's only 1 download? There's 2 bios there, on brothers Ames, and a photo to be had! Yum!

Stefani · Post by **Stefani** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 10:28 am

Who writes Wikipedia?

http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/whowriteswikipedia

Just thought you might like to read this. Fascinating stuff!!

Harry · Post by **Harry** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 12:02 pm

Kat @ Sun Jan 04, 2009 2:41 am wrote:How come there's only 1 download? There's 2 bios there, on brothers Ames, and a photo to be had! Yum!

I believe that was my download.