T
Treasures2Find
Guest
The following is one small point that makes me consider Thomas Beale to have been a real acquaintance of Robert Morriss.
"Such a man was Thomas J. Beale, as he appeared in 1820, and in his subsequent visit to my house. He registered simply from Virginia, but I am of the impression he was from some western portion of the State. Curiously enough, he never adverted to his family or to his antecedents, nor did I question him concerning them, as I would have done had I dreamed of the interest that in the future would attach to his name..."
Why did Robert Morriss think That Beale was from some western portion of the state of Virginia? Considering Morriss' description of Beale, we might think his view of Beale was that of a mountain man, which is certainly representative of the western portion of Virginia. On further review, however, the real reason seems to be clear.
When Morriss gives his impression as to where Beale was from, he references Beale's family in the same paragraph, which suggests that family was the reason for said impression. Beale's two companions went farther east, to near Richmond, to visit their families, from whom they had been absent a long time, but Beale stayed with Morriss the whole time, and never are we told anything of Beale visiting family, having been away for more than two and a half years. It would make sense then for Morriss to have considered the probability of Beale having already visited his family, somewhere west of Lynchburg, though in the state of Virginia, as he registered.
This, to me, doesn't seem devised by a writer of fiction, as it is somewhat hidden in the passage. I had read the story multiple times before recognizing the connection. If I were writing this as a work of fiction, I would make sure that this connection was clear on first glance, and not something that has to be gleaned from years of research and thought. I know there are those who will say that the above is obvious, but the fact remains that neither they, nor I, had seen it until now. This, in my opinion, does lend some credence to the truth of the Beale story.
The above is not to show where Beale was from, but rather to show Morriss' reason for thinking Beale to be from the Western part of Virginia, and linking it to his family as the reason he thought so. This doesn't seem like fiction to me.
"Such a man was Thomas J. Beale, as he appeared in 1820, and in his subsequent visit to my house. He registered simply from Virginia, but I am of the impression he was from some western portion of the State. Curiously enough, he never adverted to his family or to his antecedents, nor did I question him concerning them, as I would have done had I dreamed of the interest that in the future would attach to his name..."
Why did Robert Morriss think That Beale was from some western portion of the state of Virginia? Considering Morriss' description of Beale, we might think his view of Beale was that of a mountain man, which is certainly representative of the western portion of Virginia. On further review, however, the real reason seems to be clear.
When Morriss gives his impression as to where Beale was from, he references Beale's family in the same paragraph, which suggests that family was the reason for said impression. Beale's two companions went farther east, to near Richmond, to visit their families, from whom they had been absent a long time, but Beale stayed with Morriss the whole time, and never are we told anything of Beale visiting family, having been away for more than two and a half years. It would make sense then for Morriss to have considered the probability of Beale having already visited his family, somewhere west of Lynchburg, though in the state of Virginia, as he registered.
This, to me, doesn't seem devised by a writer of fiction, as it is somewhat hidden in the passage. I had read the story multiple times before recognizing the connection. If I were writing this as a work of fiction, I would make sure that this connection was clear on first glance, and not something that has to be gleaned from years of research and thought. I know there are those who will say that the above is obvious, but the fact remains that neither they, nor I, had seen it until now. This, in my opinion, does lend some credence to the truth of the Beale story.
The above is not to show where Beale was from, but rather to show Morriss' reason for thinking Beale to be from the Western part of Virginia, and linking it to his family as the reason he thought so. This doesn't seem like fiction to me.
