Contemporary History # 17 - A Cautionary Tale
One of my quests in discovering all I can about “our” Drum Tree concerns names; why was a specific name chosen. Some are very easy to figure out. Take Philip, for example. Philip is a Biblical name. There are two primary people named Philip in the New Testament: Philip the Apostle (one of the original twelve disciples) and Philip the Evangelist (one of the seven deacons). There are also two minor royal figures mentioned: Herod Philip I and Herod Philip II.
A religious family would know Philip is a Biblical name
and therefore would likely choose this name for their child. My guess is that
the first Philip Drum, whether our progenitor or someone earlier of whom we are
as of yet unaware, was named after Philip the Apostle, but who knows? That is
anyone’s guess, at this point. However, once Philip was used, descendants continued
to choose Philip to honor one of, or all, the earlier Philip(s) and thus the
name was/is repeated down, or up, as the case may be, the tree.
Thus, we have our progenitor named Philip. His grandson, George, names his first child Philip in 1787. That Philip’s son, John, names one of his sons Philip in 1853. John’s brother, Nathan, also names one of his sons Philip in 1871. Then that name, as far as we know, takes a rest until my wife and I resurrect it by naming our son Philip in 1995. Why did we choose the name Philip? Actually, there were several reasons, but the main one was because the Drum’s progenitor’s name was Philip. Full circle.
I’m sure many of “us” are curious to know the reasons why certain names in “our” Drum tree were chosen. Some are, maybe, obvious. Others, not so much. For a few, we just want to know what they are! Some examples follow.
Nathan S. Drum (1837-1915). For the longest time I’ve wondered just what that “S” stood for. Now we know. Barbara Montague, Nathan’s Great-Granddaughter (I think), found a family bible that provided not only Nathan’s “S”, but a bunch of his children’s middle names as well. The “S” is Snyder, by the way. My guess is that Snyder was a family name in one of the spouses’ trees, but I haven’t checked.
Redmond Conyngham Drum (1842-1915) was probably
named in honor of State Senator Redmond Conyngham, the cousin of Captain
Gustavus Conyngham, a famous Continental Navy hero of the American
Revolutionary War for whom Conyngham, PA was named. When the townspeople wanted
to name the town after Redmond, he insisted it be named after Gustavus instead
to honor his service to the colonial cause.[1]
In the end, however, it still comes out as Conyngham, either way.
Lucetta Drum Burcaw (1827-1849) might be
named after a character in William Shakespeare’s play The Two Gentlemen of
Verona (Julia's waiting-woman, if you are familiar with the play). She also
could be named after Saint Lucia (Lucy) of Syracuse. Saint Lucia is a revered
Christian martyr, so Lucy/Lucia/Lucetta is very commonly used in Christian and
European cultures.
Rebekah Drum (1827-1838), Lucetta’s twin sister, like
Philip, may also be named for a Biblical figure. Rebekah, or Rebecca, is the
wife of Isaac, and the mother of Jacob and Esau. Her story is told in the Book
of Genesis (chapters 22 through 49).
George W. Drum (1832-1913) and (1827-1890), take
your pick. There are two. What does the “W” stand for? Could it be Washington?
Benjamin F. Drum (1855-1929). Franklin? We do have
a Franklin L. Drum (born about 1886, no other information) in the tree. Franklin
L.’s father was Francis George Drum. Did Francis know that the earlier Benjamin
F. Drum’s middle name was Franklin, possibly in honor of Benjamin Franklin?
George B. McC. Drum (1865-1931). Benjamin F.’s
brother. The way I’ve listed George here is how he appears in the 1880 census.
In 1864, the Union general, George B. McClellan, was the Democratic Candidate
for President. He lost to Abraham Lincoln. John was a Democrat. Was “our”
George B. named after the Union General George B.?
Heister Hower Drum (1914-2004). No clue, only
guesses.
Ronald Clayton Drum (that’s me). My mom wanted to
name me Frederick, for no other reason than she just liked the name. I believe
my dad talked her out of it. I don’t know why. I also don’t know why they
settled on Ronald. Clayton, however, was my mother’s brother’s name.
My grandfather was Elmer Alonzo Drum (1895-1959). No clue on why Elmer was chosen but Alonzo appears a few times in our tree. The first one that I am aware of is John’s son, and George’s and Ben’s brother, Philip Alonzo Drum (1853-1883). So, why was Alonzo chosen in 1853? I did a little looking. Actually, I asked Google because Google knows everything. We had quite the conversation. It boiled down to this (which seems to be correct. You’ll see why I added that in a few more sentences below).
As we’ve seen above, protocols for naming children in the 1800s in many communities but especially the German American community (and even in many communities today), usually was based on family traditions (honoring parents or earlier ancestors). However, there was a movement around the 1850s where first names were chosen to honor traditional family names and middle names were chosen for their “modern” aspect, representing the more popular/social trends of that time. The name Alonzo may have been chosen in tribute to Episcopal Bishop Alonzo Potter, who was highly respected by most protestant denominations in Luzerne County and eastern PA in the 1850s. Remember, John did have a propensity for choosing “famous” names for his children. Another possibility is the highly popular Gothic Romance novel Alonzo and Melissa, a book that was even mentioned by Mark Twain. It was one of the most widely read books in rural PA in the 1800s, frequently sold by traveling book sellers visiting taverns and inns such as the Drums Tavern/Hotel. This book was so popular that, in many areas, it caused a baby-naming boom. See The Popular Book by James D. Hart for details.
However, during my conversation with Google, Google was trying to connect various ancestor names to the idea of family names and important people names being used to name children. At one point it said an example of this was the Drum child named George W. Drum whose full name was: George Washington Alonzo Drum. Well, I just about fell off my chair!
Could this be possible? I mean, I’ve not found ANYTHING that said that, but I imagine Google does have access to more resources than I do. So, I checked the sources Google gave for this information but only saw sources I’d seen before, and none suggested anything close to George Washington Alonzo Drum.
Frustrated, I asked Google, “What is the source for this information?” Google replied:
I want to apologize directly and set the record straight: George Washington Alonzo Drum is not a real person found in historical records, and I made an error in synthesizing that name in our previous turn.
I hallucinated the full middle name "Washington Alonzo" by combining historical details.
Hallucinated? Um, ok. At least Google apologized.
It is, however, a cautionary tale! Check everything that can be checked that is
provided by Google. I asked Google if it makes mistakes and it replied:
Yes, Google can be wrong. Google is a computer program that indexes web pages, not an all-knowing truth machine (That was a bit snarky!). It frequently makes mistakes in automated summaries, AI-generated answers, maps directions, and search rankings.
Of course, that begs the question, could Google be wrong
in this answer as well, but I decided not to ask that, even if it did make me
laugh.
[1]
Roger H. Moore (ED), Celebrate Conyngham: A Centennial History of Conyngham
Borough 1901-2001, The Conyngham Borough Centennial Committee, 2001, p. 8
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