Published: March 20, 2008 10:10 pm            

STAN CHAMPER It's odd the way ties seem to play 03/21/08

It’s been one of those weeks when it seems everything is interconnected, perhaps not in terms as stated centuries ago by eastern philosophers, but uniquely interesting nevertheless.

For Instance No. 1 was the production “John Adams” being aired on HBO and inspired by the Pulitzer-winning book authored by historian David McCullough. Because of it, I’ve had some late bedtimes this week.

Created to run in seven installments, it’s a fascinating examination of Adams as husband and father and the evolution of his politics on his way to becoming a key player among our Founding Fathers.

If you haven’t been watching, you’ve missed some great portrayals by Paul Giamatti in the title role, Laura Linney as Adams’ wife Abigail, and David Morse as George Washington, among others.

The props and backdrops, reconstructed settings of Boston and Philadelphia, and period clothing — from the three-cocked hats down to the silk stockings — give the series an aura of authenticity.

Colonial America in the years surrounding the Revolutionary War is recreated with an attention to detail that brought kudos from McCullough himself when interviewed for one of those “the making of ...” programs.

During the course of the week, with my thoughts drifting to the first two installments of “John Adams,” here came three more boxes from the third floor of The Independent’s building, carrying For Instance No. 2.

I mentioned in this column a couple of weeks ago that such a box found in storage on the upper level was full of original copies of this newspaper published on the dates of significant events in U.S. history.

The three boxes brought down this week contained more of the same, but in one of them was a gem that I wasn’t aware existed, and therefore never would have searched out in our microfilm archives.

It was a complete Sunday, July 24, 1949, edition of this newspaper dedicated to an anniversary and celebration in our county seat. Catlettsburg was marking its centennial.

The community had been in place much longer, but it was on this date that it was laid out into town lots. Five years later, the same kind of “divisioning” would take place in Ashland.

The week long celebration in Catlettsburg was a big event, with thousands participating, and would close with a program at which Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson was principal speaker.

Special guests would include Gov. Earle C. Clements, U.S. Senator Virgil Chapman, Congressman Joe Bates, and former governors Simeon S. Willis, Keen Johnson and A.B. “Happy” Chandler.

But what I found most interesting about this newspaper was the extent to which it reported on Catlettsburg’s history, a great amount of information and much of it appearing in a story under the byline R.A. McCullough.

I didn’t get to know Robert A. McCullough Sr. until years later when he held executive management positions with this newspaper, culminating in a tenure of leadership as our publisher.

The news writing part of his career was well before my time, but if the work he produced for the Catlettsburg Centennial Edition can be seen as an indication of his abilities, he plied the trade very well.

His research was extensive, his documentation comprehensive.

Bob McCullough took his readers back to a time at this place in the country that predates the laying out of Catlettsburg — to the settlement of the Catlett family and ultimately the land titles of Col. Charles Smith as a Savage Grant recipient.

In the process, he taught me some things about local history, and I’d fancied myself a pretty good student of the chronology of events leading up to what we know today as Catlettsburg and Boyd County.

Also in the process, he painted for his readers a picture of what it was like here in the western reaches of this great land precisely at the time when back east musket balls were flying at Concord and a new nation was about to be born.

As far as I know, there were no family ties between David McCullough and Bob McCullough. It’s purely a coincidental element of two very different stories growing out of the same moment in history ... and laid before me in the same week. It’s been one of those weeks when it seems everything is interconnected.

STAN CHAMPER can be reached at schamper@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2640.

        

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