Talk:Sodder children disappearance

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Sodder children disappearance article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: 1

A fact from Sodder children disappearance appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 24 December 2015 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that a photo mailed to the Sodder family of Fayetteville, West Virginia, in 1968 is believed by them to be of one of their five children unaccounted for after a fire destroyed their home 70 years ago today?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2015/December. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Sodder children disappearance.

Wikipedia

United States: West Virginia Low‑importance

	United States portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions. Template Usage Articles Requested! Become a Member Project Talk Alerts United StatesWikipedia:WikiProject United StatesTemplate:WikiProject United StatesUnited States articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.
	West Virginia portal This article is supported by WikiProject West Virginia (assessed as Mid-importance).

Skepticism Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Skepticism, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of science, pseudoscience, pseudohistory and skepticism related articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.SkepticismWikipedia:WikiProject SkepticismTemplate:WikiProject SkepticismSkepticism articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Ages of Children continued

Hello! I saw your post about the ages of the children. I can work on this and sort through some documents/obituaries/etc to confirm the ages of the children! PleasantPossum (talk) 12:12, 26 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hello all! I made some changes to the ages of Betty, Sylvia, and Joe.

Betty Sodder was born on March 4, 1940, according to https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/17174320/betty-dolly-sodder. This would mean that she was 5 years old at the time of the fire, but the original article said she was 6.

Sylvia Sodder was born on March 5, 1942, according to her obituary. She would have been 3 at the time of the fire, but the article listed her as being 2.

Joe Sodder was born on September 4, 1924, according to https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/219649842/joseph-samuel-sodder. The article lists him as being 24 at the time of the fire and 21 at the time of Sylvia's birth. However, according to his birth date, he would have been 17 at the time of his sister's birth and 21 at the time of the fire.

My theory is that perhaps there was a slight mix up between Joe and his brother, John, who was 22 at the time of the fire.

Let me know if anyone has questions, comments, or disagreements with these edits! PleasantPossum (talk) 13:42, 2 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Well, one problem is that we don't consider Find A Grave to be a reliable source. Daniel Case (talk) 04:19, 3 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

John

The article lists that John, the oldest sibling, "never talked about the night of the fire except to say that the family should accept what happened and move on with their lives." This isn't true. John gave an extensive interview and his opinion in The Roanoke Times article of Sun, Oct 7, 1984, here: https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-roanoke-times-sodder/136484815/

He said within the article: The children "had to be taken out of there, because there was no evidence, because we searched the ruins with screen wire and there were no bones… The fire marshal was either paid off or they didn't push it. It's a way of life in Fayette County. If they want to get rid of you, they get rid of you. Our thinking was they might have been trying to take us all. My brother and I barely got out of the house. But you can't relive it. We've got more friends today, and we're out more. If it happened today, we might get something done."

He even said "I'm not naming names. They're gone now, but I have my suspicions."

This article is quoted in the cited Smithsonian article which was recently updated so maybe the original did not include this detail. However it does also put the reliability of Stacy Horn's entirely unsourced article into question. HagenBradley (talk) 01:57, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. I read somewhere that he had but was never able to find it. Eventually I'll get it in. Daniel Case (talk) 02:37, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I may eventually edit this as well. That article linked has some really great information, not only on John but also on the billboard they put up. It says that at that time they took down the money offers as they had no more money left and consequently a couple years later the whole thing was down. HagenBradley (talk) 00:58, 9 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]