Talk:Thomas Fletcher (Arkansas politician)

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Category:American slave owners

No mention of slave-owning. I feel that this category should be restricted to people whose slave-owning history was notable in itself. Valetude (talk) 19:17, 20 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Thomas Fletchers

This is crossposted from Talk:List of governors of Arkansas, because it's useful here:

I was working on this and got up to Thomas Fletcher. I was reviewing sources, and started to notice strange things: Otherwise accurate sources disagreed completely on them.

There appear to be at least two Thomas Fletchers, and even contemporary sources bungled them.

Here is what I've found:

February 26, 1880: The Arkansas Democrat announces the death of Thomas Fletcher, of Lincoln County. It notes that he had acted as governor in 1862, and was interested in running for secretary of state. No mention of him being a judge.[1]
February 27, 1880: The Arkansas Democrat notes the funeral of Judge Thomas Fletcher. [2]
February 28, 1880: The Arkansas Democrat pays respects to Thomas Fletcher, calling him "Governor Fletcher" at one point. No mention of him being a judge.[3]
February 28, 1880: The Osceola Times reports on Judge Thomas H. Fletcher running for secretary of state. And here is where you'll notice that even the locals were screwing up: Look at the first entry, where they noted that the dead man was considering running for secretary of state. I don't think this is a situation of Osceola being dreadfully behind the times; I think there's genuinely two Thomas Fletchers at play, and they got them mixed up. Oh, and importantly: They call him Colonel Fletcher.[4]
March 4, 1880: The Russellville Democrat reports on the death of Judge Thomas Fletcher, of Lincoln County, on or before February 27. No mention of being governor.

And now, the 1900 papers:

February 21, 1900: The Arkansas Democrat reports on the death of Colonel Thomas Fletcher, of Pulaski County. He was born on April 8, 1817. He was elected to the Arkansas legislature in 1862, but no mention of being governor. He ran for the gubernatorial nomination a couple of times. In 1884, he was made U.S. marshal of the eastern district of Arkansas.[5]
February 22, 1900: Same paper, literally the next day, a very similar story, but somehow a different date of birth, April 8, 1819.[6]

My conclusion: There are two men at play here, Judge Thomas Fletcher of Lincoln County, and Colonel Thomas Fletcher of Pulaski County.

Judge Fletcher was:
- president of the senate in 1861-1862
- acted as governor in 1862.
- was thinking about being secretary of state
- died in 1880
Colonel Fletcher was:
- born in 1817 (or is it 1819?)
- elected to the legislature in 1862
- ran for governor twice
- became a US marshal in 1884
- died in 1900

What complicates this more is one of our major sources, Sobel, lists Governor Thomas Fletcher as having been born on April 8, 1819, ran for governor twice, and was made a U.S. marshal. So Sobel is clearly jumbling the Judge Fletcher (who was governor) with the Colonel Fletcher (who ran for governor). I had to share this insanity. I stopped clipping above; if anyone really needs the sources, let me know. But hopefully this explains to anyone wandering here why the Fletcher stats may look different from what you expect. --Golbez (talk) 19:08, 4 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]