Gang, today’s research has me tracking down whether or not Emmett attended the the 1916 Democratic National Convention, which was held in St. Louis, Missouri from June 14-16. According to an article in the June 5, 1916 edition of The Pensacola Journal, he may have attended, since there wasn’t much […]
Yesterday, I mentioned an interesting ‘find’ about Emmett’s medical history — more specifically — his cause of death. The official record states ‘uremia’ (chronic kidney failure) as the cause of death. Although there were other related issues going on with him, the bottom line is that Emmett’s kidneys shut down, […]
Friends, I’ve been away a few days because I’m dealing with a dry patch in Emmett’s information dig. Ever since I’ve returned from Pensacola, I’ve been reading microfilm; last week, I finished all of the reels for the 1915 Pensacola Journal. To be honest, it was a long, tedious read […]
Friends, some days here in Emmett Wilson Research Land, I feel like I am just spinning my wheels, not getting anything done. Just plodding along. It’s frustrating the hell out of me today. Let me ventilate for a sec. It has been a dry data run for the past three […]
Readers, imagine my great surprise to find this item in my comb-through of the 1915 Pensacola Journal today: Naval aviation had only just been established at Pensacola as an attempt to re-open the base (which was closed during President Taft’s administration); hell, human aviation had only just been established a […]
Readers, imagine you are Emmett Wilson, seated in the VIP viewing stand with others of similar importance, at the 1915 Pensacola Mardi Gras parade. All is well; suddenly, the following float drifts by, and pauses in front of the viewing stand: Yes, people, someone actually designed and built a FLOAT […]
Readers, now that I’m back from the research trip to Pensacola, I can catch up on what I saw. I was pleasantly surprised to see that many of the buildings where Emmett lived and worked still exist, and are in good repair. This photo (right) of downtown Pensacola from 1910 […]
In the past week, I’ve come across what I consider the turning point, the downward slide, in Emmett’s career and life. It’s October, 1914. Up until this point, Emmett was the Golden Boy of West Florida, he was getting appropriations for his constituency, he was serving on important committees, he […]
Even after 100 years, nothing really changes. I found this article yesterday in The Pensacola Journal microfilm. I hope the game was good, but in keeping with the spirit of ‘nothing really changing’, the Washington team probably lost. It is unlikely that Emmett Wilson would have taken off during the […]
Today, we’ll put Atticus Finch, Anthony Weiner and Emmett Wilson into a room together, ask each man to name his key, defining moment in his career, then explain how that moment changed his life. An odd group with nothing in common? Maybe not. Each was a lawmaker, each was considered […]
Tell my story. 