Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Fort Worth fifth grader wins history essay contest

By Blair Lovern

I noticed a news release on the Fort Worth ISD site about a fifth grade student at Luella Merrett Elementary who won a statewide essay contest sponsored by the Daughters of the American Revolution. The 600 word essay was by Hunter Boughton, who wrote about the founding of Jamestown in the form of a letter to England from the colony. Boughton won $200 and his essay will compete against those from eight other states in a regional competition. The winner there jumps to a national contest in the spring.

Being a history buff from Virginia, when I read this I thought, wow that's very cool. A lot of people hate history but this kid was making it come alive in a letter.

Then I started to scratch my head about something. I take regular showers. This was the scratch of a flummoxed person who uses a good shampoo.

From the FW ISD release:

I'm not a Jamestown expert but I happen to be in the middle of a superb book about the colony, because it's the 400th anniversary of Jamestown this year. I hadn't heard of this William Short fellow, so I checked my current book to see if I could learn about him. I didn't see the name. I checked various passenger lists of settlers in 1607 and 1608 online, plus other Jamestown sites, and still didn't find him. I did find a site that wrote of a William Short who arrived in Surry County Virginia in the 1630s. But Surry County is across the James River from Jamestown. All this doesn't mean William Short of early Jamestown didn't exist, it just means I don't know who he was.

Then I read again what Hunter Boughton's teacher was quoted saying about how the colony was saved "when a ship with 250 men arrived from England.”

Eeesh. That's definitely not true.

Christopher Newport's ship from England arrived in January 1608 with 100 or so men. I don't have the precise number because I don't believe historians have figured that out. A second ship (which should have arrived with Christopher Newport's ship but got lost and then hung out in the West Indies for a while to warm up during the winter - Gee, two-thirds of the colony is dead and the rest is starving and being attacked by Indians, but no hurry Captain Nelson!) anchored in April with about 40 people. Those two boats composed what's called the "first supply" to the colony. The "second supply" ship arrived in the fall with about 70 settlers. If you want to say all three boats add up to roughly 250 people, I think that's kind of a reach. Not a huge reach. But you're definitely lunging. You're a carefree lunger. The greater point, however, is that there wasn't just one boat of 250 people that saved the day.

Now, I'm just going by a press release. I haven't read Hunter Boughton’s essay, I'm not in Ray Hanson's class. I just hope the Daughters of the American Revolution know what they're doing.

See more stories in:

• Fort Worth ISD > Fort Worth ISD Elementary Schools > Luella Merrett