About Me

I was born 1842 in Paris, France. I believe it were May the Third, takin’ consideration o’ the birth announcement, thet is. Lovely horses in the USA, as you kin see above. But alas I was raised a city boy, then a sailor man. I don’t sit a horse all thet well, ‘n ridin’ ’em in a straight line is, quite frankly, beyond my capacities.

I had some nice tintypes of me thet I would have posted here fer ya to ruin yer eyeballs. Sadly they all melted or burned up in the fire. It were jest mere luck thet I happened to have left my box of notes at Derek’s place in California. Funny how thet goes, thinkin’ mebbe they be gone ferever, but really they were in safe-keepin’ all those years!

During my life, eighteen different flags represented the United States of America. The addition of one or more states required a change in the count of stars. The Territories stolen from the locals fulfilled a “Manifest Destiny” to occupy as much of North America as possible. Mexico ‘n Canada were better able to resist most of the north-south expansion.

When I be born, there were 26 stars. Not thet I had anythin’ to do about it, but by the time I reached seventy years o’ age, there be 48 stars. I reckin’ that might be the lot o’ stars until Mexico ‘n Canada join the Union. Or some o’ the other territories still available. It be mighty tough to turn down land fer the takin’. Other then thet, I lived to see “Sea to Shining Sea” become a reality.