Creative History

With the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth in 1620 reports began to reach King James I of England regarding the state of the inhabitants on the coast of New England.  These reports pointed out the desolate nature of the landscape and related tales from the native inhabitants that spoke of a great plague which had only recently visited them and had so utterly decimated their once healthy and vibrant communities by bringing death and disease.  The indigenous peoples themselves had named this mysterious curse of death and suffering, “The Great Dying”. King James I--renowned for his staunch Puritanism and not exactly sympathetic to the sufferings of native peoples whom he considered to be ungodly heathens--wrote of the reports that he had received, and rather happily related that, “Within these late years, there hath by God’s Visitation reigned a Wonderful Plague that has caused the utter devastation, destruction and depopulation of these lands.”  The lands that the King of...

            There is a small Catholic cemetery located in Cass Lake, Minnesota. Cass Lake is a tiny hamlet in north-central Minnesota with a population of just under 800 souls.  It is known for its bitter cold winters, heavy snowfall and timber.  The town sits along the edge of the Chippewa National Forest, right in the heart of the ancestral land of the indigenous Ojibwe people of the Chippewa Tribal Nation for which the aforementioned forest is named. Tucked away in a corner of that small cemetery in Cass Lake is a rather nondescript rectangular burial plaque.  The plaque reads: JOHN SMITH BORN IN 1784 DIED FEB 6, 1922 138 YEARS OLD If true, then this unassuming plaque in a small rural Minnesota cemetery marks the final resting place of the oldest living person ever recorded in all of human history! John Smith, the man often called Chief John Smith in the historical record, lived to be a purported 138 (0r 137) the exact number is s...