Librarchivist Tweeted a link to an article in the New York Times about the hanging of Peter DeGraff here in Winston-Salem over a century ago for the murder of Ellen Smith, the oral tradition that kept the story alive, the song Poor Ellen Smith and the fact that a descendant of DeGraff, Randy Furhes, wrote a variation of the song and is now performing it in venues like Winston-Salem's The Garage. The Times article mentions the Winston-Salem Journal article about Furches, and also mentions that the day after his performance another descendant who read the Journal article contacted his mother to let him know that she had the family Bible that DeGraff reportedly carried to the gallows and that everyone in the family thought had been lost.
I love the fact that the Bible was found in a home in the "village of Clemmons" which makes Clemmons sound like some quaint little outpost with homes of thatched roofs, and not the mecca of strip malls, McMansions and new hospitals that it has become. Yes, yes Clemmons is literally the Village of Clemmons, but still. I hate the fact that the Times doesn't link to the Journal article. Granted the Journal doesn't link out to anyone either, but still I hate it. Finally I'm glad to see a local story and artist getting some national exposure.
Update: There's a blog called Nytpicker that, well, nitpicks the New York Times.
They take Dan Barry, the author of the NYT article, to task for using "overheated prose" and point out how he took Kim Underwood's Journal piece and expanded it with said prose. Unfortunately in the process they disparage Kim's piece as a "boring local piece" and even get his gender wrong. The piece also got the attention of
Greensboro's kingpin blogger Ed Cone who also says that Barry apparently read Kim's article. That's why it's all the more regrettable that the Times' article didn't link to the Journal's article.
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