Talk:George M. Willing

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A fact from George M. Willing appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 15 April 2011 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that as an unelected Congressional delegate from Jefferson Territory, George M. Willing claimed to have created the word "Idaho" as a name for Colorado?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2011/April.

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Relation between this Willing and James Reavis[edit]

Is there any relation between the George M. Willing described by this article and the Dr. George Maurice Willing, Jr. (1829?–March 1874) associated with the Baron of Arizona, James Reavis, and the fraudulent Peralta land grant? Most books dealing with Reavis contain basic biographical details on the Willing that introduced the Baron to the Peralta grant but neither the books nor a search engine test provide enough information to determine if the Willing associated with the name Idaho is or is not the same person who latter partnered with Reavis. --Allen3 ^talk 20:15, 22 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I have found the answer to my own question. The unelected Congressional delegate from Jefferson Territory is the person who introduced James Reavis to the Peralta grant.[Powell, Donald M. (Summer 1959). "The "Baron of Arizona" Self-Revealed: A letter to His Lawyer". Arizona and the West 1 (2): 161-73] --Allen3 ^talk 22:15, 1 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Rrelated to Thomas Willing?[edit]

Was George M. Willing a descendant or related to Thomas Willing, first President of the First Bank of the United States?--DThomsen8 (talk) 00:29, 3 April 2011 (UTC)--DThomsen8 (talk) 00:29, 3 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

None of the sources I have found make any mention of a relation, but that doesn't prove anything. The only press report I have found about his father,[1] provides even less biographical information. --Allen3 ^talk 01:10, 3 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This page has a lot of bogus info.[edit]

It looks like whoever created this page read one book (Cookridge) and used the the biographical info in it for Willing. But Cookridge's book is mostly fiction. It is based on the "Baron of Arizona" story, but it embellishes rather liberally. For instance, Willing was not born in Philadelphia, but in Hawesville, Hancock County, Kentucky. His wife's maiden name was Mary Ann Lamar, and there is a record of their marriage in Hawesville.

There is absolutely no credible information that Willing was an "abortionist". That appears to have been wholly made up by Cookridge.

As for being "inspired by a girl named Ida", that comes directly from the Stoddard letter, and is suspect. It's not even clear that Willing, himself, made up the word "Idaho" or if it came from someone else in the mining camps.

If I knew how to edit Wikipedia pages I would fix it myself, and I might come back and do that, but at a minimum this page should be somehow flagged as dubious.

References:

The muddied, complicated history of the name 'Idaho'

Bulletin of the Missouri Historical Society - v. 18, no. 4 pt. 1 (Jul 1962)

Paxson, Frederic L., The Territory of Colorado, The American Historical Review , Oct., 1906, Vol. 12, No. 1 (Oct., 1906), pp. 53- 65 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kaguy (talk • contribs) 19:11, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]