Talk:William B. Hesseltine

I think you should add The Blue and the Grey on the Nile (1961), about Civil War vets in the 1870s Egyptian Army - a groundbreaking work for the time.

more work needed

I cleaned this up despite time constraints. I'm fascinated that he grew up in Frederick County, Virginia, which changed hands so many times in the Civil War, as well as became the base of the Byrd Organization when he was growing up. I wonder where he attended college and if he was a soldier in World War I, and especially how he fared during the McCarthy era, and what if any action he took as the Civil Rights era began. It seems odd to use the "scientist" infobox, but the normal person infobox doesn't show his generativity. Also wonder if he married and had children of his own. For what its worth, Stephen Ambrose in his 2002 book that I'm listening to an audio version (or will be when the player recharges) wrote about Hesseltine being his advisor and Alfred D. Chandler Jr. around in some grad student or teaching capacity, although Chandler's wikipedia article (which also uses the scientist infobox) doesn't show any Wisconsin links.Jweaver28 (talk) 19:25, 24 September 2020 (UTC)

Even his birth history may be an essay in historiography (and forbidden original research!). In the cited Wisconsin history article, his student Gundersen said Hesseltine's father was a sea captain who died of a heart attack on the steps of San Francisco's city hall before 1910. On ancestry.com the 1910 census, after Dr. Best's death, shows the household including young William as headed by his 74 year old widow and his 49 year old mother's first name as Hesseltine and surname Best. I found records of 1860 Salisbury, Massachussets born Edward Hesseltine dying in Boston in 1905. He may or may not have been the same man as voted in Maricopa County, Arizona (which isn't a seaport!) before 1896, and/or the rancher in San Luis Obispo County and land purchaser in Monterrey County (both of which have coastal towns and are south of San Francisco; the records are from the 1890s but a man of the same name was living in 1925). Given his mother's age approaching menopause the year of his birth and his maternal grandfather's profession, Hesseltine may also have been what I call a Crittenden baby, after mission homes for unwed mothers founded by Charles Crittenden and Dr. Kate Waller Barrett. Gunderson noted Hesseltine's physical resemblance to his uncle "Col." Carl M. Best (who had a peripathetic academic career before marrying a Philadelphia woman in 1899, shortly after establishing the Millersburg military academy), as well as for Hesseltine's vehement decision not to attend Col. Best's alma mater (VMI) and later pacifism. One of his married aunts lived in Alexandria (blocks from where I'm writing) and held his mother's funeral service there in 1929 before burial in the family plot at Winchester's Mt. Hebron Cemetery. Hesseltine's regards for her may also be reflected in choosing her name as his daughter's middle name. BTW, wikipedia has a list of Presidential candidates, but not Vice-presidential candidates, and neither the Socialist Party USA article nor that about Norman Thomas lists his vice-presidential running mates, so I didn't include such in the infobox.Jweaver28 (talk) 22:10, 27 September 2020 (UTC)