Talk:Hollis Latham

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Political affiliation[edit]

Hi,

Regarding this edit [1]:

  • Your edit summary states: possible conflicting reports about party affiliation
  • The edit removed all notice of affiliation:

He was a [[Democratic Party of Wisconsin|Democrat]].
[[Category:Wisconsin Democrats]]

  • The references in the article do show he had more than one political affiliation:
  1. http://genealogytrails.com/wis/walworth/bios_pg3.html#L :

    ...the town and county Democracy as its candidate for many defeats, the Republican party when it did not care to send Richard B. FLACK to the Assemblyof 1862, the agricultural society for several years as its secretary and several more as its treasurer.

  2. http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/latham.html#655.32.15:

    Latham, Hollis — of Elkhorn, Walworth County, Wis. Democrat. Member of Wisconsin state assembly from Walworth County, 1862. Burial location unknown.

I think instead of just deleting, perhaps it would be better to have this: At various times, he was a member of the [[Democratic Party of Wisconsin]] and the [[Republican Party of Wisconsin]]. He was also a member of the [[Wisconsin State Agricultural Society]].
[[Category:Wisconsin Democrats]]
[[Category:Wisconsin Republicans]]
Note that the Ag Society is a WP:REDLINK, but I think it might make a good article. Might you be able to find some references? Thanks, and regards, JoeSperrazza (talk) 16:44, 22 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

As an update, this edit https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hollis_Latham&diff=668106832&oldid=668105843 clarifies his affiliation with a citation. JoeSperrazza (talk) 16:48, 22 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Sorry, I didn't see your commentary here before I edited the party affiliation. I changed it to read that he served in the Assembly as a Democrat, which is consistent with official sources (Legislative Reference Bureau and Legislative Manual). It's unfortunate that more care isn't taken with creating these stubs. There are many good and reliable sources for these early politicians, as recent edits have shown. 32.218.36.31 (talk) 17:18, 22 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]
FWIW I just browsed through 45 newspaper articles published from 1836 to 1886 that mentioned Hollis Latham, looking for evidence of his party affiliation, particularly in local elections (not the State Assembly), and found the following:
  • Southport Telegraph, Feb 23,1841: member of the central committee of the Democratic Citizens of Walworth County
  • Wisconsin Argus, Aug 26, 1845: nominated as a Democrat for Clerk of the Board of Supervisors
  • Southport Telegraph, Aug 26, 1845: nominated at the Walworth County Democratic Convention for Clerk of the Board of County Supervisors
  • Janesville Gazette, Dec 11, 1847: elected as a Democrat to the Constitutional Convention
  • The Daily Milwaukee, Aug 28, 1858: appointed by the Democracy of Walworth County to the county committee
  • Kenosha Times, Sep 3, 1858: was a delegate to the Democratic Congressional Convention, where he was appointed to a district committee
  • Whitewater Register, Oct 26, 1860: listed as a candidate for the Assembly on the Democratic County Ticket
  • Janesville Daily Gazette, Dec 20,1861: listed as elected to the Assembly for 1862 as a Democrat
  • Green Bay City Press, Jan 18, 1862: listed as a Democratic member of the Assembly for 1862
  • Daily Milwaukee News, Oct 21, 1869: nominated for the state Senate by the Democrats; "Mr. Latham is one of the staunchest democrats in the state..."
  • Wisconsin State Journal, Oct 28, 1870: listed as a Democratic candidate for the Assembly
  • Wisconsin State Journal, Jan 10, 1871: lost to Republican Amzy Merriam for Assembly seat
The autobiographical statement in The History of Walworth County is written in a rather curious and obtuse style. It could also be taken to mean that he served in the Assembly in 1862 when the Republicans didn't elect their candidate.
tldr: No evidence Latham was a Republican. 32.218.36.31 (talk) 19:40, 22 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Yep, no evidence. The more I read, the more convinced of that I was. After I finished my comment, above, I saw your edit, read some more, and agreed your edit was correct, which is why I came back and added my clarifying comment. Has anyone ever assessed the reliability of http://genealogytrails.com? That's the only source that even mentions "Republican", and the text is not exactly clear. Looking at its main page,I can't tell if it is a Reliable Source:
~ We're all Volunteers ~
~ We're completely independent - no big corporation tells us what to do ~
~ We do not accept advertising. NO BANNERS or POP-UPs ALLOWED! ~
~ We're pretty much insane about transcribing data - HOWEVER - we do NOT write the history, we just transcribe it ~
The last line gives me some hope, but who validates the "transcriptions"? JoeSperrazza (talk) 21:21, 22 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Please ignore Genealogy Trails. I already switched the citation to a digital copy of the book transcribed there. Reasons: (1.) What GT has is a transcription, which introduces the possibility of errors; (2.)GT does not provide adequate bibliographic information - no indication of which volume of a multi-volume set is being used, no page numbers, etc.; and (3.)The GT website is likely to be less stable than archive.org, so a deadlink is less likely in the future. 32.218.36.31 (talk) 22:05, 22 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]
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