Fruit Flies, Donald Ross and the Star Spangled Banner

Occasionally I like to take a break from work and Greene County and head out for awhile. This past weekend Bob Clark and I went to French Lick for a few games of chance and an afternoon on the Donald Ross designed French Lick Resort Golf Course with Matt and Rusty. While we were eating lunch, Bob regaled me with his fantastic memorization of the second verse of the Star Spangled Banner, something he had learned in grade school. And that, my friends, was way back in the days of one room school houses.

Work has always been a chore for me and I envy people who cherish what they do for a living. I'm not sure what would have made me happy, maybe nothing, too late to worry about that now. Several years ago I was involved with the building and testing of detonation chambers for the government. Our first chamber was built at Blue Grass Army Depot in Richmond, Kentucky. I spent a good portion of about three years driving back and forth to Richmond on Sunday and Friday evenings. While there though, I had the opportunity to amuse myself with the history of the local area, which included a few trips to Lexington and the beautiful Keeneland Racetrack. I know nothing about horses, but I do love to put a little money down on a race now and then. Also, I visited some of the areas attractions like the Mary Todd Lincoln House, Boone Station, a few wineries and the Hunt-Morgan House.

The Hunt-Morgan House was especially interesting to me because of Confederate General John Hunt Morgan's raids, which passed through Ohio and Indiana during the Civil War. The house was actually built by his grandfather, John Wesley Hunt, one of the early settlers in Lexington and one of the first millionaires in the Midwest.

Most generally, I would pass through Salem, Indiana going to or from Richmond and one of the historical markers at the square tells about General Morgan's Indiana-Ohio Raid, which passed through this small Indiana town. I would have loved to have seen Salem back then without all of these fossil fueled vehicles in the way.

One of General Morgan's nephews was the Nobel Prize winner Thomas Hunt Morgan. He spent a lot of time with fruit flies and from this he discovered that genes were tied to chromosomes and that your Mom has Y-Y Chromosomes and your Dad has X-Y chromosomes and some traits are dominant and some are recessive…yeah, right, if you believe anyone can determine all that from fruit flies, you'd believe about anything.

Thomas Hunt Morgan's daughter, Isabel Morgan was a virologist. She developed a killed (inactive) virus that was used to vaccinate monkeys against polio. This became the basis for Jonas Salk's follow-on vaccine development in later years. If you get a chance to visit the Polio Wall of Fame in Warm Springs, Georgia, she is the lone woman along with 16 men. The Institute at Warm Springs is a wonderful place that provides care for individuals with all kinds of handicaps. And for you duffers there is even a Donald Ross designed golf course (but just nine holes). I visited a friend there once who was paralyzed from a terrible degenerative neuromuscular disorder that I couldn't even begin to describe and these people provided excellent care during his stay.

Another interesting point that I'd like to make about Nobel Prize winner Thomas Hunt Morgan was the fact that his mother, Ellen Key Howard, was a granddaughter of Francis Scott Key. This was the same Francis Scott Key who wrote the second stanza of the Star Spangled Banner that I had to listen to while I was trying to eat my lunch. As a matter of fact, he wrote all four of the original stanzas and a fifth stanza was added later by Oliver Wendell Holmes and I think I like it the best.

"When our land is illumined with liberty's smile,

If a foe from within strikes a blow at her glory,

Down, down with the traitor that tries to defile

The flag of the stars, and the page of her story!

By the millions unchained,

Who their birthright have gained

We will keep her bright blazon forever unstained;

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave,

While the land of the free is the home of the brave."

Francis Scott Key had a son, Philip Barton Key, who had quite a reputation as a womanizer, so much so that he was murdered in broad daylight in Lafayette Square, right across from the White House, by a United States Congressman. Congressman Dan Sickles was so infuriated at poor Philip for having an affair with his wife that he shot him. More amazing is the fact that a jury found the Honorable Congressman innocent. It was the first successful use of temporary insanity as a criminal defense in the United States. As a side note, Sickles later forgave his wife Teresa. You might say that it was somewhat of a shame that he could not have been as benevolent towards Mr. Key.

Also, Congressman Dan became General Dan a couple of years later and was somewhat of a hero at Gettysburg. Those circumstances all came about by his inability to follow orders. Unfortunately for General Dan, a cannonball shattered his leg and he had to have it amputated. However, General Dan had the bones and the cannonball sent back to Washington to be placed in a museum, which he occasionally visited on the anniversary of the amputation just to see his leg. It now resides at the National Museum of Health and Medicine, if you are interested at all in visiting General Dan Sickles' leg and cannonball.

Lastly, from the diary of President Lincoln's secretary, John Hay, "I could not help thinking how much happier Sickles was today sitting curled up in a boyish attitude on my sofa or stumping around my room on his one leg talking pleasantly all the while, in the broad sunshine of fame and popular favor, than ever before. He has wiped out his magnificent record, all the old stains and stands even in his youth, sure of an honored and useful life. One leg is a cheap price to pay for so much of the praise of men and the approval of his own conscience." By the way, that Mr. John Milton Hay, a Hoosier, was born in Salem, Indiana.