Saturday, August 18, 2018

Clarifications of Statements Made by Mineral Creek Museum

 While the Museum in Leeton has some great and valuable artifacts, Mr. Wyatt is mistaken when he says most of the mules used by the US Army in WW I came from the Leeton area. Spartacus-educational.com says the US Army owned 213,000 mules at the end of WW I. The State of Missouri is said to have supplied 80,000 mules, the most of any state. I am sure the mule men of Leeton held their own, but certainly did supply "most" of the mules to WW I.
 The Hartford Insurance logo is not an elk. Hart is another word for deer, so hart ford is where deer were seen crossing a river or creek. The logo is taken from a famous painting, "The Monarch of the Glen" by Edwin Landseer and is thought to be based on a scene from his native Scotland. The first known use of the logo was on an insurance policy purchased by Abraham Lincoln in 1861. I don't find any Frank Jeromes in Johnson County, Mo., until 1880! The Landseer painting was often copied by budding artists who tried to capture the image of the illuminated stag. Mr. Jerome's painting is a fine work of art, but is not the basis for the Hartord logo.