Better Than The Encyclopedia -(in)Accuracy of Wallingford Historic Markers

Our Dilemma: How to stop the propagation of the incorrect date and …

Since 2017, a few WPAA-TV and Community Media Center volunteers have contributed to a Moses Yale Beach-Revealed Initiative. Curiosity as to why Moses Yale Beach is such a footnote in history was fueled further upon hearing one of the two true stories that provided the basis for the children's book, The Check Minus (Published Oct 2024). The story is set in 1991, when encyclopedias were still in public libraries and cell phones were not an immediate way to document incidental findings.

Several encyclopedias and newspapers, no longer in active publication, published his date of birth as the 7th. Their reliable source was his 1868 New York Times obituary. New York Times ‘American Inventor’ Obituary by Emanuel Luetze was reprinted in whole or part in Newspapers from Vermont to Ohio to New Orleans. Most referred to Mr. Beach as a veteran or venerable editor. This error in the obituary was subsequently published in dozens of encyclopedias in multiple languages.

WPAA-TV volunteers surmise that the most likely source of the obituary error is the biographical summary of Moses Y Beach in AMERICAN BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH BOOK (vol. 1) written by a peer before Beach's death, William Hunt (1848). This book was a resource for future biographical accounts. The incorrect date was reprinted in the History of Wallingford by Charles Henry Stanley Davis (1870). Both biographies describe Beach as the ‘well-known proprietor of the New York Sun and pioneer of the penny press’ and both throw shade on his contributions to the world.

In 2023, a WPAA-TV volunteer who is also a Wikipedia editor corrected Wikipedia to January 15th, 1800. An image of Mr. Beach's gravesite was provided as evidence. The free-to-the-public online encyclopedia.com has the incorrect date. Our inquiry about the procedure to correct their publication, now weeks old, has had no reply.

The incorrect date on Wallingford Historic Markers…

Sadly, the 2024 historic marker in the Center Street Cemetery and the 2015 plaque in Moses Yale Beach School bear the wrong date. Both markers were Eagle Scout Projects.

The entry for the marker in the database was prepared by a Wallingford Troop 5 Eagle Scout. Ironically, this 2024 Heritage Marker was installed at the gravesite in a ceremony with Center Street Cemetery and Wallingford Historical Society representatives' involvement.

Search. Do you see what we see?

Ben Negron, a WPAA-TV Board Member and para-professional at Moses Yale Beach School, recently shared The Check Minus with young Moses Yale Beach School Graduates.

The story centers around fictional AP journalist Youssef Fam, the young protagonist, who is researching Moses Y. Beach for an elementary school project. Youssef is a new Moses Y. Beach Elementary School student in 1991. Most of his classmates researched Mr. Beach using the town’s library encyclopedias. By happenstance, Youssef used multiple sources and included a primary source. Youssef was staying with relatives in an apartment near the Center Street Cemetery. From an apartment window, he saw objects that reminded him of mosques in his homeland, Morocco. He decided to walk among these obelisks in his neighborhood to feel less homesick. In the story, he returns to the cemetery at night accompanied by his two cousins. On a mission of redemption, they assist him as he etched with charcoal from the grandest obelisk onto a large piece of brown butcher paper from his uncle’s shop, the gravesite inscription. What Youssef captured was “Born in Wallingford January 15, 1800 — Died July 19, 1868”. When his elementary school teacher handed back the students’ biography assignments, there was a big red CHECK MINUS at the top. Youssef felt disheartened and discouraged looking at the big circle around the date of Moses Y. Beach’s birth. Youssef tried to explain to his teacher that he hadn’t made a mistake. She told him all the other students researching Moses Y. Beach found the correct birthdate – January 7 – in the local library’s encyclopedias. “Why didn’t you go to the library?” she asked him. “I did!” Youssef replied. “But … I already had the dates. “How could that be?” the teacher asked. “I found a better source,” he answered. “Better than the encyclopedia?” she asked.

And therein lies the twist in the story, which continues to this day.

We want our community to correct Historic Markers (America250 activity)...

If you have suggestions about how to correct the markers, we welcome your suggestions. Email the volunteers at myb@wpaa.tv.