Correcting a 54-year-old mistake... again

No one likes to make mistakes, especially newspaper reporters. Still, it happens. And when the Missourian is guilty of a misspelling, a mis-naming, or a mis-mathematics, we try to set the record straight.

But sometimes that takes a while. In this case, 54 years.

Fred Lynch brought the story to my attention this week in the form of a front-page article about a man named John Thomas Pearson. It seems that Mr. Pearson had been declared dead by the newspaper back in 1910. What's more, we repeated the news of his premature demise a second time, in 1960. Here's the 1960 story that explains the strange goings on:

Now, if that's all there was to the story, all would be well. Correction printed on the front page and, I'm sure, copious apologies made to Mr. Pearson.

But being the type who likes to double-check my facts, I decided to look back at the "Events of Bygone Years," as well as the original 1910 article, if I could find it.

Yes, there it was, in a column much like today's "Out of the Past" column published on July 9, 1960: "50 YEARS AGO. July 9, 1910 (Saturday). John T. Pearson, Frisco section foreman, is killed in fall by horse."

I then cranked up the old microfilm reader. But the story I found published in The Daily Republican on Monday, July 11, 1910, differed slightly from Mr. Pearson's recollection. I'm guessing that, having been so seriously injured and whisked off immediately to a hospital in St. Louis, Pearson may have never actually read the story. In its retelling, the tale got a little twisted, until Pearson was certain that the newspaper had declared him dead in 1910, when it hadn't.

How The Southeast Missourian came up with the same error in 1960 is beyond me. But here's the original story as it ran in 1910.

FACE BROKEN BY HORSE'S KICK

FRISCO SECTION FOREMAN TAKEN TO ST. LOUIS HOSPITAL, SERIOUSLY INJURED.

John T. Pearson, Frisco section foreman at Clarkton, was brought to this city on the Gulf train Sunday and later taken to the Frisco hospital, in St. Louis, on the afternoon train, suffering greatly from the results of a horse's kick, sustained late Saturday evening. He was accompanied by Mrs. Pearson.

Mr. Pearson received his injury late Saturday evening, while feeding his horses in a stable at his home in Clarkton. As he was passing behind the horse it kicked at another animal viciously, but, unfortunately, his iron shoe caught Pearson in the face, felling him to the ground. As he fell he uttered a cry, which was heard by his wife, who was preparing supper in the house, a few yards away. She ran to the barn, and, seeing her husband's form lying under the horse's feet, quickly drew him out of the way of other harm.

Mr. Pearson lost consciousness from the blow of the horse's hoof, which crushed in the left side of his face, almost destroying the eye. For some time it looked like the hurt was fatal, and that death would quickly ensue, but prompt medical attention revived the sufferer.

Next morning he was taken aboard the northbound Gulf train and brought here in order to catch the train for St. Louis. Mr. Pearson was so badly injured that he had to be carried on a stretcher, and was suffering greatly while waiting at the station here between trains, but it is thought he will recover from the injuries, although he will carry the scars of the cruel blow.

The record finally having been set straight, the only thing I have to add is the correct information of Mr. Pearson's passing in December 1961.