Brain Dump

Adventures of a Human Lost in Time and Place

Just need a place for the occasional brain dump that doesn't overlap with any of my existing project blogs or blog affiliations. A personal one will do just fine. Not really in this one for other's consumption, and probably of no interest to anyone else, but I'm not averse to it being seen. Mainly, I'm just more comfortable organizing information with about a 1995 level of page design to tie it all together.

This will mostly be in outline form. Not much need for narrative.

Current interests focus around horror and fantasy genre lit. Working on background for fictional world setting, and addressing aspects of world building in project blog. Global political dynamics on that world will likely be greatly influenced by my interests in history, anthropology, and comparative religions. That's where needing a brain dump comes in. Those interests range from before the dawn of civilization through to current events. Nested folders and docs with tons of internal links just get cumbersome. Here I can keep it all sorted out a bit better.

There's also no accounting for where my interests will take me one day to the next.

So much by way of introduction.

Until I have a better idea, this page will be where I list other primary pages and drop in some outlining to get started.

Woodrow Wilson

• Particular points of interest:
• Background
• Policies (domestic/foreign/economic)
• Congress while he's in office (policies, balance of power, constituents)
• Financial powers at the time (bankers, industrialists, their influence on Congress/media)
• Entanglements/affinities

• Family/Heritage
• Grandfather: James, Irish. Grandmother: ? Scottish.

1800's (early)

• James Wilson (Woodrow's grandfather) migrated to US early 1800's(?). Settled in Steubenville, OH.

1817-1844

• James Wilson published Herald and Gazette / pro-tariff, anti-slavery

1822 

• Father: Joseph, born 1822, about 34 when Woodrow born

1828-34

• National Republican

1834-44 Whig

1837 -

• Old School-New School Controversy: Schism in Presbyterian Church in the United States of America Old School: traditional Calvinist orthodoxy. New School: New England reconstructed Calvinism a la Jonathan Edwards. Later overlapping schisms over slavery, with Old School pro/con slavery and New School pro/con slavery, where pro/con slavery sides reunited Old/New internally.

1851 

• Joseph married and moved south about 1851 when Joseph was about 29
• Identified deeply with South
• Owned slaves/defended slavery
• Sided with Confederacy during Civil War
• Had been in the South for about 5 years when Woodrow born (3rd of 4)
• Presbyterian

1856 

• Woodrow born in Staunton, VA

1861 

• Co-founded schismatic Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America / Presbyterian Church in the United States/PCUS when it split from Northern Presbyterians (PCUSA). Staunchly Calvinist. Woodrow would have been 5ish.
• Minister in GA/SC

1863-77

• Reconstruction

1864 

• PCUS merged with United Synod of the South / reunites with Southern New School Presbyterians

1865-1898

• Joseph was Stated Clerk, PCUS General Assembly

1866ish 

• Woodrow starts reading late at 10, maybe dyslexia, later blamed lack of schools in Reconstruction South

1867-70

• PCUS gains Alabama and Kentucky Presbyteries of Associate Reformed Church

1867-74

• PCUS gains Patapsco Presbytery of Maryland, Kentucky Synod, Missouri Synod when they withdrew from PCUSA

-1870 (unknown years)

• Family lived in Augusta, GA where Joseph was minister of First Presbyterian Church until then. Woodrow about 14.

1870-74

• James (uncle) (Father according to WW article) is professor at Columbia Theological Seminary. Woodrow lives in Columbia. Dates don't seem right compared to article on PCUS

1873 

• Woodrow becomes communicant Columbia First Presbyterian Church age 17 (lifelong member)

1874-82

• Joseph moves family to Wilmington, NC to be minister @ First Presbyterian Church. WW 18.

1875ish

• second year after transferring as freshman to Princeton from Davidson College, active in the Whig literary and debating society. Organized Liberal Debating Society.

1876 

• WW declares support for Democratic nominee Samuel J. Tilden (Bourbon Democrat, conservative/classical liberal)
• Bourbon Democrats:
• Laissez-faire capitalism
• Against high-tariff protectionism favored by Republicans
• Favored business interests, banking, railroads
• Against subsidizing them or protecting them from competition
• Opposed imperialism and overseas expansion
• Favored gold standard
• Opposed city/political bosses
• Led fight against Tweed Ring (NY political boss and others, Tammany Hall, graft/corruption)
• Supported Civil Service Reform

1876 

• Disputed presidential election. Tilden won popular vote, Rutherford B. Hayes won contested EC vote on technicalities, a Congressional party line vote in a special commission, and agreement to the Compromise of 1877

1877 

• Compromise of 1877 North to finish withdrawing troops and allow local governance again

1879 

• Joseph, moderator PCUS General Assembly (Woodrow about 23)
• 1879
• Woodrow graduates from Princeton, member of Phi Kappa Psi

1879 

• WW attends University of Virginia School of Law for a year
• Ill health. Returned to parents in Wilmington, NC

1880s

• PCUS internal battle over evolution. James suggested evolution didn't conflict with creation.

1882

• WW admitted to GA Bar, tried practice. Nope.

1883

• WW went to Johns Hopkins to study history, political science and the German language. Parents not thrilled. 
• 
  

1884

• Synod of SC prohibited teaching evolution. So did Georgia, South Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. Columbia's board reorganized, voted to fire James. Refused to vacate and appealed to Augusta Presbytery.

1884

• Bourbon Dems earned some Republican Mugwump votes due to anti-corruption efforts

1885

• A disciple of Walter Bagehot, WW authored Congressional Government. Favored a parliamentary system

1886 

• Aug: James exonerated of heresy. Appealed to General Assembly. Ordered removal of professorship. Still member in good standing of PCUS. PCUS remained disengaged from science for over a generation.

1886

• WW gets PhD from Johns Hopkins

1886-90ish

• WW in academia

1890

• WW authors The State, govt not evil, should allay social ills, advance social welfare. "by forbidding child labor, by supervising the sanitary conditions of factories, by limiting the employment of women in occupations hurtful to their health, by instituting official tests of the purity or the quality of goods sold, by limiting the hours of labor in certain trades, [and] by a hundred and one limitations of the power of unscrupulous or heartless men to out-do the scrupulous and merciful in trade or industry."

1896

• Representing American Whig Society, delivered oration at Princeton, "Princeton in the Nation's Service"
  
  
  

1901

• James elected moderator of SC Synod

1902

• WW president of Princeton

1904

• Bourbon Dems faded away

1912

• WW (used to be Bourbon Dem) made deal with leading opponent of Bourbons, William Jennings Bryan for Dem nomination, made WJB Secretary of State

World War I

World War II

1968

• That's my first blip on the radar. What's going on? How'd it get that way?

1968-2017

• 50 years of WTF

21st Century US

• Bush/Obama/Trump presidencies, current events