Gerry-mander

TL;DR -- Gerry was the Governor of Massachusetts. The image associated with the topic is of Essex County. There has been much discussion about the topic. We want to bring awareness to the origins, plus the milieu. For one thing, we are talking post Revolution and during the time of the 1812 conflict. Concerns then are familiar to what we see now. This is a common theme.

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This topic has been on the table for a few years. Turns out that Massachusetts was the first site of the controversial method being applied. It got its name from the Governor of the time. But, the image that has come down from that time was of Essex County. We got reminded of image through a book review in a recent weekend edition of the WSJ. 

The following links pertain to the subject matter.

-- South (east and central) Essex County (9 Jan 2011) -- At this time, we were getting acquainted with the layout of Essex County. From a western view, we expect large counties with a few towns. Except, of course, LA with it wide expanse differs. We had learned about Sidney's work. In short, though, little Essex County is interesting from several viewpoints. 

-- Essex County (3 May 2019) -- Sidney Perley was the chief antiquarian for the County and did a lot of work. This post shows an announcement of his final bit of work. We wrote of this in a post titled "Sidney, his discontinuance." Sidney talked of how hard the work was. He traipsed through Essex County and other areas, researched records, drew up maps, and more. Dr. Frank's sister, Lucie, picked up some of Sidney's work (see TMM, below).  

-- Sidney's Antiquarian (8 May 2019) -- We had pointed to a site that had Sidney's work available which disappeared. So this post provides links to Hathi Trust's copies. 

-- TMM (Page), The Massachusetts Magazine (25 May 2015) -- Sidney mentioned this effort by Dr. Frank and friends and noted its relationship with the Old Planters' Society. We had gone through all of the issues and written some summaries. Lots more needs to be done, such as republishing parts of the work. We saw one example done with regard to Judge Thompson (Tenderfoot in Montana). 


-- Where did the term come from? (Smithsonian, 2017) -- Given the upcoming 250th, we need to learn about Gerry and the times. 

-- One person, one vote (L.A. Times, review, June 2022) -- This recent book looks at the topic, albeit without much notice about its origins. We, of course, want to preserve information about how all of this came about. The WSJ review provides another viewpoint. 

The Gerry-mander

Remarks: Modified: 07/06/2022

07/06/2022 --