As Wilmot Proviso Was Saying To Legal Tender …

It has long been a custom in the United States to name a child after some famous person, and more daring parents have named offspring after places, institutions, and events. The editor of this magazine has a friend named Wilmot Proviso Ragsdale, and Legal Tender Coxey, son of the leader of Coxey’s Army, comes to mind, too. Our contributing editor Robert C. Alberts, of Pittsburgh, once told us about a Frenchman named Monongahela de Beaujeau and a mail clerk who rejoiced in the name of Illinois Central Wilson. VVe have decided to make a collection of such names. Any reader who sends us one we can use will receive a complimentary copy of our extra issue The Nineties . Please address entries to the Editor, and include proof of the name, such as a photocopy of a birth certificate, driver’s license, or other document. One caveat: we are eliminating from competition persons named after people, such as Franklin D. Roosevelt Jones. The editors of this magazine will be sole judges of the winners. For reasons of time no acknowledgments will be made, nor will any materials submitted be returned. However, we plan to publish a list of the winning entries in a future issue of A MERICAN H ERITAGE .