I love it when I stumble on something that shows an old story in a new light, and I actually have two I’m working on right now. I’m going to be a bit vague about what they about since things may change. Plus, I’d like for them to be a surprise when they come out. Both are Cumberland, Maryland, stories. One is about an incident that took place in 1918. It wasn’t a big story, but it is an interesting one. As I researched it, I found the source that all the contemporary versions of the story used. However, I also found a newspaper report of the incident that shed a lot more details about what happened. The biggest surprise is that it didn’t even happen on the date reported in modern stories. I also found the cause of the problem in the story, which I couldn’t find in any of the modern stories.
The other story is a bit more involved. It involves stories about multiple generations of a family who used to live in Cumberland. The stories were so pervasive they even wound up part of an article in the Baltimore Sun, which is where I came across them. I started researching the family, and I found very little that matched up with the legends. In fact, the truth appears to be so different that I have someone else doing their own research about the family to see if it matches up with what I found or the legends.
I’m pretty excited about both stories. I think it is because I’ll be able to set some falsehoods right. The first story will be published soon, but I’m still waiting to hear back from the other researcher to see where the second story goes.
What I’m curious about and may never know is why the differences appeared in the stories. I think it might have simply been accidental or not enough research with the first story. However, the differences I’ve found in the second story almost seem to have been done maliciously to stain a family name in town. If so, it’s even more important that I put the truth out there.
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