Up a Tree

John Tyler I mentioned in the previous post that one of Sharon's ancestors has a connection with John Tyler, the 10th president of the United States. Family rumor had it that Lucy Tyler Cash was John Tyler's aunt. The evidence for this is sketchy, but the story provides the tie.  I don't know about you, but pretty much the only thing that comes to mind when I think of Tyler is the slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too." This is probably because, like many people I know, social studies was one of those courses I endured during junior high and high school, and I didn't pay a lot of attention to anything that I didn't think would show up on a test. What I did learn for the test was promptly forgotten. Turns out I should have paid more attention, though I'm not sure we learned a whole lot about Tyler in those American history texts of the '60s. Tyler was born on a Virginia plantation and held a degree from the College of William and Mary, the nation's s