People who know me will tell you I am a packrat! There is no doubt about it - piles of papers just grow up naturally around all of my writing areas. Every so often, though, I get inspired and start sorting. It’s like treasure-hunting - one never knows what the next sheet will bring forth.

This week I uncovered a project that some of my students did many years ago. The purpose was to examine how information is generated. We posed this question: Who is or was the most famous person in Jefferson County?

First of all, we had to define the terms. What does it mean to be famous? Pittsburgh’s Andy Warhol once said, “In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes.” He must have envisioned the new social media for later in 1979 he said. “… my prediction from the sixties finally came true: ‘In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes.’ I'm bored with that line. I never use it anymore. My new line is, ‘In fifteen minutes everybody will be famous.’"

Widely known and known for achievement are two common definitions of fame, so Warhol was saying in his original quote that each individual will be known for something by a wider group of folks for a short period of time.

The students knew that someone who was famous was known by many people, that they had achieved something, and that that something and the person were known over a long period of time. Next, they had to figure out a way to find out who the most famous person was in Jefferson County?

They thought they could ask mom or dad, or survey the teachers, or even ask people on the street. But that would limit the results to a particular geographical area. Their geographical area was Jefferson County.

How could they find out county-wide? They could ask everyone - 45,000 people! That led to a lesson on statistical sampling. Finally they made the decision to write letters to township supervisors.

The letter they composed included some possibilities to warm up their respondents’ thinking: historians William J. McKnight and Kate M. Scott, baseball’s “Sparky” Lyle and Mel Eason, biologist Sophie Gordon, theatrical entrepreneur Sam Scribner, timber man Thomas K. Litch, musicians Thomas Canning and Al Baur, philanthropist Rebecca M. Arthurs, lawyer George M. Jenks, Andy Briggs (a WJAC-TV reporter, he’d recently visited the classroom!), physician and inventor Charles Kutz, and miniaturist Charles Bowdish.

Many supervisors returned their ideas. Some have been lost, but what I found revealed some interesting suggestions. How about Sykesville’s Theodore Anasti, a writer for the Smurfs, or Brookville’s Jim Troutman, an artist and lumber baron? Or two Punxsutawney sportsmen - Chuck Daley, NBA coach (NY Nicks) and John Mizerock, Houston Astros catcher? Or Robert Warren, Sr. founding member of Brockway Glass Co. and the county’s first teacher John Dixon, Sr?

Many years later when Tom Curry, Gene Deible, Jim Sterrett, and I were preparing the 2004 history of the county, we decided that one chapter would be devoted to “The People of Jefferson County.” Earlier we’d done thirteen focus group meetings around the county and gotten some names, and we added a few more.

We summarized and wrote, “Throughout its two centuries of recorded history, Jefferson County has nurtured people who demonstrate problem solving, creativity, and physical skills. Some contributed their special gifts to the county, while others made their mark elsewhere. Taken together, the people of Jefferson County represent a cross-section of the human qualities evident among people throughout the United States.”

Then we grouped these folks according to their qualities as represented in governance, the arts, invention, and athletics. We ended the book with the brief stories of 24 individuals from throughout the county?the people who represent a cross-section of who we are today.

And the final vote of that student survey? Here is the quote from Neal G. Davis, Polk Township Supervisor, that convinced my students:

I have given this much thought and have decided that the answer to your question would depend on the time you are living in. Today, although he is not a person, the most famous animal in Jefferson County is Punxsutawney Phil. He far out-shadows any person in the county. I have traveled coast to coast and all over America and everyone everywhere knows who he is!

Is Punxsutawny Phil known by many people? Has he achieved something? Has he been known over a long period of time?

I think you will have to agree that, indeed, Punxsutawney Phil wins the prize for being the most famous “person” in Jefferson County! Enjoy Groundhog Day 2013!

NOTE: Comments, questions, and suggestions for columns may be addressed to cbriggs-jchc@windstream.net.