It's true that Wikipedia is edited by it's users, but not all editors are created equal. There is the casual editor who may feel the need to ad a paragraph or sentence, and the their are the hardcore Wiki enthusiasts. Foragers of information who spend alot of free time scouring the internet for info to ad to articles. Louis Lloyd Thoreau is one of these enthusiasts, well, was one of these enthusiasts.
A week ago Nancy Pickwell, a 6th grade student from Nebraska, was working on her "Women Of History" project.
" It's sucked because there are about three women in history who are honestly interesting, and then everything else is a stretch. Well there are twenty kids in my class and those three got picked pretty fast. Everyone else had to choose from wives of interesting people or Kardashians. I got Anna Harrison." Said Nancy Pickwell.
Anna Harrison was the wife of our ninth president William Henry Harrison. The president himself is an obscure enough figure, and his wife is even more so.
While reading Anna Harrison's Wikipedia page, looking for anything remotely interesting, she came across something that actually was. No, it had nothing to do with Mrs. Harrison, It had to do with Louis Lloyd Thoreau.
Louis had been trying to scratch that contributor itch and wound up scratching the bottom of the barrel. When it finally came to adding facts to William Henry Harrison's wife's wikipedia page, Louis couldn't help but take a look at his own life. He had a nervous breakdown.
" When she was thirteen years old, Anna went with her father and stepmother into the Ohio wilderness, the wilderness may sound pretty bad, but living in a two story in South London with two parents who don't understand you can suck too."
The article is filled with these brief insights into Louis' life.
" William's service in Congress as territorial delegate from Ohio gave Anna and their children a chance to visit his family at Berkeley, funny, my sister lives in a flat three blocks away from me and I haven't seen her in three years. Bitch."
The final sentence, in the later life and death part of the article, reads...
" She passed away on February 25th, 1864. But you don't care, because there is no you. No one is ever going to read this article."
When alerted of these disturbing writings wikipedia decided to check in on Mr. Thoreau, but sadly, it was too late. Louis Lloyd Thoreau died of a heart attack. Anti-climactic right? You though he had committed suicide.
Wikipedia honored Thoreau with his very own Wikipedia article. Wow, wonder how they arranged that. They really went out of their way to honor the man. Real nice wikipedia.
Update: The person writing the article about Louis Lloyd Thoreau killed themselves, leaving behind a note that said only, " I'm writing an article about the guy who wrote an article about Anna Harrison. WHAT HAVE I DONE WITH MY LIFE!!!"
Z. A. Aycock
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