Talk:Isaac Stearns

Conversation about draft

@Kirk Leonard: You asked on your usertalk page if I thought this draft was ready to move to mainspace. My answer is that depends.

• Do you feel that it is as "finished" as you want it to be at the moment? (Keeping in mind that no Wikipedia article is ever "finished").
• Are you interested in submitting it to Did you know for inclusion on the main page? If so I can help you with that process, but right now it's about 100 characters too short; the rules say it must be at least 1,500 characters (that's letters, spaces, & punctuation) excluding things like references and other markup, to be eligible. So in order to be eligible for that it needs to be at least a couple more sentences. However, if you aren't interested in DYK, that's fine.
• Is your main concern having it survive people who want to see things deleted? If so, I think it's ready. It cites 4 separate sources, at least 3 of which (and probably all 4) would be considered reliable.

While we're discussing it, I came across a book which mentions that he was accompanied by a brother Shubael Stearns, who died, and Isaac raised Shubael's children, and that the records are unclear which children belonged to whom. Perhaps inclusion of this information would make it long enough for DYK. Also, I can't tell for sure because full text of this article isn't available online, but it looks like James A. Garfield might also be a descendant. At any rate; that's some thoughts at the moment. ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 23:03, 11 January 2016 (UTC)

References

Thanks, ONUnicorn. I don't know about DYK, but I'll see if I can make the article longer as you suggested. That's a fine source on Shubael, who was likely Charles and Nathaniel's father. I'll see what more I can add. Thanks once again for all the great advice. Kirk Leonard (talk) 20:24, 12 January 2016 (UTC)

After looking at FamousKin.com, and consulting others at the reliable sources noticeboard, FamousKin.com is not a reliable source for Wikipedia's purposes. However, they do cite their sources, which can be used instead. ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 20:26, 12 January 2016 (UTC)

I saw that. Thanks for double-checking. Looks like Garfield did not descend from Stearns, but rather Edward Garfield, who was Stearns' fellow passenger on the Arabella. I'll keep looking for better sources for Johnny Appleseed and Clara Barton, whom I know to be descendants of Stearns. Kirk Leonard (talk) 20:43, 12 January 2016 (UTC) Is the article long enough now, and how do I check that? ONUnicorn, is the article long enough now, and do you think it's good enough? Kirk Leonard (talk) 20:43, 15 January 2016 (UTC) @ONUnicorn:, is the article long enough now, and do you think it's ready for article space? Kirk Leonard (talk) 20:22, 19 January 2016 (UTC)

@Kirk Leonard:, Yes, it is long enough, and I think it is good. :) Do you know how to move it? ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 22:28, 19 January 2016 (UTC)

@ONUnicorn:, no I don't know how to move it, and I don't know how to do the DYK thing, but I'll bet you do! Thanks again for helping me with this. Kirk Leonard (talk) 22:13, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

@Kirk Leonard: Moving a page is usually (but not always) rather simple. Next to the "view history" button there's a button called "More" with a drop down arrow. If you click on that there's a button that says "move". That presents you with a dialogue box, and you pick the new title and the namespace (in this case, article) from the dropdown box, put a reason in the edit summary box, and then click "Move page". It can only be done by people whose accounts are at least 4 days old and have 10 edits, but you meet those qualifications. Do you want to try it? ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 22:21, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Sure, I'll give it a try. Kirk Leonard (talk) 21:00, 21 January 2016 (UTC) Seemed easy enough. Did I do it right? How do we do the DYK? Kirk Leonard (talk) 21:02, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

Yep, you did it right. For DYK; what do you think is the most interesting fact about Isaac Stearns? Maybe that he was selected to plan the first bridge over the Charles River? Or that every attempt to trace the Stearns lineage in the United States has led back him or his brothers? ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 12:08, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Those are the two that I'd go with. Kirk Leonard (talk) 20:51, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

I've gone ahead and nominated it. ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 21:23, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Citation format

Doing the DYK review, I noticed that the citations are in one format, and I would prefer they were in SFN. WP:CITEVAR. Any thoughts? 7&6=thirteen (☎) 18:46, 30 January 2016 (UTC) What's SFN? Kirk Leonard (talk) 20:02, 30 January 2016 (UTC)

Take a look at the format at Smith & Wesson. I used it there. You can click on the reference citation link and it takes you to the whole link. 7&6=thirteen (☎) 20:05, 30 January 2016 (UTC)

So ... templates rather than ref tags? It's okay by me, but I won't be able to figure it out until probably Monday afternoon. Kirk Leonard (talk) 20:09, 30 January 2016 (UTC)

I don't mind doing it. WP:CITEVAR says I am supposed to ask. Once you see the benefits (it displays the page numbers for example in the reference, and links to the whole citation), and how its done (you don't need to create a new citation for every page number, you will find it easy peasy lemon squeezee. And then you will have something new in your bag of tricks. 7&6=thirteen (☎) 20:12, 30 January 2016 (UTC)

Sounds good to me. Thanks! Is there a policy page that explains how to do SFN, in case I can't tell from your edits? Kirk Leonard (talk) 20:23, 1 February 2016 (UTC)

You will be able to follow it. have to add "\ref=harv" to the sources. Then we sfn each reference. Not hard. And more efficient to create; and better for readers. (IMHO). 7&6=thirteen (☎) 21:37, 1 February 2016 (UTC)

 Done There is one source that I did not have a title for. Maybe you can insert it. Cheers.7&6=thirteen (☎) 21:54, 1 February 2016 (UTC) Thanks for the guidance! That mark-up looks pretty clean to me. Kirk Leonard (talk) 20:14, 2 February 2016 (UTC)

Death date

The article gives two dates for its subject's death. The infobox and intro paragraph give June 16, while the body text gives June 19. If there is a discrepancy in the source material, this should be noted. If there is a typo, it should be identified and corrected. --Piledhigheranddeeper (talk) 19:01, 12 February 2016 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing that out. It seems to be a typo. I've fixed it. ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 19:39, 12 February 2016 (UTC)

The Bridge's Purpose Needs Clarification

The article states: In 1647, Stearns was appointed by the community's selectmen to plan a bridge over the Charles River, the first such bridge constructed for this purpose.[2] For what purpose? Being a bridge? The first bridge to join two towns? The first bridge to cover a river? This is an ambiguous statement. If the meaning is 'this was the first bridge to span the Charles River' then it's a pretty awkward way of saying so. I would edit this myself, but frankly I'm not sure exactly what is meant. It could be that some bit of text went accidentally missing, for example: "to plan a bridge over the Charles River capable of supporting heavy wagons, the first such bridge constructed for this purpose." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.123.104.170 (talk) 21:57, 12 February 2016 (UTC)

The source used for that statement says that his appointment to plan the bridge is the first mention of a bridge over the Charles River at Watertown. I've altered the sentence to more closely reflect the source. [1]. ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 22:09, 12 February 2016 (UTC)