Discovering unexpected connections between the people you know
I recently made a new friend, Bill, and as is typical when getting to know someone, we had the obligatory conversation centered around the question, “Where are you originally from?”
In this case, the conversation began when Bill asked where I went to college. “Initially Eastern Kentucky University, then Palmer College in Iowa,” I replied.
“Ah, I know Eastern,” Bill said. “It is near where I went to undergraduate college at the University of Kentucky.”
“Are you from Kentucky, too?” I asked. “No, Pennsylvania. But I picked Kentucky for college,” Bill replied.
Bill continued, asking, “So, what part of Kentucky are you from?” I answered, “Shelbyville, Shelby County, between Frankfort and Louisville.”
It turned out Bill knew Shelbyville, too. He said, “My best friend’s roommate at UK worked at a restaurant in Shelbyville, Claudia Sanders Dinner House. Do you know it?”
“Wow!” I said. "I worked there, too. I worked there through high school until I left for Eastern.” "Did you know Ralph?” Bill asked. “Yes,” I said. "He used to work the weekends.” What a coincidence!
Bill and I have discussed this coincidence a few times now. We reminisced about our unexpected connection with Ralph and other circumstances. Bill knew Ralph better than I did, but I knew him enough to agree he was a guy who worked hard, and he always walked fast. There was always the next thing to do.
I asked Bill during our last conversation if he remembered Ralph’s key chain. Ralph had the most unusual key chain that he kept hooked through the belt loop on his right side. Bill said, “I had completely forgotten about the key chain.” It is funny what you remember about other people.
Here we are, men from Pennsylvania and Kentucky, living in Missouri, talking about a guy we knew under different but similar circumstances 40 years ago. It would have been nice to contact Ralph to tell him about our meeting. Unfortunately, Ralph died in an auto accident in his late 20s.
Our coincidence will serve as an excellent story for us in the future. But its uniqueness ends there. It has personal significance for us but no one else. Our event pales in comparison to coincidences with broad relevance and historical meaning that affected many people.
One such coincidence occurred during Lewis and Clark’s expedition into the Western United States between Aug. 31, 1803, and Sept. 25, 1806. In the documentary "Lewis and Clark, The Journey of the Corps of Discovery," and the accompanying book, Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan refer to the coincidence as “… one of the greatest coincidences in American history.”
In April 1805, Lewis and Clark’s party approached the region where they thought they would find the headwaters of the mighty Missouri River and the Northwest Passage.
The Northwest Passage was an anticipated waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Finding the Passage was their primary goal, and they were to claim it for the United States.
Instead, they found the Missouri River’s headwaters to be streams narrow enough for a man to straddle and the Rocky Mountains. There was no Passage. If their journey were to continue, it would have to be by land. The Corps needed horses.
Lewis and Clark had discussed the possible need for horses while planning the expedition. They devised a plan to purchase horses from Native American tribes if necessary. Now that there was a need, their best opportunity lay in making friends with the Shoshone, a tribe in the area known to have horses. The search for the Shoshone began.
A short time later, Lewis and three other Corps members encountered a small group of Shoshone women followed by a group of Shoshone warriors. After an awkward introduction, the Shoshone people, and their chief, Cameahwait, welcomed the Corps.
Cameahwait and a group of warriors traveled with Lewis to rendezvous with Clark and negotiate the purchase of horses. To boost communications with Cameahwait, Lewis and Clark sent for Sacagawea, the only woman in the Corps.
Sacagawea was Shoshone by birth. She was kidnapped by the Hidatsa tribe at age 12 and later sold to French Canadian fur trader Toussaint Charbonneau. Sacagawea and Charbonneau had joined the Corps as interpreters in the winter of 1805.
When Sacagawea joined the negotiations, the meeting had just begun when Sacagawea recognized Cameahwait as her brother. She had not seen him since the Hidatsa abducted her.
The reunion of Sacagawea and Cameahwait is the event described as “… one of the greatest coincidences in American history.” It made acquiring horses effortless for the Corps and saved their mission. It is likely that it also saved the Corps’ lives.
What a fascinating coincidence, and a remarkable coincidence for us all!
Dr. Jeff Miller is a doctor of chiropractic at the Missouri Orthopaedic Institute and the University of Missouri School of Medicine in Columbia.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Discovering unexpected connections between the people you know
