Norman Cleaveland, son of Agnes, was the real wild card and fly-in-the-ointment of The Morley Family Story. He had a heaping helping of Morley DNA and lived his life to the fullest---all 96 years of it. Basically, we can distill Norman's Life into four phases. His early years were heavily tied to The Morleys of Datil and he spent much time "learning the ropes," so to speak. His second phase was mostly "All Rugby All.The.Time" Norman won a rugby Gold Medal in the 1924 Paris Olympics! His third phase was mining and he was widely respected for his skills and engineering achievements. Finally, Norman became a self-styled historian and fierce antagonist of the infamous Santa Fe Ring.
In Normans final phase he became a downright curmudgeon about patriarch William Raymond Morley's 1883 death. Norman himself said he was "obsessed" with the topic and he went over the deep end about it, writing scathing letters to editors, demeaning his peers and wallpapering New Mexico with pamphlets promoting his decidedly dubious interpretations of days gone by.
In Normans final phase he became a downright curmudgeon about patriarch William Raymond Morley's 1883 death. Norman himself said he was "obsessed" with the topic and he went over the deep end about it, writing scathing letters to editors, demeaning his peers and wallpapering New Mexico with pamphlets promoting his decidedly dubious interpretations of days gone by.
Norman was a classic student and stalwart devotee of the "My Way or The Highway" School of Male Behavior. Despite Norman's aggressive, in-your-face promotion of his theories. his fellow historians actually gave him an award in 1989! And they even wrote a poem to accompany the award...and poke a little good-natured fun at Norman.!
You can read a description of the award here:
You can read a description of the award here:
While Norman's Grandmother Ada's life was heavily tied into Datil, his Grandfather's was not. Somehow Norman's wide-ranging reading convinced him that W.R. Morley's death was not an accident but pre-meditated murder. Norman struggled tirelessly, probably to his dying breath, to prove his interpretation of various aspects of W.R. Morley's death. Norman even went so far as to claim that the Santa Fe Ring planned to kill Morley and some other people but were foiled by the premature birth of Morley's son, Raymond Junior.
Norman wasn't content to simply think such thoughts. Nope. Norman used practically every resource at his disposal to promote his postulations, even to the point of publicly calling out event speakers. Norman published three books in addition to his seemingly incessant pamphleteering.
When the Bancroft Library reached out to conduct an oral history interview about his Mining Career, Norman agreed to participate only if they would also record his vehement opinions about the murder of his Grandfather. As a result, Norman's most excellent interview about his Mining Legacy is officially entitled: "DREDGE MINING FOR GOLD, MALAYSIAN TIN, DIAMONDS, 1921-1966; EXPOSING THE 1883 MURDER OF WILLIAM RAYMOND MORLEY" This interview title is undoubtedly the most unique, if not the most bizarre, title of the entire Western Mining in the Twentieth Century Oral History Series.
Norman was extremely physically fit for practically his entire life. His life of strenuous physical activity undoubtedly began in Datil where he spent much of his youth. Norman and his fellow rugby team members shocked the world when they trounced the French for Olympic Gold in 1924. Norman continued to play rugby into his 90's!
We think that any serious student of The Morleys of Datil will thoroughly enjoy reading about Norman's Life and Times. He was a charmingly charismatic character and an entertaining writer, too.
We have trouble processing his vitriol about the Santa Fe Ring and his far-fetched fantasies about the purported murder of his Grandfather. For one thing, his Grandfather's death was about 100 years in the past when Norman got involved. All those associated with W.R. Morley's death, regardless of the cause, were long since dead themselves. Meanwhile, the dastardly Santa Fe Ring had already been described and detailed in numerous scholarly and amateur publications.
What good could come from Norman's strident efforts? How could his hell-raising public persona add to The Morley Family Legacy? Why did Norman seem to think everyone else was wrong and only he was right? Who did Norman think would be charmed by his bombastic advocacy of an outlier idea?
Where did Norman suppose his eclectic behavior would lead?
Conspiracy theories are part and parcel of humanity. It wouldn't surprise us if the Neanderthal People had their own conspiracy theories. We have a lot of personal puzzlement as to the "whys and where fors" of Norman's totally over-the-top obsession with what we call "The Morley Murder Mystery" conspiracy theory.
Norman wasn't content to simply think such thoughts. Nope. Norman used practically every resource at his disposal to promote his postulations, even to the point of publicly calling out event speakers. Norman published three books in addition to his seemingly incessant pamphleteering.
When the Bancroft Library reached out to conduct an oral history interview about his Mining Career, Norman agreed to participate only if they would also record his vehement opinions about the murder of his Grandfather. As a result, Norman's most excellent interview about his Mining Legacy is officially entitled: "DREDGE MINING FOR GOLD, MALAYSIAN TIN, DIAMONDS, 1921-1966; EXPOSING THE 1883 MURDER OF WILLIAM RAYMOND MORLEY" This interview title is undoubtedly the most unique, if not the most bizarre, title of the entire Western Mining in the Twentieth Century Oral History Series.
Norman was extremely physically fit for practically his entire life. His life of strenuous physical activity undoubtedly began in Datil where he spent much of his youth. Norman and his fellow rugby team members shocked the world when they trounced the French for Olympic Gold in 1924. Norman continued to play rugby into his 90's!
We think that any serious student of The Morleys of Datil will thoroughly enjoy reading about Norman's Life and Times. He was a charmingly charismatic character and an entertaining writer, too.
We have trouble processing his vitriol about the Santa Fe Ring and his far-fetched fantasies about the purported murder of his Grandfather. For one thing, his Grandfather's death was about 100 years in the past when Norman got involved. All those associated with W.R. Morley's death, regardless of the cause, were long since dead themselves. Meanwhile, the dastardly Santa Fe Ring had already been described and detailed in numerous scholarly and amateur publications.
What good could come from Norman's strident efforts? How could his hell-raising public persona add to The Morley Family Legacy? Why did Norman seem to think everyone else was wrong and only he was right? Who did Norman think would be charmed by his bombastic advocacy of an outlier idea?
Where did Norman suppose his eclectic behavior would lead?
Conspiracy theories are part and parcel of humanity. It wouldn't surprise us if the Neanderthal People had their own conspiracy theories. We have a lot of personal puzzlement as to the "whys and where fors" of Norman's totally over-the-top obsession with what we call "The Morley Murder Mystery" conspiracy theory.
We've read practically everything we can find about Norman and his assertions seem to us to lack credence and come up short in their accusations. In the meantime, Norman's aggressive behaviors and writing definitely muddied the Morley Family's waters, at least in our opinion.
We strongly suspect Norman now has his devoted and ardent believers who feel certain he was on the self-righteous path of truth. We would be fairly certain that his own Family would have supported his Don Quixote-style tilting at the windmills of the powerful.
In the meantime, Norman's 1924 Rugby exploits are the genuine stuff of well-deserved world class legend. Likewise, his stellar engineering and mining career is widely recognized and respected by his peers on those fields.
We're not planning to take on Norman's "obsessive" side. Interested readers may do so themselves.
In the meantime, Norman's 1924 Rugby exploits are the genuine stuff of well-deserved world class legend. Likewise, his stellar engineering and mining career is widely recognized and respected by his peers on those fields.
We're not planning to take on Norman's "obsessive" side. Interested readers may do so themselves.
We're more interested in explaining why he could have been motivated to move that Memorial Monument from Las Vegas to Datil. That's our biggest interest in Norman's Story.
In reading about Norman's Life, we can easily understand a certain sense of entitlement to take it upon himself to move the Morley Memorial Monument. We certainly can't think of or visualize anyone else who could have harbored the passion to make such a move happen.
The "why" of that movement will continue to haunt us until we find some sense of closure to such an unusual, if not downright bizarre, historical oddity.
For further reading and study of Norman Cleaveland see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Cleaveland
https://theolympians.co/2017/10/21/the-1924-olympic-rugby-finals-americans-in-paris-most-unwelcome/
https://theolympians.co/2017/10/21/the-1924-olympic-rugby-finals-americans-in-paris-most-unwelcome/
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/98186743/plot-to-kill-morley-1994/
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/98217902/norman-1993-interview/
Norman's Books:
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/98217902/norman-1993-interview/
Norman's Books:
THE MORLEYS young upstarts on the Southwest Frontier
Bang! bang! in Ampang: Dredging tin during Malaya's "emergency."
The Healer: The Story of Francis Schlatter
No comments:
Post a Comment