As with Dick Cowan, Mr. Fleming felt the need to respond for my request for documentation, yet provided no documentation or evidence for his stated position on the decoys in question. I will not spend a lot of time on all the content of our e-mails (however, if anyone wants copies, I will be only too happy to send copies to you).
I will give you a sample of what Mr. Fleming feels is documentation for the Seabury story: "Richard Hendrickson, who is almost 100, recalled Seabury as well." Mr. Hendrickson was born after Lafayette Seabury's death. How well could he have known him? Mr. Fleming ignored questions he had no answers for. He said what is found in the Long Island Decoy Collectors Association newsletter about when the decoys were sold is wrong and says he never said what is in the newsletter. Mr Fleming said he had never seen the newsletter even though I do believe he is a club member and the Southold Historical Society Vice President, Melvin Phaff, was president of L.I.D.C.A. when he gave the "Seabury Talk." He also claimed not to have ever seen Tim Sieger 's feature in Hunting & Fishing Collectibles magazine which is also hard to believe that Mr. Fleming would not have read Tim's feature in H & F Collectibles magazine before making his presentation (if you don't see it, it does not exist).
Mr Fleming's last remarks were, "Though I have never seen a period piece of paper stating the Seaburys carved decoys, such as a ledger, receipt, order form etc., I also have never seen items for most carvers from Long Island" (thank you for making my point JR), "Oral history is often the best alternative when little (or no JR) written record is offered and when supplemented by original items from the family, it's hard to deny" (of which, none of the items from the Seabury family, tools, etc. had anything to do with decoys or carving decoys or documenting the decoys as Seabury decoys).
Fleming charges on into the abyss of absurdity with his last statement, "As I have seen no evidence that disproves the belief that the decoys were made by Seabury, I see no reason to entertain such a notion." Belief is defined as: conviction that certain things are true, religious faith, trust or confidence, creed or doctrine, an opinion, etc. Nowhere do you find the word fact defined under the word "belief."
Bottom line, he presented no documentation for the Seaburys as the makers of the plover decoys Tim Sieger said were made by Lafayette Seabury or any other Seabury family member. The decoys are connected to the Seaburys begining in 1999 without one small piece of evidence, fact, or documentation. Mr. Fleming seems to be doing nothing more than defending some very bad judgement in his acceptance of the "Seabury Story" with no proof presented.
Jamie Reason
