What became of Morton F. Meads?

Question

According to actuarial tables there is just about a 2% chance that my cousin from Columbus, Ohio, Morton Frederick Meads, the self-proclaimed sovereign of Morac-Songhrati-Meads, perennial political candidate and erstwhile meddlesome interlocutor is still living in obscurity somewhere in the Philippines.

But he seems to have dropped entirely off the radar since his ill-fated campaign for United States President run in 1992, also apparently conducted by proxy from the Philippines. If he died overseas in obscurity in the pre-Internet era, finding information about the latter part of his life, or confirming his death, may be challenging indeed. Alternately there is a slim chance he is is still living out his last days in a nursing home somewhere on the globe.

It's a long shot but WikiTree has solved much harder puzzles; can anyone help?

Comments

b. 1922, and is he still among the quick in 2020?  

Philippine vital stat through 2018 Philippine Statistics Authority | Republic of the Philippines and some exploration of that page might lead to a Department which might be able to answer about the particular person 

>Republic of Morac-Songhrati-Meads - Wikipedia

>there's many more articles on the google search

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I have no evidence that Mr. Meads is still alive other than the lack of evidence of his death. Given his birthdate, residence abroad, and the lack of evidence of his life since 1992, the lack of evidence of his death is increasingly less compelling.

Answer 1

Hoping your puzzle is solved quickly. If living he would be 98.

Answer 2

Last record i saw.  Jan 29 1943 WW2  enlisted his service

number  33499164, does not say what he enlisted in.

Comments

There are many, many other records of Mr. Meads. What I find is he enlisted in the U.S. Army and was discharged from it in the Philippines in 1946, which is how he ended up there for much of the rest of his life. He briefly worked as a civilian for the department of the Navy there before making a failed attempt to buy a surplus US Army sawmill in Luzon for $1,405.65; Mr. Morton sued in the court of claims for the princely sum of $4,216,852.25, was largely denied, and then appealed (pro se and unsuccessfully) all the way to the US Supreme Court.

Answer 3

Morton must have worked for Associated press,Shown working

for thm in Guam,Marshall Islands,in 1962

Comments

I believe you are confused by an AP article about Mr. Meads's Republican primary campaign for US Senator for Nevada in 1962. Mr. Meads was seemingly still in the Philippines at that time and certainly not working for the AP.

Incidentally, Mr. Meads came in third with 762 votes, or 3.15% of those cast in the primary.

Answer 4

Reminds me of Emperor Norton.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Norton-5133

Answer 5

Deaths of Americans abroad are supposed to be recorded by consular officials. You may be able to search for him or obtain information as a relative.

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/while-abroad/death-abroad1/consular-report-of-death-of-a-u-s--citizen-abroad.html

Comments

Especially if he was receiving any VA or social security benefits it certainly should have been reported if he died, whether it was is another matter.

Requesting the report as next-of-kin on the basis of being a fifth cousin seems rather a stretch, as it would be trivial to find a closer cousin (who, unfortunately, would know less about Mr. Meads than me).

If it was reported I believe he ought to show up in the Social Security Death Index.

He is not, which indicates to me that either, he never got a Social Security Number (is this possible for an American serving in WWII? Maybe, if he never came back and worked in the USA?), his death was never reported to US officials, it hasn't made its way into the public index yet, or he is still living.

Answer 6

I saw that Wikitree did not have a profile for Richard Spratly, namesake of the Spratly Islands, so I made one.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Spratly-1

Answer 7

He is now connected via his grandmother Fianna Flinchbaugh.

Comments

Thanks, he was already connected through his Meads pedigree in common with my great-grandmother Estella, but more connections are always good.

Answer 8

There is an old webpage ( http://www.angelfire.com/ri/songhrati/index.html ) out there with a contact email:

songhrati@angelfire.com

It might be worth a shot.

Based on what they're stating on the web page, it appears that other nations ignored their borders and stationed troops there. Without a standing army to defend themselves, it seems unlikely they remained sovereign beyond this invasion point, especially since there was little press of this.

Comments

Never mind - this was done by a grad student in Australia who admits he knows nothing other than he "thinks" there's no one there anymore. Not much help - sorry.

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And looking even further into the website, it appears that much of the information is fake news and even worse, completely fabricated portions. At first I thought maybe some of the information could be potentially accurate, but I would treat anything on this angelfire site as highly suspect.

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I wrote to VFW Post 2485 to see if possibly he might have connected with any veterans there or is otherwise known in that community, seems like a good place to start. I will update the profile if I find anything useful.

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Just to close this out, I got a reply from the VFW Post 2485 adjutant that there is no post in Manila; there are 4 on Luzon island and one in Cebu. He had nothing on Mr. Meads.

Answer 9

I posted a query on a facebook group I belong to, Expats Phillipines. The American expats over there are fairly tight-knit and surely someone has heard of him.

Comments

Belated thanks, I don't do FB, I take it there were no leads?

Answer 10

You might like this photograph of him:

https://nevadastatemuseumlasvegas.pastperfectonline.com/photo/47360BCB-FEB1-44E9-B57B-403644491208

If he ran for Nevada State Senate, would he not have to be a resident of Nevada? 

Comments

Old question, but no, he was apparently running a "front porch" campaign for US Senator for Nevada while living in Manila. He listed a Las Vegas address and his residency was never officially challenged, though it was bemusedly mentioned in the press.