Obsessive about the possessive

Dallas Morning News | Tod Robberson:

“The [Washington] Post and The New York Times follow a rule that adds an apostrophe-S to the possessive forms of nonplural, proper nouns ending in S. The Bible of grammatical style and usage, Strunk and White's, follows the same rule. But the horribly misinformed Associated Press Stylebook adheres to a rule, apparently crafted around the time of the Salem witch trials, that requires the use of only an apostrophe, omitting the final S. ”

Ed Cognoski responds:

So, there's a difference of opinion how to spell possessive forms of nonplural, proper nouns ending in S, words like Texas'. Or is it Texas's?

Perhaps language is undergoing change, where the spelling Texas's used to dominate but gradually Texas' is supplanting it. For the time being, we see both. There are many examples. Quick, what's the past tense of "dive?" For centuries, the standard past tense was "dived". For much of the last century, "dove" competed with it in general use. Today, "dove" has all but driven "dived" out of common usage. Which is correct? At different times in history, you'd get different answers, with pedantic souls like Tod Robberson being enormously frustrated during the rise of the novel form, before usage became so common the authorities had to accept it.

Or perhaps the spelling of the possessive for words ending in S has never been completely standardized. It wasn't until people like Samuel Johnson and Noah Webster began compiling dictionaries that authoritative sources on spelling even existed. Even great writers like Chaucer and Shakespeare were known to occasionally spell the same word different ways at different times. Johnson and Webster would choose one spelling and give dependent types like Tod Robberson a reason to believe everyone should follow their lead. Perhaps the spelling of the possessive is one of few untamed language issues, not yet herded and corralled into the dictionary. If so, we ought to celebrate its wildness.