Gardner's Beacon, Vol. IV, No. 2

The last Gardner's Beacon (Vol. IV, No. 1) considered the times of Cape Ann, as in before, during, and after. An earlier post this year had this title: Not far from idyllic. Prior to that, there were many post dealing with Cape Ann.

We expect that topic as essential to the work to do. For instance, Thomas and Margaret and their cohorts experienced the first case, in the New World, of a free existence (that which is, in principle, the basis for the dream of America - even more so than is Winthrop's city). To be brief, the Cape Ann crew successfully lived in an environment of no church, no state, and cooperative existence of mature adults in a new, harsh milieu. There are many more characteristics to describe, such as fairness and mutual respect. Yet, there are no recorded losses of life in this time of freedom; and, there was no doubt of keeping themselves alive and healthy. The problems of loss of lives came later with the advent of more people than the resources could support.

Too, at Cape Ann, the settlers had friendly relations with the American Indians, albeit their colonial neighbors to the south may have been more problematic (to wit, Conant's peace-making). And, they were not drawn into the loose ways of the Merry Mount crew. Essentially, there was a tremendous amount of existential success demonstrated by the folks.

Yet, that was not seen by Rev. John White, at the time. Hence, we expect to revisit the whole theme, once again (scholastically).

Another source for our work will be the Massachusetts Magazine. Dr. Frank was a contributing editor during the decade-long run of this periodical. Too, he, and many others, attempted to found a continuing society at that time (early 1900s). We are, in part, motivated by that.

Then, the coming 800th of the Magna Charta is providing opportunity to consider origins. Whence came Thomas and Margaret is a fundamental notion. Too, though, Thomas' life, as a blank slate, offers an opportunity to consider what are the backbone/brain combinations required for a sustainable society/economy.

In short, there is a lot to do, and the above list of topics is nowhere near complete. For instance, the study of the spread of descendants through space and time will be an ongoing effort.

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So, we are going to pause for one issue. Now is the time to recapitulate the activities of the past few years. For instance, a lot of material has been accumulated from searches, and this will be re-organized. A whole lot of questions have been raised. These will fund research efforts.

In order to form a more perfect means, the Thomas Gardner Society, Inc. was incorporated in 2014. The By-laws will be published, soon. The thomasgardnersociety.org website will be updated.

Finally, we have a little discussion of goals. These, of course, will be set by the Board, and officers, as one would expect. However, we do have an initial set.

The issue contains some information about the Magna Charta in a timeline format. One goal is to have information in annal's format that can be updated through time. One example of this can be found in Vol. II, No. 6.

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See Vol. IV, No. 2 of Gardner's Beacon for a look at recent activity in regard to incorporation, as a non-profit, of the Thomas Gardner Society, Inc.

References:  see Sources (Current Issue)  

Remarks: Modified: 04/23/2021

07/04/2014 - This post might say, without state and church. But, it does not say God-less. ... Too, Thomas, with Stephen Bachiler, and Rev. John Wise, can be considered one of the founding fathers of the American dream.

03/02/2019 -- We are building an index via images at our portal to truth.