Enduring Gloucester

TL;DR -- The 400th is coming up for Cape Ann. The strain of the virus has muted lots of activity. Part of this motivated a broader view that looks across the centuries (400th, 300th, 250th, 200th, 100th) with respect to families and individuals. Lots of questions have been asked over the years. Good answers are wanting yet. One fact is that Gloucester is a core subject now and into the future. 

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Before Covid came around, planning was going great guns as 2023 approached. The "Enduring Gloucester" website reported on this activity and mused about Cape Ann history. 

In 2020, the Plymouth festivities were quite constrained compared to the planning that that occurred. 2021 has been fairly muted so far. However, as we look forward, our thoughts are to look across the broad spectrum of years so as to tell tales that can carry forward with some support. Broad spectrum? Yes, our focus is on the 400th, 300th, 250th, 200th, and the 100th. That is embrace the whole of the experience.

Here are the contexts for each: 400th (Cape Ann); 300th (need to pull this out; it would have been only a few years post the Salem Village mania), 250th (DAR/SAR provide the proper framework with this); 200th (the western expansion dominates, but a whole lot was going on with the industrial revolution); 100th (those who cared sought to fill in the pieces; one example was the Old Planter's Society). Now, we are doing this again with technology as an assistance.

So, we are starting a concentrated effort that will continue until 2023 and, then, beyond. One hundred years ago, Dr. Frank started The Massachusetts Magazine. Using the web, we will have something similar. One of our tasks is to document Thomas and Margaret better. Another is to look at the work done over the years and keep the information available accompanied with an objective summary. That is, the "What we know now?" will be a theme/meme now and in the future. 

Along that line, here are two of many attempts: What we know (Nov 2012); Gardner FAQ (Mar 2015). As mentioned, there are a lot more which we will organize.

In the mean time, here are some of the external sources that we will reference.

1907 Postcard - Celebrating Cape Ann Settlement

• The Settlement of Cape Ann: What is the Real Story? -- Mary Ellen Lepionka is researching the Cape experience. We used her post to comment on two of our posts.
Diversion, Gloucester - Charles Olson (Sep 2014) -- Olson was a poet who adopted and moved to live in Gloucester. He wrote about the Cape Ann experience which got our attention. As well, he is remembered in Gloucester and is mentioned in material related to the history.

Cape Ann, Retrospective (Apr 2016)  -- after a lot of research, we got to where we saw Thomas and Margaret staying in Cape Ann with the house as Roger went to what became the Salem area (Massey's Cove).

• Rev John White MA (1574/5-1648) --  this site documents the life of Rev John White including listing his sister who married a Thomas Gardner who apparently came over to Cape Ann and went back. At that same site, there is a link to this post "Members of the Dorchester Company 1624-1626" which gives the names and some information about all of the investors. So, the information is very pertinent. We have started to look at names and relationships. For instance, Roger Conant had an uncle who was involved. 

Gardner Research will carry the load in reviewing reports from others as well as doing original research which would include funding scholarly studies and writings.

Remarks: Modified: 07/14/2024

08/09/2021 --  Gloucester's clock has 509 days to 2023.  

03/27/2022 -- A recent article was about the Gloucester summer home of the family of T.S. Eliot (Wikipedia, WikiTree). T. S. had an extensive New England heritage as did his friend, Ezra Pound. 

07/14/2024 -- See updated comment: Why is 2024 quiet?

Memorial Day 2021

TL;DR -- Memorial Day started with a special focus but became much broader. We want to take that even further to all conflicts on this side of the pond. Before the 250th event, we supported the Crown during the time of the Colonies. Every year, we will have activity that relates to remembering those who died during a military conflict. 

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No excuse, but we finally did our first post regarding Memorial Day in 2019. Then, we did another post last year as we faced an uncertain future. This is our third of a regular series. 

First, a recap.

• 2019's post - two years ago, we had been researching a part of the family by trying to identify and locate all of the siblings in one generation. While doing this work, we found out that one of the sisters had married a Scotsman who served in the U.S. Army during the Civil War. Too, he was buried at the veteran's section of the Saugus cemetery. FindAGrave gave his Massaschusetts unit but had left his birth and death information blank. So, we went to look and found information about his wife. Using WikiTree, we filled in records for these two linking them to FindAGrave record for the husband: Walter A Ingalls with links to his wife and his daughter. Now, also, at her FindAGrave record we include information and a link to her WikiTree profile. Her mother was a Sanborn (see post today on a relative who was out at a Treaty signing in Oct 1865). We still need to research Walter further. At the WikiTree profile of her father, we have information about her siblings, some of whom have their own profile. 
  
• 2020's post - last year, we finally got to looking at Greenlawn as well as Harmony Grove. Dr. Frank (see Veteran's Day post, 2019) is buried with family members (Ann's grandparents, aunts, uncles and others). Too, we had been looking at barriers to the western movement in terms of terrain. Later, we specifically considered how rivers were obstacles as well as being modes of transportation. We mentioned that the scope of the holiday had changed to include the Revolution. 

Now, this year, we have done much more research related to the centuries and the changes that they brought. That included getting more familiar with New France from which came lots of the land in the middle of the country and in the west. But, New Spain was there, too. The earlier post today looked at some New England presence. Formerly, we were looking at the trappers and mountain men as being early which is true in the far west. But, at the frontier's start, considering that it moved west as people came into the region, there were New Englanders getting the new land organized. St. Louis was the western point for this type of activity. 

At the same time, we have been looking at the conflicts with New France where the officers of the American Revolution were taught the military trade as they supported the Crown. Then, we had the major conflicts of the Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War and the WWI. However, there were many other battles and skirmishes which were under the Indian Wars, the War with Mexico which gave us Texas, and the conflict with Spain. All of these campaigns had casualties. 

We want to include them in our Memorial Day work. 

U.S. Military History (Wikipedia)

About not having this theme until 2019, the thing is that there is a lot of data to wade through, historical and family-based material to handle, plus the sheer size of these endeavors in manpower, costs, material, and a lot more. 

A day of the year might be useful for administrative purposes in terms of memory, but we will be looking at all of this throughout the year. 

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With regard to Memorial Day 2021, we are prompted by the blog, Streets of Salem, to look at a work that identified all of those who were from the Salem area and who served during the Civil War. 

• Salem Soldiers at Andersonville - the post looks at the book and pulls out the names of those who were at the Confederate prison. Google has a copy of the book: Patriots of Salem, Roll of Honor. As we peruse the book, we will look for individuals that we can research further. 

As mentioned, this type of work can be continuous where we report as we have interesting data collected. However, the occasional ceremonial days will help us keep the information organized. 

Remarks: Modified: 05/28/2022

05/31/2021 -- Added image for our portal. 

05/28/2022 -- Memorial Day, 2022 - An Osage Mission. 

Trapper, trader, rancher

TL;DR -- Movement to the west started early, hence the conflict with American Indians ensued which resulted in attempts at treaties. One of these attempts was at a meeting near the Little Arkansas River in 1865. The major tribes of the Plains were represented. The foremost negotiator for the U.S. was of New England. Also present was Kit Carson and William S. Bent who had an Indian wife and had spent several years in the west.  Like early treaties, this one did not take. Subsequent treaties resulted in a lessening of land available to the Tribes. 

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Recently, we wrote of the frontier century that began after the trek of Lewis & Clark and continued until the early 1900s. The early part of the century gave us Jedediah Strong Smith and his peers. They interfaced out west with American Indians and people from New France. In this case, the movement west had been across the middle of the country. A couple decades later, there was more area covered, and we saw settlement taking hold. Some were already old, such as St. Louis MO. Others sprang up along the way and over time. For all of these periods we have identified families to research noting location and routes which included rivers. 

However, we also have looked at the time before the interest of New England changed the west. Turns out that Wikipedia is thinking along the same lines: American Frontier (article was started in 2016). 

This post looks at William S. Bent (1808-1869) who was a trapper, trader, and rancher. He built several posts along the Santa Fe trail. William was born in St. Louis, however his father, Silas Bent (1768-1827) was born in Rutland MA which is in Worcester County. Silas is of the generation too young to be a Patriot but his father was one. We will look at Silas later as he was educated in Wheeling WVA (at the time, VA) and became a surveyor of the Louisiana Territory. As can be seen, Silas shows an interesting part of the migration patterns out of New England where he had a deep pedigree. 

Missouri saw European influence early on but became a State in 1820. The image shows the Santa Fe Trial going across the middle region. William S. Bent built a fort along the northern route of the Trail in southeastern CO in 1833. The southern route of the Trail continued in KS in OK and then NM. It was along this route that Jedediah was killed. 

William was out in CO for several years and had a ranch. He bought land near Kansas City MO in 1858. He married the daughter of Cheyenne leader. There will be a lot more to look at as that whole area boomed over the next decade and one-half. 

In 1865 as the Civil War was dying down, the U.S. government developed a Peace Treaty with the American Indians and organized a signing ceremony. The tribes involved were the Apache, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Comanche, and Kiowa. This meeting took place near current day Wichita KS. 

William Bent was there for the signing of the Little Arkansas Treaty which is named for a tributary of the Arkansas River that originates in CO. William had been involved with the American Indians for several treaties: 1840, 1848, and 1861. There were many more in succeeding years. 

The treaty's text is available via Yale's Avalon Project: Treaty with the Apache, Cheyenne, and Arapaho; October 17, 1865. The Daughters of the American Revolution placed a marker in 1925 to honor the event (more details later). 

We wanted to mention a few of the others who were there representing the U.S. due to their connection with New England, both north and south. As we read of this, we saw a Sanborn name pop up, so that got our interest. 

• John B. Sanborn - born in New Hampshire. John went to Dartmouth and ventured out to Minnesota in 1854. He served with a Minnesota military unit during the Civil War. After that, he got involved with the western frontier. 
  
• Kit Carson - was born in Kentucky to a Patriot of the Revolution and 1812. His family moved out to MO and were friends with Daniel Boone. By 1826, Kit had gone west on the Trail and was all over the west. Even a summary would be too long for now. So, we'll look at him from time to time. 
• William S. Harney - served in the U.S. Army from 1818 to 1863. President Johnson appointed him to the Indian Peace Commission. He was born in Tennessee in 1800, but his father was an officer in the U.S. Army.
• Jesse Henry Leavenworth - born in Danville VT, he was the son of General Henry Leavenworth who was born in New Haven CT. 

 American Indian leaders who were there are: 

• Little Raven (Arapaho)
  
• Black Kettle (Cheyenne) 
• and others

Remarks: Modified: 06/19/2021

06/03/2021 -- Added the TL;DR. 

06/19/2021 -- Very old St. Louis in the State of Missouri. 

Upcoming celebrations

TL; DR -- As we go forward, there will be a full measure given across the centuries, from 100 years ago to 400 years ago (using 100th, 200th, 250th, 300th, and 400th). Some of the families were here the whole time. The area covered is huge, and the amount of events of significance is some type of phenomenal entity that has never been grappled with as is necessary. Hence, our announcement alludes to some start of activity; there is no end in sight; if done right, we can help set the stage for subsequent reviews of this type. 

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Except, we are aware that some would not want us to celebrate due to the consequences of Europeans piling up over here. So, we use the notion in other than a celebratory fashion under the context of the 400th turnover of the yearly calendar since those early times. With respect to the larger scope, New Spain and New France are on their way to the 500th. 

It is time to get more regular with this topic, hence we want to lay out one perspective mentioned several times which does add some spectral elements to the matter. A fuller tone will be applied consistently. 

• 400th -- Arrivals, for whatever reason.  Families spread out along the coast, such as Essex County filling in. Too, some went west and north. The NEHGS Great Migration (see WikiTree) was an effort to identify these families in two groups, before Winthrop and then from 1630 to 1640. Other efforts are being done. So, families can look at their kin. Culture, though, will play a huge part of our lookback. With technology, history can now, finally, be written from bottom-up where abstraction might stick its head around the corner from time to time, but we will see that specific tracings get some notice. 
  
• 300th -- This period, not long after the Witch ordeal, is the wilderness era, as some of the 250th bullet would like us to remember. By the time of the rebellion, people had spread a little further such that the north and the south of New England ran along most of the eastern seaboard (south of Canada and north of New Spain). So, there was expansion to the west, a lot of this colonialization was organized to fit New England's goals which carried over to the 200th, to boot.  
• 250th -- This is the SAR/DAR theme which we have mentioned, from time to time. So much is involved, that this one bullet would overwhelm the whole of the matter. It does for many folks, but we have the 150 plus prior years to cover. 
• 200th -- This is about the frontier time, and there are many ways to go as we are talking the coastal folks, both sides, filling in the huge interior. There was a unfolding that we can get more familiar with. Too, there were many types of people, after all thirty some-odd States fill the interior. Early birds can be researched using some event like that addressed by the movie, The Revenant, especially the cast of characters that are mentioned. However, we're looking at the broader picture which would include many others, such as Jedediah Strong Smith, who caught our interest as an early explorer. Then, there were several decades of other persons that we can pay attention too. In this period, we saw the Civil War come around. 
• 100th -- Right now, we cannot think of a better topic for focus than the effort by Dr. Frank and friends in establishing The Massachusetts Magazine, publishing this over a decade (quarterly), and thereby creating an opportunity for supporting research. Many contributors to the periodical were of the 19th century. However, there will be many more topics to look at. 

There have been several good histories of the U.S. available in book form. We are seeing new attempts using multi-media. This snapshot of the era of the 250th comes from a Wikipedia overview that is quite good and shows the population of the Colonies as will as the extension post the Treaty of Paris (1783). 

Our first post on the 400ths was early on 06 Jan 2013: 400th anniversaries. After that, there were a few more which we'll tie together. But, as we can see via the theme, we are looking across a wide spans of time. We expect that this will entail lots of interesting study and discussion. 

Remarks: Modified: 05/12/2021

05/12/2021 -- 

Technology's influence

TL;DR -- On a search, found a blog post that had good material. Followed the author's signature to Twitter where there was a website mentioned whose first page had an email address. Now, there might have been a shorter path to be found. Too lessons. We need to cover the technological spectrum wisely. And, we need to harp that decisions about not using the internet were shortsighted. After all, 2010 when the decision was made. And, 2021? Mostly virtual has been the reality for many. 

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We mention the influence of technology a lot and will continue. For one thing, we'll get our technology blog up to date - recent paper from the Communications of the ACM -- HCDA: From Computational Thinking to a Generalized Thinking Paradigm. Fortunately, the paper is open to public read. 

Here's the story. We have been looking at the frontier, for various reasons. One motive is to fill in gaps where families more or less threw up their hands due to the backward ways of genealogists. There are lots of things to discuss, but they don't know Bayes who is (was) the darling of some west coasters (say, San Francisco polluters). But, in particular, we got back to the Cumberland Gap and mention a church which we are researching. 

So, we are doing a search, and this comes up: Know your archives. Hey, looks familiar. And, the theme of the post was of the right timeframe. Who was the author? William Black, PhD Candidate, Rice University (Texas, if you have to ask) with a Twitter tag. Well, we don't do twit, yet: How do you find this out? Well, go to the source (as that old sports guy used to say, let's go to the video tape). @williamblack. Okay, looks like we have to dive into the textual nonsense. Ever listen to a huge flock of birds atwittering, bickering, and such (especially, if they're outside of your bedroom window while you are trying to sleep)? 

As the Bard said (paraphrase), much ado about not much. It got Trump into trouble. 

Anyway, there is a link to a blog (wrblack.com). And, it uses WP. Looks familiar in format. And, lots of good stuff to read and view, since it does deal with U.S. history within a timeframe that has our current interest. But, contact? Ah yes, the main page has an email address, for old people like us. 

So, congratulations to William R. Black who got his PhD in 2018. Dissertation: 

No Northern or Southern Religion: Cumberland Presbyterians and the Christian Nation, 1800–1877.

Now,  that is a topic (Civil War) that we have avoided somewhat except for noting a few abolitionists, such as T. W. Higginson, in the early times. After all, we're of KS. But, we have run into those on the other side as we trace families, too. 

We'll get to that. First, let us look at Loyalists, since New France which became New England is full of those who supported the King and Crown. In this post (Two different times), we look at red/blue in the same context related to bifurcations (so eternal for humans, since Cain/Abel). 

Anyway, this is the technology part. We have covered some of the bases but need to do more. Henceforth, we will be extending our scope to material from all types of presentation modes. 

To genealogists: Not only do we need to talk advanced logic, let's look at equivalence. This is related to the reaction to the internet decision. What have we seen since 2008 (Job's gifting)? What of the past year? Virtual, to the max. Listen up: the website related to Cumberland Presbyterian and its history based upon their records is better than any collection of family bibles with their scribblings. Let's wake up to that fact. 

Remarks: Modified: 05/12/2021

05/10/2021 -- 

Caleb Haskell's diary

TL;DR -- Cuz Caleb out of Newburyport was an early responder having heard a preacher talk hell and firestone (whatever). Several volunteers were out of Essex County MA, but other regions contributed, to boot. The group, lead by Benedict Arnold, went up the Kennebec (in late fall, for God's sake) to Quebec. Caleb diary'ed during the events which encompassed about a year of time. So, we look at that and related material as we continue on setting the basis for the U.S. emergence and its voluminous enveloping of land from the Atlantic to the Pacific. All along, people and their families were involved.  

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What got our attention was a tweet on a history page saying that, on 5 May 1775, Caleb Haskell started his diary which ran for a year. He was under the command of Ezra Lunt who is related. Also, Benedict Arnold was the main lead. So, before going into that, we'll look at some of the context of our recent work which deals with New England families within the timeline of the U.S. and allows us to look at related subjects that have been of interest while at the same time keeping Essex County MA in the picture. Of late, we have been looking at the movements to the west as they pertain to the long reach of New England. Too, though, we need to consider the influence of Europe on the early U.S. especially those folks who came from England. That is much later in the 19th century where money needed for investment came in  (with the usual perils of capitalists losing). One consequence was that the population ran up by millions per year for a while as we can see with the U.S. Census. 

Backing up, though, let's look  to the Revolution. Dr. Frank mentioned that the French-Indian affair helped train the local folks sufficiently to pull off the rebellion against the King and his Crown. That affair dealt with a conflict with the neighbors. To give an idea of the scope, we can use this map to show the relative sizes of New France (blue), the principal belligerent, and New Spain. 

French-Indian War era

It was in this conflict where Nathaniel Knapp (ancestor of Dr. Frank) wrote his diary while engaged in the Louisbourg Expedition. We have to mention that Nathaniel was from Newbury while Caleb was of Newburyport. Both of these areas are full of relatives which is another recurrent theme.  

Other parallels abound. For instance, we have looked at rivers, such as the Ohio River, which serve as waterways but are huge barriers, too. In regard to the waterway, traveling either direction can be a problem. It's interesting that the group that Caleb was with tried to navigate up the Kennebec River from Maine up to Quebec. 

Caleb's diary - A REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIER'S RECORD BEFORE BOSTON

AND WITH ARNOLD's QUEBEC EXPEDITION

One wonders of the timing as they did this in late fall. One goal was to attack Quebec City which was tried on New Year's eve. This map shows the route of the group. The caption from Wikipedia is as follows -- Detail of a 1795 map, overlaid with Arnold's expedition route: *A: Cambridge *B: Newburyport *C: Fort Western *D: Fort Halifax *E: Great Carrying Place *F: Height of land *G: Lake Mégantic. 

Arnold's route

The expedition did not work as planned. However, Caleb made it back to Essex County and is buried there. One wonders if he wrote this after the fact given all of the troubles encountered. We know how difficult it was to record anything, especially in the uncertain conditions such as Arnold's group faced. And, such material being preserved for later publication would have been somewhat remarkable, even miraculous.

MS&S: Caleb Haskell vol 7, pg 433. 

Where Caleb is buried, there is a plaque with lots  of names of relatives: Caleb Haskell, Jr. We need to look more closely at how Caleb relates; too, Ezra Lunt (MS&S, vol 10, pg 46) needs a little study. 

One hundred years later, we will see the U.S. being invaded, somewhat, by multitudes. Lots to look at. 

Remarks: Modified: 05/10/2021

05/08/2021 -- Caleb was in Ezra's unit at the Siege of Boston. Their chaplain was Rev. Samuel Spring. Evidently, Ezra did not go north but stayed in the MA area.