Gardner's Beacon, Vol XII, No 1

This issue of Gardner's Beacon continues with the context of our previous issue with respect to a regular presentation of ongoing work as well as reviews of common interests. The PDF has links to support further reading and research.   

Topics:

Women's History Month

General topics

Our challenges

...

GB XII, 1 (PDF w/links)

New: Mobile-friendly issue of

GB XII, 1  

See Vol. XII, No. 1 of Gardner's Beacon for links to Sources.

Remarks: Modified: 10/03/2022

03/31/2022 -- Rearrange sections within the issue, with topical first and technical last. 

04/02/2022 -- Expect to hear more about Lorenzo and Peggy. 

10/03/2022 -- Added the mobile-friendly link. 

10/05/2022 -- Changed mobile link to point to new site. 

Who's on first?

 TL;DR -- So, 1st governor? That has been mentioned. Today, we find another view brought into the mix after a decade of research. We really appreciate this addition. 

--

We have several themes involved with the work of Gardner Research. One of these motivates the post. But, let's look at another one first. It has to do with the families at Cape Ann some of whom moved over to the area that became Salem. Some went back, such as John Tilley who was featured in a recent NEHGR article. A little later, of the first class at Harvard, the majority went back. Some not to return such as George Downing. With regard to Harvard, we had people coming over just to attend. 

Our interest is to find the Cape Ann families and their modern offspring. Say, like this view of the signers of one of the documents related to the Revolution (see Different Scopes). To that we would add some material about Loyalists. In one of these posts (see Two Houses), we match up the two sides, one of which was a Founder of the Society of Cincinnati.   

Okay, let's go to the other theme after listing a few posts that we have had related to Cape Ann. 

• Families at Cape Ann (Mar 2020); Cape Ann, 1623 (Dec 2015); Cape Ann, Retrospective (Apr 2016)

Now, the new theme? 1st Governor. Of what? Well, the role would apply to New England, of the north, principally that which got Massachusetts going. And, it dealt with families here. In fact, with regard to  Cape Ann, Gardner was thrown into the mix in a discussion amongst members of the extended collection of Winthrops, Bradfords, Endicotts, and others, such as Cabot, Conant, and Crowninshield. There is no order implied in this listing. 

With respect to research, this would involve George's offspring (early son) though the writer of their book was an offspring of Samuel. To date, we have covered a lot of material in the past decade with a stack of research still to do. 

Including, and relates to the new theme, the Dorchester Company. Frances Rose-Troup left the results of her research. There has been some since that time. The issue of Thomas and Margaret has been settled. And, we have 400 years of data to look at. So too, supporting SAR/DAR's 250th, we have the 5th generations's revolution to look at, say, Cape Ann to Patriot. Then, we have the 200th which is of the frontier and the huge interior that was carved to pieces; the 100th would look at the continual influx of newbies plus events such as the Spanish flu. 

So, the theme of today? We earlier had commented at a post of the Streets of Salem blog dealing with Gloucester (Enduring Gloucester) and what went down there, and when. Per usual, our focus was on what happened here. That is due to an adage saw earlier that said that Yanks ought to deal with the stuff over here (say, yeah, Massachusetts records) and the Brits would take care of their side. As well, for a long while, the people here self-governed. We'll get more in that, with the occasional meddling of a Governor sent over say, the bickering families of Nantucket (see John's visit to New York), taxes (see John Wise's jailing), and more (blogs for all of these).  

This year, there was mention of the 'real' first governor, as in being appointed over there. The commenter (David Cuckson had written a book on the subject). He mentioned Sir Walter Erle (Wikipedia, WikiTree) as having the role as appointed by Rev. John White, himself, about whom we have had several posts, since one sister married a Thomas Gardner and another married into a family that came over here. 

We appreciate now getting another view established that was not given proper attention.  

Remarks: Modified: 03/25/2022

03/24/2022 --

Women's History Month, 2022

TL;DR -- This month, the Gairdner Foundation announced a special award for a woman researcher who will be identified in early April. We had known of the organization since our own early research and went to find out about Women's History Month. We also took the opportunity to mention a few (via a post) of the women who will be subject to attention in our work. We have written many posts about the women of interest to 'All things Gardner' over the years and will index these references.  

--

Earlier in the month, we saw the Gaidner Foundation's post on Women's History Month on their Facebook page and wrote our own blog post. We had made reference to the non-profit organization over the years. The founder was of a family from Scotland who wanted to support medical research. He founded the organization in the 1950s. Now, it offers yearly prizes and keeps up the interest with a ceremony held yearly. To date, 97 of those who got an annual Gairdner Foundation award went on to obtain a Nobel Prize. That is something to look at further, especially in how to support technology and research of such which is our interest. 

Gairdner was going to announce a special award in early April for a woman researcher. We will be paying attention. Also, on their FB page, they have listed some of the female winners their prize. The first such recipient was Eleanor Zaimis in 1959.  

We had been looking at the history of Harvard, starting with a survey of the Heads of Harvard, for the purpose of matching up the histories of the U.S. and Harvard. There was a recent Head who was female and deserving of attention. Our focus had been at former Heads in order to establish themes and relationships. Many Heads were from New England. Some were recent arrivals. 

Drew Gilpin Faust was the 28th President. The current occupant of the office is the 29th. President Faust was from the American South but does have New England genealogical connections. She was one of the few Heads who was not a graduate of Harvard. Faust attended Bryn Mawr.

Speaking of Bryn Mawr, we stopped to look at its history in Quakerism. Turns out that one of its professors had fled Nazi Germany. She was a mathematician of note and is buried in the U.S. We are speaking of Prof. Emmy Noether who was from a mathematical family that was split. She will come back into attention, again, due to the mathematical aspects of some technology issues.  

Over the years, we have had many posts about women in the long 400 years from early New England down to the present day. One task will be to identify these as we get going in our 12th year.

Women's History Month has been declared for several years now but has a long history back to 1909. see details at the website for the National Women's History Museum. The early references relate to International Women's Day. 

Remarks: Modified: 03/25/2023

03/25/2023 -- The focus was on Margaret and Hypatia for 2023.

Joseph B. Felt

TL;DR -- While researching John Tilley, we saw references to material from the works of Felt and went to see who he was. One of the first hits was from AMSTATNEWS. Okay, that's significant. Turned out to be a recent article. Looking further, we saw that he had lots of publications accomplished. And, he did statistical work for the State of Massachusetts, hence the interest of the American Statistical Association. 

--

What got our attention was following up on links during research related to John Tilley and finding out that our reference of work (say, Annals of Salem) by Felt was quite extensive but without details about who he was (Felt, that is). So, on looking, we find an article at AMSTATNEWS which is the membership magazine of the American Statistical Association (was a member once upon a time). The article? Joseph Barlow Felt. Actually, we were trying to fill in information about Rev. Felt, as, in many references in post to Felt, there was only one that mentioned his first name (our bad). And getting mentioned in AMSTATNEWS requires some attention. It was recent, 2014, so let's look at another. 

Rev. Felt was mentioned in the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1876. He was about 100 years prior to Dr. Frank which is about 100 prior to our time. So, he is a child of a Patriot which we will look at further. See Memoir of Joseph Barlow Felt, LL. D. His parents were John Felt and Elizabeth Curtis. He matriculated at Dartmouth. Later, got an honorary from them. 

Rev. Felt's WikiTree profile is sparse. That needs some correction. Gosh, he was the president of the New England Historical and Genealogical Society. 

Definitely oversights abound. 

Remarks: Modified: 03/21/2022

03/21/2022 --

John Tilley (Tylly, Tilly)

TL;DR -- John Tilley has been of interest from day one, as we learned about Cape Ann and its history. As with the others, what happened to John after Conant got the group to move to the to-be Salem area? Finally, we have a research report.  It confirms that John was at Cape Ann. His father was an investor in the Dorchester Company. He went back. Then, he married in England. The couple returned not long after Winthrop's arrival. The couple was in Dorchester, MA and Saybrook/Windsor, CT. John may have had a daughter. And, he was tortured and died in sight of his peers.  

--

According to Dr. Frank who was quoting Rev. Hubbard and Rev. Joseph B. Felt, John Tilley came with Thomas Gardner into the Cape Ann area to establish a colony. The former was the head of fishing endeavors; the latter was in charge of the planting aspects. The intent, by the way of the Dorchester Company, was to begin regular shipment of feedstuff back to the jolly old country. So, as a peer of Thomas, John Tilley got our attention early. And, we didn't know about any offspring. So, we added him to our not-to-be-forgotten list which included Joseph Gardner. 

But, the capitalists had expectations that were too high. And, they sent in Roger Conant to try to improve on matters which did not work due to the poor conditions at the chosen location among other things. Then, things went south. Conant move the colony to what was to become Salem. Some followed. Others had unknown fates. One of these was John Tilley. And, Thomas Gardner was not of the mix as he received no recognition with respect to what became the focus of the Old Planters of Beverly society. 

Conant was well documented by his family. We have lots of information about Thomas, some of it might be fictive (See the "What we know" post that needs to be updated). On the other hand, we did find their marriage. That is, Thomas and Margaret Fryer are noted to have married in Dorset. Also, after much digging, we think that Thomas and Margaret stayed in Cape Ann with their kids in the house until John Endicott arrived. There were other families at Cape Ann which we intend to research. 

This post is about the family of John Tilley which was featured in an article in the recent NEHGR by one of the consulting editors. His father was William Tilley.

Clifford L. Stott "Rev. William Tilley of Broadwindsor, Dorset, and His Sons in New England: John Nathaniel, and William" NEHGR, Winter 2022, page 40

William Tilley
father of John Tilley, Cape Ann
The Original 119 Members

Summary: 

John Tilley's father was an investor in the Dorchester Co. Investors (our post).  Roger Conant's brother was an investor, as well. (We know that a Gardner was married to a sister of Rev. John White MA (1574/5 - 1648) (our post). Frances Rose-Troup noted that he came over and went back and was buried there. So, some connection to an investor would not be out of the question.) 

John went back after the Conant move. And married. (see Paine sisters on people going back.) Then, the couple returned. Went to Dorchester. Later, they were in Windsor, CT.  

John was stated to have harsh words with Lion Gardiner. (Great) John went north as he stated that he would. On the way back, he was captured by the American Indians and tortured. That included having both of his hands and feet cut off, and other atrocities. The Indians said that John performed well (when men were men - BTW, this all happened within sight of his fort'd peers. How's that for leaving men behind?) 

There was no known connection established with John Tilley of the Mayflower.  

Tilley-954 has a good start on a Profile for John at WikiTree. He married Edith (Moorecock) Garland, a widow. In England. There is a probable daughter, Elizabeth Tilley who married Thomas Merrick. After John died, Edith married Nicholas Camp. 

The article provides information about the two brothers who came over.  

Several of the families of Cape Ann have been researched, such as the Woodbury family. But, do we have a good list of the families. Many lists are based upon families that went with Conant (see Families at Cape Ann) or are mentioned in work by the Old Planters Society started by Dr. Gardner and Col. Higginson. We attempt a survey to find out where there are missing pieces to look for.  

Remarks: Modified: 04/07/2022

04/07/2022 -- Change Native Americans to American Indians. 

Emmy Noether

TL;DR -- Following threads, our looking at a theorem got us paying attention to a mathematician who came over to Bryn  Mawr. We will skip over the technology piece of the matter, for now, and look at what Bryn Mawr offers us. We have already written of two graduates. Bryn Mawr history goes back to William Penn who was born in 1644 and was a cohort of the children of Thomas Gardner and Margaret Friar. Besides Emmy Noether being a professor, so too was Woodrow Wilson who went to head Princeton and while doing so appointed Horace Kallen as a teacher. We look at connections with the family. As well as look at technology connects later, we will follow north-south colonial links which culminated, somewhat, in the Civil War.  

-- 

This month, we have had posts with a Women's History Month as the theme. Today, we were looking at the life of Emmy Noether, for several reasons. She ended up at Bryn Mawr as a professor of mathematics. We knew of that college due to a family member attending and thought to look at the specifics of the college. After a brief look, we thought to mention one other professor and look at a couple of graduates. 

In 2020, we had a post about Emily Greene Balch. She is a descendant of Sarah who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946. At the time that we were writing of her, we saw that the first woman to receive the Prize was of a family who had received land from William Penn, too. Emily was a graduate of Bryn Mawr which was founded on a farm built upon land provided by a grant from Penn. 

Beyond that connection, we are talking Pennsylvania and the Quaker movement. We have had several posts on the theme of Quaker lives in the American colonies. Thomas married a Quaker widow. Several of his children were Quakers including the two whose lives on Nantucket are of continual interest. 

Emmy Noether
via Wikipedia

Another graduate was Drew Gilpin Faust who was the first female Head of Harvard. She grew up in Virginia as a descendant of the South. Her special scholarly interest was the Civil War. She also had northern roots part of which goes back to The Downings, in-laws of Joseph Gardner. We will look at her pedigree further. 

Now, switching back to the professors, Emmy came over to Bryn Mawr as the Nazi movement was taking hold on Germany. We will be looking at her work in detail with respect to technology's influence on our lives, especially in the troublesome manner that seems to want to always manifest itself. Another professor was Woodrow Wilson prior to his stint at Princeton and then the White House. He appointed Horace Kallen who was a graduate of Harvard as a teacher at Princeton. Horace is known for his work in American pluralism. 

Remarks: Modified: 03/25/2023

03/25/2022 -- Emmy was mentioned in several post this past year. 

John Leverett

TL;DR -- We continue our look at U.S. history by way of the Heads of Harvard with a look at the first Head of the 18th Century. This was shortly after the Witch ordeal of Andover and a couple of generations prior to the U.S. revolution. John Leverette initiated the changes that resulted in the eventual 'secular' turn at Harvard. 

-- 

We continue to use the Heads of Harvard (Wikipedia) to establish our index for the U.S. through time. Initially, the interests were several, but we have started with this look: History of Harvard (ours); History of the Presidency (Harvard); graduates of Harvard (list initiated by Hoar); and Harvard in the long history of the U.S. We are about 1/2 way through these folks. After getting the list going, we will tie the goings on back to these Heads in terms of general happenings as well as specific family involvements. 

Though we saw John Leverett (Wikipedia, WikiTree) on the list of Heads earlier, it was seeing his predecessors that motivated today's entry. Also, we learned a little about his family. His grandfather was Governor and also a member of the Artillery Company of Massachusetts.  Leverette was Head of Harvard after Increase Mather left his role to be follow by Samuel Willard who fell ill while serving as an interim Head. 

The biography at Harvard has interesting information about Leverett's contributions to making Harvard a liberal institution while firming up its style as well as the demeanor of the students. This period is right about the turn of the 18th century with the closure of the Salem turmoils and a couple of generations prior to the U.S. revolution. Leverette was instrumental in starting the secular turn of Harvard, according to its Historian, Samuel E. Morrison. 

Remarks: Modified: 03/09/2022

03/09/2022 --

Drew Gilpin Faust

TL;DR -- We continue our look at U.S. history by way of the Heads of Harvard with a look at the first  female Head. Drew Gilpin Faust was from Virginia and a Historian of the Civil War. 

---

Our look at the Heads of Harvard (Wikipedia) has been quite useful with only a cursory look. We will be taking this theme as a regular meme while we continue the review of the U.S. through time. Initially, the interests were several, but we have started with this look: 

• History of Harvard (ours);
• History of the Presidency (Harvard); 
• graduates of Harvard (list initiated by Hoar); and 
• Harvard in the long history of the U.S. 

We are about 1/2 way through these folks. After completing the list, we will tie U.S. generations back to these Heads in terms of general happenings as well as specific family involvements through the 400 years.

The first female president (and #28) was Drew Gilpin Faust (Wikipedia, WikiTree - her father, McGhee Tyson Gilpin). She was a graduate of Bryn Mawr and the first since 1672 to hold the position while not being a graduate of Harvard. She was in the office from 2007 to 2018 (News, President Faust), brought back the ROTC, and installed the first Muslim chaplain. 

Her biography at Harvard is the index (get direct link) of the archive.org collection. She was a Historian of the Civil War and from Virginia, a southern state. As well as looking at her accomplishments, we will look at the family history for connections to New England, north. 

Notes: 

1. We mentioned Drew in our post on Emmy Noether who ought to be better known and in the one on Women's History Month, 2022. Derek Bok was interim in the role prior to her time. 

2. ...

Remarks: Modified: 03/13/2022

03/13/2022 -- This was the first post of the Women's History Month theme. There is an in-law tie and several cultural ones. One pedigree line for Faust goes back to the Downing family which was connected to son Joseph. Culturally, both graduates and professors of Bryn Mawr have associations to look at further. 

 

Gairdner Foundation

TL;DR -- Themes become memes and endure. Technology assists, in ways we do not even think about. But, will. For good or bad, we have to look at matters related to progress and change. Looking back can provide a framework which offers types of insights that we need to hone. With respect to medical research, the Gairdner Awards foundation is an example of successful handling of a particular focus. We will be looking more at that. 

--

We have mentioned this organization a couple of times in the blog but ran into their work almost in the beginning. Early on, we had lots of questions about the name and the families and started to look at All things Gardner. 'Gairdner' is obviously close to 'Gardner' and other variants of the name. This family is from Scotland. What caught out attention, though, was their work in supporting medical research. From the start, we have had research as a focus. Initially, there was a lot to do to fill in what for what we didn't know and are still working that. 

Why? The more we find out, the more questions arise. Too, it is our experience that the U.S. plays an unique role in the world which might be associated with the Americas, in general. So, issues of history, culture, and family will continue to get attention (see post on Culture, History, and Technology). It may not have been apparent, but we see technology, in general, a being of prime importance going forward. 

We have had several post related to the theme of technology. Here are a few: 

• Technology and content
• Favorite site
• Challenges of technology
• Magna carta, technical

Now, getting back to the Gairdner theme, we were on Facebook and saw their hashtag post on Women's History Month. This is an image of the Gairdner Awards FB feed. 

They will be offering awards to women scientists, so we will stay tuned. 

From Streets of Salem: Books for Women's History Month, 2022. 

Remarks: Modified 12/22/2023

03/09/2022 -- Added book list. Of the categories needing attention, a "Magna Carta, technical" sits on the top. Not many make the effort to know: how all of this stuff works?; why it is like it is?; are there other alternatives?; and such. Rolling with the crowd, being controlled by those who can do so, lazing in the aura of gaming with its biochemical impacts, being impinged in unknown ways from the proliferation of material that impacts energy, and more. Research options abound. 

03/25/2022 -- Wikipedia article on the company. Ninety-seven Gairdner Laureates have won the Nobel Prize. ... Collected some information on James Arthur Gairdner (his parents, his service record). 

12/22/2023 -- THE FUTURE OF AI IN SCIENCE AND MEDICINE, talk at Gairdner Foundation, Oct 25, 2023. 

Secret Six

TL;DR -- History will be a regular topic as it relates to New England and families from that region, especially those with ties to the early times and Essex County. 

--

A recent discussion on Quora got us back to a topic from several years ago that dealt with the period prior to the Civil War. By then, a wide swath of the Interior had been explored, if not settled though this was only a fraction of the eventual spread. In terms of the Heads of Harvard, we go to the pre-war period and stopped to regroup. This theme is an important one and will be reappearing on the topic list for some time. 

The Great Emancipators
WSJ 02/15/2020

The discussion was about John Brown, which looked at his abolitionist work including his time in Kansas. We had looked at that while getting familiar with Col. Thomas W. Higginson (Higginson-380 on WikiTree). At the time of that post, we noted that he was related to Thomas Gardner of Salem. However, his Gardner grandmother was the 2nd wife of his grandfather (John Higginson, #10, pg 13). The Colonel came out to Kansas with some men (some with their families) from Maine who were to settle the area to be free state. He wrote of his trip out to the area and back. 

We were introduced to the Colonel through articles about him when he died that Dr. Frank published in The Massachusetts Magazine. One of the authors was Franklin B. Sanborn. Both Sanborn and Higginson were members of the Secret Six who were Massachusetts men who supported the work of John Brown. One of the Six was Samuel Gridley Howe who was the husband of Julia (Ward) Howe who wrote the Battle Hymn of the Republic. 

The Civil War was less than 100 years after the Revolution whose 250th commemoration is coming up. It was not long ago that we saw the 150th of the start of the Civil War. One connection to look at would be the generational aspects such as we see with our study of the fifth generation bearing the brunt of the split with England. 

Remarks: Modified 03/07/2022

03/07/2022 --