8th generation

TL;DR -- We have several threads that relate families to events and their themes. For instance the 5th generation did the Revolution, guided by the 4th and assisted by the 6th. Post the Revolution, the western activity kicked into higher gear. The 7th generation was involve out west early. Now, with the 8th, we can bring in the Civil War and further looks at western activity. 

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We have used generation often without much definition, example - Fifth generation (the Revolution). Then, we talked of others, such as the 4th (leadership during the Revolution) or later generations. Of course, this is a topic which will always be with us: "Generations" and its use, About generations. As well, we are using a thread about the History of Harvard to follow 400 years of the U.S. 

So, it's time to put 'generation' to work on a usual basis. Today, after looking at our post on Judge F. M. Thompson, we looked at his generation. F.M. contributed to the Massachusetts Magazine. Too, some of this material was collected into a book, Tenderfoot in Montana. Now, his mother was a Adams (WikiTree) so we will now use the Adams family to compare lives of cousins, like we did with those in the lineage of Grizzly and John Quincy and with Dr. Frank's book.  

In short, F.M. was of the 8th generation. As such, his western jaunt is of interest as this is the second wave where the first wave consisted of the earlier group, such as Jedediah Strong Smith. Jedediah's group were the early explorers out west; too, they got the carving of the land started with its result of a century of the frontier. If we were to pick a major event in the U.S. related to this generation, it would be the U.S. Civil War. 

Seal of the 
Territory of Montana

F.M. was in New England at the start of the conflict. He was on the west coast and at in-between locations for a lot of the duration of the war. We will let him describe his experiences for himself. For now, here are a few posts related to F.M. and his jaunts. 

• The Indelible Mark of Francis Thompson (2015) -- offered by the Montana Historical Society, this posts gives us some flavor of his impact in that region. 
• Sesqui-centennial (1903) -- F.M. celebrated by Greenfield, MA. 
• The NEHGR (1917, Vol 21) -- Memoirs of the NEHGS 

We will be back to this post as we define more generations and their contributions. Generations overlap. So, we can talk a mid-point and spread. Then, how about some fuzzy logic, such as: mostly late 7th and somewhat early 8th? There are other methods that could be used. Too, we need to pick one of two choices: either the generation of Thomas and Margaret are in the count or not. We have mixed this a little, to date, and will get that issue settled before we bring generations further into our model for discussing dynamics of change in the sense of history. 

So, following up on John Quincy Adams, we find Mary Gardner (Adams) Quincy. On looking at the Gardner connection, she is a descendant of Thomas and Margaret of Cape Ann and Salem. In terms of Grizzly Adams, his son, Seymour Adams, served in the Civil War. That shows some credence for our counting this type of segregation. 

Let's check the Harvard connections. The two Presidents during the conflict were Cornelius Felton (1860-1862) and Thomas Hill (1862-1868). We have not looked at these two as of yet. For now, let's take Felton whose brother, Samuel, was a railroad engineer. He was President of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad during the "pivotal Civil War" era. 

Remarks: Modified: 09/29/2022

07/09/2022 -- Add NEHGS Proceedings entry for F.M. that appeared in the 1917 NEHGR.  

09/29/2022 -- Col. T. W. Higginson was of the 8th generation.