This page includes brief bios for those (usually distant) relatives who have achieved some note or notoriety. To go to the bio, click on your name of choice:
A descendant of Richard Bartlett,
Josiah was born in Amesbury, Massachusetts. He was privately educated and became an
American physician and statesman. He attained all without a law degree, and his medical
training was received under a preceptorship. He was deprived of certain Royal appointments
because of his Whig loyalties.
He began medical practice in Kingston, New Hampshire in 1750, and, in 1754, successfully
introduced Peruvian bark in the treatment of a throat disease, angina maligna. People rode
many miles, in wagons and on horseback over primitive mud roads to see the physician.
He helped found the New Hampshire Medical Society in 1791.
From 1765 to 1775 he served in the New Hampshire legislature. He also commanded a regiment
of colonial militia. But he favored independence so openly that the Royal Governor
dismissed him from the militia, and the new Provincial Congress chose him to be a delegate
to the first Continental Congress. A delegate in 1775 and 1776 to the Continental
Congress, he was the first member to vote for the Declaration of Independence and the
second -- after the president of the Congress, John Hancock -- to sign the document.
Later, he served on many committees for his integrity was apparent, and the
delegates valued his judgment. He served so intensely that he became exhausted and
declined re-election to the Third Continental Congress.
Having worked closely with lawyers on legislation for over fifteen years, Bartlett was
appointed Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Court of Common Pleas in 1779, became
Associate Justice of the Superior Court in 1782, a Judge of the state Supreme Court in
1784, and chief justice in 1788. He was president of New Hampshire from 1790 to 1793 when,
under the new constitution, he was elected governor. He retired in 1794.
From James F. Cook, "The Governors of Georgia, 1754-1995," pages 167-169:
"During the war Boynton had moved his family to Griffin, and after
the war he established his practice there. He served as a judge of the county court, and
from 1869 to 1872 was mayor of Griffin. In 1880 Boynton was elected to the Georgia Senate.
When that body assembled, he was unanimously chosen president of the Senate--one of the
very rare instances when a freshman legislator has been elected presiding officer by
unanimous vote. "An admirable presiding officer," according to contemporary
journalist I. W. Avery, he was reelected two years later.
"When Governor Alexander Stephens died on 4 March 1883, Boynton became the acting
governor. Immediately after taking the oath of office, he ordered an election for 24 April
and summoned the General Assembly to meet, count the votes, and install the new governor.
Eight candidates sought the Democratic nomination, but when the nominating convention
convened in Atlanta, the field had been narrowed considerably. In the early balloting
Boynton and A. 0. Bacon, an experienced lawyer from Macon who had been speaker of the
house since 1874, were the leading contenders. After seventeen ballots it was apparent
that neither could secure the nomination, so a conference committee recommended Henry D.
McDaniel as a compromise, and he subsequently was nominated and elected. Boynton remained
in office a total of sixty-five days, until McDaniel's inauguration on 10 May 1883. For
Boynton, the highlight of his brief tenure as governor came on 30 April when he married
Susie T. Harris of Walton County in a gala ceremony.
"After serving as governor, Boynton was twice elected judge of the Superior Court of
the Flint Circuit, serving from 1886 to 1893 when he resigned to become division counsel
of the Central of Georgia Railway Company. Against his wishes the voters of Spalding
County elected him to the legislature in 1896. That was his last public office. Enfeebled
in his last years, he died at his home in Griffin on 22 December 1902 and was buried with
Masonic honors in Oak Hill Cemetery beside his first wife, who had died in 1877. Through
diligent application Boynton rose from humble circumstances to positions of considerable
authority. A man of dignity, courage, and independent thought, he served the people of
Georgia in a number of capacities and maintained throughout his lengthy public career the
respect of his colleagues and the public. A devout Baptist, his character was above
reproach, and he had little tolerance for sham, pretense, or deceit. He was highly
esteemed as a lawyer, judge, and presiding officer of the Senate. "
From: Miles, Edwin A., Grolier's New Multimedia Encyclopedia (1993):
Lewis Cass was an American political leader and the Democratic presidential nominee in 1848. He attended the Exeter Academy before moving (1799) to Ohio. After a brief residence in Marietta, he began to practice law in Zanesville. He was elected (1806) to the Ohio legislature and served as U.S. marshal from 1807 to 1812. He distinguished himself in the War of 1812 and rose to the rank of brigadier general. In 1813, President James MADISON appointed Cass governor of Michigan Territory, a position he held until 1831, when President Andrew JACKSON named him secretary of war. He resigned (1836) to become minister to France, where he remained until 1842. He served as U.S. senator from Michigan from 1845 to 1857 and was a strong supporter of territorial expansion. He narrowly lost the presidential election of 1848 to his Whig opponent, Zachary TAYLOR. President James BUCHANAN named Cass secretary of state in 1857. Although he generally advocated a conciliatory stand in the sectional controversy, he resigned in December 1860 when Buchanan rejected his advice to reinforce the Charleston forts during the secession crisis.
From: "Churchill, Sir Winston Leonard Spencer," Microsoft(R)
Encarta(R) 98 Encyclopedia. (c) 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation:
Churchill, born November 30, 1874, was the eldest son of Lord Randolph Churchill and the
American heiress Jennie Jerome. He graduated from the Royal Military College at Sandhurst,
but having served in India and the Sudan he resigned his cavalry commission in 1899 to
become a correspondent during the Boer War. A daring escape after he had been captured
made him a national hero, and in 1900 he was elected to Parliament as a Conservative.
Despite his aristocratic background, he switched in 1904 to the Liberal Party. In 1908 he
became president of the Board of Trade in Herbert Henry Asquith's Liberal cabinet. Then,
and later as home secretary (1910-11), he worked for special reform in tandem with David
Lloyd George. As first lord of the admiralty (1911-15), Churchill was a vigorous
modernizer of the navy.
World War I and the Interwar Period
Churchill's role in World War I was controversial and almost destroyed his career. Naval
problems and his support of the disastrous Gallipoli campaign forced his resignation from
the admiralty. Following service as a batalion commander in France, he joined Lloyd
George's coalition cabinet, and from 1917 to 1922 he filled several important positions,
including minister of munitions and secretary for war. The collapse of Lloyd George and
the Liberal Party in 1922 left Churchill out of Parliament between 1922 and 1924.
Returning in 1924, he became chancellor of the Exchequer in Stanley Baldwin's Conservative
government (1924-29). As such he displayed his new conservatism by returning Britain to
the gold standard and vigorously condemning the trade unions during the general strike of
1926. During the depression years (1929-39) Churchill was denied cabinet office.
Baldwin-and later Neville Chamberlain, who dominated the national government from 1931 to
1940-disliked his opposition to self-government for India and his support of Edward VIII
during the abdication crisis of 1936. His insistence on the need for rearmament and his
censure of Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler at Munich in 1938 also aroused suspicion.
When Britain declared war on Germany in September 1939, however, Churchill's views were
finally appreciated, and public opinion demanded his return to the admiralty.
Churchill as Prime Minister
Churchill succeeded Chamberlain as prime minister on May 10, 1940. During the dark days of
World War II that followed-Dunkerque, the fall of France, and the blitz-Churchill's
pugnacity and rousing speeches rallied the British to continue the fight. He urged his
compatriots to conduct themselves so that, "if the British Empire and its
Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest
hour.'" By successful collaboration with President Franklin D. Roosevelt he was able
to secure military aid and moral support from the United States. After the Soviet Union
and the U.S. entered the war in 1941, Churchill established close ties with leaders of
what he called the "Grand Alliance." Traveling ceaselessly throughout the war,
he did much to coordinate military strategy and to ensure Hitler's defeat. His conferences
with Roosevelt and Stalin, most notably at Yalta in 1945, also shaped the map of postwar
Europe. By 1945 he was admired throughout the world, his reputation disguising the fact
that Britain's military role had become secondary. Unappreciative of the popular demands
for postwar social change, however, Churchill was defeated by the Labour Party in the
election of 1945. Churchill criticized the "welfare state" reforms of
Labour under his successor Clement Attlee. He also warned in his "Iron Curtain"
speech in Fulton, Missouri, in 1946, of the dangers of Soviet expansion. He was prime
minister again from 1951 to 1955, but this time age and poor health prevented him from
providing dynamic leadership. Resigning in 1955, Churchill devoted his last years to
painting and writing. He died on January 24, 1965, at the age of 90. Following a state
funeral he was buried at Bladon near Blenheim Palace.
Churchill was also an able historian. His most famous works are The World Crisis (4 vol., 1923-29), My Early Life (1930), Marlborough (4 vol., 1933-38), The Second World War (6 vol., 1948-53), and A History of the English-Speaking Peoples (4 vol., 1956-58). He received the Nobel Prize for literature and a knighthood in 1953.
Assessment
Churchill's death in 1965, like that of Queen Victoria in 1901, marked the end of an era
in British history. Born into a Victorian aristocratic family, he witnessed and
participated in Britain's transformation from empire to welfare state, and its decline as
a world power. His true importance, however, rests on the fact that by sheer stubborn
courage he led the British people, and with them, the democratic Western world, from the
brink of defeat to a final victory in the greatest conflict the world has ever seen.
From the Encyclopedia Brittanica, on line version:
"U.S. army officer, congressman, and secretary of war for whom Ft. Dearborn--the site
of which is located in what is now the heart of Chicago--was named. He abandoned the
practice of medicine to fight in the American Revolution and kept a journal that gives a
valuable account of the principal campaigns of the war. On the organization of the U.S.
government, he was appointed marshal for the District of Maine (1789-93). He represented
Massachusetts in Congress (1793-97), was secretary of war under Pres. Thomas Jefferson
(1801-09), and served as U.S. minister to Portugal (1822-24). As secretary of war he
issued an order in 1803 "for erecting barracks and a strong stockade" at
"Chikago with a view to the establishment of a Post." When the War of 1812
began, Dearborn, then senior major general of the U.S. Army, attempted to invade Canada at
several points. After a long succession of delays and reverses, however, he was removed
from command by Pres. James Madison on July 6, 1813. "
From: "Fort Dearborn," Microsoft(R) Encarta(R) 98 Encyclopedia. (c) 1993-1997
Microsoft Corporation:
"Fort Dearborn, historic U.S. Army post, consisting of a stockade and two blockhouses
built in 1803 on the site of the present city of Chicago. It was named in honor of the
American politician and general Henry Dearborn, U.S. secretary of war at that time. The
fort stood at the mouth of the Chicago River, on a small tract of land that had been ceded
to the United States by the Native Americans in 1795. In the early part of the War of
1812, the garrison of 67 men evacuated the fort in accordance with an order from General
William Hull, at Detroit, as the British and their Native American allies were gaining
control of the surrounding area. Accompanied by the resident settlers, the garrison
started for Detroit with a body of supposedly friendly Native Americans. On the way, the
escort party joined with another large force of Native Americans and attacked the group.
Two-thirds of the Americans were killed and the rest were captured; several of those taken
captive were subsequently ransomed at Detroit. The fort was destroyed on the following day
by the Native Americans. It was rebuilt in 1816 on a larger scale and was strongly
garrisoned. The city of Chicago grew up around the fort."
From T. F. Waters: "In March [15th]of that year [1697] a band of
Indians attacked a Haverhill house and carried away Hannah Dustan, with her infant of a
week old, and her nurse [Mary Neff, nee Corliss]. They soon dashed out the brains of the
baby against a tree, and tomahawked the captives as soon as they lagged by the way. Mrs
Dustan and her companion were able to keep up with their captors for a hundred and fifty
miles through the wilderness. They were claimed by an Indian family, which consisted of
two stout men, three women and seven children. As they approached Penacook (now Concord),
the Indians told the women that when they reached the Indian camp in that neighborhood
they would be stripped, scourged and compelled to run the gauntlet. Driven to frenzy,
these women resolved to escape at any cost. On the morning of April 30, a little before
daybreak, Mrs Dustan roused her nurse and an English lad, helpd captive with them. They
armed themselves with the hatchets of the Indians, and killed them where they lay. Only
one squaw escaped sorely wounded, and a boy, whom they had spared intending to take with
them, awoke and ran away. They took the scalps of ten, and brought them with them on their
long and perilous homeward journey. A bounty of fifty pounds was voted them for this
bloody deed, and the statue of Hannah Dustan stands to-day in the public square of the
City of Haverhill. Six of the Indians who were killed and scalped in their wigwams were
children, and Mrs. Dustan was the mother of a large family. Her deed of blood, to which
she was driven by fear and a natural desire for revenge, reveals the fierce hatred of the
English toward the Indians, and the bitterness of life in those years of anguish."
From "Historical Collections, Being a General Collection of Interesting Facts,
Traditions, Biographical Sketches,
Anecdotes, &c., Relating to the History and Antiquities of Every Town in
Massachusetts, with Geographical Descriptions" by John Warner Barber, published 1839
by Dorr, Howland & Co.
On the 15th of March, 1697, a body of Indians made a descent on the westerly part of the
town, and approached
the house of Mr. Thomas Dustin. They came, as they were wont, arrayed with all the terrors
of a savage war dress, with their muskets charged for the contest, their tomahawks drawn
for the slaughter, and their scalping knives unsheathed and glittering in the sunbeams.
Mr. Dustin at this time was engaged abroad in his daily labor. When the terrific shouts of
the blood-hounds first fell on his ear, he seized his gun, mounted his horse, and hastened
to his house, with the hope of escorting to a place of safety his family, which consisted
of his wife, whom he tenderly and passionately loved, and who had been confined only seven
days in childbed, her nurse, Mrs. Mary Neff, and eight young children. Immediately upon
his arrival, he rushed into his house, and found it a scene of confusion - the women
trembling for their safety, and the children weeping and calling on their mother for
protection. He instantly ordered seven of his children to fly in an opposite direction
from that in which the danger was approaching, and went himself to assist his wife. But he
was too late - before she could arise from her bed, the enemy were upon them.
Mr. Dustin, seeing there was no hope of saving his wife from the clutches of the foe, flew
from the house, mounted his horse, and rode full speed after his flying children. The
agonized father supposed it impossible to save them all, and he determined to snatch from
death the child which shared the most of his affections. He soon came up with the infant
brood; he heard their glad voices and saw the cheerful looks that overspread their
countenances, for they felt themselves safe while under his protection. He looked for the
child of his love - where was it? He scanned the little group from the oldest to the
youngest, but he could not find it. They all fondly loved him - they called him by the
endearing title of father, were flesh of his flesh, and stretched out their little arms
toward him for protection. He gazed upon them, and faltered in his resolution, for there
was none whom he could leave behind; and, indeed, what parent could, in such a situation,
select the child which shared the most of his affections? He could not do it, and
therefore resolved to defend them from the murderers, or die at their side.
A small party of the Indians pursued Mr. Dustin as he fled from the house, and soon
overtook him and his flying
children. They did not, however, approach very near, for they saw his determination, and
feared the vengeance of
a father, but skulked behind the trees and fences, and fired upon him and his little
company. Mr. Dustin dismounted from his horse, placed himself in the rear of his children,
and returned the fire of the enemy often and with good suceess. In this manner he
retreated for more than a mile, alternately encouraging his terrified charge, and loading
and fireing his gun, until he lodged them safely in a forsaken house. The Indians, finding
that they could not conquer him, returned to their companions, expecting, no doubt, that
they should there find victims, on which they might exercise their savage cruelty.
The party which entered the house when Mr. Dustin left it, found Mrs. Dustin in bed, and
the nurse attempting to fly with the infant in her arms. They ordered Mrs. Dustin to rise
instantly, while one of them took the infant from the arms of the nurse, carried it out,
and dashed out its brains against an apple-tree. After plundering the house they set it on
fire, and commenced their retreat, though Mrs. Dustin had but partly dressed herself, and
was without a shoe on one of her feet. Mercy was a stranger to the breasts of the
conquerors, and the unhappy women expected to receive no kindnesses from their hands. The
weather at the time was exceedingly cold, the the March-wind blew keen and piercing, and
the earth was alternately covered with snow and deep mud.
They travelled twelve miles the first day, and continued their retreat, day by day,
following a circuitous route,
until they reached the home of the Indian who claimed them as his property, which was on a
small island, now
called Dustin's Island, at the mouth of the Contoocook river, about six miles above the
state-house in Concord,
New Hampshire. Notwithstanding their intense suffering for the death of the child - their
anxiety for those whom
they had left behind, and who they expected had been cruelly butchered - their sufferings
from cold and hunger,
and from sleeping on the damp earth, with nothing but an inclement sky for a covering -
and their terror for
themselves, lest the arm that, as they supposed, had slaughtered those whom they dearly
loved, would soon be
made red with their blood, - notwithstanding all this, they performed the journey without
yielding, and arrived at
their destination in comparative health.
The family of their Indian master consisted of two men, three women, and seven children;
besides an English boy,
named Samuel Lennardson, who was taken prisoner about a year previous, at Worcester. Their
master, some years before, had lived in the family of Rev. Mr. Rowlandson, of Lancaster,
and he told Mrs. Dustin that "when he
prayed the English way he thought it was good, but now he found the French way
better."
These unfortunate women had been but a few days with the Indians, when they were informed
that they must soon start for a distant Indian settlement, and that, upon their arrival,
they would be obliged to conform to the
regulations always required of prisoners, whenever they entered the village, which was to
be stripped, scourged,
and run the gauntlet in a state of nudity. The gauntlet consisted of two files of Indians,
of both sexes and of all ages, containing all that could be mustered in the village; and
the unhappy prisoners were obliged to run between them, when they were scoffed at and
beaten by each one as they passed, and were sometimes marks at which the younger Indians
threw their hatchets. This cruel custom was often practised by many of the tribes, and not
unfrequently the poor prisoner sunk beneath it. Soon as the two women were informed of
this, they determined to escape as speedily as possible. They could not bear to be exposed
to the scoffs and unrestrained gaze of their savage conquerors - death would be
preferable. Mrs. Dustin soon planned a mode of escape, appointed the 31st inst. for its
accomplishment, and prevailed upon her nurse and the boy to join her. The Indians kept no
watch, for the boy had lived with them so long they considered him as one of their
children, and they did not expect that the women, unadvised and unaided, would attempt to
escape, when success, at the best, appeared so desperate.
On the day previous to the 31st, Mrs. Dustin wished to learn on what part of the body the
Indians struck their
victims when they would despatch them suddenly, and how they took off a scalp. With this
view she instructed the
boy to make inquiries of one of the men. Accordingly, at a convenient opportunity, he
asked one of them where he
would strike a man if he would kill him instantly, and how to take off a scalp. The man
laid his finger on his temple - "Strike 'em there," said he; and then instructed
him how to scalp. The boy then communicated his information to Mrs. Dustin. The night at
length arrived, and the whole family retired to rest, little suspecting that the most of
them would never behold another sun. Long before the break of day, Mrs. Dustin arose, and,
having ascertained that they were all in a deep sleep, awoke her nurse and the boy, when
they armed themselves with tomahawks, and despatched ten of the twelve. A favorite boy
they designedly left; and one of the squaws, whom they left for dead, jumped up, and ran
with him into the woods. Mrs. Dustin killed her master, and Samuel Lennardson despatched
the very Indian who told him where to strike, and how to take off a scalp. The deed was
accomplished before the day bagan to break, and, after securing what little provision the
wigwam of their dead master afforded, they scuttled all the boats but one, to prevent
pursuit, and with that started for their homes. Mrs. Dustin took with her a gun that
belonged to her master, and the tomahawk with which she committed the tragical deed. They
had not proceeded far, however, when Mrs. Dustin perceived that they had neglected to take
their scalps, and feared that her neighbors, if they ever arrived at their homes, would
not credit their story, and would ask them for some token or proof. She told her fears to
her companions, and they immediately returned to the silent wigwam, took off the scalps of
the fallen, and put them into a bag. They then started on their journey anew, with the
gun, tomahawk, and the bleeding trophies, - palpable witnesses of their heroic and
unparalleled deed.
A long and weary journey was before them, but they commenced it with cheerful hearts, each
alternately rowing
and steering their little bark. Though they had escaped from the clutches of their
unfeeling master, still they were
surrounded with dangers. They were thinly clad, the sky was still inclement, and they were
liable to be re-captured by strolling bands of Indians, or by those who would undoubtedly
pursue them so soon as the squaw
and the boy had reported their departure, and the terrible vengeance they had taken; and
were they again made
prisoners, they well knew that a speedy death would follow. This array of danger, however,
did not appall them
for home was their beacon-light, and the thoughts of their firesides nerved their hearts.
They continued to drop
silently down the river, keeping a good lookout for strolling Indians; and in the night
two of them only slept, while
the third managed the boat. In this manner they pursued their journey, until they arrived
safely, with their trophies, at their homes, totally unexpected by their mourning friends,
who supposed that they had been butchered by their ruthless conquerors. It must truly have
been an affecting meeting for Mrs. Dustin, who likewise supposed that all she loved, - all
she held dear on earth - was laid in the silent tomb.
After recovering from the fatigue of the journey, they started for Boston, where they
arrived on the 21st of April.
They carried with them the gun and tomahawk, and their ten scalps - those witnesses that
would not lie; and while
there, the general court gave them fifty pounds, as a reward for their heroism. The report
of their daring deed soon spread into every part of the country, and when Colonel
Nicholson, governor of Maryland, heard of it, he sent them a very valuable present, and
many presents were also made to them by their neighbors.
See also the thesis by Peg Kearney
From Jane James ("The Haverhill Emersons: Revised and Extended",
p. 25)
"On 10 Apr 1686 Elizabeth Emerson, unmarried, gave birth to Dorothy of whom no
further record has been located by me. The father was Samuel Ladd, then 37, who was
married to Martha (Corlis) Ladd, mother of their 6 children. Elizabeth was 23 at the birth
of Dorothy and at 28 she again gave birth, this time to twin boys who did not survive.
Again the father was Samuel Ladd, then 42. Whatever else may be thought of Elizabeth, she
was not permiscuous. Doris Smith of Porterville, CA located the following record from
Records of the Court of Assistants of the Massachusetts Bay, Vol. 1:
'26th Sept. Elizabeth Emmerson single woman Daughter of Michael Emmerson of Haverhill in
the County of Essex being indicted by the Jurors for our Soveraigne Lord & Lady King
William & Oueen Mary upon their Oathes. For that the sd. Elizabeth Emmerson being with
child with two living Children or Infants on Thursday night the 7th of May 1691 before day
of Fryday morning at Haverhill aforesd in the house of Michael Emmerson aforesd by the
Providence of God two Bastard Children alive did bring forth and the sd. Elizabeth
Emmerson not haveing the feare of Cod before her Eyes and being instigated by ye Devil of
her malice forethought, the sd two Infants did feloniously kill & Murther, and them in
a small Bagg or cloath sewed up, and concealed or hid them in sd Emmersons house untill
afterwards, that is to say, on sabbath day May the tenth 1691, the sd two Infants in the
yard of sd Emmerson in Haverhill aforesd did secretly bury contrary to the peace of Our
Soveraign Lord 6 Lady the King & Queen, their Crown & Dignity, the Laws of God,
and the Lawes & Statutes in that case made & provided. Upon which Indictment the
sd Elizabeth Emmerson was arraigned and to the Indictment pleaded not guilty & put
berselfe upon Tryal by God & the Country, * a Jury was impannelled being the first
Jury, whereof mr. Richard Crisp was foreman, and were accordingly sworne (the prisoner
making no challeng) The Indictment Examination & evidences were read, & the
prisoner made her defence, The Jury return their Verdict, the Jury say, That she sd.
Elizabeth Emmerson is guilty according to Indictment. The Court Order, That sentance of
Death he pronounced ag. her.' *Left blank in the record
"She spent two years in prison and was hanged on Boston Common 8 Jun 1693. Although
the entire village knew that Samuel Ladd was the father he seems never to have been
officially censured."
The following comes from the Diary of Cotton Mather: "I had often wished for an
Opportunity, to bear my Testimonies, against the Sins of Uncleanness, wherein so many of
my Generacon do pollute themselves. A young Woman of Haverhil, and a Negro Woman also of
this Town (Boston)were under sentence of Death, for the Murdering of their
Bastard-children. Many and many a weary Hour, did I spend in the Prison, to serve the
Souls of those miserable Creatures; and I had Opportunities in my own Congregation, to
speak to them, and from them, to vast Multitudes of others. Their Execution, was ordered
to have been, upon the Lecture of another; but by a very strange Providence, without any
Seeking of mine, or any Respect to mee, (that I know of) the order for their Execution was
altered and it fell on my Lecture Day. I did then with the special Assistance of Heaven,
make and preach, a Sermon upon Job. 36.14. Whereat one of the greatest Assemblies, ever
known in these parts of the World, was come together. I had obtained from the young Woman,
a pathetical Instrument, in Writing, wherein shee own'd her own miscarriages, and warn'd
the rising Ceneracon of theirs. Towards the close of my Sermon, I read that Instrument
unto the Congregation; and made what Use, was proper of it. I accompany'd the Wretches, to
their Execution; but extremely fear all our Labours were lost upon them; however
sanctifyed unto many others. The Sermon was immediately printed; with another which I had
formerly uttered on the like Occasion; (entitled, Warnings From the Dead) and it was
greedily bought up; I hope, to the Attainment of the Ends, which I had so long desired.
T'was afterwards reprinted at London."
In the referenced sermon, Mather read Elizabeth's confession which follows. It may be
found in his Magnalia Christi Americana.
"I am a miserable sinner, and I have justly provok'd the holy God to leave me unto
that folly of my own heart, for which I am now condemmed to die. I cannot but see much of
the anger of God against me, in the circumstances of my woful death. He hath fulfilled
upon me that word of his, "Evil pursueth sinners!" I therefore desire humbly to
confess my many sins before God and the world; but most particularly my blood guiltiness.
Before the birth of my twin-infants, I too much parlied with the temptation of the devil
to smother my wickedness by muthering of them. At length, when they were born, I was not
insensible that at least one of them was alive; but such a wretch was I, as to use a
murderous carriage towards them, in the place where I lay, on purpose to dispatch them out
of the world. I acknowledge that I have been more hard hearted than the sea-monsters; and
yet for the pardon of these my sins, I would fly to the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
which is the only "fountain set open for sin and uncleanness." I know not how
better to glorifie God, for giving me such an opportunity as I have had to make sure of
his mercy, than by advertising and entreating the rising generation here to take warning
by my example, and I will therefore tell the sins that have brought me to my shameful end.
I do warn all people and expecially young people, against the sin of uncleanness in
particular. 'Tis that sin that hath been my ruine. Well had it been for me, if I had
answered all temptations to that sin as Joseph did, 'How shall I do this wickedness, and
sin against God?' But, I see, bad company is that which leads to that and other sins; And
I therefore beg all that love their souls to be familiar with none but such as fear Cod. I
believe the chief thing that hath brought me into my present condition, is my disobedience
to my parents. I dispised all their godly counsel and reproofs; and I was always of a
haughty, stubborn spirit. So that now I am become a dreadful instance of the curse of God
belonging to disobedient children. I must bewail this also, and although I was baptized,
yet when I grew up, I forgot the bonds that were laid upon me to be the Lord's. Had I
given my self to God, as soon as I was capable to consider that I had been in baptism set
apart for him, How happy had I been! It was my delay to repent of my former sins, that
provoked God to leave me unto the crimes for which I am now to die. Had I seriously
repented of my uncleanness the first time I fell into it, I do suppose I had not been left
unto what followed. Let all take it from me: They little think what they do when they put
off turning from sin to God, and resist the strivings of the Holy Spirit. I fear 'tis for
this that I have been given up to such "hardness of heart", not only since my
long imprisonment but also since my just condemnation. I now know not what will become of
my distressed, perishing soul. But I would humbly commit it unto the mercy of Cod in Jesus
Christ. Amen."
Elizabeth at first pled not guilty, but after sessions with Cotton Mather, did plead
guilty. Whether or not Elizabeth could have fashioned by herself the above confession (or
was guilty of anything more than fornication) is a subject of speculation.
From the Ford Library and Museum web site: http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/ford/grf/grfbbf.htm
Gerald Rudolph Ford, the 38th President of the United States, was born Leslie Lynch King, Jr., the son of Leslie Lynch King
and Dorothy Ayer Gardner King, on July 14, 1913, in Omaha, Nebraska. His parents separated two weeks after his birth and
his mother took him to Grand Rapids, Michigan to live with her parents. On February 1, 1916, approximately two years after
her divorce was final, Dorothy King married Gerald R. Ford, a Grand Rapids paint salesman. The Fords began calling her son
Gerald R. Ford, Jr., although his name was not legally changed until December 3, 1935. He did not know until 1930 that
Gerald Ford, Sr., was not his biological father. The future president grew up in a close- knit family which included three
younger half-brothers, Thomas, Richard, and James.
Ford attended South High School in Grand Rapids, where he excelled scholastically and
athletically. From 1931 to 1935 Ford attended The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where he majored in economics and political
science. He graduated with a B.A. degree in June 1935. A gifted athlete, Ford played on the University's national championship football teams in 1932 and 1933. He was voted the Wolverine's
most valuable player in 1934 and on January 1, 1935, played in the annual East-West College All-Star game in San Francisco,
for the benefit of the Shrine Crippled Children's Hospital. In August 1935 he played in the Chicago Tribune College All-Star
football game at Soldier Field against the Chicago Bears.
He received offers from two professional football teams, the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers, but chose instead to
take a position as boxing coach and assistant varsity football coach at Yale hoping to attend law school there. Among those he
coached were future U.S. Senators Robert Taft, Jr. and William Proxmire. Yale officials initially denied him admission to the
law school, because of his full-time coaching responsibilities, but admitted him in the spring of 1938. Ford earned his LL.B.
degree in 1941, graduating in the top 25 percent of his class in spite of the time he had to devote to his coaching duties. His
introduction to politics came in the summer of 1940 when he worked in Wendell Willkie's presidential campaign.
In April 1942 Ford joined the U.S. Naval Reserve receiving a commission as an ensign. After an orientation program at
Annapolis, he became a physical fitness instructor at a pre- flight school in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. In the spring of 1943 he
began service in the light aircraft carrier USS MONTEREY. He was first assigned as athletic director and gunnery division
officer, then as assistant navigator, with the MONTEREY which took part in most of the major operations in the South Pacific,
including Truk, Saipan, and the Philippines. His closest call with death came not as a result of enemy fire, however, but during a
vicious typhoon in the Philippine Sea in December 1944. He came within inches of being swept overboard while the storm
raged. The ship, which was severely damaged by the storm and the resulting fire, had to be taken out of service. Ford spent the
remainder of the war ashore and was discharged as a lieutenant commander in February 1946.
When he returned to Grand Rapids Ford became a partner in the locally prestigious law firm of Butterfield, Keeney, and
Amberg. A self-proclaimed compulsive "joiner," Ford was well-known throughout the community. Ford has stated that his
experiences in World War II caused him to reject his previous isolationist leanings and adopt an internationalist outlook. With
the encouragement of his stepfather, who was county Republican chairman, the Home Front, and Senator Arthur
Vandenberg, Ford decided to challenge the isolationist incumbent Bartel Jonkman for the Republican nomination for the U.S. House of
Representatives in the 1948 election. He won the nomination by a wide margin and was elected to Congress on November 2,
receiving 61 percent of the vote in the general election.
During the height of the campaign Gerald Ford married Elizabeth Ann Bloomer Warren, a department store fashion consultant.
They were to have four children: Michael Gerald, born March 14, 1950; John Gardner, born March 16, 1952; Steven
Meigs, born May 19, 1956; and Susan Elizabeth, born July 6, 1957.
Gerald Ford served in the House of Representatives from January 3, 1949 to December 6, 1973, being reelected twelve times,
each time with more than 60% of the vote. He became a member of the House Appropriations Committee in 1951, and rose to
prominence on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, becoming its ranking minority member in 1961. He once described
himself as "a moderate in domestic affairs, an internationalist in foreign affairs, and a conservative in fiscal policy."
As his reputation as a legislator grew, Ford declined offers to run for both the Senate and the Michigan governorship in the
early 1950s. His ambition was to become Speaker of the House. In 1960 he was mentioned as a possible running mate for
Richard Nixon in the presidential election. In 1961, in a revolt of the "Young Turks," a group of younger, more progressive
House Republicans who felt that the older leadership was stagnating, Ford defeated sixty-seven year old Charles Hoeven of
Iowa for Chairman of the House Republican Conference, the number three leadership position in the party.
In 1963 President Johnson appointed Ford to the Warren Commission investigating the assassination of President John F.
Kennedy. In 1965 Ford co-authored, with John R. Stiles, a book about the findings of the Commission, Portrait of the
Assassin. President Ford is the last living member of the Warren Commission.
In 1965 Ford was chosen by the Young Turks as their best hope to challenge Charles Halleck for the position of minority
leader of the House. He won by a small margin and took over the position early in 1965, holding it for eight years.
Because the Republicans did not attain a majority in the House, Ford was unable to reach his ultimate political goal--to be
Speaker of the House. Ironically, he did become president of the Senate. When Spiro Agnew resigned the office of Vice
President of the United States late in 1973, after pleading no contest to a charge of income tax evasion, President Nixon was
empowered by the 25th Amendment to appoint a new vice president. Presumably, he needed someone who could work with
Congress, survive close scrutiny of his political career and private life, and be confirmed quickly. He chose Gerald R. Ford.
Following the most thorough background investigation in the history of the FBI, Ford was confirmed and sworn in on
December 6, 1973.
The specter of the Watergate scandal, the break-in at Democratic headquarters during the 1972 campaign and the ensuing
cover-up by Nixon administration officials, hung over Ford's nine-month tenure as vice president. When it became apparent
that evidence, public opinion, and the mood in Congress were all pointing toward impeachment, Nixon became the first
president in U.S. history to resign from that office.
Gerald R. Ford took the oath of office as President of the United States on August 9, 1974, stating that "the long national
nightmare is over. Our Constitution works."
One of the most difficult decisions of Ford's presidency was made just a month after he took office. Believing that protracted
impeachment proceedings would keep the country mired in Watergate and unable to address the other problems facing it, Ford
decided to grant a pardon to Richard Nixon prior to the filing of any formal criminal charges. Public reaction was mostly
negative; Ford was even suspected of having made a "deal" with the former president to pardon him if he would resign. The
decision may have cost him the election in 1976, but President Ford always maintained that it was the right thing to do for the
good of the country.
In domestic policy, President Ford felt that through modest tax and spending cuts, deregulating industries, and decontrolling
energy prices to stimulate production, he could contain both inflation and unemployment. This would also reduce the size and
role of the federal government and help overcome the energy shortage. His philosophy is best summarized by one of his favorite
speech lines, "A government big enough to give us everything we want is a government big enough to take from us everything
we have." The heavily Democratic Congress often disagreed with Ford, leading to numerous confrontations and his frequent
use of the veto to control government spending. Through compromise, bills involving energy decontrol, tax cuts, deregulation of
the railroad and securities industries, and antitrust law reform were approved.
In foreign policy, Ford and Secretary of State Kissinger continued the policy of detente with the Soviet Union and "shuttle
diplomacy" in the Middle East. U.S.-Soviet relations were marked by on-going arms negotiations, the Helsinki agreements on
human rights principles and East European national boundaries, trade negotiations, and the symbolic Apollo-Soyuz joint
manned space flight.
On two separate trips to California in September 1975, Ford was the target of assassination attempts. Both of the assailants
were women -- Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme and Sara Jane Moore.
During the 1976 campaign, Ford fought off a strong challenge by Ronald Reagan to gain the Republican nomination. He chose
Senator Robert Dole of Kansas as his running mate and succeeded in narrowing Democrat Jimmy Carter's large lead in the
polls, but finally lost one of the closest elections in history. Three televised candidate debates were focal points of the campaign.
From the Utah History Encyclopedia, edited by Allen Kent Powell :
Spencer Woolley Kimball, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints from 1973 to 1985, was born in Salt
Lake City on 28 March 1895 to Andrew Kimball and Olive Woolley. His grandfathers were
Heber C. Kimball and Edwin
D. Woolley.
When Andrew Kimball was designated president of the St. Joseph Stake in 1898, the Kimballs
moved to Thatcher, Arizona. After a mission to the central states and marrying Camilla Eyring, Spencer worked in
banking, and later insurance and real
estate. He served as clerk, and then counselor in the St. Joseph Stake presidency, and was
president of the new Mount
Graham Stake from 1938 until his call as an apostle in 1943. He was assigned in 1945 to
work with American Indians, and
he devoted great effort to improving opportunities for Native Americans through a program
whereby thousands of Indian
children lived with Mormon families during the school year.
In December 1973 Kimball succeeded Harold B. Lee as president of the LDS Church. Though he
was seventy-eight, he set a
brisk pace. Despite his having suffered heart attacks in the 1940s, his energy was
legendary and he exemplified his slogans,
"Lengthen our stride" and "Do it." Throat cancer in the 1950s left him
with a distinctive soft hoarse voice. He encouraged
missionary service by worthy young men and called for volunteers among women and couples.
He extended the church to
communist countries by avoiding political stances. Under his leadership temples increased
from sixteen to three times that
many.
In June 1978 he announced a revelation that all worthy men and women could receive temple
ordinances regardless of race
or ancestry, thus ending long-standing restrictions on members of Negroid ancestry. The
church under Kimball opposed the
Equal Rights Amendment as a misguided means to reach legitimate objectives, and criticized
the weapons buildup by world
powers, successfully opposing basing MX missiles in the Utah-Nevada desert.
Kimball directed the recreation of the First Quorum of Seventy, establishment of emeritus
status for general authorities,
consolidation of church meetings into a three-hour block, the publishing of new editions
of scriptures, and the creation of a
museum and genealogy library.
This man short in stature had great energy, fierce loyalty, fearlessness in innovation,
unusual warmth, a lively sense of
humor, and unshakable faith. His wife, Camilla, also served many as role model. Highly
intelligent and independent, she
nonetheless wholeheartedly supported him.
Brain surgery in 1979 slowed him, and recurring troubles in 1981 ended his active
leadership. During his last four years, his
counselor Gordon B. Hinckley shouldered major responsibilities. President Kimball died 5
November 1985.
From the Encyclopedia Britannica: "American scientist and logician
known for contributions to the theory of
colour vision. She earned an A.B. at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in 1869 and then
studied mathematics at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. Although she held a
fellowship, 1879-82, and fulfilled all the requirements
for the Ph.D., she was not awarded the degree until 1926 because at the time of her
graduate work the university did not officially recognize women candidates. She taught
logic and philosophy at Johns Hopkins from 1904 to 1909 and lectured at Columbia
University in New York City from 1910 to 1930. She is probably best-known for her work on
colour vision. While studying in Germany in 1891-92, she developed the Ladd-Franklin
theory, which emphasized the evolutionary development of increased differentiation in
colour vision and assumed a photochemical model for the visual system. Her theory, which
criticized the views of Hermann von Helmholtz and
Ewald Hering, was widely accepted for a number of years. Earlier in her career, while
investigating the problems
of symbolic logic, she reduced syllogistic reasoning to an "inconsistent triad"
with the introduction of the "antilogism," a form which made the testing of
deductions easier. Ladd-Franklin also published numerous papers on mathematics and
binocular vision. Her principal works are "The Algebra of Logic" (1883),
"The Nature of Color Sensation" (1925), and Colour and Colour Theories
(1929)."
Professionally she was known as Christine Ladd-Franklin.
From the Encyclopedia Brittanica: "... philosopher and psychologist whose textbooks were influential in establishing experimental psychology in the United States. Though he called for a scientific psychology, he nonetheless viewed the role of psychology as ancillary to philosophy. Educated for the ministry, Ladd was pastor of a Congregational church in Milwaukee, Wis., for eight years before becoming professor of philosophy at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine (1879-81). During those years, he began investigating the relationship between the nervous system and mental phenomena and introduced the first study of experimental psychology in the United States. From 1881 to 1905 he was a professor at Yale University, establishing the first American laboratory in experimental psychology. His main interest, however, was in writing Elements of Physiological Psychology (1887), the first such handbook in English. Because of its emphasis on neurophysiology, it long remained a standard work. His large-scale Psychology, Descriptive and Explanatory (1894) is important as a theoretical system of functional psychology, considering the human being as an organism with a mind purposefully solving problems and adapting the self to its environment."
George grew up in Painesville, Ohio, and graduated from Western Reserve in 1864.
Adapted from: The Concord Monitor, 4/16/00, by Sarah M. Earle
The year was 1861, and around the nation's capital anti-Union hostilities were escalating. In response to President-elect Abraham Lincoln's call for troops, a young farm boy from New Hampshire packed his things and headed south. Just days later, en route to the capital and yet to be mustered into the Union Army, 17-year-old Luther Ladd was shot and killed in the streets of Baltimore.
It's a morsel of history largely forgotten in New Hampshire. But that day, April 19, 1861, the Alexandria native attained heroic status as the first casualty of the Civil War. "I don't think most people have heard of him," said Ben Shattuck, a member of the Alexandria Historical Society. "There's been some interest in him . . . every now and then his name comes up, but that's about it."
According to Shattuck, though, a small war still rages over Ladd's place of birth. "The Bristol people say he was born in Bristol, and the Alexandria people say he was born in Alexandria," Shattuck said. There is nothing to mark the birth-place in either town, and because Ladd's father reportedly owned farms in both towns, it's difficult to ascertain which one can rightfully claim him, he said. That little piece of controversy, in fact, may be helping to preserve Ladd's memory. The Alexandria Historical Society is currently conducting research to pin Ladd to Alexandria, albeit with little success so far.
Ladd signed up with the Lowell City Guards and, just a week after hostilities commenced at Fort Sumter, boarded a train for
Washington to help protect the capital from anti-Union plots. Stopping off in Baltimore, the troops had to ride horse-drawn wagons across the city between railroad lines. "An angry crowd of secessionists tried to keep the regiment from reaching Washington, blocking several of the transports, breaking windows and, finally, forcing the soldiers to get out and march through the streets," the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion states. "What had now become a mob surrounded and jeered the regiment, then started throwing bricks and stones." As chaos took over, Ladd continued marching, until "he fell bleeding on the pavement, and the last words his comrades heard him utter were 'all hail the stars and stripes,' " . John Hanson writes in Historical Sketch of the Old Sixth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers.
According to Richard Musgrove, a bullet hit Ladd's thigh, severing an artery. A drunk by the name of Wrench has historically been blamed for the shooting,
Guy Lefebvre said. Whitney was killed at about the same time, and several other soldiers were injured. Ladd's name might still ring with familiarity around New Hampshire had he been allowed to rest in his original grave. After a huge funeral in Lowell, Ladd's remains were returned to his hometown. But in 1865, Lowell officials erected the Ladd and Whitney Monument and convinced his family to send the body for burial there.
Time factors and technicalities have also served to steal Ladd's fame. Some historians argue that the war had not officially begun when Ladd was killed. Others disqualify him on the basis that he had not yet been mustered into the Union. For that reason, his name does not appear in the National Archives. Still others bestow the honor on a soldier who was
reportedly wounded before Ladd but who died several days later. But Lefebvre, who has studied the Civil War for about 12 years, is convinced that Ladd and Whitney were its first casualties - and has more than a dozen documents to back him up. Harpers Weekly, the nation's largest newspaper at the time, named them as the first, he said, as did the authoritative Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. The government, too, used their names on posters and other recruitment paraphernalia.
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From: "Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth," Microsoft(R) Encarta(R) 98
Encyclopedia. (c) 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation:
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth (1807-1882), American poet, one of the most popular and
celebrated poets of his time. Born in Portland, Maine (then in Massachusetts), Longfellow
was educated at Bowdoin College. After graduating in 1825 he traveled in Europe in
preparation for a teaching career. He taught modern languages at Bowdoin from 1829 to
1835. In late 1835, during a second trip to Europe, Longfellow's wife, Mary Storer Potter,
died in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Longfellow returned to the United States in 1836 and
began teaching at Harvard University. In 1843 he remarried, to Fanny Appleton. After
retiring from Harvard in 1854, Longfellow devoted himself exclusively to writing. He was
devastated when in 1861 his second wife was burned to death in a household accident. He
commemorated her shortly before his own death with the sonnet "The Cross of
Snow" (1879). In 1884 a bust of Longfellow was placed in the Poets' Corner of
Westminster Abbey in London; he was the first American to be thus honored.
Longfellow received wide public recognition with his initial volume of verse, Voices of
the Night (1839), which contained the poem "A Psalm of Life." His subsequent
poetic works include Ballads (1841), in which he introduced some of his most famous
poetry, such as "The Wreck of the Hesperus," "The Village Blacksmith,"
"The Skeleton in Armor," and "Excelsior"; and three notable long
narrative poems on American themes: Evangeline (1847), about lovers separated during the
French and Indian War (1754-1763); The Song of Hiawatha (1855), addressing Native American
themes; and The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858), about a love triangle in colonial New
England. Longfellow's other works include The Seaside and the Fireside (1849); Tales of a
Wayside Inn (1863), containing the well-known poem "Paul Revere's Ride"; and
Ultima Thule (1880). Longfellow also made a verse translation of The Divine Comedy (3
volumes, 1865-1867) by Italian poet Dante Alighieri.
Longfellow's poetic work is characterized by familiar themes, easily grasped ideas, and
clear, simple, melodious language. Most modern critics, however, are not in accord with
the high opinion that was generally held of the author by his contemporaries, and his
works are often criticized as sentimental. Nevertheless, Longfellow remains one of the
most popular of American poets, primarily for his simplicity of style and theme and for
his technical expertise, but also for his role in the creation of an American mythology.
His verse was also instrumental in reestablishing a public audience for poetry in the
United States.
William Moulton Marston was the creator of the systolic blood-pressure
test, which led to the creation of the polygraph ('lie detector'). In 1941 he also
created Wonder Woman writing under the pen name, "Charles Moulton". Wonder
Woman has been published as its own book since 1942. She has evolved from an Amazon
princess to a woman given powers by the Greek and Roman gods to fight crime and do good
for humanity. William was educated at Harvard University, receiving three degrees from
that institution: an A.B. in 1915, an LL.B. in 1918, and a Ph.D. in 1921. In 1928 he
published a book, "The Emotions of Normal People," in which he forwarded a
theory that people tend to learn a self-concept which is basically in accord with one of
four factors (dominance, influence, steadiness, and compliance).
The systolic blood pressure method of detection of deception is now known not to be
reliable on its own. Similarly, his theory has long since been surpassed by subsequent
research. He was distinguished in his time and was noted (or notorious) for his
applications in industry and elsewhere. Some of his work on detection of deception is
cited in the edited book by Prokasy & Raskin (1972). An interesting
connection between Marston's research and his creation of Wonder Woman is in her magic
lariat which forced people to tell the truth.
From Jack Ralph; nvjack@nvbell.net; http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~nvjack/fylbrigg/d15864.htm#P15864
"Herb was born in the Boston area and spent the early years of his life in Somerville, MA. Many of his relatives were from Rye Beach, NH, and he spent summers of his young life there. He considered himself a Rye Beach native. He worked in Boston as a teen, in the theater district. He gained much notoriety during the 1950s and 1960s when he led the lifestyle of a spy for the FBI and infiltrated the Communist Party of the US, and was the key witness during the prosecution of 9 of the country's top communist leaders. He wrote a bestseller book about his life and there was a TV show about his life in the 50s called "I Led Three Lives", one of the most popular shows on television. He was a decorated reporter for the Hampton Union for many years and retired to spend more time on Constructive Action, a communist Watchdog Group that he ran. He was formerly a syndicated columnist for the New York Herald Tribune, and served a short time as a radio host."
From the Encyclopedia Brittanica, online, 1987:
"14th president of the United States (1853-57). He failed to deal effectively with
the corroding sectional controversy over slavery in the decade preceding the American
Civil War (1861-65). An attorney and the son of a governor of New Hampshire, Pierce
entered political life there as a Democrat, serving in the state legislature (1829-33),
the U.S. House of Representatives (1833-37), and the Senate (1837-42). He became a devoted
supporter of President Andrew Jackson but was continually overshadowed by older and more
prominent men on the national scene. Resigning from the Senate for personal reasons, he
returned to Concord, where he resumed his law practice and also served as federal district
attorney.
Except for a brief stint as an officer in the Mexican War (1846-48), Pierce remained out
of the public eye until the Democratic nominating convention of 1852, at which a deadlock
developed among the leading presidential contenders. Pierce's name was entered as a
compromise candidate after the leading candidates, Lewis Cass, Stephen A. Douglas, and
James Buchanan, failed in their bids for the nomination due to factional rivalries. The
ensuing presidential campaign was dominated by controversy over the slavery issue. Both
the Democrats and the Whigs were too badly split internally to stake out strong stands on
the issue; the chief question in the public mind was the finality of the Compromise of
1850, and while both parties declared themselves in favour of it, the Democrats were more
thoroughly united in its support. As a result, Pierce, who was almost unknown nationally,
unexpectedly swept the country in the November election. He then tried to promote
sectional unity in the selection of his Cabinet, to which he named a coalition of Southern
planters and Northern businessmen.
The youngest man to have been elected to the presidency as of that date, Pierce was
handsome, genial, and possessed of a certain superficial brilliance. He represented the
Eastern element of the Democratic Party, which was inclined for the sake of harmony and
business prosperity to oppose antislavery agitation and generally to placate Southern
opinion. Pierce accordingly sidestepped the fierce sectional antagonisms of the domestic
scene by ambitiously and aggressively promoting the extension of U.S. territorial and
commercial interests abroad. In an effort to buy Cuba, he ordered the U.S. minister to
Spain, Pierre Soul�, to try to secure the influence of European financiers upon the
Spanish government. The resulting diplomatic statement, the Ostend Manifesto (October
1854), was interpreted by the public as a call to wrest Cuba from Spain by force if
necessary. The ensuing controversy forced the administration to disclaim responsibility
for the document and to recall Soul�. The following year an American adventurer, William
Walker, conducted a notorious filibustering expedition into Central America with the hope
of establishing a proslavery government that would be under the control of the United
States. He established himself as military dictator, and then as president, of Nicaragua,
and his dubious regime was recognized by the Pierce administration. A more lasting
diplomatic achievement came from the expedition that had been sent out by President
Millard Fillmore in 1853 under Commodore Matthew C. Perry to Japan. In 1854 Pierce
received Perry's report that his expedition had been successful and that U.S. ships would
have limited access to Japanese ports. The Pierce administration also effected a
reorganization of the diplomatic and consular service and the creation of the U.S. Court
of Claims.
Among Pierce's domestic policies were preparations for a transcontinental railroad and the
opening up of the Northwest for settlement. In order to open the way for a southerly route
to California, almost 30,000 square miles (78,000 square km) of territory were acquired
from Mexico (1853; the Gadsden Purchase) for $10,000,000. Mainly to stimulate migration to
the Northwest and to facilitate the construction of a central route to the Pacific, the
Kansas-Nebraska Act was enacted in 1854 and received the President's sanction. This
measure opened two new territories for settlement and provided resolution of the slavery
question by popular sovereignty (local option). The indignation aroused by the act, which
included repeal of the Missouri Compromise of 1820 (prohibiting slavery in the territories
north of latitude 36 30'), and the resultant violent conflict over slavery in the
territories were the main causes of the rise of the Republican Party in the mid-1850s.
Pierce's ineptness in handling the Kansas struggle made him unacceptable as a candidate
for a second term, and he retired from public life in 1857.
From David W. Hoyt, "The Old Families of Salisbury and Amesbury, Massachusetts", (Genealogical Publishing Company, 1982), p. 286:
"Maj. Robert and Mrs. Pike were first on the list of members of the Salisbury church in 1687; and he was the most prominent citizen of Salisbury during the last half of the 17th century. ... He took the oath of freedom May 17, 1637...He was very decided in his opinions, which were liberal in advance of his time...He has been called the 'moral and fearless hero of New England'; 'the first and strongest representative of the right of petition'; the 'power which squelched the witchcraft delusion', etc."
Charles D. Hendrick, "The Hendrick Genealogy", (The Tuttle Company, Rutland, VT, 1923), p.
31-32:
"He was one of the founders of Salisbury, Mass., and became one of the leading men on committees and commissions for the transaction of the public business. At the age of thirty-two he was chosen a member of the General Court, and had a much longer service in that capacity and as councilor and assistant, than any of his contemporaries. He had a good education and wrote a fine, flowing hand. He was an easy, eloquent and forceful speaker. He was engaged in at least three conspicuous controversies during his life. The first was his arraignment by the General Court in 1653, for his hostility to the persecution of the Quakers. The second was his resistance of the dogmatic authority of some of the clergy, in the person of his pastor, Rev. John Wheelwright. The third was his bitter opposition to the witchcraft prosecutions in 1692. In all these controversies, Robert Pike stood practically alone. He was a century in advance of his time, and a century has more than vindicated his advanced positions. The historian of the Salem witchcraft delusion says that "not a voice comes down to us of deliberate and effective hostility to the movement, except that of Robert Pike in his cool, close and powerful argumentative appeals to the judges who were trying the witchcraft cases. It stands out against the deep blackness of those proceedings like a pillar of light upon a starless Midnight sky." Confronting the judges stood this sturdy old man, his head whitened with the frosts of seventy-six winters and protested that there was no legal way of convicting a witch, even according to the laws and beliefs of those times. It required no small amount of courage for him to take the stand he did against the opinions of the highest judicial tribunal in the province when no one was safe from the charge of having dealings with the evil one, and he himself might be the very next one accused of being a witch! But having the courage of his convictions he rose to the demands of the situation and proclaimed his opposition by a formal and thorough exposition: The great merit of this position, so far as it has come down to us, belongs entirely to him, and no man of his time is entitled to greater honor. It is a marvel how he breasted the storm when any resistance to the popular demamd was deemed evidence of complicity with the witches, imps and all the powers of darkness, to overthrow the true church on earth. He defended and plead the cause of several of the accused, among whom were Mrs. Mary Bradbury, who was condemned but not executed, and Susanna Martin, whose memory is perpetuated by John Greenleaf Whittier, the poet."
From: Webster, Daniel," Microsoft(R) Encarta(R) 98 Encyclopedia. (c)
1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation.
"Webster was born on January 18, 1782, in Salisbury (now Franklin), New Hampshire,
and educated at Dartmouth College. He studied law in Salisbury and Boston and was admitted
to the bar in 1805. Two years later he established a law practice in Portsmouth, New
Hampshire. There he became active in politics and joined the Federalist Party. As did many
New Englanders, Webster resented the predominance of Virginians in the national government
and opposed the War of 1812. From 1813 to 1817 he served in the U.S. House of
Representatives and eloquently defended Federalist principles.
In 1816 Webster moved to Boston, and the following year he returned to the practice of
law. Between 1817 and 1823 he won several famous constitutional cases before the U.S.
Supreme Court, notably the Dartmouth College case (1819), which established the precedent
that no legislature has the right to impair the obligations imposed by a contract, and
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), which denied the right of the states to tax an institution
established by the federal government. Thereafter Webster was generally regarded as one of
the leading lawyers of the country.
An Eloquent Speaker
Webster's eloquence as a speaker at public gatherings and in court established him as a
great orator. Two of his best-known orations are the Plymouth speech (1820), commemorating
the bicentennial of the landing of the Pilgrims and the Bunker Hill speech (1825), marking
the 50th anniversary of the famous American Revolution battle.
Webster was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Boston in 1822 and to the
U.S. Senate from Massachusetts in 1827. He had opposed legislation for a protective tariff
in 1816 and did so again in 1824. Under the influence of expanding New England industrial
interests, however, Webster abandoned his free-trade position. He supported the tariff of
1828 and become a protector of northern industrial interests on other issues as well.
In 1830 his eminence as an orator reached its culmination in his reply to the speech of
Robert Young Hayne, senator from South Carolina, on the nature of the Union and the
states' right of nullification. Webster successfully combated the theory of nullification
and ably vindicated the nationalist view of the Union. In the controversy over the renewal
of the charter of the United States Bank, Webster advocated renewal and opposed the
financial policy of President Andrew Jackson in general. Many of the principles of sound
finance developed in his speeches at this time were later incorporated in the Federal
Reserve System.
A Political Leader
After the Whig Party was formed in 1834, Webster became one of its leaders, receiving the
electoral vote of Massachusetts for President in 1836. In 1841 Webster was appointed
secretary of state by President William Henry Harrison, a position he retained under
President John Tyler. In that capacity he negotiated the Webster-Ashburton Treaty (1842),
which settled the dispute with Great Britain over the boundary between the U.S. and
Canada. He resigned from the cabinet in 1843.
In 1845 Webster reentered the Senate. He opposed the annexation of Texas and the war with
Mexico. Although Webster was personally opposed to slavery, he believed first and foremost
in the preservation of the Union. His last years in the Senate were devoted to efforts to
maintain peace between the North and South by means of compromise. His last great speech
was delivered on March 7, 1850, in support of the Compromise Measures of 1850. The speech
aroused indignation in the North because of its concessions to slavery. In 1850-52 Webster
was secretary of state in the cabinet of President Millard Fillmore. The orator died at
his home in Marshfield, Massachusetts, on October 24, 1852."
From: Rebecca LeeAnne Irby & Phil Greetham, http://webpages.marshall.edu/~irby1/laura.htmlx
"The life of Laura Ingalls as depicted on
Michael Landon's popular television series Little House on the Prairie, the life of Laura
Ingalls as told in her Little House books, and the life of the real Laura Ingalls are
three very different stories. Although Laura's books are based on her life, she did make
changes when she felt it made for easier reading; her books are classified as historical
fiction, not autobiography.
Laura Elizabeth Ingalls was born February 7, 1867, the second daughter of Charles and
Caroline Ingalls, in the Big Woods of Wisconsin, seven miles north of Pepin. In 1868, Pa
and Ma (as Laura would later call her parents) took baby Laura and her sister Mary, age
three, from the Big Woods to Chariton County, Missouri.
The family did not stay in Missouri long. Inspired by the Homestead Act of 1862 which
offered 160 acres of "free land" to settlers who would farm and live on it for
five years, Pa took his family to the prairies. The land Pa chose was about 12 miles from
Independence, Kansas, within the boundaries of the Osage Diminished Reserve.
There Pa built a house and stable with the help of a neighbor, Mr Edwards. Later, the
family contracted malaria and were fortunate that Dr Tann, who was actually a doctor to
the Indians, was in the area. After building a house and planting crops, the Ingalls
family was forced to leave in the fall of 1870, just after the birth of their third
daughter, Carrie. Pa heard that the government had changed their minds about opening the
land for homesteading and that soldiers were on their way to force the settlers out.
Pa did not wait for the soldiers. He took his family to their old home in the Big Woods.
This enabled the girls to see more of their grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Laura and
Mary attended the Barry Corner School, and spent many happy hours playing with their
cousins. Ma was glad to be home, but Pa longed to go west again.
In 1874, the Ingalls journeyed west, trading for a small farm near Walnut Grove,
Minnesota. The family lived in a dugout in the creek bank until Pa could build a wonderful
new house made of sawed boards.
In Walnut Grove, the family joined the church pastored by Rev. Alden and Laura and Mary
were able to attend school again. It was here that Laura met the snobby and cruel Nellie
Owens.
Pa raised a wonderful wheat crop, and the family felt that surely this was the end of
their troubles. However, grasshoppers invaded the area and destroyed all the crops. The
family tried again the next year to raise a crop, but the grasshopper eggs left the
previous year hatched and destroyed the crops again.
On November 1, 1875, a son was born to the Ingalls family, Charles Frederic. The following
summer, the family traveled to Uncle Peter's farm in eastern Minnesota, where Pa helped
with the harvesting. While there, baby Freddy became ill died on August 27, 1876.
The family, saddened at the loss of their son, moved on to Burr Oak, Iowa, where Pa's
friend Mr. Steadman had purchased a hotel. The family lived in the hotel, and Ma and Pa
helped the Steadmans manage it. They did not like the work, and moved first to some rented
rooms over a grocery, and then to a little brick house outside of town.
The family's last child, Grace, was born in Burr Oak on May 23, 1877. The family was
homesick for their friends in Walnut Grove, so they returned in the summer of 1877 to live
in town while Charles did carpentry and other odd jobs, and opened a butcher's shop.
Laura and Mary were eager to find out what had happened in Walnut Grove while they were
away. They found that Nellie Owens now had a rival, Genevieve Masters, the school
teacher's daughter. Nellie and Genny fought for the leadership of the girls but it was
Laura who became the leader, without even trying.
In 1879, Mary suffered a stroke and lost her eyesight. In that same year the Ingalls
family made their final move when Aunt Docia from the Big Woods arrived and offered Pa a
job as a railroad manager in Dakota Territory. When the railway work moved on, the Ingalls
family stayed. Together with their friends, the Boasts, they became the first residents of
the new town of De Smet. Pa and Laura would have happily gone further west but Ma insisted
that they stay put so that the children could get an education. Pa filed a claim on 160
acres of land 3 miles southeast of De Smet.
The Hard Winter of 1880-81 resulted in almost continuous blizzards from October to the
following May. The blizzards made it all but impossible to travel in or out, and trains
could not run to bring in supplies.
By late 1881, the family had saved up enough money to send Mary to the blind school at
Vinton, Iowa. The government supplied the money for her tuition, but Ma and Pa had to pay
for transportation to and from the school, and for suitable clothes for a young college
girl.
As a teenager Laura had become rather a shy girl and initially found it difficult to mix
with people. She seemed quite fearful of crowds. Laura worked hard at school and showed a
great interest in English, history and poetry. Unfortunately, Genevieve Masters had
arrived in De Smet and along with the teacher, Eliza Jane Wilder, began to cause trouble
for Laura. However Miss Wilder left the school and Laura was able to become top of her
class.
At the early age of 15, Laura earned her teaching certificate. She was hired by the
Bouchie School, 12 miles away, and boarded with the Bouchie family. Mrs. Bouchie was
apparently going through a mental breakdown due to the isolation of the settlement, and
Laura was frightened of her. She was therefore very grateful when a young man, Almanzo
Wilder, a local farmer and brother of her old teacher, offered to drive his sleigh through
howling gales and freezing temperatures each weekend to bring her home.
At first Laura thought Almanzo was doing it only as a favor to Pa. Over the next three
years, however, she gradually allowed Almanzo into her affections and they married on
August 25, 1885.
Their daughter Rose was born December 5, 1886, but the farming life was no easier for the
newly married couple than it had been for Laura's father and mother. Droughts and hail
storms ruined crops and kept them in debt. Diphtheria and over work led to Almanzo being
crippled. Their second child, a baby boy, died unnamed soon after his birth in August
1889. An accident in the kitchen resulted in their house burning down.
Almanzo and Laura left De Smet to live with Almanzo's parents in Spring Valley, Minnesota,
but the weather did not help Almanzo's health. They moved to Westville, Florida, where
Laura's cousin Peter had made his home. Almanzo's health improved, but Laura could not
take the heat, and the women did not accept her socially because she was a
"Yankee". In 1892, Almanzo, Laura, and little Rose returned to De Smet.
On July 17, 1894, the Wilders left South Dakota again. This time, they traveled to
Mansfield in the Ozarks of Missouri. They arrived on August 30, and purchased Rocky Ridge
Farm. The house began as a small log cabin, but Laura and Almanzo added to it over the
years, until it became the large rambling farmhouse that it is today.
Laura began to write articles for the Missouri Ruralist and other magazines. In 1930 she
wrote her autobiography which she called Pioneer Girl. She could not find a publisher, but
she rewrote part of it, with Rose's help, as Little House in the Big Woods. The book was
an instant success, and children all over the world begging Laura to tell more stories
about Laura and Mary. The result was the Little House books.
Almanzo died on October 23, 1949, at the age of 92. Laura died on February 10, 1957, at
Rocky Ridge Farm at the age of 90."
From "Greenleaf, John Whittier" Microsoft(R) Encarta(R) 98 Encyclopedia. (c) 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation:
Whittier, John Greenleaf (1807-92), American poet, born near Haverhill, Massachusetts, and largely self-educated. The young poet's earliest work attracted the attention of the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, editor of the Free Press newspaper in Newburyport, Massachusetts, who asked him to contribute articles. Thus Whittier began a long career as contributing editor, essayist, and poet. A deeply religious man, Whittier followed the Quaker faith of his parents and is often called the Quaker poet. As a Quaker deeply concerned with politics and social welfare, he served in the Massachusetts legislature, was founder of the Liberty party in 1839, and participated in the founding of the Republican party in 1854. For more than 30 years, Whittier devoted himself to the abolition of slavery in the United States.
Whittier's earliest works, including his Legends of New England in Prose and Verse (1831), were pastoral evocations of the rugged farm life of New England. With the end of the American Civil War, Whittier returned to his pastoral themes. Often considered his masterpiece and certainly his most popular work is the narrative poem Snow-Bound (1866). Based on the poet's childhood memories, this work is representative of his sincere, moralistic, yet emotional style.
From: "Williams, Tennessee" Microsoft(R) Encarta(R) 98 Encyclopedia. (c) 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation:
"Williams, Tennessee (1911-83), American playwright and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, whose works are set largely in the American South.
Williams was born in Columbus, Mississippi, on March 26, 1911, and named Thomas Lanier Williams. He spent most of his youth in St. Louis, Missouri. After intermittent attendance at the University of Missouri and Washington University, he received a B.A. degree from the University of Iowa in 1938. He worked at a variety of odd jobs until 1945, when he first appeared on the Broadway scene as the author of The Glass Menagerie. This evocative "memory play" won the New York Drama Critics' Circle award as the best play of the season. It was filmed in 1950 and has been performed on the stage throughout the world. The emotion-charged A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) has been called the best play ever written by an American. It was successfully filmed (1952), and it won Williams his first Pulitzer Prize in drama. He was awarded another Pulitzer for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (stage, 1954; film, 1958). All three of these plays contain the poetic dialogue, the symbolism, and the highly original characters for which Williams is noted and are set in the American South, a regional background which the author used to create a remarkable blend of decadence, nostalgia, and sensuality. Other successful plays by Williams are Summer and Smoke (1948), rewritten as Eccentricities of a Nightingale (produced 1964); The Rose Tattoo (1950); the long one-act Suddenly Last Summer (1958); Sweet Bird of Youth (1959); and Night of the Iguana (1961). Although Williams continued to write for the theater, he was unable to repeat the success of most of his early works. One of his last plays was Clothes for a Summer Hotel (1980), based on the American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda. Williams died in New York City, February 25, 1983.
Two collections of Williams's many one-act plays were published: 27 Wagons Full of Cotton (1946) and American Blues (1948). Williams's fiction includes two novels, The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1950) and Mo�se and the World of Reason (1975) and four volumes of short stories—One Arm and Other Stories (1948), Hard Candy (1954), The Knightly Quest (1969), and Eight Mortal Ladies Possessed (1974). Nine of his plays were made into films, and he wrote one original screenplay, Baby Doll (1956). In his provocative Memoirs (1975), Williams described his own dramatic problems with drugs and alcohol and his latterly avowed homosexuality."