I love local histories!

Have you ever read a local history? Local histories put a community and its people in their place and time, and are a valuable source of information for family historians. They often list families by name, and say where people lived and what they did. They bring a community alive, and I highly recommend them.

Try this: Choose a place your family lived long ago (I mean like centuries....), or where you now live,  and then go to https://Archive.org. Type the name of that place in the search engine, and see what you find. Here's a sample of search results for history of Milwaukee County. What a cool bunch of ancient books to read, and they can for the most part be read online.

 

Want a step by step guide to reading local histories online? Follow this link.
 

Local histories used by family historians often date to the late 19^th century, during a period when our nation was celebrating its first hundred years. Like everything else, these books are a product of their time and place, and can be quite flowery, discussing the noble or treacherous (or both) native peoples and the brave pioneers and the sweeping lakes and rivers, until one almost expects Natty Bumppo to leap from the pages.

Many are, however, well researched, purposeful, and beautifully written. I encourage anyone to look for a local history. Before the search, though, read what the Rev. Joseph Tuttle said to the New Jersey Historical Society in 1869, when he presented his Early History of Morris County. He captures the very essence of local histories, and his words make him one of my genealogical heroes (he is also a “cousin”):

“In its beginnings and progress [Morris County] may have borne a very humble part in the grand drama which the world is acting, and yet humble as that part may be, it was grand to those who acted it. … Here the fathers of such a community fought the battle of life, wrestled with the problems of moral responsibility, loved the loving, pitied the sorrowful, helped the weak, wept over the dying; here they laid the foundations of the social fabric as best they could, often in a very blind yet honest method, lived life as we now live it, and they died leaving their graves to us as silent monitors not to permit them to sink into forgetfulness. Although not as great as many who have lived, they are our forefathers, and the work they did for us merits a grateful record at our hands.”

How can one not love that? Get thee to a local history, and enjoy.

 

Cousin Joe, this one's for you..... You are bringing Morris County New Jersey in the 18th century alive for me and for that I am truly grateful.

 

 

Low Hanging Fruit

 

I am the Registrar of the Milwaukee chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and enjoy immensely the time I spend helping our prospective members climb their family trees.

Climbing all the way to the American Revolution can be a daunting task. Sometimes there is a dead branch, and a new direction is needed. (Commonly called a "brick wall" but I am talking trees here.) Or a branch that seemed sturdy may unexpectedly start to sway. After spending hours buried in musty old books, or online in front of a computer screen, or at a copy machine with quarters in one hand and documents from a church, a courthouse, or a library in the other, the illusive apple - a Revolutionary War patriot – may still seem out of reach.

 

What to do? Keep climbing. And during the climb, try not to be too busy to enjoy the low hanging fruit. Some of the apples hanging there may be the tastiest on the tree, so stop for a minute, and enjoy.

 

I have had fun picking apples off my family tree. And not just the ones that hang high and far back in history. When I paid attention to the low hanging fruit, I got a taste of lots of things I never expected...

The Germans

 

I moved to Milwaukee in 1981. Until that time the only part of the city I had visited was the freeway, and the only people I knew were Laverne, Shirley, and The Fonz. Thirty years later I discovered that my 2x great-grandparents were early members of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, and are buried in Milwaukee County! And if you go into the Zeidler Humanities Room at the downtown library, where I first found proof of an ancestor's patriot service to America, you can see the family farm on an old plat map hanging on the wall. Who would have known....

 

J. Roth in Section 21
part of Oak Creek

 

German language headstone of
Karolina Roth, St. John's
Lutheran Church, Oak Creek WI

The Swedes

When frightened and frightening Native Americans ran through "the Peterson farm" fields during the 1862 Dakota war, they were on land the federal government had sold to Swedish immigrant Hogan Peterson (Hakan Persson):

 

 

Hogan's son Peter (Per Hakansson) was then 18 and Peter's friend Anna Ring (I know her by no other name) was 16. They were both new to America, did they even speak English? They later married and are part of my family tree. I knew of them long ago, but have now also found the Peterson farm and stood in those fields.

 

I am told they were strict but happy.
No one looked happy in these photos, the camera did not allow.

 

I have seen their graves. Peter and Anna's parents were devout Baptists who fled Sweden to escape religious persecution by the state established Lutheran Church. They are buried in a small cemetery at the Grove City Baptist Church. I met the minister during my travels, who told me that years ago the church's safe was stolen. There was no money inside, but the original church records of my ancestors and their Swedish Baptist friends were in that safe, and those records are lost and gone forever. The marker on their family headstone remains, bearing Swedish script that translates as "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." That is 2 Corinthians 5:1, but I never would have known without help (see caption below).

 

The minister calls a friendly neighbor, who rushes over
to help us read 19th century Swedish

 

Peter and Anna's son was a Baptist minister (I knew that), and in 1912 he traveled throughout North Dakota holding revival meetings (THAT was a big surprise).

 

Young Baptist minister Alfred Peterson

Saving souls in rural North Dakota

 

He married a woman whose tree was full of New England bred apples, and went on to lead the American Baptist Church of Illinois. He died long before my parents' marriage. I knew that, but when I attended college in Fargo/Moorhead, I had no idea the young Swedish American minister had once traveled by train to Fargo and other North Dakota communities, encouraging audiences to "begin Christian life."

Yankees

A 2x great-grandfather named Charles Hause owned an 1,100 acre farm, and today part of that farm is part of Fort Snelling National Park, near the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport. He bought the land in 1868, not long after the Native Americans had been moved west after the Dakota War (the same one witnessed by the Swedes). Hause was a successful farmer from upstate New York. He had an adventurous spirit, and had moved his family west after the death of his beloved first wife. The St. Paul papers took notice, saying "We are glad to see such men coming into our State, and Dakota county will welcome him-we know."

That's quite the Victorian farm house

 

 

This land would be worth a fortune today!

 

 

He had a daughter (my great grandmother) and a son. He sued his son and his second wife because of that land - I've read the court transcripts. Later that second wife sued him for divorce claiming adultery - I've seen those transcripts as well. The land case went all the way to the Minnesota Supreme Court, where the son prevailed and some legal precedent was set. There is no record of how the divorce case got resolved. But the second wife was buried in Massachusetts with her parents when she died, the son was cut out of his father's will, and at the end of his life Charles Hause traveled the world, quite literally, and wrote travel articles published by his nephew in a paper in upstate New York, where Hause had grown up, and where he was eventually buried next to his first wife. Many years later his grand-daughter honored his memory by making the Hause family name my father's middle name. My father knew about the wealthy Yankee farmer and the land he owned. My father would have loved the rest of the story. As, I think, would his Baptist minister father -- they were quite the pranksters and loved good tales. My grandmother, maybe not so much, from what I hear, I'm guessing she knew the story and kept quiet....
 

The Norwegians

My mother’s grandmother came to America from Norway, immigrating with her brother in 1892, and landing in New York City after a 16 day trip on the ship SS Norge.

 

The ship that brought my great-grandmother to America

  

She was born and raised on a remote fishing island far above the arctic circle, so the trip may not have been too much to bear. But once she arrived? I wonder which shocked her more: the Big Apple or the sod dugout she lived in when she first came to the Midwest.

 

She met and married a Norwegian machinist who helped electrify rural Minnesota. His father, by the way, had been a professional fiddler back in Norway. Or should I say Sweden, since from 1814 to 1905 Norway was part of the "United Kingdoms of Norway and Sweden." Great grandpa was born in Norway, but came from "Sweden" and renounced allegiance to the kings of both Norway and Sweden when he became a US citizen.

 

 

 

He joined the Masons and considered himself American through and through, but when his daughter was confirmed years later, the confirmation record was in Norwegian.

 

 

 

The Depression

According to the Minneapolis City Directory, my 89 year old Yankee paternal great grandfather (the Baptist minister's father in law) was a "broker" in 1929. Photos and other family records reveal that my mother’s father Ed Roth was a young banker at the time, living with his growing family on the plains of North Dakota. Neither profession proved lucrative... 

Young Edwin Roth, farmer and banker in southwestern
North Dakota, on the eve of the drought, and the
locusts, and the dust, when everything went wrong

Today I realize that my grandfather Roth’s experiences during the Great Depression, coupled with his temperament (and lack of temperance - he who drank too much) and probably the temperament of my delightful grandmother (the only grandparent I ever met, she of the Norwegian confirmation service, who later became a flapper), well, it all may explain why I grew up in suburban Minneapolis not knowing I had German ancestors named Roth who by 1860 had become pioneers in Milwaukee County. I did not discover the Roths of Milwaukee until years after my mother had died (she who could not forgive), but I took her sister, and mine, to see their graves (we who were fortunate to come full circle).

 

Enjoy the Low Hanging Fruit and Honor Every Apple

These are but a few of the stories from the apples that hang low on my tree. Each ripe apple – a valued dead relative – holds a delicious story, and I am enjoying every last bite. And every story eventually connects on my tree. Funny how that works.

Let me assure you, my family is no more interesting than yours. The fruit hanging on each of our trees is worth discovering, whether it hangs in the recent past or far up the tree to the time of the American Revolution or beyond. It is harvest time – go out and look for apples, and when you find them, savor them. And don't forget that some of the fruit hanging from our trees is not yet ripe. The dead people aren't going anywhere. Best to interview your LIVING relatives before it’s too late!

 

A closing thought. You will see above that one headstone is in German and one in Swedish. A confirmation record is in Norwegian. My husband’s passport reveals he was born in India. I am no prouder to descend from a man who landed on the coast of Massachusetts in 1624 (and whose son made me a Colonial Dame), than I am to be married to an immigrant whose family moved to American to better their sons' education. We are, after all, a land of immigrants, and should honor them all.

 

In 1624 an English immigrant arrived at
Cape Ann, MA. He was put in charge of land operations but the entire
enterprise failed by the following year, and they all moved to a town they
named Salem. In 1907 the good folks of Cape Ann honored the failed
businessmen anyway, with a REALLY big marker -- it's behind the flag.

Here's what it looked like when the flag was taken down
(no, I haven't been there yet, the whole display seems quite incredible).

 

 

 

Witch Hunt?

1692 Indictment against Mercy Disborough for the crime of Witchcraft

To whom it may concern (may I suggest that is all of us),

Yesterday (15 June 2017) President Trump tweeted: "You are witnessing the single greatest WITCH HUNT in American political history - led by some very bad and conflicted people!” Today’s tweet clarified that he was referring to an investigation of his activities, again calling it a “Witch Hunt."[1]

Mr. Trump’s words are powerful. The carry great weight. They are also untrue.

I am an avid reader of American history, and a descendant of Mercy Disborough, who was convicted of witchcraft in Connecticut in 1692.[2]

I have learned several interesting lessons from studying my 7^th great-grandmother and the times she lived in, and wish to share those lessons and how they apply to Mr. Trump’s tweets.

A witch hunt, political or not, contains at least three elements:

1.      A Vulnerability Victim. The accused must have certain characteristics that make him/her vulnerable to persecution. A typical 17^th century victim was abrasive, contentious, stubborn, and tangled in disputes.[3] This of course fits Mr. Trump perfectly. But being abrasive and litigious is not enough, or far more witches would have been tried and convicted in 1692! Persecution did not succeed unless the accused lacked recourse to combat the claim. Convicted witches were typically not only friendless but also poor, or of low social position. [4] This could keep a victim from getting legal counsel, for example. Mercy Disborough had no lawyer, the court apparently finding the Devil was a good enough advocate if she was guilty, and no advocate was needed if she was innocent.”[5] In contrast, Mr. Trump claims to be one of the wealthiest men in the world. He has decades of experience with litigation, and a fine team of lawyers defending him at every turn.

Mr. Trump is also powerful. In fact, Forbes Magazine recently declared Mr. Trump the second most powerful man in the world, second only to Vladimir Putin.[6] As such, Mr. Trump is far better positioned to stop injustice rather than be subjected to it. The Salem trials ended only after the wife of the Governor of Massachusetts was herself questioned about witchcraft, at which point her husband prohibited further arrests.[7] Enough was enough, the powerful said.

2.      Persecution without guilt. It is generally accepted that the witchcraft prosecuted in 1692 simply did not exist. Individuals subjected to a witch hunt are inherently innocent, and the hunt for proof is inherently flawed. In the 17^th century, most colonists believed in witchcraft, since the Devil’s work could account for many unexplainable events.[8] But witchcraft was hard to prove, so powerful men created a list of “evidence.”

      

Did the defendant float on water? Mercy Disborough did. Were there odd marks on the accused’s body? Neighboring women found some on Mercy. Did the accused get into quarrels? Mercy most certainly did. Were those quarrels followed by damage? Cows and sheep belonging to neighbors died following arguments, and a new pot purchased from Mercy magically turned old after the sale.

The hysteria in sister colony Massachusetts eventually led to a realization that the so-called proof of so-called supernatural behavior was simply unsound. What happened to Connecticut’s Mercy Disborough? She was convicted of witchcraft, sentenced to death, and spent more than a year in jail, until influential ministers began speaking out against the standard of proof used in witch trials. Mercy’s case was ultimately dismissed on a technicality, and her life was spared.[9] Many in Salem were not so fortunate.

Joseph Welch far left, McCarthy far right

When applied to “political” witch hunting, it follows that the investigation into guilt must go at least beyond the norms of decency, inconsistent with an established process and a rational search for truth. For example, during congressional hearings begun in 1953 by Senator Joseph McCarthy, the lives of many were upended when the brand of “communist” was recklessly applied. Hundreds were accused and paraded before the Senator, who ran the sometimes televised spectacle with his chief aid. They worked with little opposition until they took on the Army in 1954. Finally, on 9 June 1954, a Boston lawyer named Joseph Welch (who trained for the law at Harvard, also the alma mater of William Stoughton, the lead Salem trial judge) famously said to McCarthy, "Have you no sense of decency, sir?”[10] The tide was turning.

McCarthy and Cohn

Ironically, when Welch said those words to Senator McCarthy, who was at the Senator’s side? McCarthy’s chief aid, his partner in the persecutions, a young man named Roy Cohn.

Mr. Cohn went on to become one of Mr. Trump’s most influential advisors. [11]

In easy contrast, consider the Watergate Hearings.[12] In those hearings, just cause to search for truth existed, and that truth proved guilt. An orderly process of investigation based on just cause is no witch hunt. Otherwise, criminals would never be held accountable.



Trump with mentor Cohn

Mr. Trump has no reason to cry “Have you no sense of decency!” Or to cry “Witch Hunt.” Today he admitted he was subject to an investigation. If that is the case, he has no one to blame but himself. Where an investigation might lead we do not know, but calling it a witch hunt is not only inaccurate but cruel when one thinks of those who suffered vicious persecution in real witch hunts, political or otherwise.

3.       A Community in Upheaval. Witch hunts occur during periods of great uncertainty, times of stress or fear, where community upheaval and failed institutions lead to a hunt for someone to blame. This was the case in Salem, where communities and families were fighting against one another, and government in Massachusetts was powerless to redress wrongs.[13] Things easily got out of hand. In contrast, in Connecticut, where Mercy Disborough was accused of witchcraft, a calmly applied rule of law (faulty as it was) prevailed, and no mass hysteria occurred.[14]

Most Americans know of the 17^th century Salem trials through Arthur Miller’s play “The Crucible.” It told the tale of Salem, but was more importantly an allegory, a play about McCarthyism, written by Miller “in desperation.”[15] The McCarthy hearings occurred at a time in America where Communism was on the rise across the globe, and Americans were fearful. Into that fear came Joseph McCarthy, a Senator from Wisconsin, and his aid Roy Cohn, and a witch hunt began.

To conclude, Mr. Trump is, first, not vulnerable. Second, if indeed he is subject to an investigation, I suspect it stems from evidence he himself provided.

But what about the third element? How different are we now from how we were in 1692 and 1954? Are we as ripe today for a witch hunt as we were then, should vulnerable innocents be found and America’s institutions be unable to cope?[16]

Arthur Miller’s play was an allegory, but also a parable. The 1692 trials and McCarthyism are also moral tales. What is their message? In 1992, on the 300^th anniversary of the Salem witch trials, Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel dedicated the Salem Witch Trials Memorial. In remarks made to the Washington Post, he said: "If I can't stop all of the hate all over the world in all of the people, I can stop it in one place within me…. [W]e still have our Salems…. For me there is only one word that characterizes what happened here, and that word is fanaticism."[17]

Arthur Miller was also interviewed during that memorial year, and warned:

"They come, these surges of intolerance, usually where there is a social dislocation beforehand, they do not come to a healthy society. When a society is sick, and it has run out of solutions, and it doesn’t know where to look, that’s when the demagogue can get up and start evoking vague dangers from vague quarters, in other words, a plot."[18]

Now that’s worth pondering. And perhaps a tweet or two.

Mercy Disborough, this one's for you. 



Part of the Witch Trials Memorial, Salem, MA

---

[1] http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2017/jun/16/fact-checking-trumps-tweets-about-russia-hillary-c/.

[2] https://www.cga.ct.gov/2006/rpt/2006-R-0718.htm.

[3] John Demos’ excellent scholarship on the characteristics of the accused is presented in “Entertaining Satan” (Oxford Press 1982), with characteristics summarized pp 93-94.

[4] Id.

[5] Marcus, Ronald, “Elizabeth Clawson thou Deseruest to Dye” (from Stanford Historical Society 1976, available online at http://ketchcetera.com/ARTIFACTS/Elizabeth_Clawson_Witchcraft_Trial.pdf).

[6] https://www.forbes.com/powerful-people/list/.

[7] http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/a-brief-history-of-the-salem-witch-trials-175162489/.

[8] Hall, David, “Worlds of Wonder; Days of Judgment: Popular Religious Belief in Early New England” (Harvard Press 1989).

[9] Marcus, supra, and Godbeer, Richard, “Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692” (Oxford Press 2005).

[10] https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Have_you_no_sense_of_decency.htm. You can listen to the testimony and read a transcript at http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/welch-mccarthy.html.

[11] http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/eavesdropping-on-roy-cohn-and-donald-trump.

[12] https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/investigations/Watergate.htm.

[13] Boyer, Paul, and Nissenbaum, Stephen, “Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft” (Harvard Press 1974).

[14] Godbeer, supra, at 116.

[15] Arthur Miller writing in The New Yorker, 21 October 1996.  http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1996/10/21/why-i-wrote-the-crucible.

[16]
Perhaps one group has already been identified, if one accepts that Mr. Trump’s immigration ban was indeed targeting members of the Muslim faith, as is now suggested by both the 9th and the 4th Circuit Courts of Appeal.
  [17] https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1992/09/13/a-cauldron-of-controversy/1bd6dd24-602c-4f20-b273-4a9a0acb2cb9/?utm_term=.3fd6c2794e15.

[18] From the documentary “Days of Judgment: The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 (produced for Essex County in 1993 by Osram Sylvania Inc., distributed by Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA.)

Museums, Wars, Bias, and the Hunt for Dead Relatives - Richard Goodman (1609-1676)

 

The Pequot Museum

On a recent trip to New England I had a chance to visit the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center. Located near Mystic, Connecticut, the Pequot Museum is fabulous in detail and display, and tells the story of the Mashantucket (Western) Pequots in an entertaining and informative way. A visit begins in a great hall, where lifelike mannequins of Pequot warriors are found traveling the Connecticut River. Visitors then descend downward, first on a ramp, then on an escalator surrounded by walls that look like ice. Cold air resonates from the depths below. At the base of the escalator Pequot life during the Ice Age is on display, and visitors can hear native peoples' origin stories.

And from there, visitors travel through time, beginning at the beginning and ending in the now.

 

Exhibits are close and beautifully crafted

Especially intriguing to me was my walk through a 16^th century Pequot Village. It is filled with realistic dioramas. No barriers – just a “please stay on the path” request. A visitor has an inside view of native life prior to the arrival of European settlers in the early 17^th century.

 

As one walks through the village, a large picture of a ship looms from a distance at the far side, a reminder that Europeans will soon arrive. And with that arrival, Pequot life is changed forever. Trade begins, and the Pequots' trading skills make them one of the richest and most powerful of the native tribes. But soon disputes arise, and war follows. 

In addition to a map of the Village, visitors receive a free audio tour
to use while exploring 16th century Pequot life

 

Visitors follow the timeline from the first European settlers to the conflict that followed. They can watch short films, where the Dutch, English, and Pequot each tell their side of the story, and then watch the graphic and powerful film “Witness”, which tells the tale of the Pequot War through the eyes of a young Pequot boy. In this film, visitors see the Pequot nation destroyed in a massacre.



The Massacre at Mystic and its Aftermath

 

The culmination of the Pequot War occurred in 1637, when Mistick Fort, a palisade housing most of the Nation, was burned, and the men, women, and children inside perished in the flames. It was a disaster for the Pequot Nation. Those who managed to escape were later captured and sold into slavery. The conflict is considered so critical that when the History Channel produced a series called "Ten Days That Unexpectedly Changed America," the Massacre at Mystic was included on the list. Some scholars believe the event changed the relationship between native peoples and Europeans, and set a process for taking native lands by wholesale slaughter of their people.

 

From Captain John Underhill, a woodcut print depicting a
birds-eyes view of the Battle of Mistick Fort, May 1637

Like many conflicts between European settlers and native peoples, the Pequot War was caused by misunderstanding. And lack of respect. And greed. And fear. Other tribes joined the Europeans, for their own purposes. Was this war inevitable? Perhaps. Did it end nobly? Not if one thinks the wholesale killing of innocents is wrong. The Puritans, however, believed God was on their side, and celebrated , believing God meant them to annihilate this wealthy tribe. Unrepentant accounts of the battle were published by its English participants, including the leader of the pack, John Mason. His story is very different from the Pequot story told in the film "Witness."

 

In the end, the Pequots did not die. Visitors to the Museum see enslaved Pequots, Pequots living in farming communities, and later in trailer parks and on a reservation. Pequot tribal members invested in economic ventures and instituted legal action to recover illegally seized land. In 1986, the Western Pequots built the Foxwoods Resort Casino, the first Indian gaming casino in America. The Nation also created the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center. Click HERE to read the history of the Mashantucket (Western) Pequot Nation.

 

The Museum does not treat the European colonists with disdain. Rather, it teaches understanding and tolerance, presenting many viewpoints. It also brings today’s Mashantucket Pequot Nation to life. I saw museum quality wampum, and watched a video of an artist creating wampum from shells, and turning that wampum into bracelets. And as my visit ended, I was tempted to buy a bit of wampum myself in the museum store!

 

 

The Pequot War – Yes, My Relatives Were There

 

From the film "Witness"

Throughout New England's history, when something happened, it seems my relatives were there. They rarely played a leading role, but they witnessed or participated in many events in American history. Everyone has relatives like mine, since all of our ancestors played a role in the history of the world.

After visiting the Pequot Museum, I wondered about the two dead relatives of mine who had been involved in the conflict. The first of these was Nathaniel Merriman (1613-1693). Merriman’s descendants left a rich accounting of his life in England old and new, and his service in the conflict is clear. His story I leave for another day.

Deacon Richard Goodman (1609-1676)

It was the second, Richard Goodman, who most intrigued me after my visit to the Pequot Museum. He is relatively unknown to me. Born in England in 1609, he owned land on “Cowyard Lane” in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1633, and was mentioned in an earlier post about my family’s ties to Harvard. In addition to his role in Cambridge's history, he was a founder of Hartford, Connecticut, and Hadley, Massachusetts and was killed in Hadley in 1667, during King Philip's War. 



Hadley, MA Vital Records

Visiting the Museum had prompted me to dig into a different setting for Goodman -- the Pequot War. I found reference to service in the War by browsing through the records of the various known ancestors who were in New England at the time. I started with Robert Charles Anderson’s Great Migration series, the best resource for the study of New England's earliest colonists available today. According to Anderson, Goodman was in the War, as proven by the fact that he owned land in Hartford’s “Soldiers Field” (GM Vol II p 787).

Follow the Source

 

I take no pride in my ancestors' service in the Pequot war. Although the War was understandable, it was grounded in fear, greed, and misunderstanding. It was surely not ordained by a Christian God, as the colonists thought. Rather than celebrate Goodman's role in the conflict, I was hoping Goodman had not been involved in the slaughter of the Pequots. I had a reason for that hope, since I had at one time or another tripped over a biography of Goodman that failed to credit him with service in this conflict. Because of this, I found Anderson's claim about Goodman's service -- based on land ownership -- intriguing and worth a closer look.

Digging Deep

Anderson’s work is meticulous and an excellent resource, and every statement he makes is sourced. I went to his source, the “Original distribution of the lands in Hartford among the settlers, 1639” (CT Historical Society 1912, ed. Bates), which I found online. It listed many parcels owned by Goodman, including these: 

"Original Distribution" at p 84
(brackets show original record pages)

So, he owned land in the soldier's field. I could (should?) have left it there. But something bothered me. I knew not everyone had given Goodman credit for service in the War. I had noticed the discrepancy years earlier, so onward I went.

I reviewed James Shepard’s “Connecticut Soldiers in the Pequot War” (1913), which can be read online. Shepard's entry on Goodman (page 16) read “Enlisted from Hartford (Parker). Had a lot in Soldiers Field.” There was that blasted field again, which seemed to be a code word for “massacred native peoples in 1637.”

In Shepard I found a deeper reference, though, to one Francis Parker, who had read a paper called “The Soldiers Field” before the Connecticut State Historical Society 5 February 1889. Mr. Shepard had very kindly told his readers that a manuscript of Parker’s paper was located at the Connecticut Historical Society. I could not, however, find it online, so I kept looking elsewhere.

Hartford Founders Monument

I next rediscovered James Trumball’s “Memorial History of Hartford Connecticut” (Boston 1886). There, in an entry titled “The Original Proprietors,” (the article actually written by one Mary Talcott, but unfortunately credit more often given to Trumball), I found Richard Goodman. But there was no mention of service in the Pequot War.


Finally! This was the biography I had remembered, the one that had made me wonder about Goodman's participation:



Where was the Pequot War? Nowhere. Going back further, I found Sylvester Judd’s “History of Hadley” (1863),  which lists the founders of Hadley, and provides Goodman’s biography at page 499. Again, no Pequot War reference. Boltwood’s “Genealogies of Hadley Families” (Northampton 1862) also failed to mention the Pequot War in Goodman’s entry (page 59).

Normally, documents written closest to an event are the most trustworthy. These early documents did not mention service by Goodman. What gives – did he or did he not participate in the Pequot War?

Clearly, something had happened between 1886, when no one was connecting Goodman to the Pequot War, and 1912, when everyone was. And the later sources kept pointing me to a place in Ancient Hartford called “The Soldiers Field."

The Connecticut Historical Society

It became increasingly clear that what had happened was probably Mr. Francis Parker, a Hartford lawyer. And the paper he wrote and read before the Connecticut Historical Society 5 February 1889. The one I could not find online (doesn’t mean it isn’t there, just that I couldn’t find it), but that Shepard said I could find in the Society's library.

Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford, CT

As I happened to be staying less than an hour’s drive from Hartford, and a phone call confirmed the paper was in the Society's files, I logged off my computer and went to take a look.
 

The Land Puzzle

Parker’s handwritten manuscript (dated 4 Jan 1889) begins …. “The Soldiers Field was a piece of land given by the Town of Hartford, or more probably, by its Proprietors, to the Hartford men who served in the Pequot War.”

Parker goes on to say that there were few records left from those days, making it difficult to determine who owned what. But, using the original land records for Hartford (the Original Distribution list cited by Anderson), Parker meticulously rebuilt the Soldiers Field rood by rood. He proved who owned what and how they came to own it.

Parker acknowledged (at page 8) that some of the original holders of land in the field were not included in the accepted list of Pequot Soldiers. He too was well aware that there were sources that did not recognize Goodman's service. But he disputed those sources, and proved that the “evidence contained in the Book of Distribution clearly warrants the inclusion of their names.” A lawyer by trade, Parker nicely built the case that Richard Goodman had received a grant of land in Soldiers Field, and indeed served in the Pequot War.

There you have it.

I value the work of the Parkers of this world. He proved parts of history, and left a record of his proof. I also value the historical societies of the world, which house precious manuscripts, and remind us that sometimes you cannot find the answers on the internet, but instead you just have to go there.

Why Do I Care?

 I admit, I sometimes wonder. Why do I care if Goodman participated in the Pequot War? He was a wealthy colonist and a Puritan deacon. Whether he grabbed his musket or not, he would have favored the fight.

Why did I want to go to the deepest source I could find? That is an easier question to answer. After finding conflicting data, I had a question. And when I have a question about American history, I usually want an answer. I am consistently curious.

 



No headstone for Goodman remains,
but I found this in the Old Hadley Cemetery

Query: Why did Richard Goodman move from Cambridge to Hartford and then again to Hadley? Why did his wife Mary (Terry) Goodman move to Deerfield after he died? What other dead relatives do I have in Hadley and Deerfield?

I know the answer to all but one of these questions – I have no idea why Mary Terry Goodman moved to Deerfield, although I suspect she had family there. But I will find out. Because I want to know.

 

 

A Closing Thought on History

 

"Lion Gardiner in the Pequot War"
by Charles Reinhart (1890)

I believe when Francis Parker stood before the Connecticut Historical Society in 1886 and proved that Richard Goodman had fought in the Pequot War, he wanted to honor Goodman. When I dug into sources, I was hoping he had not served.

History changes over time. The same facts are told and retold in a different way. The teller of the tale is always biased, and although each may tell "truth" as the teller knows it, bias affects the way the story is told. It also affects the way it is heard. As is the case with all news, it is best to read multiple reputable sources to get as close to the truth as one can.

When I visited the Pequot Museum, it had a special exhibit that dealt with “implicit bias.” We all have it. And although none of us can see it in ourselves, it affects everything we say and do. If you are interested, you can test your implicit bias at "Project Implicit", created by Harvard University and available online. Beware, you may not like what you learn. But, as the Southern Poverty Law Center aptly notes, "Your willingness to examine your own possible biases is an important step in understanding the roots of stereotypes and prejudice in our society."

If the Pequot War interests you, take a look at the description of the war on the website of the Society of the Colonial Wars of the State of Connecticut. Compare it to the description on the Pequot Museum's website. Watch the History Channel's version. This will give you three perspectives on the War, four if you count my very brief recitation.

Never forget, history changes over time. It is also a story told by the teller. 

 

Richard Goodman, this one’s for you.

 

The Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center is a 308,000 square foot complex nestled in the woods near Mystic, Connecticut. Two of its five levels are underground, and the exterior space features a farmstead and other green spaces. The mission of the Museum is "to further knowledge and understanding of the richness and diversity of the indigenous cultures and societies of the United States and Canada." Explore the Center's guides HERE.