Reverend Joseph Park, My 6th Great Grandfather

March 12 1705 in Newton MA to March 1 1777 in Westerly RI

AHA!  A granddad who graduated from Harvard!!!

Ok, so he graduated when Harvard was a college in Cambridge and was much smaller, but Harvard is Harvard, even in 1720 when he earned his B.A. and 4 years later earned his M.A in Religion.  The graduating class for 1720 was less than 40 in number!

After so much education, Joseph was ordained in 1730 and moved to Westerly RI to begin his own ministry.

In 1732 Grampa Joe and Gramma Abigail Green became husband and wife.

Reverend Park's home:  From The Avery, Fairchild & Park families

 of Massachusetts, Connecticut & Rhode ... By Samuel Putnam Avery

Grampa Joe was appointed as a missionary to Native American Indians - including the Narragansett Tribe -  and to also minister, of course, to any and all English who might attend his services in Westerly.   Grampa built his home for his wife, his children, and his always welcomed parishioners.  


Few Native Americans attended his services, meaning that his missionary work was slow to evolve. In the 1740s a large number of the Narragansett tribal members converted to Christianity, during the 1741-42 major religious revival known as the Great Awakening. Grampa Joe, as were other preachers, known as a "New Light" minister and ministry.  Joe's New Light Congregational church ministered to the English and the Indians.  

Grampa Joe wrote in letters that this religious conversion helped the Narragansett to adapt to the English colonial life, including less drinking, quarreling, and more education.  A letter he wrote in 1744 relayed "there is among them a change for good respecting the outward as well as the inward man.  They grow more decent and cleanly in their outward dress, provide better for their households, and get clearer of debt....they have been desirous of a School among them."  He, or others in his community, arranged to have an Indian Woman to "keep School" in a Wigwam.  Interestingly, the New Light churches failed when faced with the remaining Old Light ministers and shortly, by 1745, many of his English and Narragansett members withdrew to the leadership of the Narragansett Samuel Niles who evidently was a well thought of preacher though he was unable to read or write..  
      

           From "The Reservation Period" Chapter 4, Narragansett, Indians of North America.

So what do historians say Grampa Joseph was like?  Self-sacrificing, patriotic, public- spirited.  

His thoughtful and brave care of others and his self-sacrifice of himself did get him into hot water with the law and fellow citizens over smallpox outbreak. Rev. Joe took in a smallpox ridden woman who had been driven out by her town's fear of this horrendous illness. Joseph found himself tried for contempt for trying to help this woman. Not to be shackled by the fears of others, he preached a sermon in 1756 which vindicated his position and he remained a highly regarded man.

Abigail died in 1772; Joseph died 1777 at 72 after 45 years of successful ministry, though at times a bit bumpy!

In our family there are many encounters with American Indians, including marrying Native Americans.  Some encounters are harrowing such as that of Hannah Dustin, kidnapped by Indians who killed her babe and she avenged this death by scalping many of them.  Rev. Joseph Park's encounter was calmer, meaningful, and memorable.

Grampa Joe's and Grammy Abby's daughter Anne became my
 5th Great Grandmother with her husband Peleg Pendleton

For more on this man of God and his family:Some account of the Park family and especially of the Rev. Joseph Park, M.A., 1705-1777, and Benjamin Parke, L.L. D., 1801-1882

https://archive.org/details/someaccountofpar00west 

Sears Island, Maine, and my Mom, Marjorie Bennett

This two-mile long and one-mile wide island is close to the mainland of Searsport Maine. The Wabanaki American Indians called it Wassumkeag which means shining beach or bright sand beach. When the island was discovered by European explorers before 1775 they named it Brigadier's Island. Regardless of its moniker, this land has historically been an uninhabited or sparsely populated island.  

The island, today and in the days when my mom lived in Searsport, was separated from the mainland as a barrier island due to its tidal bar.  When the tide came off  Penobscot Bay, it was an island; when the tide rolled out, she could walk or stroll to the island but, of course, had to be alert to the tides and the daylight so as not to get marooned overnight. 

I don't believe there were any farmhouses there when my mother was, but were in generations before her time in Maine. Actually, in the first 1790 census six families lived or squatted here among the birch and maples of Maine. Now visitors can find stones marking the cellars of long gone homes.  In 1917 a gas-powered piece of farm equipment created a fire that destroyed the few Sears Island farm buildings. 

During prohibition, the island was a secluded way to the smuggle liquor off the waters of the Bay. Perhaps this even occurred when mom played on the island - in the daytime, thank goodness - when she was still under the age of 10.

Mom and her brothers used to love to go to Sears Island to camp, swim, gather shells, picnic, snowshoe and horseback ride.  Hiking might be an adventure to people today, but in mom's day hiking was a mode of transportation - her mode, a means to an end. I believe the island is about 2 miles from her home on Turnpike Road in Searsport.  Since she walked to neighboring towns often, such as Stockton Springs to roller skate, the trek to Sears Island was a fairly short half-hour walk for her. Today there is a causeway to and from Sears Island, but no further.  Once on the island, people walk, bike or ride horseback to see more. 

LtoR: Albert, Gerry and Marjorie Bennett

Some sounds mom would hear were the waves lapping along the shoreline, whispering and swirling winds and leaves, and the unique bantering of sea gulls...and silence, blessed silence. 

The island waters in her day were known for abundances in lobsters, clams, scallops and such. No wonder I like seafood (but not fish particularly). Although I have been very near to Sears Island, I did not walk in her footprints of long ago. My grandmother and my great grandmother also walked and played on this island. I should have.

Love you Mom!

How to Speak like a New England Mainer (Mainah)

Years After Maine, I Can Still Be Heard Doing Mainespeak

I clearly recall churning buttah (butter) with my maternal grandmother Esther Bennett Homer on her farm in Searsport Maine. Why did I say buttah instead of butter? Because that is how I sometimes still talk. I've lost a lot of my Maine dialect or accent, but not to my family, especially my granddaughter Ashley, who loves to tease me when I forget to or am unable to add the "r" sound to my words.

So, I am still somewhat a Mainer, and proud of it! My car is a ca or cah, our nearby park is a pahk, the law is the lah and lava is lavah. Sounds perfectly okay to me, but Ashley laughs and laughs. This got me to thinking about the Maine dialect that I grew up with.

My paternal grandmother Alice Southworth Healey loved lobster which she called lobstah. She always wanted to eat some when we visited Ba Harbah (Bar Harbor). Grammy Homer liked clam chowdah (chowder) when she ate out.

Though I have tried for years to say idea, it always comes out as idear. My mom and dad called me deyah (dear) and Donna, but they also called me Donnah or Donner. Yikes instead of dropping an r sound, idear and Donner added one. How confusing is that? I need a glass of watah! Then I can watch the cahfs (calfs) for a while as I ponder this.

Mainers also like a good oximoron. The one that says something is wicked good. Wicked lobstah. Wicked buttah. Wicked cold or wicked hot. L. L. Bean uses "wicked good" in some of their product line names and ads to relay the greatness of the items. Makes me wantah order somethin' now.

My dad was named Bob. In New England, folks like to use names. A conversation with him would go something like this: "Donnah, what are you doing? Nothing, Dad. Donnah, I heard you were goin' to the pahk? Dad, that is true, but I won't be stahtin (starting) to go for a while. Dad, for now I will be herah." Get the gist? Did you notice that Mainers like to drop the g when talking, such as talkin'.

I love that herah, for here. Stretch that one syllable into two and you speak Mainah. A phrase I recall is that you can't get theyah from heyah.

My dad, by the way was born in Bath Maine, but he called it Bahth. And my Aunt Jane was Auht Jane and not Ant Jane. Auht Jane called my sister and I cunnin, meaning cute. We were, and loved her sayin' it. Oh, we live in Florida now and my sister is Ant Caren, instead of Auht Caren. Too bad.

I was born in Bangah (Bangor), but now when I visit Maine, I am thought to be "from away" and have to explain that my Mainah accent is still there in part, because I am one of them. Doesn't do me much good to explain; they still think I am from away. Could I be mispronouncing Bangor?

It has been wicked exciting to write this article. Brings back so many memories and helps my granddaughter to know I am just a Mainer.

One of these days I will call Ashley's lunch box, her dinner pail. It would really catch her attention if I said suppah pail. In North Carolina we had a basement, in Connecticut we had a cellar and, for us, that meant a dirt or root cellar which we called "down cellar." Our mom did not want us to go down cellah. We also had an ice box and when we got a refrigerator we still called it an ice box. And I don't say hoss anymore. I have mastered horse.

Remembah Ashley is the one that teases me the most about my lingerin' Maine accent. I think I will agree with her on whatever she says next time by sayin' eh-yuh or ayuh instead of yes. She will love it. PS: Let's not tell her that I mostly hear ayuh on old episodes of Murder She Wrote on television. Do you agree? Ayuh!

Photo:  From Flickr Commons Free; by Edward Hand

SARAH F. STEPHENSON AND CHARLES CONRAD CATOR, SR.

My husband and I spent years going to his old home state areas of Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC.  Every time that we passed Surrattsville, MD.  He would share the story that his Granddaddy Charles Conrad Cator Jr. often told: Surrattsville is important to our family.  Remember that. 

My husband's great grandfather Charles Sr. was born in 1863, smack in the middle of the Civil War. It was years before we realized that my husband's great grandmother, Sarah F Stephenson, married his great grandfather, Charles Conrad Cator Sr. and they resided there for a while and had children in Surrattsvile.  Sarah was Irish.  Cator is thought to be Scots-Irish.

In the 1700s Surrattsville was named Surratt's Villa, and ultimately would become today's Clinton, MD.  The Villa was simply a crossroads and a few buildings.  By the 1800s it was calls Surrattsville and had its own post office, a voting place, and a tavern. Mary Surratt, famed from the days of Abraham Lincoln, owned a home there and in DC. 

Charles and Sarah F. married on the 4th of  December 1890 in DC per the record of their marriage. Since Sarah was born in 1871, she was but 19 years old to Charles 27 years of age.  Charles and Sarah had a baby boy who lived 5 months; he died 25 Apr 1892.  Before she died at the age of 27 in 1898, she had two living children, Granddaddy - my husband's grandfather who raised my husband. Granddaddy was Charles Conrad Cator, Jr. born 1895.  Their other living child was Aunt Mabel Estelle Cator (born 1893).  Granddaddy was just 2 when Sarah died; Mabel just 4. 

Charles Conrad Cator Sr now married Rachel Lurania Clifton as his second wife.  She is the sister of Charity and Joseph Clifton.  This is important as Charity married into another line (Belle Cator's line).  When Sarah Stephenson Cator died, leaving Charles Sr. to take care of his two living children, he was likely guided to marry the single Lurania to help raise his children.  Perhaps he loved her dearly, but the stories in the family do not support this.  Lurania is not fondly remembered our family.  She was mean-spirited and would punish the children in a myriad of ways, including hours in iced bath water.  Charges were actually brought against her for abuse of the children.  The charges were dropped, but not forgotten by our family.  This was likely a story 27 year marriage, at best.  She died first; he outlived Lurania by 15 years.  Peace.  The coming of the dreadful Lurania as stepmom within the ame year that Sara died, 1898, was ultimately harsh for the children.  By the 1900 census, Lurania's brother Joseph Clifton was living with them.  He was a 23 year old unmarried milkman and I hope he was good to Mabel and Charlie Jr.

By 1910, Joseph Clifton had moved on, but the teenagers Charlie and Mabel now had their granddad living with them, Thomas Cator, age 75 as a "boarder" who had his own income.  Charles Sr. was a furnace man at the Navy Yard in DC.  Lurania never had any of her own children.  A good thing.  

When Charles Sr. died he had chosen to be buried with his first wife Sarah when he passed away, rather than with Lurania who lies alone further back in the same cemetery.

Interestingly, Charles Jr and Ruth Ridgeway eloped while under the reins of Lurania.  This is an interesting story as Lurania was continuously on the prowl! Charles Sr was not opposed, though it implied he was.   See the full story at http://snippetbiographies.blogspot.com/2012/12/charlie-cator-runs-away-twice.html

HISTORY DURING THEIR LIVES:

William McKinley was president the year before Sarah died.  She may or may not have lived long enough to realize that the USS Maine exploded in Cuba in February of 1898.  And she may not have lived long enough to see Wyoming and Idaho become new states (43, 44) nor to know that Hawaii was annexed by the USA in mid 1898. 

In 1881 she and Charles were well aware that their President James Garfield was shot and died.  And, think of it!  They lived at the very time of the OK Corral gunfights in Tombstone, AZ in that same year when the Earp Brothers and Doc Holliday tried to disarm Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury.  Billy, Frank and Tom died.  And electricity was generated to 85 customers in NYC on September 4, 1884, and a year later the Statue of Liberty was delivered. 

The Mangle Iron at Myrtle and Warren Southworth's home in Belfast Maine

I loved to visit Aunt Myrtle Dickey Southworth and her husband, my Uncle Warren Southworth in their Belfast Maine home.  They lived on the top floor of a two story duplex.  The home had a back room, like an attic room, but on the same level as the duplex apartment.  In the room was a mangle ironing machine for pressing sheets and such.  Fascinating!
Aunt Myrtle was a kind and caring woman to me and trips to her home were always a highlight of Belfast Maine visits (my home state).  Her husband was my great grandparents' son.  I do recall that the Mangle was large, but do not recall if it was this model.  

Aunt Myrtle E. Dickey and Uncle Ralph Warren Southworth were married on Saturday, November 10th in Belfast Maine. They had two children, a daughter and a son.  Myrtle died in Chula Vista California in 1982 at the age of 70. She was living near her daughter's area.  Uncle Warren died in Belfast Maine in 1970 at the age of 59.  In this picture, Warren is standing with his older brother Dana Southworth.  Dana died in 1971 at the age of 75.  Dana's second marriage was to Helen Devlin Southworth, who was a violinist in the Boston Pops Orchestra.

YMCA Camp Skyuka near Columbus NC

We used to take our sons to Camp Skyuka on White Oak Mountain, far up into the coolness of being over 3000 feet high. 

Skyuka, a Cherokee,  lived during the American Revolution,  As the story goes, British Redcoats got Skyuka to agree to lead British men to raid pioneer homesteaders in the area.  Cherokees had been raiding the homesteaders and Capt. Thomas Howard organized a campaign to stop this after three bloody massacres against the homesteaders.  On a secret trail, Skyuka led Capt Howard to defeat the Cherokees in 1776.  Skyuka was not honored by his people, but was by the British. Skyuka was said to have been saved by Howard as a boy and a friendship grew.  

YMCA Camp Skyuka opened its doors in 1957 on 99 acres.  It closed and then reopened in 1975, the period when my sons attended Camp Skyuka.  The cabins, infirmary, and kitchen and mess hall were built of blue granite from a quarry in Green River Cove.  Moonshiners likely still resided on White Oak Mountain; they may still today. The camp had lots of swimming activities, boating, fishing, crafts, archery and rifle ranges, horseback riding, tennis courts, and ball fields.   The boys enjoyed every activity and even the campfire stories.  I bet they were not really very happy to see us arrive to pick them up!

The campsite was closed in the late 1990s.  

<== Blue Granite Cabin

        Trading Post  ==>

This mess hall photo is from http://www.campskyukahoa.com/Mountain_History.html 

See also: 

The Legend of Skyuka

http://kirkhneely.com/2013/07/07/the-legend-of-skyuka/   

Camp Skyuka Friends

https://www.facebook.com/groups/29670617910/

Is this James?  From facebook group as
"Allison and Jim 1979":

Capt Green Pendleton of Searsport Maine - My GGGGrandfather

Born June 21, 1774, Green Pendleton (My GGGGrandfather) moved to Searsport from Westerly, RI where he was born.  He was just 10 years old when he moved with his father, Peleg.  Possessing a powerful physique and "of much natural dignity of bearing," Green went to sea at a  young age, and ultimately rose to command the Sloop Endeavor, and the schooners Independence and Ceres between 1816 and 1829.  Capt. Green Pendleton died at the age of 88.  Nice longevity!

In 1795 at age 20 he married his 18 year old first cousin, Ann Park.  Following the birth of their first child, Nancy, he purchased the land where his home, "Fairwinds," now stands from William Taylor of Boston for $5.00.  Nancy was followed by daughters Abigail and Catherine.  Then his sons were born. 

Captain Green Pendleton's five eldest sons all became Master Mariners who, in the days of American sailing ships, carried our flag throughout the seven seas.  Two didn't return from voyages. Green, Jr., and Benjamin. Charles and Christopher returned.   John died at sea. Charles later died in Havana.

Capt. Green Pendleton's youngest son, James Hervey Pendleton (My GGGrandfather), complied with his father's wishes, and stayed ashore to farm instead of following the seas as others had done.  James farmed the land and succeeded to the estate upon his father's death in 1863.  

Fairwinds has been a Bed and Breakfast located at 428 E. Main St., Searsport, Maine. My husband and I enjoyed staying there a few years ago.  So very nice!