Mayflower Quarterly highlights Maine, features Pilgrim history

That “oooh” you heard a few days ago was my response to the December issue of The Mayflower Quarterly, published by the General Society of Mayflower Descendants.

The front cover has a picture of Fort Western in Augusta, while the back cover features a sunset view from Peaks Island.

Fort Western, as you may know, is on the site of the Cushnoc Trading Post, operated 1628-1661. You can also spell it Koussinoc, as in the Daughters of the American Revolution chapter.

Inside this issue of the quarterly is a wonderful article, “Symbolic Ascendancy: The Evolving Historical Significance of the Plymouth Pilgrims,” by James W. Baker, senior historian of Plimoth Plantation.

If you have not visited the plantation, a re-creation of 1627 Plimoth in Massachusetts, I highly recommend it during the spring, summer or fall.

Baker’s article is a reprint of the talk he gave Sept. 8 in Portland when the Mayflower Society’s national Board of Assistants met there.

His main point, and a good one, is that the history of the Pilgrims was not just the day they landed in 1620, or even the 1621 harvest celebration we now associate with Thanksgiving.

“It is important for people to realize that the Pilgrims did not simply disappear after 1620,” Baker said. “Plymouth Colony grew and broke the bounds of Plymouth Village. New towns appeared – Duxbury, Scituate, Sandwich, Marshfield and others. A decade or so after 1620, Plymouth Plantation encompassed all of the territory between Cape Cod Bay on the east and Narragansett Bay on the west, Cape Cod on the south and the old Colony Line on the north that ran between Hingham and Providence plantations.”

Baker explained that the Pilgrims didn’t actually own Plymouth Colony until 1630, when the Earl of Warwick confirmed their charter, which also gave them land on the Kennebec River.

The parcel was 15 miles on each side of the river, from Cobbosseecontee Falls near Gardiner to the rapids halfway between Augusta and Waterville.

There’s much more to the article, including the fact that the harvest festival of 1621 was mostly forgotten until 1822 when the Massachusetts Historical Society reprinted missing portions of “Mourt’s Relation.”

We have mentioned before, but it’s worth repeating, that there is much information about Plymouth and the Pilgrims on the Web site www.mayflower.org.

The quarterly has many other interesting items, as well, including a note that education chairman Duane Cline, who did so much work on an educational Web site linked to the Mayflower site, visited Rhode Island in September to see the Pokanoket archives.

He met with Paul Weeden, president of the Council of the Royal House of the Pokanoket, and presented him with a plaque of the Pokanoket-Pilgrim Treaty of 1621.

Information Cline gathered at the archives will be used to update the Web site.

If you’re interested in joining the Mayflower Society, which requires proof of descent from one of the ship’s passengers, write Judith Elfring, historian for the state society in Maine, at P.O. Box 622, Yarmouth, ME 04096-1164. Or, e-mail state membership chairman Ralph Thivierge at thivier@blazenetme.net.

Speaking of Plymouth, which is north of Cape Cod, which is where Chatham is located, I haven’t proved it yet, but I’m convinced that my Daniel Eldridge traces back to the Eldridges of that area.

Thus, do I claim probable kinship to Todd Eldredge, the Chatham native who just won his sixth U.S. Figure Skating Championship. Congratulations, Todd.

Are you or a family member of Italian descent? The Italian Heritage Club will hold its monthly meeting and dinner at 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 21, at the Bangor Armory, Parks and Recreation Department, Main Street, Bangor. For information, call 394-4903 or check www.italianheritageclub.org.

In 1900, excerpts from the “Lost Diaries of Cyrus Eaton” were published in the Courier Gazette. Eaton wrote the diaries 1803-1848.

Dick Ferren of Warren, president of the Warren Historical Society, will give a program on the diaries during a meeting of Mid-Coast Genealogy Group, 7 p.m. Jan. 23, at the LDS Church on Old County Road, Rockport.

For information, contact Marlene A. Groves at 594-4293.

3164. GROSE-WHITE-FREEMAN. To update genealogy, seeking info regarding Nathan F. Grose and his wife, Georgia (Freeman) Grose, daughter of Edmund and Lucinda W. (Morrice) Freeman. Nathan F. was son of Nathan C. and Nancy (White) Grose. Nathan F. and Georgia are buried Lawndale Cemetery, Old Town. They had one daughter, Clara Mae Grose, who md. George S. DeBeck Sept. 14, 1925, Old Town. I believe Nathan F. worked at Old Town Canoe. Information on siblings and children also appreciated. Charles Frederick DeBeck, 13 Cianchette Ave., Pittsfield, ME 04967-1620; or telephone 487-2426; or e-mail cngdebeck@midmaine.com.