Mayflower Ancestors, Part 2: Arrival

John Alden
Born: About 1599, England
Died: Sep. 12, 1687, Duxbury, Massachusetts
Relation to Author: 10th Great Grandfather in Law

Priscilla Mullins (married name Alden)
Born: c. 1603, England (maybe Dorking or Guildford)
Died: After 1650 (maybe as late as 1685), Duxbury, Massachusetts
Relation to Author: 10th Great Grandmother in Law

William Mullins
Born: Unknown, England
Died: Winter 1621, Plymouth, Massachusetts
Relation to Author: 11th Great Grandfather in Law

Alice Mullins
Born: Unknown, England
Died: Winter 1621, Plymouth, Massachusetts
Relation to Author: 11th Great Grandmother in Law? (so little is known about her that researchers do not know if she was the mother for some, all or none of William’s children)

The Mayflower arrived in America, reaching Cape Cod, on November 9, 1620 after more than two months at sea. They were arriving during a New England winter, which as you probably know, can be pretty harsh. And while we now know that North America was experiencing the Little Ice Age, the winter was less harsh than usual for the time. Even so, the first winter was really bad for the Mayflower passengers and crew. 

They arrived at the ocean side of the cape and tried sailing south in uncharted waters hoping to get to New York, which was 220 miles south. However, they ran into dangerous waters, particularly Pollack Rip, a famously treacherous area between Cape Cod and Nantucket, and after retreating from the rip, decided to turn around and sail north instead, where the coastline was better mapped because of many previous European fishing expeditions to the American coast. They sailed around to the bay side of Cape Cod, staying for a while in Provincetown Harbor while they scouted for a place to settle. 

Before disembarking, the passengers wrote and agreed to the Mayflower Compact. This agreement - seen as an early American founding document - was necessary because they were choosing to settle in New England even though they were legally chartered to go to the mouth of the Hudson River (New York but at the time considered part of Virginia), and because there were essentially two groups of people: the Puritans and the Merchant Adventurers. They needed to unite two separate groups under a common understanding. The compact was signed by the adult male passengers, including ancestors William Mullins and Robert Alden. 

Mayflower Ancestors, Part 1: Voyage

John Alden
Born: About 1599, England
Died: Sep. 12, 1687, Duxbury, Massachusetts
Relation to Author: 10th Great Grandfather in Law

Priscilla Mullins (married name Alden)
Born: c. 1603, England (maybe Dorking or Guildford)
Died: After 1650 (maybe as late as 1685), Duxbury, Massachusetts
Relation to Author: 10th Great Grandmother in Law

William Mullins
Born: Unknown, England
Died: Winter 1621, Plymouth, Massachusetts
Relation to Author: 11th Great Grandfather in Law

Alice Mullins
Born: Unknown, England
Died: Winter 1621, Plymouth, Massachusetts
Relation to Author: 11th Great Grandmother in Law? (so little is known about her that researchers do not know if she was the mother for some, all or none of William’s children)

There were supposed to be two boats sailing to America for the Puritans - the Mayflower and the Speedwell. The former was hired and the latter was purchased by the Puritans. But the Speedwell was leaking at the beginning of the voyage - going in for repairs twice before leaking for the final time when they’d finally set out, which Philbrick suggests was purposeful by the Speedwell’s master - using a mast that was too big and going too fast and straining the boat. Philbrick thinks that the Dutch may have conspired with the Speedwell’s master. Both boats turned around and went to Plymouth, then crowding some of the Speedwell passengers onto the Mayflower and leaving the Speedwell behind. The Speedwell was sold and would make many future voyages without leaking. 

The Mayflower left England September 6, 1620, months later than originally planned because of these and other delays. They were using up some of their provisions while waiting. So they would arrive in America later than planned and closer to winter and with less provisions. The trip across the Atlantic took two months and they arrived in November 1620. 

The Mayflower’s original destination was supposed to be the mouth of Hudson River - what is now New York City but was then considered part of Virginia. The Dutch - former hosts of the Puritans - had their eyes on New York and may have been conspiring against them. 

At some point late in the journey (there don’t seem to be any detailed records of the voyage), after encountering bad weather and storms, the captain did not, and could not, know how close he was to land because he could not determine his longitude. 

He knew he was north of where he wanted to be. But with supplies running low and disease starting to show up, the captain decided to just race west and reach land even if it was to reach Cape Cod first. They could decide once they reached land if they wanted to proceed south to the Hudson River. 

We now know that they were traveling just 2 miles per hour, in part because of the Gulf Stream, which flows up from the Caribbean and then east across the Atlantic. The Mayflower was fighting the east-moving waters. They arrived in America after more than two months at sea. When the Mayflower left in the spring of 1621 to head back to England, it would take just one month to get back across the Atlantic. 

During the journey, only one person died, though they arrived low on provisions facing a New England winter. 

Mayflower Ancestors - Prelude

John Alden

Born: About 1599, England

Died: Sep. 12, 1687, Duxbury, Massachusetts

Relation to Author: 10th Great Grandfather in Law

Priscilla Mullins (married name Alden) 

Born: c. 1603, England (maybe Dorking or Guildford)

Died: After 1650 (maybe as late as 1685), Duxbury, Massachusetts 

Relation to Author: 10th Great Grandmother in Law

William Mullins

Born: Unknown, England

Died: Winter 1621, Plymouth, Massachusetts

Relation to Author: 11th Great Grandfather in Law

Alice (married name Mullins) 

Born: Unknown, England

Died: Winter 1621, Plymouth, Massachusetts

Relation to Author: 11th Great Grandmother in Law? (researchers do not actually know whether she was the biological mother for some, all or none of William’s children)

My wife, and therefore our children, are descended from four people who came over on the Mayflower. In the next series of posts, I am going to explore this connection and what we know about them. I’ll start with some context - basic info about the ancestors and the lineage. Then in subsequent posts I’ll look at what we know about their time on the Mayflower and in America, mostly using Nathaniel Philbrick's book Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War, but also Caleb Johnson's Mayflower History. 

My wife is descended from John Alden and Priscilla Mullins (married name Alden), through the Blake line. You can see the path at the bottom of this post. Priscilla and John are my wife’s 10th great grandparents. And so Priscilla’s parents, William and Alice, are her 11th Great Grandparents (though again researchers are not sure if she is Priscilla’s biological mother). John Alden’s family history is unknown. 

John Alden and four of the Mullins family came to America on the Mayflower in 1620. We think of the Mayflower as the boat that brought the pilgrims - or puritans - but in fact your ancestors and more than half of the people on the boat were not puritans. John Alden was part of the crew. He’s mentioned early in Philbrick's book: 

“Another important position was that of the cooper, who was in charge of maintaining all barreled supplies and provisions, In Southampton, [Mayflower commanding officer Christopher] Jones secured the twenty-one year old cooper John Alden, who because of his youth and skills was already being encouraged by the Pilgrims to remain in America at the completion of the crossing.” 

The Mayflower settlers did convince Alden to stay in America when the Mayflower sailed back to England in the spring of 1621. He would later marry Priscilla Mullins. And in a transparent attempt to hook you early, dear reader, I'll give you a preview and say that they would go on to have ten children and have a famous poem written of their relationship. 

The Mullins family was connected to the financiers supporting the puritans' trip. The Leiden Puritans were separatists; they believed that the Church of England was corrupt and they wanted to be apart from the Church and worship their own way. They originally fled to Leiden, Holland to find freedom but then wanted to go to America. But they needed financial help to charter the trip. The financiers - the Merchant Adventurers - found other families from London to join the trip, and this included the Mullins family, who were investors in the project. 

Since the Mullins family were not Puritans, we know they didn't come to America for religious freedom and instead guess they came with a plan to make more money. Mullins was a shoemaker, seemingly relatively wealthy (and brought with him 250 shoes and 13 pairs of boots). They traveled with their two younger children, Priscila (~17), Joseph (~15) and a servant or apprentice - Robert Carter - but their two older adult children stayed in England. 

They must have realized that there was danger in going to America - traveling to a new place without any of the infrastructure they were used to and only inhabited by people that were rightfully hostile to them. Though they must not have realized just how risky and dangerous it was going to be. 

Lineage

John Alden & Priscilla Mullins (13)

Ruth Alden and John Bass (12)

Samuel Bass and Mary Adams (11)

Jonathan Bass and Sussanah Byram (10)

Susanna Bass and Zechariah Cary (9)

Luther Cary and Abigail King (8)

Sophia Cary and Silas Blake (7)

Rev. Joseph Blake and Hannah Little Clark (6)

Francis Clark Blake and Winifred Pamelia Ballard (5)

Francis Gilman Blake and Dorothy Palmer Dewey (4)

John Ballard Blake and Jean Place Adams (3)

Grand Central Was Born: Thanks Ira Place

Ira Adelbert Place
Born: May 8, 1854, New York, NY
Died: January 24, 1928, New York, NY
Relation to Author: 2nd Great Grandfather In-Law

On this date 100 years ago, Grand Central Station opened. Grand Central was built by New York Central and Harlem River Railroad, where Ira Place was a vice president.

Grand Central station is proudly celebrating this anniversary with advertisements around the city, TV programs on the history, and information and history on its website. You can go through the timeline on the website here. The description of the opening says:

Grand Central Terminal officially opened to great fanfare at 12:01 am on Sunday, February 2, 1913, and more than 150,000 people visited the new terminal on its opening day. Although construction was not yet entirely complete, Grand Central Terminal had arrived and New York City would never be the same again.

The timeline further says that the new station was constructed to expand and upgrade the lines to electric (the announcement of the new station came in 1902, one week after a deadly collision between steam locomotives) and would feature a double level terminal.

Ira Place was not a vice president during the entirety of the development and construction but based on his positions would likely have been involved. According to his obituary in the Cornell Alumni News, he became General Attorney at Hudson River Railroad Company (a part of Vanderbilt's New York Central and Hudson River Railroad) in 1902. In 1906 he became a vice president of New York Central.

In addition to his titles at the railroad, we have another piece of evidence that he likely had an important role with the station's development. In 1910 Ira sent a letter to the New York Times with details about the station as it was being constructed, which led to an article in the Times describing his letter and the plans.

So while everyone is celebrating this historic and beautiful station, we can also celebrate Ira's role.

Woodsy Folksy: Updated

Katherine Burritt Gauntlett (married name Place)
Born: February 28, 1862, Ithaca, New York
Died: January 20, 1947
Relation to Author: 2nd Great Grandmother-In Law

Updated

The first time I posted this, I got the information wrong (I thought she was her daughter). I should have trusted my instincts that this seemed to be of the same time as the picture of Ira Place. And I should have asked someone first if I had the right person. Anyway, this should now be the correct information for the person pictured. 

This is a picture of Katherine Burritt Gauntlett Place. She was married to Ira Place and grandmother of Jean Place Adams (married name Blake).

Like Ira's picture, I am assuming this was also taken in the Adirondacks. Enjoy.

Earliest Known Ancestor (Blake et al)

Robert Welles
Christened: November 6, 1540, Stourton, Whichford, Warwick, England
Died: About 1619, England
Relation to Author: 12th Great Grandfather In-Law

My wife's grandfather was an historian and did what appears to be significant genealogical research on his and his wife's families. There are entries as far back as 15 generations from my wife (16 from our son). Robert Welles is the oldest such ancestor in the 15th generation (William Curtis is also listed, but we only know that he died in 1585 - we don't know when he was born).

Robert Welles lived from approximately 1540 to 1619 in England. In other words, he was born 471 years ago. How far back is that?

He was born 100 years after the invention of the printing press. In Europe, the Italian Renaissance was just ending but the Scientific Revolution was just getting started (he was three when Copernicus set out the heliocentric theory of the solar system, but he doesn't live to see Galileo demonstrate then recant this same theory).

And throughout Europe, including in England, the Protestant Reformation was well under way. He was born twenty years after Martin Luther hung his ninety-five theses on the door of the Castle Church of Wittenberg (Germany). But Robert didn't have to look so far as Germany to see the Reformation; England was having its own battle, played out by the monarchs, over whether to be a Catholic or Protestant country.

Robert was born just as Henry VIII was breaking the Church of England away from the Catholic Church and he was 7 when Henry died. The rest of his pre-teen years were spent under the short reign of Edward VI (plus the 9 day reign of Lady Jane Grey).

The rest of Robert's youth was spent under the reign of Mary I (Bloody Mary), daughter of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. She brought Catholicism back to England and killed (burned at the stake) hundreds of dissenters while doing so. She died in 1558 when Robert would have been 18.

The next 45 years - much of Robert's adulthood - was spent under Elizabeth I, daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife Anne Boleyn. Elizabeth returned England to Protestantism, ushered in an era of English drama, and saw the Spanish Armada defeated.

The last 16 years of his life were spent under the rule of James I (2nd Great Grandson of Henry VII), who, among other things, sponsored the King James Bible.

Robert died the year before the Mayflower set sail for America. His son, Thomas Welles would move to the American colonies and serve as governor of the Colony of Connecticut in 1655 and again in 1658.

Railroad Bigwig

Ira Adelbert Place
Born: May 8, 1854, New York, NY
Died: January 24, 1928, New York, NY
Relation to Author: 2nd Great Grandfather In-Law

This is a picture of Ira Place at Thendara Country Club (located in upstate New York in the Adirondack Mountains). The golf course was built in 1921 and Ira died in 1928, so we can assume the undated picture was taken sometime between those years. Ira Place was General Counsel and Vice President of New York Central Railroad (railroad empire run by the Vanderbilt family serving New York City to Chicago et al via upstate New York). More on that in a future post.

Note: Thendara was one of the stops on the New York Central Railroad's Adirondack Division, which helps explain why Ira was there of all places (290 miles from New York City). It also seems to be in the area where many of the gilded age bosses built Adirondack cabins.

Jackpot

I just hit the jackpot. Over the holidays I was given a large amount of family history information from my wife's side of the family (a great gift!). The collection includes a genealogical memoir, a very extensive family tree and a some other interesting things. Look for many more posts from the Eisenberg and Blake families in the future.

A Science Paper?

Francis Gilman Blake
Born: February 22, 1887, Mansfield Valley, Pennsylvania
Died: February 1, 1952, Washington, DC
Relation to Author: Great Grandfather In-Law

In Francis Gilman Blake's biographical memoir, it says this:

It was not by accident that as a boy he roamed the woods and developed an enthusiasm for nature, particularly for birds; or that he took a year off between college and medical school to spend the winter in a log cabin in the Maine woods, for he was a born naturalist and he published, at the age of 15 (with his brother), his first scientific paper, on an ornithological subject. It appeared in The Auk in 1902.

I think this is what they are referring to (from the Auk 1902):

A Winter Record for the Flicker (Colaptes auratus luteus) in Berkshire County.--In 'The Birds of Berkshire County,' by Dr. W. Faxon and Mr. R. Hoffmann, the latest autumn date for this species is given as October 24, and the earliest spring record as April 10. We observed at Williamstown on December 12, 1900, a single bird which may have been wintering, and on April 6, 1901, the first Flicker arrived.-- Francis G. and Maurice C. Blake, Brookline, Mass.

If this is what they are referring to, I'm not sure I would call it a scientific paper. But it is impressive for a 15 year old and did contribute important information for the birding world. And, as an amateur birder myself, a correct identification can be very difficult and requires a lot of knowledge and confidence.

Book Report: Public Health in the Town of Boston

Public Health in the Town of Boston: 1630-1822
by John B. Blake (Born: 1922, Died: 2006)
c. 1959, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
Distributed in Great Britian by Oxford University Press, London
Relation to Author of this Blog: Grandfather-in-Law

John Blake received his Ph.D. in American history from Harvard University in 1954 and studied uner renowned historian Arthur Schlesinger. The book reviewed here was taken from his Ph. D. dissertation. This is the only book he published, going on instead to become chief of the History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine.  

John Blake chose to study Boston for a time frame that spanned colonial, revolutionary, and post-independence and ending when Boston became a city. The town of Boston was, as other large towns and cities in the US and Europe were, dealing with epidemic illnesses like yellow fever and smallpox. At the beginning of the time period, the causes for these illnesses were unknown. We are therefore able to witness the public's attempts to figure out the causes and then debate solutions to protect the public from the illnesses. 

The book alternates between two aspects of public health - two types of solutions for the illnesses - at that time: quarantine and inoculation for illnesses that were thought to spread through contagion; and sanitation issues to deal with illnesses that were thought to be related to environmental factors.

Most readers will find the chapters covering the history of inoculation more captivating than sanitation issues (with my father being one possible exception). I was surprised to learn how early the idea of inoculation came out. And through the book we witness the intense debates over the safety of inoculation at a time when people didn't fully understand what it was really doing and why it was working. With hindsight, and helpful guidance by the book's author, we can see who was right. From there we can draw lessons about how we should think about similar public health issues in our time.

The sanitation issues, though not quite as captivating, are necessary for the discussion of public health. When the book starts, government is not very involved in daily life. However, we can see a shift as people realize that environmental factors can affect public health and therefore necessitate a public solution. The public solutions go so far as to regulate where butchers and tanners can operate and how private citizens are required to maintain their own property (gasp!).

Before I end this post, I want to take a small detour. Those of you who are reading this post likely knew John Blake - or are close to someone who did. So let's take a minute to think about the work he did to write this book. In order to tell this story, John Blake had to pour over town meeting minutes and local publications for all of the years the book covers. That is no small feat and I imagine requires a dedication that surpasses what other writers of history (thinking of the pop-history writers we know about today) endure. 

And I am grateful he did it. The result is an interesting book about the earliest examples of public health policy that changes from inactive government to more active government to deal with the very serious problems of the times.

Obituary: Jean Adams Blake

Jean Adams Blake
Born: April 22, 1924, Albany, New York
Died: August 23, 2011, Frederick, Maryland
Relation to Author: Grandmother-In-Law

Jean Adams Blake (born: Jean Place Adams) died earlier this week. We are all very sad at the loss and miss her already. However, we are comforted by the fact that she lived to watch her 8 grandchildren grow-up and to meet her great-grandson, Eamon Blake Cheney in July.

In the future, I hope to have some posts remembering Jean Blake, but in the meantime, here is her obituary from the Frederick News Post (published Wednesday, August 24 2011).

Mrs. Jean Adams Blake, 87, died of a stroke on August 23, 2011, at Frederick Memorial Hospital. Her husband, John Blake, preceded her in death in 2006. She is survived by four children and their spouses: Catherine Blake and Frank Eisenberg; John Blake and Bette Loiselle; Ann Blake and Ian MacDonald; Jim and Nancy Blake. She is also survived by eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild [Eamon Blake Cheney].

Born on April 22, 1924, in New York, Jean Blake graduated from Vassar in 1945 and was married on April 2, 1949. She lived in Washington D.C. for many years, where she worked at the Naval Observatory before retiring with her husband to a tree farm near Wolfsville. In 2005 she moved to the Buckingham's Choice retirement community near Buckeystown.

Memorial services will be private. Donations may be sent to the Residents Assistance Fund at Buckingham's Choice, 3200 Baker Circle, Adamstown, MD 21710.

Hail to the Chief - the Physician-in-Chief

Francis Gilman Blake
Born: February 22, 1887, Mansfield Valley, Pennsylvania
Died: February 1, 1952, Washington, DC
Relation to Author: Great Grandfather In-Law

Learning about an ancestor - or in this case your wife's ancestor - is made much easier when someone else has already done the research and synthesized it for you. Such is the case with Francis Gilman Blake. So esteemed was he that the National Academy of Sciences published a "biographical memoir" of Dr. Blake (available here to download as a pdf). After reading it, I understand why.

His curriculum vitae is almost three pages long, but here are some of the highlights:
- 1913 M.D. Harvard Medical School
- 1918-1919 World War I, Active Duty - Pneumonia Commission
- 1921-1951 Chairman, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine
- 1941-1947 Dean, Yale University School of Medicine
- 1941-1946 Consultant to the Secretary of War and President of the Board for the Investigation and Control of Influenza and other Epidemic Diseases
- 1943 World War II expedition to New Guinea to study scrub typhus fever
- 1946 Awarded United States of America Medal for Merit, the highest civilian honor, for work on scrub typhus fever

Although all the accolades and achievements listed above are amazing, the real beauty of the biography is how much we can learn about Dr. Blake as a person (information I lack when looking at most other ancestors). The author says Dr. Blake was a very talented clinician, clinical investigator, teacher and administrator. The memoir gives examples of how he excelled in each of these areas and I plan to explore that more in another post.

As I am undertaking this genealogical research, I see that there are a few different categories of historical individuals. First, there are the many people that participate and make their small but meaningful contributions to their world. Second, there are the very few that receive recognition (fairly or not) for major impacts on their world. Finally, there are those that make a major impact on their world but receive less recognition. Dr. Blake falls into this last category.

In future posts, I will explore Dr. Blake's abilities as a teacher, administrator and clinician. I will also delve into his role during the Pandemic Influenza of 1919 and his role in the overall expansion of our knowledge of infectious diseases.