On May 11,
1917, my paternal grandfather, George Bradley French (1898-1983) sailed to
London as a Private in the American Expeditionary Force assigned to U.S. Army
Base Hospital No. 5, referred to as the Harvard University Base Hospital
Unit.  Base Hospital No. 5 was one of six American Expeditionary Forces
Base Hospitals loaned to the British Expeditionary Forces for the duration of
the First World War.  Their first post was with the British Expeditionary
Forces at Camiers, fifteen miles south of Boulogne on the coast of
France.  In the six months Base Hospital No. 5 was stationed in Camiers
they treated over 15,000 cases, with 3,000  patients in June 1917 alone.

Despite being miles behind enemy lines and clearly marked as a hospital, the Base was not exempt from danger.  On the night of September 4th, a Imperial German Air Service heavy Gotha bomber flew over the Camiers area and dropped a succession of seven bombs, five of them being direct hits in Base Hospital No. 5’s compound resulting in several deaths and injuries (The Bombing of the Harvard Base Hospital. In October 1917, the hospital would move to Bolougne, where it remained until the end of the war.

A book about the unit, The Story of Base Hospital #5, includes the following description of George, “A young blond chap who helped Ronnie King to run the reception tent for the first months in Camiers. However, the young man set out to capture a record and tried to corral all the P. U. O. bugs in France. So, he spent most of his time in the hospital, and was eventually invalided home. ”

PUO –
Pyrexia Unknown Origin or referred to as trench
fever.  It took the military months before being able to identify a
vector, the louse, which was later proved to transmit the disease. 
Recovery was slow, often lasting months.  According to medical studies,
fever associated with PUO had a peculiar characteristic in that it would break
after five or six days, but then climb again several days later. This cycle
might be repeated as many as eight times.  Poor George.

Is it George?

This photograph, entitled U.S. Base Hospital No.5 – London, is in the collection of the Littleborough (England) History Centre.  On the back of the photograph is an address: Pte. A Simpson, US Base Hospital Unit 5, c/o Sir Alfred Keough, War Dept, London

I confirmed that Albert E. Simpson was a Private-1st Class in this unit and that in transit to France, the unit stayed briefly in London.  I was also able to match the identities of several of the soldiers in the photo with those in the unit history.  I am certain that George is also in the photo, standing to the left of the local man near the top of the stairs.  As a comparison, a photo (right) of George taken several years later shown from a similar angle (check out the forehead, nose and eyes).  Update – George’s daughter, Barbara (Bref), confirmed that it is indeed George!

Comments, corrections and and suggestions appreciated.

Copyright © 2020. All Rights Reserved by David R. French.

On April 25, 1898 the United States declared war on Spain following the sinking of the Battleship Maine in Havana harbor on February 15, 1898. A quest for adventure and patriotism spurred over three thousand four hundred men Connecticut men to enlist. The First Connecticut Volunteer Infantry was mustered into service between May and July 14, 1898 and mustered out, without having set foot on foreign soil, on October 31, 1898 in Hartford, CT.

Edward C.
Fowler, my paternal second great-uncle, served as a Private in Company K of the
First Connecticut Volunteer Infantry. The story might had ended there had I not
found a history of Company K written by George B. Thayer.  A history that
is rich in stories, quirky biographies and photographs. The history even
includes a short story penned by Edward entitled, Among the Recruits (p.121),
in which he writes:

One of the
red letter days in our military experience was the one in which we began to
learn the manual of arms. We soon discovered that it was easy to learn the
different movements,but, we had to apply the old adage,” Practice makes
perfect,” to the work. We would think we were doing finely until Captain
Saunders would come and watch us drill, when we soon found how far from perfect
we were.

After boot
camp in Portland, Maine the 1st Connecticut was stationed in Northern Virginia
and they struck camp in East Falls Church (Dunn Loring/Merrifield), only a few
miles from where I currently reside! Below are a couple of excerpts from
Private George B. Thayer:

Friday,
August 26, 1898 – Up at 5 am. After breakfast we
set fire to the arbor, which for so many days has kept the sun’s heat from us,
applied a torch to the kitchen struck camp and at 9.30 left the old cornfield for
good we hope. The route to East Falls Church was by Dunn Loring and alongside
the tracks part of the way and part of the time along the highway.

Monday,
August 29, 1898 – Corporal Gruener and I took the trolley for Washington at 9
o’clock and went by boat to Mount Vernon. Returning at 2 we visited the capitol
and congressional library and got back to camp at 6:30 p.m. The heat was
intense.

Edward C. Fowler returned back to civilian life, working as a farmer in Bloomfield, Connecticut until his death in 1929.

Jack Brutus, Connecticut War Dog – Who Knew?

… that
although Jack Brutus’s military status was unofficial, he became the official
mascot of Company K of the First Connecticut Volunteer Infantry during the
Spanish-American War.

Jack Brutus,
or “Old Jack” as he became known, was born in Cumberland, Maine, in 1891. He
led an exciting life even before his stint in the military as part of Company K
of the First Connecticut Volunteer Infantry. According to Private Thayer, Jack
“had friends in most of the cities in New England through his associations with
the traveling public at the West End Hotel in Portland. Frequently he visited
them in their own homes, taking passage in some steamer or boarding some train,
and returning to Portland in due time.” In his travels, Thayer claims Jack
Brutus visited Boston, New Brunswick, and New York, as well as many other
cities on the steamer lines.

Old
Jack Enters the Military

Company K
first met Old Jack while stationed at Fort Preble in Portland, Maine, in May of
1898. Jack quickly became a favorite of the soldiers and, eventually, the
company’s official mascot. He went on to travel with the unit as they encamped
up and down the Eastern Seaboard providing coastal defense during the
Spanish-American War.

Jack was a
large breed dog and often had health issues throughout his service with Company
K. During a heat spell at Camp Alger near Falls Church, Virginia, Jack had
trouble breathing and suffered in the heat. Thayer noted, “Poor Jack—the noble
mastiff we brought from Portland is suffering from the heat extremely and it is
doubtful if he survives.” Fearing for Jack’s life, the men took to nursing him
and he eventually recovered.

Jack also had
a snoring problem. The men on night duty, to allow the men asleep in their
tents to remain that way, often enticed Jack far away from camp so that his
snoring did not disturb the sleeping soldiers. When “loudest snorer” elections
took place among the men, Jack came in second.

Wagoner
Edward Ahearn mustered out of the army in late 1898, and when he did, he took
Jack Brutus home with him. Old Jack died from spinal troubles and constipation
while under a physician’s care on November 20, 1898, but will always be
remembered as a loyal Connecticut war dog.

Thayer, George B., ed. History of Company K, First Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, During the Spanish-American War. Hartford, CT: Press of R.S. Peck & Co., 1899.

© David R. French and French in Name Only, 2019. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Margaret Stilson, the granddaughter of John Brown (Samoset and John Brown – Maine), was born in 1679 in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Margaret, my 7 paternal great-grandmother, married William Hilton III on June 2, 1699. They had one child, Benjamin, during their marriage. She died in November 1763 in Manchester, Massachusetts, having lived a long life of 84 years. (See previous post on Hilton Line: New Hampshire’s Founding Father)

In 1689, on
Muscongus (now called Louds) Island in Maine, Indians attacked Margaret and her
family. As a result, her father James Sr. was killed and she was taken prisoner
along with her mother and brother to the Quebec region of Canada where they
were sold to the French. Records indicate that an infant sibling (unnamed)
either died immediately following the capture or on the way to Canada.

Margaret
remained in French custody for 10 years before being ransomed, during that time
she was reported to be a servant in the house of Monsieur Jean Bochart de Champigny, the Intendant of New France. The intendant served as an agent of
the King of France and responsible for the colony’s entire civil
administration. A fellow captive and servant of the intendant, Hannah Swarton,
had a famous narrative of her captivity published, providing a possible window
into Margaret’s experience.

A Narrative of Hannah Swarton’s Captivity

A Little Side Story About the Republic of Muscongus – Muscongus Islanders, capturing a spirit of independence that matched their independence from Maine that they declared in1860. The island was left off the state map and islanders were not allowed to vote. Muscongus Island rejoined the state in 1934.

© David R. French and French in Name Only, 2019. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

It all started, quite innocently while researching a friend’s family history.  I came across the tragic death, by suicide, of Lucey Martelina (Toluca, Illinois). I learned that the means, ingesting rat poison, was a popular and common way to end one’s life.  The product, Rough on Rats, was a poison composed of arsenic and barium, with a little coal or sand added for coloring, designed to kill a variety of vermin.

According to
the Annual Report of Illinois State Board of Health, in 1887, there were 259 suicides by poisoning and the
“poisons most used were morphine and rough on rats.”

Upon further research, it became clear that he use of Rough on Rats was not limited to suicide.  In 1898, Frank Belew (photo right) admitted that he had poisoned his sister Susie and brother Louis. “I poured the drug into the teakettle…I do not know what promoted me to do the deed”

Belew on Trail for His Life – SF Call 6 April 1898

Rough on Rats and Siblings (history.net)

On July 15, 1625, my 10th great paternal grandfather, John Brown of New Harbor, Maine, was the beneficiary of what was likely the first land sale transaction between the Native Americans and the colonists. John Brown was deeded 12,000 acres land on what is known as Pemaquid Point by Samoset, an Eastern Abenaki (Wabenaki) tribal leader. Questions remain unanswered as to the authenticity and propriety of the deed.

Remarkably,
Samoset is believed to be the first Native American to make contact with the
Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony.  According to numerous accounts, on March 16,
1621, Samoset walked into the encampment of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony,
saluted them, and announced, “Welcome! Welcome, Englishmen” in
English! Samoset had acquired a rudimentary understanding of English from
English fishermen and traders along the Maine coast.

Days later
Samoset returned with Squanto (Tisquantum), who along with Massasoit, are credited with providing the Pilgrim’s knowledge of
agricultural and other skills that allowed for their survival.

Additional
Resources:

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus

Samoset Biography

(John Brown) The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Volume 51

John Cotton, my 9th paternal great-grandfather, was born in 1585 in Derby, England and died in 1652 in Boston, Massachusetts.  He was,  according to many accounts, the preeminent clergyman and theologian of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  Cotton studied five years at Trinity College, Cambridge and nine at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, England. Cotton emigrated to Massachusetts in 1633 and helped establish the First Church in Boston. Cotton remained teaching elder (educational and doctrinal) at the church until his death in 1652.

“Mr. Cotton had a reputation for profound learning.  He was accustomed to study 12 hours a day, published over 50 books, was a critic in Greek, wrote  Latin with elegance, and could discourse in Hebrew.” (The Mather Project)

Letter
from Oliver Cromwell to John Cotton written after the Battle of Worcester,
October 2, 1651.  The battle destroyed the last major Scottish Royalist
army.  In the letter, Cromwell alludes to his difficulties with the Scots.
Correspondence from Oliver Cromwell to John Cotton

“WORTHY
SIR, AND MY CHRISTIAN FRIEND, “I received yours a few days since.  It was
welcome to me because signed by you, whom love and honour in the Lord: but more
‘so’ to see some of the same grounds or our Actings stirring in you that are in
us, to quiet us to our work, and support us therein.  Which hath had the
greatest difficulty in our engagement in Scotland; by reason we have had to do
with some who were, I verily think, Godly, but, through, weakness and the
subtlety of Satan, ‘were’ involved in Interests against the Lord and His
People.

“With what
tenderness we have proceeded with such, and that in sincerity, our Papers
(which I suppose you have seen) will in part manifest; and I give you some
comfortable assurance of ‘the same.’  The Lord hath marvellously appeared
even against them.  And now again when all the power was devolved into the
Scottish King and the Malignant Party,— they invading England, the Lord rained
upon them such snares as the Enclosed will show.  Only the Narrative in
short is this, That of their whole Army, when the Narrative was framed, not
five men were returned.

“Surely, Sir,
the Lord is greatly to be feared and to be praised!  We need your prayers
in this as much as ever.  How shall we behave ourselves after such
mercies?  What is the Lord a-doing?  What Prophecies are now
fulfilling?  Who is a God like ours?  To know His will, to do His
will, are both of Him.

“I took this
liberty from business, to salute you thus in a word.  Truly I am ready to
serve you and the rest of our Brethren and the Churches with you.  I am a
poor weak creature, and not worthy the name of a worm; yet accepted to serve
the Lord and His People.  Indeed, my dear Friend, between you and me, you
know not me,—my weaknesses, my inordinate passions, my unskillfulness, and
everyway unfitness to my work.  Yet, yet the Lord, who will have mercy on
whom He will, does as you see!  Pray for me.  Salute all Christian
friends though unknown.  I rest, your affectionate friend to serve you,

(Signed) OLIVER CROMWELL

In 2017, I had the chance to see my great-grandmother Mary “Minnie” MacEachern French for the first-time! Thanks to the genealogical community and an exchange of emails, I was able to learn a little more about her life and see a photograph.  (Thank you Rick!)

Susan Jane Wilkie, at the age of 18, left Cape Breton, Nova Scotia for Boston and lived with her Aunt Minnie and cousin, George French (my grandfather). According to notes, Susan learned dressmaking from Minnie. The best news of all was that there was a photograph of Susan Jane (Wilkie) Small, Charles S. Small, Charles Jr. and Aunt Min taken in about 1916. That is Minnie on the left!

Mary MacEachern (MacEachron) was born on 25 April 1877 in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada to Duncan and Mary Maloney MacEachern. (baptism certificate – below) On the 13 of April 1897 she married Walter Abraham French, a carriage driver, in Boston, Massachusetts. Walter was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts to Horace E. and Laura Foster French. My grandfather George Bradley French was born in 1898.  Walter and Mary’s marriage did not last. The 1910 Census, recorded on April 22, 1910, identifies Mary was living with George on Huntington Avenue in Boston. The census lists Mary as a widow, however, that might not be entirely accurate (better a widow than a divorcee?). In George’s personal belongings at the time of his death is a letter from his father, Walter, to Ralph H. Hallett, Esquire:

New York, March 8, 1910

Dear
Sir: 

I have been
advised that my wife, Mrs. Minnie French, of your city, has started a divorce
proceeding against me in the court of your city, on the grounds of desertion,
intoxication, cruelty, non-support, etc., and I understand the summons was
returnable last month. I desire to have you enter an appearance for me and look
after my interests in the proceedings. I have no desire to take a contest over
the divorce, or the custody of the child, George, but I wish to be informed of
the progress of the proceedings, and to be advised promptly if a decree is
granted. I would also like to have you see that no decree for alimony is
entered against me. Very Truly Yours,

The 1940 Census has Mary living in Lowell, Massachusetts with Archie and Margaret McLean. She is listed as being Archie’s aunt and listed as a widow. As for Walter, he appears in a March 1942 Social Security Application and Claim, I have no details as to the date or location of his death. A September 1918 World War I draft registration card identifies a Walter Abram French, living in New York City, with a date of birth of 26 January 1875 (2 years earlier than his true date of birth).

Baptism Certificate for Mary “Minnie” MacEachern

Two of my posts highlighted relatives who lived in New England in the mid-1700’s.  They describe how my 8th great-grandfather Humphrey Atherton persecuted Quakers while my 7th great-grandfather’s step-brother, Benanuel Bowers was persecuted for being a Quaker.  Researching and writing about the history of America through the lives of distant relatives is a great experience.  However, the posts about Atherton and Bowers illustrate the fine line’ between myth and reality and (for me) create a struggle on how to accurately portray these stories.  I always question if I am getting the historical context correctly. In 2016, the Washington Post ran an excellent story (below) by Lori Stokes about the Puritans.   I dropped her a note and she was kind enough to respond!

Five myths about Puritans – Washington
Post – November 20, 2016

I visited your blog and it’s very interesting. Keep up the good work! Family histories and historians are invaluable to the body of research. Together, eventually we’ll get everyone in the record.

Lori Stokes

© David R. French and French in Name Only, 2019. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Humphrey Atherton (1608-1661) is my paternal eighth great-grandfather.  At the time of his death he was considered a powerful leader who was very active in the political affairs of the colony.  However, through the lens of history, his persecution of Quakers, questionable acquisition of Indian lands and apprehension and conviction of heretics presents him in less favorable lights.

Humphrey
Atherton was born in England in 1608 and arrived in Boston by 1635/36. 
According to published accounts, he held the
highest military rank in colonial New England, served as deputy governor, a
representative in the General Court, Speaker of the House, representing
Springfield, Massachusetts and as magistrate in the judiciary of colonial government.

Major General
Atherton after a review of the troops on Boston Common, September 16, 1661,
died as a result of being thrown from his horse, which stumbled over a cow
lying in the road.

Persecution
of Quakers – Mary Dyer and three other
Quakers were hanged on Boston Common in 1660 for civil disobedience.  They
were given the opportunity to leave, to agree to permanent exile from
Massachusetts, and instead they chose to die.  Many view their act as a
touchstone for the separation of church and state in America, the birth of our
First Amendment rights. Humphrey Atherton, as the below quote attests, held a
different view of Mary’s death.

Mary Dyer of Rhode Island: The Quaker Martyr that was
Hanged on Boston Common 

A later play
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (John Endicott) portrays Atherton’s
death, as seen by the Quakers, as a punishment from God for his persecution of
them.

ENDICOTT.And did not some one say, or have I dreamed it,That Humphrey Atherton is dead?

BELLINGHAM.Alas!He too is gone, and by a death as sudden.Returning home one evening, at the placeWhere usually the Quakers have been scourged,His horse took fright, and threw him to the ground,So that his brains were dashed about the street.

ENDICOTT.I am not superstitions, Bellingham,And yet I tremble lest it may have beenA judgment on him.

In 1659, he
(Atherton) began a land speculation venture called the Atherton Company,
supported by influential shareholders in the colonies and at the
metropole.  Hardly a model of ethical practice, the company was a method
of gaining control over vast quantities of Indian land.  In 1660, Atherton
was part of a scheme to defraud the Narragansetts of much of their territory
and remove them from their land. (Yale Indian Papers Project)

Additional
background: Profits in the Wilderness: Entrepreneurship and the
Founding of New England

In 1641,
Massachusetts was the first colony to legalize slavery and was a center for the
slave trade throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The 1754 slave census listed more
than 2,720 slaves in Massachusetts.

1754 –
Billerica reported eight slaves (three males and five females).

1771 – Four families in Billerica were recorded as “servants for life” on actual valuation lists.

1783 –
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court declared, “the idea of slavery is
inconsistent with our own conduct and [the Commonwealth’s] Constitution.” Quock Walker Case

My 6th great paternal grandparents, Jonathan Bowers (1674-1744) and Hannah Barret Bowers (1679-1765), lived in Billerica, Massachusetts. Jonathan was a representative to the General Court, a captain in the militia, large landowner, postmaster, and noted as an influential citizen. Jonathan and Hannah were also slave owners. The first documentation that I found mentioning that they owned slaves references the birth of Nelly York in 1752 to Lydia York, a slave of Hannah Bowers.

Records show
that Lydia York had two other daughters. Lydia who was baptized in 1754 and
listed as a “servant girl to old Mrs. Bowers” and Anne who was baptized in
1756.  Lydia’s parents Pompy and Dillo, brother Samson and sister Eunice
all resided in Billerica, I found no record of their status.

In 1761, Hannah sold a boy named Salem to Mr. Lot Colby of New Hampshire. Remarkably, Salem Colby served during the American Revolution as a soldier in the New Hampshire Brigade, enlisting in 1780 and receiving a pension for his service.

In researching Hannah and Jonathan’s son, Josiah Bowers (my 5 g-grandfather), I discovered a record of Josiah selling a slave girl to Amos Fortune. That girl was none other than Lydia (b.1754) the daughter of Lydia York. The story of Amos is very interesting and has been told in a book entitled, Amos Fortune – Free Man (Yates – 1950). Below is an excerpt from the The Amos Fortune Forum regarding Amos.

Amos Fortune,
an exemplary citizen of colonial New England, was born in the early 1700s in
Africa and came to this country as a slave. A tanner by profession, Fortune
bought his freedom and that of his two wives. Unfortunately, nothing is known
of Amos Fortune’s early life. The first historical record is an unsigned
“freedom paper,” dated December 30, 1763, in which Ichabod Richardson
“agreed to and with my Negroe man, Amos, that at the end of four years next
issuing this date the said Amos shall be Discharged, Freed, and Set at Liberty
from my service power & Command for ever….”

Richardson died unexpectedly in 1768, and his will contained no provisions for the slave’s promised freedom. Amos Fortune negotiated with the heirs to pay off his bond and made the last payment in 1770, becoming a free man at age 60. During the next few years Amos Fortune lived and worked in Woburn, buying land and building a house. His first wife, Lydia Somerset – whom he had purchased for fifty pounds from Josiah Bowers of Billerica – died shortly after their marriage in 1778.

Note: Pounds Sterling to Dollars/ £50 in 1780 = $9,347 in 2019

Image: First Slaves Arrive in Massachusetts. massmoments

A Must Read Story of New England History “The Lost History of Slaves and Slave Owners in Billerica” by Christopher M. Spraker, Historical Journal of Massachusetts Volume 42, No. 1 (Winter 2014).
Published by: Institute for Massachusetts Studies and Westfield State University

Copyright © 2019. All Rights Reserved by David R. French