Thanksgiving Proclamation!

We may think that the holiday of Thanksgiving has always been celebrated like we do it now--with big meals featuring turkey, and family gatherings around a football game or a parade with giant balloons. But the holiday in the past was quite different.

We've all heard about the first Thanksgiving when the starving Pilgrims shared a peaceful bountiful feast with their Native American neighbors in 1621. But Thanksgiving feasts occurred at many times of the year--chosen by the local officials to celebrate some event. The Continental Congress proclaimed the first National Day of Thanksgiving in 1777. But even before that, The Governor of Massachusetts made "A Proclamation for a Publick Thanksgiving" in 1773.

I HAVE therefore thought fit to appoint, and I do, with the Advice of His Majesty's Council, appoint Thursday the Twenty-fifth Day of November next to be a Day of Publick Thanksgiving throughout the Province, exhorting and requiring the several Societies for Religious Worship to assemble on that Day, and to offer up their devout Praises to GOD for the several Mercies aforementioned, and for all other Favours which He hath been graciously pleased to bestow upon us, accompanying their Thanksgivings with fervent Prayers that, after they shall have sang the Praises of God, they may not forget his Works.

And all servile Labour is forbidden on the said Day.

But maybe Governor Hutchinson's motives weren't so noble--this province-wide celebration was set to take place just about the time a shipment of tea was expected in Boston harbor. The Boston Tea Party took place just weeks later, on December 16th. Hutchinson's plea to remind the colonists of their duty perhaps fell on deaf ears: to succeed His Majesty's Councils and Endeavours for Preserving Peace to the British Dominions.

Unpopular Hutchinson, a prominent loyalist, may have polarized the colonials and precipitated the Revolution. You'll notice a rectangular section of the broadside is missing at the top. Here is the missing piece--maybe some patriot objected to having the British symbol so prominently displayed?

British Seal- likely what is missing from our copy of the Proclamation.

T

he Longmeadow Historical Society Archives includes a diary belonging to Stephen Colton (1815-1893). Every November, he made a brief note about Thanksgiving in 1851 like this; "27th Thanksgiving day, sermon by Mr. Harding Psalms 16-6, took supper at T. C. Terrys." Thanksgiving was a Thursday that year, and included going to church, and having a meal with someone outside of his nuclear family (the Terrys were in-laws).

Excerpt from 1851 Diary in Longmeadow mentioning Thanksgiving

The movable timing of the holiday was eventually standardized by Abraham Lincoln in 1863, when the last Thursday of November was selected as the official date. Over the years, the fact that November occasionally has five Thursdays proved to be problematic. In 1942 Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into law that Thanksgiving Day would always fall on the fourth Thursday. Some suggested that large retailers like Macy's pressured the change to give the public another week to do their Christmas shopping, since advertising Christmas before Thanksgiving Day was frowned upon! What would they think of us now with Christmas advertising starting in September?

Happy Thanksgiving from everyone at the Longmeadow Historical Society!

Contributed by Betsy McKee, LHS Board Member

November 25, 2021

A Letter from Mary Lyon....

South Hadley, Aug 26.1847

My dear Miss Bliss, Won’t you be willing to go to Virginia to teach? It’s a place where Miss Moore taught this year. Can’t you go now? Won't you object to going .... Can you teach drawing? I have just written making further inquiries. I shan’t hear till I receive their letter whether I shall wish to recommend you. Please let me hear from you very soon. I may be away, but I have arrangements to have my letters forwarded.

Affectionately yours, Mary Lyon

Imagine being twenty years old and at home with your father, a deacon and a farmer, your mother and two much younger sisters and receiving this kind of letter - asking you if you would be willing to leave Massachusetts and head to Virginia to teach school. Such was the case for Miss Georgiana Bliss of Longmeadow in 1847. Miss Bliss had recently completed a three year course of study at Mary Lyon’s school, Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (today Mount Holyoke College), and returned home waiting for whatever her next season of life would bring.

Attending Mount Holyoke was no small academic feat for young women like Georgiana Bliss. It was not a “finishing school” to train young women in the Domestic Arts, but a place for real academic scholarship. Entry to Mount Holyoke was not for the average student, and the curriculum was rigorous and demanding. A hallmark of Mary Lyon’s commitment to female education was her high standards for curriculum, which much more closely mirrored its all-male seminary peers like Amherst College, Yale, and Harvard. Students were expected to be a minimum of 16 years old and have a firm grasp of particular mathematics, grammar and geography textbooks. Per an 1847 course catalog for Mt. Holyoke on “Studies required for admission to the seminary”:

“A good knowledge of Wells’ English Grammar, with an ability to apply the principles in analyzing and parsing, and of Modern Geography, and a readiness in Mental Arithmetic, that is, an ability to give a correct answer to the questions as they are read by the teacher, and to give an account of all the steps of the mental process, – also a good knowledge of common Arithmetic, including all the more difficult rules. In the examination of Arithmetic, a list of questions taken from different authors is used. It is recommended that candidates for admission go through two or three different authors, so as to thus gain more mathematical discipline, and be better prepared for examination. A good knowledge of Mitchell’s Ancient Geography, of Andrews’ and Stoddard's Latin Grammar, and Andrews’ Latin Reader, of the History of the United States, and of Watts on the Mind, is also required.”

At Mount Holyoke students read Euclid and Milton’s Paradise Lost, studied Algebra, Botany, Philosophy of Natural History, Ecclesiastical History, Latin, Physiology, Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, Astronomy, Rhetoric, Geology, Logic, Moral Philosophy, Composition, French, and Histories of Greece, Rome, England and France. They also made time for calisthenics, instruction in vocal music, and linear and perspective drawing. All of this came at a cost each year of $60 (exclusive of fuel and lights) for room and board, paid over two $30 installments. The year was divided into three terms, one of sixteen weeks and two of twelve weeks each.

All students were instructed to arrive with their own Bible, a dictionary, a modern atlas, Watts’ Psalms and Hymns, Village Hymns, and any other books they felt might be useful to their studies. As a Female Seminary, religion was at the core of all work. Upon examination by Mary Lyon, poet Emily Dickinson, a student at Mt. Holyoke in 1847, was infamously classified as a “No Hoper” on a scale of Saved - Hoper - No Hoper regarding the state of her soul. Dickinson left after only one year of study. Georgiana Bliss must have fared better since Mary Lyon sought her out to recommend her for a teaching position upon completing the entire course of study.

Per later alumni directories for Mount Holyoke, it would appear Georgiana Bliss did indeed take the position offered to her in this letter. From there, she taught in a few other locations before marrying a Union College graduate, Rev. George McQueen. What followed next was exactly the kind of experience an education at Mt. Holyoke Female Seminary prepared a woman for: to be the wife of a missionary. Rev. and Mrs. McQueen set off for missionary work in West Africa. After her young husband’s death in Africa in 1859, Georgiana returned to Longmeadow briefly to be with their young son, Charles, before returning to continue the work she believed in. Georgiana Bliss McQueen died in Longmeadow in 1901 and is buried in Longmeadow Cemetery under an obelisk shaped memorial also bearing her husband’s name and details of his work.

Sources

1. Archives, Longmeadow Historical Society

2. Catalogue of Mt. Holyoke Female Seminary, 1847-48

Contributed by Melissa Cybulski, LHS Board Member

Originally published November 21, 2021

John Akley and Sarah Forbus

Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze

Who were John Akley and Sarah Forbus? They are pauper children from Boston whom Ensign Samuel Williams, son of Rev. Stephen Williams, indentured and brought to Longmeadow.

As our regular readers know, the Longmeadow Historical Society has recently been researching paupers and indentured servants as part of our Hidden Voices series. While our archives include indentures for 30 children, through our research dives, we have discovered additional indentures for pauper children, such as John and Sarah, in the online digital archives of the Boston Public Library (www.bpl.org).

We are indebted to The Eighteenth-Century Records of the Boston Overseers of the Poor for much of the information that we have on the Forbus and Akley families. Records of the Boston Overseers of the Poor show that on November 5, 1763, “Receivd, Into the house Margarett Forbush & 3 Children neare her time”. Digging deeper into these records, we can identify and learn more about the Forbus children, three of whom left the almshouse as indentured servants.

• Sarah, who was born in 1757, was bound out to Samuel Williams in November, 1764 until October 27, 1775;

• Peggy (or Margaret), who was bound out to Joshua Bently of Boston in 1765;

• John, who was bound out to Edward Bacon Junr. of Barnstable in 1766; and

• Thomas, who was born on November 29, soon after the family arrived in the almshouse (“Margaret Forbush brot. to bed with a Son Nam’d [Thomas]”) and died in the almshouse 20 months later (“Thomas Forbus Abt. 20 Months Old Obit Augst. 8th 1765”).

Two months later, on January 5, 1764, records of the Boston Overseers of the Poor show that the Akley family also entered the Boston almshouse: “Receivd. Into the house Tabitha Akley And 4 Children”. This was not the Akley family’s first visit to the Boston almshouse; sons Francis and Joseph had been indentured from the almshouse in 1762 and 1763. Like the Forbus children, all of Tabitha Akley’s children who entered the almshouse left it as indentured servants. Tabitha’s children under her care in 1764 included:

• Thomas, who was bound in 1764 to Jason Haven of Dedham;

• John, who was born in 1757, was bound in November 1764 to Samuel Williams until April 1, 1779;

• Sarah, who was bound in 1768 to Joshua Clap of Scituate; and

• Mary, who was bound to in 1768 to Dr. Edward Russell of North Yarmouth.

While the Boston Overseers of the Poor records give a November, 1764 indenture date for both Sarah Forbus and John Akley, the indentures in the digital collection are dated October 11, 1764. And, the October date correlates with Rev. Stephen Williams’s diary entry of October 23, 1764: “I found my family in Health – my Son was returned from Boston, Brot two children, with him from the Alms/ House…I beg he would help us to do our Duty to the children that are now committed to our care.“

Portion of Indenture of Sarah Forbus from files of the Boston Public Library

Why did the Boston Overseers of the Poor entrust two children in their care to Samuel Williams who lived in the Longmeadow precinct of far-away Springfield? They relied on recommendations from trusted citizens of Springfield. Below is the endorsement of Samuel Williams which is signed by the selectmen of Springfield.

Endorsement of Samuel Williams, from files of the Boston Public Library

Sarah Forbus does not appear again in Rev. Williams’s diary. Perhaps she died, but there is no record of her death. There is a good chance that she spent much of her indenture in Somers, CT on the farm of John Williams, the older brother of Samuel Williams. The Williams family shared their indentured servants and their enslaved servants, collaborating for the good of the greater family. Known indentured servants of John Williams (Betty and Joseph Bumstead) appear frequently in Rev. Stephen Williams’s diary when they are doing work in Longmeadow. Likewise, the diary references times when the Longmeadow Williams households sent their indentured and enslaved servants to Somers. John Williams had lost a daughter on September 22, 1764 (just weeks before Sarah's indenture) and it is likely that his wife needed assistance with household chores. Possibly Sarah Forbus was “lent” to the John Williams family and that she spent much of her time in Somers.

Portion of Indenture of John Ackley from files of the Boston Public Library

John (or Jack or Jacky) Akley (or Ackley or Akeley), on the other hand, appears frequently in Rev. Williams’s diary entries. In January 1776, John Akley enlisted as a drummer in the Continental Army. We do not know what motivated John to join the army but, by enlisting, he broke the terms of his indenture (set to last until 1779) and this caused great consternation in the Williams household. On February 20, 1776, Rev. Williams recorded, “amongst ye other calamities of ye present times is a very Great one – that children, Apprentices – do what they think best - engage in ye military service, without, yea contrary to ye minds, of their parents & masters, an evill this that has a very bad aspect – what shame & confusion is like to come of this – is easy to be seen – oh that it might wisely avert to…” Rev. Williams, who was living in the same household as the Samuel Williams family, was bemoaning the pecuniary loss that the family would experience without John's labors.

By breaking his indenture, John had decided to forego the items that he was to receive at the end of his indenture: “Two good Suits of Wearing Apparel fitting for all part of his Body the One for Lords Days & the other for Working days suitable to his Degree – Also pay or cause to be paid to the said Apprentice the Sum of Thirteen pounds Six Shillings & Eight pence Lawfull Money of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay when he arrives at the Age of Twenty One years.” The financial payment in the indenture was intended to provide the pauper with funds so that he could make his own way and not be a burden to society after he was free. I suspect that John felt the loss of this financial compensation in later years when he was ready to get married and start a family.

Portion of Indenture of John Ackley from files of the Boston Public Library

John Akley served in the Continental Army for four years and Rev. Williams corresponded with him throughout his military service. He completed his first term of duty in January, 1777 after participating in the December 26, 1776 Battle of Trenton and he returned to Longmeadow. There were two Battles of Trenton, but the December 26, 1776 Battle of Trenton was the one that was immortalized in the painting Washington Crossing the Delaware which is at the top of this article. Rev. Williams wrote: “at Evening John Ackley came home – he had been down, as far as Trenton and was there ye day ye Hessians were taken - he Seems to be in Good Health - ye Lord make him thankfull & humble - he has lost his pack - his Shirts, Stockings - and came Home poor…”

John did not stay in Longmeadow long and, on February 1, 1777, he reenlisted for another three years. According to his pension application, John Akley participated in many battles, including those at Ticonderoga, Burgoyne, and Cherry Valley. He was mustered out on February 1, 1780 at West Point, NY.

John returned to Longmeadow in March, 1780 and we can track him sporadically in diary references as Rev. Williams expressed his concern over what he felt were John’s imprudent ways. For example, on February 26, 1781, Rev. Williams wrote: “John Ackley - & others (among which our two Eldest Girls) were Gone out in Sleighs – to Somers – for a frolick – it gives me – uneasiness that when God by his providence calls to mourning & weeping – there should be carouseing - & frolicking – ye Lord help us to attend to ye calls of his providence as well as word”

In 1781, John Ackley decided to become a privateer. Privateers were legalized pirates who were empowered by the Continental Congress to interrupt enemy trade by seizing merchant vessels. While it was a risky enterprise, privateers also had the opportunity for considerable personal gain – they could keep or sell all of the plunder from the trade vessels. The actions of the privateers disrupted the British military campaign and the British Navy was forced to divert some of its ships to protect the merchants from the privateers; this limited the Navy's ability to support British troops fighting in the colonies.

Accompanied by two other Longmeadow young men, Elihu and George Colton, John responded to an advertisement for the Hunter, similar to the earlier advertisement below.

Connecticut Gazette, July 20, 1781 Rev. Williams fretted about this adventure in his diary:

• July 31, 1781: “this day John Ackley – went off with a design to go a privateering (accompanied by Elihu Colton) – I am not pleased with his scheme – I pray God – to keep him from sin - & all evill, & harm – and be pleased oh Lord to give him to realise future & eternall things.”

• September 19, 1781 “…in ye evening – twas reported that ye ship Hunter (in which J. Ackley, E. & G. Colton were) was taken & caryd into New York.”

This privateering voyage of the Hunter was not successful and the young men were back in Longmeadow by October without plunder. But, that did not dissuade John from future privateering.

• On October 26, 1781, Rev. Williams wrote: “John Ackley – came home toward/ night – he had been at sea, since we heard from him – (before) & they have taken two row boats that had been plundering upon the coast – but ye men escaped – ye company that John was with had two men wounded but John hopes not mortally – John appears to be in Health – and designs to go again on another trip, ye Lord be pleased to have mercy upon ye youth - & to forgive his sins – Lord be pleased to seize his heart for thyself.”

• On October 30, 1781, “John Ackley is gone off – designing still to go a privateering – ye Lord be please to keep from sin.”

• On November 4, 1781, “in ye Evening John Ackley came in, ye vessel he designed to have gone in having sailed before he got to New London – thus he is disappointed…”

We do not know what motivated John to continue in his privateering - most likely a combination of financial need and patriotic fervor - but we do know that John needed money because he was getting married. On October 29, 1781, John married Miriam Ward of West Springfield and he left Longmeadow on January 8, 1782. John and Miriam lived in Wethersfield, CT for awhile and he died in 1819 in Oxford, NY. John Akeley is buried in Center Cemetery in Rocky Hill, CT.

Sources:

• Longmeadow Historical Society archives

• Diary of Rev. Stephen Williams

• The Eighteenth-Century Records of the Boston Overseers of the Poor, Eric Nellis & Anne Decker Cecere, 2007

• Connecticut Gazette, July 20, 1781

• U.S., Compiled Revolutionary War Military Service Records, 1775-1783

• U.S., Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783

• U.S. Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files 1800–1900

Contributed by Elizabeth Hoff, LHS Board Member

Originally published November 11, 2021