THE CASE OF DOROTHY HOYT

My 9x great grandfather John Hoyt. Sr. was one of the first settlers of Salisbury, Essex Co.,
Mssachusetts and I was researching what if any action he saw in the Indian wars. It's
become a habit now to also check the Essex Court records for any ancestors who might
have appeared in relation to some case or another and the other night I found this:



"Court Held At Hampton, Oct. 9, 1677.
Jury of trials: John Severans, foreman, Tho. Mudgett, John Hoyt, jr., Tho. Barnard, John Samborn, Godfrey Deareborne, John Clifford, sr., Morris Hobbs, sr., Peter Foulsham, Moses Levitt, Daniell Lad, jr. and Tho. Hartshorne.

Grand jury: William White, foreman, Willi. Osgood, sr., Samll. Felloes, sr., Joseph French,
sr., Willi. Barnes, John Hoyt, sr., Humphrey Wilson, Robert Page, Willi. Fuller, Nathl. Batcheller, Nathll. Weare and Tho. Whittier."


-Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts Volume VI
Salem Ma. The Essex Institute, 1917 (page 339)

So John Hoyt and his son(also my ancestor) John Hoyt Jr. were jurors when the name of
a member of their own family was called:


"Dorothie Hoyt, called into court upon her presentment for putting on man's apparel, made default, she having gone out of the county. Her father, John Hoyt, appeared and owned the
fact, manifesting Dorothie's repentance, and desiring to fall under the penal part of the
sentence. It was ordered that she be apprehended as soon as she returned, and be severely whipped unless her father forthwith pay a fine of 40s. in corn or money.

Warrant, dated Aug. 20, 1677, and summons to witnesses, Amos Singletary, Joseph
Peasley and Mary Sargent, signed by Tho. Bradbury, for the court, and served by Tho. Sargent, constable of Amesbury." (p341-342).


This fascinated me. Dorothy had shocked our Puritan forebears by wearing men's
clothes! Had she traded her dress for a man's trousers and shirt because they were more
practical for some chore? Or was it simply a prank that went badly astray and was
observed by three witnesses?

Why had she left the county? Did she flee, or was she perhaps sent away because the
family feared she might say or do something in court to add to their shame?

Where did she go? I haven't found any other record of her as yet, so perhaps she never returned.

Did John Hoyt Sr. pay the fine?

I guess we'll never know. The part of me that is a historian tells me that it couldn't have
ended well for Dorothy Hoyt. If she left her family for good, life for her would have been
quite hard, and she would have found the same reaction everywhere if she'd continued her "presentiment" for men' clothes. And if perhaps her family sent her off to live with some relatives, it's likely every effort would have been made to prevent her from any further
outburst of unseemly behavior.

But my imagination hopes that Dorothy Hoyt beat the odds and found happiness
somewhere as well as comfortable boots to go along with her shirt and trousers!

GENEALOGY NOT SO WISE

Okay, I never joined Genealogy Wise to begin with and didn't see all the posts on this
issue, so bear with me, folks. And feel free to correct me on something I might have
missed on this affair:

Recently Genealogy Wise announced a contest with cash prizes of $100 each in
eight different categories. I gather these included prizes for the person who started
the most groups or invited the most new members. This rightly raised some concerns
among some members, including Terry Thornton who wrote a post critical of the
contest. Apparently Genealogy Wise felt this post and comments by other members
was "disrespectful" and removed it from the site.

I became aware of this when Bruce Buzbee posted on his Facebook status that his
comment had been deleted by GW. I went over and checked it out (you can read the
GW site content if you aren't a member but must register to comment) and found
Terry's post on censorship. I wish I'd had the foresight to save it now because I
can't recall the exact content but do remember in an exchange between Terry and
the GW spokesman, the reason given for the removal of Terry's original post was
that it was "disrespectful or rude".

I've "known" Terry now for nearly two years through correspondence and reading his
blog and the last thing Terry Thornton would ever be is "rude or disrespectful". Frankly,
if anyone was disrespectful it was IMHO the GW in his or her replies to Terry.

Just before I started this post I went back to GW to check on that exchange and found
thatTerry's second post was gone now as well. There's a revision of the contest rules that changes the criteria now from quantity to quality: "highest quality blog posts, highest quality videos, etc."and also a discussion asking for members' opinions on the contest.


There's also a discussion entitled "Help us determine the level of censorship at Genealogy
Wise" which asks members' opinions about censorship on three categories: Adult content
or porno, posts promoting non-genealogy products, and posts that are "rude" or "
disrespectful." I'm not going to give a full critique. Go read it for yourself at Genealogy Wise.
But I do have one thought that is making me do a slow burn. The original post from Terry is gone, deleted by GW. (The second one is gone as well, I suspect because Terry left GW in
protest to being labeled "rude and disrespectful".) So no one can see the post that started it
all, and now readers cannot read it and judge for themselves, and Terry is left with that
"rude and disrespectful" label."

GW is tap-dancing as fast as they can on the issue. The GW spokesperson says that in the
future they won't remove posts "disrespectful to GW."

You know, I might have eventually come around and joined GW. I originally resisted joining
FB but I finally gave in and jumped aboard. But this whole incident has left a bad taste in
my mouth and I can now safely say I'll never join Genealogy Wise.

SUMMER IN THE CITY

Most of my most vivid memories of summer as a kid are those involving the years we
lived in the Dorchester section of Boston. We moved there when I was 8 years old
and left just before I turned 14. I can divide those years into two periods based on
the apartments we lived in at the time.

The first place was at 101 Capen St in a neighborhood mostly made up of triple-decker
apartment buildings. There weren't many open spaces nearby so like generations of city
kids before us, we adapted. We played stick ball in the long alleys between the buildings,
or maybe banged a "pinky" rubber ball against the front steps of a porch to play "Three
Flies Out". Sometimes we played basketball in the schoolyard of the Frank V. Thompson
up the street, but there was mostly a tough, older crowd up there so we didn't go there
that often.

Sometimes we walked over to the Morton Theater to catch a movie, or better yet,
the Oriental Theater in Mattapan Square, where the inside looked like a Chinese palace,
with statues of Buddhas in wall niches. I don't know what fascinated me more, the glowing
green eyes of the statues or the "clouds" that seemed to float across the ceiling overhead.
I saw "Around the World in 8o Days" and "Hercules" at the Oriental!

Evenings, parents and kids would sit on the front steps of the apartment building and wait
for the ice cream man. His name was "Westy" and he had a great gimmick: he'd have each
kid guess what number between 1 and 10 he was thinking of, and if you guessed it right, you
got your ice cream free. The "Drumstick" Ice cream cones were my favorites.

It was while we were living on Capen Street that I played Little League baseball in the
league run by St. Matthew's. My friend Barry played in the Dorchester Little League and had
a real uniform and cleats, while the Catholic League teams just had tee shirts and a baseball
cap. I was on the St. Matthew's Dodgers for two years and we wore bright golden tee's and Dodger Blue caps.

And of course I spent a lot of time reading books from the Codman Square library.


We moved up to Evans St when I was 11 or 12. It was only a few blocks way from our
old neighborhood but it was different. For one thing, there was a big empty lot across
the street where the old Robert Swan School has burned down, and there was a lot of
sandlot baseball played there. We'd form up teams and send the two youngest kids,
the Martinellis, down to the grocery store on Milton Avenue to buy us Royal Crown
Colas and Devil Dogs. Our only worry was that one of the better hitters might hit a
flyball across the street and crack the windshield of some parked car.


I'd learned to ride a bike (with my Mom's help *cough* )before we'd left the Capen St
apartment and part of my summer days were now taken up with paper routes. I delivered
several Boston newspaper at some point or another while I lived there, including the old
Boston Herald, the Boston Record, and the Globe. One of the more memorable routes
involved riding my bike over past Franklin Field to the VFW Parkway projects. I also
was delivering papers during the "Boston Strangler" days and I recall how nervous
the female customers were when I knocked on their doors to collect money on
Fridays until they caught Albert De Salvo.

Of course, the bike gave me more mobility so I was now visiting three branch libraries
every week and borrowing 18-24 books a week and the the comic books and baseball cards
I smuggled into the house inside my "paperboy" bag!


And there were the trips "up home" to Maine, and visits out at the cottage at Hough's
Neck to swim.

One summer tradition that continued even after we moved out of Boston down
here to Abington on the South Shore. We had no air conditioning, and on a really hot night,
we'd all get into the car and Dad would drive around for a few hours. Sometimes we'd stop at
a Howard Johnson's for an ice cream if it was early enough. If it was later, we might end up
driving to Wollaston Beach or someplace else near the water where it was cool. In Abington,
that drive would usually take us to a beach in Plymouth.


There were good summers in Abington as well but for me, whenever I think about my
childhood summers, it's those years in Dorchester that spring first to mind.

Written for the 76th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy

SYNCHRONICITY AND STEPHEN GREENLEAF, JR

Ah, synchronicity!

I was searching online for any material about my probable ancestor Gershom Flagg's
death at the Battle of Wheelwright Pond and found Daniel Neal's "History of
New-England Vol 2" on Google Books. Once I had found that, I searched the rest
of the text for some other names, such as Simon Willard or Jeremiah Swain. Then I tried
Greenleaf, and found this from the summer of 1690 shortly after the town of Casco, Maine
had been burned by Indians:


"The Fate of Casco made the smaller Garrisons of Papoodack, Spurwink, Black-Point
and Blue- Point, draw off immediately, without Orders, to Saco which was 20 Miles within Casco; and a few Days after they retired 20 Miles farther to Wells, and frightned that
Garrison so much, that half of them deserted, and fled as far as Lieutenant Storer's.
Hopebood, the Captain of the Hurons, pursued them, and destroyed all the open Country;
he burnt several Houses at Berwick, killed 13 or 14 Men at Fox Point, and carried off six Prisoners ; but meeting with Captain Floyd and Captain Green-leaf they routed his Party, wounded Hopewood himself, and made him retire to a greater Distance. After this he
marched with his Party Westward, with a Design to draw the Aquadoeta Indians to join
him; but a Party of French Indians meeting him by the Way, fell upon him by Mistake,
and in their blind Fury killed him and almost all his Company." (page 95).


(The text lists the Indian leader's name as both Hopebood and Hopewood.)


Now I mentioned in my series on Captain Stephen Greenleaf Jr. that there were references
to his command at a victory over the Indians at Wells, Maine in 1690 but that I'd not been
able to find any record of it.

But now I believe I've found it!

SATURDAY NIGHT GENEALOGY FUN: TIME TRAVEL

It's Sunday afternoon and it's time for Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun
over at Genea-Musings.

Okay, I'm a tad late with it but I wanted to give a little thought to this one. This week
the challenge involves time travel:

"Let's go time travelling: Decide what year and what place you would love to visit as a
time traveller. Who would you like to see in their environment? If you could ask them
one question, what would it be?"

I knew who I'd want to see, of course: my 3x great grandfather John Cutter West. But
what year should it be? At first I thought of 23Sep 1827, the day he wed Arvilla Ames.
But what red-blooded man would want to talk family history on his wedding day?

So I slept on it overnight and came back to the problem exactly 20 minutes ago after
taking a sip of coffee.(Caffeine is a wonderful igniter of my thought processes.) I was
looking at my PAF pedigree chart and inspiration smacked me up the side of the head.

It wasn't John Cutter West I'd want to visit: it was his son, my great great grandfather
Jonathan Phelps West and his wife Louisa Almata (Richardson)West. It would be at
their home at Upton, Oxford County, Maine, and probably in the year 1870. They
would have been married five years with their two oldest sons already born(including
my great grandfather Philip J. West). My question would be a simple one: "Tell me about
your parents and grandparents."

I can't imagine that John Cutter West wouldn't have told his children about his parents.
Perhaps Jonathan had even met them, and would know not only their names but their
parents and where the West family had lived before settling in Maine. And by asking
Louisa the same question, I'd break down another brickwall, my Richardson line, since
I can only go back as far her grandfather Philip (Pierce?) Richardson who married Lydia
Dow. I have no vital records at all on Philip, so Louisa might be able to tell me that
information.

And with one question, I would bring down two brickwalls.

Maybe I should wait to ask the question until after we'd all had cup of coffee!

DESTRUCTION OF A 1500 YEAR OLD INDIAN MOUND TO BUILD A SAMS CLUB IN OXFORD, ALABAMA!

Sometimes you see or hear something that just makes you stop and angrily shake your head.

The other day Terry Thornton of Hill Country of Monroe County Mississippi sent an email
out about a post at the Deep Fried Kudzu blog. Seems that a 1500 year old Indian burial
mound in Oxford, Alabama is being destroyed and used as fill in the construction of a Sam's
Club. The owner of the blog is named Ginger and she went out to the site herself to check
out the damage and she took some pictures that are disturbing. There are two posts, one
with pictures of the mound before the demolition began and the second with pictures
showing how much damage has been done.

It's obviously an Indian mound but in the eyes of the city's mayor and Sam's Club, it's
not all that important, good only to use as filler for the construction. Of course, given that
Sam's Club is owned by Wal-Mart, which has been embroiled in fights over constructing
stores close by Civil War battlefields, I'm not surprised. In all these cases, local officials
and merchants are ready to sacrifice the history and heritage of our country in the name of
improving the local economy. In this case, something that has stood for centuries, a sacred
place to Native Americans, is being destroyed to make way for a store that more than likely
will be itself demolished in less than a century to make way for some other enterprise.

This is wrong, folks. Once these places are destroyed, they cannot be replaced. And don't
think it can't effect you. There are plenty of incidents of church graveyards being uprooted, moved or paved over to make room for shopping centers and parking lots. And we all have
been shocked at the recent events at the cemetary near Chicago. Is this the type of society
we are becoming, where we are willing to tread on the bones of the dead in quest of the
almighty dollar?

Visit Ginger's blog. She's posted the email addresses of the parties involved in this incident.
Look at those pictures, see how we are destroying the past, and then send emails to voice your
concern!

MORE THOUGHTS ON GENEALOGYWISE

Well, the rush is on as genealogists sign up for GenealogyWise. The first thing I noticed
when I signed onto Facebook tonight was that there were fewer posts by genealogists and
geneabloggers than usual and as I read down the screen I saw much of what was posted
concerned questions about GenealogyWise. I took a quick look-see over there and saw
membership had jumped to over 500 in one day.

Some of the comments on Facebook concern me. One was a quote :"Will the last
genealogist left on Facebook please turn out the lights?" Another person posted something
to the effect that they would be moving their group from Fb to GenealogyWise next month.

So is this the start of splintering in the geneablogging social community? It seems to me
quite possible that it might divide based on which social network one prefers, the more
far reaching Facebook or the more genealogy specific GenealogyWise. And what of the
Geneablogger's group? At the moment there is the original Facebook Group of 612
members strong and a new GenealogyWise group of 50. As folks leave Fb for GW will
we end up with two separate smaller groups instead?

I also wonder about another consequence. When you join a social group for a specific
subject, you are in effect preaching to the choir. Everyone on GW is a genealogist. On
Fb, what you post isn't just seen by your genealogists friends, but by all your friends and
family. Now, granted, not everyone is going to be interested but even if you spark just
a little curiosity in a few people you are spreading knowledge about your family and
perhaps creating new genealogists. I like that possibility. So far, GW seems like a fancier
genealogy message board to me.


One last point and then I'll hush up: even if there is no spark of interest, I thought Fb was
also a great way to let folks see that genealogists are not the stereotypical old folks
sitting around libraries reading old books. We're all sorts of people and a lively
energetic bunch to boot. If the majority of genealogists leave Fb for GW, we lose that
chance to showcase genealogy to the general public.

I know, I know, some will say to use both Fb and GW. But I barely have time to post and
keep up with the content of Fb without adding doing the same with GW. And eventually,
many of those who try to use both platforms will reach a point where they reach the same
conclusion and decide they have to choose one or the other. I know there will be things
posted on GW that I will miss reading because I stayed with Fb. But that's the way it will
have to be.

Of course, like they say, "never say never." But for the moment, I'll stay where I am on
Fb.

Now I'm going to bed, and tomorrow get back to blogging about genealogy.

NOT THAT I'M TRYING TO BE ANTI-SOCIAL

Randy Seaver has an interesting post over on his Genea-Musings blog about the new
Genealogywise social website, which is sort of a "Facebook for genealogists". I went
over, checked it out, and it does look promising. Some of my geneablogger friends
have already signed on as members.


And you know what? I'm going to pass on joining up.

Not that I'm being anti-social, mind you, but I'm happy with Facebook. Besides my
geneblogging friends, there are my friends, former schoolmates, coworkers, and
relatives on Facebook. It gives me a wider audience to reach with the posts from my
blog that I import as notes. And I've made contact with cousins there that I wouldn't
make on Genealogywise.

I notice that there is also "Platinum Service". I'm not sure what that entitles you
to but I suspect there's a fee for that.

I know, I could do both Genealogywise AND Facebook, but in the end, I know I
couldn't keep up with doing both and doing research. Heck I'm barely keeping up
now as it is without adding Genealogywise. How folks can do Tweet and FB is
amazing to me.

Anywho, that's my stand for the moment, old fuddyduddy that I am!

SIMON STONE'S HAPPY JULY 4TH, IN 1690

On 4Jul 1690 my 8x great grandfather Simon Stone wasn't having a very good day
but displayed amazing tenacity which Cotton Mather pointed to as an example of
why one should never despair. Author Samuel Green quoted Mather in a book published
in 1883:

"Cotton Mather mentions, in his Magnalia, a few instances of" mortal wounds upon the
English not proving mortal," and gives the case of an inhabitant of this town who was
in a garrison at Exeter, New Hampshire, when that place was assaulted, July 4, 1690.
He says : —

`It is true, that one Simon Stone being here Wounded with Shot in Nine several places,
lay for Dead (as it was time !) among the Dead. The Indians coming to Strip him,
attempted with Two several Blows of an Hatchet at his Neck to cut off his Head, which
Blows added you may be sure, more Enormous Wounds unto those Port-holes of Death,
at which the Life of the poor Man was already running out as fast as it could. Being
charged hard by Lieutenant Bancroft they left the Man without Scalping him; and the
English now coming to Bury the Dead, one of the Soldiers perceived this poor Man to
fetch a Gasp ; whereupon an Irish Fellow then present, advised 'em to give him another
Dab with an Hatchet, and so Bury him with the rest. The English detesting this Barbarous
Advice, lifted up the Wounded Man, and poured a little Fair Water into his Mouth at
which he Coughed ; then they poured a little Strong Water after it, at which he opened
his Eyes. The Irish Fellow was ordered now to hale a Canoo ashore to carry the Wounded
Men up the River unto a Chirurgeon; and as Teague was foolishly pulling the Canoo
ashore with the Cock of his Gun, while he held the Muzzle in his Hand, his Gun went off
and broke his Arm, whereof he remains a Cripple to this Day: But Simon Stone was
thoroughly Cured, and is at this Day a very Lusty Man; and as he was Born with Two
Thumbs on one Hand, his Neighbours have thought him to have at least as many Hearts
as Thumbs.' (Book VII. page 74.)

Many families who have lived in Groton trace back their line of descent to this same
Simon Stone, who was so hard to kill, and to whom, fortunately, the finishing " Dab
with an Hatchet" was not given."-

Green, Samuel A., Groton During the Indian Wars, Groton, Ma. 1883 pp56-57

The astonishing thing to me reading this today is how Simon Stone wasn't accused of
being a witch, given the two thumbs and his amazing recovery!