Hunt family Thanksgiving Photos

Well, Thanksgiving is over and the family photos are beginning to trickle in.  Send me any family photos that you took for the holidays and I will post them.

I have here photos of the Hunt Family.

Bradley Robert Hunt

Bradley Robert Hunt

Sherina, Justin & Bradley Hunt

Jason, Brother of Justin, Sherina, Gregory Merrill and his family: Jennifer (Hunt), sister of Justin and there two Merrill boys with little Bradley Hunt

Greg & Jennifer Merrill & Ethan & Drew

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all, even if where you live around the globe you do not celebrate this "American Tradition." 

This post has turned out much longer than I first thought, I apologize.
So, back to our journey of the Separatist cult which history prefers to call the Pilgrims.  They spent twelve years in Leyden, Holland struggling to make a living as for the most part they were farmers by trade and Amsterdam and Leyden were manufacturing communities.  King James I was tired of the propaganda materials that they were printing, and smuggling back to England which put bad light on the church of England and the King.  With bad economy, their children becoming assimilated to a different culture, threat of being arrested and an imminent war with Spain, the group decided to go to the new world.   They hired a boat called "The Speedwell" first then they had investors join them and they were also able to hire "The Mayflower" and her crew.  They boarded the Speedwell in Leyden and sailed for England where the Mayflower was waiting.  When they arrived, they found that their investor had like all the others betrayed them.  He had sold passage to "Strangers" to the new world, and told the Pilgrims that they also had to sign a contract.  This caused much delay and loss of provisions as they had no money.  They set off for the new world, but with the "strangers" there was much dissension.  They had to turn back twice, some say that the Speedwell was not sea worthy.  Others speculate that passengers aboard the Speedwell were scuttling their own boat as they would rather be drowned at sea then be indentured servants to the investment company.   It was agreed that not all would go, and they would take just the Mayflower.  The groups were equally divided.  However, not many of the original Scrooby congregation still survived.  Seven of the original group made it on the Mayflower.  The group from Leyden were 17 men, 10 women, and 14 children.  The "Strangers" from England were 17 men, 9 women, 13 children and servants: 5 men, 1 woman and 6 children. Yes children!  Remember the era, children were working as young as 5 years old, many were orphans.  They began what would turn out to be an 8 month journey in August of 1620.  They spent 18 days in South-Hampton, 10 days in Dartmouth and then 14 days in Old Plymouth. Then they spent another 66 days at sea before they set foot in the new world in December 1620 it was a horrible journey.  Finally in took them another 131 days of exploring the new land before they finally agreed on a settlement.  There was so much bitterness and fighting as they just sat in the bay anchored one mile off shore that it is believed that William Bradford's wife Dorothy committed suicide.  She was just 23 years of age. Of course he did not write this, as suicide is a sin.  He wrote that she fell over board and drowned.  They had to come to an agreement, so the Mayflower Compact was drawn up and signed.  Richard Warren from which our family descends signed the Compact and his signature appears twelfth.  In all, 41 signed the Mayflower Compact.

They arrived in the dead of winter and explored Cape Cod for 30 days.  They were sick, cold and hungry.  The first shore party of 16 men took the shallop and rowed to shore.  The water was shallow.  In full armour and leather boots, holding sword and musket they ended up having to get out and walk the boat a long distance in the freezing cold. Miles Standish, William Bradford, Stephen Hopkins and Edward Tilly were amongst these men. They stayed for three days and two nights before returning to the ship.  William Bradford writes about walking through a foot of snow and accidentally getting his foot in a deer trap, the sapling tree quickly had him face down hanging from one ankle. In this first exploration they came across an Indian village that was primarily used in the summer when fishing was good.  The pilgrims stole everything including the seed corn that the Indians had left for next years planting.  This was probably the first of many transgressions by the Pilgrims in this new land which lead up to King Philips War.

The first child to be born in the new world arrived to a family from Sturton-Le- Steeple, William White and his wife Susanna.  He was christened Peregrine White.  This was this families second son.  The first was born in Leyden four years earlier.  His name was Resolved.  I am not of direct descent.  However, Lewis Morris White (1847-1941) the father of Minnie Emma White was.    She married Fredrick Hamilton Rider who was a progeny of Ezra Bartlett Rider.  Lewis was of direct male descent.  That family lived through the massacres of King Philips war.

I might still find a connection, however I am currently missing 100 years in the Rider line of decent.  Stay tuned!

William Bradford missed his 5 year son John.  Dorothy had decided not to bring him on the first voyage, and like many other families left their children back in Europe.  Isaac Allerton, who Clarence Howie's wife Evelyn May Harlow has family connection, and his wife Mary Norris had just given birth to a still born son, Mary did not recover and later died herself she was 34 years old.   It was a cold somber winter and over the next three days three more died of scurvy.  The Pilgrims had not eaten properly in over eight months.

January came and the first mater of business was to protect themselves from the Indians which had made several attacks and had set a blaze their first common house by shooting flaming arrows into the thatch roof.  They built a large stockade with enough room to build 19 individual homes and one common house.  They then built the common house, and upon the roof built a fort with a cannon which them kept manned night and day.   By January 11th everyone was exhausted and ill including William Bradford and Christopher Martin.  The common house became a hospital and eight more quickly died of scurvy including Christopher Martin.  We are connected to the Martin family through the Howie line.  The remaining Martin family also fought the Indians in King Philips war.  The next date in Bradford's journal was February 17.  William White and Mary Allerton were dead.  This continued through the winter with the Mayflower anchored off shore.  More than half of all the people died including the crew on board the Mayflower.  Only six remained on their feet to care for the ill.  Elder Brewster who was 50 years old was one of these.  He had to cut wood, tend fires, feed and clean the ill to attempt to stop the dysentery.  Then by night they would have to bury the dead.  They did not want the Indians to know how small their community was getting inside the stockade so they placed no grave stones on burial hill.

In the spring a Naked Massasoit Indian brave walked into the camp.  Twenty-five year old Edward Winslow quickly covered him with a coat, and became the ambassador to the Indians.  Later in the spring Squanto, a Paturxet Indian who was captured and made a slave returned from Europe to his home land to find the Pilgrims on it.  Some historians believe this was the Pilgrims hope and their downfall.  As Squanto spoke English he was able to play both sides.  This created much tension as he was also helping the white man live off the land.

On April 5th, 1621 the crew of the Mayflower was well and set sail for England, leaving the Pilgrims, not one Pilgrim went back with the Mayflower.

On May 12, 1621 the first wedding took place.  However, Puritans do not recognize marriage as a sacrament.  So it would have been a civil ceremony.  Now widower Edward Winslow and Widow Susanna (Fuller) White were joined before William Bradford as legal magistrate, six weeks after Edwards first wife died.   Susanna was the sister of Samuel Fuller the only doctor, used in the loosest of terms.  She was taking care of orphans Resolved and Peregrine White, as their mother and father were dead and she was their only kin.

The summer much exploring and farming was performed so they could store food for winter.  In December, on the same date as the Pilgrims had first stole the food from the first Indian camp, the Chief showed up with 90 Indians and demanded a feast in reparation for the food they had stole the prior winter.   So there is the story of the winter harvest, that today we are celebrating with our families and giving Thanks.

THE 53 PILGRIMS AT THE FIRST THANKSGIVING :

4 MARRIED WOMEN : Eleanor Billington, Mary Brewster, Elizabeth Hopkins, Susanna White Winslow.
5 ADOLESCENT GIRLS : Mary Chilton (14), Constance Hopkins (13 or 14), Priscilla Mullins (19), Elizabeth Tilley (14 or15) and Dorothy, the Carver's unnamed maidservant, perhaps 18 or 19.
9 ADOLESCENT BOYS : Francis & John Billington, John Cooke, John Crackston, Samuel Fuller (2d), Giles Hopkins, William Latham, Joseph Rogers, Henry Samson.
13 YOUNG CHILDREN : Bartholomew, Mary & Remember Allerton, Love & Wrestling Brewster, Humility Cooper, Samuel Eaton, Damaris & Oceanus Hopkins, Desire Minter, Richard More, Resolved & Peregrine White.
22 MEN : John Alden, Isaac Allerton, John Billington, William Bradford, William Brewster, Peter Brown, Francis Cooke, Edward Doty, Francis Eaton, [first name unknown] Ely, Samuel Fuller, Richard Gardiner, John Goodman, Stephen Hopkins, John Howland, Edward Lester, George Soule, Myles Standish, William Trevor, Richard Warren, Edward Winslow, Gilbert Winslow.

The Separatist of Scrooby

 

 

This Plaque is in Leyden Where John Robinson was buried.

Continued from prior post, after much research and skimming through chapters of almost thirty books written about the immigrants of the Mayflower; I still do not understand our love affair with Thanksgiving and our genealogical pursuit for a family connection to the Mayflower.  Now don't get me wrong, I love to eat a home cooked meal just as much as the next guy.  But through commercialization have we not lost the true tradition of Autumn harvest?  And I am just one of 8 million people who can trace their roots to the Mayflower.  Do we really think that if we find these lost cousins they are going to invite us over to share in the great feast?

King James I had financed the settlement of Jamestown Virgina in 1607.  Later the Father of Canada, Samuel de Champlain established a settlement on July 03, 1608 on the east coast of the Americas in Kannata, the Huron-Iroquoian word for 'town'. .  Prior to the settlement by Champlain, Jacques Cartier a French explorer had discovered the St. Lawrence River and named an Indian village Mont Real.  The Spanish built the first University of the Americas, the University of Mexico in 1551.  Prior to that, by 1550 Charles V laid claim to many Caribbean islands, and through conquest most of the central region along the Rio Grand through Mexico and most of South America except for Brazil, which belonged to Portugal.  Santa Fe, at Pueblo Santa Fe founded a settlement in 1608.  Historically the Pilgrims were not the first settlers.  In fact they were fugitives from the law.  They were pretty much forgotten, left to starve or die of disease or Indian attack.  Jamestown Virginia was the place where fortune and new life was almost guaranteed.

How did this Puritan group known as Pilgrims become so close?
The Separatist group that met just north of Nottingham and the Lincolnshire boarder formed a nonconformist group under the leadership of Pastor Richard Clifton and Pastor John Robinson.  John Robinson was born in 1576 in Sturton-le Steeple on the old Roman road, which traveled from Lincoln to Doncaster.  John Robinson was of yeoman stock, and was educated at Cambridge, where he stayed for twelve years from 1597 as a Fellow of Corpus Christi College.  When James I became King of England in 1603, and a more repressive regime appeared, John Robinson left his fellowship and went back home due to revisions of the teachings. He had received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1596, and his Master of Arts degree in 1599.  He was then a teacher at Cambridge for many years.  In addition to leaving Cambridge and his job he resigned from the living of St. Andrew's, Norwich, because he refused to follow the revised Thirty-nine Articles, which were the points of the doctrine maintained by the Church of England, that all candidates for ordination as clergymen of the Anglican Church must subscribe to them.  Married men were also prohibited from teaching.  And just five days later, John Robinson married Bridget White (1579-1643) of Fenton, which was a half mile from Sturton-le-Steeple.  She was also of yeoman stock.  Her parents were Alexander White and Eleanor (Smith).  The new couple went to live on the banks of the Trent river at Gainsborough and could look across the river into the county of Nottingham.  There they had three children, John, Bridget, and Isaac Robinson.  Pastor John Robinson  moved his congregation twelve miles west of Gainsborough to the village of Scrooby.  Can you imagine walking 12 miles to go to church?  Especially since highway robbery and murder were still everyday occurrences.  Nearby Bawtry was a rendezvous for bandits and ruffians of the day, and Scrooby was know as a mean county.

Sir William Davison was chosen by Elizabeth Tudor to go to the Netherlands and take possession of the towns of Flushing and Brielle.  They were ceded to England as a guarantee of the cost of the Earl of Leicester's expedition of 1585 that had not been handed back in over thirty years.  This was successful and Sir William Davison was given the keys to the city he handed them to William Brewster who was the steward and bailiff of Scrooby Manor Farm as was his father before him.  Here is where Pastor John Robinson held church meetings.  John and William Brewster were friends since their days at Cambridge.  As their futures were looking bright, Elizabeth Tudor was looking for a scapegoat for the execution of Mary Queen of Scots, and in 1587 had Sir William Davidson held prisoner and taken to the Tower.  William Brewster became the postmaster, and his wife Mary bore him three children.  The first born in 1593, christened Jonathan, followed by two daughters, Patience, born in 1600, and Fear, born in 1606.  William Brewster was then dismissed from his job in 1607 because of his religious belief and fined for disobedience in the matters of religion.  Brewster joined Pastor Robinson in leading the meetings of the Separatists in Scrooby and together recruited many new followers.

William Bradford, born on March 19, 1589 was one recruit.  He was born in the village of Austerfield three miles north on the Yorkshire boarder.  After his father's death, his mother remarried and he was brought up in solitary living with his grandfather and two uncles.  As a teen William Bradford had plenty of time to read and began questioning spiritual matters.   For this he was persecuted by friends and his family did not take kindly.  He sought out the true written Word of God, and in Scrooby is where he found it.  The more oppressed the Separatists became, the greater belief they held that they were God's true elect, and that they would suffer for their faith like the martyrs described in the book of Martyrs by Foxe.  The Separatists were watched, criticized, fired, informed upon and imprisoned.  Bradford opens his journal with an explicit statement, "that England, first to break free from the darkness of popery, had naturally provoked the envy of Satan."  I have to realize how literal was Satan at this time.  After all it was the age of the Witch craze in Europe.  Today we can turn to fictional books or watch the movies of Harry Potter that are loosely based on fact to see that demoniacal possession was as firmly believed then as the precepts of psychiatry are today.

At any moment a war might break out with Spain so time was running short to leave England and settle in Holland.  Remember they did not have separation of Church and state at that time.  In retaliation for the murder of Mary, Philip vowed to attack England and put a Catholic Monarch on the thrown.  This war was being financed by Pope Sixtus V as he permitted Philip to collect crusade taxes to finance the war.  However, no one could leave England without permission and it was doubtful that such permission would be given to Separatists especially in time of war.  The only solution to their exodus was bribery and secrecy.  They needed to be smuggled out of England.  In 1607 Bradford was 18 years of age.  He arranged a boat to carry the Separatists from Old Boston to Lincolnshire so the group set out.   They had to first travel sixty miles from Scrooby to Old Boston.  They took a boat down the Trent River to Gainsborough, then by the Roman canal called the Foss Dyke to Lincoln, then they took the River Witham all the way to Old Boston.  However,  the captain of the ship that Bradford hired to take them to Holland betrayed them and revealed their scheme.  When the party arrived they were arrested in Boston and searched.  Bradford was the first released, but Brewster, Robinson and Clifton stayed in prison for a month.  In the spring of 1608 they would try again even though they had been told upon release from Guildhall never to attempt such a stunt again.  Bradford and some other younger men jumped aboard a ship for Zeeland and made a successful crossing.  The remaining members hired a Dutchman and he suggested that the group split up.  The men to travel by land and the women and children with luggage would be picked up by boat, but not from a port. The women set off my boat to rough sea.  So rough that they became sea sick and pulled to shore for calmer water.  The boat became grounded and could not be pulled off until high tide at noon the following day.  The Dutch captain arrived at the meeting point and picked up the men who had traveled by land.  The last man had just came aboard when they noticed a hoard of mounted men and just as many on foot carrying weapons and bearing down on the women who were stuck in the mud.  The captain quickly set sail to get to safety.  The men were torn as their wives, children and all of their possessions were now captured.  They had no food, no money and only the clothes on their backs.  With tears in their eyes they begged the captain to turn back, but he refused.  There was a horrible storm and it took a fortnight (fourteen days) to reach shore.  Back in Old Boston the authorities were were faced with what to do with these destitute women and children with tears in their eyes.   They agreed that the women were doing their Christian duty to obey their husbands and did not fine them or find them guilty.   However, they could not send them home with no husbands, the only solution was to pack them across to Amsterdam. They reconnected in Amsterdam, but with the bad economy and no jobs they moved to Leyden, Holland where they lived for twelve years.  Some of the older members die in Holland, and others moved back to England of those years.  The remaining Pilgrims took notice that their children were becoming assimilated into the culture of Holland and had learned to speak a language that was foreign to them.  The twelve year truce between the Spanish was to end in 1621, and they feared that Holland would become a bloodbath.  They made plans to move to the New World.  Not to become missionaries or to find riches, but to save their families and way of life.
Follow the next post as they board the Mayflower.

The origins of Pilgrims and Thanksgiving

Pocahontas and Squanto

So what do we really know about the history of Thanksgiving?  Is it like the Norman Rockwell painting?  Or are the images above more of a correct story?  Follow along in the next few blogs as I tell the story of my ancestors who came across on "The Mayflower" and created the progeny from which I am issue.

Christianity as we all know follows the book of the Bible.  Similarly, the story of Thanksgiving, the history of the Pilgrims and their genealogy follows just one book, "Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation", a journal written by William Bradford, a passenger of The Mayflower and later the Governor of the settlement at Plymouth. He began writing his book in 1630 and completed it just before his death in 1657.  The book disappeared during the British evacuation of Boston in 1776.  Later to be found in 1856 in the library of the Anglican Bishop of Oxford.  William Bradford was born in the farming community of Yorkshire, England in 1588.  As a teenager he joined a cult of extreme Protestants known as Separatists.  They believed in a purity of Christianity and in so doing had to separate themselves from the Anglican Church of England.  The term Puritans has been around since the reign of Queen Elizabeth, in about 1565.  The Puritans believed that Queen Elizabeth did not go far enough to abolish the rituals of the Roman Catholics when she established the Protestant Church of England. When King James I began his reign in England he had the Bible translated from Latin to English.  This is where the King James version of the Bible got its name.  King James I called Puritans, "a pest, a fanatic, and a hypocrite, worse than a cattle thief."

The Puritans mainly read and studied the letters of Saint Paul who as we know was also in a shipwreck back in 60 AD on the island of Malta. They also read the Acts of the Apostles, the book of Genesis and Psalms.  These stories of the early church they believed were the most authentic form of Christianity.  They were also Calvinists.  As they also followed the beliefs of the French Reformer John Calvin.  Today the belief that Calvin bestowed that the human race should be divided in two, those selected to go to heaven and those who will go to hell is still very strong. The Puritans argued that the Church of England was beyond redemption because of its Roman Catholic past.  They wished to create a membership that was pure from the influence of Rome.  In 1593, Parliament and Queen Elizabeth made Separatism a crime.  And thus our journey begins.

Saving The Planet

     One Turtle at a time!

We have all been curious children in our lives so I have to understand, right?

 

This morning I stepped out of the elevator of my apartment building on the garage floor to find an aquarium smelling up the place.  Yes, right there on the ground directly in front of the elevator doors was this aquarium with about four inches of water.  Upon further investigation I could see two San Antonio River turtles laying in the bottom of this horrible smelling water.  I got a cardboard box and some plastic bags for my hands.  When I returned I was picking the two turtles up one at a time, rescuing them from this watery grave, and placing them in the box.

     I quickly jumped in my truck with turtles in tow, and transported them back to the river.  As I drove and heard the turtles scratching at the sides of the box I was getting angry.   Then I thought to myself, I was a child once, and kids will be kids.  However, I then thought of the weight of this aquarium grave where the turtles were left to slowly die.  No child brought this aquarium and placed it on the ground.  Some parent in my building could not stand the smell in their apartment any longer and they thought they were teaching their child a lesson. 

Some lesson I would say!  Not only did the child not learn to keep the aquarium clean to care for another living creature.  The parent failed again by not only not returning these creatures back to freedom, but by example that these lives aren't worth anything and can just be cast out to die.

The long and the short of this story.  I got to the river, placed the box containing the two San Antonio river turtles on its side, and patiently waited for them to run to freedom like only a turtle can do.  They are both now happily eating watercress and catching minnows once more in the city of "The River Walk."

So the moral to this story is why are we so worried about saving the planet if we aren't teaching the next generation that every life is precious?

The Soup Line

     The furnace has been on the past two nights pumping out it's warm air, taking the chill off from a San Antonio Texas night that can barely be called cold by any measure.  Yesterday I didn't get a chance to blog as due to the recession I was standing in the modern day soup line.  This was the second such occurrence for me to experience poverty in my life.  The last was just after the horrible mud slide that hit my parents home in January of 2005.  I want to start off by saying that the Great State of Texas has California beat in the manner it takes care of its people.  My experience back in 2005 was horrible.  I was homeless, while my mother and I stayed with a friend as I worked to restore her home.  I was dirty from 12 hour days of digging the mud out of my parents home, and I was sick with what they were calling at the time, Valley Fever.  I had to be subjected to some Ventura County worker who thought it was their business to be the moral majority.

Texas on the other hand has been great.  Last Saturday when I received notice in the mail from the California EDD that they were not sending me my unemployment check because I failed to mark a box, I wondered what I was going to do.  It had been three weeks already without a check and my pantry was bare.  I thought about going to a food bank or the local Church, and then went online.  Texas had an online intake form which was easy to complete.  Then on Tuesday the state called me and explained to me that I would have a telephone interview on Thursday in the morning.  Sure enough, Thursday morning I received a phone call from my case worker Angela.  She went over my application for food stamps and I explained that I needed temporary help as California Employment Development Department (EDD) was not sending my unemployment insurance checks.
She gave me the address of the nearest office to pickup an EBT card, a type of ATM card that is linked to a government bank account.  She was even nice enough to ask me if I had transportation before ending the phone call.  Wow!  They were treating me like family, not some unwanted trash the way I was made to feel in California.

When I arrived at the office I would say it was like most government offices such as the DMV or IRS.  I put my name on a waiting list and had a seat with the other citizens who needed some assistance.  The sample of people waiting alongside me I would say was very representative of the population of San Antonio.  The majority were Mexican-American, then White, followed by African-American men and women.  I saw only one Middle Eastern woman and one man.  There were no Asians.  The active Sociologist in me wanting to make a statistical sample.  I waited my turn for a couple hours; a major difference between this and standing in a soup line back in the 1930's was that I could be looking for work on the internet using my cell phone and I saw others possibly doing the same, or checking email and one lady even had a laptop computer.

It was my turn, I was called to the window.  We exchanged some pleasantries and the nice woman behind the counter gave me an EBT card.  I signed a document and was on my way out the door.  I drove to the nearest grocery store and purchased a couple cans of lentil soup and a pound of ground hamburger, a yam, some fresh broccoli and a spring mix of salad greens. 
Thank goodness that we have unemployment insurance!

I am happy that Texas is being so helpful, but at the same time I feel it is a shame because it isn't their fault.  I wouldn't be unemployed if it were not for USAA.  And I would not be in Texas if it were not for USAA.  Then that is probably California's fault since the economy in California has been horrible for years due in part to the housing bubble that finally burst.  The following photos is from the blog Ramona's Voices.  For other opinions on unemployment, check out her blog.

1918 Flu Pandemic

It has almost been a month since my last post.  I had wanted to create a post prior to Veterans day.  A chronicle of my ancestors who fought in the many wars.
Unfortunately, I came down with the flu this year so I have barely had the energy to research companies and send out resumes as my unemployment continues past three months now.  I took this down time to read and re-read the letters between my Grand Uncle Gordon Philip England (1901-1992) and his mother, my Great Grandmother Nettie Martha "Smith" England (1870-1963).  The letters revealed the era and the history of the time.  World War I was taking place and the Spanish Flu as it was called was about to kill 3% of the worlds population according to Wikipedia.
(Translation of a letter attached below. I have attempted to put in clarification where possible).  Gordon England was 15 years old at the time he wrote this letter.

Sunday February 13, 1916, Derby, VT. Oleans County.  Gordon wrote to his Aunt Mary Chastina Smith. (1859-1942).

"Dear Aunt Mary,  How are you and all the rest.  I am feeling about as usual.  Have you heard from Harvey lately?" (Harvey William Smith).  "I wanted to go to a masquerade Friday night, but did not have anything to wear.  (Costume I mean). Bailey and Cecil went.  Esther was Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary.
My grade gave a prom and candy sale lately.  We took in $8.65.  I brought it home in that nice little coin purse you sent me.  Our class pins are to cost $2.25 a piece.  I am getting on well at school except in Arith and Writing.  I got a higer average on my report card than anyone else in ninth grade for one month.

The Diea basket ball first team won from Newport team 19 to 17.  Twenty have enlisted lately at Beebe." (He is speaking about the war). "Els boy took Ruth's strap and hid it in the barber's shop and Harold Elder and a bean boy found it and cut it up.  Tell Aunt Sarah (Sarah Maria Smith) I am coming to see her next summer.  Mrs Kelley gives us a test in Arith every week.  Has Willie got a gun and is there any hunting around there?" (Mary's grandfather was William Ewins.  I don't know if Gordon is referring to him as Willie or Mary's brother Harvey William Smith).  "There is nothing here except a few English sparrows.  I shoot a few once in a while to keep my hand in.   What is Teddy doing now?" (Unknown who he is referring).   "Wasn't it mean of the German's to destroy our Parliament Buildings?"  (I had to research this statement. What I found was on February 3, 1916, just ten days before Gordon wrote this letter.  Right in the middle of World War I, the Center Block of the Parliament Buildings caught fire and the whole complex burned to the ground, with the exception of the library which is the large domed building that still stands today in the rear of the current Parliament building.  It is told that several people burned to death.  People cried sabotage, and blamed the Germans of Ottawa, and crowds went looking for German stores to trash and burn.  German Canadian's quickly responded.  The large concentration of Germans in Berlin, Ontario, demonstrated their Canadian patriotism by changing the name from Berlin to Kitchener, Britain's famous Minister of War.)  "I wish you would send me some Montreal Papers.  I haven't seen any for a long time.  I still firmly believe that U.S. will fight against Britain.  I may send you a few posts to show you my side of the question.
With Love,
Aurevoir Gordon.
P.S. Be sure to write to me soon."
With Gordon Philip England being a famous Canadian Author and the historical significance of this letter, I am sure that if Mary Ginn took it to the Antique Road Show it would be worth "Millions"... 
Gordon also included a very nice poem:

"A MOTHER'S PROUD OFFERING"
Take our sons, O England,
They were born and bred for thee;
Take our sons, O England,
And save our Liberty.
To you we yield them proudly
As oft mothers did of yore;
Dear God, please protect them
And guide them through the war.

"Tis for a righteous cause
Our boys have gone o'er the sea
To fight this tyrant Hitler
And nobly die for thee.
We know they'll do their duty
Whene'er it on them fall
To fight for their dear country
And give their might and all.

Although we sadly miss them
And our hearts are bleeding sore
We give them to you proudly
How can we give you more?
Take our sons, O England;

Gordon Philip England

The letters spoke of the normal day to day as well.  What vegetables grew in the garden and who was getting married.  Many letters also spoke about my Great Grandfather Reverend Clarence Philo England and his poor health.  He had gone through a recovery for some type of surgery that I did not discover in the letters and was ill for many years until his death much later in 1953.   I also found tucked away in Gordon England's letters some newspaper clippings.  As you can see above at fifteen he was very interested in reading newspapers,  and he later went on to write stories to be published in them as well.  Two of the clippings talk about how sick everyone was.  They are from the Stanstead Journal one is dated Feb 26, 1920 and the other Dec. 23, 1920.  They are title Barnston.   And lists The family of Rev. C.P. England, consisting of his three sons, is suffering from influenza, with Dr. McCurdy in attendance.  Fortunately, for me and my family, my grandmother Ruth Augusta England had already moved out, completed college and had just got married to William Rider Howie August 19, 1916 and moved to Beebe Vermont.  Otherwise Helen, Clarence and Arthur may have never been born.
So, the above blog was inspired by me catching the flu, and is dedicated to, according to Wikipedia statistics, the  50 Million people around the world who died from the Spanish flu and the other 500 Million who were infected by the Spanish Flu during that time.  To read more on the Spanish flu or the fire click a blue link above.

I am very interested in this as I am checking into DNA research and genealogy.  Helen, Clarence and Arthur and their descendants probably have some DNA marker for resistance to this type of influenza.  Where-as my parents were born after the Spanish flu and may not have past down any marker.  This is all new and very interesting to me.
There are many letters that Gordon saved as well as some photos.  So my hope is to add them slowly over time to this blog.  I have also heard that there are some diaries on my Grandmothers, Nettie England that our in circulation within the family.  I hope if they one day come my way, that I will be able to forever capture them to my blog for all to enjoy.  So here is the Million dollar letter...