Happy Thanksgiving From Log College Press!

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Carlos Martyn wrote of the Pilgrim Fathers and the sufferings they endured that first winter they spent on Cape Cod in 1620, and then speaks of the blessings that they enjoyed the next summer when their harvest abounded. “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy” (Ps. 126:5).

Fowl were so abundant in the autumn, that "four men in one day killed as much as, with a little help besides, served the community almost a week." "There was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison." The fowlers had been sent out by the governor, "that so they might, after a special manner, rejoice together, since they had gathered the fruit of their labors;" this was the origin and the first celebration of the national festival of New England, the autumnal THANKSGIVING. On that occasion of hilarity they "exercised their arms," and for three days "entertained and feasted" Massasoit and some ninety of his people, who made a contribution of five deer to the festivity. Health was restored; household fires were blazing brightly; and in good heart and hope the lonely but thankful settlers disposed themselves to meet the rigor of another winter (The Pilgrim Fathers of New England: A History (1867), pp. 132-133).

As Americans gather around the Thanksgiving table today, it is fitting to praise our God for the blessings he has bestowed on the church, our nation, our families and ourselves. We at Log College Press give thanks to God for his good hand upon us in so many ways. We are thankful for Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and its ministry. We are thankful for our readers and supporters. We are thankful for the work of those who have digitized so many good old books. We are thankful for the labors of those Presbyterian men and women who have gone before us. Matthew Poole (an English Presbyterian minister) once wrote: “Ministers are living Books, and Books are dead Ministers; and yet though dead, they speak. When you cannot hear the one, you may read the other.” In spirit, we give glory to God that technology has helped us to make Log College Press a resource that aims to contribute to the edification of Christ’s Church.

Theodore L. Cuyler gives this counsel:

Thanksgiving Day is a fitting time to inventory your mercies and blessings. Set all your family to the pitch of the one hundred and third Psalm; and hang on the wall over your Thanksgiving dinner these mottoes — 'A merry heart is a good medicine' — and 'He that is of a cheerful heart hath a continual feast.' (‘𝐴 𝑀𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑦 𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝐷𝑜𝑒𝑡ℎ 𝐺𝑜𝑜𝑑': 𝐴 𝑇𝑎𝑙𝑘 𝐹𝑜𝑟 𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑘𝑠𝑔𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐷𝑎𝑦 (1897))

From our house to yours, we at Log College Press wish each of you a very Happy Thanksgiving!

America's Debt to Calvinism

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"He that will not honor the memory, and respect the influence of Calvin, knows but little of the origin of American liberty." — George Bancroft, Literary and Historical Miscellanies (1855), p. 406

The central thesis of this book — that John Calvin and his Genevan followers had a profound influence on the American founding — runs counter to widespread assumptions and rationale of the American experiment in government. — David W. Hall, The Genevan Reformation and the American Founding (2003), p. vii

On the Fourth of July, which is not only the date celebrated as the birth of the United States in 1776, but also the date on which Log College Press was founded in 2017, we pause to remember how God has dealt graciously with this nation in large part through the influence of the doctrines of grace and the principles of civil liberty which are associated with Calvinism.

American history has many streams running through it, including the Native American population, Spanish exploration, African-American slaves, and much more, but it cannot be denied that in the colonial era and in the early part of the republic, American principles and character were largely fashioned by the Protestant European settlers who came to this country and, looking to Scripture as their foundation, enacted laws, promoted education and even fought for freedom, on the basis of ideas taught in John Calvin’s Geneva.

To demonstrate this premise — which historically was unquestioned, but has been increasingly challenged in recent years — we will extract from the writings of some authors on Log College Press, and others, to show that many of America’s founding principles can be traced to the Calvinism that brought French Huguenots to Florida and South Carolina in 1562; English Anglicans and Presbyterians to Jamestown, Virginia in 1607; Pilgrims and Puritans to Massachusetts beginning in 1620; the Dutch Reformed to New Netherland (New York) in the 1620s; the Scotch-Irish, such as Francis Makemie in the 1680s, to Virginia and Pennsylvania; and the German Reformed settlers who, as did John Phillip Boehm in 1720, arrived in Pennsylvania and other ports of entry. Although painting a picture with broad strokes, and not at all unmindful of the secular character of this nation today under principles enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, it is worthwhile to consider how Geneva influenced the founding of America more than any other source. It has been well said by some that “knowledge of the past is the key to the future.”

Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, The Mayflower Compact, 1620

Egbert W. Smith writes, in a chapter titled “America’s Debt to Calvinism,” that:

If the average American citizen were asked, who was the founder of America, the true author of our giant Republic, might be puzzled to answer. We can imagine his amazement at hearing the answer given to this question by the famous German historian, [Leopold von] Ranke, one of the profoundest scholars of modern times. Says Ranke, ‘John Calvin was the virtual founder of America.’” — E.W. Smith, The Creed of Presbyterians (1901), p. 119

In a lecture given by Philip Schaff in 1854, he stated:

The religious character of North America, viewed as a whole, is predominantly of the Reformed or Calvinistic stamp…To obtain a clear view of the enormous influence which Calvin's personality, moral earnestness, and legislative genius, have exerted on history, you must go to Scotland and to the United States. — Philip Schaff, America: A Sketch of the Political, Social, and Religious Character of the United States of North America (1855), pp. 111-112

Nathaniel S. McFetridge devotes a chapter in his most famous book, Calvinism in History, to the influence of Calvinism as a political force in American history, and argues thus:

My proposition is this — a proposition which the history clearly demonstrates: That this great American nation, which stretches her vast and varied territory from sea to sea, and from the bleak hills of the North to the sunny plains of the South, was the purchase chiefly of the Calvinists, and the inheritance which they bequeathed to all liberty-loving people.

If would be almost impossible to give the merest outline of the influence of the Calvinists on the civil and religious liberties of this continent without seeming to be a mere Calvinistic eulogist; for the contestants in the great Revolutionary conflict were, so far as religious opinions prevailed, so generally Calvinistic on the one side and Arminian on the other as to leave the glory of the result almost entirely with the Calvinists. They who are best acquainted with the history will agree most readily with the historian, Merle D’Aubigne, when he says: ‘Calvin was the founder of the greatest of republics. The Pilgrims who left their country in the reign of James I., and, landing on the barren soil of New England, founded populous and mighty colonies, were his sons, his direct and legitimate sons; and that American nation which we have seen growing so rapidly boasts as its father the humble Reformer on the shores of Lake Leman [Lake Geneva].’” — N.S. McFetridge, Calvinism in History (1882), pp. 59-60

W. Melancthon Glasgow, referencing the great American historian George Bancroft, says:

"Mr. Bancroft says: 'The first public voice in America for dissolving all connection with Great Britain came not from the Puritans of New England, the Dutch of New York, nor the Planters of Virginia, but from the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians of the Carolinas.' He evidently refers to the influence of Rev. Alexander Craighead and the Mecklenburg Declaration: and this influence was due to the meeting of the Covenanters of Octorara, where in 1743, they denounced in a public manner the policy of George the Second, renewed the Covenants, swore with uplifted swords that they would defend their lives and their property against all attack and confiscation, and their consciences should be kept free from the tyrannical burden of Episcopacy....It is now difficult to tell whether Donald Cargill, Hezekiah Balch or Thomas Jefferson wrote the National Declaration of American Independence, for in sentiment it is the same as the "Queensferry Paper" and the Mecklenburg Declaration." — W. Melancthon Glasgow, History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in America (1888), pp. 65-67

William H. Roberts, in a chapter on “Calvinism in America,” wrote:

Politically, Calvinism is the chief source of modern republican government. That Calvinism and republicanism are related to each other as cause and effect is acknowledged by authorities who are not Presbyterians or Reformed…The Westminster Standards are the common doctrinal standards of all the Calvinists of Great Britain and Ireland, the countries which have given to the United States its language and to a considerable degree its laws. The English Calvinists, commonly known as Puritans, early found a home on American shores, and the Scotch, Dutch, Scotch-Irish, French and German settlers, who were of the Protestant faith, were their natural allies. It is important to a clear understanding of the influence of Westminster in American Colonial history to know that the majority of the early settlers of this country from Massachusetts to New Jersey inclusive, and also in parts of Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas, were Calvinists.” — William H. Roberts in Philip Vollmer, John Calvin: Theologian, Preacher, Educator, Statesman (1909), pp. 202-203

Speaking of the Scotch-Irish, Charles L. Thompson wrote:

Did they abandon homes that were dear to them in Scotland first and then in Ireland? It was done at the call of God. They wanted homes for themselves and their children; but it was only that in them there might be a free development of the faith for which their fathers and they had suffered. Nor was their religion a thing of either forms or sentiment. It was grounded in Scripture. The family Bible was the charter of their liberties. To seek its deepest meanings was their delight. They, therefore, brought to to their various settlements in the new world a knowledge of the Calvinism which they had found in their Bibles, and a devotion to the forms in which it found expression giving definite doctrinal character to all their communities — character by which their various migrations may be easily traced. Whether in Nova Scotia, in Pennsylvania, in Kentucky and Tennessee, or wherever their pioneer footsteps led them, the stamp of their convictions, from which no ‘wind of doctrine’ and no ‘cunning craftiness’ could draw them, is seen in all their social life and on all their institutions. Almost universally they were Presbyterians and they are the dominant element in the Presbyterian Church today.

Alike among the Puritans, the Dutch and the Scotch-Irish, it was Calvinism which was the prevailing doctrine. Its relation to the life of our republic has often been recognized. — Charles L. Thompson, The Religious Foundations of America (1917), pp. 242-243

Loraine Boettner, in a section on Calvinism in America, quotes George Bancroft in regards to the American War of Independence:

With this background we shall not be surprised to find that the Presbyterians took a very prominent part in American Revolution. Our own historian Bancroft says: “The Revolution of 1776, so far as it was affected by religion, was a Presbyterian measure. It was the natural outgrowth of the principles which the Presbyterianism of the Old World planted in her sons, the English Puritans, the Scotch Covenanters, the French Huguenots, the Dutch Calvinists, and the Presbyterians of Ulster.” So intense, universal, and aggressive were the Presbyterians in their zeal for liberty that the war was spoken of in England as “The Presbyterian Rebellion.” An ardent colonial supporter of King George III wrote home: “I fix all the blame for these extraordinary proceedings upon the Presbyterians. They have been the chief and principal instruments in all these flaming measures. They always do and ever will act against government from that restless and turbulent anti-monarchial spirit which has always distinguished them everywhere.” When the news of “these extraordinary proceedings” reached England, Prime Minister Horace Walpole said in Parliament, “Cousin America has run off with a Presbyterian parson.” — Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination (1932), p. 383

Speaking of Calvinism’s influence on America, H. Gordon Harold wrote:

Now back of every great movement lie its proponents. Who were the people that fostered rebellion and revolution in the New World? Who spoke openly against the tyrannies and indignities they experienced? Who stepped forward with ready hearts, willing to die in resistance to the injustices meted out to them in the wilderness of this remote continent? They were mostly as follows: Huguenots from France; men of the Reformed faith, presbyterians of the Continent, who had come from the Palatinate, Switzerland, and the Low Countries; Lutherans who had fled the agonies of the Thirty Years’ War; German Baptists who had endured persecution; and Presbyterians and Seceders (ultra-Presbyterians) from Scotland and Ulster; also the Puritan Congregationalists from England. Practically all of these were Calvinists, or neo-Calvinists, and a large number of them were Ulster-Scotch Presbyterians. — H. Gordon Harold in Gaius J. Slosser, ed., They Seek a Country: The American Presbyterians (1955), pp. 151-152

Douglas F. Kelly had this to say about the “Presbyterian Rebellion” of 1776:

The gibe of some in the British Parliament that the American revolution was “a Presbyterian Rebellion” did not miss the mark. We may include in “Presbyterian” other Calvinists such as New England Congregationalists, many of the Baptists, and others. The long-standing New England tradition of “election day sermons” continued to play a major part in shaping public opinion toward rebellion toward England on grounds of transcendent law. Presbyterian preaching by Samuel Davies and others had a similar effect in preparing the climate of religious public opinion for resistance to royal or parliamentary tyranny in the name of divine law, expressed in legal covenants. Davies directly inspired Patrick Henry, a young Anglican, whose Presbyterian mother frequently took him to hear Davies.” — Douglas F. Kelly, The Emergence of Liberty in the Modern World: The Influence of Calvin on Five Governments From the 16th to the 18th Centuries (1992), pp. 131-132

At Log College Press, in appreciation of this great Calvinistic heritage which was bequeathed to 21st century Americans by Geneva and those who were inspired by her to come to these shores, we wish you and yours a very happy Fourth of July! And if we have not already “taxed” our readers’ patience without their consent (this blog post is admittedly longer than most), in the spirit of the day, we offer more to read from the following blog posts from the past. Blessings to you and yours!

Happy Thanksgiving From Log College Press!

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The history of Thanksgiving is always a fascinating (and sometimes, controversial) topic. The site of the first Protestant Thanksgiving in America is usually associated with the Pilgrims of Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621, but Virginia also puts forth a claim to an earlier observance of Thanksgiving at Jamestown in 1610, and even prior to that, Thanksgiving, including the singing of a psalm, was observed by the French Huguenots at Fort Caroline, near modern-day Jacksonville, Florida in 1564.

Moving forward to the colonial and early American eras, magistrates began to follow these earlier examples of gathering to give thanks at appointed occasions and they issued Thanksgiving proclamations. Two notable Presbyterians who had a hand in this were John Witherspoon and Elias Boudinot IV.

Witherspoon served on a committee which drafted the Thanksgiving proclamations by the Confederation Congress for 1781 and 1782. Boudinot, who served as President of the Confederation Congress, and later, as a representative of New Jersey in the U.S. House of Representatives, signed the Congressional Thanksgiving Proclamation for 1783, and also proposed the resolution calling upon President George Washington to issue a Thanksgiving proclamation in 1789.

Witherspoon’s 1781 Thanksgiving proclamation called upon Americans to:

assemble on that day, with grateful hearts, to celebrate the praises of our gracious benefactor; to confess our manifold sins; to offer up our most fervent supplications to the God of all grace, that it may please Him to pardon our offences, and incline our hearts for the future to keep all his laws; to comfort and relieve all our brethren who are in distress or captivity; to prosper our husbandmen, and give success to all engaged in lawful commerce; to impart wisdom and integrity to our counsellors, judgment and fortitude to our officers and soldiers; to protect and prosper our illustrious ally, and favor our united exertions for the speedy establishment of a safe, honorable and lasting peace; to bless all seminaries of learning; and cause the knowledge of God to cover the earth, as the waters cover the seas.

Boudinot’s 1789 Thanksgiving resolution called upon President Washington to

recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably a Constitution of government for their safety and happiness.

Corporate giving of thanks to God as Creator and Governor of the Nations, through Christ, King of the Church and the Nations, has been the practice of Christian families, churches and nations for centuries, but as the holiday of Thanksgiving is a peculiarly American institution, it is helpful to reflect on its early history in colonial times leading up to the foundation of our republic.

Theodore L. Cuyler once wrote:

Thanksgiving Day is a fitting time to inventory your mercies and blessings. Set all your family to the pitch of the one hundred and third Psalm; and hang on the wall over your Thanksgiving dinner these mottoes -- 'A merry heart is a good medicine' -- and 'He that is of a cheerful heart hath a continual feast' ["'A Merry Heart Doeth Good': A Talk For Thanksgiving Day" (1897)].

We at Log College Press are thankful for our readers and their support, and we wish each of you a very joyful and Happy Thanksgiving. May God bless you and yours richly!

Four Centuries Since the First Traditional American Thanksgiving

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O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever (Ps. 107:1).

Apart from the French Huguenots who celebrated a thanksgiving at Fort Caroline, near modern-day Jacksonville, Florida on June 30, 1564, and the celebration at Jamestown, Virginia on December 4, 1619, what is traditionally referred to as the first American Thanksgiving, observed by the Pilgrims at Plymouth, Massachusetts, took place in the autumn of 1621, four hundred years ago.

George B. Cheever tells us briefly about this special occasion in The Pilgrim Fathers: or, The Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, New England, in 1620 (1849), pp. 231-232.

We find in this volume the very first instance of the New England thanksgiving. It is referred to by Mr. Winslow in his letter to a friend. It was after the gathering in of the harvest, and a fowling expedition was sent out for the occasion by the Governor, that for their Thanksgiving dinners and for the festivities of the week they might have more dainty and abundant materials than ordinary. That week they exercised in arms, and hospitably feasted King Massasoit and ninety men. The Governor is said by Mr. Winslow to have appointed the game-hunt after harvest, that so the Pilgrims "might after a more special manner rejoice together, after they had gathered the fruit of their labours." This admirable annual New England custom of Thanksgiving dates back therefore to the first year of our Forefathers' arrival.

W. Carlos Martyn also recounts the tale in The Pilgrim Fathers of New England: A History (1867), pp. 132-133, also drawing on Edward Winslow.

"There was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison." The fowlers had been sent out by the governor, "that so they might, after a special manner, rejoice together, since they had gathered the fruit of their labors;" this was the origin and the first celebration of the national festival of New England, the autumnal THANKSGIVING. On that occasion of hilarity they "exercised their arms," and for three days "entertained and feasted" Massasoit and some ninety of his people, who made a contribution of five deer to the festivity. Health was restored; household fires were blazing brightly; and in good heart and hope the lonely but thankful settlers disposed themselves to meet the rigor of another winter.

As we reflect on that moment in church history which illustrates the goodness of God to his people, and the tradition that is known as the American Thanksgiving, and as we count our blessings with gratitude to God, we thank you, dear friends, once again for all of your support for Log College Press. It means a great deal to us. We wish each of a very Happy Thanksgiving, and God’s richest blessings to you and yours.

The 400th anniversary of the Mayflower Landing and the Mayflower Compact

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WEDNESDAY, 6th September, the wind coming E.N.E., a fine small gale, we loosed from Plymouth, having been kindly entertained and courteously used by divers friends there dwelling; and, after many difficulties in boisterous storms, at length, by God's providence, upon the 9th November following, by break of the day we espied land, which we deemed to be Cape Cod; and so afterward it proved. And the appearance of it much comforted us, especially seeing so goodly a land, and wooded to the brink of the sea; it caused us to rejoice together, and praise God that had given us once again to see land. And thus we made our course S.S.W., purposing to go to a river ten leagues to the south of the Cape; but at night, the wind being contrary, we put round again for the bay of Cape Cod; and upon the 11th November we came to an anchor in the bay, which is a good harbour and pleasant bay, circled round, except in the entrance, which is about four miles over from land to laud, compassed about to the very sea with oaks, pines, juniper, sassafras, and other sweet wood. It is a harbour wherein a thousand sail of ships may safely ride. There we relieved ourselves with wood and water, and refreshed our people, while our shallop was fitted to coast the bay, to search for an habitation. There was the greatest store of fowl that ever we saw. — Edward Winslow, Mourt’s Relation in George Barrell Cheever, The Pilgrim Fathers: or, The Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, New England, in 1620 (1849)

The Pilgrims who sailed to America from England and The Netherlands in 1620 did so trusting in God to preserve them through stormy seas and an unknown wilderness. The hand of God brought them to Cape Cod on November 11, 1620 (O.S.) [November 21, N.S.], where they signed the Mayflower Compact and first stepped ashore at Provincetown Harbor.

Signing the Mayflower Compact 1620, a painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1899).

Signing the Mayflower Compact 1620, a painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1899).

The following month (December 11/21) the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Harbor — tradition locates the spot at Plymouth Rock — where they would begin to build a home, Plimoth Plantation. After a harsh first winter, assistance provided by Native Americans, and a bountiful autumn 1621 harvest, leading to a Thanksgiving celebration — the story of which is told by William Bradford, Edward Winslow and others — the Pilgrims’ story became embedded in the American consciousness (see Timothy Alden’s story of John and Priscilla Alden). It is a narrative that is challenged by some today, but the story Pilgrims’ journey in search of freedom to worship God without fear of persecution was treasured by many 19th century American Presbyterians.

"Daily the Pilgrims turned their eyes westward, hoping for a sight of the new land. They had shaped their course for the Hudson river, of which the Dutch navigators had made favorable reports. As the voyage lengthened, their longings for the land increased. They had been tossed on the sea now sixty-five days, when, on the 9th of November, the long, low coast-line of the New World gladdened their eyes. They thanked God for the sight, and took courage. On the 11th of November they dropped anchor within Cape Cod. Sixty-seven days they had passed in the ship since their final departure from England, and one hundred and twelve since the embarkation at Delft Haven. They were weary, many were sick, and the scurvy had attacked some. They might well rejoice that they had reached these shores." — Charles W. Elliott, The New England History, quoted in William Carlos Martyn, The Pilgrim Fathers of New England: A History (1867)

In this quadricentennial of the Mayflower Landing and the Mayflower Compact, we remember the sacrifices and faith of the Pilgrims, the contributions of the Native Americans, and the legacy of faith and Biblical civil government which the Pilgrims brought to America, as cherished by American Presbyterians.

Pilgrim Anniversary, 22d Dec., 1842

Two hundred and twenty-two years
Have flown over Fore-fathers' rock,
Since th' era our home-love endears, —
There landed the brave little flock.

The ocean, the air and the land
Bent on them a stern winter frown,
But in faith and devotion that band,
Bold founders of empire, sat down.

The Pilgrims! a patriarch race,
Left country and kindred to find
For religion and freedom a place,
A home for th' oppressed of mankind.

The frail little Mayflower bore
The germ of a nation to rise
From East to Far West's distant shore,
And brave every clime 'neath the skies.

Ye fathers of millions,
I gaze with thrilling emotions on you,
My spirit goes back to your days,
Pure virtue, firm valor to view.

Your children now sip every stream
That waters our wide-spread domain,
Who of them so base as to dream
Descent from the pilgrims a stain. — James Lyman Merrick (1803-1866), Missionary to Persia, The Pilgrim’s Harp (1847)

Happy Thanksgiving from Log College Press!

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J.R. Miller in The Book of Comfort (1912) writes:

Thanksgiving implies thought of God. One may be glad all the day and never think of God. Thanksgiving looks up with every breath and sees God as Father from whom all blessings come. Thanksgiving is praise. The heart is full of gratitude. Every moment has something in it to inspire love. The lilies made Jesus think of his Father, for it was he who clothed them in beauty. The providence of our lives, if we think rightly of it, is simply God caring for us….He who has learned the Thanksgiving lesson well has found the secret of a beautiful life. "Praise is comely," says the Hebrew poet. Comely means fit, graceful, pleasing, attractive. Ingratitude is never comely. The life that is always thankful is winsome, ever a joy to all who know it. The influence of an ever-praising life on those it touches is almost divine. The way to make others good is to be good yourself. The way to diffuse a spirit of thanksgiving is to be thankful yourself. A complaining spirit makes unhappiness everywhere….Thanksgiving has attained its rightful place in us only when it is part of all our days and dominates all our experiences. We may call one day in the year Thanksgiving Day and fill it with song and gladness, remembering all the happy things we have enjoyed, all the pleasant events, all the blessings of our friendships, all our prosperities. But we cannot gather all our year's thanksgivings into any brightest day. We cannot leave to-day without thanks and then thank God to-morrow for to-day and to-morrow both. To-day's sunshine will not light to-morrow's skies. Every day must be a thanksgiving day for itself. (pp. 167, 170-172) HT: Dorothy Simpson

For your Thanksgiving reading pleasure, be sure to check out the full chapter in Miller’s book titled “The Thanksgiving Lesson.” Also, you may wish to peruse William Carlos Martyn’s classic The Pilgrim Fathers of New England: A History (1867). Earlier this year we shared a post about Presbyterian Timothy Alden, Jr. ‘s account of his Mayflower ancestor John Alden’s courtship of Priscilla Mullins. We have also written about an earlier Thanksgiving celebrated by the French Huguenots in Florida in 1564. Many Thanksgiving sermons can be read here.

Pilgrim Thanksgiving.jpg

We here at Log College Press are thankful to God for the men and women of faith who have gone before us, and left us with such a rich legacy that our generation is able to rediscover through the blessings of technology. We are thankful that God has not left us without a witness to his faithfulness from generation to generation. We are thankful for the team of contributors who help Log College Press to bring the writings of earlier generations to the eyes and ears of the modern world. We are thankful for all of our readers, and all the kind expressions of support which we have received. Thank you all, and Happy Thanksgiving!

A Family Tradition Passed Down by Timothy Alden

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Many have heard of the famous Pilgrim love triangle involving Myles Standish, John Alden and Priscilla Mullins. It is immortalized in the classic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858).

In Longfellow’s poem, Priscilla famously says to John who is there to court by proxy on behalf of Myles:

“Why don’t you speak for yourself, John?”

John Alden and Priscilla Mullins.jpg

It was Longfellow who impressed the love story that would become John and Priscilla Alden upon the American consciousness. But the story itself was first published by a descendant of theirs, Timothy Alden, Jr. (1771-1839), in 1814. Born in Yarmouth, Massachusetts, Timothy went to live with his uncle at the age eight. It was his uncle who told him stories about the Alden family heritage all the way back to the Mayflower experience, Leyden and England. One of those stories involved the notable union of his direct ancestors. Alden later became a noted historian and antiquarian, the first president of Allegheny College and a Congregationalist-turned-Presbyterian minister. It was in 1814 that he published A Collection of American Epitaphs and Inscriptions in five volumes, which included the very account which inspired Longfellow’s poem. It is from the third volume that we may obtain his version of what really transpired.

Note. — The hon. John Alden was one of the pilgrims of Leyden, who came, in the May Flower, to Plymouth, in 1620. He was about twenty-two years of age, when he arrived, and was one of those, who signed the original civil compact, formed and solemnly adopted by the first adventurers at Cape Cod harbour, on the 15 of November. This was a few days previous to their finding and selecting a place for the commencement of their settlement in this western world. He was a single man and appears to have been an inmate in the family of captain Myles Standish. He was the stripling, who first leaped upon the rock, as mentioned by president Adams in a certain communication.

It is well known, that, of the first company consisting of one hundred and one, about one half died II six months after landing, in consequence of the hardships they were called to encounter. Mrs. Rose Standish, consort of captain Standish, departed this life, on the 29 of January, 1621. This circumstance is mentioned as an introduction to the following anecdote, which has been carefully handed down by tradition.

In a very short time after the decease of Mrs. Standish, the captain was led to think, that, if he could obtain Miss Priscilla Mullins, a daughter of Mr. William Mullins, the breach in his family would be happily repaired. He, therefore, according to the custom of those times, sent to ask Mr. Mullins' permission to visit his daughter. John Alden, the messenger, went and faithfully communicated the wishes of the captain. The old gentleman did not object, as he might have done, on account of the recency of captain Standish's bereavement. He said it was perfectly agreeable to him, but the young lady must also be consulted. The damsel was then called into the room, and John Alden, who is said to have been a man of most excellent form with a fair and ruddy complexion, arose, and, in a very courteous and prepossessing manner, delivered his errand. Miss Mullins listened with respectful attention, and at last, after a considerable pause, fixing her eyes upon him, with an open and pleasant countenance, said, prithee John, why do you not speak for yourself? He blushed, and bowed, and took his leave, but with a look, which indicated more, than his diffidence would permit him otherwise to express. However, he soon renewed his visit, and it was not long before their nuptials were celebrated in ample form. From them are descended all of the name, Alden, in the United States. What report he made to his constituent, after the first interview, tradition does not unfold; but it is said, how true the writer knows not, that the captain never forgave him to the day of his death.

For a few years, the subject of this article lived in Plymouth and then settled in Duxborough on a farm, which, it is a little remarkable, has remained in the possession of his descendants ever since and is one of the best in the town. He built his house on a rise of land near Eagle Tree Pond, where the ruins of his well are still to be seen.

He had four sons and four daughters, who lived to enter the marriage state, who had many children and most of whom lived to a good old age.

Timothy’s family tradition led to Longfellow’s narrative poem, and there you have the background for an American Pilgrim legend.