The Hoosier Harrison Connection To The Real First American Thanksgiving

English: Benjamin Barrison V, Signer of Declaration of Independence, Father of William Henry Harrison Deutsch: Benjamin Barrison V, Unterzeichner der Unabhängigkeitserklärung der USA, Vater von William Henry Harrison (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Berkeley Plantation, home of the Harrison family (two Presidents), initial construction of Georgian mansion in 1726. In Charles City County, Virginia. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Soon the holiday season will be upon us and many of us will attend Thanksgiving Plays done by local school children to commemorate the first Thanksgiving at Plymouth Colony. For whatever reason, has overlooked the fact that the first Thanksgiving in this new land of America did not occur at Plymouth, but more than a year before at the Virginia Colony of Berkeley Hundred.

The Berkeley Hundred was made up of eight thousand acres on the north shore of the James River. It was named after one of the colonies founders Richard Berkeley. His family had an unbroken male line dating back to Norman England in 1066.

The ship Margaret of Bristol England sailed for Virginia in 1619. The voyage was directed by Captain John Woodliffe . The ship carried thirty five settlers to establish a town in the Berkeley Hundred. The organizers of the journey instructed the ship's crew and settlers to "the day of our ships arrival. shall be yearly and perpetually kept as a day of Thanksgiving."

The ship came to shore on December 4, 1619. The settlers kept this the first Thanksgiving a full year and 17 days before the Pilgrims did at Plymouth. They kept this memorial feast of their safe arrival until 1622. In 1622 a tragedy struck the budding colony.

English: Portrait engraving of William Henry Harrison, 9th president of the United States of America. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

.

 Settlers had good relations initially with the local Indians .John Smith stated in his History of Virginia, the "Indians came unarmed into our houses with deer, turkeys, fish, fruits, and other provisions to sell us." Then on this fateful Good Friday the Berkeley Hundred fell victim to planned coordinated attacks by the Indians on settlements on the James River. Nine colonists died that day. Other settlements like the one at Wolstenholme Towne were almost completely destroyed. Jamestown had heeded warnings about the attack and many of the surviving settlers from Berkeley took refuge there.

The colony at Berkeley Hundred was abandoned for a good many years until it was purchased by John Bland a merchant from London. John Bland unpopular political activities caused the land again to be returned to the Berkeley family. Governor Berkeley confiscated the land from Mr. Bland and sold it to his Attorney General Benjamin Harrison the 3rd.

The land stayed in the family . Other famous Harrison's were Benjamin Harrison V who signed the Declaration of Independence and William Henry Harrison the governor of Indiana and ninth President of the United States. This gives the site of the first real Thanksgiving on American soil a Hoosier connection.

List of Settlers Sent in 1619 by John Smith

This is a list of the 1619 Settlers as presented and spelled by John Smith. It lists the length of each settler's indenture to the land company for payment for their crossing, the amount of land they were granted to farm, and if they were living or dead at the time he wrote his history.

.

Ferdinando Yate, gent 3 yeares 50 acres 
returned 20 martij 1620

John Blanchard gent 3 yeares 50 acres 
Richard Godfrey Joyner 3 years 0-0 
(drowned. mort)

Rowland Paynter 3 years 50 acres 
(dead)

Thomas Coopy Carpenter 
Smythe fowler and Turner 3 years 30 acres

Peerse gent 4 yeares 25 acres 
(dead)

John Cole 7 years 40 acres 
(dead)

Humfry Osborne 3 years 30 acres 
(dead)

Stephen Torslet 4 years 25 acres

Humphrey Plant Sawier & 
Carpenter (dead) 3 years 30 acres

Thomas Davis Cooper & 
Shingler (dead) 3 years 30 acre

Xpopher Nelme shooomaker 3 years 30 acre 
(dead)

Richard Sherife thelder 3 years 30 acre 
Carpenter went with 
Mr. Thorpe (dead)

Richard Sherife the 3 years 30 acre 
yonger Couper (dead 
[written & then stricken through]

Willm Clement Cook & 6 years 20 acre Gardner

Thomas Perise for hops & 7 years 30 acre 
oade (dead)

Xpopher Bourton Taylor 4 years 30 acre

Thomas Molton Cook & 5 years 25 acre 
gardner

James Cley Joyner 3 years 0-0 
(dead)

Charles Coyle a gunmaker 3 years 40 acre 
and Smyth & for fish 
pitch and tarre (dead)

Edward Paynter 7 years 30 acre 
(slayne)

Walter Hampton 3 years 30 acre 
(dead)

Samuell Coopy 3 years 15 acre 
(dead)

Willm Cole 7 years 30 acre 
(dead)

Willm Parker 6 years 30 acre 
(dead)

John Hurd 5 years 30 acre 
(dead)

Willm Patche 6 years 30 acre 
(dead) Thomas Sandford 6 years 30 acre 
(dead)

Willm Stone 6 years 30 acre 
(query to him)

John Taylor, als stokeley 6 years 25 acre 
(dead)

John Jones gardner & 8 years 30 acre 
Smyth

Thomas Denton 8 years 20 acre 
(dead)

Thomas Thorpe 7 years 30 acre 
(slayne)

Willm Mellrickes 
(dead)

Willm Moores 
(dead)

Robert Taylor 
(dead)

John Brunnet 1. 
Dead 1.

1. George Thorpe and the Berkeley Company: A Gloucestershire Enterprise in Virginia by Eric Gethyn-Jones (Alan Sutton, 1982).

Related articles

 

• The Legacy of Old Homes and Actual Site of the First Thanksgiving - Beth Trissel
• VIRGINIA THIS MORNING: 2012 Virginia Thanksgiving Festival
• Road trip! Destination: Virginia's James River area

The Rise of The Protestant Middle Class In 19th Century Indiana

Indianapolis Churches Before 1860

John Parsons of a family of good repute in old Virginia went to visit family in then still pioneer Indiana John Parson's undertook a journey across Indiana in the 1840's giving the reader at least a glimpse into the Hoosier states 'genteel" class in many of the early settlements of the state. Mr. Parson often made note of the "pioneer class", but his diary centrally concerned the small middle class and even smaller upper class of professional men and old families of note from the east that settled the state. These men and women were concerned about bringing solid mainstream Protestantism to the a state that was mostly lower class southern in culture and inclined to prefer local isolation over broader community participation.

The lower classes of rough and persevering southern transplants were inclined to an evangelical disorganized religion and the social hazard of the consumption of too much grain alcohol. They as a group were not inclined to want to establish free schools or other internal improvements on a public level because of their distrust of organized government. For many years the isolation of many of these 'pioneer communities" had left the average Hoosier who farmed or traded furs  were left to their own devices. Those professional men and younger son's of the wealthy from the east came to Indiana in a time of transition when the state was struggling with its citizens to pay taxes to establish communities that would in a least someway reflect the refinements of the older east.

The mainline protestant churches worked many times in great frustration with the locals in many communities to get them to adopt temperance and be willing to support local education. In some counties in Indiana the rate of literate people was below fifty percent. Presbyterians played a very important role in establishing schools in both Indianapolis and Lafayette in a general public environment that did not value them. The Presbyterian Church is also the oldest establish church in Logansport and along with the Roman Catholics did much to further education in a community that may have remained disinterested if left to their own devices.

Mr. Parsons arrived in Lafayette Indiana in early July 1840. One of his great pleasures that reminded him of his home of Virginal was him finding an Episcopal Church. It was the Episcopal Church of St. John's. He had lamented the fact that there were few Episcopal churches established in what he called the ,"Western Country". Mr. Parson's wrote of the Reverend S.R. Johnson who gave the lot on which his parish was built and did not accept a salary for many years.

St. John's Episcopal Church Lafayette

Of the church Mr. Parson's wrote, " A most handsome structure of frame , erected at a cost of $3,500. In the high , the reading desk , the communion table, all painted white , and the square topped pews with doors, I found a stuffiest suggestion of home barring the antiquity of our buildings of worship , to put me at ease." By the end of the 19th century many prosperous protestant and Catholic churches would replace there modest frame churches with Gothic revival structures that would rival churches in the east. These new churches reflected the coming of the Victorian middle class in to even smaller communities and were proof that Indiana had become a "civilized" and prosperous Midwestern state.

Source: A Tour Through Indiana 1840: The Diary of John Parsons of Petersburg Virginia ; editor Kate Milner Rabb, Robert M. McBride & Company, New York, New York; June 1920.(pages:193-214).

Related articles

• Do Episcopalians Have a Church Planting Problem?
• History's headlines: St. Mark's Episcopal Church: A coal town's Victorian gem
• America's Housing Nightmare: Churches and Urban Blight
• Baltimore Church Celebrates Almost 200 Years, Focuses On Future
• Trinity Episcopal Parish

Virginia Volunteers Die On Hoosier Soil August 8th 1791

The Historic Graves of Olde Town Indiana Near Logansport

The battle of OldeTown took place near the Miami Indian War Dance ring close to Logansport , Indiana The site of the Olde Town village was also known as Kenapeco-maqua Town. Here on the afternoon of August 8th 1791, men of the then Virginia Volunteers Mounted Kentucky District attacked the Indian village charging across the Eel River. The Virginia Volunteers numbered 525. We have no specific number of the amount of warriors in the village at the time of the attack.

By the evening of August 8th nine Indians (including two women) and two of the Virginia Volunteers were killed. Three Miami Indians were taken prisoner and later released. The soldiers killed were residents of the Kentucky which at the time was still part of the state of Virginia. One of the known soldiers was John Bartlett who lived at Great Crossing in Scott County Kentucky. The other unknown soldier is said to most likely be from this area as well.

The surviving Virginia Volunteers after having destroyed the Indian village planned to leave the area the next day. They buried their dead comrades and placed bonfires on the graves to conceal their location .The fear was that when the Miami Indians returned to bury their dead, that the warriors would desecrate the graves of the Virginia Volunteers killed.

Many years later two of the Virginia volunteers returned to the Olde Town site. They to pointed out to pioneer jurist Judge James Rush the exact location of the graves of the two soldiers killed in the battle at Olde Town

Map of Indiana highlighting Cass County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The story of the burial sites was faithfully passed down to various residents and relatives of Judge James Rush in Adamsboro, Cass County. Adamsboro is where Judge James Rush died in 1841. The site of the graves eventually came to attention of Miss Laura D. Henderson, State Historian of the Daughters of the American Revolution.She enlisted the help of many local patriotic organizations to get the graves officially marked. These organizations petitioned the War Department and Logansport American Legion Post to mark the grave sites.

On the 148th anniversary of the Battle of Olde Towne two marble stones were used to mark the graves of the soldiers that had lain there almost 150 years with their graves unmarked. The inscription on the graves is as follows

John Bartlett August 8, 1791 Killed in action.

Unknown Soldier August 8, 1791

John Bartlett was also a veteran of the American Revolution having served as a Sergeant.

Nearly 500 local residents attended the outside memorial service to set these headstones on August 13th 1939. An exhibit to remember the history of this location was held at the Methodist Church in Hoover.There are also at least two known Miami Indian burial sites at this location . Over the years and many artifacts of both former European and Miami Indian residents have been found at this site. 
Source 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kenapacomaqua 
http://casscountyin.tripod.com/history.htm

Related articles

• Confederate Dead, Six Hundred: Virginia's Daughters to Virginia's Defenders
• 
  A living tribut
  e
• Disaster: The Wabash River 1791
• OUR HARGRAVE FAMILY: The Children of William and Elizabeth Miles Hargrave - WILLIS
• Uncurrent Events 12.17.13
• Grave marker to be dedicated