Walter Merriam Pratt

“ MAYFLOWER SOCIETY HOUSE A NOTABLE accomplishment of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants was the purchase in 1941 of the Edward Winslow House in Plymouth, Massachusetts, a house of great beauty and dignity, with history and atmosphere, perfectly located on North Street, one of the five streets laid out by the Pilgrims, overlooking Plymouth Rock and Cole’s Hill, where lie the bones of many of the Pilgrims. ”

“ To own an old house is a great privilege, but it is also a great responsibility. No amount of money could have made the Winslow house so interesting as its association with events of history and famous people has made it. ”

“ If Communism cannot succeed under these conditions, with the type of people the Pilgrims were, speaking the same language, governed by the same laws, with common history, tradition, and memories, how could Communism possibly prove a success under far less favorable circumstances today? ”

“ The Society now has a mission—that of spreading the wisdom and ideals of our ancestors to the masses who have come to our shores.
The Society has accomplished much in its effort to discover and publish matter relating to the Pilgrims. It has aided in establishing memorials and has contributed over $100,000.00 toward the Bradford Memorial Tablet, the Provincetown Monument, the Monument to the Pilgrims at Southampton, England, the Sarcophagus on Cole’s Hill, Plymouth, the Aptuxet Trading Post, at Bourne, the Mayflower Index, and to lesser memorials throughout the country. ”

“ There are those who say, “It’s not what my ancestors did, it’s what I’ve done. I live in the present, not the past.” One must make good, but statistics prove those most successful are the first to preserve the best of the past. ”

“ The Mayflower Compact is a great contribution to civil liberty and democracy; it ranks with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. Our democracy was based on it from the landing of the Pilgrims. The Pilgrims established what they planned. The Plymouth settlement was the start of religious [27] freedom. We owe them a great debt of gratitude. They were unimportant people, and their departure attracted little or no attention. Some were educated, others were not ”

“ It is a landmark that will inspire those who visit Plymouth to increase their knowledge of the Pilgrims and thus help make better citizens of them, and it is a contribution to patriotism. Plymouth welcomes another museum house, particularly an 18th century one, where visitors may learn more of Colonial life and customs. The important [19] thing is that visitors to the Mayflower Society House, who number thousands each year, coming from every state in the Union, find there exists an organization to perpetuate the memory and carry forward the ideals of the Pilgrims. ”

“ The country’s growth since the turn of the century has brought to the United States a tremendous number of persons fleeing from Old World conditions. Our melting pot did well for a time; of recent years our freedom has been attacked. ”

“ The Pilgrims believed in the equality of all men before God; they, therefore, made all men equal before the Law. On the Sarcophagus, which contains the remains of some of the Pilgrims, is this inscription:
“This monument marks the first burying-ground in Plymouth of the Passengers of the Mayflower. ”

“ And the manuscript goes on to tell of a proud, very profane young man, one of the seamen of husky and able body, which made him the more haughty, who was always annoying the poor people in their sickness by cursing them daily and telling them he hoped to help cast half of them overboard before they came to their journey’s end and if he ever, by any was gently reproved, he would curse and swear most bitterly. ”

“ Jackson is believed to have made his first personal experiments with the inhalation of ether in the house at Plymouth, and the chair in which he sat is displayed in Pilgrim Hall. Morton patented the process of anesthesia by ether in 1846 and he sued Jackson for claiming the discovery of the anesthetic effects of inhalation of ether back in the winter of 1841-42. The French Government investigated the matter and decreed Jackson a 2500 franc prize as the discoverer, and a similar prize to Morton for being the first to apply it to surgical operations. ”

“ As for the Puritans, they became powerful in England and comprised many men of wealth and culture and social standing. Little bodies of them, encouraged by the example of the Pilgrims, began to settle upon the shores of Massachusetts. In 1628 John Endicott and a shipload took command of the place the Indians called Naumkeag and gave it the Bible name of Salem, or Peace. ”

“ After the Pilgrims had secured financial aid the little band (July 1620) left Leyden and sailed from Delfts-haven in Holland in the Speedwell, which they had bought for the purpose, to Southampton where the Mayflower was awaiting them with friends. Two weeks later the Mayflower and the Speedwell left Southampton for America. The Mayflower of one hundred and eighty tons burden (the Queen [26] Mary of today is over eighty-three thousand tons) had been chartered to transport a part of the Leyden congregation to America. ”

“ The little church at Scrooby could not continue under these conditions. Some of the Separatists had given their lives, some were in prison, and others were in exile. Brown had fled the country, and so its members determined to cross to Holland. Under existing laws a family could not migrate without a license, and they were denied one. It was as dangerous to remain as it was to attempt to leave secretly. Meetings were held, and Separatists from Scrooby, Bristol, Exeter, Boston, and sundry other places planned to flee. ”

“ It provided that for seven years the income of the colony should go into a common fund and from this the colonists would get their living. At the end of the period the investment and profits, real and personal, should be equally divided between the Adventurers and the Planters in accordance with the number of shares each held. ”

“ In 1636 it was voted to establish a college three miles from Boston at a place called New Town, now Cambridge. A young clergyman, John Harvard, bequeathed his books and half his estate and the new college was called by his name. ”