The women of the Mayflower and women of Plymouth colony

by Ethel J. R. C. Noyes

From Mary Chilton and her husband John Winslow, comes Mrs. Robert Hall Wiles, of Chicago, past President of the National Society of United States Daughters of the War of 1812 and now serving as President-General of the National Society Daughters of Founders and Patriots of America. From Mary and John Winslow, also, came Lieutenant Sturdevant, another young aviator of the World War, killed over-seas in the service of his country.

For another repetition of the exact name of his ancestor there is Doctor Myles Standish, a noted occulist of Boston. In the medical profession also Doctor Stuart Clark Johnson of Washington and Doctor Ira Hart Noyes of Providence, the first from John and Priscilla Alden, the second from John and Elizabeth Howland, both answering the call of duty to country in the World War, to serve over-seas.

Two residents of Washington are Hon. William S. Washburne—United States Civil Service Commissioner and Mr. Frank Herbert Briggs of the Court of Claims—descended respectively from Francis and Hester Cooke, and the Brewster, Bradford and Alden families.

The late Henry Billings Brown, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States was another descendant of John and Elizabeth Howland while the late Seth Shepherd, Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia, was another representative of the line of William and Mary Brewster. Mr. A. Howard Clark, who was editor of the magazine of the Smithsonian Institution, was a descendant from the Brewsters, Hopkins and Howlands. The name of Howland Davis tells plainly why he has done so much for present day Plymouth and the Society of Mayflower Descendants.

In the United States Senate are three prominent descendants of the Pilgrims. The ancestors of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, chairman of Committee on Foreign Relations, are John and Elizabeth Tilly Howland. The Senators from New York and Vermont, Hon. James Wolcott Wadsworth, Jr., and Hon. Carroll Smally Page, are descendants respectively from Giles and Catharine Hopkins and William and Mary Brewster.

A descendant in the person of William Wallace Case, has visited Scrooby and brought from there a piece of oak once a part of the old Manor house, home of his ancestors, William and Mary Brewster—this priceless relic has been made into the gavel used by the Governor of the District of Columbia Society of Mayflower Descendants.

In hundreds of cities and towns and villages of the nation there are other and equally consistent representatives of the glorious names of their Plymouth ancestors. As we have seen the men in all the branches of service to their country, the women may be compared no less favorably in what they have rendered. In their nation’s wars, they have ever been faithful, and their efforts as beneficial to the men and cause as were those of their ancestors of their own sex, whose work was as the mortar in the solid foundation wall of the nation they helped to build. Someone has said that always in the history of mankind the woman has been at her best when she has felt herself most needed. Every reason then for her to attract as she appears in pioneer days, in those of the Revolution or War for the Union and in the World War, unfailingly illustrating, unconsciously or not, the age old motto of Noblesse Oblige.

In hamlet or city, women descendants of Plymouth women upheld the honor of their men and country in Red Cross, Government Loans or “Y.” work during the World War. In the Sanitary Commission and Nursing Units of the Civil War the women’s spirit was the same, and in 1776 when their days were nearest to the pioneer women, the women of the Revolutionary War inheriting the courage and self-forgetfulness, matched the heroism of the men. Thus each generation of women has met the crisis actuated by the same unanimity of purpose and devotion—from each in turn their successors have caught the falling torch, assuring that they shall not have lived and worked in vain. And they may sleep in peace.

The American women of today must meet the challenge of the women of 1861, 1776 and 1620. She must bear comparison with them in fundamental things. Patriotism, firmness, thrift, decision and resourcefulness, characteristics which are their heritage. As someone has said, “We are living in the tomorrow for which they wrought. We are to do today with all fidelity each bit of work which lies at our hands. This will make our next day brighter and by so much, set the world forward.”

The mission of the Mayflower company was to open the way for a successful colonization of the New World. Its mission was faithfully performed. In studying the details and circumstances relating to the immortal voyage and settlement of Plymouth—particularly in relation to the women, vested today with supreme interest and in a glamour peculiarly their own, we must feel that that nobility of life may be ours as well as theirs and that it may illuminate the difficult life of today and make it worthy to be the fruit of the tree of Liberty they helped to plant, in tears and smiles.