Quaker Merchant Jonathan Dickinson

God's Protecting Providence written by Jonathan Dickinson (1663–1722) wealthy Quaker merchant and first published by the Society of Friends in Philadelphia in 1699 recounts the experiences of Dickinson's travels with his wife ans son, a family member Benjamin Allen, and Quaker missionary Robert Barrow on the ship Reformation commanded by Captain Joseph Kirle. A journey from West Indies to Philadelphia ended up in a hurricane and Florida. "The diary gives one of the first and most detailed accounts of early Florida. It discusses seventeenth-century plants, animals, and Spanish missions or "churches". More importantly, the journal describes the now-extinct local tribes he encountered along Florida's east coast, including the local Jaega, Ais, and Timucua tribes in central and north Florida, and the Apalachee in the Panhandle." (John R. Reis, The Life and Times of Jonathan Dickinson) 

Jonathan Dickinson, son of Captain Francis Dickinson (1632-1704) and Margaret Crook. He married Mary Gail, sister of Colonel John Gale of Jamaica in Philadelphia. More information on family in The Papers of William Penn, Volume 4: 1701-1718, Volume 4

He was Member of the Colonial Assembly: Philadelphia County, 1710-1711, 1716-1717, 1718-1720; Philadelphia City, 1717-1718, 1720-1721. Affiliation: Quaker, Pro-Proprietary. And was elected  Mayor.
As Speaker, Dickinson lead the Assembly as issues over Pennsylvania’s proprietorship were addressed after the death of William Penn. He owned one of the first carriages in the city.

As described by John R. Reis, in "The Life and Times of Jonathan Dickinson," "The mood of the natives changed constantly from friendship to hostility, keeping the crew of the Reformation on edge and fearing for their lives. One native shoved a fistful of sand into baby Jonathan's mouth when they first came ashore. But at another time, a native woman nursed baby Jonathan when his mother no longer had milk. At one point, the natives placed knives to the throats of the Dickinson party-but yet not long after, Jonathan was invited to the Indian chief's hut. There, he dined on boiled fish on a palmetto leaf. At times the natives were rough. At one point, they stripped the survivors of most of their clothes. But later, the natives would sit quietly listening to the Quakers read from the Bible." 

Photo from Early Visions of Florida erected in 1961 by Florida Board of Parks and Historic Memorials with Jonathan Dickinson Chapter D.A.R. 

The Tampa Tribune Sunday May 8 1988

The Wreck of the Reformation
Florida's coast was a deadly place for seventeenth-century castaways. Amy Turner Bushnell HUMANITIES, January/February 2013, Volume 34, Number 1

Jonathan Dickinson's journal, first published in 1699, is a harrowing narrative of shipwreck and captivity on a stretch of Florida’s Atlantic coast well outside of Spanish control and seldom seen by any English speaker, much less a Quaker merchant from Jamaica. The journey is the subject for an audio moment on the website of the Florida Humanities Council’s Viva Florida program, marking the five hundredth anniversary of Ponce de León’s arrival.

Dickinson sailed from Port Royal, Jamaica, on September 2, 1696, on the barkentine Reformation, bound for Philadelphia. With him were his wife and baby son, a kinsman, a Quaker missionary, eleven slaves including a child named Cajoe, and nine mariners. The voyage was ill fated: The ship fell out of convoy, the shipmaster broke his leg, and an Indian slave girl fell ill and died.

After a month of waiting at sea, a storm caught them in the Bahama Channel. Hencoops blew open and filled with seabirds, sheep and hogs washed overboard, and early in the morning of October 3, the vessel ran aground. Dickinson got his people and baggage ashore and out of the rain under a tent of spars and sails. They were soon sighted. Two men in breechclouts of woven grass ran up, snatched the tobacco and pipes that Dickinson held out, and, “making a snuffing noise,” ran away.

Although only one of them spoke Spanish, the twenty-four castaways agreed to say that they were headed toward St. Augustine, 230 miles to the north. To reach the Spanish settlement, they had to cross the territories of four hunting and gathering peoples: the Jaega, Santaluz, Ais, and Surruque. The Wild Coast was not part of Spanish Florida.

The Jaega who came to salvage the wreck ordered the party to unlock their chests, trunks, and boxes. The chief took the money; the warriors divided the clothes, including some that the party was wearing. At the town of Jobe, several miles away, they were given a meal of fish and set to work repairing locks and mending tears, while the chief ’s wife dandled and nursed the Dickinsons’ baby, Jonathan. In the distance they could see the smoke of a great fire, the burning Reformation.

Although warned that the Santaluces would kill them, the group started northward. When night fell they built a fire on the beach and buried themselves in the sand to escape the sand flies and mosquitoes. At daybreak on the second morning, a group of Santaluces with bows and arrows fell upon them, crying “Nickaleer, Nickaleer,” their word for English people. Those in breeches were shaken out of them. Mary Dickinson had her clothes torn from her body and her hair-lace yanked from her head. The walk to the town of Santaluz was a gauntlet of stones, blows, and menacing weapons. At the council house, the castaways were ordered to lie on the floor, nasty with garbage and swarming with scorpions and large, hairy spiders. Unaccountably, an hour later they were brought Indian clothing and a meal of clams, fish, and palm berries. That night they were hurried along to Ais territory, past the wreck of a smaller ship, the Nantwich, lost in the same storm.

The old chief of Ais washed Mary Dickinson’s feet, injured by sunburn and the hot sand. He promised to take his Spanish “comrades” to St. Augustine as soon as he could collect his share of the salvaged cargo, but not the seven Nickaleers from the Nantwich. Food ran short in Ais while the old chief was away, and Jonathan later confessed that when he and Mary thought that they might die and their child be brought up a savage, “it wounded us deep.”

On the twelfth of November, a piragua came in sight and out stepped Captain Sebastián López with a squad of soldiers and the old chief, whom he had met along the way. No longer able to pretend that they were Spaniards, the Jamaicans begged López to escort them to St. Augustine. He agreed to see them as far as the Surruque border, but he had no extra rations. To feed themselves for a two-week trek they had nothing but a bagful of stolen berries.

The weather was turning cold, and they were without blankets or warm clothes. On one terrible day, November 23, five members of the party, including little Cajoe, died on the beach of exposure. As the survivors neared St. Augustine, they took shelter in three successive sentinel houses. The sentinels could not feed them and had no boats to spare, but once they were safely inside the capital, the townspeople lodged, clothed, and fed them, and the governor kindly arranged for them to travel up to Charleston, where they could take ship for Pennsylvania.

No one who experienced the wreck of the Reformation would ever forget it. So that others could profit from their sufferings, the Quaker Meeting in Philadelphia published Dickinson’s account as God’s Protecting Providence. In the next 170 years it would be reprinted sixteen times in English and three times each in Dutch and German, long after Creek and Carolinian slave raiders had depopulated the Wild Coast and the mission provinces of Spanish Florida. 

Palm Beach 1965 DAR

• Gillingham, Harrold E. “Notes and Documents: The Estate of Jonathan Dickinson (1663-1722).” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 59, no. 4, 1935, pp. 420–429. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20086941.
• University of Florida John Dickinson's Journal  http://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/UF/00/06/73/37/00001/dickinson_journal.pdf
• MAP https://www.geographicus.com/P/AntiqueMap/ReystogtJamaika-dickinson-1706
• A History of the People Called Quakers: From Their First Rise to the Present Time. Compiled from Authentic Records, and from the Writings of that People, Volume 3 John Gough
  Robert Jackson, Meath Street., 1789 - Society of Friends
•  Early Visions of Florida 
• “Suffering of the Shipwrecked Quakers,” by Frederik de Coste. In True Tales of Old St. Augustine, pp. 31-35, Great Outdoors Publishing Company, St. Petersburg, Fla., and the St. Augustine Historical Society, 1966.

 

Edward Payson Shaw of Newburyport

A little info for my Face Book Page New England Family Genealogy & History and Wolfe Tavern Edward Payson Shaw was responsible for restoring Newburyport's Merrimac House (former Wolfe Tavern) 

A nice story in the Newburyport News by Joe Callahan June 8, 2015 Edward Payson Shaw was born on Charter Street in Newburyport on Sept. 1, 1841. He was the son of Samuel Shaw (1784-1868) and Abigail Bartlett (1805-1877) a descendant of Josiah Bartlett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. 

On June 21, 1838 Samuel Shaw, son of Samuel Shaw SR (1748-1829) and Abigail Hale Stickney (1756-1831) married Abigail Bartlett daughter of Here is a 1895 news clip on them

 

At the age of 15,  Edward P Shaw entered the hack business and by the age of 22 he owned and operated an express line between Newburyport and Boston. To Read more  As I See It: E.P. Shaw: developer in Newburyport and Salisbury Beach

According to Newburyport town records, Edward P Shaw March 14 1899 Wolfe Tavern, owned by E. P. Shaw; loss, $350.65; insurance, $19,000; cause, defective chimney.

From Tuesday, July 5, 1921 Boston Herald (Boston, Massachusetts)

The Rise and Fall of Boston’s Tide Mills

The small West End Museum in Boston just opened a small exhibit about “Tide Power in Colonial Boston.” On Tuesday, 21 July, at 6:00 P.M. the museum will host a reception for that show. Both exhibit and reception are free and open to the public.To Read More Click Link The Rise and Fall of Boston’s Tide Mills
Tide Mill Lecture February 21 2016 in Newburyport Curzon Mill, Salisbury Mills Coffins Creek Rings Island, & More see Details
Tide Mills Lecture Sunday February 21 @ 2PM

Joseph Asa Colby & Family

Mr Joseph Asa Colby Photo from Fins A Grave
Illustrated Album of Biography of the Famous Valley of the Red River of the North and the Park Regions of Minnesota and North Dakota: Containing Biographical Sketches of  Settlers and Representative Citizens
Mr. Colby’s parents were Jonathan and Hannah (Cooper) Colby. He was born 6 APR 1819 in Holland, Erie County, New York. He appeared in the census in 1850 in Holland, Erie County, New York. He appeared in the census in 1880 in Alexandria, Douglas County, Minnesota.

Census Place: Alexandria, Douglas, Minnesota Source: FHL Film 1254618 National Archives Film T9-0618 Page 491C
He died on 6 SEP 1892 at Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon. The Douglas County News, Alexandria, Minnesota Thursday, September 15 1892, page 4, col. 1. Last week just after going to press news came of the death of J. A. Colby at Portland, N.D. He was kicked and trampled by a stallion and lived only six hours after the injury was received. Mr. Colby was a well known resident of this county for about 24 years and removed to Portland a year ago last spring.
The Lake Review
Osakis, Douglas County, Minnesota
Thursday, September 15, 1892
Page 3, Col. 5.
Fatal Accident.
A sad and fatal accident happened to Mr. J. A. Colby, of this city, last Tuesday morning about 10 o’clock. It appears that Mr. Colby had just taken a horse belonging to J. J. Warley, from the stable with the intention of sending him around the track a few times as had been his usual practice, and when only a few rods from the barn the horse stopped, throwing the old gentleman between the shafts and against the horses feet and was so trampled upon and injured that he died in about three hours in spite of everything that could be done for him. Several of his ribs were broken and one leg was badly shattered besides which he was injured internally.
Mr. Colby, though only a resident of the town for about a year and a half, had come to be greatly respected by all our citizens. It is a very sad affliction for the family, following so closely, as it does, the death of the son, Frank H. Colby, last winter.—[Portland, N.D., Press].
This family has been noted for its loyalty to the country, indeed, every male member in every generation has served his country more or less in the wars which have been inflicted upon this land. Mr. Colby’s grandfather, Ezekial Colby, JR  was born in New Hampshire, and moved to Vermont, whence he came to the State of New York, settling in Erie county in 1808. He served as a soldier in the Revolutionary War. On coming to Erie county, New York, the country was wild, and they were among the very first pioneers who settled in and began the improvement of that county. Jonathan, the father of our subject, served in the War of 1812, and for honorable service attained the rank of lieutenant and finally received a colonel’s commission.

ADD INFO Centennial History of Erie County, NY  by Crisfield Johnson

From: Emigration began to roll into the future town of Holland.

Ezekiel Colby settled in the valley, and soon after came Jonathan Colby, who still survives, being well-known as “Old Colonel Colby." Nathan Colby located on the north part of Vermont Hill, and about the same time Jacob Farrington settled on the south part, east of the site of Holland village, where there was not as yet a single house—another instance of the curious readiness of many of the first comers to neglect the valleys for the hill-tops.

Hannah Cooper, the mother of the subject of this sketch, was the daughter of Joseph Cooper, who was born in New Hampshire, and came to Erie county where he settled in 1810.~ He was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and was in the famous battle of Brandywine. He held a captain’s commission during the entire service. Jonathan Colby’s family numbered eight children, three of whom lived in Erie county, New York, and two in Douglas county, Minnesota.

Joseph A. Colby received his early training on a farm, remaining in that business until he was seventeen years of age. At that time he came west, spending a short period in Indiana, whence he went to Chicago. Here he remained three years, at the end of which time he returned to Aurora, Erie county, New York. Desiring to better prepare himself for life’s duties, be commenced a course at the Aurora academy, where he studied for two years. He then engaged in the study of law, entering the law office of his brother-in-law, P. M. Vosburgh. Then he engaged in the mercantile business, forming a partnership with C. J. Hamlin, running for a time what was known as the city store. His firm had three branch stores, also, and did a large business for a number of years. Mr. Colby continued in this line from 1844 to 1856, at which time he sold out and came west, settling in Hastings, Minnesota. Here he engaged in farming, and also in the wheat business. Still later he engaged in the grocery trade, until the breaking out of the war in 1861. At this time he turned his attention to raising volunteers to enter the union army. He helped to recruit a company of troops with Marshall, of St. Paul, and this company was finally consolidated and called Company K, Eighth Regiment Minnesota Volunteers. This company came west to Alexandria, Douglas county, and built a stockade, where they remained in the service until 1863.

In this year the company was disbanded, part of them going with General Sibley’s command and part with General Sully. During this time Mr. Colby was on duty at St. Paul, purchasing for the Government different supplies. He bought horses with saddles and bridles and necessary trappings He was in the service of the Government for four years. In 1856 Mr. Colby came to Alexandria, settling on a farm five miles south of the village on the shores of Lake Mary to organize the county in 1866, and for years engaged in farming until 1882. However, prior to this time, in 1875, he moved his family into Alexandria, where he engaged in the livery business, also running a stage line to Morris, Parker‘s Prairie and Pomme de Terre. During this time he worked up quite a. business, employing, continually, four or five men. The stage line business was kept up by him until he was virtually frozen out by the advent of the railroads. He has made considerable money in buying and selling horses. He bought the livery building,,which he now occupies, in 1880, keeps twenty horses, and supplies tourists with teams during the summer months. He owned a good residence on H street. 

Mr. Colby was married in the year 1843 to Miss Cyrena McKillips, of Erie county, New York. They had three children—Frank, Rosa Dwight, and Fred Frank Colby was married in 1865 to Lizzie Thomson, by whom he has had three daughters— Rosa, Lena and Abbie. Frank enlisted in the Third Minnesota Regiment of Volunteers in 1861 as a private, rising to the rank of corporal. He served in the war until its close, losing his health from exposure and hard service. He was a resident of Alexandria. Rosa, now Mrs. Truax, formerly Mrs. Stone, was first married to Mr. Stone, by whom she had one child—Archie. In 1876 she married Mr. Truax, by whom she has had two children—Joseph and Thura. Fred married Miss Anna Siples in 1867, by Whom he has had one child —Arthur. Fred Colby is a resident of Hastings, Minnesota, and is agent for the St. Paul and Milwaukee Railroad Company.

Joseph A. Colby has been identified with the interests of Douglas  county for many years, coming here in an early day, and becoming one of its first citizens. He helped in politics, and with his wife and family belonged to the Episcopal church of Alexandria. He took about 400 acres, and held the office of justice of the peace in Lake Mary township. He also held the office of town clerk for three years, and was connected with the board of school directors. Mr. Colby affiliates with the republican party .

Photo by Donna Ruhland Bonning

Birth	Sep. 29, 1788 Corinth Corners Orange County Vermont, USA
Death:	Apr. 1, 1880 Holland (Erie County) Erie County New York, USA
Ezekiel Colby (1763 - 1848)  Ruth Davis Colby (1767 - 1838)

John Albert Macy and Anne Sullivan Macy

John Albert Macy (1877-1932) son of Powell Macy (1844-19?) and Janet Foster Patten (1846-1930) born in Detroit, Michigan.

Anne Sullivan with Helen Keller

Powell Macy son of Oliver Macy(1819-1867) and Phebe Fowler Powell (1820-1867). Oliver, son of Peter Macy (1792-1846) and Ann Swain (1798-1897) Obed Macy and Abigail Pinkham Obed, son of Caleb Macy and Judith Gardner. Caleb, son of Richard Macy and Deborah Pinkham Richard, son of John Macy and  Deborah Gardner John, son of Thomas Macy and Sarah Hopscott
J A Macy Draft

In 1895, John was admitted on a scholarship to Harvard University where he achieved an outstanding academic and extracurricular record. Not only did he win the coveted Phi Beta Kappa key, but he was also editor-in-chief of the Harvard Advocate.

Obed Macy, b. 15 January 1762, d. 24 December 1844

                             

Abigail Pinkham b. 7 December 1764, d. 23 October 1842

                               
When he was twenty-five years old and an instructor of English at Harvard, he was introduced to Helen Keller, then a student at Radcliffe College, and her teacher, Anne Sullivan, by a good friend, Lenore Smith, who knew Helen could use some help in writing her first book.
More on Family
Judith Macy and Her Daybook; or, Crevecoeur and the Wives of Sherborn by Lisa Norling
Life in the Mansion on Pleasant Street:
The Women, Part I More from American National Biography 
J A Macy author, critic, and poet, was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Powell Macy and Janet Foster Patten, the descendants of early New England settlers long associated with the whaling industry. John Macy grew up in the Boston area and attended Malden High School in Malden, Massachusetts. Upon graduation in 1895 he enrolled at Harvard on a partial scholarship, majoring in English literature.

Though he had to supplement his scholarship with various jobs, Macy excelled at his studies and was an outstanding student. He was also a leader in extracurricular activities and a member of several elite campus clubs. He served as editor in chief of the school newspaper, the Harvard Advocate; edited the satirical magazine the Harvard Lampoon; and was named the class poet. Graduating with honors in 1899, he was also elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Macy remained at Harvard following graduation, teaching in the English department for several years and earning a master of arts degree in 1900. The following year he became an associate editor of a prominent children's magazine, Youth's Companion, headquartered in Boston. While still at Harvard, Macy had been introduced to the celebrated blind deaf mute Helen Keller, who was then attending Radcliffe College, the women's division of Harvard. A mutual friend, Lenore Smith, thought that Macy would be able to help Keller write her autobiography.

Macy was fascinated by Keller, whose triumph over severe handicaps--made possible by the devotion of Annie Sullivan, who had taught her to read and write--made her an international heroine. Agreeing wholeheartedly to the task, Macy learned the manual language used to communicate with the blind and deaf. Working closely with Sullivan, Keller's companion as well as her teacher, Macy helped Keller write and edit the book and also acted as its agent, securing a lucrative contract with the New York publishing firm Doubleday, Page & Co. Keller's The Story of My Life proved a sensation when it was serialized in the Ladies' Home Journal in 1902, and the autobiography garnered even greater acclaim when it was published in book form early the following year.

 Helen Keller, Anne Sullivan Macy, Mark Twain, John Macy at Stormfield (Redding, Connecticut)

Macy's collaboration with Keller and Sullivan brought them into intimate contact, and the three formed a close attachment to one another. Continuing to assist Keller with her writing--he also published several articles about Keller under his own name--Macy became a de facto part of the Keller-Sullivan household, first in Cambridge and then in Wrentham, Massachusetts, where the two women shared a cottage. Macy desired a permanent relationship, and that meant marriage to Annie Sullivan, since both Sullivan and Keller, as well as Keller's family, believed that Keller's handicaps precluded her from marrying. Indeed, the two women were inseparable and thought of themselves as one person. Sullivan refused Macy's advances for several years, partly on the grounds that she was eleven years his senior. Eventually, however, she consented, and they were married in 1905.

The unusual nature of the Macy-Sullivan marriage made the relationship a difficult one to sustain. Keller was central to Sullivan's life--the women were constantly together, with Keller even accompanying Macy and Sullivan on their honeymoon--and Sullivan ruled the household as a consequence. Macy and Sullivan had little time for themselves, and, according to numerous biographers, their interactions were damaged by Sullivan's acknowledged moodiness and frequent outbursts of bad temper. A woman who was partially blind herself and had survived, against all odds, a horrific childhood, Sullivan was a gifted teacher but an understandably flawed human being. The marriage frayed, and there were intermittent separations. By 1914 Macy had left the household permanently to live on his own. The couple had no children. Macy had developed a drinking problem as he coped with the stress of his marriage, and his reliance on alcohol to relieve personal anguish persisted for the remainder of his life.

From his days at Harvard Macy had become increasingly interested in politics. By 1909 he was openly avowing an allegiance to socialism, perhaps partly as a consequence of his impoverished background. He shared his enthusiasm for socialism with Keller and Sullivan, and a major consequence of his relationship with Keller was her conversion to the socialist cause, an attachment she held throughout her life. (Sullivan, conservative and skeptical, refused to become a partisan.)

During his years with Youth's Companion Macy was a frequent contributor of literary essays to leading publications, including the Atlantic Monthly. In 1907 he published his first book, Edgar Allan Poe, a well-received critical study of the author. In 1909, a year after leaving Youth's Companion, he published his second book, A Child's Guide to Reading. After taking time off from literature in 1912 to serve as secretary to George R. Lunn, the socialist mayor of Schenectady, New York, Macy gained widespread critical attention with the publication of his third book, The Spirit of American Literature (1913). The work championed a new realism in American writing and singled out for praise both Edith Wharton and Theodore Dreiser, who would eventually be acknowledged as major contributors to the American literary canon.
After a brief stint as literary editor of the Boston Herald newspaper (1913-14), politics as well as literature became Macy's focus. Increasingly opposed to warfare, he tried to join an American ambulance corps serving in France during World War I but could not afford the travel expenses: an appeal to his Harvard classmates for financial support went unheeded. Macy further alienated himself from the then conservative university when he published Socialism in America (1916), a sympathetic history of the movement in the United States. The book reportedly caused such consternation among alumni that he was later denied membership in the Harvard Club of New York.

Increasingly devoted to a belief in service to society, Macy focused his next book, Walter James Dodd: A Biographical Sketch (1918), on one of his own personal heroes, a pioneering roentgenologist. He continued to write essays on both literary and political subjects, and in 1922, two years after moving to New York City, he became literary editor of the Nation, a left-leaning, vintage political weekly. The association lasted only a year, in part because Macy, always sympathetic to the underdog, assigned reviews on the basis of personal need rather than expertise on the part of the reviewer.

After moving to New York in 1920 Macy had begun a relationship with a young sculptor who was also a deaf mute; the couple had a daughter together. Macy begged Sullivan for a divorce but she refused. The sculptor, whose name has not been publicly revealed, died in the late 1920s, leaving Macy to care for the child.

Hard-pressed to earn a living, Macy wrote several notable works for hire during the 1920s, including the essay "Journalism," published in Harold E. Stearns, ed., Civilization in the United States, an Inquiry by Thirty Americans (1922), and the book Massachusetts (1923), part of the history series These United States, edited by a friend, the future politician Ernest Gruening. During the 1920s he also published The Critical Game (1922), a collection of literary essays, and The Story of the World's Literature (1925), a handbook for the general reader. In 1926 Macy finally achieved stable employment when he became a literary editor at the publishing house William Morrow & Company, and that association continued until his death.

Macy was also the author of About Women (1930), a somewhat reactionary volume that criticized the feminist movement and called upon American men to resist what he called the feminization of American culture. With Blanche Colton Williams he co-authored Do You Know English Literature? (1930), another essay collection aimed at the general reader. In addition, he was the editor of American Writers on American Literature (1931), calling in his preface for a robust, lively literary criticism freed from academic restraints and accessible to the public.

Although Macy was in declining health for many years because of his alcoholism, his sudden death from a heart attack was unexpected. It occurred, appropriately, during a lecture series on American literature that he was presenting to trade unionists in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.
 

---

Bibliography
Limited biographical information on Macy can be found in the archives of Harvard University. A brief sketch of his life and career is included in George E. DeMille, Literary Criticism in America; a Preliminary Survey (1931). Although Macy was considered a major literary critic at the time of his death--one of the most important in America, according to his obituary in the New York Times, 27 Aug. 1932--he is now remembered mostly for his association with Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan. There are numerous biographies of Keller and Sullivan that discuss their relationships with Macy; the most reliable, extensive, and informative is Joseph P. Lash's monumental study Helen and Teacher: The Story of Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan Macy (1980). See also Nella Braddy, Anne Sullivan Macy: The Story behind Helen Keller (1933). In addition to the New York Times obituary, see death notices for Macy in Publishers' Weekly, 3 Sept. 1932, and the Nation, 4 Oct 1922.
By Ann T. Keene

In this photograph taken at Wrentham, circa 1905, John is seated in three-quarter profile between Helen and Anne. Helen stands in front of him and Anne stands behind him. She leans against the back of his chair with her right hand on his shoulder. He is holding a manuscript and looking up at the camera while manually signing into Helen's hand. John wears a light colored suit with a darker necktie that seems to be tied in a soft bow. Anne wears a dark, two-piece dress with a white blouse under the jacket. Helen's dress is also dark, with a deeply curved white collar, a high waist, and full three-quarter length sleeves with net ruffles at the elbow.

John, Anne, and Helen are shown standing with a dog in a garden, under a wooden structure covered in leaves, circa 1905. John is leaning slightly to his left, holding the dog's collar. He wears a light colored suit with a white shirt and dark tie. Anne wears what appears to be two-piece dress with a long dark skirt, a matching hip-length jacket and a white blouse. Helen's dark dress is long, with a high waist and a white collar. The full, three-quarter length sleeves have a dark net ruffle at the elbow.

John Macy swiftly learned the manual alphabet to communicate directly with the then twenty-two-year-old Helen Keller. He helped her edit her book The Story of My Life, which was published in its entirety by Doubleday, Page and Company in 1903. Macy married Anne Sullivan.

Portrait of Anne Sullivan, circa 1887

This head and shoulders photographic portrait of Anne in profile shows her looking quite glamorous. She wears what appears to be a large jeweled barrette in her hair. Her Empire-style dress has a square neck and gathered bodice. Two long strands of sparkling beads are attached to the shoulder straps of the dress. Photo circa 1910.

This photograph shows Anne Sullivan Macy, center, receiving an honorary degree from Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1932. Polly is second from the left and Helen is third. All three women, as well as the four male faculty members, are wearing caps and gowns. They are standing in front of the glass doors of a large stone building. Photo credit: Acme Newspictures, Inc., New York.

This photograph appeared in the Illustrated Daily News. It shows, from left to right, Franklin Ardell, Anne Sullivan Macy, Sieglende (the dog), Helen Keller, and Margaret Vail in front of a car. They are taking part in a strike by actors in 1919. The car resembles an old Ford motor car. All three women wear splendid hats with wide brims. Anne and Helen appear to be wearing furs around their necks. Sieglende, in the center, is sitting on the hood of the car and Margaret Vail holds a banner that reads "THOSE NOT FOR EQUITY ONLY 27' (Guaranteed Harmless spirits)."

From The House in Wrentham
Today’s Heroine – Anne Sullivan Macy (1866-1936)
Letter from John Albert Macy to Alexander Graham Bell, April 4, 1903

Mrs. Macy Is Dead; Aided Miss Keller

October 21, 1936

BY THE NEW YORK TIMES Mrs. Anne Mansfield Sullivan Macy, who for nearly fifty years was the kindly, patient and brilliant teacher of Miss Helen Keller, noted blind and deaf woman, died yesterday at their home, 71-11 Seminole Avenue, Forest Hills, Queens. She had been suffering from a heart ailment, which became acute early this Summer. Mrs. Macy was 70 years old.

Mrs. Macy taught Miss Keller to read, speak and know the world about her by use of her fingertips. Their lifelong devotion to each other was internationally famous and one was seldom seen or heard of without the other. Blindness, which had shadowed the child Anne Sullivan's life and which she had conquered before she met Miss Keller, had returned to darken her last days, and Miss Keller had to become the teacher and Mrs. Macy the pupil.
Miss Keller yesterday paid this tribute: "Teacher is free at least from pain and blindness. I pray for strength to endure the silent dark until she smiles upon me again."
Miss Polly Thompson, Miss Keller's secretary, said yesterday that Miss Keller was "bearing up magnificently" under her loss. During the last week Miss Keller was almost constantly at Mrs. Macy's side. Mrs. Macy was in a coma from Thursday until she died. On Wednesday she said: "Oh, Helen and Polly, my children, I pray God will unite us in His love."
Mrs. Macy, so long the link to light for Miss Keller, lost the sight of her own right eye in 1929, due partly to a cataract, for which an operation was performed. In May, 1935, a cataract operation was done on her left eye, but thereafter she was able to distinguish only light and color with it. She could no longer read or guide her beloved Miss Keller, who, despite her own handicaps, devoted herself to her friend.
Pupil Guides Teacher in Braille As early as 1933 Miss Keller had commenced to teach Mrs. Macy to read Braille. But the Braille system had changed since Mrs. Macy taught it to Miss Keller and the teacher found it difficult.
When it became known that year that Miss Keller, who had been led out of the black silence in which she had existed since childhood by the ingenuity, perseverance and patience of her teacher, was in turn preparing her teacher to "see" with her fingers, THE NEW YORK TIMES, in an editorial, said:
"The 'blind leading the blind' will henceforth have a new meaning wherever the story of Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller is known. They who have been exiled from the light have been able to demonstrate the power of the mind to overcome limitation."
Mrs. Macy was 21 years old when she met Helen Keller. Born in Feeding Hills, near Springfield, Mass., on April 14, 1866, the daughter of Irish immigrants, John and Mary Mansfield Sullivan, Mrs. Macy suffered the loss of her mother when a young child. For a year or two she was supported by poor relatives, but at the age of 10 she was sent to the State Infirmary, Tewksbury, Mass.
She was already partially blind and at the infirmary two eye operations were performed, but her sight did not improve. She was led to believe that Frank B. Sanborn, chairman of the State Board of Charities, who sometimes visited the infirmary, might be able to aid her. She pleaded with him and he arranged for her entry into the Perkins Institution for the Blind in Boston, where lived Laura Bridgman, blind and deaf, who had been trained there.
Underwent Two Eye Operations Mrs. Macy entered the Perkins Institution in 1880, made there a brilliant scholastic record and learned to study with her fingers, and later, after two operations had restored her sight, to use her eyes. She learned the manual, or finger, alphabet, so as to be able to talk to Laura Bridgman. In 1886 she was graduated as valedictorian of her class.
Not long after her graduation Helen Keller's father wrote to the institution asking for help for her. Miss Sullivan was chosen to be her teacher and, after familiarizing herself with the details of her new work, went to Helen's home in Tuscumbia, Ala.
The two who were to mean so much to each other until Mrs. Macy's death yesterday met first on March 3, 1887, three months before Helen was 7 years old. Miss Keller said later that it was "the most important day I remember in all my life."
Working carefully, so as to bring Helen under some sort of discipline without breaking her spirit, Mrs. Macy began spelling words into her hand. With no understanding of what they meant, Helen began repeating them.
The teacher persisted, spelling the word doll when she gave her a doll, bread when she gave her bread, candy when she gave her candy. In less than a month Helen realized that everything had a name and that she had a way, the finger alphabet, of calling the names.
Teaching Along New Paths One day Mrs. Macy tried to teach Helen the difference between a cup and the water in the cup. She took her to a pump, pumped water over one hand and spelled water into the other hand. Helen at last understood. She pointed to Miss Sullivan, who spelled teacher, and "teacher" she was to the close.
Mrs. Macy educated Helen, using always the finger spelling, but treating her like any other child. After preliminary lessons in speaking, Helen learned from Mrs. Macy to converse and even speak from a platform.
Teacher and pupil remained for a time at the Perkins Institution. Then, in 1894, Helen was enrolled in the Wright-Humason Oral School for the Deaf in New York. Later Miss Sullivan took her to a school in Cambridge to prepare her for Radcliffe College and finally Helen passed triumphantly her entrance examinations, entered Radcliffe and in 1904 was graduated cum laude.
Throughout the college course Mrs. Macy was with Helen, spelling into her hands the words of the textbooks and the books of required reading. Miss Keller's career thereafter brought her more and more into the public eye. She became famous as an author, she raised huge sums for the blind, she traveled, she was everywhere acclaimed, and Mrs. Macy went everywhere with her.
"My own life," Mrs. Macy said once, "is so interwoven with my Helen's life that I can't separate myself from her."
Honored by Foreign Lands When Mrs. Macy's sixty-seventh birthday was celebrated Miss Keller proposed a toast:
"Here's to my teacher, whose birthday was the Easter morning of my life."
In 1931 Mrs. Macy received the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Temple University and the Order of St. Sava from the King of Yugoslavia.
In 1932 she became an honorary fellow of the Educational Institute of Scotland. Mrs. Macy stayed in seclusion for several months in 1933 in Scotland while Miss Keller nursed her. Mrs. Macy's blindness grew more pronounced and on her return from Scotland she said:
"Helen is and always has been thoroughly well behaved in her blindness as well as her deafness, but I'm making a futile fight of it, like a bucking bronco. It's not the big things in life that one misses through loss of sight, but such little things as being able to read. And I have no patience, like Helen, for the Braille system, because I can't read fast enough."
Early this month the Roosevelt Memorial Association announced that Roosevelt medals "for a cooperative achievement of heroic character and far-reaching significance" would be presented to Miss Keller and Mrs. Macy. In a telegram of sympathy to Miss Keller yesterday Hermann Hagedorn, executive director of the association, said that presentation to Miss Keller would be postponed from Oct. 27 to next year.
Mrs. Macy was married to John Albert Macy, author and critic, in 1905. He died in 1932. There are no immediate survivors.
A funeral service will be conducted at 2 P. M. tomorrow at the Park Avenue Presbyterian Church, 1,010 Park Avenue, by the Rev. Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick and the Rev. Edmund M. Wylie, the pastor.
After the service, cremation will take place, in accord with Mrs. Macy's wish, at the Fresh Pond Crematory, Queens.
The honorary pallbearers will be M. C. Migel, president of the American Foundation for the Blind, which Miss Keller and Mrs. Macy greatly aided; Robert Irwin, executive director of the foundation; Harvey D. Gibson, Russell Doubleday, Dr. Conrad Berens, Dr. Philip S. Smith, Dr. William F. Saybolt, Dr. John H. Finley, Louis Bamberger, the Rev. Dr. Edward E. Allen, director emeritus of the Perkins Institution; Dr. William Allan Neilson, president of Smith College, and William Ziegler Jr. 
 From the Scrapbooks of DOR @ the Macy Colby House archives some great info on descendants of Thomas Macy

Photo Colby

Photo of George C W Colby gift of Patti Clasen

                                              

Isaac Newton Colby gift of Patti Clasen

                                  

Hannah Taylor Colby gift of Patti Clasen

                                     

Capt. Isaac N. Colby with Mary Amelia Haskell Colby (dressed in white)

             

William Johnson Colby – A Remarkable Life Remembered Review at Wickedlocal

  H. G. Johnson

                                                        
William J. Colby’s sister, Elizabeth Cushing Colby born aboard ship in the China Sea in 1872, married Craven Langstroth Betts, a noted poet of some renown in 1906. I found Elizabeth’s grandmother was Fanny Matilda Betts who had married Caleb Haskell and was the daughter of Dr. Azor Betts of revolutionary war notoriety, a founding father of St. John, New Brunswick, and the grandfather to Craven. It seems that Craven and Elizabeth had the same great grandparents in Dr. Azor Betts and Glorianna Purdy Betts. Puzzle was solved but more thought was produced upon this relationship.
Capt. Isaac N. Colby with his wife Mary Amelia Haskell Colby dressed in white, and guests.

Mary Amelia Haskell Colby

                                                  
Craven Langstroth Betts 1853-1941, husband to Elizabeth Cushing Colby m.1906
Harriet Taylor Colby, daughter of George Curwin Ward Colby and Harriet Kitching. Harriet T. Colby was one of seven children from the marriage of George and Harriet. Harriet and George’s marriage in 1832 produced Mary Elizabeth Colby in 1833, death unknown but living with her parents in Newburyport with her three children from a marriage to Henry P. Griffith on New Year’s Day in 1857; George William Colby born 1836 and died in the China Sea in 1863. Interesting that George’s brother Isaac Newton Colby born in 1838 had a daughter, Elizabeth Cushing Colby, born in 1872 on the China Sea (food for thought on this coincidence);

Thomas Foulds Ellsworth

                                    

 Early 1900's on Orange Grove Street, Pasadena, CA Thomas Foulds Ellsworth ad his wife Harriet Taylor Colby

Charles Henry Colby gift of Patti Clasen born 1845 and died after 1905; Rufus Francis Colby only lived three years from 1848-1851.

Benjamin Noyes Ellsworth Ipswich lighthouse keeper father of Thomas F Ellsworth

William Merrill Ellsworth (1845-1897) son of Benjamin Noyes Ellsworth and Laura Ann Titus. Husband of Jennie A Lord. 

                   

Susan Treadwell Ellsworth (below photo

         

Alfred Hartwell Ellsworth (1868-1932) son of Thomas Ellsworth and Harriet Taylor Colby

Harriet Taylor Colby Ellsworth and her son Elmer Foulds Ellsworth (1862-1915)

George C. W. Colby had been married before to a Dorothy B. Philbrick in 1825. Dorothy and George had three children, two of which were called Hannah, after George’s mother Hannah Taylor, and another daughter by the name of Caroline. They did not survive but for a year or two and in fact, Caroline only a few months in 1831. Dorothy died a few months after Caroline probably due to childbirth complications but the facts remain hidden.

And so, I sit here in my warm home along the mid-coast of Maine on this cold and blustery day on November 18 in 2014 and don’t daydream about the past so much but ponder some questions that come to mind. How does a man like George Curwin Ward Colby manage the mental stress and discomfort of loosing a wife and three young children as well as other family members not surviving a full life? Faith perhaps. What are the implications to such close blood relations within the Bett’s family? Nothing perhaps, just interesting fodder. Between 1864 and 1872 how do you connect the birth of a daughter in the China Sea to the death of a brother eight years earlier in such a remote part of the world? What’s the significance? Fate perhaps as I cannot see how these events could be planned in those days. Life and death is usually not planned even in these modern times but modern technology could make the coincidence of the place on earth for these events to happen more possible. Lastly, for now, the habit, insistence, and/or the common practice of naming an offspring after family members interests me and although sometimes confusing it often gives further insight into relationships. Obviously, George’s naming three daughters after his mother, Hannah (Taylor) Colby demonstrated a strong, I believe positive, feeling for her. Below is George's daughter Hannah Taylor Colby

Thomas Foulds Ellsworth (1840-1911) married Harriet Taylor Colby (1841-1933) on March 6 1861. Harriet, daughter of George Curwin Ward Colby (Isaac4, Isaac3, Isaac2, Anthony1) and Harriet Kitchen. George Curwin Ward Colby married first Dorothy B. Philbrook, daughter of Simeon Philbrook on March 27, 1825. The family lived on the present Arthur Taylor place and then removed to Newburyport, MA.  George was a truckman and had extensive business for several years. The house was located on 62 Middle Street. Dorothy died Sept. 12, 1831, and he married Harriet Kitchen/Kitching April 27, 1832.  
Thomas Foulds Ellsworth and Harriet Taylor Children:
Elmer Foulds Ellsworth Born October 10^th 1862 Massachusetts, Died November 28^th 1915 in Pasadena, California.
Herbert Lee.  Born in Newburyport , Mass. October 19^th  1866, Died Pasadena March 31^st 1963 married Mary Elizabeth Geyer
Alfred Hartwell. Born February 2^nd 1868 Ipswich, Mass.  Died December 27^th 1932 in Pasadena, California. 
Edward Kinsley., b May 20, 1871
Susie Taylor, b. June 15, 1874. Death April 1881 in (Scarlet Fever)
Info from "History of Sanbornton, New Hampshire, Volume 2" By Moses Thurston Runnels. See Photos below
 

Young William Johnson Colby

                            

William Johnson Colby in the Colby Cottage on David’s Island. Courtesy of Mark Colby

Craven Langstroth Betts 1853-1941, husband to Elizabeth Cushing Colby m.1906

sketch of WJC done in 1892 aboard Capt. Isaac N. Colby's bark H. G. Johnson by William's sister and Capt. Colby's daughter Elizabeth Cushing Colby Betts

 William Johnson Colby - David's Island c. 1950s

Captain Thomas Foulds Ellsworth was one of four soldiers who earned the Medal of Honor for heroism during the battle at Honey Hill, South Carolina, on November 30, 1864. Under a heavy fire he carried his wounded commanding officer from the field, thereby saving his life and preventing him from being captured. 

 Thomas Fouls Ellsworth was born in Ipswich, MA November 12, 1840. He was the son of Benjamin Noyes Ellsworth (1812-1902) and Laura Ann Titus (1810-1867) daughter of John Smith Titus (1780-1868) and Sally Boyton (1784-1871). John Smith Titus was son of Captain Samuel Titus and Anne Bigelow.

Laura Titus was formerly married to Timothy Jewett Ellsworth of Salem, Massachusetts. More family photos end of post Benjamin N Ellsworth son of William Ellsworth and Esther Noyes. Pictures of Benjamin Noyes Ellsworth and Laura Ann Titus below from Short family and Ipswich History

 This is an early photo of Benjamin Ellsworth standing in front of the Ipswich lighthouse. Benjamin Ellsworth was keeper at the Ipswich Range Lights from 1861 until 1902. He was appointed by Abe Lincoln. The lighthouse was taken down and moved in 1939.

The New York Times February 21 1902 cited Benjamin Ellsworth as the oldest Lighthouse Keeper in the world!

Top Article Benjamin Ellsworth; Ipswich; Castle Neck; Thursday Monday, March 3, 1902  Fort Worth Morning Register (Fort Worth, Texas)

Benjamin Ellsworth with children in Ipswich in the Ipswich Chronicle

 

John Smith Titus (1780-1868) and his wife Sally Boyton Titus (1784-1871)

Timothy Jewett Ellsworth (1805-1859) son of William Ellsworth and Esther Stanwood Noyes. Husband of Laura Ann Titus.

William Merrill Ellsworth

 Mary Houghton Ellsworth

 Mary 

Anna Hale Colby 

Charles Henry Colby 

Milly Colby daughter of George 

Back of photo recorded by Laurie Short Jarvis  GGG Uncle Captain Thomas Foulds Ellsworth, son of Benjamin Noyes Ellsworth (Ipswich lighthouse keeper during the 2nd half of the 1800's) Recieved the Congressional Medal of Honor for saving the life of his wounded commanding office who was trapped under his horse at the Battle of Honey Hill. He was in the 55th Black Infantry out of Mass, referred to as the 'overflow unit' for the infamous 54th of "Glory' fame. The men from the 55th were moved into the 54th after the 54th recieved heavy casualties. The 54th and 55th fought side by side at Honey Hill. Was wonded at Gettysbury 2/3/1863

Thomas Foulds Ellsworth was wounded in the ankle at Gettysburg July 3, 1863, but not considered disabled so he reenlisted. He was discharged January 19, 1864 on receiving commission of of second lieutenant in the 55th Massachusetts October 4, 1863. He became first lieutenant June 20, 1864 for his bravery and promoted to Captain December 1, 1864. He was awarded one of our country’s top honors for saving the life of his commanding officer in the battle of Honey Hill in 1864. Under heavy fire, and at great risk to his own life, he carried his wounded commanding officer from the field of battle. Ellsworth had joined the Union Army’s Second Massachusetts Volunteers as a private while still in his early twenties and went on to see action in numerous battles including Chancellorsville and Gettysburg.  He was promoted to an officer due to his reputation for bravery under fire. Ellsworth faced a major challenge when he was selected to serve as an officer of a company in one of the first regiments made up of “colored soldiers” in the Union Army, the Massachusetts 55. This regiment struggled to get the respect and support that they deserved, but went on to gain distinction for their valiant actions in battle in South Carolina. After the war, Ellsworth worked for many years as an officer of the Boston Custom House. In the 1890s, he moved to burgeoning city of Pasadena where he and his son ran a successful contracting business. He also organized Post 100 of the Grand Army of the Republic Friday July 16, 1869 in Ipswich. 

Medal of Honor Valor Awards Earned The Medal of Honor During the Civil War For heroism November 30, 1864 at Honey Hill, South Carolina. Under a Heavy Fire Pasadena Museum of History Thomas F Ellsworth on exhibit

Thomas F Ellsworth Saturday, October 3, 1874 Boston Daily Advertiser

 

Wilbur Fiske Ellsworth (1843-1898) son of Benjamin Noyes Ellsworth and Laura Ann Titus. He married Elizabeth Ann Lord. 

Elizabeth Ann Lord (1850-1934) daughter of Ebenezer Lord III and Hannah Staniford Ross. Ebenezer Lord III was son of Ebenezer Lord and Elizabeth Kimball

Elizabeth Kimball (1785-1871) daughter of Caleb Kimball and Elizabeth Hammond. She married Ebenezer Lord, father of Ebebenzer. 

Lucy Mary Ellsworth (1877-1932) daughter of Wilbur Fiske Ellsworth and Elizabeth Ann Lord. Wife of Augstine Heard Peatfield (1878-1965). 

Augstine Heard Peatfield JR (1878-1965) son of
Augstine Heard Peatfield SR and Josephine Poulison. Husband of Lucy Mary Ellsworth.

Edith Titus Ellsworth (1882-1941) daughter of Wilbur Fiske Ellsworth and Elizabeth Ann Lord. 

Benjamin Forest Ellsworth (1889-1894) son of William Elmer Ellsworth and Jennie A Lord.