Some History on the Families of Eaton, Pilgrims, & Fall Festival.

The Fall is coming on us quickly, and while getting ready stacking wood and thinking of our next museum event, " Fall Festival History Weekend" followed by our November Pie Sale...I dug this up and thought you might enjoy reading it again!

Many of our original settlers in Eaton date back to the Mayflower and the settlers of Natick especially the Morse, Leland, Kent and Stowe families.  Eaton followed much of the tradition of Natick so I thought I would include some wonderful history on Thanksgiving and Governor Bradford who Grandma Clark was a direct relative of. 

  The first Thanksgiving was truly different from what we see portrayed today on TV and in the movies.  In actuality, the Pilgrims who had invited the Indians over to thank them for their help in cultivating corn, in fishing and in hunting, and for basically keeping them alive for the first year, were stunned when the Indians arrived for the feast in numbers far beyond what the Pilgrim’s could feed.  So, the Indians left and hunted for deer and fowl and returned with the food necessary for the feast to last three days…yes, three days.

     This occasion was unusually frivolous for the stern Pilgrims and comprised of continuous eating, the marching of Myles Standish’s little band of soldiers, bow and arrow competition etc…  The feast meanwhile was tended to by five of the eighteen women who survived the first terrible winter.  Imagine trying to fix a feast for 140-150 people over an open fire, and then stretch it to three days.

     The great Governor Bradford delivered this prayer on the first Thanksgiving and I thought I would include it for us:

     Oh give thanks unto the Lord; sing unto him; sing praises unto him, for the precious things of heaven for the dew, and for the deep that couches beneath, and for the precious fruits brought forth from the sun, and for the precious things put forth by the moon, and for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the everlasting hills, and for the precious things of the earth and its fullness.  Let everything that has breath praise the Lord, Praise ye the Lord.

     Of interest, I think, are a number of passages from “Of Plimouth Plantation” by Governor Bradford, which mention the colony’s success only by acts of what he referred to as “God’s divine providence”.

     Bradford mentions windfalls of corn from unexpected quarters, a mysterious voice that warned the colonials of a store-house fire, showers that came just in time to save the crops, even the turning back of a ship that would foreclose on the colony.  These quotes show the success of the colony having been squarely laid on the cornerstone of faith.

     This faith led Bradford to guide the colony through all of its terrible trials and gave him the moral capacity to do what was right for all without wish for personal gain.  From his first election in 1622 until 1639, he received nothing for dining the court during their monthly sessions.  One comment I received after the piece on the “Common Good” read “too bad things could not be like that today!”  To this I say, “Amen!”  The word “altruism” is too seldom used to describe our modern leaders.

     The key word in our pursuit of the history of the Pilgrim’s is DEMOCRACY.  Democracy, is the basis for the Pilgrim’s government, carried through both the church and the state, something we need to concentrate on today I think.

Fall Festival will be the first weekend in October and will close for the season at the end of the month.

The Morse House today and before!

Thoughts on Community and Eaton's Day!

Memorial Day Monday is once again calling you to come to Eaton and help support the Old Town of Eaton Museum.  

Each year through pies and goodies the museum manages to bring the history of the area to the public and to preserve the artifacts that have been handed down over the past 220 years plus.  Some of our artifact gems date to 1797 and Eaton’s earliest settlers.

Until you get older you never realize how important a role the small town you were born in has played and how it shaped your life.  In actuality it is part of your family because in many cases your parent or grandparents may have come from the town as well.

In Eaton many of the founding families are still here, names that still fill classrooms, societies and eventually come home to rest in our local cemeteries.  History and our American root system are what hold us together as a people, and hold our tree of Democracy upright.

On Memorial Day we celebrate our many veteran’s who served with honor to protect that Democracy.  Eaton the Town and Hamlets were founded by soldiers who served in the Revolutionary War. Here in our cemeteries every war is represented a grim succession of graves.

Community Spirit has made us what we are so we the “Keepers of the Fire” for the community… known as the Friends of the Eaton Museum… invite you and your family to come to Eaton on Memorial Day Monday. We ask you to pick up a bake good, a history book, a garage sale item, a hot dog or a drink and contribute to the Old Town of Eaton Museum.  These donations also pay for this event each year.

This will also give you the opportunity to visit over refreshments with neighbors and relatives… some not seen over winter’s long drudge.  You will also be helping keep open an 1806 stone building that houses the “Past for the Future”. It is nice to remember that memories are still a part of our “Reveries” whether we are young or old!

The event runs from 9 am until 3 pm…the museum will be open from 1 pm until 3 pm and the location is the Old Auction Barn next to the Post Office on Route 26 in Eaton a road once called the “old Skaneateles turnpike”.

Watch the videos below and see some of your relatives and friends or maybe even you much younger....and  remember the many who are gone.