Almost let Friday go by without posting. Except I’m only posting to say I’m extremely busy. Yesterday and today, as well as a little on Thursday, I have been tied up with engineering work for my former company. 9.5 hours yesterday, 3 so far today and not done.
I have several special projects around the house that are not getting done. Well, I did one today. I fixed a small computer cabinet of which the front fascia/support member broke off. I figured out how to fix it, though I couldn’t find the hardware that had broken off. Fifteen minutes of searching in my mix-up hardware repository in the garage and I found what I needed. The cabinet is fixed, the area it occupied vacuumed, the cabinet back in place and re-loaded. Only a little clean-up remains.
I also went by the post office and the bank to get a couple of things done. The P.O. stop especially took a great load off my mind. I might now be able to think clearly enough about the remaining tasks. I would love to get through this weekend having many things checked off my to-do list, and Monday be able to say I see both the trees and the forest. Right now the trees are overwhelming the forest.
My 1954 copy of this book has no dust jacket, and the spine is too faded to read. It came from my parent’s house. Without the dust jacket I can’t tell if it’s a first edition, though it was published in 1954.
Having finished a book back in March, and taking a lot of time working my way through my magazine pile, I also began glancing on my shelves for what to read next. I found two different non-fiction books that looked good and moved them from bookshelf to reading pile. It was really time for reading a novel, however, so I went back to the shelves.
In the garage, on a shelf that contains hundreds of books slated for donation or sale, I found a volume that looked intriguing. It’s Love Is Eternal by Irving Stone. The spine is worn on this 1954 print and I could hardly read the title on it. Opening to the title page I saw the subtitle is “A Novel About Mary Todd and Abraham Lincoln”. Now that sounded interesting. Lincoln is my favorite president; he naturally featured prominently in my non-fiction Civil War book. So I took this from the shelf and decided it would be my next read.
I must interject here that I am not related to Mary Todd, at least not that I know. If I am, it’s more than eight generations back someplace in the Old World. I’ve never looked for a connection back there. I probably should.
464 pages and 36 sittings later and the book is read. Wow, that’s a long time you say. Yes, just under 13 pages per sitting. That was about all the time I felt like I could devote to reading during this period, as it included my intense research and writing of a family history book, my wife’s hospitalization, and a period much devoted to decluttering. It wasn’t due to the book itself, but to life circumstances.
What a good book! Stone goes to great lengths to be faithful to the historical record. Based on the title I was expecting it to alternate between Abraham’s and Mary’s point of view, but it was all from Mary’s. That’s good, though unexpected. It shows Mary as a pampered southern belle, her daddy’s favorite. She socializes with all the important Kentucky politicians. She follows two sisters from Lexington KY to Springfield IL, where she will perhaps find a husband. She meets Stephen Douglas and other important men, but then meets Abraham Lincoln and others fade from her view.
Stone spends a lot of time on the early years, and progressively less on later years. All major events of Lincoln’s political career are covered, but in fewer words for the presidential years. I suspect Stone thought Lincoln’s presidency has been covered in great depth and that the early years needed more coverage. The book ends with Mary leaving the White House a few weeks after Lincoln’s death.
If I had to pick at some things that I didn’t like, I can find only two. First, I would have liked to have some data provided, perhaps a listing of the parents, siblings, and perhaps the grandparents of Abraham and Mary. What with parents, step-parents, siblings, half-siblings, step-siblings, etc, I sometimes was confused. For Mary, especially, being one of 16 siblings, I couldn’t keep them straight. A timeline for each of them would have helped, as would have a couple of simple maps, of Lexington and Springfield.
Second, I wish Stone hadn’t spent so much time on Mary’s clothes. He constantly talked about the gowns she wore, giving color and style. Who cares? I suppose that helped to develop her character and the situations she lived in, but it got kind of tiring after a while.
So, I pulled this book from the sale/donation pile, but is it really a keeper? I think my wife would enjoy it and I’m going to encourage her to read it. Meanwhile, from my deculttering and organizing work, I found two other Irving Stone books in my library about president’s wives: Those Who Love (Abigail Adams) and The President’s Lady (Rachel Jackson). I also have a first edition of his book They Also Ran, about those who ran for the presidency as nominees of their party but never won, which I read decades ago and remember it as being excellent. I also read (from a library copy) Stone’s 1980 book The Origin about Charles Darwin, also excellent. So, I think I’ll keep this and have a mini-collection of Irving Stone books. Whether I get to read them or not is another question.
This is the 1940s—or more likely 1930s—recording technology.
I’ve written before about my efforts on de-cluttering. We have a large house, with a lot of storage space. When we moved here from our less-large house (I won’t say smaller; it was, but it wasn’t exactly small), we made no effort to sort through stuff. We had no space to lay things out. So everything went in truck, car, and trailer. There it remained for the last 18 years.
From time to time I organized things or made decisions on what to throw out. When my mother-in-law moved in with us in 2015, we suddenly had a room of extra furniture. I moved that into her room, moved the furniture that had been in there to the basement, and found a place for it. But the storeroom was an absolute mess. I bought one more utility shelf unit and filled it. That let me see what we had. Clogging up the room was an old computer desk, both lower and upper units. It had been water damaged in transit back in 1996. We used it while our children lived with us, but with them gone, why were we keeping it? It wasn’t even worth giving away. I managed to haul it out the back and up to the street and arranged for the trash company to get it. And, thus, my first de-cluttering happened.
Somewhere around that same year, 2015, I re-found some old audio recordings on vinyl records. They had come from my dad’s house, and turned out to be songs recorded by Uncle Frank Reed, who married my father’s sister. He sang semi-professionally in his youth. These came to us from cleaning out Dad’s house in 1998, went into the crammed garage, got moved to the new house in 2002, and sat somewhere in the storeroom. In the 2015 clean-up I found them and put them on a shelf, lying horizontally and properly supported on the bottom, as recommended for vinyl. They were in a place where I knew I would remember where they were.
I played this game many times in my youth and childhood. I hope it is equally well-played at its new home.
Over the next couple of years I began going through photographs and sent some to Frank Reed’s grandson, Frank Reed 3rd, in New Jersey. Frank was close to his grandfather. It occurred to me that he might want those recordings of his grandfather. He said yes, absolutely. So I went to the storeroom to get them and…they weren’t where I expected them to be. I looked and looked for them and they just weren’t there.
Where did they go? Over the last three years, just about every time I did any work in the storeroom, I looked for them. I decided I must have put them elsewhere. I couldn’t find them. Last Saturday, during a time of some major sorting and discarding, I looked in places where they weren’t supposed to be. Sure enough, they weren’t there. I decided I needed to just quit. Someday they would show up. Meanwhile, in every message to or phone call with Frank I assured him I hadn’t forgotten my promise to find them and send them to him.
Then, Tuesday night, I went to the basement to find a certain book that I wanted to read. It wasn’t in any of the family room bookshelves. It wasn’t on my “literary” bookshelf in the storeroom. It wasn’t in three boxes of books awaiting sorting and shelving. I knew it wasn’t in one of the 20 or 30 boxes on the utility shelves, for I bought it after those boxes were filled and placed. But, on a couple of shelves were some loose books sitting on the boxes. I didn’t think the book would be there, and it wasn’t.
But, as I picked up a couple of those loose books, to my surprise, underneath them were Uncle Frank’s recordings! Exactly where I had put them five or so years ago. Apparently, after putting the records there, I put the loose books on top of them to help keep them from buckling, or to keep them from being jostled.
I immediately snapped a picture and sent it to Frank. He was elated and wondered when they might be winging his way. I was not very specific on when I would send them. Then I remembered I would be at a UPS store the next day to have a document notarized (the bank lobbies being close for that service right now). I already had the shipping box, sent to me years ago by Frank, so I could send them the next day.
Then, I remembered the peg game that Frank’s grandfather made in his commercial machine shop in New Jersey. It was, if I remembered correctly, sitting in a file cabinet drawer. It wasn’t doing anyone any good there. I went to the file cabinet and, to my surprise, the game was exactly where I remembered. The pegs seem to have been separated. Once I find them they will go to the UPS store and wing their way to Pennsylvania.
Neither of these items are big; they don’t take up much space. I won’t be able to get rid of even one box, or off-load one shelf. But these are items my children won’t have to mess with when they clean out our house some years from now. They won’t have to wonder, “Who’s on these recordings?” or “What the heck is this metal thing?” They won’t get thrown out in the confusion of going through many things.
Instead, they will have been in my cousin’s family, giving them pleasure, remembering the grandfather and great-grandfather who was talented with a guitar and song, who made unique things in his shop, and was a mentor and friend to his progeny.
It was truly a win-win situation. Hopefully, I haven’t simply added to Frank’s clutter.
The to-do list remains as big as ever. I chipped away at it over the last three days, but didn’t get as far as I wanted to.
I fixed a bookshelf that was overloaded. It seems that bookshelves are always built cheap. Fully load the shelf and it begins to sag. I discovered this only after loading a few of them and, after a few years, seeing them sagging. I unloaded several and put additional supports where the front bar attaches to the shelf. This generally is enough. However, I recently noticed one shelf sagging again despite having been fixed. I unloaded it last weekend, took it to the garage, and put weight on it to straighten it. Yesterday I tried an experimental method to strengthen it. Tomorrow I’ll put it back in place. One item checked off.
I did some reading in magazines and in a book. I think I finished three mags and put them in the recycling box. I’ve made a lot of progress on this and my mag basket is no longer overflowing.
In yardwork I had weeding of the rock yard (progress made) and moving an old wood pile from the backyard into the woods (progress made). I have lots more to do, but I’m pleased, at this point in the season, with where the yardwork stands.
I did other typical weekend chores, including checkbook, budgeting, filing (well, a little). On decluttering I mainly consolidated things. I found an underused plastic bin, combined the contents of the two, thus freeing one bin. I used that to put our old letters and cards in. I need to go through them some day, but at least they are all in one place now.
Which brings me to my writing career. My novel-in-progress, The Teachings, has been languishing for a month and a half while I expended writing and research energy on other things. Last weekend I read-through a print-out of it (close to 100 pages double-spaced, making edits along the way. I found that I barely remembered where I had left off and where I planned to go.
So around Tuesday I went back to reading for research in the 66 a.d. Jewish War. I re-read a chapter dealing with where I left off in the narrative. Then I went on to the next chapter. Josephus included a couple of dates in his account. When I checked that against my timeline I discovered I have events taking place in the wrong season of the year. So I have to work on getting that right.
Yesterday, after a 2.4 mile walk on one of our new trails in Bella Vista, I took Josephus, my manuscript, a mug of coffee, and some paper out on the deck. The temperature was about 69, a nice breeze made it quite pleasant on our eastward-facing deck. I began to write what my next few scenes will be. My two main characters, Adam ben Zechariah and his son Augustus, are moving from place to place in Israel, each hoping to see the other but just missing each other.
After less than an hour’s work, I had the next five scenes identified. These will be fairly easy to write.
But first I have to fix the timeline. For that I have to go back to Doctor Luke’s Assistant again and see what month and year I left off in. I know I was at the right time at the end of DLA. I hope to start on that tonight, and to have the five scenes written by the end of the week.
When Dad set type for the “Stars and Stripes” newspaper in Europe during World War 2, he suggested this for the headline of the VE Day special edition, and the editor agreed. A typesetter chose the headline, 75 yeas ago today. Well, the type was probably set 75 years ago yesterday, but let’s not quibble.
I have been trying to find something to write about today. In recent posts I’ve covered decluttering, which I could write more on but is actually boring if covered too much. Who wants to know about what I’ve thrown out today?
I could write about helping a fellow writer with a used computer, allowing her to write more efficiently during these times when she can’t get to the places where she used to use a computer. That wouldn’t be bad, and perhaps I’ll cover that in a future post.
I could write about The Teachings and how I’m doing with it. Again, I’ve written about that several times. While I’m making progress, I don’t really have much new to report.
Dad at the mobile Linotype unit in Italy in 1943. He was within sound of the guns, subject to enemy bombers if they ever came over. Note the pin-up girl on the machine!
None of those sounded good, so yesterday and earlier this morning I didn’t write anything. Then I realized what day this is. May 8. VE Day. Victory in Europe in World War 2. This was the day that the Stars and Stripes newspaper used the headline Dad suggested. He was setting type for the S&S in Marseilles, France. On May 7 the news came that the Germans were surrendering. The next day would be the end of the war in Europe. A special edition of the paper was called for. Dad suggested this for the momentous headline, and the editor agreed.
The S&S were put out in several places in Europe. Each place had its own editor, and each place put out a different newspaper, the stories being what the editor chose as being applicable to that area. So this was the headline from Marseilles, not from Paris, London, or Rome.
So, 75 years ago today, a Linotype operator chose the headline for the newspaper that marked the end of fighting in the European theater.
Waiting on someone to come get this rocking horse, but she never comes, is unsettling. Why don’t people come when they say they will? Do obligations mean nothing any more?
Well, after saying in my last post that I was about to re-start life, I find that more difficult to do than I expected. Why? Because of a heavy to-do list coupled with uncertainty, leading to unsettledness, leading to being overwhelmed by the forest and not being able to see the trees.
Where do I start, and how much do I say? I can get a lot done so long as I have a good to-do list
and a schedule. Even a long to-do list doesn’t put me off. What does put me off is lack of a schedule. Got 20 things to do? No problem; I’ll just schedule them. But when I can’t schedule them I have no idea what to do next. I get perplexed and flustered. The forest overwhelms me.
Part of the problem may be simple tiredness. On Saturday I did my usual tackling of to-do items. Trading accounting, checkbook, budgeting, and filing all went quickly. I got to work on decluttering, moving two large cabinets in the storage room, organizing things to remain for better placement on shelves, identifying more things to be discarded. I also spent 20 or 30 minutes shredding old work papers. Oh, yes, I also worked in the yard for an hour and a half, hauling an old wood pile back into the woods and pulling weeds from the rock yard. All this was sandwiched between three loads of laundry. With Lynda still convalescing I didn’t want to leave that to her.
So, by the end of the day I was beat. I sat out on the deck, trying to read but unable to concentrate. The day was hot (85 degrees) and that took its toll. I came inside with a few things to do but couldn’t do them. I wanted to take a walk but couldn’t do it because…
…I was waiting on a woman to come to buy the rocking horse I had put up for sale on Facebook marketplace. She contacted me Thursday saying she wanted it. Friday we made arrangements for her to come Saturday afternoon. I didn’t want Lynda to have to handle it, so I put off my walk. She didn’t come, didn’t message me. I did mindless things for two hours before messaging her asking where she was. She couldn’t come, she said, having been called in to work; could she come on Sunday? Sure, I replied, but I need to know when. She would message me 30 minutes before she would arrive. That was okay by me. My walks never take me more than 20 minutes from the house if I had to get back quickly.
So I fixed supper, worked on a jigsaw puzzle. I was out of energy. So much I could have accomplished in the time I was waiting on her. If she had just messaged me to say she needed to put it off a day I could have restructured my day, gotten my walk in, been able to rest comfortably, and not felt so unsettled for the sake of a $30 used rocking horse.
Ah, well, such is life. I did manage to spend a little time preparing to teach Life Group on Sunday. I also had just enough presence of mind to type edits on my novel-in-progress. Tomorrow I hope to get back to it. Except there’s an eye doctor appointment for Lynda, picking up an old computer of mine that’s been refurbished that I’m going to give to a retired missionary, stock trading, contacting a man about a roof, etc. At least I’m not going to worry about the horse. If she comes for it, fine. If not I’ll renew the ad and hope someone else sees it.
Meanwhile, time to fix supper and back to the jigsaw puzzle.
I’m not talking about the U.S. economy, about ready to begin emerging from the business shutdown to help slow the spread of the corona virus. I’m talking about me.
April was kind of a blur. I worked on and finished the genealogy/family history book. I did yard work. I did massive decluttering, getting rid of piles of paper, a score of empty boxes, five old computers. Some of that stuff is still in the garage, awaiting re-opening of the technology recycling center.
I took my wife to the hospital on the third, bringing her home on the 22nd after two operations and a difficult recovery. Now I’m her caregiver, though she is getting stronger each day and will be somewhat back to normal soon.
Now it’s May 1, my regular blogging day as well as the first of the month. It’s time for me to report on how I did on April goals and set some goals for May. But given how April was, I feel like I need to totally re-start things. I don’t know what the new normal will be, either in the world or in my life. Thus I’m not really ready to set new goals for my writing life. I guess, however, I can report on April progress.
Blog twice a week. I think I missed one day. Otherwise, I continued this through the unsettleness of the month.
Get as far as I can with the genealogy book. I finished this book. Yesterday I did a few tweaks. I still need one last proof, plus one last check to see that I have all events in the people’s lives covered. Plus I need to check the formatting to make sure the graphics insert properly. I may do that this weekend. Then, I head to publishing steps.
Spend at least some time in The Teachings. I should set a word goal. Let’s say 3,000 words is my goal for the month. All I did on The Teachings last month was re-read the first few chapters. Since the genealogy book consumed me, I kept this set aside. Maybe today and this weekend I’ll get back to re-reading the whole thing, and back to new writing next week.
Give my talk to the Village Lake Writers & Poets on April 8. This was to have been a virtual talk due to the ban on gatherings of over ten people. However, this was the day when Lynda was at her lowest in the hospital, and I found I couldn’t give it. I told the organizer I was willing to do it, but she said no, given the circumstances she would do something back-up and reschedule me.
Do some research into the next Documenting America book. Maybe it will just read the document I found. Maybe it will be to peruse the site that document came from and note other documents for use and at least skim them. I did nothing on this.
So there you have it. I’m not ready to set goals for May. Maybe I will be ready by Monday, or maybe not at all. As the U.S.A. looks to turn back to something normal, perhaps a new normal, so it is with me. Right now decluttering will take a higher priority than writing.
Look for my post on Monday. Perhaps I’ll have some clarity by then.
Is it the shut down of normal life due to the corona virus that is causing people to be so angry of late, including me?
We all know that fights can break out on social media. The only social media I do is Facebook (well, I just joined Next Door but haven’t gotten into it). It’s easy to witness fights there. Yesterday a friend shared something about injection of medicine into someone’s lungs. The original poster (not my friend, but a person unnamed) said she was a respiratory therapist, and that, while President Trump’s recent disinfectant comments were poorly worded he was actually spot-on for what the treatment is and does. She wasn’t saying that an effective treatment of corona virus has been found, but that the president’s question was actually of something worth considering. To show that she has no political agenda, she said she has never voted and isn’t even registered to vote.
Enter an acquaintance—I won’t call him a friend—who used to attend church with me and the one who shared that post. He said this: “This person needs to shut the hell up!!!! Not registered to vote, won’t vote, your [sic] not neutral your [sic] a moron sheep that has no right to share their opinion. No vote, no whining about anything!!!” That struck me the wrong way. First off, the respiratory therapist wasn’t whining, just sharing some of her experience. Second, I wasn’t aware the First Amendment had been rewritten to allow free speech only to those who voted. That’s the sort of thing I would expect in China. I replied to his comment with those sentiments. He then responded:
Dave is your head up your ass?
Sue is a friend, dear friend we can disagree or discuss a topic with out your two cents for sure!!!
He and I aren’t Facebook friends (not sure why, just never connected after life took us in different directions) and it looks like we won’t be. If he doesn’t think the First Amendment applies to all, we have little in common politically.
The other item of anger that helped define my week was in real life, not on social media. I lost my cool with someone who pushed my buttons (not my wife!). I let my anger loose in a phone call when the person once again pushed my buttons, for perhaps the fifth straight pone call. This person has always pushed my buttons and I’ve always controlled my anger much better. This week I let it go. I’ve since sent an e-mail of apology, but haven’t heard back yet. The person doesn’t regularly check e-mail.
So what caused my outburst? Yes, my buttons were pushed. Not one button but three by this person, three issues raised where he/she criticized me and my wife. It’s been happening for years, and I had finally had enough. But has the shutdown/lock-down/stay-at-home movement had a negative effect on my ability to deal with negative people?
I just read a post where someone was critical of some teenage girls who were out on a trail by a river and lake yesterday dressed in skimpy bikinis, more thongs. I agree with the poster that I’d rather not see such sights. I started to post in agreement, then stopped. I decided it’s just not worth it and moved on.
Life is good. God is good. There’s no reason to dive into these negatives. Controlling my own behavior is what I’m called to do, not to fix stupidity or wrong-headedness in others.
The Port Royal expedition was short, close at hand, and successful. The Quebec expedition was long, arduous, and conducted much too close to the harsh Canadian winter to be successful. Click on the image to see it larger.
I think I mentioned in a previous post that I pulled away from my creative writing to work on genealogy research and a genealogy/family history book. I suppose it is really more of a biography.
The subjects are Elizabeth Cheney and Stephen Cross, who married in Ipswich Massachusetts in 1672. Elizabeth is the youngest daughter of John Cheney of Newbury Massachusetts, who is my wife’s immigrant ancestor in her paternal line. Over the years I’ve gathered a lot of information on John and finally decided I should write a book about him. What the book would look like crystalized in 2015. It would be about him and his ten children who lived to adulthood. I decided I would start gathering data with the youngest child, since published sources I looked at had less about Elizabeth than her siblings.
From 2015 to 2016 I began that process. I found that there was actually a lot of information about Stephen Cross, Elizabeth’s husband. It’s unfortunate that, in the era they lived, the women didn’t leave as many footprints as the men. But there were a lot of footprints to find and assimilate. In a couple of months of occasional work, I had the part about Stephen and Elizabeth up to 60 pages, and I wasn’t really done.
Woah! Sixty plus pages for one of John’s children. That meant a possible 600 pages about the children. Add that much or more for John, and I was looking at a monster, 700 page book. That wouldn’t work unless I did two volumes.
Ipswich, on the north shore of Massachusetts, is an interesting study. It’s been nicknamed the Birthplace of American Independence for the stand many of its leading citizens took against the heavy-handed government of Edmund Andros.
I had another thought back in 2016. The Stephen and Elizabeth material could be expanded into a stand-alone book. I put this on my list of writing to-dos, then, my research fervor having been stated for the moment, I went back to my creative writing work, knowing someday I would get back to Stephen and Elizabeth, and later to her siblings.
“Someday” was March 25, 2020. I dusted off what I did in 2015-16, realized I had much more research I could do, and got into it passionately. When I research a topic the work tends to consume me. From the research I made three discoveries that, so far as I can tell, have been overlooked—or maybe “not found” is better—by other researchers.
First, Stephen was a coastal mariner. He bought a boat and plied the coasts from Maine to Connecticut, hauling freight. That has always been known by researchers. So has his part in the colonial naval assault against Quebec in 1690 as part of King William’s War. But researchers have missed that he was also part of an assault against Port Royal, Nova Scotia, two months before the Quebec expedition. Smaller, closer, shorter than the Quebec expedition, the Port Royal expedition was a huge success. Stephen Cross was part of it, not as a mariner, but as captain of a company of foot soldiers.
This seems to have been missed by all researchers. My research has turned up Stephen in close to twenty published works, sometimes as a “bit player” in a genealogy but sometimes as a key figure in a Cross family book, story, or major website. I’m not even sure how I found out about his Port Royal adventure. I suppose it came from researching the disastrous Quebec raid, which I learned was shortly after the successful Port Royal raid. Searching a narrative of that must have turned up Stephen’s name. It didn’t take much digging to confirm his participation and role.
The fact that he led foot soldiers at Port Royal caused me to question the nature of his participation at Quebec. Every researcher I’ve found said he captained the ketch Lark in that raid. However, in original sources about the Quebec expedition, his name doesn’t show up as the captain of that vessel. Instead, it shows up because he attended a war council the evening that they anchored in the St. Lawrence just down river from the city. Of the thirty-odd people who attended that conference, only two were among those listed as captains of the thirty-some vessels in the expedition. That conference was for the officers of foot soldiers!
This also seems to have gone unnoticed by other researchers. Of the seven captains of foot companies at Port Royal, five attended that Quebec war council, including Stephen. My conclusion is he was he again a captain of foot soldiers, not a captain of a vessel.
So why have other researchers thought otherwise? In Perley’s History of Salem is a statement “In August, 1690, the Salem vessels joined the rest of the fleet which were at Nantasket to sail for Canada…. The ketch Lark of Salem, commanded by Capt. Stephen Cross, had been in the expedition to Canada, and had returned to Salem this year, and the arms on board were deposited in Mr. Derby’s warehouse.” Perley’s source for this is the Massachusetts Archives, volume 36, leaf 33.
Alas, to sort this out I would have to see the folio in the archive. It’s possible that Stephen simply piloted the ship from Boston back to Salem, since he was an accomplished coastal skipper. Or maybe he took over the vessel at some point during the expedition and his name didn’t get added to ship captains. It’s possible that the portfolio would tell.
At this point I believe I’m right about Stephen leading a company of foot soldiers at Quebec.
The other thing I discovered seemingly not found by other researchers is less adventurous. About the time of his marriage, Stephen bought a sloop, the Adventure, and hauled freight and passengers in it. He had a partner, Samuel Cogswell, who died three years later. All of this is well-known and is included in other accounts of Stephen. What is new is that, after Cogswell’s death, Stephen took on a new partner, John Lee (or Leigh) of Ipswich. The relationship is clearly spelled out in some court cases beginning in 1678 and extending into the 1680s. Accounts of Stephen’s life prepared by others mention the Adventure and Cogswell’s role in it, but not Lee’s.
I must end this. The post is much too long and probably of interest to me and no one else. I just wanted to let you know how good it felt to research a topic—in this case a person—and break new ground, find something no one else seems to have found.
While my wife is in the hospital, following two surgeries, I’m keeping very busy. Yesterday I was so busy I forgot to do my regular blog post. Now, on Saturday morning, I’m still keeping busy. So busy in fact that I’ve not planned anything to say today. I need to sit down and make up a blog post schedule. Maybe if I write that on the to-do list I’ll get it done.
Meanwhile, back to the checkbook, budgeting, filing, yardwork, vacuuming the car, income taxes, paying bills, reading, writing, etc.
