Friday, May 18, 2012
Worcester, Mass.
We are in Worcester, Mass. where I have spent the last three days in the American Antiquarian Society pouring over the diaries of an ancestor of mine, the Rev. Stephen Peabody, who was a pastor in Atkinson, New Hampshire, during the last half of the 18th century. There are twelve volumes of his diaries dating from 1767 - 1814. He was pastor in Atkinson for 47 years - a lot longer than I have been in Mukilteo!
Parson Peabody's handwiting was tiny and therefore laborious to read. Here are some pages of his diary of 1777, where he expresses his astonishment at the American defeat at Fort Ticonderoga by British forces led by General Burgoyne:
Some day I hope to write a book about him. His last entry of his diary: My fleeting time is passing fast, My minutes hastening towards the last, May I improve them as I fly, and ever be prepared to die!"
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Hi Mark & Valynn, is your Parson Peabody related to the William Henry Peabody's of that time. If so we are related. Wouldn't that be strange and sort of wonderful.
ReplyDeleteTom's sermons are excellent and he creates a nice atmospher in the church in your absence. Have a good trip.
Kate Peabody Kessler
Katekessler@comcast.net
Hi Kate, we are indeed relatives! Both of us come from the same line of Peabody's hailing from Boxford, Mass. I have to research the connection some more, but I think we descended from David Peabody in Boxford. We are family!
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