The Mayflower Society House: Being the story of the Edward Winslow House, the Mayflower Society, the PilgrimsPratt, Walter Merriam
History
The Mayflower Society House: Being the story of the Edward Winslow House, the Mayflower Society, the Pilgrims
Pratt, Walter Merriam
General Society of Mayflower Descendants; Pilgrims (New Plymouth Colony); Plymouth (Mass.) -- Buildings, structures, etc.
Later the family went to Halifax, as did thousands of other Tories,
where Winslow died the following year, at the age of seventy-two. He
was buried in St. Paul’s Churchyard, mourned by all the dignitaries
of the city. At this time Canada was actively hostile to the United
States.
In order to support his family after losing his offices, Winslow
had pledged his house as security for loans of money made him by
Thomas Davis, William Thomas, Oakes Angier, and John Rowe. When he
left Plymouth the house was sold on an “execution” at a sacrifice to
satisfy the creditors, much to Winslow’s indignation. It is often
mistakenly stated that his property was confiscated. The house at
this time was half its present size and, as was customary in those
days, sat close to the ground, as well as to the street. The frame of
the house and some of the paneling are said to have been brought from
England, although American craftsmen could and did construct similar
houses and paneling.
From Winslow’s creditors the house passed into the hands of Thomas
Jackson who occupied it as a residence until 1813, when he moved to
the so-called Cotton Farm. The house then passed by an execution from
Mr. Jackson to his cousin Charles Jackson, who died in it in 1818
and whose son, Charles Thomas Jackson, born 21 June 1805, played an
interesting part in the civil history of this country. He had a keen
mind, was a student of electricity and magnetism, but medicine was
his main study. He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1827,
finishing his studies abroad. He returned to America on the sailing
vessel with Samuel F. B. Morse, and their meeting may have helped
Morse perfect his telegraphic instrument. It is known that Jackson
made and displayed a model of a telegraphic instrument a year before
Morse patented the one that made him famous.
[Illustration: CHARLES THOMAS JACKSON WILLIAM T. G. MORTON]
Jackson was greatly interested in geology and was the State Geologist
of Maine in 1836, Rhode Island in 1839, and New Hampshire in
1840, but his greatest claim to fame is his share in discovering
etherization and his association with Dr. W. T. G. Morton, a
dental surgeon, fourteen years his junior, who studied medicine in
his office. Jackson is believed to have made his first personal
experiments with the inhalation of ether in the house at Plymouth,
and the chair in which he sat is displayed in Pilgrim Hall. Morton
patented the process of anesthesia by ether in 1846 and he sued
Jackson for claiming the discovery of the anesthetic effects of
inhalation of ether back in the winter of 1841-42. The French
Government investigated the matter and decreed Jackson a 2500 franc
prize as the discoverer, and a similar prize to Morton for being the
first to apply it to surgical operations.
[Illustration: RALPH WALDO EMERSON IN THE EAST ROOM WHERE HE WAS
MARRIED]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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