Strangers In The Land

Stories of the Gordons, Macys, and Allied Families

By Lois Gordon Carr

Contents List of Inserts Preface Introduction Chapter I—Nantucket Thomas Macy

3

Nantucket Community Structure

10

Thomas Macy’s Descendants

10

The Coffins

12

The Starbucks

14

Mary Coffin and Nathaniel Starbuck

18

The Gayers

18

The Gardners Prior to Nantucket

19

Gardners and Shattucks

21

Quakerism on Nantucket

26

The Bachilers and the Husseys

27

Hussey Ancestors on Nantucket

29

Peter Folger

32

Nantucket Whaling

36

Migration to North Carolina

38

Chapter II—Maryland and Delaware The Gordon Line

45

The Caldwell Family

45

John Caldwell

45

The Train Family

50

Andrew Caldwell

51

Who Were the Ulster Scots?

54

John Gordon (c.1690)

58

James Gordon

59 ix

Chapter III—North Carolina: The Macys Matthew Macy

69

George Macy

70

Asa Macy

71

Irena Macy

76

Chapter IV—North Carolina: The Gordons John Gordon

83

Jonathan Wheeler Gordon

85

The Gordons as Quakers

94

Civil War

96

Alfred and Lydia Wheeler

99

The Gordons After the War

100

The Gordons Leave North Carolina

102

Chapter V— Kansas Jonathan Gordon’s Family

105

Jesse M. Gordon

105

Jesse Gordon’s Children

108

Warner E. Gordon

111

The Couch Family

118

Cynthia Emma Gordon

120

Jasper Newton Gordon

130

John Franklin Gordon

132

Hannah Semira Gordon

136

Asa Edwin Gordon

143

Chapter VI—Oliver C. Gordon Oliver Cromwell Gordon

151

It Was Called Prairie Center

155

Prospering in Kansas

164

Chicago World’s Fair

169

Oliver on Money

173 x

The Close of the Century

177

Outlook in 1900

184

Life in Prairie Center

192

Disaster and Rebuilding

195

Oliver’s Last Years

201

Chapter VII—Allied Families and Relatives Rachel Jeanette Billmier

207

The Pegg Family

207

Chapter VIII—Ancestral Families Clayton Family

221

Beals Family

223

Mills Family

231

Bowater Family

234

Appendix Bryan Letters

239

Writings of Oliver C. Gordon A Southern Trip

243

From Johnson County

249

Wheat Culture

250

How to Utilize the Corn Crop

252

The Money Idea

255

Practical Cattle Feeding

262

How to Grow Corn in a Dry Season

264

Glossary

267

Relationship Chart

268

Notes

269

Bibliography

275

Index

281

xi

Preface There is little point in digging up an ancestor if you aren’t going to make him live.

When I was sixteen years old, I read some family history on the Gordons. That day I wrote in my diary that I wanted to be a genealogist. Later on, my grandfather’s cousin, Maybelle Gordon Carman, delivered a copy of her genealogy book to my parents. The most exciting part of the book was the section on my great grandfather Oliver Gordon and his parents who lived in North Carolina during the Civil War. Maybelle had interviewed her father and uncle (Oliver’s brothers) and shared those stories among the pages of names and dates.

In later years the names and dates came to mean a great deal as I followed the research to prove for myself all the connections Maybelle had made in the days long before the Internet. But it was the stories that made family history come alive for me as a young adult.

Suddenly, I knew something about my ancestors, and they seemed like real people. I was hooked. Following a career in librarianship, I have used retirement to indulge my interests in research, history, and genealogy.

Strangers in the Land was written for the descendants of my parents, Eldon Gordon and Audrey Thornburg Gordon. I hope that their children, grandchildren, and greatgrandchildren will find something of interest and value in these pages to help place themselves in the context of their ancestry. With this audience in mind I have used the words “our heritage” and similar phrases. This ancestry of course belongs to many others as well, including cousins of various degrees who will find information in these pages applicable to them.

While this family history is primarily focused on the Gordon lines of descent, I note connections with the Thornburg lines, especially with common ancestors in Nantucket.

Newspaper articles were a valuable source of information in this narrative. Quotations from those articles are presented as they were originally printed, including typographical and grammatical errors. I have occasionally inserted words in brackets to help clarify the content but for the most part, the reader will experience journalism as it was.

Information gathered and recorded by human beings will inevitably include errors.

There may be errors in recording, transcription, memory, typography, and sometimes even errors chiseled in stone. I have attempted to verify, document, and carry on, recognizing that this and other genealogical work will never be without flaw.

My intent in this volume was to gather the history of a few ancestral lines as they migrated, intermarried, and eventually settled in Kansas. This narrative concludes with Oliver Gordon’s generation and his death in 1925. Fascinating family stories abound and there will be more to come in Volume Two. Lois Gordon Carr August 2023 xiii

1659

This was not the time of year to be crossing the open water. In the late fall, storms came up too quickly, too unpredictably. And the little boat was barely big enough to hold the five

adults and six children, even with only minimal belongings. The wrong time of year, yet here they were. Storm-soaked, cold, miserable, and still some miles from their destination.

Sarah Macy had enough and begged to return to Martha’s Vineyard to wait for better weather. Her husband was not obliging and urged the pilot to continue. Finally, the gale was more than Sarah could bear. She cried out that the storm was too strong and unnatural. It must be witchcraft. Thomas Macy would have none of that. He shouted: “Woman,

go below and seek thy God. I fear not the witches on earth nor the devils in hell!”

Thomas Macy

time. When they were married and whether in England or Massachusetts is a point of debate. By the end of 1640 the Macys had moved five miles up the Merrimack River to Salisbury where, as one of the original settlers, he helped establish the community and where all his children were born. Macy was adequately educated to serve Salisbury as town clerk and was by one account “a good penman.”2 About 1649 the Macys moved across the Powow River to an area later called Amesbury and built a home that is still standing today. It is now known as the Macy-Colby House, maintained by the Bartlett Cemetery Association, and is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was a thrill in 2017 to walk through a house my eighth great grandparents once lived in. The house had low ceilings and big fireplaces to aid in heating the small rooms.

Staircases to the upper level were narrow with steps of uneven heights and sharp turns. The museum host, who had broken her leg the year before, said she no longer ventured up those treacherous stairs. The original house had only a few rooms; the

We do not have a portrait of Thomas Macy, but we do have a good deal of information about him, especially considering he was born more than 400 years ago in 1608. A narrative description will help us see him more clearly, even without a visual aid.

When Thomas Macy was 22, before the English Civil War, a time of great migration began which lasted from 1630 to 1641. Some 80,000 English men, women, and children left Britain and migrated to other locales. About a fourth of these moved to Ireland. Others went to the Netherlands or the West Indies, and approximately a fourth settled in Massachusetts. Reasons for this vast exodus included the governmental tyranny of Charles I as he tried to rule the country without a parliament, and the upheaval in the Anglican church. Along with governmental and religious unrest, these eleven years were also a time of economic depression and epidemic disease in Britain.1 We do not know which of these issues or if some other motivation convinced Macy to migrate to America. He came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony sometime between 1635 and 1639 and settled in Newbury. He took the oath of a freeman in September 1639. This oath was a vow to defend Britain and a promise not to conspire to overthrow the government.

More importantly, a freeman could own land and was qualified to vote. Macy was listed on various documents as a merchant, a clothier, or a weaver.

Thomas Macy and his wife Sarah Hopcott both came from Chilmark Parish, Wiltshire County, England, which was a major center of commercial weaving at the

The “keeping room” fireplace was used for year-round cooking, and served as a family bedroom during cold New England winters. (photo May 2017)

3

Macy-Colby House. (photo May 2017)

space at the back of the house was added on much later, in part to accommodate restroom facilities. The Macys moved to the center of Amesbury in 1654 where Thomas built a sawmill. The house was sold to Anthony Colby and was continuously inhabited until 1900.

Macy, a Baptist when he left England, joined with a small group of likeminded worshippers. He was frequently at odds with the Puritan church, an institution that was central to and in control of the commnity politically as well as spiritually. Church attendance was mandatory; the upkeep of the church and the financial support of the Puritan minister was funded by taxation of the citizens. Although Puritans had established settlements in Massachusetts so they could worship with freedom, this was not a privilege they were willing to

extend to others who preferred to worship differently.

The Puritans had, for example, established one law making it a misdemeanor for anyone to preach on the Sabbath except the ordained Puritan ministers. This law was pointedly made to prevent Macy and another Baptist, Joseph Peasley, from preaching on the Sabbath in the absence of a minister. Macy and Peasley were called out by the authorities for not obeying this law. Macy must have been something of an orator; he was known in the community as a preacher in addition to his other occupations.

The Puritans also set up strict regulations against the new sect of the Religious Society of Friends, derisively known as Quakers. In 1656 and 1657, laws were passed to banish all Friends or Quakers 4

from Massachusetts, prohibiting them from returning under penalty of death.

Another law imposed a fine upon anyone who harbored or entertained persons of this religious group.

With increasing annoyance and frustration at the colony’s level of Puritan bigotry and rigid control, Macy joined with Tristram Coffin and a small group of other neighbors and acquaintances with an eye to starting a new community free from Puritan control. The group arranged to purchase the island of Nantucket from Thomas Mayhew, the governor of Martha’s Vineyard and Macy’s cousin. At that time Nantucket was not under any colonial jurisdiction.

In June of 1659 Macy, Coffin, and John Coleman (son of Thomas Coleman, one of the original group of investors) had sailed to Nantucket to witness Mayhew’s purchase of the western end of the island from the local Native American leaders.

Mayhew had already purchased Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket from the British Crown, but it was deemed necessary to formally purchase the island from its true owners, the Native Americans.3 The deed from Mayhew to Macy and the other First Purchasers was signed on 2 July 1659, for the price of thirty pounds and two beaver hats. (Thirty pounds would be the equivalent of about $6,200 today.) After the purchase of the island, plans were made to begin the settlement of Nantucket during the following spring and summer. However, local events caused the date of settlement to be moved up.

In the summer of 1659, Macy allowed some travelling Quakers to enter his home in Amesbury for less than an hour during a

In 1656 and 1657, laws were passed to banish all Friends or Quakers from Massachusetts, prohibiting them from returning under penalty of death. rainstorm. For this act of kindness, he was fined for the violation of a law passed a few months earlier against harboring “any of the cursed sect of Quakers.” A complaint was made against him by a neighbor, and he was summoned to appear before the court to answer the charges. Instead of appearing, Macy sent a letter to the court explaining his actions (see fig. 1).

Despite Macy’s letter of explanation, he was fined thirty shillings and was to be admonished by the governor.

Two of the travelers who sheltered from the rain at Macy’s house, William Robinson and Marmaduke Stephenson, were hanged in Boston a few months later in October 1659, for being Quakers.

Even though Macy was apparently unable to find a horse, he was successful in locating a boat. Within a few days of writing his letter to the court he and his family were on their way down the Merrimack River. At the age of 51, Macy, with his wife and five children, moved about 30 miles off the southern coast of Massachusetts to the remote island of Nantucket, then inhabited only by the 5

Thomas Macy’s Answer to Court Summons

This is to entreat the honored court not to be offended because of my non-appearance. It is not from any slighting the authority of the honored court, nor from feare to answer the case; but I have bin for some weeks past very ill, and am so at present; and notwithstanding my illness, yet I, desirous to appear, have done my utmost endeavor to hire a horse, but cannot procure one at present. I, being at present destitute have endeavored to purchase, but at present cannot attaine it, but I shall relate the truth of the case, as my answer would be to ye honored court, and more cannot be proved, nor so much. On a rainy morning, there came to my house, Edward Wharton and three men more; the said Wharton spoke to me, saying that they were traveling eastward and desired me to direct them in the way to Hampton and asked me how far it was to Casco Bay. I never saw any of ye men afore except Wharton, neither did I require their names or what they were; but by their carriage I thought they might be Quakers and told them so: and therefore desired them to passe on their way, saying to them I might possibly give offence in entertaining them, and as soone as the violence of the rain ceased (for it rained very hard), they went away and I never saw them since. The time that they stayed in the house was about three quarters of an hour; but I can safely affirme it was not an houre. They spake not many words in the time, neither was I at leisure to talk with them; for I came home wet to ye skin; immediately afore they came to the house and I found my wife sick in bed. If this satisfie not the honored court I shall subject to their sentence. I have not willingly offended. I am ready to serve and obey you in the Lord.

(dated 27th day of 8th month [October] 1659) Figure 1

6

Macy, with his wife and five children, moved...to the remote island of Nantucket, then inhabited only by the Wampanoag Indians....

Wampanoag Indians in the fall of 1659.

Traveling with them were Edward Starbuck (a lumber trader from Dover who had been fined in prior years for expressing his religious beliefs), James Coffin (son of Tristram Coffin), and Isaac Coleman, a 12year-old boy, who may have been Macy’s apprentice.

They set out for Nantucket in a small boat, going by way of Martha’s Vineyard where they could stock up on provisions before making the final portion of the journey. There they also took on board a Vineyarder named Daggett who agreed to serve as pilot for the remainder of the trip to Nantucket. Daggett had his own problems on Martha’s Vineyard and was pleased to be absent from them for a while.5 Sudden storms are common in this area in October and November and the travelers did indeed meet with severe weather.

Nantucket legend has it that Sarah Macy was so overcome with the force of the storm that she attributed its power to witchcraft, but Thomas firmly and oratorically rebutted this notion.6 The wet and bedraggled group survived the stormy crossing and spent the first winter in a rudimentary hut, or perhaps a dugout such as the Indians used, near the shore of Madaket Harbor on the west end of the island. This journey to Nantucket was memorialized many years later, with some embellishment (Macy was not in fact run out of town with a Puritan minister and a sheriff in hot pursuit) in the poem, The Exiles, by John Greenleaf Whittier.

English politics affected the future of Nantucket when the Protectorate of England dissolved after a tumultuous period following the death of Oliver

Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth, in 1658. The monarchy was restored when the English people welcomed the deposed Charles II back to the throne in 1660. During the Second Anglo-Dutch War, Charles II acquired the Dutch colony of New Netherland and renamed it New York after his brother, the Duke of York. Charles II also decreed that Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard would be part of the Colony of New York. So, at least for a time, Nantucket was still not subject to the rigid Puritan regulations of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Initially, the island was free of any religious doctrine, perhaps due to the negative religious (Puritan) experiences of the original settlers. The only established churches on the island were Native American, a result of the missionary efforts of Thomas Mayhew. It was not until the early 1700s that Nantucket became a Quaker stronghold. Thomas Macy remained a Baptist until his death in 1682, but his wife Sarah converted to Quakerism before her death in 1706. The Quaker (Friends) heritage continued through various lines of our ancestry to modern times.

7

Strangers In The Land was written for the descendants of my parents, Eldon Gordon and Audrey Thornburg Gordon. I hope that their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren will find something of interest to place themselves in the context of their ancestry. We should consider their lives with a measure of mercy; put ourselves in their situations and circumstances before making a judgment about their life decisions. And most importantly, conduct our own lives in a way that honors God and reflects the insights gained from our ancestors. Someone may be writing about us someday.

“We are here for only a moment, visitors and strangers in the land as our ancestors were before us. Our days on earth are like a shadow gone so soon without a trace.” I Chronicles 29:15