Can you imagine being dunked to prove your guilt or innocence? The poor woman was tied to a chair and dunked into deep water until they confessed. If they could not recite the Lord's Prayer without any error, they were a witch and dunked for good.
Dunking was only one of seven "tests" administered to determine witches. One other was:
Currently millions of searchable records are available free of charge on the Washington State Archives website (www.digitalarchives.wa.gov). Yet much work needs to be done. Countless numbers of records need to be transcribed and indexed in order to be beneficial to researchers.
THIS IS WHERE YOU COME IN! You can most definitely help!! You can help by signing up to help index these digital records via SCRIBE.......... and you can work from home, at your own pace and with NO pressure and lots of tutorials and helps. What sort of records, you ask? Birth-Cemetery-Census-Death-Institution-Land-Marriage-Military-Naturalization and more.
Click to https://scribe.digitalarchives.wa.gov to create an account and become a "scribe" today!! P.S. View the User Guide to help get you started. :-)
1856: First U.S. Navy Death in the
Pacific
“Curiosity
got the better of Gus Englebrecht. He poked his head above a log to view a Brave just fired upon and wrote himself into history.”
Thus,
Gustavus/Gustave Englebrecht became the first U.S. Navy casualty in the
Pacific. He died on 21 November 1856 during the Battle of Port Gamble.
The Battle
of Port Gamble is an isolated engagement between the U.S. soldiers and the
Tlingit native peoples. A minor incident, it is historically notable for the
first U.S. Navy battle death in the Pacific Ocean. Here’s the story:
In November
1856, a Tlingit party of about 100 warriors and their families, in a fleet of
canoes, entered Puget Sound in what was then Washington Territory. Why they
came was never asked; their presence spooked the alarm among the white folks.
When the fleet of canoes approached Steilacoom, the residents alerted the U.S.
Army garrison at Fort Steilacoom who, in turn, sent word to the nearby U.S.
Navy gunboat, the U.S.S. Massachusetts.
On November
20th, the Tlingit approached the logging community of Port Gamble
and the nearby band of S’Klallam Indians. (Note: The Tlingit were likely on a
slave raiding party a most common custom then.) The superintendent of the
logging mill blew the mill’s whistle prompting the community to evacuate to the
nearby blockhouse.
The U.S.S. Massachusetts arrived at Port Gamble
soon thereafter and finding the natives landed and camped at the edge of town,
put ashore an armed force of 18 sailors. The Massachusetts’ skipper had twice sent messengers to the Tlingit
chief with offers to tow them to Victoria but both offers were refused. The
next morning, the captain began shelling the native camp, inflicting heavy
casualties. During this melee, small arms fire was exchanged between the war
party and those 18 sailor/soldiers resulting in the death of Cosxwain Gustave
Englebrecht.
Donna’s
note: I searched all the “low-hanging”
fruit for more information on Gustave/Gustavus but found hardly anything. His
official military death notice said he enlisted 15 June 1855. He is buried in a
lovely fenced plot in the little hilltop cemetery in Port Gamble. Most
information for this bit came from www.historylink.org, the free Washington history
website.
Was he the
Gustave Englebrecht, age 18, born 1832 in town of Heiligenstadt (Bavaria), and
who left Bremen on 22 May 1850 bound for Baltimore, Maryland, on the ship Rebecca??
Guess it’s
up to somebody else to solve the mystery of Gus Engelbrecht, the man “who wrote
himself into history.”
Information
and images below are from www.findagrave.org.
"United States Navy Sailor. He was
serving as a Coxswain on board the wooden steamer warship “USS Massachusetts”
when it was part of the United States Navy’s Pacific Squadron in 1856. He was
killed in a minor engagement between the ship and the Native American Tlingit
people at Port Gamble, Kitsap County, Washington Territory on November 21,
1856, making him the first Navy combat death in the Pacific. A historical
marker that was erected near his burial site reads: "1856. National
Historic Site. First U. S. Navy man to die in action in the Pacific. During the
Indian depredation, Port Gamble was attacked. Mill workers hoped for relief
from a U. S. Navy Warship the 'Massachusetts'. The ship arrived, and the
skirmish resulted in this American casualty. Curiosity got the better of Gus
Englebrecht. He poked his head above a log to view a brave just fired upon, and
wrote himself into history."
"The Silver Books primary purpose is for Mayflower descendant lineage verification. They also provide a map for you, researchers, and writers to study their lives and to better tell their stories." (from their website, www.themayflowersociety.org)
Whether or not you wish to join the Mayflower Society, if you perhaps have a Mayflower ancestor, you might be wanting to know more about him/her and their descendants........ so, perhaps, to connect your tree to theirs. The Silver Books are the go-to-starting-place for this research. The "bad news" is that there are only three ways that you can access these books: (1) a library, like the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City; (2) purchase; (3) become a member and access them via the website.
**The red bar at the bottom (which got cut off) leads to a 10-page PDF file:
THE REFERENCE GUIDE TO THE GSMD SILVER BOOK SERIES Revised 1 September 2021 1 The Silver Book Project, originally known as the Five Generations Project, traces the descendants of the Mayflower pilgrims. The project aims to provide clear, well documented lineages of the ship’s passengers through the 7th and 8th generations. Each family has a volume* and many consists of multi-part sets. This guide explains how the books are organized. MF[#] refers to the title Mayflower Families and the volume number.
Some Mayflower Ancestor books have more than one part and, I understand, more compilations are in the works..........
P.S. If you are an Ancestry member, this website offers many AmericanAncestors.org databases that may help you trace your Mayflower ancestry. Do check it out.
Here's a quote from Valorie Zimmerman, VP of the Washington State Genealogical Society, referencing the recent awards' announcement: "It's so good to see so many genealogical societies swimming together!" We agree, Val.
One innovative airline seems to have captured a unique clientele.... for an incredibly hefty price, they will fly your pet in comfort to your destination. Apparently they noticed that there has been a steady rise in the number of people traveling with their pets and have not been happy with the restrictions placed on these special passengers. Really?
Do you know where the longest bridge is in Washington? Constructed in 1966, the 21,474 foot long behemoth was built to connect Astoria, Oregon, to Megler, Washington. It was build so people could cross the Columbia River at its mouth quicker and safer.
Aristotle called the hand the "tool of tools; Kant, "the visible part of the brain." The earliest works of art was handprints on the walls of caves. Throughout history hand gestures have symbolized the range of human experience: power, tenderness, creativity,, conflict and even bravo. Without hands, civilization would be inconceivable. So the discovery in 2011 of the bones of a dozen right hands at a site were the ancient Egyptian city of Avaris once stood, was particularly unsettling. To skip to the end of the story, the ritual seems to have become standard practice in Egypt, with soldiers returning from combat and presenting the dismembered right hands of defeated foes to their pharaoh or military commander. (Want to read more? The story was in the newspaper; New York Times, Franz Lidz, photo by Julia Gresky.)
Would you have guessed that they're still finding unexploded shells on the Gettysburg battlefield? Yep, according to a bit in the May/June 2023 Archaeology Magainze, a U.S. Army ordnance disposal team was summoned to Gettysburg when a 160-year-old live artillery shell was uncovered during archaeologizl work. The 7-inch long unexploded round was found two feet below the surface near a rocky outcrop known as the Little Round Top. Unbelievable, no?
Transcript
from Genealogy of the Anthony Family from
1495-1904, compiled by
Charles
L. Anthony in 1904.
Page 18-20:
Dr. Francis Anthony, London, born 1550, died 1623. A very learned
physician and chemist of the last century. His father was an eminent goldsmith
in the city of London and had employment of considerable value in the jewel
office of Queen Elizabeth. This son was born April 16, 1550, and having been
carefully instructed in the first rudiments of learning at home, was send,
about the year 1569 to the University of Cambridge, where he studied with great
diligence and success and sometime in the year 1574 took the degree of Master
of Arts. It appears from his writing that he applied himself for many years and
studied the theory and practice of chemistry, leaving Cambridge at the age of
40. He began soon after his arrival, to publish to the world the effects of his
chemical studies and in the year 1598 send abroad his first treatise concerning
the excellency of a medicine drawn from gold. He commenced medical practice in
London without a license from the College of Physicians, and after six months
was called before the President and Censors of the College, A.D. 1600.
He was interdicted (forbidden/prohibited) to
practice; for disregarding this injunction, he was fined five pounds and
committed to prison, whence he was released by a warrant of the Lord Chief
Justice. The college however got him recommitted and Anthony submitted.
Being again prosecuted for the same offense and
refusing to pay a heavy fine, he was kept in prison eight months until released
on petition of his wife on the grounds of poverty in 1602. But he continued to
practice in defiance of the college and further proceedings were threatened but
not carried out, probably because Anthony had powerful friends in court.
His practice consisted chiefly, if not entirely, in
the prescription and sale of a secret remedy called “Aurum Potable,” from which
he derived a considerable fortune.
He died May 26, 1623, leaving two sons, John and
Charles (by his first wife, Susan Howe). John became a physician in London and
Charles practiced at Bedford. He died in his seventy-fourth year and was buried
in the church of St. Bartholomew the Great. In the aisle that joins the north
side of the chancel, a handsome monument has been erected to his memory with a
very remarkable inscription:
“Sacred
to the memory of the worth and learned
Francis
Anthony, Dr of Physic
There
needs no verse to beautify they praise,
Or
keep in memory thy spotless name
Religion,
virtue and they skill did raise
A
three-fold pillar to thy lasting fame
Though
poisonous envy ever fought to blame
Or
hide the fruits of thy intention,
Yet
shall they comment that high design
Of
purest gold to make a medicine,
That
feels they help by that, thy rare invention.”
The career of Dr. Anthony and his conflict with the
College of Physicians illustrated the condition of the medical profession in
the 17th century. He was obnoxious to the college, not only because
he practiced without a license, but because he kept the composition of his
remedy a secret and put it forward as a panacea for all diseases…… the efficacy
of the remedy, if any as a cordial, was possibly due to certain ethers which
would form in the process of distillation and also to the good canary wine in
which it was ultimately dissolved…… the secret recipe was long in Dr. Anthony’s
family and very beneficial to them. (They made lots of money!)
Pages 18-21 gives a few more details but I’ve shared
the gist of the story. If anyone would
like to know more about Aurum Potable,
click to Marieke Hendriksen’s article, published online in 2013, which I found
on Google: “Arum Potabile and the tears of brides: A history of drinkable
gold.”
Gold anyone? And you thought gold was only for jewelry!
Thanks to the website Spokane Historical and the article by Lee Nilsson titled WWII Convalescent Hospital, I learned more about my place of adventure.
"Training for combat at Fort George Wright gave way to recovery and recuperation during the second World War. In 1941, Fort Wright had changed hands and become part of the U.S. Army Air Force. Being used as a base hospital for its first few years, in early 1944 Fort Wright was turned into a full fledged army convalescent center. Soldiers and airmen who had been wounded in action fighting against Japan and Germany found a place of peaceful healing at Fort George Wright. Aside from direct medical care supplied by the Army and Red Cross staff, the Fort was designed to heal the spirit of the wounded warriors as well."
** There is available more to learn about Fort George Wright and the hospital. Enter the link below..... there is even a short video!
Lee Nilsson, “Welcome to Historic Fort George Wright,” Spokane Historical, accessed September 13, 2023, https://spokanehistorical.org/items/show/173.
