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The Mayflower Billington Brothers Dubbed First Juvenile Delinquents in America

Pint Sized Pilgrims Also Caused Trouble

You can read my full story on GenealogyBank blog Billington Boys

Indian War Vet Patrick Burke of Amesbury

Amesbury Daily News Amesbury, Massachusetts on Saturday, August 18th, 1928

Patrick Burke (1850-1928) born in County Corke, Ireland November 14 and arrived in the United States . He was son of Patrick Burke (d 1902) and Bridgett ? 
He married Mary Herrian on 5 Jul 1877. The couple are listed in 1880 census living on Friend Street in Amesbury, Massachusetts and he is working in the carriage industry.

Ben Perley Poore in Georgia

Photo: Benjamin Perley Poore, between 1865 and 1880. Credit: Brady-Handy Photograph Collection; Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

The prominent Washington correspondent and historian Major Ben: Perley Poore (the colon after “Ben” is the family custom), from Indian Hill Farm, West Newbury, Massachusetts, led a charmed life.

Poore (1820-1887) dined with Lafayette and Sir Walter Scott. His collection of Americana was the finest in the country. His home had a Masonic Hall and a bedstead slept in by Washington. His drawing room charm earned himself a seat at the best parties.

However, before Poore rose to success, a brief stint in the sunny south landed him in hot water.

Read the whole story at Ben: Perley Poore’s Georgia Scandal

Rare Thomas Lynch JR Letter 1776 Charleston South Carolina

Letter written from Charleston, South Carolina to George Laurence Eaton, Esquire. In full: “I am happy to extend to you the enclosed letter on his Excellys. account. I shall explain to my Father the visit and the reason. With great esteem I have the honor to be your friend.” Reverse bears an address panel in Lynch’s hand to “George Laurence Eaton Esquire, Charleston,” with “The politeness of James Coggeshall, Esq,” written in the lower left of the address panel.

by Ole Erekson, Engraver, c1876 Library of Congress from USHISTORY.ORG Thomas Lynch JR (1749-1779) signer of the Deceleration of Independence was born in South Carolina to Thomas Lynch Sr and Elizabeth Hamilton Allston. Thomas received an education in England and graduated with honors at Cambridge. He studied law in London and then returned home in 1772. He was politically engaged as soon as he returned home, and was commissioned a company commander in the South Carolina regiment in 1775. Soon afterward he was elected to a seat in the Continental Congress. He fell ill shortly after signing the Declaration and retired from the Congress. At the close of 1776 he and his wife sailed for the West Indies. The ship disappeared and there is no record of his life after.

Elizabeth Hamilton Allston Lynch (1728-1750?) wife if Thomas Lynch SR. Daughter of Gov. R. F. William Allston and Esther LaBrosse.  Portrait of Artist: Jeremiah Thëus, 1716 - 1774From Reynolda House Museum of American Art
Gift of Barbara B. Millhouse Object # 
1972.2.1 Read more at Womenhistoryblog

Charles Francis Jenkins (17 December 1865 – 1951) was an American Quaker and historian. He was born in to Howard M. Jenkins and Mary Anna Atkinson. He owned this portrait of Thomas Lynch JR.

Charles Francis Jenkins autograph collection Thomas Lynch, Sr. (South Carolina) 1769 June 5   Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Charles F Jenkins Papers Swarthmore College Archives
More coming on this rare signature soon!

Civil War Dispatch Sent by Major General George B McClellan

Major General George B. McClellan

(1826-1885) Photo from Library of Congress

This interesting telegraph dispatch sent by Major General George B. McClellan, commanding the Union forces during the Peninsula Campaign of 1862. This order was issued as the campaign had almost ended, in a humiliating Union defeat, as the aggressive Robert E. Lee emerged, and beat back the numerically superior but tactically timid McClellan. The order directs Major General Erasmus Keyes, who had earlier in the day been ordered to hold at Yorktown, to "send all you have of Rushes (sic) Cavalry by land to Ft. Monroe" at the base of the Peninsula. The cavalry in question was the 6th Regiment of Cavalry (70th PA Volunteers), the so-called "Rush's Lancers." Docketed on the reverse as a telegraph dispatch, with a content summary. A terrific, and very scarce, Civil War item. Wartime field orders of any sort are very hard to come by, as most were not retained. From Heritage Collectors Society

Pittsburgh Daily Post Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Friday, October 30, 1885

A Scam to Claim Railroad Magnate Mark Hopkins Fortune

Photo: Mark Hopkins, American railroad magnate, co-founder of the Central Pacific Railroad. Credit: I.W. Taber; Wikimedia Commons.

California railroad magnate Mark Hopkins died in 1878 without a will or designated heir – and the huge fortune he left behind was under siege for more than a century by scammers claiming a connection to the man, and therefore his money. Read more of my story at GenealogyBank W. R. Moss’ Hoax: A Scam for the Hopkins Fortune