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Explanation
Continued
The Mossops,
Grahams, Spences, Finlays, Buchanans, Smiths, Jellys.
Parslows, Morrises, McKees, Shapres, Newells were relatively
recent Immigrants from Ireland. The Barrs,
Russells, Dakens, Hartels, Scotts, Bakrs,
Knapps, Johnsons, Sadlers, Secords, Rickards,
Franks, Vincents, Pococks, Yorks, Grants,
Eatons and Waits were probably all British
and mostly English. My
childhood reached back into the last
stretches of the pioneer period. For
some years I experienced the life whose best
implements were only the axe, the hoe and
hand plow; the scythe, the cradle' hand rake
and the flail' the cross-cut saw. the frow
and the single draw-shave. The crooked
fingers that these tools made for me before
I escaped to another and more modern life,
have been a daily reminder of those patient
suffering laborers whose toils I tenderly
recall across the long stretch of three
score and more years since.
For their slaving drudgery in chopping down
those dense forests, in hewing and splitting
the timbers into log cabins and stables and
fences; for their loggings and raisings and
bees; for their weary work in tilling the
soil and gleaning their poor living between
the tree stumps, for all these I can make no
recompense beyond this belated roll-call of
their names. This will not help the
dead, but may it will deepen the thoughts
and appreciations of those who shall later
be anxious to study the conditions of their
ancestral lines. Druen J. H.
Ward
Early Dorchester
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Family Tree Maker 2010