HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Since I've already trained my replacement at work, I don't have much to do these days. So, I've been helping my Mom do some Family History. Just recently I've found one of our ancestors sailed on the Mayflower. His name is Stephen Hopkins and in celebration of Thanksgiving this week, this is his story.

Stephen Hopkins was born in England. He was married to Mary (maiden name unknown)and they had three children. He was either a shopkeeper or barkeeper. On May 15, 1609 Stephen sailed on the Sea Venture that was to take supplies to Jamestown. However, the ship was caught in a violent storm and they ended up shipwrecked on Bermuda, or commonly known back then as the "Isle of the Devils." They were able to construct new boats and made their way to Jamestown. They arrived in May of 1610. During their stay on Bermuda, Stephen was tried for mutiny, but was able to escape death by pleading and begging for his life. It has been said that Shakespeare's play, The Tempest is based on this shipwreck and has a character named Stephano which could be based off of our Stephen Hopkins.

He sailed back to England only to find his wife had died from the plague and his children left under the care of the "Church." He eventually came back to America in 1620, sailing on the Mayflower with the "Separatists." Stephen was among the expedition group that left the Mayflower to find a suitable place to build a colony. They eventually founded Plymouth. The winter was harsh and most did not survive. Of the eighteen women who sailed on the Mayflower, only four survived. (one of them being Elizabeth Fisher, Stephen's second wife).



The Hopkins home became a place where the cheif indians were entertained. Squanto, the Indian slave to Captain Hunt, came to live with the Hopkins family and helped interpret for the pligrims and indians.

In the fall of 1621, the pilgrims celebrated their year of survival in the New Land and the excess of food they had to help them survive the upcoming winter.
Here is a letter from Edward Winslow describing what we now call Thanksgiving:

"Our Corne [wheat] did prove well, & God be praysed, we had a good increase of Indian Corne, and our Barly indifferent good, but our Pease [peas] not worth the gathering, for we feared they were too late sowne, they came up very well, and blossomed, but the Sunne parched them in the blossome; our harvest being gotten in, our Governour sent foure men on fowling, that so we might after a more speciall manner reioyce together, after we had gathered the fruit of our labors; they foure in one day killed as much fowle, as with a little helpe beside, served the Company almost a weeke, at which time amongst other Recreations, we exercised our Armes, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest King Massasoyt, with some nintie men, whom for three dayes we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five Deere, which they brought to the Plantation and bestowed upon our Governour, and upon the Captaine, and others. And although it be not alwayes so plentifull, as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodneses of God, we are so farre from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plenty."

In Mary Hodges book "Hopkins of the Mayflower," she wrote of Stephen Hopkins:

"Bermuda, Jamestown, and Plymouth were reviled more than they were praised in Stephen Hopkins' lifetime. Bermuda was called the "Isle of Devils." Jamestown was a disaster. Plymouth was damned as a hotbed for extreme radicals who would destroy Church and State. But Bermuda is now England's oldest and most beautiful surviving colony; Jamestown became the cradle of the Virginia Assembly, the first representative legislative body in the New World; and if Stephen Hopkins had done no more than help to found Plymouth he would deserve a place in history. Plymouth was the first permanent English colony in New England and it was much more."

Thanksgiving is celebrated much differently now then when it first happened, it seems we focus more on the food than the meaning. The meaning of its celebration has not changed. Let us be grateful for the bounteous harvest the Lord has provided us this year. We are all rich in blessings, comforts, food, family, and friends.

Happy Thanksgiving!