On Saturday, March 23, 2019, the Cincinnati Colony held a member meeting to socialize with our Mayflower cousins. Our meeting was held at Parkers Blue Ash Tavern. We had 27 members, prospective members and guests attend the meeting.
Cincinnati Colony Lt. Governor brought the meeting to order at 12:30. Our Treasurer Clay Crandall led the Colony in the Pledge of Allegiance. Our Corresponding Secretary Beth Anderson read the Mayflower Compact. Our Elder Todd Reel gave the innovation.
Our Cincinnati Colony Mayflower Scholarship Winner for 2019 is Hannah Martin. She received a BA in History from Xavier University. She has a position with Lakota Local Schools as an Innovation Specialist. Her job is to connect students and teachers to new resources and help them integrate them into the classroom. She hopes to become a social studies teacher. After lunch she presented her paper to the Colony. Outstanding work Hannah, Congratulations!
We welcomed a new member to our Colony at this meeting. Welcome to the Colony Linda O’Hara. She is a descendant of Edward Fuller.
We also had two prospective members join us at today’s meeting, Kathie Stevens a Doty descendant and Dottie Luther a Howland descendant. Welcome!
The next meeting we be the Annual Meeting. We hope to see everyone there.
On Saturday November 3, 2018, the Cincinnati Colony commemorated Compact Day. This year the meeting was held in Moraine, Ohio at The Mandalay. This was a new venue for us. Due to the request of some of our members, the board members decided that our Compact Day luncheon will alternate between Dayton and Cincinnati. The location, staff and food were outstanding.
We started our Compact Day at 12:00 pm with some social time that allowed our members to catch back up with each other. The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Treasurer Clayton Crandall. The invocation for our meeting was given by Lt. Governor Shaun Smith.
As there were several new and prospective members in attendance, our Lt. Governor introduced the board members that were present to all the attendees. We performed our new member induction for Bernice Denham, Daniel Fallon and Lisa Snaufer. Each was given a Mayflower Compact and recited the Pilgrim Pledge.
Bernice Denham, Daniel Fallon, Lisa Snaufer and Lt. Gov. Smith
Lt. Governor Smith reviewed our tentative 2019 calendar. Here are the dates for our meetings in 2019.
Cincinnati Colony Meeting on March 23rd
Ohio Mayflower Society State Meeting May 17th and 18th
Cincinnati Colony Meeting on June 1st
Cincinnati Colony Meeting on September 7th
Compact Day on November 2nd.
Additionally, there was a request to help with the Ohio Mayflower Society table at the Ohio Genealogical Society Conference during May 1st -4th. We are asking that Cincinnati Colony membership support the event by working a few shifts. The conference will be taking place at Great Wolf Lodge in Mason, OH. If you are attending the OGS Conference, please consider signing up with Wanda Langdon or let one of our officers know that you would like to help. We are looking for as many people as possible to take some hourly slots at the table. The more members that help, the easier it will be for everyone. To learn more about the event please see the conference website. http://www.ogsconference.org/
Our Deputy Lt. Governor Star Vondrell gave us an update on the State Meeting that will be hosted by the Cincinnati Colony on May 17th and 18th. We would like some volunteers to assist with sending the invites out in the month of January. We also need volunteers to assist with getting gift bags prepared and other activities. Please contact Star if you interested in helping with the event. We need everyone’s assistance to make this event a success.
After discussing the upcoming calendar, we held our Roll Call. This year Richard Warren was the Pilgrim that had the most descendants present at the 2018 Compact Day.
Dr. Ava Chamberlain
Our Compact Day presentation was called ‘Marriage, Murder, and Madness in the Family of Jonathan Edwards’ and it was presented by Dr. Ava Chamberlain. Professor Chamberlain is the Chair of Religion Philosophy & Classics at Wright State University. The presentation was very educational. Dr. Chamberlain reviewed the genealogy of Jonathan Edwards parents and discussed a few of the crimes and issues that happened in Colonial America. A key takeaway from the presentation was that we should not simply assume that if a male was married twice in a colonial genealogy that the first wife had died. We should dig in deeper in to the court and criminal records to find out if there is more to the story. Her book on this subject, The Notorious Elizabeth Tuttle: Marriage, Murder, and Madness in the Family of Jonathan Edwards (North American Religions), may be found on Amazon.
After the presentation, our Corresponding Secretary Beth Anderson announced our door prize winners.
1620 Rock – Carol Byrd
1620 Rock – Lisa Snaufer
Mayflower Maize game – Wanda Langdon
Cincinnati Colony coffee mug – Bernice Denham
We look forward to seeing everyone at the next meeting!
2018 Compact Day – Cincinnati Colony Mayflower Descendants
The Mayflower Guard made its inaugural appearance at the GBOA meeting at the Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles, Illinois, on 8 September 2018. The Guard is the new ceremonial unit commanded by Jim Battles and is the official color guard for the General Society of Mayflower Descendants. Upon command of the Captain General, Jeff Stark, the Guard marched in military style, posted the colors, and exited the meeting room, officially starting the GBOA meeting. Upon exiting, the Guard received a thunderous standing ovation.
The Executive Committee, DGGs, AGGs and the general public expressed much enthusiasm, gave high praise for Guard professionalism, and gave many good compliments. The Governor General, in his public remarks, expressed how impressed he was with the Guard. I talked with many people and received similar compliments, including a remark from someone that out of the entire Guard, I looked more authentic in my period clothing.
When the colors were retired at the end of the meeting, the Guard received another thunderous standing ovation from all present. Later that evening, I received emails from Jim Battles and Captain General Jeff Stark expressing how impressed everyone was in the Guard’s performance. The next appearance of the Guard will be at the 2019 GBOA meeting in Denver, Colorado.
The Mayflower Guard is open to both men and women who are members of the Mayflower Society. Further questions can be sent to me or Jim Battles.
Mayflower Guard picture taken by Cathy Bambenek on 8 September 2018
On Saturday, September 8, 2018, the Cincinnati Colony held a member meeting to socialize with our Mayflower cousins and discuss the various committee activities that we are working on. Our meeting was held at Parkers Blue Ash Tavern.
We had four new members join us at the meeting: Paul Griffith a George Soule descendant, Carol Byrd a John Howland descendant, and Laura Hawthorn an Isaac Allerton descendant, Wanda Langdon an Edward Fuller descendant. Welcome to the Colony!
Standing Left to Right: Paul Griffith, Carol Byrd, Laura Hawthorn, Wanda Langdon and Shaun Smith
We also had two prospective members join us, Alison Haskins and Debbie McMullen.
In Cincinnati, we are embarking on a new program to assist our Ohio State Historian. For the presentation today, we brought Ann Gulbransen to the meeting via Skype and she provided training to all our volunteers that would like to be Assistant Historians for the Cincinnati Colony. Ann explained what needed to be provided for each application and answered questions that everyone had. A VERY BIG thank you to all the volunteers that will be assisting Ann with the process. Thank you to Ann for sharing your years of knowledge to our new Army of Historians!
Jean Muetzel, Historian
Sue Bray, Deputy Historian
Wanda Langdon
Vicki Reel
Susan Davis
Beth Anderson
Carol Byrd
Paul Griffith
Star Vondrell
Stephanie Smith
Clay Crandall
The Cincinnati Colony will also be participating in the Day with the Experts at the Cincinnati Public Library on October 6, 2018. Our team leaders at this event will be Susan Davis and Beth Anderson. Stop by and say hi to Susan and Beth at the library and attend one of the sessions. There will be two speakers and tours of the genealogy section.
We hope to see everyone at Compact Day on November 3rd. The reservation forms will be sent out by email soon.
Thanks,
Shaun Smith
Upcoming Events:
October 6, 2018 – Day with the Experts, Cincinnati Public Library
November 3, 2018 – Compact Day
May 1st thru 4th – OGS Meeting
May 17th & 18th – Ohio Mayflower Society State Meeting
Western Reserve Colony had its spring meeting on March 17, 2018 at the Skyland Pines Rustic Lodge in North Canton. We had a great mix of members, applicants and friends in attendance. Columbus member Jan Kleinline was our speaker, delivering her program about the lives of the pilgrims to an attentive audience. She and her sister Mary Linn White also brought many Mayflower related items to sell.
Western Reserve also had a sales table with offerings of stress rocks, Mayflower Maize games and pins. New offerings are a decorative wooden box to hold the Mayflower Maize and elegant Anniversary membership boxes. Both boxes are produced at The Iris in Seville, OH. Proceeds from the Anniversary boxes will help fund the SMDOH 2020 activities. Requests for order forms for either box can be sent to WRColonySMDOH@gmail.com.
On March 3, 2018, the Cincinnati Colony held a member meeting to socialize with our Mayflower cousins and discuss the various committee activities that we are working on. Our meeting was held at Parkers Blue Ash Tavern. On March 20th one of our members, William Reel, is heading off to Army basic training. William led the Pledge of Allegiance for us to start the meeting. Good luck William! Fittingly, William’s father, Todd Reel performed the invocation at the beginning of the meeting.
At this meeting we discussed our committee activities to make sure everyone knew what we were working on.
2020 Committee: Beth Anderson has been working diligently with members from all the Colonies to plan the 2020 event. She has had a lot of assistance from Peggy Reid in planning and tracking all the details.
There was a good amount of discussion by the group regarding the 121st Annual State Assembly in 2019. Beth Anderson and Star Vondrell are leading the charge by scouting locations off of 75 on the north side of the city.
In an effort led by Doug van der Zee, the Cincinnati Colony has established a $500 scholarship annually from the Cincinnati Colony with the Xavier University History Department. The scope of the Scholarship is anyone in a Bachelor or Master’s Program with a broad focus on colonial history. Three history professors will judge the scholarship contest.
We had one new member join us at the meeting, Dr. Mike Davis. Dr. Davis has been researching his ancestry for many years. He has a wealth of knowledge about many aspects of history, genealogy, and DNA research. Welcome to the Colony Dr. Davis!
We did something a little different at this meeting. We have had so many new members attending meetings we wanted to take some time to get to know each other. We introduced the concept of telling your “Mayflower Story”. Several members shared a cool thing they learned about their Pilgrim family, the greatest challenge in their Mayflower search, and how long it took them to them to validate their ancestry.
It was a great meeting. I enjoyed listening and learning from everyone’s Mayflower journey. We hope to see you at the next event!
Upcoming Events:
June 23, 2018 – Genealogy Event, Preble County Room at the library in Eaton, OH
September 1-2, 2018 36th Fair at New Boston, George Rogers Clark Park, Springfield, OH
September 8, 2018 – Cincinnati Colony Board/Membership Meeting
October 13-14 – Fall Festival at the Christian Waldschmidt Homestead
November 3, 2018 – Compact Day
New member Dr. Mike Davis and Cincinnati Colony Lt. Gov. S. Smith
We had a wonderful Compact Day on Sunday, November 12 at Skyland Pines Rustic Lodge in Canton. The fireplace was lit and the floor to ceiling glass wall provided us a spectacular view. The staff outdid themselves this year serving us with bountiful portions of traditional Thanksgiving turkey dinner. And WR Friend Mary Fuller provided the wonderful table decorations. (Mary also provided the table decorations for the 2017 SMDOH State Assembly which WR hosted in May). Andi and Kevin Riffle, Lee Martin, Ann Gulbransen, Terri Brown, Mary Fuller and Christina Wagner helped with WR materials set-ups and tear downs.
SMDOH Assistant Historian Lee Martin, Lt. Governor Jill Parker, and Friend of WR Mary Fuller
Our program featured WR member Roger Marble whose topic was “You identified your Mayflower Ancestor, but are you really a Genealogist?” Roger encouraged us not to stop our genealogical work just because we found a Mayflower ancestor and he shared with us a few interesting facts about his ancestors he has discovered.
Roger Marble
Paul Morehouse led us in the Pledge of Allegiance and the unison reading of the Mayflower Compact. Elder Pat Van Hoose led the Blessing of the Meal and the Benediction. Historian Andi Riffle welcomed new members and applicants and led the traditional passenger rollcall.
Dick Fetzer, Byron Brown and Nancy Shaw
Lt. Gov. Jill Parker read certificates for two junior members: Stellan Riffle (who is now an adult member), in recognition for his GSMD 2017 scholarship winning essays (copies of the essays were given to attendees) and Amber Cocchiola for developing the WR Facebook page. Members were also encouraged to check out the new SMDOH website.
Lt. Governor Jill Parker
We have a very active sales table handled by member Christina Wagner who is a wonderful promoter of all things Mayflower! She juggled selling WR items including the Mayflower Maize game, pens, notepads and, of course, the 1620 stress rocks! She also handled the sales of the state items – pink ribbons for holding pins as well as the SMDOH pin. And just for good measure she encouraged attendees to take the information flyer and order form for the candle pin and the Plymouth 400 pin! Sales were great!
Our Interim Junior Member Coordinator, Terri Brown set up two display tables – one was an educational display while the other had assorted activity handouts that were free for the taking. In addition, Terri had made up age appropriate Activity Gift bags for the two young folks that attended. They was interest in these two displays and a number of grandparents left with items for their grandchildren.
Kathleen Lambacher is our Liaison to the Akron-Canton Regional Food Bank and each year she collects donated food items and money to give to the food bank. This year WR members donated food items and $495.
Ann Gulbransen also spearheaded our “Pennies for Planks” collection on Compact Day and between the “pennies” Ann and husband Marty had already dropped in the jar and the money collected on Compact Day nearly $200 was collected to be sent in for the restoration of the Mayflower II.
The event was packed with good conversation at every table. A good time was had by all and several members indicated they would like to have more frequent gatherings – something the WR Board has been discussing.
On Saturday November 4, 2017, we enjoyed commemorating Compact Day. This year the Cincinnati Colony held its Compact Day meeting at the Cincinnati Woman’s Club. Our meeting began at 11:30 am with some social time to allow our members to catch back up with each other.
Here are a few of the announcements that were made during the social hour:
Many of our members are collecting change to donate to the Mayflower II restoration. The name of this fundraiser is “Pennies for the Mayflower”. On Compact Day, we received 3 mason jars full of change. Keep those jars coming in. The board will determine when we should send in the total to Plymouth.
Cincinnati Colony meetings will be on the first Saturday in the months of Jan, Mar and Nov and the second Saturday in the month of September due to the long Labor Day weekend. Please put the following dates for 2018 on your calendar: January 6, March 3rd, September 8th and November 3rd. We are looking for suggestions for the location of the meetings. We would love to hear suggestions from our membership.
On Saturday February 10, 2018 at 1PM the Ohio Mayflower Society will be donating a full set of the available Mayflower Silver books, approximately 50 books, to the Genealogy Division of the Dayton Metro Library. The Cincinnati Colony is collaborating with the Montgomery County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogy Society to make this presentation. The Mayflower members are invited to stay for the Montgomery County -OGS meeting and presentation that will follow.
Our lunch started at 12:00. Past Lt Governor Doug van der Zee led the us in the Pledge of Allegiance and Elder Todd Reel gave the blessing. Additionally, the Reel family made white and dark chocolate Mayflower ships for everyone in attendance. They were very good.
During lunch, our 2018 officers were sworn in.
Shaun Smith – Lieutenant Governor
Open – Deputy Governor
Clayton Crandall – Treasurer
Beth Anderson – Corresponding Secretary
Jean Muetzel – Historian
Janet Moland -Recording Secretary
Todd Reel -Elder
Karen Wiggins – Deputy Elder
Open – Education officer
BoA Rep – Beth Anderson
In total, we had 40 guests and members in attendance. Our traditional roll call determined that William Brewster had the most descendants in attendance.
Our Compact Day presentation was called ‘Puritans and Indians’ and it was presented by Karim Tiro. Professor Tiro is a professor of history at Xavier University, where he has been teaching since receiving his doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in 1999. The presentation was educational. The impact of trade between the two groups was discussed in detail. We learned how trade impacted the culture and the region. Thank you, Professor, for the outstanding presentation.
We wrapped up our fund-raising drive for the Freestore Food Bank. In total, our members donated $200. The Colony is matching that total to donate $400 to the Freestore Food Bank. Congratulations everyone, this is a super achievement for our Colony!
Thanks to everyone for attending. I am looking forward to the next meeting.
Shaun Smith
Lieutenant Governor
Social Time in the Living Room at the Cincinnati Woman’s Club
Announcements, Pictured left to right Beth Anderson, Doug van der Zee, and Shaun Smith
Blessing by Elder Todd Reel
Immediate Past Lt. Governor Doug van der Zee swearing in Cincinnati Colonies Officers: Lt. Governor – Shaun Smith, Elder – Todd Reel, Recording Secretary – Janet Moland, Corresponding Secretary – Beth Anderson, and Deputy Elder – Karen Wiggins. Not pictured Treasurer – Clayton Crandall and Historian – Jean Muetzel
On 25 October 2017, your Ohio Society donated a set of Mayflower “Silver Books” and other books to the Ashtabula County Library to complete their collection.
Pictured here are SMDOH Treasurer Mary Chase, Deputy Governor Betsie Goad, Historian Ann Gulbransen, library staff Carrie Wimer and Rick Consiglio and Ashtabula Genealogical Society president Troy Bailey and VP Vickey Barker. About 20 people attended the presentation and listened to Betsie and Ann give presentations about the books and applying to lineage organizations.
On Saturday September 23rd 2017, the Cincinnati Colony of the Society of Mayflower Descendants in the State of Ohio participated in Patriot Day in Mason, OH. We had a number of people stop by our table and inquire about our Mayflower Ancestors. We hope to gain new members by participating in this event. Our table was staffed by Clay Crandall, Shaun Smith and Macey Smith.
