52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Land

It has been a long, looong week for me, and it is only Tuesday, gosh darn it! Whoever claimed that working from home is so much easier than working at work just plain lied! I am Zoomed out. After hours upon hours of back-to-back online meetings, my brain has turned to mush. I just can’t think straight!

Which is really too bad, because with my cognitive abilities zonked there really is just no way that I will be able to string two or more coherent thoughts together to write something original for Week 17’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks’ writing challenge.

Over the weekend, I thought about this week’s writing prompt, Land. “With all of the farmers that we have had in our families, that should be an easy one,” I thought. “Or all those immigrants hanging from our trees’ branches, each one looking for a piece of land to call their own…I’ve got this!” Of course, that was before I experienced “virtual” burnout so early in the workweek. So no, I’ve got nothing new… but I do have plenty of previous posts about farmers and immigrants that I would like to share.

 

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FARMERS

Our founding fathers extolled the virtue of tilling the earth, coaxing life from the soil. According to Thomas Jefferson, “Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will, in the end, contribute most to real wealth, good morals, and happiness.” While George Washington wrote, “Agriculture is the most healthful, most useful, and most noble employment of man.”

Our family trees are overflowing with farmers, people who made their living off the land. My father was a farmer, who descends from a long line of farmers. In fact, both of my lines, both of my spouse’s lines, our in-laws’ families, and our extended families had farming kin. Here are just a few of our many agricultural ancestors:

1. George Thadeous Bush
2. Levi Roark Campbell
3. Patience (Oliver) Croasmun
4. William L. Goss
5. Matilda Jane (Robinson) Harwick
6. Leah (Blecher) Huffer
7. Allen Layton
8. Joseph Thomas
9. Elizabeth S. (Dawson) Watts
10. James Bernard Williams

IMMIGRANTS

“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” ~Emma Lazarus

America is a nation of immigrants. From our country’s earliest years, people flocked to these shores, searching for freedom,  opportunity, and a piece of land to call their own. As George H.W. Bush observed, “Nearly all Americans have ancestors who braved the oceans – liberty-loving risk takers in search of an ideal – the largest voluntary migrations in recorded history… Immigration is not just a link to America’s past; it’s also a bridge to America’s future.” Because of these immigrants with their diverse cultures, languages, religions, perspectives, and talents, America has flourished. As John F. Kennedy noted, “Everywhere immigrants have enriched and strengthened the fabric of American life.”

Like most Americans, my spouse and I, our in-laws, and our extended families descend primarily from immigrants (those who chose to come here and those who did not). Here are just a few of our many immigrant ancestors:

1. Stephen Bachiler
2. Edward Foulke
3. Johan Georg Herwig
4. Tristram Hull
5. Thomas Lynde
6. George Moore
7. Robert Stott
8. Hans Michael Thomas
9. Roerich Wäschenbach
10. Peter Worden