Show a 4 calept iton diri SCOTT WATSON approaches sad and as our thought 9 turn to the pilgrim fathers none Is more worthy of remembrance than capt myles standish for he was the first military commander of our country and the greatest trample example of protection and preparedness that ever existed the compact which he and his big associates signed on board the mayflower was the foundation of our form of government the law abiding god fearing pilgrims could dot have existed without the strong arm of capt myles standish sh such was the tribute paid to him recently by major myrick captain of the ancient and honorable artillery company of boston in dedicating a simple boulder in duxbury mass which marks the site of my myles lea dish s home associated with him in dedicating the memorial and decor decorating lit the grave of the pilgrim captain nearby bearby were myles standish sh eighth lineal descendant of the colonial leader winthrop winslow a direct descendant meen ascendant dant ant of captain winslow of the pilgrims and more than a hundred members of the artillery company c the ancient and honorable artillery company of boston was an 0 ff spring of the honorable artillery company of london organized in england to in 1637 it was founded in new E england ng la in IM 1638 by robert ceaine Ce ayne who had previously been a member of the london company the only time to in its history in which it engaged in war i is as a unit was in 1645 when it joined myles standish sh and hla 14 company in it campaign against the indians and today it Is the only link which ech exists lots between the present united states army and the first colonial company which defended this country from the first indian attacks lt it Is probable that most americana american 9 when they think of capt myles standish at all think of him in terms of Long fellows famous poem which Is unfortunate for as a recent writer has laid the poet longfellow ling has set tin an example ot 01 inaccuracy la in dealing with our pilgrim ancestors which hats ha been widely followed among efio e inaccuracies cur cu are first of nil all the spelling of his bis name which was lo myles tyles and not miles as longfellow had it and caning him a puritan lender leader there was a difference between the sep arati ate who called themselves p alms end and who founded the alie colony at plymouth in 1020 1620 and the puritans who founded the massachusetts buy bay colony in 1630 more than that antan high dish was not a member of the sepa batist faith but he was a dissenter from the dissenters but the principal mistaken idea about the captain which the poet has given us Is in his baving baring standish sh use young john alden is him mouthpiece in wooing fulling there Is not a scintilla of evidence that the fearless captain who was small of stature and red headed beaded hut but every inch a soldier had any desire desired to win the affections of 0 priscilla llla mullans says the writer previously quoted it seems beems too bad that so BO brave and unselfish a man as standish sh was should now flow be pit craded before his descendants as a rejected suitor ile ha deserves a better tate cate there seems to be considerable my tery about the ancestry religion anil and early arly life of myles standish sh it Is be lieveld that he vias vas born bora about 1584 the scion of the standish sh family of duxbury hall ball lo in lancashire england the name dome Is an ancient one and froissart describing the meeting betheen king richard 11 II and the rebel wat tiler at smith held field in 1381 tells how the latter was killed billed by a of the kunges called john Standy ashe who was knighted for this act this fur some bome historical basis for the words put lo in myles mouth by longfellow that one of my ancestors ran hla his sword through the heart adf of wat tyler I 1 I 1 4 74 11 10 Z 9 t or ave 0 ajl YA N va z r 5 1 A H 1 r I 1 4 4 I 1 v MIN ra R oooo standup Stan dUh co on captain C 5 hill duxbury mass the association of the name of dux dui bury with that of standish Is based upon authenticated copies of deeds of tile the fourteenth century which show shaw that ralph de dukesbury Pokes Dokes bury made over his lancashire estates to his lawyer ralph standish sh who took up the mort gages and thereby dispossessed elie lie dukesbury Pokes Dokes bury or duxbury family it Is significant that one of the later ill grim settlements which became the home I 1 ome of myles standish was named duxbury within the last year the sale of duxbury hall near chorley lancashire recalled the fact that to in 1848 1846 descendants of myles standish la in this country subscribed a large lare amount of money and sent an expert to trade the claim of their an ancestor cetor to this flits estate of which it has been asserted he voas nas unjustly deprived when be emigrated from england to america in ills hla youth myles standish SL andIsh entered the english army and served in the on the continent thus furnishing tile the authority for Long fellows halck him tell about the sword of damus damuscin 1 1 fought with in flanders and the breastplate which once saved his lire from a bullet fired point blank at my heart beart by a spanish jut just how standish came to join the ill grims Is not known he apparently apparent 1 vaa w serving lo in tile the netherlands blien the separatists went there from eng land and one historian asserts assert that the Mer chaut adventurers who financed the pilgrim emigration to america expecting them to settle in the region of virginia sent standish us as their salaried servant to defend them and teach them to defend them selves lycK at any rate standish joined tile the pilgrims at leyden and milled with them from plymouth england Kne lind in the mayflower on september 16 1620 myles standish Stand leli was one of the sign ers era of the mayflower compact on no vember rember 11 1620 for the government of tile the proposed colony hut but his mill tary career did not begin until november 21 nhen the mayflower was an choked in cape cod bay and the cap ta hajn an with 15 men went ashore when they had marched about the space ul of ii a mile dille by the sea side they espied 5 or 6 6 persons with a dose dogg coming towards them who wore were salvages but tile the indians rune rane up into the woods and that night tit ht St findish sh and tits tuen camped on the shore set out their sentinels on november 25 sixteen armed men everyone bis big Mus musket liet sword and corselet Cors let under the command of captaine Capt CuPta alne lne myles standish Standi sli were sent ashore for a second d exploration they marched through what Is now where they saw several indians Ind inns followed their tracks DIME ten miles and spent the night to in the lie we boils three more inore expeditions were sent gent out later and on the third near they were surprised by the indians india Ds upon whom standish sh fired but the skirmish was slig slight bt in february 1021 standish was olli dully made military tary captain during that first terrible inter when disease ailleo out linly of tile the colony among them ills his wife rose standish wilts who died on january 21 it was to the ministrations it of mrs fiery little fighting man and the gentle elder brewster Brewst cr that many of if the surl sun ivors vors 0 owed ved their lives but lie was to prove his worth to the colony in many other ways and to justify the statement that the pilgrims could not have existed without the strong arm of it capt myles stan dah in 1622 the planting of a new settlement at angered the ua mass indians who formed a plot to destroy not dot only these englishmen eliut out the members of the plymouth acl iny its HS well the plot was betrayed by and standish with a force of only eight men marched to the relief of the hie settlement at weymouth standish enticed the hostile chiefs Peck suot and and a half brother of the latter into a room where the indians were killed utter sifter it a desperate fight marking the first shedding of indian blood by the Ill grinis grims A general battle with the indians followed but standish and tits mm men routed tile the the news of Ms battle spread terror among the indians and as a warning against further depredations tile the head of bitu amat was cut on off and exposed on 00 a pole in plymouth lo in standish led an unsuccessful expedit expedition bin against the french who ha driven a puny party of plymouth tuen nun from penobscot maine in addition to being the military leader of every exploit of if importance in the colony counsel was often required lit in dill affairs for many year lie was treasurer of the colony and in 1625 when the colony was in trouble with its partners the adventurers standish wits was sent to england to seik seck relief bearing a letter from governor bradford to the connof of new england I urging their inter antion in of tile the illge pilgrims on account of tile tie plague in london how ver standish sh could accomplish nothing after the loath death ot of hla his wife rose file die captain cupta ln married her younger al slater radians und nd to them were burn born four sons alexander myles costne charles and a daughter lora lom in 1612 Stun standish dish inside hla his home at on hill there he fled died on oil october 3 in 0 today a talf monument stands on captains hill on n top of it la Is the tarup of a military flure figure looking enst eastward word arts right liand hand boding the charter of tho the colony Is extended toward plymouth its ira left rests ashen thed sword it Is a fitting filling memorial to capt myles myle Stan dibb the first military com commmander miander of our cou coubry rorry and the protector aud anil savior ol of the pilgrim fr fathers athers |