Show ja J a a 01 L C capt 1 wn C by ELMO SCOTT WATSON approaches p atto U U anil and as our thoughts turn to A i the pilgrim fathers none la Is H sa more worthy of reme ji brance than capt myles alyle s Sta for lie was tile tha S first military commander of our country and the tie greatest mample of protection and prepared bess that ever existed the compact he and hla his associates signed on board the alie mayflower was the foundation of our form of government the aw abiding god fearing pilgrims could bot have existed without tile the strong irm arm of capt mylos 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 blass which marks the site of myles home associated with him in dedicating the memorial and decorating the grave of the pilgrim captain nearby were uyles myles standish sh e eighth lineal descendant of the colonial leader winthrop winslow a direct descendant ant of captain winslow ot of the pilgrims pilgrim and more than a hundred members of the artillery company the ancient and honorable artillery company of boston was an offspring of df the honorable artillery compa company J of df london organized I 1 in n england I 1 in n 1537 jt it was founded in new england in IM 1633 by robert keuhne who had previously been a member of the london company tile the only time in its history in which it engaged in war as a unit was in 1645 when it joined myles standish sh and his company in it campaign against the indians and today it Is the only link which exis exists ts between the present united states army and the first colonial company which defended this country from the first indian attacks it Is probable that most americans when they think of capt myles standish at all think of him in terms of Long Longfellow fellows 8 famous poem which Is unfortunate fortunate nn for as a recent writer has laid aid the poet longfellow has set an example oi 01 inaccuracy in dealing with our dur pilgrim ancestors which has been widely followed among those inaccuracies cu are first of all the spelling of hla his name dame which was A myles lyles and not miles amiles as longfellow had it and calling him a puritan lender leader there was n difference between the sep who called themselves ill krims and who founded the colony at plymouth in 1020 and the puritans who founded the massachusetts bay colony in 1030 more afore than that standish was not a member of tile the separatist faith but he be was a dissenter from the dissenters but the principal mistaken idea about the captain which the poet has given us Is in his having standish sh use young john alden as hla mouthpiece in wooing priscilla llla mullins il there Is not a scintilla of evidence that the fearless captain who was small of stature and redheaded but every inch a soldier had any desire to win the affections of priscilla llla mullins says the writer previously quoted it seems too bad that that so brave and unselfish a man as standish sh was should now be paraded before his descendants as a rejected suitor ile he deserves a better fate there seems to be considerable mystery about the ancestry religion and early life of myles standish sh it Is believed that he be was born about 1584 the scion of the standish sh family of duxbury hall ball in lancashire england the name Is tin an ancient one and froissart describing the meeting between king richard 11 II and the rebel wat tyler at smithfield in 1381 tells how the latter was war killed by a of the kunges called john who was knighted for this act this furnishes some historical basis for the words put in myles mouth by longfellow that one of my ancestors ran his sword through the heart oi of wat tyler ft ak yit 2 I 1 yo ap ZA Z T 4 A grave 74 tai 1 I hit 1 0 1 in I 1 11 00 monument on an capt captains ai aj hill 1 las the association of the name of duxbury with that of standish sh is based upon authenticated copies of deeds of the fourteenth century which show that ralph de dukesbury Dokes bury made over oer his lancashire estates to his lawyer ralph standish sh R who lio took up the mortgages and thereby dispossessed the dukesbury Dokes bury or duxbury family it Is significant that one of the later pilgrim settlements which became tile the home of myles standish sh was named duxbury within the last year the sale of duxbury hall ball near chorley lancashire recalled the fact that in 1846 descendants of myles miles standish sh in this country subscribed a large amount of money and sent an expert to trade the claim of their ancestor to this estate of which it has been asserted lie he was ivas unjustly deprived when he emigrated from england to america in his youth myles standish sh entered tile the english army and served in the wars on the continent thus furnishing the authority for Long fellows having him film tell about the sword of damascus I 1 fought with in flanders and the breastplate which once saved his life from a bullet tired fired po point int blank at my heart by a spanish just how standish came to join the pilgrims Is not known ile he apparently was serving in tile alie netherlands when the separatists went there from england and one historian asserts that the merchant adventurers who financed the pilgrim emigration to america expecting them to settle in the region of virginia sent standish sh as their salaried servant sen ant to defend them and teach them to defend them selves at any rate standish joined the hie pilgrims at leyden and selled bulled with them from plymouth england in the mayflower on september 10 1020 myles standish sli was one of the alg signers of tile the mayflower compact on november 11 1620 for the government of the proposed colony but his hii military career did not begin until november 21 when hen tile the mayflower was as anchored in cape cod bay and the captain wath 15 men went ashore when they ind had marched about the space of a mile by the sea side they espied 5 or 0 persons with a dogg coming to wards them who were salvages but the indians rane up into the woods and that night standish and his rheu camped on the shore set out their sentinels on november 25 sixteen armed men everyone his musket sword and corselet Cors let under the command of captaine Capt alne aleles stan standish dish were sent ashore for a second exploration they marched through what lg ij now where they saw several indians followed their tracks tra aka about ten miles and spent the night in the woods three more expeditions were e sent out later and on the third near inear Nans heket they were surprised surer ased by the indians upon whom standish fired but the skirmish was vas sit slight in february 1021 21 standish was boffl dally made military captain during that first terrible winter when disease wiped out half of the colony among them ills his wife rose standish who died on january 21 it was to the ministrations of this fiery little fighting man and the gentle elder brewstet Brew stel that many of the survivors owed their lives but he be was to prove his worth to the colony in many other ways and to justify the statement that tile the pilgrims could not have existed without the strong ng arm of capt cant aleles stan dish in 1622 1022 the planting of a new settlement at weymouth angered the massachusetts indians who formed a plot to destroy not only these englishmen but the members of the plymouth colony as well the plot was betrayed by massasoit and standish with a force of only eight men marched to the relief of the 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 after a desperate fight marking the first shedding of indian blood by the pilgrims A general battle with tile the indians followed but standish and nis men routed the savages the news of his battle spread terror among the indians and as a warning against further depredations the head of bitu bamat was cut off and exposed on a pole in plymouth in standish led an unsuccessful expedition against the french who hau bad driven a party of plymouth men away from penobscot maine in addition to being the military leader of every exploit of importance in the colony counsel was often required in civil affairs for many years lie he was treasurer of the colony and in when the colony was in trouble with its partners the merchant adventurers standish was sent to england to seek relief bearing a letter from governor bradford to the counell council of new england urging their intervention in behalf of the pilgrims on account of the plague in london however standish could accomplish nothing after the death of his wife rose nose tile tho captain married her younger sister B barbara a abara and to them were P born 0 rn four sons alexander myles josias and charles and a daughter lora in 1632 standish made his bis home at duxbury on captains hill there he ha died on october 3 today a tall monument stands on Cap captains hill on top of it Is the statue of a military figure looking eastward its right hand holding the charter of the colony Is extended toward plymouth its left rests upon a sheathed sword it Is a fitting memorial al to capt myles standish the first military commander of our country and the protector and savior ol of the pilgrim fathers |