November 25, 2024
Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry writes more about the remarkable Salome Sellers, who lived to be 108 and had a direct oral history connection to the very first Thanksgiving. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.
Today I conclude my holiday treat mini-series, “Mayflower Descendants: Who’s Who, Thanksgiving Special,” focusing on the ancestral lines of Salome (Sylvester) Sellers, a direct descendant of Mayflower passengers Edward Doty, John Howland, Elizabeth Tilley, Edward Winslow, and Isaac Allerton. Salome was a real Daughter of the Revolution.
To recap: Part 1 discussed an article I came across in a Maine Memory Scrapbook that features Salome, or “Aunt Salome” as she is called. In a remarkable case of oral history, Salome described the first Thanksgiving feast that her ancestors celebrated on 21 November 1621, as told to her by “her Great Grandmother, who in turn heard it told by her Great Grandmother, Mary Allerton Cushman, who was present.” There are also details provided in a 1621 letter written by Edward Winslow.
Salome (Sylvester) Sellers (1800-1909) was born on Deer Isle, Maine, to Revolutionary War Captain Edward and Deborah (Cushman) Sylvester, and lived more than 108 years! She married Joseph Sellers (1792-1865), the son of Charles and Jerusha (Morey) Sellers, and had six children, leaving descendants.
At the first Thanksgiving in 1621 was Salome’s 3rd great grandmother Mary Allerton, age 5, daughter of Isaac and Mary (Norris) Allerton, who would later marry Elder Thomas Cushman and leave many descendants – including a son, Salome’s 2nd great grandfather Thomas Cushman Jr., who married Ruth Howland, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Tilley) Howland.
The Allerton House Site
In 1972 a discovery was made by Dr. James Deetz of Plymouth, a professor of archaeology at Brown University and assistant director at Plymouth Plantation (now Plimoth Patuxet Museum), along with research assistant Eric G. Ekholm of Kingston, Massachusetts.
The research dig covered the Allerton and Bradford home sites and was featured in the Patriot Ledger newspaper. My focus today is on what was discovered at the Allerton site, and next week I will cover the Bradford site.
According to this article, Issac Allerton, who came over on the Mayflower, built a house typical of the farmhouses the Pilgrims knew in England. Read more about the archeological dig and history at American-Archives.
The Allerton house was very sturdily made and fortified as a garrison for the protection of the residents of the North Precinct in Plymouth, which was Kingston at the time. It was “a pole-supported house with no formal fireplace and a smoke hole in the roof,” Ekholm told the press.
The Allerton house was the home of Elder Thomas and Mary (Allerton) Cushman by 1676 when Major John Bradford (1652-1736), his wife Mercy (Warren) Bradford (1653-1747), and their baby John took refuge there during an Indian attack in the King Philip War.
After the Indian attack was over the Bradford’s returned to their two-year-old house built by Major William Bradford for John and Mercy when they were to be married.
In the recreation of Plymouth Colony using only traditional tools, techniques, and materials, Professor Henry Glassie, a folklorist at the University of Indiana, designed and directed the construction of each building. Thus, the Allerton house at Plimoth Patuxet Plantation resembles the dwelling which Allerton built in Kingston in 1630.
Salome Recalls Thanksgiving Past in Marshfield
Salome recalled how, in her youth, Thanksgiving was done by the Cushman and Winslow family in Marshfield when they lived on the lands later occupied by renowned orator and statesman Daniel Webster.
The holiday traditions Salome witnessed were influenced by earlier celebrations, going back to the very first Thanksgiving, as passed down by oral history.
Here is what Salome said was served at the table on Thanksgiving by her mother Deborah (Cushman) Sylvester (1762-1828), daughter of Joshua and Deborah (Ford) Cushman.
First Course
A pike roasted with a pudding in its belly, a venison patty and under that a giblet pie, on the further side a fine broiled pudding, scotch collops, croquettes of larded veal fried in butter served with spiced oyster sauce, and lastly a dish of roast beef with horseradish sauce and pickles round.
Second Course
Roasted turkey, baked custard, hare with savory pudding, woodcock with toast, and pumpkin pie. Also served was a mincemeat pie, known in Dorothy Hancock’s cookbook as “King George’s Pye.” (Click here for recipe.)
Happy Thanksgiving Peeps!
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Note on the header image: “Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor,” by William Halsall, 1882. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
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