February 25, 2026
Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry writes about an abandoned baby found in the woods of Mashpee, Massachusetts, in 1935. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.
In July of 1935 a female foundling was discovered in the Mashpee, Massachusetts, woods. The event made newspaper headlines for weeks. The authorities investigated and made a great effort to locate the identity of the birth parents. The community rallied, raising funds, toys, and clothes. Scores of couples came forward to adopt the little lass who became known as Cape Cod’s “Babe in the Woods.”
My subject for today’s article, Dr. John Peter Nickerson (1870-1950) of West Harwich, Massachusetts, fostered the babe in his home until a legal adoption was made.
Dr. Nickerson was born to John Wixon Nickerson and Mary Adelaide (Howes) Nickerson, and was a direct descendent of Mayflower passengers William Brewster, Mary Brewster, Stephen Hopkins, Elizabeth Hopkins, Thomas Rogers, Joseph Rogers, John Tilley, Joan Tilley, Elizabeth Tilley, and John Howland.
He married Ruth Myrick Covell/Covelle, born to John and Elizabeth (Doane) Covell/Covelle of Barrington, Nova Scotia, and a direct descendant of Mayflower passengers Elder William Brewster and his wife Mary Brewster. After Ruth died, Dr. Nickerson married Jessie M. Phillips in 1949.
The only image I was able to locate of Dr. Nickerson and his first wife Ruth was from an old passport photograph I found in the National Archives.
I came across the “Babe in the Woods” story when I was researching the Mayflower lines of Jennifer (Koehler) Mackall.
A rum-running tale from Jennifer’s Wixon-Baker family reveals that Dr. Nickerson was among the biggest buyers of the hot hootch her ancestors were bootlegging. Read more: “Mayflower Descendants: Who’s Who, Part 53 (part 3)”
Dr. Nickerson has multiple familial ties to Jennifer by blood, which I will detail in a subsequent article.
Now to the Mashpee “Babe in the Woods” story.
On 17 July 1935 an abandoned baby was found in the Mashpee woods by a society couple. Some details of the discovery were published in the Buffalo News.
This article reports:
Their attention attracted by the cries of a child, as they drove along the state highway near Mashpee Center late Wednesday afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. Harry D. Kirkover of Williamsville, N.Y., stopped to investigate.
Below is a photo of Captain Harry D. Kirkover. He was the American Red Cross District Commander at Liverpool and a well-known sportsman and dog breeder.
Half-hidden and in unclad condition in a clump of bushes and covered with a rain-soaked blanket, a six-month-old baby girl was discovered.
Today, after 40 hours of investigation, the police have been unable to locate the persons who abandoned the child. Despite the fact that it was covered with insect bites, and, according to physicians, had been exposed to the elements fully a day before it was discovered, the child, who is at the Cape Cod Hospital, is expected to recover.
Below is a photo from the Boston Herald of the baby with nurse Hilda Slater while being cared for at the hospital.
More details from the Buffalo News article:
Mr. and Mrs. Kirkover were on their way to the Oyster Harbors Club and were passing along a lonely stretch of road when Mrs. Kirkover heard the infant’s cries. Despite the rain and the loneliness of the section, Mr. and Mrs. Kirkover made a determined search believing that a child had strayed and was lost. It was not until they had combed through the bushes for some time that the infant was found.
The couple immediately went to Mashpee Center and notified the authorities. At the hospital it was said that had the infant been exposed for a short time longer it might have died.
It was noted that after a few nights of refreshment and rehabilitation the “Babe in the Woods,” a bouncy blue-eyed blonde, was happy and content.
A Worcester Telegram news clip provides an update on the child and her temporary home at Dr. Nickerson’s.
Here is another photo I found in the archives of the baby with Cape Cod Hospital nurse Miss Constance Bragg.
More to come on the Mashpee “Babe in the Woods.”
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Note on the header image: a photo of Cape Cod Hospital nurse Hilda Slater holding the abandoned baby discovered in the woods of Mashpee, Massachusetts, published in the Boston Herald on 19 July 1935.