In the fall of 1774, Sam Adams and his boys courted Massachusetts ministers casting them as colonial spinmeisters of the Patriot Message. Black-frocked and white-wigged Massachusetts clergy roared their response from pulpit after pulpit treating their parishioners as so many political focus groups. Once Samuel Cooke found his metaphorical horse, he rode it Sunday after … Continue reading “Characters of Blood”: Reverend Samuel Cooke
The Cookes fought well and married better. Samuel Cooke, minister of the Menotomy Church in 1775, grew up in Hadley, which had been the blood-soaked frontier during King Philip’s War. His great grandfather and grandfather were militia captains in a part of Massachusetts where militia service meant more than just a bit of parading before … Continue reading The Minister and the Revolution: April 19 and Reverend Samuel Cooke of Menotomy, Massachusetts
Nina Louise Winn was born in 1877, the youngest child of George Prentiss Winn and Melissa Sarah Bacon, who died when Nina was only nine. Two other siblings, Edith Lily and Arthur, died young, leaving Nina and her big brother George living with their father George Prentiss Winn near the corner of Summer and Mystic … Continue reading Nina Louise Winn