The following is an excerpt from the September 11th, 1954 New Yorker Magazine. It is about a Midwestern textbook publisher named Lee Greenslit, an amateur genealogist who was 68 at the time. Lee gives his opinion about the Greenslit name:
…about fifteen years ago, he ascertained that the name Greenslit was once the far more common one of Greenslade. The change came in the days of the ancestor whose fate has since caused him such distress---Ann Greenslade Pudeator. Her first husband was Thomas Greenslade, of Salem, by whom she had five children. When Greenslade died, in 1674, she was hired by Jacob Pudeator, a prosperous Salem blacksmith, to act as a nurse to his wife, who was an alcoholic. The wife died in 1675, and Pudeator married Mrs. Greenslade the following year. Six years later, Pudeator, too, died, leaving a will that provided generously for his widow. He also bequeathed small sums to his five stepchildren, and if it had not been for this kindness, Lee Greenslit today would in all probability be called Lee Greenslade, since Pudeator, who may have taken greater pains with horseshoes than he did with names, is on record as having written in his will that he wished to leave to “John Greenslit and to the other fore of my wife’s children viz., Thomas, Ruth, Samuel, and James Greenslit 5 pounds each.” Greenslit, however feels that the change could have been brought about not be Pudeator’s carelessness but by that of the town clerk who transcribed the contents of the blacksmith’s will in the official records of Salem. Proof that the children’s surname was originally Greenslade is to be found in their own father’s will, which Greenslit came upon in the Ipswich Quarterly Court Records, at Salem.
I kind of like the explanation for this phrase I found on the Internet. That these animals hung out on the thatched roofs that became slippery when it rained, and then they fell off during a heavy rain. They didn't have weathermen back in the old days, just the Cat and Dog Report. But it seems it isn't true.
"Facts" About the 1500s? by Halvor Moorshead
For the last couple of years an item has been circulating around the Internet about so-called Facts about the 1500s (sometimes 1600s). A quick search using the search-engine Google pointed to over 400 websites that were carrying this piece. Interesting reading. The problem is that most of it is completely invented. The original author is not credited in any of the versions we have seen. Here we present the original version and our attempt to correct the errors.
Next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s. Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. There is no evidence that June was a popular month to get married until the last 100 years. Flowers have been associated with weddings since the earliest times, probably as symbol of fertility.
Here is another painting by Ellen Eilers of a farm in Minnetrista Minnesota with a beautiful garden that for many years was well taken care of and besides flowers, produced a seemingly endless supply of vegetables. Oh and yes, it is a painting of someone special.
Campaigners on Saturday welcomed a World Health Organization pledge to tackle research and funding gaps concerning some of the developing world's biggest killer diseases.
Copyright (c) 2012 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved
The Salem Witch Trials Memorial
"Today, visitors to Salem have the opportunity to reflect upon the tragedies of the Witch Trials of 1692 at the Witch Trial Memorial. The award-winning memorial was dedicated in 1992 by Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel to commemorate the tercentenary of the Salem Witch Trials. Standing as a reminder of the lessons of tolerance and understanding learned from the Salem Witch Trials, the memorial creates a quiet, contemplative environment in which to evoke the spirit and strength of those people who chose to die rather than compromise their personal truths." More from: Salem.org
Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way - Dance Tour '97 The band members are: Mick Fleetwood, Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie, and John McVie. Buckingham's. Thank you Mick. (Click the button twice.)
Fleetwood Mac's Dreams from the Rumours tour in 1977. The band members are the same as above.
This does make sense, the excessive fear of witches doing harm to crops, would fit with this as a motivator, a reason for people to think that a major war was going on by witches against mankind. (Of course the witches themselves were going hungry right? duh!)
In The Secret Commonwealth of elves fauns and fairies by Rev. Kirk, it is stated that the fae when they feed on crops, their crops are good and ours are bad. The possibility of plants being fed on paranormally exists, I have seen some odd things that might fit this. But entire croplands ruined? I don't think so.
Sure, some individuals probably could and did pull this off locally now and then, maybe with a little help from both demons and little known poisons that mess with plant growth.
But a massive climate problem would give people a mad panic who were already in the habit of blaming every little thing on witchcraft.
Might it be my sins and I need to seek to God? of course not! I'm
I repeat, I think that a lot of accusations were not baseless and I recall reading of some whose excessive self assurance led them to brag and threaten in public and draw fire from the Inquisition.
But that doesn't mean total nonsense and insanity didn't happen also.
Indeed, it would be to the advantage of the real thing, to bewitch people into going whole hog into something they are inclined to, so the entities could feed off the fear and pain and blood, and some witch groups' or individuals' rivals were conveniently eliminated as well.
The idea that it was a targetting of herbal healers or midwives is silly, there was always a clear distinction between these and witches. Maleficia or harm in any case, not healing, was a feature of the witch concept, and healing only a minimal feature. But this climate change thing makes a lot of sense. Because one of the things witches supposedly did was mess with weather and blast crops. This notion goes back to pagan times. Pagan people had laws against this sort of stuff.
Then, in that social context, there is climate change? you can expect a witch panic to get going.
Infowolf1
-----Original Message----- From: Margo To: salem-witch Sent: Tue, May 1, 2012 4:52 pm Subject: [SALEM-WITCH] The Salem News, April 19, 2012: Did climate change cause witch hysteria?
Did climate change cause witch hysteria? By Alan Burke
SALEM — The Salem witch tragedy of 1692 took less than two years to play out. Yet 300 years later, explanations for how and why it happened are still coming.
One theory recently gaining exposure thanks to bloggers comes from a 2004 college thesis that places the blame on something we think of as a strictly modern phenomenon: climate change.
Proposed in a Harvard thesis, the paper by economist Emily Oster has earned attention due to the modern swirl of controversy surrounding the possibility that human interaction has altered world temperatures.
Currently an assistant professor at the University of Chicago, Oster linked periodic outbreaks of violence against people accused of witchcraft with dramatic temperature drops.
"The most active period of the witchcraft trials (mainly in Europe) coincides with a period of lower-than-average temperature known to climatologists as the 'little ice age,'" Oster wrote. "The colder temperatures increased the frequency of crop failure, and colder seas prevented cod and other fish from migrating as far north, eliminating this vital food source for some northern areas of Europe."
When crops failed, "people would have searched for a scapegoat in the face of deadly changes in weather patterns," she wrote. Thus, desperate people traced their troubles to unpopular neighbors and outcasts allied to the devil.
Oster noted that the persecutions "spread even across the Atlantic Ocean to Salem, Massachusetts."
Moreover, she added, "The coldest segments of this 'little ice age' period were in the 1590s and between 1680 and 1730."
Assuming Salem's temperatures were not very different from those in Europe, this latter period includes the year of the witch trials.
Salem State University history professor Tad Baker is intrigued by Oster's views.
"It makes a lot of sense," he said.
He believes there are clues in diaries and sermons pointing to the fact that cold weather and poor harvests likely coincided with the witch trials.
Further, he plans to seek out more scientific measurements, which are made by examining things like tree rings.
Baker is writing a book on the witchcraft era under the appropriately meteorological working title "A Storm of Witchcraft."
A clue to the weather, Baker said, are documents showing a key player in the Salem drama: "Rev. (Samuel) Parris is arguing with his parish over the wood supply." Without adequate fuel, a Colonial home, lacking insulation and central heat, could be pretty miserable.
"The higher the misery quotient, the more likely you are to be seeing witches," Baker said.
He cautions, however, that the cause of the uproar is probably too complex to be traced to a single source.
Danvers archivist Dick Trask, an expert on the era, was not surprised to hear the climate-change theory. Nor was he convinced. He's heard all of the explanations and says, "These theories tell us more about the present than they do about the past."
While acknowledging that all this happened in what was likely a time of climate cooling, Trask notes that people are often using their own experiences to explain what was happening three centuries ago. For example, he points to the 1970s notion that ergot was the culprit.
A fungus on rye plants, ergot would have created hallucinations for the unknowing farmers who processed and ate the grain. That perhaps explains the "specters" or visions that accusers claimed to see.
It is no coincidence that the 1970s was an era of experimentation with drugs, including hallucinogens, Trask said. In the 19th century, a time of religious experimentation, came the suggestion that it was a Puritan power grab by religious figures who felt their authority slipping away.
In the 1960s, socialists framed the upheaval as an effort by greedy landowners to steal the property of the victims.
More recently came the link to post-traumatic stress syndrome, which points to the fact that many of those involved had been exposed to violent American Indian attacks and had seen family members slaughtered.
Oster's research is being cited now by conservative writers, including the "Powerline" blog, to rebut the impression that climate change is a recent phenomenon.
Perhaps what's most remarkable is the fact that the quest to discover the reason for the witch trials has occupied so many for so many years. References to Salem as "hag-ridden" can be found in documents beginning almost immediately after the trial was completed, Baker said.
And they have never stopped.
"We all love a mystery," Baker said. Worse was done in Europe, with thousands of victims killed over the centuries. But perhaps in America, the expectation was for something better.
"I honestly do think Salem is in America's psyche," Baker said. "It's unfinished business."
------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SALEM-WITCH-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message
This does make sense, the excessive fear of witches doing harm to crops, would fit with this as a motivator, a reason for people to think that a major war was going on by witches against mankind. (Of course the witches themselves were going hungry right? duh!)
In The Secret Commonwealth of elves fauns and fairies by Rev. Kirk, it is stated that the fae when they feed on crops, their crops are good and ours are bad. The possibility of plants being fed on paranormally exists, I have seen some odd things that might fit this. But entire croplands ruined? I don't think so.
Sure, some individuals probably could and did pull this off locally now and then, maybe with a little help from both demons and little known poisons that mess with plant growth.
But a massive climate problem would give people a mad panic who were already in the habit of blaming every little thing on witchcraft.
Might it be my sins and I need to seek to God? of course not! I'm
I repeat, I think that a lot of accusations were not baseless and I recall reading of some whose excessive self assurance led them to brag and threaten in public and draw fire from the Inquisition.
But that doesn't mean total nonsense and insanity didn't happen also.
Indeed, it would be to the advantage of the real thing, to bewitch people into going whole hog into something they are inclined to, so the entities could feed off the fear and pain and blood, and some witch groups' or individuals' rivals were conveniently eliminated as well.
The idea that it was a targetting of herbal healers or midwives is silly, there was always a clear distinction between these and witches. Maleficia or harm in any case, not healing, was a feature of the witch concept, and healing only a minimal feature. But this climate change thing makes a lot of sense. Because one of the things witches supposedly did was mess with weather and blast crops. This notion goes back to pagan times. Pagan people had laws against this sort of stuff.
Then, in that social context, there is climate change? you can expect a witch panic to get going.
Infowolf1
-----Original Message----- From: Margo To: salem-witch Sent: Tue, May 1, 2012 4:52 pm Subject: [SALEM-WITCH] The Salem News, April 19, 2012: Did climate change cause witch hysteria?
Did climate change cause witch hysteria? By Alan Burke
SALEM — The Salem witch tragedy of 1692 took less than two years to play out. Yet 300 years later, explanations for how and why it happened are still coming.
One theory recently gaining exposure thanks to bloggers comes from a 2004 college thesis that places the blame on something we think of as a strictly modern phenomenon: climate change.
Proposed in a Harvard thesis, the paper by economist Emily Oster has earned attention due to the modern swirl of controversy surrounding the possibility that human interaction has altered world temperatures.
Currently an assistant professor at the University of Chicago, Oster linked periodic outbreaks of violence against people accused of witchcraft with dramatic temperature drops.
"The most active period of the witchcraft trials (mainly in Europe) coincides with a period of lower-than-average temperature known to climatologists as the 'little ice age,'" Oster wrote. "The colder temperatures increased the frequency of crop failure, and colder seas prevented cod and other fish from migrating as far north, eliminating this vital food source for some northern areas of Europe."
When crops failed, "people would have searched for a scapegoat in the face of deadly changes in weather patterns," she wrote. Thus, desperate people traced their troubles to unpopular neighbors and outcasts allied to the devil.
Oster noted that the persecutions "spread even across the Atlantic Ocean to Salem, Massachusetts."
Moreover, she added, "The coldest segments of this 'little ice age' period were in the 1590s and between 1680 and 1730."
Assuming Salem's temperatures were not very different from those in Europe, this latter period includes the year of the witch trials.
Salem State University history professor Tad Baker is intrigued by Oster's views.
"It makes a lot of sense," he said.
He believes there are clues in diaries and sermons pointing to the fact that cold weather and poor harvests likely coincided with the witch trials.
Further, he plans to seek out more scientific measurements, which are made by examining things like tree rings.
Baker is writing a book on the witchcraft era under the appropriately meteorological working title "A Storm of Witchcraft."
A clue to the weather, Baker said, are documents showing a key player in the Salem drama: "Rev. (Samuel) Parris is arguing with his parish over the wood supply." Without adequate fuel, a Colonial home, lacking insulation and central heat, could be pretty miserable.
"The higher the misery quotient, the more likely you are to be seeing witches," Baker said.
He cautions, however, that the cause of the uproar is probably too complex to be traced to a single source.
Danvers archivist Dick Trask, an expert on the era, was not surprised to hear the climate-change theory. Nor was he convinced. He's heard all of the explanations and says, "These theories tell us more about the present than they do about the past."
While acknowledging that all this happened in what was likely a time of climate cooling, Trask notes that people are often using their own experiences to explain what was happening three centuries ago. For example, he points to the 1970s notion that ergot was the culprit.
A fungus on rye plants, ergot would have created hallucinations for the unknowing farmers who processed and ate the grain. That perhaps explains the "specters" or visions that accusers claimed to see.
It is no coincidence that the 1970s was an era of experimentation with drugs, including hallucinogens, Trask said. In the 19th century, a time of religious experimentation, came the suggestion that it was a Puritan power grab by religious figures who felt their authority slipping away.
In the 1960s, socialists framed the upheaval as an effort by greedy landowners to steal the property of the victims.
More recently came the link to post-traumatic stress syndrome, which points to the fact that many of those involved had been exposed to violent American Indian attacks and had seen family members slaughtered.
Oster's research is being cited now by conservative writers, including the "Powerline" blog, to rebut the impression that climate change is a recent phenomenon.
Perhaps what's most remarkable is the fact that the quest to discover the reason for the witch trials has occupied so many for so many years. References to Salem as "hag-ridden" can be found in documents beginning almost immediately after the trial was completed, Baker said.
And they have never stopped.
"We all love a mystery," Baker said. Worse was done in Europe, with thousands of victims killed over the centuries. But perhaps in America, the expectation was for something better.
"I honestly do think Salem is in America's psyche," Baker said. "It's unfinished business."
------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SALEM-WITCH-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message
We have an early Christmas present. I have received copies of the original probate packet for Thomas Granger of Suffield, Hartford Co., Ct. His probate file contains his will dated March 20, 1753 and his inventory. He died Sept 10, 1755.
Thomas Granger's will is very clear... "I give, grant, and bequeath to each of my daughters".. and then he names them, including "Sarah Grinslet wife of John Grinslet".
For probably over 60 years (or longer) Greenslit researchers have been looking for the wife of John Greenslet/Greenslit (1712-1760) who was born and raised in Preston, New London Co., CT. About 1735 he married "Sarah". At some time, speculation was that her maiden name was Manning, but absolutely no source for that so we have no idea when this theory started or how. Research has been done on Manning families without finding anything.
To my knowledge, their marriage record has never been found. The guesstimated year "c. 1735" is based upon the 17 Nov 1736 birth of their first child, a daughter named Abigail, who was born in Preston. The next child was born in 1739 in Windham, Windham Co., CT, so it is assumed that John, Sarah, and their first born daughter left Preston and moved to Windham between 1737-1739. They did not move far. The towns are close to each other.
Now we have a spousal line to pursue. The Granger line can be found all over the net. Just Google "Thomas Granger, Suffield, CT, died 1755" and you will get many hits.
Many on the Greenslit list descend from John Greenslit (born 1712 in Preston, London Co., CT; died 1760 in Windham Ct., CT). Wife was Sarah.
I want you to know that Ruth Wenderoth, who descends from Alanson Greenslit of Vermont, has made a major Greenslit discovery... perhaps the maiden name of the Sarah (maiden name not proven) who married this John Greenslit. For over 60 years, early Greenslit researchers thought her name might be MANNING, but not a single document or source was provided as to why they thought it was Manning. A lot of research has been done on Manning families; nothing has been found to indicate she might be a Manning.
Ruth Wenderoth has found an abstraction of a 1753 will for a Thomas Granger who died in Hartford Co., CT, in 1755. In his 1753 will Thomas Granger named his daughter Sarah as the wife of John Grinslet(sic). This is the only document that has been found to indicate who John's wife Sarah might be. Ruth sent me a copy of the typed will abstraction. I contacted the Connecticut Historical Society. They confirmed the wording of the abstracted will. They have access to the original will. I have hired them to copy the original for me. Just got an email from them. They said it is on their schedule to do and it will take about 2 weeks.
If the original will does say that Sarah Granger was the wife of John Grinslet, this is a major find. When I get the copy of the original will in my hands to confirm, I will make an announcement. If there was an error when the will abstraction was made, you'll hear about that, too. Right now I am crossing my fingers that the original will says John Grinslet.
While finding the name of John Grinslet named as the husband of a daughter might sound like slim evidence, we have to go with the preponderance of this evidence. We know of no other John Greenslit's living in CT or MA in 1753 -- only John Greenslit of Windham Co., CT. He had a wife named Sarah. His wife Sarah was alive in 1753 when Thomas Granger wrote his will. Research will be switching from Manning to Granger to see what else turns up.
…further research on his (Lee Greenslit's) part revealed that in the view of W. S. Nevins, and eminent nineteenth-century historian, the popular conception of witches flying around on broomsticks may be traceable to the case of Mrs. Pudeator. Nevins based his belief on two of the charges that were brought against her. He pointed out that one of the witnesses for the prosecution, a sixteen-year-old girl named Ann Putnam, who often testified at witchcraft trials on the Salem Special Court of Oyer and Terminar, said she had seen Mrs. Pudeator “fly through the air into her house,” and that another witness, one Sam Pickworth, declared, “I was coming along Salem Street about six weeks ago when I saw a woman near Captain Higginson’s house which I supposed was Ann Pudeator, and in a moment of time she past me as swift as if a bird flew past me and I saw said woman go into Ann Pudeator’s house.” Nevins, a rather sentimental historian, wrote, “It was too bad that the woman credited with supernatural power could not fly away from her cruel fate.”
La Befana is a kindly Italian witch, who rides a broomstick down the chimney to deliver toys into the stockings of Italian children. The legends say that Befana was sweeping her floors when the three Wise Men stopped and asked her to come to see the Baby Jesus. She said that she was too busy and then later, she changed her mind but it was too late. So, the tradition says that to this day, she goes out on Christmas Eve searching for the Holy Child, leaving gifts for him in each household.
The Puritans forbade the singing of Christmas carols.
The below article appeared in the Redwood Falls Gazette and talks about the Greenslit House pictured on pages one and four. It says the house was built in 1900, but I am going with the Renville County Historical Museum whose book says it was built in 1890.
April 10th, 2000
“It was a good house and served a good purpose in its last days. Maybe it will save a life.” said Harriet Deinken, owner of the large house that stood in the northwest corner of Morton.
On Saturday morning, the Morton and Franklin fire department held practice exercises inside, then burned the whole thing to the ground.
The house built in 1900 by John Freemont Greenslit, has been abandoned for the last 15 years or so and was in such shape that it would have cost more to repair than it was worth. The Deinkens donated it to the fire department to practice in.
Ironically, the burning was supervised in part by Greenslit's great grandson, John Reynolds of Hutchinson.
At its height the flames billowed 5 stories in the air, and it was so hot you couldn’t stand 60 to 70 feet from it. Firefighters had to run over and spray the Deinkens current house to keep cinders from setting it alight, and several small brush fires started in the hills to the north."
Here is a Parental Consent/Medical Treatment form for sending grandchildren off to visit their grandparents: Form You can fill it in, and then print it out, but you cannot save it or email the filled out form.
"The Norsemen had a peculiar alphabet, consisting of sixteen letters, or characters, called runes, the origin of which is lost in the remotest antiquity. The signification of the word rune (mystery) seems to allude to the fact that originally only a few were acquainted with the use of these marks, and that they were mostly applied to secret tricks, witchcrafts and enchantments. But the runes were also used in communication by writing." - from Dictionary.com
Selected definitions of the word Witch from urbandictionary.com:
1) A member of the craft. One who does good deeds when and where they can, and understands the meaning of balance and spirit. 2) Someone who does their studies (Watching Charmed doesn't make you a witch, that show has its facts mixed up.)
3) Someone who does their best in this incarnate and the next.
4) Someone who knows the rules and plays by them.
5) Word used to describe someone who is particularly good at something. Used for both genders. Mike really helped me with my loan, he is a mortgage witch. That was a killer sandwich, you are a witch in the kitchen.
I am reminded of the word "wizard". It can also mean, someone who is particularly good at something. I use it to compliment somebody.
Pioneer Women Here is something I found that is not too well sourced. Link to most of it: here
They lived in a one room cabin made of round logs without nails or sawed timber. Logs of the desired length were cut, with the ends being notched so as to keep them as near together as possible. A fireplace was cut out of one end of the cabin and a mud and stick chimney was built on the outside. Poles were on each side of the fireplace and a mantle over all. This was a catch all for the family, and held the tallow candle for light. Kettles were hung over the fire suspended on trammels which were held by strong poles. A long handle pan was used for cooking meat, held on the fire by hand.
The best thing for baking was a flat bottomed kettle with a tight fitting lid known as a dutch oven. With hot coals over and under the bread would bake quickly. A doorway was cut in one on the walls, and a door made of clapboards was hung on wooden hinges. This was opened by pulling a leather latchstring. If the latchstring hung outside the door it was a sign of welcome to all. The floor was made of puncheon and the boards that covered the roof were rived by hand and held up by weight poles.
The furniture of the pioneer cabin was homemade. Beds, splint-bottom chairs, a pine table, cupboard, sometimes a spinning wheel.
Neighbors were described as hospitable, and all were poor and on an equal footing. The chills and fever seemed to be the worst disease, and quinine and boneset tea were used by every family. When a whole family became ill at once the neighbors would go and take care of them. There were no matches, and fire was borrowed from a neighbor. Prairie fires were a threat in the fall to be dreaded. These fires could spread quickly and precautions had to be taken to protect the buildings and crops from being destroyed.
There were blackberries, plums and other wild fruits. Deer, wild turkey and other game were plentiful but bread stuffs were sometimes scarce. There were plenty of wild hogs. There were bees and in an early day one custom was to go bee hunting. Grandfather would travel many miles into wild country in search of the hive. He would follow the bee to his home.
Sugar taps on the maple trees provided syrup and sugar. Some families grew flax for fabric, and sheep were raised for wool. A little wheel spun the flax to finer fabrics such as dresses, and wool was spun to yarn for knitting. Fish were abundant. Herbs were for doctoring. They were gathered and dried. These herb concoctions were called tonics and administered to prevent illnesses.
Most pioneer women were pretty tough, very aggressive, and certainly of hardy stock. They were considered survivors. Today, with all our advantages, it helps to remember the hardships our ancestors endured to found this country we enjoy today.
Witch's Hat Water Tower in Prospect Park, Minneapolis
