The Ely miner., 1929-11-15
By ELMO SCOTT WATSON

by ELmO SSOI WA SON
r. THANKSGIVING approaches,
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u and as our thoughts turn to
e the Pilgrim Fathers, none is
M more worthy of remem-
u - brance than Capt. Myles
Je Standish. For he was 1.-The
~ first military commander of
~ our country and the greatest
example Of protection and prepared
ness that ever existed. The compact
which he and his associates signed on
board the Mayflower was the founda-
ton of our form of government. The
Law-abiding, God-fearing Pilgrims could
not have existed without the strong
arm of Capt. Myles Standish."
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,
which marks the site of Myles STAN
diSh'S home. Associated with him in
dedicating the memorial and decorat-
ing the grave of the Pilgrim captain
nearby were Myles StandiSh, eighth
lineal descendant of the colonial lead
er, Winthrop Winslow, a direct de-
scendant of Captain Winslow, of the
Pilgrims, and more than a hundred
members of the artillery company.
The Ancient and Honorable Artillery
Company of Boston was an offspring
of the Honorable Artillery Company
of London. organized in England in
1887. 1t was founded in New Eng
land in 1888 by Robert Keayne, who
had previously been a member of the
London company. The only time in
its history in which it engaged in war
as a unit was in 1915, when it joined
Myles StandiSh and his company in
a campaign against the Indians, and
today it is the only link which exists
between the present United States
army and the first colonial company
which defended this country from the
first Indian attacks.
1t is probable that most Americans,
when they think of Capt. Myles STAN
dish at all, think of him in terms of
Longfellow's famous poem, which is
unfortunate for, as recent writer has
said "The poet Longfellow has set an
example Oh inaccuracy in dealing with
our Pilgrim ancestors, which has been
widely followed" Among those inac-
curacies are first of all the spelling of
his name, which was "Myles" and not
Miles," as Longfellow had it, and
calling him Puritan leader" There
was a difference between the "Sep-
aratists," who called themselves "Pil-
grims" and who founded the colony at
Plymouth in 1920, and the "Puritans''
who founded the Massachusetts Bay
colony in 1880. More than that, STAN
dish was not member of the Sepa-
ratiSt faith, but he was "a dissenter
from the dissenters." But the princi-
pal mistaken idea about the captain
which the poet has given US is in his
having Standish use young John Alden
as his mouthpiece in wooing Priscilla
Mullins. There is not scintilla of
evidence that the fearless captain,
who was small of stature and red
headed, but every inch a soldier, had
any desire to win the affections of
Priscilla Mullins" says the writer pre-
NlOuSly .QuUleu. II seems 100 DaQ
that so brave and unselfish a man
as Standish was should now be pa
raded before his descendants as re-
jected suitor. He deserves q better
fate"
There seems to be considerable mys-
terry about the ancestry, religion and
early life Of Myles Standish. 1t is be-
lieved that he was born about 1884.
the scion of the Standish family of
Duxbury hall in Lancashire. Eng
land. The name is an ancient one
and Froissart, describing the meet
ing between King Richard II and
the rebel, Wat Tyler, at Smith
field in 1881, tells how the lat
ter was killed by a 'squyer of the
kynges called John Standysshe," who
was knighted for this act. This fur
nishes some historical basis for the
words put in Myles Standish's mouth
by Longfellow that "One of my ances-
tors ran his sword through the heart
of Wat Tyler"