Bourbon, Indiana
Bourbon is a town in Bourbon Township, Marshall County, United States. The population was 1,810 at the 2010 census; the town of Bourbon was laid out in 1853 when it was certain the railroad would be extended to that point. It took its name from Bourbon Township, named after Bourbon County, the former home of many of the early settlers; the Bourbon Community Building-Gymnasium was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015. Bourbon is located at 41°17′52″N 86°7′1″W. According to the 2010 census, Bourbon has a total area of all land; as of the census of 2010, there were 1,810 people, 678 households, 465 families residing in the town. The population density was 1,828.3 inhabitants per square mile. There were 753 housing units at an average density of 760.6 per square mile. The racial makeup of the town was 96.7% White, 0.3% African American, 0.1% Native American, 0.6% Asian, 1.2% from other races, 1.0% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 5.0% of the population.
There were 678 households of which 38.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.1% were married couples living together, 14.5% had a female householder with no husband present, 5.0% had a male householder with no wife present, 31.4% were non-families. 26.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 10% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.67 and the average family size was 3.25. The median age in the town was 32.7 years. 30.8% of residents were under the age of 18. The gender makeup of the town was 48.6% male and 51.4% female. As of the census of 2000, there were 1,691 people, 646 households, 443 families residing in the town; the population density was 1,630.3 people per square mile. There were 702 housing units at an average density of 676.8 per square mile. The racial makeup of the town was 96.16% White, 0.06% African American, 0.24% Native American, 0.59% Asian, 0.18% Pacific Islander, 2.37% from other races, 0.41% from two or more races.
Hispanic or Latino of any race were 5.03% of the population. There were 646 households out of which 38.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.8% were married couples living together, 9.4% had a female householder with no husband present, 31.4% were non-families. 28.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.2% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.62 and the average family size was 3.26. In the town, the population was spread out with 31.3% under the age of 18, 9.5% from 18 to 24, 31.3% from 25 to 44, 16.2% from 45 to 64, 11.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females, there were 92.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.6 males. The median income for a household in the town was $40,292, the median income for a family was $50,000. Males had a median income of $32,679 versus $21,645 for females; the per capita income for the town was $17,054. About 4.1% of families and 5.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.0% of those under age 18 and 8.4% of those age 65 or over.
The town has the Bourbon Public Library. Town of Bourbon, Indiana website
Black Hawk War
The Black Hawk War was a brief conflict between the United States and Native Americans led by Black Hawk, a Sauk leader. The war erupted soon after Black Hawk and a group of Sauks and Kickapoos, known as the "British Band", crossed the Mississippi River, into the U. S. state of Illinois, from Iowa Indian Territory in April 1832. Black Hawk's motives were ambiguous, but he was hoping to avoid bloodshed while resettling on tribal land, ceded to the United States in the disputed 1804 Treaty of St. Louis. U. S. officials, convinced that the British Band was hostile, mobilized a frontier militia and opened fire on a delegation from the Native Americans on May 14, 1832. Black Hawk responded by attacking the militia at the Battle of Stillman's Run, he led his band to a secure location in what is now southern Wisconsin and was pursued by U. S. forces. Meanwhile, other Native Americans conducted raids against forts and settlements unprotected with the absence of U. S. troops. Some Ho-Chunk and Potawatomi warriors with grievances against European-Americans took part in these raids, although most tribe members tried to avoid the conflict.
The Menominee and Dakota tribes at odds with the Sauks and Meskwakis, supported the U. S. Commanded by General Henry Atkinson, the U. S. troops tracked the British Band. Militia under Colonel Henry Dodge caught up with the British Band on July 21 and defeated them at the Battle of Wisconsin Heights. Black Hawk's band was weakened by hunger and desertion and many native survivors retreated towards the Mississippi. On August 2, U. S. soldiers attacked the remnants of the British Band at the Battle of Bad Axe, killing many or capturing most who remained alive. Black Hawk and other leaders escaped, but surrendered and were imprisoned for a year; the Black Hawk War gave the young captain Abraham Lincoln his brief military service, although he never participated in a battle. Other participants who became famous included Winfield Scott, Zachary Taylor, Jefferson Davis; the war gave impetus to the U. S. policy of Indian removal, in which Native American tribes were pressured to sell their lands and move west of the Mississippi River and stay there.
In the 18th century, the Sauk and Meskwaki Native American tribes lived along the Mississippi River in what are now the U. S. states of Iowa. The two tribes had become connected after having been displaced from the Great Lakes region in conflicts with New France and other Native American tribes after the so-called Fox Wars ended in the 1730s. By the time of the Black Hawk War, the population of the two tribes was about 6,000 people; as the United States expanded westward in the early 19th century, government officials sought to buy as much Native American land as possible. In 1804, territorial governor William Henry Harrison negotiated a treaty in St. Louis in which a group of Sauk and Meskwaki leaders sold their lands east of the Mississippi for more than $2,200, in goods and annual payments of $1,000 in goods; the treaty became controversial because the Native leaders had not been authorized by their tribal councils to cede lands. Historian Robert Owens argued that the chiefs did not intend to give up ownership of the land, that they would not have sold so much valuable territory for such a modest price.
Historian Patrick Jung concluded that the Sauk and Meskwaki chiefs intended to cede a little land, but that the Americans included more territory in the treaty's language than the Natives realized. According to Jung, the Sauks and Meskwakis did not learn the true extent of the cession until years later; the 1804 treaty allowed the tribes to continue using the ceded land until it was sold to American settlers by the U. S. government. For the next two decades, Sauks continued to live at Saukenuk, their primary village, located near the confluence of the Mississippi and Rock Rivers. In 1828, the U. S. government began to have the ceded land surveyed for white settlement. Indian agent Thomas Forsyth informed the Sauks that they should vacate Saukenuk and their other settlements east of the Mississippi; the Sauks were divided about. Most Sauks decided to relocate west of the Mississippi rather than become involved in a confrontation with the United States; the leader of this group was Keokuk, who had helped defend Saukenuk against the Americans during the War of 1812.
Keokuk was not a chief, but as a skilled orator, he spoke on behalf of the Sauk civil chiefs in negotiations with the Americans. Keokuk regarded the 1804 treaty as a fraud, but after having seen the size of American cities on the east coast in 1824, he did not think the Sauks could oppose the United States. Although the majority of the tribe decided to follow Keokuk's lead, about 800 Sauks—roughly one-sixth of the tribe—chose instead to resist American expansion. Black Hawk, a war captain who had fought against the United States in the War of 1812 and was now in his 60s, emerged as the leader of this faction in 1829. Like Keokuk, Black Hawk was not a civil chief, but he became Keokuk's primary rival for influence within the tribe. Black Hawk had signed a treaty in May 1816 that affirmed the disputed 1804 land cession, but he insisted that what had been written down was different from what had been spoken at the treaty conference. According to Black Hawk, the "whites were in the habit of saying one thing to the Indians and putting another thing down on paper."
Black Hawk was determined to hold onto Saukenuk, where he had been born. When the Sauks returned to the village in 1829 after their annual winter hunt in the west, they found that it had been occupied by white squatters who were anticipating the sale of
English people
The English people are a nation and an ethnic group native to England who speak the English language. The English identity is of early medieval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Angelcynn, their ethnonym is derived from the Angles, one of the Germanic peoples who migrated to Great Britain around the 5th century AD. England is one of the countries of the United Kingdom, the majority of people living there are British citizens; the English descend from two main historical population groups – the earlier Celtic Britons and the Germanic tribes who settled in Britain following the withdrawal of the Romans: the Angles, Saxons and Frisians. Collectively known as the Anglo-Saxons, they founded what was to become the Kingdom of England by the early 10th century, in response to the invasion and minor settlement of Danes beginning in the late 9th century; this was followed by the Norman Conquest and limited settlement of Anglo-Normans in England in the latter 11th century. In the Acts of Union 1707, the Kingdom of England was succeeded by the Kingdom of Great Britain.
Over the years, English customs and identity have become closely aligned with British customs and identity in general. Today many English people have recent forebears from other parts of the United Kingdom, while some are descended from more recent immigrants from other European countries and from the Commonwealth; the English people are the source of the English language, the Westminster system, the common law system and numerous major sports such as cricket, rugby union, rugby league and tennis. These and other English cultural characteristics have spread worldwide, in part as a result of the former British Empire; the concept of an'English nation' has become popular after the devolution process in Scotland and Northern Ireland resulted in the four nations having semi-independent political and legal systems. Although England itself has no devolved government, the 1990s witnessed a rise in English self-consciousness; this is linked to the expressions of national self-awareness of the other British nations of Wales and Scotland – which take their most solid form in the new devolved political arrangements within the United Kingdom – and the waning of a shared British national identity with the growing distance between the end of the British Empire and the present.
Many recent immigrants to England have assumed a British identity, while others have developed dual or mixed identities. Use of the word "English" to describe Britons from ethnic minorities in England is complicated by most non-white people in England identifying as British rather than English. In their 2004 Annual Population Survey, the Office for National Statistics compared the ethnic identities of British people with their perceived national identity, they found that while 58% of white people in England described their nationality as "English", the vast majority of non-white people called themselves "British". It is unclear. In the 2001 UK census, respondents were invited to state their ethnicity, but while there were tick boxes for'Irish' and for'Scottish', there were none for'English', or'Welsh', who were subsumed into the general heading'White British'. Following complaints about this, the 2011 census was changed to "allow respondents to record their English, Scottish, Northern Irish, Irish or other identity."
Another complication in defining the English is a common tendency for the words "English" and "British" to be used interchangeably outside the UK. In his study of English identity, Krishan Kumar describes a common slip of the tongue in which people say "English, I mean British", he notes that this slip is made only by the English themselves and by foreigners: "Non-English members of the United Kingdom say'British' when they mean'English'". Kumar suggests that although this blurring is a sign of England's dominant position with the UK, it is "problematic for the English when it comes to conceiving of their national identity, it tells of the difficulty that most English people have of distinguishing themselves, in a collective way, from the other inhabitants of the British Isles". In 1965, the historian A. J. P. Taylor wrote, "When the Oxford History of England was launched a generation ago, "England" was still an all-embracing word, it meant indiscriminately Wales. Foreigners indeed continue to do so.
Bonar Law, by origin a Scotch Canadian, was not ashamed to describe himself as "Prime Minister of England" Now terms have become more rigorous. The use of "England" except for a geographic area brings protests from the Scotch."However, although Taylor believed this blurring effect was dying out, in his book The Isles, Norman Davies lists numerous examples in history books of "British" still being used to mean "English" and vice versa. In December 2010, Matthew Parris in The Spectator, analysing the use of "English" over "British", argued that English identity, rather than growing, had existed all along but has been unmasked from behind a veneer of Britishness. David Reich's laboratory found that 90% of Britain's Neolithic gene pool was overturned by a population from North Continental Europe characterized by the Bell Beaker culture around 1200BC who carried a large amount of Yamnaya ancestry from the Pontic-Caspian Steppe, including the R1b Haplogroup; this population lacked genetic affinity to other Bell Beaker populations, such as the Iberian Bell Beakers, but appeared to be an offshoot of the Corded Ware single grave people
Potawatomi
The Pottawatomi spelled Pottawatomie and Potawatomi, are a Native American people of the Great Plains, upper Mississippi River, western Great Lakes region. They traditionally speak a member of the Algonquian family; the Potawatomi called. The Potawatomi were part of a long-term alliance, called the Council of Three Fires, with the Ojibwe and Odawa. In the Council of Three Fires, the Potawatomi were considered the "youngest brother" and were referred to in this context as Bodéwadmi, a name that means "keepers of the fire" and refers to the council fire of three peoples. In the 19th century, they were pushed to the west by European/American encroachment in the late 18th century and removed from their lands in the Great Lakes region to reservations in Oklahoma. Under Indian Removal, they ceded many of their lands, most of the Potawatomi relocated to Nebraska and Indian Territory, now in Oklahoma; some bands today are federally recognized as tribes. In Canada, there are over 20 First Nation bands.
The English "Potawatomi" is derived from the Ojibwe Boodewaadamii. The Potawatomi name for themselves is a cognate of the Ojibwe form, their name means "those who tend the hearth-fire," which refers to the hearth of the Council of Three Fires. The word comes from "to tend the hearth-fire,", bodewadm in the Potawatomi language. Alternatively, the Potawatomi call themselves Neshnabé, a cognate of Ojibwe Anishinaabe, meaning "original people"; the Potawatomi teach their children about the "Seven Grandfather Teachings" of wisdom, love, humility and truth toward each other and all creation. Each one of which teachings them the equality and importance of their fellow tribesman and respect for all of natures creations; the story itself teaches the importance of patience and listening as it follows the Water Spider's journey to retrieve fire for the other animals to survive the cold. As the other animals step forth one after another to proclaim that they shall be the one's to retrieve the fire, the Water spider sits and waits while listening to her fellow animals.
As they finish and wrestle with their fears, she steps forward and announces that she will be the one to bring it back. As they laugh and doubt her she weaves a bowl out of her own web that sails her across the water to retrieves the fire, she brings back a hot coal that they make fire out of and they celebrate her honor and bravery. The Potawatomi are first mentioned in French records, which suggest that in the early 17th century, they lived in what is now southwestern Michigan. During the Beaver Wars they fled to the area around Green Bay to escape attacks by both the Iroquois and the Neutral Nation, who were seeking expanded hunting grounds; as an important part of Tecumseh's Confederacy, Potawatomi warriors took part in Tecumseh's War, the War of 1812 and the Peoria War. Their alliances switched between Great Britain and the United States as power relations shifted between the nations, they calculated effects on their trade and land interests. At the time of the War of 1812, a band of Potawatomi inhabited the area near Fort Dearborn, where Chicago developed.
Led by the chiefs Blackbird and Nuscotomeg, a force of about 500 warriors attacked the United States evacuation column leaving Fort Dearborn. George Ronan, the first graduate of West Point to be killed in combat, died in this ambush; the incident is referred to as the "Fort Dearborn Massacre". A Potawatomi chief named Mucktypoke, counseled his fellow warriors against the attack, he saved some of the civilian captives who were being ransomed by the Potawatomi. The French period of contact began with early explorers who reached the Potawatomi in western Michigan, they found the tribe located along the Door Peninsula of Wisconsin. By the end of the French period, the Potawatomi had begun a move to the Detroit area, leaving the large communities in Wisconsin. Madouche during the Fox Wars Millouisillyny Onanghisse at Green Bay Otchik at Detroit The British period of contact began when France ceded its lands after the defeat in the French and Indian War. Pontiac's Rebellion was an attempt by Native Americans to push the British and other European settlers out of their territory.
The Potawatomi captured every British Frontier Garrison but the one at Detroit. The Potawatomi nation continued to grow and expanded westward from Detroit, most notably in the development of the St. Joseph villages adjacent to the Miami in southwestern Michigan; the Wisconsin communities moved south along the Lake Michigan shoreline. Nanaquiba at Detroit Ninivois at Detroit Peshibon at St. Joseph Washee at St. Joseph during Pontiac's Rebellion The United States Treaty period of Potawatomi history began with the Treaty of Paris, which ended the American Revolutionary War and established the United States' interest in the lower Great Lakes, it lasted. The US recognized the Potawatomi as a single tribe, they had a few tribal leaders whom all villages accepted. The Potawatomi had a decentralized society, with several main divisions based on geographic locations: Milwaukee or Wisconsin area, D
Potawatomi Trail of Death
The Potawatomi Trail of Death was the forced removal by militia in 1838 of some 859 members of the Potawatomi nation from Indiana to reservation lands in what is now eastern Kansas. They were escorted by armed volunteer militia, the march began at Twin Lakes, Indiana on September 4, 1838, ended on November 4, 1838, along the western bank of the Osage River, near present-day Osawatomie, Kansas. During the journey of 660 miles over 61 days, more than 40 persons died, most of them children, it marked the single largest Indian removal in Indiana history. Although the Potawatomi had ceded their lands in Indiana to the federal government under a series of treaties made between 1818 and 1837, Chief Menominee and his Yellow River band at Twin Lakes refused to leave after the August 5, 1838, treaty deadline for departure had passed. Indiana governor David Wallace authorized General John Tipton to mobilize a local militia of one hundred volunteers to forcibly remove the Potawatomi from the state. On August 30, 1838, Tipton and his men surprised the Potawatomi at Twin Lakes, where they surrounded the village and gathered the remaining Potawatomi together for their removal to Kansas.
Father Benjamin Marie Petit, a Catholic missionary at Twin Lakes, joined his parishioners on their difficult journey from Indiana, across Illinois and Missouri, into Kansas. Historian Jacob Piatt Dunn is credited for naming the Potawatomis' forced march "The Trail of Death" in his book, True Indian Stories; the Trail of Death was declared a Regional Historic Trail in 1994 by the state legislatures of Indiana and Kansas. As of 2013, there were 80 Trail of Death markers along the route: they were located at the campsites set up every 15 to 20 miles, in all four states. Historic highway signs have been placed along the way in Indiana in Marshall, Cass, Carroll and Warren counties, signaling each turn. Many signs have been erected in Missouri. Kansas has completed placing highway signs in the three counties crossed by the Trail of Death; the Potawatomi are an Algonquian-speaking people. They moved south from northern Wisconsin and Michigan and occupied land from the southern tip of Lake Michigan to Lake Erie, an area encompassing northern Illinois, north central Indiana, a strip across southern Michigan.
Although the land in what became known as Indiana was long occupied by the Miami, the Potawatomi were recognized as traditional owners under the Northwest Ordinance and in subsequent treaties. They had become the second-largest Native American tribal group in Indiana. During the War of 1812 the tribe allied with the British in the hopes of expelling American colonists encroaching on their lands. Following that period, the Potawatomi lived in relative peace with their white neighbors. In 1817, a year after Indiana became a state, an estimated 2000 Potawatomi settled along the rivers and lakes north of the Wabash River and south of Lake Michigan. Around the same time, the state and federal government became eager to open the northern parts of Indiana to settlement and development by European Americans. Under treaties between the US government and the Potawatomi in 1818, 1821, 1826, 1828, the native people ceded large portions of their lands in Indiana to the federal government in exchange for annuities in cash and goods, reservation lands within the state, other provisions.
Some tribal members received individual grants of northern Indiana land. The passage of the Indian Removal Act enabled the federal government to offer reservation land in the West in exchange for the purchase of tribal lands east of the Mississippi River; the government's intent during Indian Removal of the 1830s was to extinguish the land claims of Indian nations in the East, to remove them from the populated eastern states to the remote and unpopulated lands west of the Mississippi River. Other Indian tribes controlled large territories there; the Act targeted the Five Civilized Tribes of the Southeast in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee. It was used to arrange removal of other tribes living east of the Mississippi, including several in the former Northwest Territory, south of the Great Lakes. In three treaties signed in October 1832, at the Tippecanoe River north of Rochester, the Potawatomi ceded to the federal government most of their remaining lands in northwestern and north central Indiana in exchange for annuities, small reservation lands in Indiana, scattered allotments to individuals.
They received the federal government's agreement to provide goods to support the Potawatomi migration efforts, should they decide to relocate. These treaties reduced Potawatomi reservations in Indiana, which included land along the Yellow River. Under the terms of a treaty made on October 26, 1832, the federal government established Potawatomi reservation lands within the boundaries of their ceded lands in Indiana and Illinois in exchange for annuities and goods, payment of tribal debts, among other provisions; this treaty provided the bands under Potawatomi chiefs Menominee, Peepinohwaw and Muckkahtahmoway, with a joint grant of 22 sections of reservation land. Chief Menominee's signature was recorded with an "x" on the treaty of 1832, he and his Yellow River band at Twin Lakes, Indiana, 5 miles southwest of present-day Plymouth, would be forced to remove from these reservation lands on the "Trail of Death" to Kansas in 1838. Increased pressure from federal government negotiators Colonel Abel C.
Pepper, succeeded in getting the Potawatomi to sign more treaties that ceded their
Bremen, Indiana
Bremen is a town in German Township, Marshall County, United States. The population was 4,588 at the 2010 census. Bremen was platted and laid out in 1851. A large portion of the early settlers being natives of Germany caused the name Bremen to be selected; the Bremen Water Tower and Dietrich-Bowen House are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Bremen is located at 41°26′50″N 86°08′58″W, it is at an elevation of 854 feet. According to the 2010 census, Bremen has a total area of all land; as of the 2010 census, there were 4,588 people, 1,736 households, 1,155 families residing in the town. The population density was 1,686.8 inhabitants per square mile. There were 1,922 housing units at an average density of 706.6 per square mile. The racial makeup of the town was 86.5% White, 0.4% African American, 0.2% Native American, 0.3% Asian, 11.1% from other races, 1.5% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 18.0% of the population. There were 1,736 households of which 36.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.5% were married couples living together, 10.8% had a female householder with no husband present, 5.2% had a male householder with no wife present, 33.5% were non-families.
30.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.7% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.58 and the average family size was 3.20. The median age in the town was 36.6 years. 27.6% of residents were under the age of 18. The gender makeup of the town was 47.8% male and 52.2% female. As of the 2000 census, there were 4,486 people, 1,689 households, 1,177 families residing in the town; the population density was 1,967.8 people per square mile. There were 1,791 housing units at an average density of 785.6 per square mile. The racial makeup of the town was 91.42% White, 0.16% African American, 0.38% Native American, 0.31% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 6.53% from other races, 1.16% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 12.02% of the population. There were 1,689 households out of which 34.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.0% were married couples living together, 9.9% had a female householder with no husband present, 30.3% were non-families.
26.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.3% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.59 and the average family size was 3.14. In the town, the population was spread out with 27.3% under the age of 18, 9.2% from 18 to 24, 27.4% from 25 to 44, 20.2% from 45 to 64, 15.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females, there were 92.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.9 males. The median income for a household in the town was $40,185, the median income for a family was $47,768. Males had a median income of $32,443 versus $21,902 for females; the per capita income for the town was $17,073. About 4.2% of families and 6.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.4% of those under age 18 and 5.3% of those age 65 or over. Bremen supports light and heavy industry in the form of fiberglass and custom cabinet manufacturing, RV and van painting, roller bearing manufacture.
Much of its industry supports the large RV manufacturing in the area in nearby Nappanee and Elkhart. The town has the Bremen Public Library. Otis R. Bowen, MD, Indiana 44th Governor and Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Ronald Reagan. Bremen Public Library, Indiana website
Mayflower
The Mayflower was an English ship that transported the first English Puritans, known today as the Pilgrims, from Plymouth, England, to the New World in 1620. There were 102 passengers, the crew is estimated to have been about 30, but the exact number is unknown; the ship has become a cultural icon in the history of the United States. The Pilgrims signed the Mayflower Compact prior to leaving the ship and establishing Plymouth Colony, a document which established a rudimentary form of democracy with each member contributing to the welfare of the community. There was a second ship named Mayflower, which made the London to Plymouth, voyage several times; the Mayflower was a square rig with a beakhead bow and high, castle-like structures fore and aft that served to protect the ship's crew and the main deck from the elements—designs that were typical with English merchant ships of the early 17th century. Her stern carried a 30-foot high, square aft-castle which made the ship difficult to sail against the wind and unable to sail well against the North Atlantic's prevailing westerlies in the fall and winter of 1620.
The Mayflower's return trip to London in April–May 1621 took less than half that time, with the same strong winds now blowing in the direction of the voyage. The exact dimensions are not known for the Mayflower, but she measured about 100 feet in length from the beak of her prow to the tip of her stern superstructure, about 25 feet at her widest point, the bottom of her keel about 12 feet below the waterline. William Bradford estimated that she had a cargo capacity of 180 tons, surviving records indicate that she could carry 180 casks holding hundreds of gallons each; the general layout of the ship was as follows: Three masts: mizzen and fore, a spritsail in the bow area. Three primary levels: main deck, gun deck, cargo hold. Aft on the main deck in the stern was the cabin for Master Christopher Jones, measuring about ten by seven feet. Forward of, the steerage room, which housed berths for the ship's officers and contained the ship's compass and whipstaff for sailing control. Forward of the steerage room was the capstan, a vertical axle used to pull in ropes or cables.
Far forward on the main deck, just aft of the bow, was the forecastle space, where the ship's cook prepared meals for the crew. The poop deck was located on the ship's highest level above the stern on the aft castle and above Master Jones' cabin. On this deck stood the poop house, ordinarily a chart room or a cabin for the master's mates on most merchant ships; the gun deck was where the passengers resided during the voyage, in a space measuring about 50 by 25 feet with a five-foot ceiling. But it was a dangerous place if there was conflict, as it had gun ports from which cannon could be run out to fire on the enemy; the gun room was in the stern area of the deck, to which passengers had no access because it was the storage space for powder and ammunition. The gun room might house a pair of stern chasers, small cannon used to fire from the ship's stern. Forward on the gun deck in the bow area was a windlass, similar in function to the steerage capstan, used to raise and lower the ship's main anchor.
There were no stairs for the passengers on the gun deck to go up through the gratings to the main deck, which they could reach only by climbing a wooden or rope ladder. Below the gun deck was the cargo hold where the passengers kept most of their food stores and other supplies, including most of their clothing and bedding, it stored the passengers' personal weapons and military equipment, such as armor, muskets and shot, bandoliers. It stored all the tools that the Pilgrims would need, as well as all the equipment and utensils needed to prepare meals in the New World; some Pilgrims loaded trade goods on board, including Isaac Allerton, William Mullins, others. There was no privy on the Mayflower. Gun deck passengers most used a bucket as a chamber pot, fixed to the deck or bulkhead to keep it from being jostled at sea; the Mayflower was armed. She had a saker cannon of about 800 pounds, two base cannons that weighed about 200 pounds and shot a 3 to 5 ounce ball, she carried at least ten pieces of ordnance on the port and starboard sides of her gun deck: seven cannons for long-range purposes, three smaller guns fired from the stern at close quarters that were filled with musket balls.
Ship's Master Jones unloaded four of the pieces to help fortify Plymouth Colony against invaders. There were 26 vessels bearing the name Mayflower in the Port Books of England during the reign of James I; the identity of Captain Jones's Mayflower is based on records from her home port, her tonnage, the master's name in 1620 in order to avoid confusion with the many other Mayflower ships. It is not known when and where the Mayflower was built, although late records designate her as "of London", she was designated in the Port Books of 1609–11 as "of Harwich" in the county of Essex, coincidentally the birthplace of Mayflower master Christopher Jones about 1570
Marshall County, Indiana
