MollyOckett Day. What is it? Is it just a day we have every year to earn money for the town? No. Is it a day that people who have booths, sell items to earn money for themselves? No. So, what exactly is MollyOckett Day? In this essay I am going to take you on a journey and tell you exactly who MollyOckett is, her background, what this day is for, and why this day is still around for people to celebrate.
MollyOckett was a woman who was born in 1740 in Saco, Maine. She was an Abenaki Indian of the Pigwacket tribe and was baptized by a woman named Marie Agathe. MollyOckett was the daughter and granddaughter of chiefs. MollyOckett befriended the settlers of Western Maine and had a very close relationship with the towns of Andover, Fryeburg, Poland, Paris and of course, Bethel, which took place during the 18th and 19th century.
When she died on August 2, 1816, she became a legendary figure, a subject of fireside storytelling, school pageants, and popular magazine articles which contained inaccurate information. “The last of the pigwackets” MollyOckett has been honored every year at the MollyOckett Day celebration now and for many years, her name is connected with lots of geographic landmarks, business ventures and community organizations around here. MollyOckett has a place nearby Bethel that is full of “Indian mystique” which is completed with romance, curses, buried treasure, and near-miraculous cures. She is known as “the great Indian doctress” and the cures she gives are recorded in local histories. She was accused of cursing the home of Hannibal Hamlin that lived on Paris Hill, which he was her most famous patient. MollyOckett found him almost dead. She saved his life by giving Hamlin prescribed warm cow’s milk. Hamlin became ...
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...thing that we celebrate every year due to the fact of what she did for this community and what she still continues to do for this community. MollyOckett is giving people in this community a chance to give back to the people that need help and that are sick. I’m glad MollyOckett Day is celebrated because if it wasn’t, then a lot of people in this community wouldn’t be where they are today and they would be more sick then they are today.
Works Cited
"Molly Ockett and Her World." Molly Ockett and Her World. Bethel's Historical Society, n.d. Web. 08 May 2014.
"Who Was MollyOckett?" MollyOckett DaysJuly 19-20, 2014Bethel, MainePresented By: Mahoosuc Realty & Rentals. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 May 2014.
"Molly Ockett Days Festival Beginning to Truly Honor Native Namesake." Indian Country Today Media Network.com. Gale Courey Toensing, 3 Dec. 2013. Web. 08 May 2014.
Mary Eugenia Surratt, née Jenkins, was born to Samuel Isaac Jenkins and his wife near Waterloo, Maryland. After her father died when she was young, her mother and older siblings kept the family and the farm together. After attending a Catholic girls’ school for a few years, she met and married John Surratt at age fifteen. They had three children: Isaac, John, and Anna. After a fire at their first farm, John Surratt Sr. began jumping from occupation to occupation. Surratt worked briefly in Virginia as a railroad contractor before he was able to purchase land in Maryland and eventually establish a store and tavern that became known as Surrattsville. However, the family’s fina...
Engel, Mary Ella. “The Appalachian “Granny”: Testing the Boundaries of Female Power in Late-19th-Century Appalachian Georgia.” Appalachian Journal 37.3/4 (2010): 210-225 Literary Reference Center. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.
The small community of Hallowell, Maine was no different than any other community in any part of the new nation – the goals were the same – to survive and prosper. Life in the frontier was hard, and the settlement near the Kennebec Valley was no different than what the pioneers in the west faced. We hear many stories about the forefathers of our country and the roles they played in the early days but we don’t hear much about the accomplishments of the women behind those men and how they contributed to the success of the communities they settled in. Thanks to Martha Ballard and the diary that she kept for 27 years from 1785-1812, we get a glimpse into...
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...rt herself. She began washing miner’s clothes in Central City. She established a solid ground for herself when she met Lorenzo Bowman. He was an entrepreneur and gave her the opportunity to gather and save up $10,000 in her name. She was known for her generosity in helping African Americans move to Central City, using the money that she had saved up (Abbott, Leonard, Noel, 2013, pp. 217). Her significance was important in Central City as she helped build Central City through population.
Walker, Alice. (1974). “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens.” Ways of Reading. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, pp. 694-701.
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In “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson,” Mary Rowlandson, a Puritan mother from Lancaster, Massachusetts, recounts the invasion of her town by Indians in 1676 during “King Philip’s War,” when the Indians attempted to regain their tribal lands. She describes the period of time where she is held under captivity by the Indians, and the dire circumstances under which she lives. During these terrible weeks, Mary Rowlandson deals with the death of her youngest child, the absence of her Christian family and friends, the terrible conditions that she must survive, and her struggle to maintain her faith in God. She also learns how to cope with the Indians amongst whom she lives, which causes her attitude towards them to undergo several changes. At first, she is utterly appalled by their lifestyle and actions, but as time passes she grows dependent upon them, and by the end of her captivity, she almost admires their ability to survive the harshest times with a very minimal amount of possessions and resources. Despite her growing awe of the Indian lifestyle, her attitude towards them always maintains a view that they are the “enemy.”
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Although there is little information on Nelly Butler during her life, the evidence gathered from the time Nelly was alive suggests she was a kind woman. One interesting piece of information about Nelly when she was alive was given by her spirit when she explained that she had received an experience of spiritual salvation on her deathbed, possibly the reason she came back to Sullivan (“Testimony” 101). Nelly was legally named Eleanor Hooper, and born on 25 April 1776 (“Genealogical” 115). Her parents were David and Joanna Hooper, and she had eight siblings (115). Some time during 1795, Nelly married George Butler at the age of nineteen and lived on Butler’s Point in Franklin, Maine (115). While giving birth to their first child, Nelly tragically passed away on 13 June 1797, only to be followed shortly after by her baby (115). Although there are no headstones to confirm this, it is said that Nelly’s grave is located on Butler’s Point in Franklin, next to her child and husband (LiBrizzi 8).
Dee then replies that Maggie would “be backward enough to put them to everyday use” (Walker, p.114). Mama says she hopes Maggie will use them every day. This begins with what it means to use and misuse heritage. Mama is hoping that Maggie will use the quilt as a practical everyday item. She sees the quilts for their functional use that they were made to use in everyday life.