Heritage Trails: Wealthea Bradford Hatch's Maine and Pilgrim heritage

One ancestral town I've wanted to see was Turner, Maine. But on a recent visit there, we learned that Maine became a state in 1820--so when the Bradfords settled there in 1792, and Wealthea (spelled various ways) was born in 1804, she was actually born in Massachusetts.

The town of Turner is still very pastoral, rolling hills and well-manicured farmland by the Androscoggin River. Located not far outside the state capital of Augusta, it featured trees and windy roads and lovely homes set off from the road.

this 1831 town house is just a little past the time the Bradfords lived in town, but is the oldest structure still standing in Turner. I'm wearing a hat like her!

Simeon and Martha Bradford were the parents of ten children, and our ancestor was their fourth. They moved west (what would have been over a week's journey) to farm in New York when Wealthea was a teenager. However, FamilySearch suggests that Simeon later died in Turner, perhaps he returned?

Being raised in an area known for its Native inhabitants must have influenced Wealthea. Her history says that she had friends who were Cattaraugus Indians, to whom she was excited to read the Book of Mormon, and then her son Ira (Indian name "Pu-am-ey" meaning "Eagle Alighting on the Ground") later became a renowned Indian scout who spoke several of their languages. I hadn't put his abilities together with his maternal heritage, but this trip really emphasized that connection.

We hunted for the Maple Grove cemetery, which had a mislabeled location on Google Maps, but we did find it. However, we did not succeed in finding any of the Bradford relatives' headstones who were supposed to be there (Wealthea died in Nauvoo).

Traveling in Provincetown, Massachusetts, shortly afterwards (the hooked tip of Cape Cod), was another moment celebrating Bradford family history, of which Wealthea was proud (she was descended from seven Mayflower colonists). 

The Pilgrims anchored here for a month in the fall of 1620 while exploring the area (and then choosing to settle across the bay in Plymouth). They signed the Mayflower Compact while harbored in Provincetown. There is a monument in their honor to climb, built in 1907-1910 in the style of the tower of Siena, a museum exhibit and murals there, and the site of their first landing. 

view from the top of the harbor

First Landing Place, November 11, 1620

Provincetown museum exhibits

Not far away, you can visit Corn Hill in Truro, where the corn discovery saved them through the first winter, and First Encounter Beach where they met the native Wampanoags.

Corn Hill

First Encounter Beach

Many of the local streets have Pilgrim surnames. The area has now become a LGBTQ haven, which is in some ways really ironic as a Puritan legacy, and in other ways completely apt that Separatists seeking their own lifestyle in that place should lead to other seekers and separatists. History and people are complex, but it was an honor to think about our early New England settlers, and explore some of the places they had been.