Large photo from 1898 with bigwigs

I found this write-up yesterday on a genealogical page about William Milo Barnum. It includes the spelling "Thacher." http://www.barnum.org/nti00337.htm

 

And also the other way, though only once that I saw.

My interest was peaked by the fact that a 3X great-grandmother is supposed to have had the maiden name Thacker (with a k) whose father was born in southern CT and then moved to Dutchess County, NY. No connection that I could find, btw.

 

Wow. Thacher was quite the heavy hitter in corporate law. Involved in many high-profile cases and publishing profusely.

And just to add to his "Yalie-ness", his maternal grandfather was Jeremiah Day, President of Yale from 1817 to 1846. In addition to his Skull and Bones membership, he also belonged to Delta Kappa, Phi Theta Psi, Psi Upsilon and something called "Brothers in Unity." No slouch academically either, as he was awarded a Phi Beta Kappa key.

All of this came from a lengthy memorial piece after his death in 1920 in something called the Historical Register. I found it attached to several trees on Ancestry, not via Google, so I can't provide a link non-members will be able to read.

I'm going to try to find it on Google books.

 

In case you want to read it, here it is.

https://books.google.com/books?id=K...=thomas thacher + Historical Register&f=false

 

That's what I've been hoping for too, Book.

 

The link to the Litchfield club was useless I gather..............sorry! I tried..............

 

Sorry about that.......I know I have some thing(s) that mention at least two of those gentlemen...just have to put my mind to it.

 

Every possible thought helps, Mansons!

So having learned that Thacher was the brains behind the development of Watch Hill, RI. and owned a home there, I was interested to catch sight of that place name in Adee's widow's obit. Seems they owned a home there as well.

And then I found out that Adee owned a 30 ft yacht called "Adelaide" that won the championship of the New York Yacht Club as well as the championship of Long Island Sound in that class in 1907.

 

Interesting - thanks!

 

The 1898 date and "The Fleeing Squadron" might have to do with the Spanish-American War.

I don't know if this article is an historically accurate account, but found it interesting both in general and in the context of the photo...

"In 1898, President William McKinley, one of the last of the American presidents to manifest any of the early republican (anti-British imperialism) traditions of the Founding Fathers, was under enormous pressure from the Skull & Bones-led American imperialists. Eventually, he went to war against Spain to "free" Cuba and seize the Philippines. This was the first time that the United States entered a war through devious manipulation and purely in order to expand its territories. It marked the beginning of a new epoch in American history which would forever alter the vision of the United States. It was the first evidence that the men of the Order were at the helm of the ship of state.

President McKinley's capitulation to the WASP warriors would prove to be fatal to himself and, some would say, for his country, too. The Spanish-American War of 1898 catapulted the Skull & Bones crowd into a position of dominance within the Republican Party. At the 1900 party presidential nominating convention, McKinley was forced to accept Teddy Roosevelt as his vice presidential running mate. The McKinley-Roosevelt slate was swept into office, in part as the result of the jingoist climate built up by the just-concluded Spanish-American War. Those circumstances were not all that different from the mood that prevails in America in the aftermath of the Gulf War of 1991."

http://www.ctrl.org/essay1/GBSBNW.html

 

That's quite interesting, Pat! I had not thought that political affiliation was all that important as I went through info on these guys, but they were all Republicans from what I can tell.

 

I suspect political affiliation was all-important to these guys, and all the Skull & Bones members before and since.

Here's a poem that links up war, Spain, and the term "fleeing squadron." The sites I looked at didn't give a date for when it was published, though.

"The Captain
By John McCrae

Here all the day she swings from tide to tide,
Here all night long she tugs a rusted chain,
A masterless hulk that was a ship of pride,
Yet unashamed: her memories remain.

It was Nelson in the `Captain', Cape St. Vincent far alee,
With the `Vanguard' leading s'uth'ard in the haze --
Little Jervis and the Spaniards and the fight that was to be,
Twenty-seven Spanish battleships, great bullies of the sea,
And the `Captain' there to find her day of days.

Right into them the `Vanguard' leads, but with a sudden tack
The Spaniards double swiftly on their trail;
Now Jervis overshoots his mark, like some too eager pack,
He will not overtake them, haste he e'er so greatly back,
But Nelson and the `Captain' will not fail.

Like a tigress on her quarry leaps the `Captain' from her place,
To lie across the fleeing squadron's way:
Heavy odds and heavy onslaught, gun to gun and face to face,
Win the ship a name of glory, win the men a death of grace,
For a little hold the Spanish fleet in play.

Ended now the "Captain"'s battle, stricken sore she falls aside
Holding still her foemen, beaten to the knee:
As the `Vanguard' drifted past her, "Well done, `Captain'," Jervis cried,
Rang the cheers of men that conquered, ran the blood of men that died,
And the ship had won her immortality.

Lo! here her progeny of steel and steam,
A funnelled monster at her mooring swings:
Still, in our hearts, we see her pennant stream,
And "Well done, `Captain'," like a trumpet rings."

 

Interesting. Did you know he also wrote In Flanders Fields?

Unfortunately, that poem was about Horatio Lord Nelson when he was commanding the vessel The Captain in the 1797 Battle of Cape St. Vincent during the French Revolutionary Wars. So it doesn't really have a connection to the Spanish-American War 100 years later (that I can see, could certainly be wrong.) I couldn't find date for when McCrae wrote it either, darn it.

 

Most of these fellows were big in (Republican) politics - but more in the "What can I make it out of it" sort of Republican politics..........the legal followers of the Robber Barons of the mid to late 1800s..........which of course is how my grandfather knew them.............and the families of at least two of them went absolutely broke in 1929. If I remember correctly, none of those families, or at least the two we were close to, had very deep American roots (DAR, SAR, Knickerbockers, etc). I believe that they were considered "new money" in the 1830s-60s. At least one of them had family associated with the Park Ave Armory in NYC. More than that I don't remember, but the train of thought is getting me a bit closer to the papers I have that may assist...............maybe not............but I will keep trying

 

Ah, well, too bad the poem doesn't seem to have any apparent connection with "The Fleeing Squadron." Though, for all we know, someone, somewhere, sometime, thought of the poem when he was looking at the photo and decided to give this group of men a title. Total speculation, of course.

Actually, we don't know when the info on the back was added, do we?

Mansons, have you ever written about your experiences in NY? I bet it would be fascinating reading.

 

Mansons - Are those the same papers that have the info about the man in your avatar?

 

Pat - you're absolutely right about not knowing who wrote the label - and there are probably 2 "somebodies" involved - the ink and the pencil. I'm waiting patiently for Book to get her hands on it so she can take it out of the frame and see if there's more inside.