THE PILGRIMS

The next time you're in the library, we suggest you stop by and take a look at these two Bullis books:

The Pilgrim Fathers of New England: A History

and

A History of the English Puritan

Both of these books were written by W. Carlos Martyn and published in New York by the American Tract Society, in 1867.

We suggest, however, that you take more than just  "a look." Rather, read through the introductions, look carefully at the detailed names and descriptions of the chapters, and zero in  on some of the subtopics. Why? Because these books give us an in-depth, nineteenth century look back at the beginning of this country: starting with the Pilgrim experience in Europe (England and Holland) and their search for a new colony. 

In the preface of The Pilgrim Fathers of New England: A History, Martyn writes: "...however well history may have been written, it is desirable that it should be re-written from time to time by those who look from an advanced position, giving in every age to the peculiar and marked developments of the past, a simple, compact and picturesque representation." Martyn accomplished this by giving us his 1860s perspective of events that occurred over 200 years in the past.

Martyn wrote for those of us who look to the past with the possibility of gaining a new perspective of the present.  Is that why we, in general, write books? and collect volumes of them? and put them in special places like the Bullis Room?  (Something to think about as you digest your Thanksgiving meal today.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

As I pondered this post, I was reminded of the attitude of thankfulness. I believe the Bullis family as a whole experienced thankfulness. In Nettie Bullis' valedictory speech when she graduated from Macedon High School in 1911 she stated, "Life, like every other blessing, derives its value from its use." She valued her life, was thankful for it, and wanted to use it well. She was a woman who looked into the future for our children and made an effort to invest in their lives by setting up a fund to provide scholarships for higher education. Many students of the Palmyra-Macedon Central School District have benefited from that. She knew what it was to be without the finances needed for education. She invested in co-workers lives sometimes with advice and sometimes with finances. We are thankful that she was a woman with foresight. And we are thankful for her life and how she used it.
Happy Thanksgiving! And may we all be willing to invest time and energy into those lives around us.