The Enlightenment

 The American Tradition in Literature Vol. 1  4^th ed.  By Bradley, Beatty, Long, Perkins, 1974.

A growing sense of unity and independence characterized the second great period of American cultural history, beginning about 1725.  Politically, this spirit encouraged the growth of a loose confederation, disturbed by the British colonial wars on the frontier and by “intolerable’ British trade and taxation policies.  Eventually, this produced the Revolution.  The Enlightenment and rational thinking infused the minds and acts of American leaders.   Earlier religious mysticisms, local in character, were now overlaid by larger concerns for the general toleration, civil rights, and a more comprehensive democracy in government.  The last member of the Puritan hierarchy, Cotton Mather, had met fundamental and final opposition.  The secular spirit, the immigration of a new population, and the development of enterprise and commerce doomed the Puritan commonwealth, even if the Puritans themselves had not outgrown it. 

The Age of Reason manifested a rational concept of man in his relations with nature and God, suggested the extension of principles and equality and social justice, and encouraged the belief that man might assume greater control of nature without offending God.

Middle Colonies

 

The American Tradition in Literature Vol. 1  4^th ed.  By Bradley, Beatty, Long, Perkins, 1974.

The seed of American toleration was produced here in the melting pot of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania.  The Dutch, Swedes, Germans, French-Huguenot refugees and the Jewish merchants settled here.  Of all the colonies, the middle colonies enjoyed the best geographical location, easy access with the great inland waterways.  By 1750, the Quaker city of Philadelphia had become the unofficial colonial capital.   Their basic conditions and ideas were important aspects for building our national character and framing a democratic government.  These people were from the humbler ranks of the English middle classes – artisans, tradesman, farmers- and their leader, William Penn was one of the best-trained men in the colonies and one of the greatest.  The early Quakers’ were fundamentally closer to Luther’s theology than to Calvin’s.  It was less concerned with the original depravity of man than with the abounding grace of God.  William Penn exercised great powers by writing his famous “Frame of Government” which ordained a free commonwealth, bestowing wide privileges of self-government upon the people.  Like the Puritans, the Quakers provided education: Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, Columbia (King’s College), Rutgers (Queen’s College).  The energy of these mixed cultures fostered the development of science and medicine, technical enterprise and commerce, journalism and government.  Penn made the first proposal for a union of the colonies. 

My Recollections of Mama & Papa (part 2)

 

The Garden Plow like Papa would use for his massive garden.

My Daddy- Truman Quillen Sr.   Mama-Ella Vermell King   Papa-Charles Franklin McNair

 In 1990, I returned home (Vernon) so that Daddy could drive me around the county to revisit all of the old homesteads. On our visit to Lockett, the Baptist Church was still standing strong, but the little green brick house was abandoned and mostly in a dilapidated state.  It was actually open and we were able to peak in. There was an old wooden chair that I picked up and brought home, but there is no certainty that it belonged to Mama and Papa. It is identical to another chair that I have that I am certain belonged to Papa.  Daddy explained to me that somewhere in the time frame of 1923, he and Papa built two homes, one on the farmland east of town (that mother and daddy moved into) and the other was the little green house in Lockett where Mama and Papa lived. This makes sense because Papa listed his profession in 1910 as a carpenter. Daddy explained how they even made the bricks (and sun dried them) that were used on the exterior walls. Papa did the framing.

 Stories that I heard about them that I remember most:

 When my grandmother (Ava) gave birth to her first child, Jo, it was a difficult labor. Jo was stuck in the birth canal. It was a home birth, and when Jo finally made her way into the world, all hope was given up that she would live through the night. Ella stayed up all night extracting mucus/debris from Jo’s airways. Jo survived, though she was deformed from being in the birth canal too long. I was blessed to grow up knowing Jo as I learned how to see her as a person, rather than seeing her as a deformed person.

 Papa was always dedicated to preaching the gospel. He was a ‘hell, fire and brimstone’ preacher. I was able to secure some of his thoughts in letters that he wrote to his son and grandson. I have pictures of him baptizing people in the river.

 Mama and Papa were the ones that took in Mother’s (Carolita Jones Quillin) family,  (J.C. Jones and Ava and FIVE children) when their home was destroyed by fire. They had nothing but the shirts on their backs, and Mama and Papa took them and bought clothes and shoes.  They provided shelter for the Jones family until J.C. could secure another dwelling.

 Possession from Mama and Papa that I have – bible, Hull vase, iron skillet

Puritanism

Wording taken from my textbook

The American Tradition in Literature Vol. 1  4^th ed.  By Bradley, Beatty, Long, Perkins, 1974.

The earliest English Puritans were devout members of the Church of England wishing to simplify the creeds and rituals of the bishops, but still no official break was intended.  But in 1633, Archbishop Laud became the tyrant determined to root out “Calvinist” dissenters, both Presbyterians and Puritans.  The Puritans carried the tenets of John Calvin (1509-1564) most closely, but were unwilling to submit to the abusive and cruel laws.  The ideas of Martin Luther (1483-1546) the earlier reformer, later became a permanent influence on American democracy.  However, Luther’s authority was shattered wherever his words were received.  The Calvin doctrine believed, like the Catholics, that the church should be independent.  The state should be its servant.  So in early New England the leading clergymen, powerful and well-trained were for a time the dominating authority, but by 1700 their civil powers were crumbling under new secular influence.  Calvin and the Puritans put emphasis on man’s original sin, with Adam’s fall from grace, and nothing could mitigate the original sinfulness of his nature.  This gave the Puritan stereotype the dour, prudish standards for which they are known.  Yet the Puritans in general were lovers of life, their clergy were well educated scholars, they did not forbid gaily colored clothes (they were just not available), they developed pleasing architecture and good arts and crafts, they like the drink even if they despised the drunkard, and they made religious thought a rigorous intellectual discipline.  They were the colonists to insist on common schools, they had the first college (Harvard 1636), the first printing press (Cambridge 1638), and they were responsible for the abundant literature created in the colonies before 1740.   In their influence on American life, there is more to bless them for than to condemn.  They DID have extreme zealots among them, over-interpreting their dogmas and despising this mortal life in contrast to the next.  The same zealots, during an outbreak of hysterical superstition, persecuted the “witches.” 

My Recollections of Mama & Papa McNair

Recollections from a Great-Great Granddaughter

They were Mama and Papa to me.

By Nancy Quillin Long

I recorded these memories in February 2020

As I grew up in Vernon, Texas, I was fortunate to live near extended family. This allowed me the opportunity to know personally the parents (Ella Vermell King and Charles Franklin McNair) of my grandmother (Ava Ella King Jones, Mimi to me).

 

Though my recollections of them are from the perspective of an 8-12 year old child, I can still see them clearly in my mind’s eye. These recollections are limited but valuable to me. I am thankful that on occasion my mother would take me to see her elderly grandparents in their home in the small community of Lockett, Texas.

 

Of course, I didn’t know them very well, but my impression was that they were serious minded, straight forward, children of God, educated and kind. I hold them in great esteem from hearing the stories of their lives as spoken by my mother and my grandmother. (see those interviews)

Mama McNair had very long hair that she wore in a bun just above the collar line. Papa McNair had a round belly. They both wore spectacles.  They used home remedies, and as a child, I often had sore throats. Papa always said that grape juice would cure a sore throat. After I learned that, many times I could ward off illness by drinking grape juice made from concentrate.

 

The fact that today I can sit at my computer and use Google Earth to see Lockett, Texas, is nothing less that amazing. As I pull up that map, there is a pin designated as the Lockett Baptist Church which my great-great grandfather established in 1924, along with 11 other members. Charles Franklin McNair pastored there for 12 years. I’m pleased to see that the building is still standing in 2022 in good shape, with an additional wing added. Lockett, as of today, has all but dried up.

 

I remember my visits to their home in the early 1960s. I don’t remember much about their home, except that it was always painted green and it was small and humble. There was a piano in the living room. What I remember most is the property out back. It seemed so large to me, as if I was looking out on a small pasture. Mama and Papa had a very large garden. Papa would plow the land with a hand plow.  It was well tended, and they devoted much time to growing vegetables which they would can and preserve. I was most fascinated with their vegetable cellar. It was partially underground with lattice work around the top to ventilate and to offer some light. This was a wonderful place to preserve their food.

 

They were not overly affectionate people, but their love for each other and God was evident. When Mama (Ella Vermell) suffered a stroke, the news was dire. It was a severe stroke, and she would never be the same. She was placed in a nursing home on Texas Street in Vernon, Texas. I remember visiting her. At first, she recognized us, but as time wore on, she was no longer cognizant of those around her. At that point, I was no longer allowed to go with Mimi (Ava) on her visits to Mama (Ella).

Change Your Lens

The crested butte on the backside of our property. It stands high above the canyon below. 

 Our experiences and the people we have known create who we are. Those experiences are welded into our being. Not much can change that. Sometimes we have to step back and see things through a different lens. We are all different people and bring different things together to form relationships. There is a “give and take” to any relationship. And it’s not all about you. 

Nature and the land have much to offer about different perspectives if you only take time to observe it. On our mountain property, we have a grassy knoll. As I approach it, the road narrows and the forest closes in a bit, but I can still see the grassy knoll. My vision is limited, but once I reach the top of the knoll, my perspective broadens with the wide expanse of a grand landscape that is now in view. Do I have to change my lens? Most definitely! 

Laid out before me is a vast landscape of open park meadows in the midst of aspen stands and lodgepole pines. The scene is breathtaking, as I can see the road meandering across the open meadows miles away. Off to one side is the majestic mountain top and the view to the other side is of a crested butte that stands high above the canyon below. 

Life is like that. In my world, I have a limited view, much like the approach to that grassy knoll. The expanse of the horizon broadens at the top causing me to change my lens to see near and far and beyond. Relationships are like that.  In order to have a good relationship with others, you have to broaden your perspective and see things through their lens. This is a hard thing to do. But shifting your vision gives you countless opportunities to see the goodness and fullness of others. It’s not about you when you change your lens. 

Early American Settlements

 The American Tradition in Literature Vol. 1  4^th ed.  By Bradley, Beatty, Long, Perkins, 1974.

VIRGINIA
The first permanent English settlement  at Jamestown, (1607) as you know, was wrought with many problems but the colony increased and a colonial capital was established in 1693 at Williamsburg where William and Mary was founded as the 2^nd college in N. America.  During the 17^th c. the south was not a land of large plantations, yet it fell victim to British mercantilism, an abusive system which compelled the colonists to sell to the mother country.  The southern wealth grew and was composed of a few privileged aristocrats, thousands of slaves and a white middle class of frontiersmen and farmers.  They added little to the creative literature of the colonies, but produced some great leaders and statesmen like Jefferson and Madison.
 
NEW ENGLAND
In the northern colonies, where natural conditions favored manufacturing and commerce, a considerable number of people were learned, especially the Puritan clergymen and governors.  They produced a considerable body of writing; yet, they were not literary people.  They were intent upon subduing a wilderness, making homes, and building a new civil society.  The Massachusetts Bay colony under the leadership of John Winthrop, a strong Puritan, became a colony with limited, but then quite unprecedented, powers of self-government.  They became the model of democracy.