What
should we do with those family stories that have been passed down
through generations but, we realize, are more fiction than fact? Should
they be discarded in the interest of only recording accurate and factual
information? I don't think so. I really believe those
stories should be preserved and passed on to future generations.
However, they should be clearly identified as family stories and not
claimed as fact.
Early
in my genealogy pursuits, I came across a story about my 10th
great-grandfather Thomas Hatch and his second wife Grace. Since then, I
have seen it repeated several times including at https://familysearch.org/photos/stories/6132816. The version I see most often goes something like this:
It
seems that Miss Grace was a very winsome and popular young
lady and had several suitors beside Thomas Hatch.
Eventually Miss Grace had narrowed her choices to two men; Thomas
and another admiring gentleman. Evidently it was so difficult for the
coy Miss Grace to select her husband from the two men it was decided
that, since they were farmers, they would conduct a "reaping
match." The whole point of this contest was that whoever
could reap a certain equally measured portion of a field of grain the fastest
would win the prize; our lovely Miss Grace. The day of the reaping
match, Miss Grace had her portion staked out between that of the two men
and the contest began. It was in the days that reaping grain was done
by hand sickle, which was no easy task for any man. It appears that at
some point the ever popular Miss Grace had come to a decision that no
matter which man won, she wanted to marry Thomas. In order to insure
that Thomas would win she slyly cut over some of her portion into
Thomas' portion thereby assuring him the victory and her
hand in marriage.
I wanted to include this story on my own genealogy
but, I wanted to make it crystal clear that it is just family legend and not historical fact. So, in the
the true storytelling tradition, I didn't just repeat what was in the
books but, I also added specific names I had found during me research and even added my own
embellishments.
The Harvest of Thomas Hatch
Thomas
Hatch had been left a widower by the death of his first wife. Needing a
mother for his two young children, Lydia and Jonathan, he began to court
the daughter of his neighbor, a farmer named Lewis. Grace Lewis was
apparently a very attractive and popular young woman for she had several
suitors in addition to Thomas. At last, the choice was narrowed to
Thomas and just one other but, the lovely Grace could not seem to choose
between the two. Finally it was decided that the two rivals would take
part in a contest to determine who would win the hand of Grace. Since it
was harvest time, the match would be a reaping contest. The one who
could reap his portion of Farmer Lewis' field in the shortest time would
be the winner.
On
the day of the event, Grace announced that she too would take a part in
the contest. She would start in the middle of the field and cut her
swaths toward the edges, one side and then the other. The two suitors
would start at opposite edges and cut toward the middle. The first to
join his swath with Grace's would also join his life with hers.
In
the early morning, the contest began. The two rivals paced off the
distance to the center of the field and agreed that each patch was even.
Grace cut her first swath straight up the middle of the field with an
expertise gained through years of harvests. Her two suitors worked
furiously to cut their way to the center and to the lovely Grace. The
two young men were evenly matched. First one and then the other would
take the lead. By ten o'clock, every neighbor for miles around had
arrived to cheer on their favorite in the struggle for the hand of Miss
Grace.
The
noon hour arrived and the onlookers brought out their picnic lunches,
but the rivals would not stop to eat. Both kept up an almost superhuman
pace so great was each ones desire to win. Grace too kept up her work
without a rest first cutting a swath toward Thomas and then one toward
the other until finally, just before three in the afternoon, Thomas swung
his sickle through the last thin row of grain and joined his harvested
ground with Grace's. The young couple clasped hands and raised them high
between them for all the town to see.
The
happy pair, the relieved father and the jubilant neighbors hurried off
to the Lewis home to celebrate the betrothal. Left behind, Thomas' rival
gazed forlornly over the harvested ground. Something did not seem quite
right to him. As he paced to and fro over the stubble, he saw
that the portion he had cut was definitely a little larger that that cut
by Thomas. A closer study showed him that each row of wheat that Grace
had cut toward his side of the field was just slightly narrower than the
rows cut toward Thomas' side. It seemed that Grace had made up her mind
after all! The rival suitor chuckled to himself then set off after the
noisy crowd. There would be a party this evening and the young ladies of
the town would all be there. It was time for him to set his sights on
another prospect. This time he thought, he would not choose a farmer's
daughter to court.
To make it clear that this is not to be taken as fact, I added this disclaimer after the story.
Is
the story true? Certainly not, although it may have some basis in fact.
It is a true part of our family heritage though and, I think, worth
passing on.
Since I wrote my version of the story, it has appeared on several other sites and now it too is becoming part of the family legacy.
Please,
add those stories and rumors to your research. They are fun to record
and fun to read. Just make sure you make clear just what they are. And feel free to make them your own.
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