Floyd's Blog - Family history, photos and random thoughts.

John Hoar – The rescue of Mary Rowlandson, and Orchard House

Posted on by bowlesf1976

Artists depiction of John Hoar (sometimes spelled Hoare) negotiating the Nipmucks for the release of Mary Rowlandson from captivity.

John Hoar, one of my ninth great-grandfathers, was born in 1622 in Gloucestershire, England. The exact date of his birth is unknown. It is believed that he emigrated to Scituate, Massachusetts when he was about 20 years old. 

John hoar is known for three things.

  1. A prominent lawyer and Indian missionary in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, he was the agent sent to rescue Mary Rowlandson from the Nipmucks in 1676. The negotiation took place at what became known as Redemption Rock in Princeton, Massachusetts during what was known as King Phillip’s War. Mary Rowlandson is considered to be the first American prisoner of war. She wrote a narrative of her ordeal, the transcript of which can be found at https://www.gutenberg.org/files/851/851-h/851-h.htm. 
  2. His home in Concord, Massachusetts was purchased by the Alcott family two centuries after he built it. They renamed it “Orchard House” and it became famous as the place where Louisa May Alcott grew up, and where she did much of her writing.
  3.  He was an ancestor of George Frisbee Hoar, U.S. Senator from Massachusetts from 1877 to 1904. Known as “Frisbee”, Senator Hoar was a radical Republican abolitionist who considered the Democratic Party to be “the party of the saloon keeper, ballot box stuffer and the Klu Klux Klan.”  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Frisbie_Hoar) Senator Hoar was also chair of the Republican National Committee in 1880 that drafted James Garfield as it’s Presidential candidate when, after well over twenty ballots, none of the three candidates (Blaine from Maine, Sherman from Ohio and GEN Ulysses S. Grant, who was seeking a an unprecedented third term) were able to garner a majority of the votes. Garfield, also from Ohio, had just been elected to the U.S. Senate and was not seeking the Presidency, but he accepted the call when it was offered. His running mate was Chester A. Arthur from New York, who became President after Garfield died of wounds suffered at the hands of an assassin. 

John Hoar is also my 9th great-grandfather. The hereditary line from him to me is shown below.