The Search of my First American Veteran

I am the 7th great granddaughter of Captain Thomas Taber. His first marriage was to Esther Cooke, daughter of Mayflower passenger, John Cooke (my 8th great granduncle). His second wife, my 7th great grandmother, was Mary Tomson (Thompson). She was the granddaughter of Francis Cooke, Mayflower passenger, signatory of the Mayflower Compact, and my 9th great grandfather. All 13 of his children and their descendants have a Mayflower connection! But this is not about my Mayflower connection as wonderful as that is.

In honor of Veteran's Day, I had decided to go back in the tree and talk about my 6th great grandfather, Henry Strunk who was a Revolutionary War veteran. Something tugged me to go back a little further. I knew Thomas Taber was a Captain, but all of my research was leading me down dead end paths. Until today.

Captain Thomas Taber was quite a man. In 1673 when he's married Mary Tomson, he was the surveyor of highways in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. In 1678, Dartmouth held its first town meeting since the beginning of the King Philip's War. It was about this time Thomas builds a "stone ender" house for his ever growing family. The house was 16 feet by 20 feet and was home for Mary and himself along with their 13 children. Can you imagine 15 people under one roof of that size? 

The photograph above is an etching of the what the house would have looked like in 1678. The photograph on the left is what remained until the late 1800s. Today next to 191 Main Street, are of the fairplace remains. 

In 1673, Thomas was a surveyor of highways of Dartmouth. Only someone with a higher education, even then, would hold such a position. It was very likely he would have been a Lieutenant in the Militia at the time of the King Philip's War due to his knowledge of the surrounding highways and paths. This was the  first of a series of American-Indian (or Colonial) Wars. 

By 1679 he was the Town Clerk. In 1685 he began an eight term career as a selectman in the Town of Dartmouth, Fairhaven Village.  On 20 May 1690, he was commissioned Captain after the King Philip's War. He was deputy in 1693.

Captain Thomas Taber had been a prominent land owner, surveyor, Selectman, deputy and militia captain. He is my first American veteran and ironically enough, died at the age of 84 on 11 November 1730. The date would become, some 189 years later, declared Armistice Day by President Wilson.