There are;
(according to the U.S. Census Bureau) there are more than 7000 Trasks in the United States.
4,619 Trasks listed in the White Pages
California 448 listings
Maine 444 listings
Massachusetts 294 listings
Florida 288 listings
New York 276 listings
Florida 288 listings
Illinois 147 listings
Washington 146 listings
Texas 148 listings
Michigan 104 listings
New Hampshire 103 listings
Iowa 103 listings
Connecticut 100 listings
1,338 Trasks listed in The Canadian Residential Phone Book and
2,279 Trasks listed in the United Kingdom Telephone and Address Listings
"Our name was de Thresk.
We are the desendants of Vikings."
From: Juel M. Trask
"Our" resident Trask Family Historian, my "Pardner" and good friend.
"At first I only did research on the American branch of the family. There were four of us that were doing research together on the Missouri Trask branch. We operated in somewhat of a vacuum. Over the years I began to shift my research from the genealogy of the Trask family to the history of the family. Researching the history of the family is somewhat different from studying the genealogy. Most of my research on the history of the family uses different resources than that of genealogical research. The type of resources I have researched for the early history of the family, are located in good University libraries. I had spent years as a graduate student doing research in University research libraries and I just changed my focus to studying the origin of the Trask family. At first I was just stumbling in the dark, but as I worked, I began to see ways to find a research path to follow. I never run across genealogists in my research, only graduate students and professors inhabit the musty stacks of a University research library.
Doing research on the middle ages is a very unique area to research. There are many problems to over come. One of the biggest stumbling blocks I ran up against, was the information blackout caused by the Black Plague in the mid 14th century. It took me several years to find a way to resolve that issue and I still find it a research block for the 14th and 15th centuries.
The possibility of the de Thresk family being of Norman origin is one of the main hypothesis that I considered. In recent years that has been a persistent rumor in the family. I think the primary basis for this rumor is the prefix de with the Thresk name. I kept this in mind during my research.
The surname of our family has undergone many changes through the years. Sometime in the 14th century the "de" was dropped. During the 15th and 16th centuries it evidently evolved from Thresk into Traske. The "e" was dropped off the name some time after the family came to the Bay Plantation. The family in England also dropped the "e" off Traske at some point. I don't remember ever seeing anyone spelling the name Traske today. I think there was a practice of ending many English names with an "e" until a couple of centuries ago.
Christian Trask has good point about what an unusual name Osmund is and how it might be a marker. I have seen Osmond's names spelled several ways in the records. Osmond, Osmund, Osmand, and Osman are some of the variations I have run across. The word osmund is from Middle English and is derived from Old French. It refers in modern English to a species of ferns that have fibrous roots and is sometimes used as a potting medium for cultivated plants. The use of Osmund as a christian name within the Traske family at East Coker was common during the 16th and 17th centuries.
By the way, my research is still in progress. My paper is only a work in progress that I wrote to let my family know what I had found so far in my research. I doubt that I will finish my research in my lifetime. I began my research on the Trask family in the early 1970's - "Origin Of The Trask Family".
After years of consideration I lean toward the theory that the origin of the de Thresk name is the result of the family coming from Thirsk. The name of the town of Thirsk appears to be of Danish (Viking) origin. It is well known that the region was a Viking stronghold for many centuries before the Norman invasion.
Thirsk is a part of England that was controlled by the Danes (Vikings) and Saxons during the last of the first millennium and the first of the second millennium. After William the Norman's defeat of the English King at the Battle of Hastings, the region was given to William's Norman supporters. The Danes and Saxons who had occupied the region for several centuries were made landless by William. I suspect that the predecessors of the de Thresk family were Danes who were left landless by the seizure of Yorkshire by the Norman's. My conclusion is that if the de Thresks had been Norman's, they would have held a higher position in the social structure of Norman Yorkshire. They appear to have held a lower status than the Norman's of 12th century Yorkshire. The reason for choosing a Viking background for the de Thresks rather than a Saxon heritage is the long held idea within the English branch of the family, that the Traske family's origin was Viking. Thanks for that information, Lawrie!
My most likely scenario for the rise of the Traske (de Thresk) family is that the family overcame the Norman suppression of non Norman families by becoming deeply involved in the Catholic Church. There were two sources of power in the middle ages, hereditary and ecclestaical. The common thread that I have found from the 12th century on for the de Thresk family is ecclesiastical. We were church people. The families of hereditary background often despised the church people because they saw the church as a threat to their hereditary wealth and power. Of course people of hereditary background also became church people."
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Christian Trask said that according to a book "Passages of the Planters" (The title may not be exact--notes and sources have become disorganized after 4 or 5 moves). There is a record of a Capt. William Traske as a passanger upon the ship "The Sea Lion" which departed Delft, Holland during June of 1624 to New England. According to the historians Will and Ariel Durant, in "The Age of Exploration", Capt. Traske and Woodbury, Connaut, Balch, and Palfrey (The Old Planters) were confronted by Miles Standish and company while they were operating a fishing station, at Cape Ann, during the year 1624. This paved the way for the Salem settlement. I think it is vey likely that William Traske made several trans-Atlantic journies during the 1620's.
Juel Trask stated he was sure that William made at least two trips between England and New England. That is the reason for the confusion over when he came over. His arrival in 1628 with Governor Endicott was probably his last arrival. The fishing station at Cape Anne was a business venture of the Dorchester Company out of Dorsetshire. They wanted to catch and dry fish to take back to England. Several of the East Coker families were involved in the fishing station. Juel has written additional information in his "paper "The Traske's of Massachusetts Bay".
Gloucester History:
The first Europeans to land on Cape Ann were the French. Samuel de Champlain led an expedition in 1605 and anchored briefly. The next year, Champlain led a second expedition, entering Gloucester harbor and calling it "le beau port," or "beautiful harbor." The party stayed about two weeks, making maps of the area. When they ran into 200 Indians and thought them hostile, they quickly left the area. Captain John Smith sailed by Cape Ann in 1614, and named it "Cape Tragabigzanda". Prince Charles of England finally coined the name "Cape Ann" in 1684 for his mother Queen Anne
The Dorchester Company sent out a group of fishermen from England in 1623. At Stage Point they set up stages to dry the fish before it was sent back to England. The same location was later a fort. Cannons were set up in the hills to protect Gloucester's fishing fleet from invading pirates and enemy warships during the war of 1812.
Pictures of Stage Point at Gloucester, MA on Cape Ann
Old Naumkeag: An Historical Sketch of The City of Salem ... by C. H. Webber and W. S. Nevins
From: The Winthrop Society, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to historical and genealogical research and the dissemination of educational material about The Massachusetts Bay Colony. There are several other applicable articles available at their web site, e.g., The First Freemen of Massachusetts Bay and The Oath of a Freeman.
The following individuals are reported to be the newest inhabitants of New England.Among the very first Puritan settlers of Cape Anne and Naumkeag between 1623-1627): Allen, Balch, Conant, Cushman, Gardner, Gray, Jeffrey, Knight, Lyford, Norman, Oldham, Palfrey, Patch, Pickryn, Winslow, Woodbury.
Those settled by Gorges, 1623, and other very early settlers: Blaxton, Burslin, Hilton, Jeffrey, Hennens, Maverick, Pierce, Pratt, Sanders, Thomson, Walford.
[Note; There were at least two individuals with the name Gorges.
Captain Robert Gorges set out from Horton in Somersetshire in 1621 to Wessegusset, now called Weymouth, MA. John Balch was a member of this colony and went to Naumkeag when the settlement was abondoned two years later.
Sir Ferdinando Gorges (1566?-1647), English soldier, mariner, and colonizer, born in Long Ashton, Somersetshire. He founded two Plymouth companies (1606 and 1620) for acquiring and colonizing lands in New England. In 1629 he received the land between the Kennebec and Piscataqua rivers, and in 1639 King Charles I granted him a charter constituting him proprietor of the province of Maine. Gorges later called it New Somersetshire, after his place of birth. His son neglected the province, which finally placed itself under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts Bay Colony.]
Among those who arrived with Endecott on the ship "Abigail" at Naumkeag in 1628: Brackenbury, Brown, Davenport, Elford, Endecott, Gott, Laskin, Leach, Maurie/Morey, Puchett, Scruggs and Captain Traske.
Among those who arrived with the Higginson fleet to Salem, 1629: Archer, Beard, Brand, Brown, Brude, Claydon, Craddock, Dixy, Dodge, Edes, Edmonds, Ewstead, Farr, Graves, Hanscombe, Haughton, Haward, Herrick, Higginson, Holgrave, Ingersoll, Malbon, Massie, Miller, Moulton, Rickman, Ryall, Sharpe, Sibly, Skelton, Sprague, Stileman, Tillie, Waterman, Webb, Wilson
The following men were transported in 1631 (from the London Rolls Office) probably aboard the "William and Francis": Gamlin, Harris, Hart, Hayward, Hill, Levins, Mannering, Norton, Olliver, Perkins, Smallie, Thomas, Whetson, Woodford, Winslow.
Others in Salem by 1633: Auger, Bennet, Clark, Dike, Huson, Johnson, Leavit, Manning, Noddle, Norton, Peach, Sweet, Wincoll.
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The Dorchester Company had established a fishing settlement on Cape Anne during the winter of 1623-24 under a charter with England. It was located at Stage Point, now Gloucester, Essex County, Massachusetts.
In the late autumn of 1625, Roger Conant was invited by the Rev. John White and other members of the Dorchester Company to move to their fishing settlement on Cape Ann and serve as their governor ";for the management and government of all their affairs at Cape Ann"..
Roger Conant was born in the parish of East Budleigh, Devonshire, England in 1592, the youngest of eight children. In 1623 he emigrated to Plymouth with his wife, Sarah, and son, Caleb. However, he was uncomfortable with the strict Pilgrim society in Plymouth and moved his family to Nantasket in 1624.
Roger accepted the offer as governor at Stage Point. After a year's residence, he became convinced of the need for a more permanent settlement and found an ideal site at the mouth of the Naumkeag River in 1626. There the settlement grew by farming as well as fishing.
In 1627 a patent was solicited from England and it was obtained by a group, which included William Traske, led by John Endicott. They arrived at Naumkeag in 1628. Endicott and the other settlers of the New England Company now owned the rights to Naumkeag. Fortunately for the peaceful continuity of the settlement, Conant remained in Naumkeag and, despite what must have been a disappointment for him, acceded to Endicott's authority as the new governor.
When Governor Endicott arrived in 1628, he incorporated Conant and his men into the new government. Known as the "Old Planters", Conant and his followers lent continuity to the new settlement and can be considered the founding fathers of Naumkeag, renamed Salem for "Shalom" or Peace on June 29, 1629. Roger Conant died on November 19, 1679 considering himself ";...an instrument, though a weak one, of foundering and furthering this colony...";
Note; On the 25th January, 1635, the town of Salem granted to Peter Palfry, John Balch, William Traske, John Woodberry and Roger Conant, 200 acres each, the whole being 124 rods by about 1,290. These grantees were all settlers before Endicott's arrival, and hence were called "Old Planters". RWT
The "Dorchester Company" went into bankruptcy in 1627 and became "The Massachusetts Bay Colony" in 1629 under charter from England.
The signature of Captain William Traske
from "The History of Salem", Massachusetts, Vol. I, page 94, by Sidney Perley
from "The History of Salem", Massachusetts, Vol. I, page 84, by Sidney Perley
My sister, Pat, lives on Planters' Marsh, in Salem, MA. I state "lives on" because, Dr. William Bentley wrote, on March 17, 1801, that while moving soil to Planters' Marsh, from east of Hortons' Point (North River side), they found the foundations of The Dorchester Company's settlement. According to Frances Rose-Troup this is where William Traske, John Woodbery etc. endured their first couple of years living in New England. Perley states, Mr. Conant and his companions removed to the territory called (by the Indians) Naumkeag from Cape Anne in the autumn of 1626. A map drawn by Captain John Smith after 1620 names the spot of the old planters settlement as Bristow (Bristol) - because the inhabitants were from the west of England. In one of the nineteen thatched roofed cottages, which were gone by 1661, was born the first white child of the region - Roger Conant Jr..
Comment:
When one visits Salem, Peabody, and Beverly you will experience the unlimited marketing of the murder of 23 innocent people.
One will not find any trace or marker for;
1. Osmonde Traske's Homestead in Beverly, prior to 1700 - located at the intersection of Colon and Cabot Street in the area of Bessie Baker Park.
2. The first and second landing place in Naumkeag - located by the McKay School on Balch Street in Beverly, MA.
3. The first permanent settlement in Salem - located on the south-eastern shore of the North River and around the corner from Beverly Harbor.
4. Traske's Plain in Salem Village - located north of and along Boston Street, from Peabody Center to Essex Street in Salem.
Click here to view a map (in a window) of where these four places were.
Note;
Prior to 1750, there were at least three distinctly marked burial grounds on Traske's Plain; Gardners Hill Ancient Cemetery, The Friends Cemetery and The Traske Burial Ground. These three cemeteries surround The Old South Cemetery in Peabody, MA. The oldest marked grave in the later is Roger Derby's, who died on September 26, 1698. The only marked Trask graves are those of the family of William, William, John, William, Captain William Traske [bp. 4-22-1744 Salem, MA, d: 11-22-1806]. With all the major excavations that have taken place in that area it is very difficult for me to believe that knowone spotted the remains of "our" family.
Where have the remains of four generations of "our" family gone?
"The Phenomenon of 1692"
One of the laws in England, during the 1500 - 1600's, stated that Witchcraft was a capital offense, punishable by death. In New England prior to "the penomenon" 79 persons were accused, 33 tried and 15 hung for witchcraft between 1647 and 1663.
The problems that occurred in Salem Village (now Danvers, MA) during the years 1692 and 1693 all seemed to have begun at the home of Reverend Samuel Parris in Salem Village. They involved his servant, Tituba, and a small group of young girls under the age of twenty. Tituba was from Barbados where voodoo and the belief in the occult was part of the culture there.
Reverend Parris's daughter Betty and niece Abigail Williams, later joined by Susannah Sheldon, Elizabeth and Alice Booth, Mary Walcott, Elizabeth Hubbard, Mary Warren, Sarah Churchill, Mercy Lewis (Putnam's servant) and Ann Putnam were fascinated with the stories, magic tricks and fortune telling by Tituba.
Ann Putnam, born in Salem Village on October 18, 1679, was the daughter of Sergent Thomas Putnam and Ann Carr. She has been confused with Ann Putnam the first wife of William Trask, son of Captain William Trask. William's wife, Ann Putnam, born in Salem Village on June 7, 1668, was the daughter of Lieutenant Thomas Putnam and his first wife Ann Holyoke. Lieutenant Thomas Putnam was Sergent Thomas Putnam's father. According to the "Putnam Lineage," by E. Putnam, The Putnam Family was very involved with the Witchcraft Trials - in one instance putting brother against brother.
During months of January and February of 1692, nine of the girls started acting very bizarre and were taken before Dr. Griggs for an examination. Dr. Griggs could not medically determine why they were all acting so strangely and believed they were all under the influence of the supernatural.
In March 1692, Magistrates John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin and Reverend Parris intensely pressured, tricked and questioned the girls, at Lt. Ingersoll's Ordinary in Salem Village, into naming the persons responsible for their fits. By May of 1692 some 200 people were publicly accused by the afflicted girls and hysterical people from the surrounding area.
Governor William Phips, enroute to Salem after James the II was overthrown by William of Orange, arrived in Salem, MA on May 14th, 1692. The Governor set up a special "Court of Oyer and Terminer" composed of seven judges to try the witchcraft cases. The appointed judges were; Lieutenant Governor William Stoughon, Nathaniel Saltonstall, Bartholomew Gedney, Peter Sergeant, Samuel Sewall, Wait Still Winthrop, John Richards, John Hathorne, and Jonathan Corwin.
There were at least 160 people confined in the Essex and Middlesex County jails. Most of which were in chains to prevent the "spectres" from leaving their bodies while they awaited trial. Attorney General Thomas Newton began the first trial on June 2nd, 1692.
From: The Salem Home Page
There are pictures of the grave stones of all the victims and a time line of the events of 1692 and 1693.
The results of the trails were as follows; guilty of witchcraft and condemned to death - hanged, June 10, 1692 Bridget Bishop guilty of witchcraft and condemned to death - hanged, July 19, 1692 Sarah Good, Sarah Wildes, Elizabeth Howe, Susannah Martin and Rebecca Nurse guilty of witchcraft and condemned to death - hanged, August 19, 1692 George Burroughs, Martha Carrier, George Jacobs, John Proctor and John Willard. Elizabeth Proctor was temporarily reprieved due to her pregnancy. Giles Corey was pressed to death for refusing a trial on September 19, 1692. guilty of witchcraft and condemned to death - hanged, September 22, 1692 Martha Corey, Mary Easty, Alice Parker, Mary Parker, John Willard, Ann Pudeator, Wilmott Redd, Margaret Scott and Samuel Wardwell Lydia Dustin, from Redding, was jailed May 2nd in Boston and died there March 10th, 1693. Sarah Warren Prince Osborne, died in a Boston jail while awaiting trial May 10th, 1692.Reverend Increase Mather, President of Harvard College, addressed the court during the trial of Sarah Cole on October 3rd. He stating that the use of spectral evidence should not be sufficient proof for any conviction. Some of the afflicted girls' testimonies, over the period of 10 months, had become inconsistent - the educated public was having doubts. Nathanial Putnam Sr. and 39 other prominent citizens from Salem Village signed a petition denouncing the acquisitions against Rebecca Nurse. Nathaniel Saltonstall resigned from the court in June stating he was dissatisfied with its proceedings. Thomas Brattle, Treasurer of Harvard, wrote a letter to the Governor stating he was against the use of spectral evidence and criticized the witchcraft trials. Governor Phips declare that intangible evidence could no longer be admissible in the trials. On October 29th further imprisonment's were forbidden and the "Court of Oyer and Terminer" was dissolved.
By May 9th of 1693, all the cases had been heard by Superior Courts or special courts of judicature, the remaining accused were either acquitted or pardoned - no one was convicted.
Samuel Sewall, a Judge at the trials, confessed in 1697 to making an error in convicting the accused. Ann Putnam, in 1706, wrote a public apology. By 1710 the families of the accused were seeking recourse from the state for damages and their losses.
The history of the village shows conclusive proof, that, if the matter had been left to the people there, it would never have reached the point to which it was carried. It was the influence of the magistracy and the government of the colony and public sentiment prevalent elce where, overruling that of the immediate locality, that drove on the storm.
Witchcraft in Salem Village Visit this site.
This site was created by the Danvers Archival Center, the local history, rare book and manuscript department of the Peabody Institute Library of Danvers, Massachusetts, with the support of the Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia. Its purpose is to introduce a major area of Danvers' collections relating to the infamous Salem Village Witchcraft Trials of 1692. This Website is designed to provide accurate general information about these witchcraft events, as well as information on other aspects of Danvers' history.
Richard B. Trask, town archivist for Danvers and author of "The Devil Hath Been Raised" is a one of the consultants.
Buck's Tombstone
In a cemetery on Bucksport's main thoroughfare, clearly visible just inside a wrought-iron fence, is the gray tombstone of Col. Jonathan Buck. Appearing on one side of the tomb is the dark image of a woman's stocking foot, a reminder of an 18th-century curse. During the Salem witch trials, all New England was caught up in the fever to exterminate witches. Colonel Buck, an influential resident and a member of the family from which the town took its name, decided that Bucksport should purge itself of witches also. He found a perfect candidate in an old, feeble woman, whom he had tried, convicted, and executed. With her last breath, she cursed the colonel and declared that when he died his tomb would bear the print of her foot as evidence that he had murdered an innocent woman. Colonel Buck, not one to tempt fate, cautioned his heirs to choose a tombstone unblemished in any way. Soon after his death, however, the shape of a woman's foot gradually began to appear on the marker. Dutiful heirs made many efforts to have it removed, but to no avail. Finally they replaced the stone with a new one. Within a few months, another footprint appeared, it could not be removed. When a third stone was put in place and yet another footprint appeared, the heirs gave up. Today the third stone and footprint remain for all the world to see.
Bucksport is located on State Route 15 and US 1, directly south of Bangor.
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An account of the events leading up to the suicide of Christian Woodbury can be found in the following sworn statement made by John Hale on May 20, 1692 in regards to the matter John Hale v. Bridget Bishop. From the book " What Happened in Salem?", by David Levin.
Christian Woodbury or Woodberrie married John Trask, first son of Osmond Traske, on 4-9-1679 in Beverly, MA.
"John Hale of Beverly aged about 56 years testifieth and saith that about 5 or 6 years ago Christina the wife of John Trask (living in Salem bounds boardering on the above said Beverly) being in full communion in our church came to me to desire that Goodwife Bishop her neighbor wife of Edward Bishop [formerly wife of old Goodman Oliver]... might not be permitted to receive the Lord's Supper in our church till she had given her the said Trask satisfaction for some offences that were aggainst her: viz: because the said Bishop did entertain certain people in her house at unseasonable hours in the night to keep drinking and playing at shovelboard whereby discord did arise in other families and young people were in danger to be corrupted and that the said Trask knew these things and once gone into the house and finding some at Shovelboard had taken the pieces they played with and thrown them into the fire and had reproved that said Bishop for promoting such disorders But received no satisfaction from her about it.
I gave the said Christina Trask direction how to proceed farther in this matter if it were clearly proved And indeed by the information I have had other wise I do fear that if a stop had not been put to those disorders Edward Bishop's house would have been a house of great profaneness and iniquity.
But as to Christina Trask the next news I heard of her was that she was distracted and asking her husband Trask when she was so taken, he told me she was distracted that night after she came from my house when she complained against Goody Bishop.
She continued some time distracted we Sought the Lord by fasting and prayer and the Lord was pleased to restore the said Trask to the use of her reason again I was with her often in her distraction (and took it then to be only distraction yet fearing somethimes somewhat worse) but since I have seen the fits of those bewitched at Salem village I call to mind some of hers to be much like some of theirs.
The said Trask when recovered (as I understood it) did manifest strong suspicion that she had been bewitched by said Bishop's wife and showed so much aversences from any converse **** her that I was then troubled **** as hoping better of Goody Bishop at the time ******* At lenght said Christina Trask *** was *** again in a ditracted fit on a Sabbath day in the forenoon at the public meeting to a public disturbance and so continued sometimes better sometimes worse unto her death manifesting that she was under temptation to kill herself or somebody elce.
I inquired of Margaret Ring who kept at or nigh the house, what she had observed of said Trask before this last distraction she told me, Trask was much given to reading and search the prophecies of scripture.
The day before she made the disturbance in the meeting house she came home and said she had been with Goody Bishop and that they two were now friends or to that effect.
I was off praying with and conseling of Trask before her death and not many days before her end being ther seemed more rational and earnestly desired Edw Bishop might be sent for that she might make friends with him. I asked her if she wronged Edw Bishop she said not that she knew of unless it were in taking his shovelboard pieces when people were playing with them and throwing them into the fire and if she did evil in it she was sorry for it and desired he would be friends with her or forgive her. this was the very day before she died or a few days before.
Her distraction (for [or] bewitching) continued about a month and in those intervals wherin she was better she earnestly desired prayers, and the Sabbath before she deid I received a note for prayers on her behalf which her husband said she was written by herself and I judge was her own hand writing being well acquainted with her hand.
As to the wounds she died of I observed 3 deadly ones; a piece of her wind pipe cut out. and another wound above that through the wind pipe and Gulle[t] to the vein they call jugular,, So that I then judged and still do apprehend it impossible for her with so short a pair of scissors to mangle herself so without some extraordinary work of the devil or witchcraft.
Signed 20. May 1692. by John Hale.
To several parts of this testimony new witnesses Major Gedney Mr Parris Joseph Herrick junr and his wife Thomas Raiment and his wife John Trask Margaret King Hannah wife of Colonel Baker Miles and others.
As also about the said Goody Bishop Capt William Raiment his son Wm Raiment about creatures strangely dying. James Kettle and the above said Jos. Herrick and Tho. Raiment about Sundry actions that have the appearance of witchcraft."
Christian (Woodbury or Woodberrie) Trask, wife of John, mother of 4 surviving children; Edward (4), Elizabeth (2), Hannah (2) and William (5/12) died as a result of her self inflicted wounds on 6-3-1689.
{Sabbath Keepers} in History From the Time of Christ to the 19th Century
The Story of {Mr. and Mrs. John Trask}: circa 1617
John Traske -- London's Persecuted Pastor!
The Mill Yard Church of London
"1. Origin. Some have supposed that this church owes its origin to the labors of John James who was martyred October 19, 1661. President Daland goes back as far as about 1580. In 1617 (or 1616) John Trask came to London from Salisbury and held revival meetings. One of his disciples, named Hamlet Jackson, was the means of bringing Trask and many, if not all, of his congregation to the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath in about 1617, and Elder William M. Jones says that this Traskite congregation was the origin of the Mill Yard Church. All the records of this church, prior to 1673, were destroyed in the fire of 1790; the `Old Church Book,' dating from 1673 to 1840, refers to an older record. The `New Church Book' dates from 1840 to the present time.--
"2. Place of worship. From the beginning until 1654 they worshiped `near Whitechapel'; in 1661 their meeting place was in `Bull Stake Alley, ' and in 1680 they were at East Smithfield -- for from here they addressed a letter to the New Port (R.I.) Church, dated East Smithfield, London, Dec. 21, 1680. From 1691 to 1785 they worshipped in Mill Yard Goodman's Fields, County of Middlesex, a part of London, now in the heart of Metropolis. Their chapel there was burned in 1790, and in September of the same year the first stone of a new edifice was laid by John, Joseph and William Slater, the only trustees for some years.
Gloucester's most famous landmark, this bronze statue was sculpted by Leonard Craske (1882-1950) for Gloucester's tercentenary in 1923. It is located on Stacey Boulevard, overlooking Gloucester Harbor. The statue of a Gloucester fisherman, dressed in oilskins and standing at the wheel of his schooner was designed in heroic size: 1 ½ scale. It was dedicated on August 23, 1925 to the over 10,000 Gloucester fishermen lost at sea since the early 1600's. The base of the statue quotes Psalm 107, "They that go down to the sea in ships". A tablet with a list of those Gloucester Fishermen will be dedicated on Sunday, September 3, 2000. The final list of names as they will appear on the Memorial will include; 1790 Isaac Trask [4-2. Isaac Trask] 1800 _____ Trask, died at sea; son of Ebenezer [4-2. Ebenezer, 4-3. William or 4-6. Moses Trask] 1837 _____ Trask, Schooner Fair America, lost in the gale of August, 1837 1868 Charles A. Trask [6-2. Capt. Charles Allen Trask] Out of Gloucester by R. Sheedy © This excellant web site has additional information and links. |
 "Fisherman at the Wheel" |
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By BRIAN MEDEL Yarmouth Bureau, 2009-12-18 The Monitor
Captain David Allison Trask is a hero. The 60-year-old fisherman saved his crew of three Wednesday in what can only be described as a harrowing few moments when a foundering boat was abandoned as it listed under the strain of 18,000 kilograms of fish in the hold and an inward rush of sea water. "He was a great captain. He saved his crew," said Julie Boudreau, his ex-wife. The 18-metre fishing dragger Pubnico Explorer rolled over and sank in stormy seas off Yarmouth after it had taken on water. Three crewmen were plucked from a life-raft by the Canadian Coast Guard cutter Westport shortly before noon Wednesday, but their captain, David Trask, was not with them. Canadian and American aircraft searched an area totalling more than 685 square kilometres Wednesday and Thursday while the coast guard ship Edward Cornwallis patrolled the area where the fishing boat went down, some 30 kilometres northwest of Yarmouth. The search ended Thursday at 1 p.m., said Maj. James Simiana, a public affairs officer with Joint Task Force Atlantic. The missing fisherman was not found. On Thursday, Ms. Boudreau said her ex-husband and father of their two adult children will never be replaced. "He did what he had to do as a captain," she said, recalling descriptions of the harrowing experience that the surviving crewmen gave. "He got them suited up . . . and got them off the boat." She was referring to full immersion survival suits he made his crew put on. Capt. Trask also pulled on a survival suit, but the boat went down too fast for him to leave, the crewmen all reckoned. "They had to clamber up . . . the side to get off," Ms. Boudreau said from her home Thursday. "They had to pull each other up there to get off. They had to climb up because the boat was listing so bad." Capt. Trask told them to jump and they swam about 15 metres to the raft. They waited for their captain, but he didn’t follow. "They were young and David wasn’t," said Ms. Boudreau. |  "Pubnico Explorer" |
"David was 60 years old and he was probably tired. He’d been up and down (in the hold) working on the pump. He’d been steering manually in the wind with big seas . . . because the power steering had gone and he was tired." The Pubnico Explorer had been at sea since Monday and was trying to make it back to its home port of Meteghan. The boat was taking on water from somewhere and Capt. Trask had been talking to the coast guard, said Ms. Boudreau. The main pump is said to have failed and a secondary electrical pump that was still working was unable to keep the boat afloat, Maj. Simiana has said. "David had full confidence that the coast guard would get there with . . . pumps," Ms. Boudreau said. "Anyway, he got them off and they expected he was coming, but another wave hit and I think it just took him inside or something," said Ms. Boudreau. "It might have just took him right in the wheelhouse. I don’t know. "The wave was huge." It was the third of three big waves in succession. "The third one filled the hold and she went down," said Ms. Boudreau. The boat was badly listing and the last wave sealed its fate. The men in the life-raft saw the wave coming. "They were only off the boat one minute and she was down," said Ms. Boudreau. "She was gone. And Dave was on it." In the life-raft, the men waited for what seemed like an eternity, strobe lights on their red immersion suits flashing steadily. At 11:31 a.m., the Westport spotted the raft and bore down on it. Four minutes later, the survivors were being pulled aboard the cutter. The men were returned to shore at 5 p.m. Thursday. On Wednesday evening, a U.S. Coast Guard jet fitted with forward-looking, infrared, heat-seeking gear arrived and flew the search area, said Maj. Simiana. After the search was called off Thursday afternoon, Capt. Trask was listed as a missing person by the RCMP. The Pubnico Explorer is owned by Comeauville Seafood Products Ltd. in Digby County, according to Transport Canada.
According to "Ancestors of the American Presidents" by Gary Boyd Roberts (NEHGS, Boston, 1995)
William Howard Taft was descended from a Lydia Jackson c. 1655-1725/6 who married Joseph Fuller 1652-1739/40 of Newton, MA.
1. Lydia Jackson married Joseph Fuller
2. * Elizabeth Fuller married Josiah Bond
3. Anna Bond married Samuel Trask
4. Susanna Trask married Jonathan Holman
5. Susan Trask Holman married Asa Waters, Jr.
6. Susan Holman Waters married Samuel Davenport Torrey
7. Louisa Maria Torrey married Alphonso Taft
8. William Howard Taft, The 27th President of The United States
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Mr. Spencer Trask was born on September 18, 1844 to Alanson and Sarah (Marquand) Trask in Brooklyn, New York. His father was a direct descendant of Captain William Trask, a leader in the formation of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. After graduating from Princeton University in 1866, Spencer Trask joined his uncle, Asa Goodale Trask, to form the investment firm Trask & Brown, which later became Spencer Trask & Company on May 2, 1881. Mr. Trask was one of New York's leading citizens and one of the country's best known bankers. He married Miss Katrina Nichols on November 12, 1874 in Brooklyn, New York, a famous author of the time. She was born on May 30, 1853 in Brooklyn, New York. The daughter of George Little Nichols and Christina Mary Cole. Widow Trask married George Foster Peobody on February 6, 1921 in Brooklyn, New York. Less than one has passed and Mrs. Katrina Peabody died of bronchial pneumonia at Yaddo on January 8, 1922. The Trasks had four children; Alanson (1875 - April 23, 1880), Christina N. Trask (May, 1878 - April 18, 1888), Spencer Trask, Jr. (March, 1884 - April 15, 1888) and Katrina Trask (1888-1888). |
 Spencer Trask  Spencer at Princeton University |
>Mr. Spencer Trask and his chief associate, George Foster Peabody, bought The New York Times, which was near bankruptcy in 1896. Adolph S. Ochs would be the publisher and Trask the financer. As Chairman and majority shareholder, Mr. Trask turned The New York Times into, arguably to this day, the most influential publication in the world. The New York Times was relaunched with the motto, "All the News that is Fit to Print."[4]
Mr. and Mrs. Trask purchased a 500-acre estate in Saratoga Springs, New York in 1881. It was adjacent to his fathers property. Yaddo, the name of the estate, is said to have been coined by the Trask's, then three year old daughter, Christina, who amused her father by her mispronunciation of the numerous dark spots on the lawn caused by the towering trees' - rhymes with shadow. Fire destroyed that entire structure in 1891. The Trasks built the current house soon after. Mr. Trask also bought the Finley mansion at Saratoga with twelve acres of land and turned it over for the use of convalescent children. Sisters of the Episcopal Church, appointed by Bishop Doane of Albany, have it in charge.
During August of 1901, Spencer Trask begain building a house at Tuxedo Park, New York. Pierre Lorillard founded Tuxedo Park in 1885, where the "New York Four Hundred" came to play. The Trasks sold this home in 1907 to Joseph Tuckerman Tower. Who had a phobia about mice. He blasted out a new basement subsequent to the house's construction and had all the ground floors made of reinforced concrete. The noise from all the blasting angered the Tusedo Park Association and they ordered him to stop. Tower was so outraged that he stormed out of the house - never to return. For years the Tower House stood empty and became a frozen asset after Towers death. Legendary financier, philanthropist, and society figure Alfred Lee Loomis bought the Tower House in 1926. Loomis completely restored the palatial mansion and had personally bankrolled the building a top-secret, state-of-the-art, defense laboratory with in it. Within those walls Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, Niels Bohr, Enrico Fermi, and others pioneered experiments on ultrasound, which led to the development into the new, high-powered radar detection systems that helped defeat the German Air Force and U-boats - which changed the course of World War II.[15]
Spencer Trask purchased "Crosbyside", one of the oldest and best known hotels on Lake George Hotel on December 19, 1902. In 1903 The Trasks sold this property to Mary Wiltsie Fuller. The official transfer of property from Katrina Trask to Mary Wiltsie Fuller was marked by the exchange of one dollar and a bouquet of flowers. Renamed Wiawaka was created by and for women in 1903. It is both one of the oldest and longest continuously operating retreats for women in America.
On December 22, 1906, Spencer Trask bought Three Brother's Island at Lake George, New York. Katrina renamed them "Triuna" meaning "three in one" which would symbolize the new summer house joining the three islands. The islands were connected by a Gothic Arch and belfry as well as a long promenade with a columnaded bridge at each end. Katrina was carried from her summer home when it burned down at 4 AM, on August 21, 1913.
After the premature death of the Trasks' four children and no close heirs, allededly Spencer Trask wanted to turn the Saratoga Springs estate into a working community of artists and writers as a "gift" to his wife. It seems that knowone knew about this "gift" until after Spencer died. This "gift" would not materialize until many years later because Spencer Trask's fortune was seriously eroded during the Panic of 1907 and, when he died two years later (1909), he hadn't made a full financial recovery. Katrina married her late husband's business partner, George Foster Peabody on January,8, 1921, and moved out of the mansion into a smaller house so funds could accumulate for what had become the Corporation of Yaddo. In 1926, four years after her death in 1922, the plan was put into operation and has continued ever since.[5]
The results of the Trasks' legacy have been historic. John Cheever once wrote that the "forty or so acres on which the principal buildings of Yaddo stand have seen more distinguished activity in the arts than any other piece of ground in the English-speaking community and perhaps the world." Collectively, artists who have worked at Yaddo have won 61 Pulitzer Prizes, 56 National Book Awards, 22 National Book Critics Circle Award, a Nobel Prize, and countless other honors. Many books by Yaddo authors have been made into films. Visitors from Cheever's day include Milton Avery, James Baldwin, Leonard Bernstein, Truman Capote, Aaron Copland, Philip Guston, Patricia Highsmith, Langston Hughes, Ted Hughes, Alfred Kazin, Ulysses Kay, Jacob Lawrence, Sylvia Plath, Katherine Anne Porter, Mario Puzo, Clyfford Still, and Virgil Thomson. The success of Yaddo encouraged Spencer and Katrina to later donate land for a working women's retreat center as well, known as the Wiawaka Holiday House. Mr. Trask was committed to civic duty, public service, and philanthropy.
Yaddo - its mansion, guesthouses, and studios are situated among more than four hundred acres of woodland, lake, and gardens. Today, Yaddo (see yaddo.org) is the largest artist-residency program in the United States, entertaining as many as two hundred guests annually (up to thirty-five at a time in the summer and twelve to fifteen in the winter). Guests typically remain for two to eight weeks. Advisory committees of artists review 1,100 applications annually. There are only two rules: studios may not be visited without an invitation, and visitors are admitted to the grounds only between 4 and 10 p.m.
Mr. Trask was dedicated to the arts. In his lifetime he was president of the National Arts Club[6], a patron and member of the Municipal Art Society of New York, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. At the time of his death, Trask's wealth had been greatly diminished by his own generosity.
Spencer Trask was a founder and chairman of the board of trustees for Teachers' College, the school of pedagogy of Columbia University[7]. He was also actively interested in the Kindergarten Association, and for many years was closely identified with General Theological Seminary.[8]
Spencer Trask also founded a public lecture series at his alma mater, Princeton University in 1891 with a gift of $10,000, and supplemented by an additional $10,000 from his estate, "for the purpose of securing the services of eminent men to deliver public lectures before the University on subjects of special interest." Over the years, lecturers have included Niels Bohr on "The Structure of the Atom" (1923-1924); Arnold J. Toynbee on "Near Eastern Affairs" (1925-1926); T. S. Eliot on "The Bible and English Literature," (1932-1933); Bertrand Russell on "Mind and Matter" (1950-1951); and Margaret Mead on "Changing American Character" (1975-1976).[9]
In the 1890s, Trask led what some have called 'the first international human rights movement in American history,' in response to the Armenian Genocide. In New York what began as a local committee to aid the Armenians, grew quickly into the National Armenian Relief Committee led by Mr. Spencer Trask. Its board included some of the most powerful men in the United States, including financier and philanthropist, Spencer Trask, Supreme Court Justice David Josiah Brewer, railroad executive Chauncy Depew, Wall Street banker Jacob Schiff, and church leaders Dr. Leonard Woolsey Bacon and the Reverend Fredrick D. Greene. The movement brought together Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals, and Christians and Jews. The Relief Committee recruited Clara Barton to take Red Cross relief teams out of the country for the first time, to the Armenian provinces.[10][11] The National Armenian Relief Committee provided literature and arranged for speakers for affiliated committees; Theodore Roosevelt, Ezra Pound, H.L. Mencken and William Jennings Bryan were among those who lent their voices. [12]. By the end of the year-long drive, Americans raised more than three hundred thousand dollars at a time when a loaf of bread cost a nickel. So deeply had Armenian Relief cut into the popular consciousness that in 1896, a Thanksgiving appeal was launched nationwide, and Americans from St. Paul to San Francisco to Boston gave thanks by sending money to Armenian widows and orphans of the massacres. Citizens of St. Paul boycotted buying turkey and gave their Thanksgiving food money to the cause.[13]
In commemoration of his life, Daniel Chester French was commissioned to create a statue for Spencer Trask. At a memorial service on June 26, 1915, in the Saratoga city park, "The Spirit of Life" was unveiled by Katrina van Dyke (daughter of Dr. Henry van Dyke, American Minister to the Netherlands), named after Mrs. Katrina Trask. The ceremony marked the first public appearance of the city's mayor, Walter P. Butler (Saratoga, recently moved from the classification of village to city), and was also attended by representatives of the State Administration of Albany. George Foster Peabody was the master of ceremonies, presenting the statue to the city; Dr. John Huston Finley, President of the University of the State of New York and head of the State Department of Education, was the speaker for the ceremony; and the artist, Daniel Chester French, was in attendance.
References 1. ^ "The National Cyclopedia of American Biography", volume XI, p. 444, James T. White & Company, 1901. 2. ^ "New York State Men--Individual Library Edition with Biographic Studies, Character Portraits, and Autographs" p. 2, Hon. James H. Manning, The Albany Argus Art Press, 1913 3. ^ "New York State Men--Individual Library Edition with Biographic Studies, Character Portraits, and Autographs" p. 2, Hon. James H. Manning, The Albany Argus Art Press, 1913 4. ^ "New York Times", February 2, 1958 5. ^ "The Times Record", Troy, NY, August 8, 1946 6. ^ "The New York Times" January 23, 1908 7. ^ "The New York Times" October 24, 1902 8. ^ "New York State Men--Individual Library Edition with Biographic Studies, Character Portraits, and Autographs" p. 3, Hon. James H. Manning, The Albany Argus Art Press, 1913 9. ^ Spencer Trask Lectures Series - Princeton University 10. ^ "The Red Cross: A History of this Remarkable International Movement in the Interest of Humanity" by Clara Barton, Published 1898, American National Red Cross 11. ^ Report of Miss Clara Barton, President and Treasurer of The American Red Cross 12. ^ "American Philanthropy Abroad" by Merle Curti 13. ^ "The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America's Response" By Peter Balakian, Harper Collins 14. ^ "The Syracuse Herald", December 31, 1909 15. ^ "Tuxedo Park: a Wall Street tycoon and the secret palace of science that changed the course of World War II" By Jennet ConantThank you all, very much for helping us. I added specific dates and accumulated Trask family information - RWT.
Wikipedia.org
Answers.com
The New York Times - Archives A Great resource!
The New York Public Library
General Electric Fastest 34 years of my life - working at GERW - Turbine, Lynn, MA - RWT.
Spencer Trask
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From: History of Amherst College During Its First Half Century, 1821-1871, By William Seymour Tyler |
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From: William G. Cutler's History of the State of Kansas
H. A. TRASK, Sheriff, was born in Winnebago County, Ill., July 13, 1846, and when only four years of age his parents moved to Elmore, Ottawa Co., Ohio, where he resided, attending school until Feb. 10, 1863, when he enlisted as a private in Company E, Seventy-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was discharged October 25, 1865, under general order from War Department. Aside from being in many skirmish battles he participated in the battles of Guntown, Tupelo, Red River campaign and Nashville. After visiting a short time in Ohio, after close of the war, he went to Mexico, where he resided for nearly two years, when he came to Kansas and took a homestead in Lincoln County, where he resided as a farmer until 1879, when he moved to the city of Lincoln, he being elected Sheriff of the county; re-elected in 1881. Is an honored member of the Masonic Order, being a Master Mason. He was married to Miss Sarah Jarrett, of Indiana, in 1869, and the happy family is now father, mother and six children - Eva, Dan, Bertie, Sissie, Jenny and Henry.
rwtrask@rcn.com 
