My Family Tree

The conclusion of "History of Martha's Vineyard"
"The almost ideal pastoral life on the Vineyard two centuries ago, mingled with the romance of those that ''go down to the sea in ships and have their business in great waters," makes a combination of breezes and bucolics almost unique. To us it may seem that they must have endured an existence painfully lacking in the comforts of life. It is safe to say that it only seems so to us. That they lived and loved in their day and generation, and extracted all the enjoyment out of life is reasonably certain. A hardy and splendid race of descendants testifies to this conclusion. If Squire Benjamin Skiff of Chilmark, a good representative of
his time, who died in 171 7, could come back to earth and see us in our present day environment, with our electric lights, trolley cars, automobiles, steamboats, daily papers, bicycles, Sunday excursions, telephones and telegraphs, and all the other accompaniments of our modern life, doubtless he would hurry back to the gloom of his tomb on Abel's Hill, and piously
exclaim, "From the pomps and vanities of this wicked world.Good Lord deliver me!"