The Society of Mayflower Descendants in the state of Utah held a successful, well-attended spring banquet Wednesday, May 9, 2018, in the Empire Room of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake City, Utah. In the absence of Governor Mark Smedley, Deputy Governor General Thomas Portlock called the meeting to order at 6:35 p.m. and acknowledged the presence of Governor General Dr. George P Garmany, our principal speaker for the evening. James J Smedley, Elder and Counselor of the Utah Society, a descendant of John Alden, offered the Invocation.
Robert Bauman led the Pledge of Allegiance, and Past Historian Greg Cooke, a descendant of James Chilton and other passengers, read the Mayflower Compact. Secretary Andy Anderson called the roll. Descendants of the following Mayflower passengers stood to acknowledge their heritage:
John Alden (21), Isaac Allerton (1), John Billington (1), William Bradford (8), William Brewster (5), Mary Brewster (5), Peter Browne (9), James Chilton (5), Francis Cooke (3), Edward Doty (1), Francis Eaton (1), Stephen Hopkins (6), John Howland (13), William Mullins (3), Thomas Rogers (2), George Soule (4), Myles Standish (3), Joan (Hurst) Tilley (5), Richard Warren (10), William White (4)
The JSMB hospitality staff served a delicious dinner of summer salad, pork tenderloin Normandy with caramelized apple slices, potatoes Dauphinoises, asparagus, and Lion House rolls with butter and honey butter, with chocolate three-layer cake for dessert.
In the absence of Historian Kevan Barton, Secretary Richard Anderson announced the election of ten new members of the Society and distributed certificates to those who were present:
Sara Staples Holt, resident of Sandy, UT; descendant of Mary Brewster
Kayla Coy Withers, resident of Sandy, UT; descendant of Mary Brewster
Margaret Anderson Millar, resident of Sugar House, UT; descendant of Thomas Rogers
Carolyn Colgate, resident of Eden, UT; descendant of William Bradford
Patricia Mortensen, resident of American Fork, UT; descendant of Edward Doty
Janice Walker Hall, resident of Sandy, UT; descendant of John Alden
Susan Kay Johnson Okroy, resident of North Ogden, UT; descendant of John Howland
Larry Ashurst, resident of Richfield, UT; descendant of John Alden
Eric William Fricker, resident of Draper, UT; descendant of Isaac Allerton
Ashley Anne Fricker Lennox, resident of Sandy, UT; descendant of Isaac Allerton
Two current members also received certificates attesting to their descent from three Mayflower passengers:
Cindy Linn Billings Cooke, resident of Springville, UT; descendant of John Alden
Gregory Don Cooke, resident of Springville, UT; descendant of Francis Eaton
Gregory Don Cooke, resident of Springville, UT; descendant of Francis Cooke
Briaunna Young, a 13-year-old descendant of John Howland, William Brewster, Edward Winslow, and Mary Chilton, and a resident of Stansbury Park, Utah, won the 2015 Utah State MTNA junior woodwind division competition and placed runner-up in the Arizona regional competition as a sixth-grader. To the enthusiastic applause of the assembled Cousins, she performed Poulenc’s Sonata for Flute, accompanied on the piano by Colleen Bauman, and also “Jade” from Three Pieces for Solo Flute, by Pierre-Octave Ferroud
Deputy Governor General Portlock then introduced our speaker, Dr. George P. Garmany, Jr., Governor General of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants. Dr. Garmany’s distinction as a neurologist and as an officer in our Society was matched by his personal charm and enthusiasm as he described the wide variety of efforts and initiatives that the General Society and its 53 member Societies are undertaking in preparation for the upcoming Pilgrim Quadricentennial in 2020. The website at http://themayflowersociety.org (don’t forget the “the”) provides great detail on all these efforts, and as he responded to a variety of questions from his Utah Mayower Society cousins, Governor Garmany encouraged us to take advantage of its facilities and to consider how we desire, individually and institutionally, to seize our historic opportunities.
The current issue (Vol. 51, No. 1, Spring 2018) of our Utah Compact newsletter describes in particular the fund that has been set up to take ownership of the National Pilgrim Memorial Meeting House in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Dr. Garmany announced that the Society plans to operate its world-wide educational activities out of this facility, once it has become ours.
Perhaps we can best indicate the spirit of Dr. Garmany’s address by renewing the quotation that appeared on Page 1 of the current Utah Compact:
“The Pilgrims were a very special group of people who came to the New World for religious and practical reasons. We remember the great faith and strong conviction of the parishioners who migrated from England to Holland and then on to the New World. They refused to follow the dictates of the Church of England and insisted on their right to separate from that body. Thus they became known as ‘Separatists,’ and their actions began the tradition of freedom of religious conscience that we enjoy today in North America.”
With a resounding thwack on the podium with the Governor-General’s traveling gavel, loaned for the occasion by its distinguished possessor, Deputy Governor General Portlock adjourned the meeting at 8:36 p.m.
Respectfully submitted 11 May 2017,
Richard B. Anderson, Secretary