278 



The Journal of Heredity 



of this family, for generation after 

 generation, occupied public oflices seems 

 to me to indicate that they possessed 

 certain inherited abilities and disposi- 

 tions which favored pubhc service. 



The majority of the offices held by 

 the members are those of selectman, 

 town clerk, town treasurer, school- 

 committeeman, minister of the gospel. 

 physician, and teacher. While the last 

 three positions are not strictly public 

 offices, they are j^ositions of public 

 service and as such need to be included 

 in the list. Only those who made 

 teaching a profession are listed as 

 teachers. I include also minor offices 

 such as constable, tax collector, and 

 justice of the peace. A few members 

 of the family have held State and 

 national offices, but a far greater 

 ntunber have held offices of jmrely 

 local influence and non-partisan char- 

 acter. The nature of the offices indi- 

 cates the presence of a spirit of public 

 service rather than one of political 

 ambition, an interest in local matters 

 rather than a broad grasp of national 

 affairs. The exceptions to these char- 

 acteristics are found in those cases 

 where the members have had superior 

 education. 



FEW ACQUIRED WEALTH 



There is nothing in the constitution 

 of New England society which would 

 oblige the members of the family to 

 take up, in so many instances, labors 

 which were arduous and which brought 

 little — in many cases no — remuneration. 

 It is further interesting to' note that 

 there is scarcely an individual in the 

 whole genealogy who possessed even a 

 moderate amount of wealth. 



Office-holding in this family is, there- 

 fore, not part of the tradition of a 

 wealthy, governing class, as it might be 

 in E)ngland. It is not a means of getting 

 rich. It is apymrently due to some 

 peculiar mental characteristics and I 

 believe that these include a certain 

 amount of intelligence, conscientious- 

 ness, altruism, probity, and industry, 

 with a lack of comj)etitive aggressive- 

 ness and the commercial spirit. 



The presence of these characteristics 

 is further emphasized by the large 



number of male and female teachers in 

 the younger generations. Indeed, teach- 

 ing is practically the only position of 

 public service in which females could 

 make manifest the i^ossession of these 

 characteristics. Undoubtedly, many 

 individuals who i:)ossess these traits were 

 barred l)y sex or some other cause from 

 filling the positions they were by nature 

 qualified to fill. The trait of lack of 

 aggressiveness, if stronger than the 

 others, would overcome them, and 

 prevent an individual who had in- 

 herited these traits from holding public 

 office and from being included in the 

 records among those possessing the 

 family traits. It is evident, then, that 

 the percentage of public officers shown 

 by the tables underestimates the prev- 

 alence of these traits. 



The mental qualities which I have 

 mentioned have hereditary bases of 

 some kind. So although office-holding 

 is not to be considered an inherited 

 trait, it seems to me reasonable to 

 think that there are inherited traits 

 I^articularly favorable to it, and that 

 they were inherited with considerable 

 persistency in a family which, in a 

 democratic country, furnished so many 

 men and women for ])ositions that 

 meant public service with hard work 

 and little pecuniary reward. 



FULLER DATA NEEDED 



It may be of interest to note that 

 among the descendants of the relatives 

 of the founder of the family occasional 

 instances of office-holding have been 

 found, but the instances are too scat- 

 tered and the data too incomplete to 

 make ])ossible the drawing of a definite 

 conclusion. The scarcity of data in 

 most genealogies in regard to the public 

 life and traits of different individuals is 

 a great handicap in studies of this 

 kind. I believe that the need of 

 recording complete data in regard to 

 the mental, moral, and physical char- 

 acteristics of individuals as well as the 

 facts of birth, marriage, and death can 

 not be i)ointed out too strongly to 

 genealogists. I believe also that female 

 Ijranches should be treated with the 

 same completeness as male branches 

 and with as full a bil)liograi)hy as 



