My ancestors, they hail from . . .
the redlands of Texas . . . and the marshes of Maine . . .
the plantations of Georgia . . . and the courts of Spain . . .
and from a hodgepodge of places . . . betwixt and between . . .
The darkness commenced between the hours of 10 and 11 A.M., and continued to the middle of the next night. It was occasioned by a thick vapour or cloud, tinged with a yellow color, or faint red, and a thin coat of dust was deposited on white substances.
The wind was in the southwest; and the darkness appeared to come on with clouds in that direction. Its extent was from Falmouth, (Maine,) to New Jersey. The darkness appears to have been the greatest in the county of Essex, (Mass.) in the lower part of New Hampshire, and Maine; it was also great in Rhode Island and Connecticut.
In most parts of the country where the darkness prevailed, it was so great, that persons were unable to read common print, determine the time of day by their clocks or watches, dine, or manage their domestic business, without additional light; 'candles were lighted up in their houses; the birds having sung their evening songs, disappeared and became silent; the fowls retired to roost; the cocks were crowing all around as at break of day; objects could be distinguished but a very little distance; and every thing bore the appearance and gloom of night.'
The following is an extract of a letter from Dr. Tenney to the Massachusetts Historical Society, giving an account of the dark day of May, 1780.
"You will readily recollect that, previously to the commencement of the darkness, the sky was overcast with the common kind of clouds, from which there was, in some places a light sprinkling of rain. Between these and the earth there intervened another stratum, to appearance of very great thickness. As this stratum advanced, the darkness commenced and increased with its progress till it came to its height; which did not take place till the hemisphere was a second time overspread. The uncommon thickness of this second stratum was probably occasioned by two strong currents of wind from the southward and westward, condensing the vapours and drawing them in a north-easterly direction. I remember this observation was made by an anonymous writer in one of the public papers soon after the event.
As I set out the next day, from my father's at Rowley, to join my regiment in New Jersey, I had an opportunity to inform myself what were the appearances in different parts of the country between here and Pennsylvania. The result of my enquiries, on that journey, and after my return, was that the darkness was most gross in the county of Essex, the lower part of the State of New-Hampshire and the old Province of Maine. In Rhode-Island and Connecticut it was not so great, and still less in New-York. In New-Jersey the second stratum of clouds was observed, but not of any great thickness; nor was the darkness very uncommon. In the lower parts of Pennsylvania, if my recollection does not fail me, no extraordinary appearance was noticed. Through this whole extent the lower stratum had an uncommon brassy hue, while the earth and trees were adorned with so enchanting a verdure as could not escape notice, were amidst the unusual gloom that surrounded the spectator. This gradual increase of the darkness from southwest to northeast, which was nearly the course of the clouds, affords a pretty good argument in favour of the supposition that they were condensed by two strong currents of wind blowing in different directions. To these two strata of clouds we may, without hesitation, impute the extraordinary darkness of the day."
THOMAS THURSTON (Abner, Abner, James, Daniel), son of Abner and Martha (Piper) Thurston of Exeter, N.H.; born there Jan. 19, 1752; married, April 7, 1775, LUCY FENDERSON, born Dec. 17, 1751. He died in 1830, and was buried on his farm; she died in 1832. Mr. Thurston purchased a tract of land in Parsonsfield, Me., improved it a little, sold and went to Scarboro, Me., and bought land, on which he lived and died. He built a little house on what is called the "ash swamp road," about two miles from Dunstan Corner, in which his wife lived while he was in the revolutionary war. The wolves were numerous then, and used to make night hideous with their howling. After the war he built the old homestead on the "broad turn road," about the same distance from Dunstan. This house was replaced by another, and within a few years a more modern one still has been built in its place. He was also an itinerant shoemaker, as was the custom in newly settled places in those days. . . . Thurston genealogies By Brown Thurston
