Fourteen Generations,
One Unbroken Line

TIDD (Tydd, Tead, Teed)

"JOHN¹ TIDD, a tailor, born by or before 1600, was a resident of Charlestown by 1637… He is said to have joined the church at Charlestown on March 10, 1639. In 1640 John¹ Tidd had the task of 'ringing the bell' for church and town meetings… on December 18, 1640, thirty-two men who planned to settle on it signed the 'Town Orders' as original proprietors of what in 1642 was named Woburn."

"John¹ was sergeant of the train band… 'the first citizen of Woburn, named by military title in the records.' He was chosen surveyor of fences in 1646 and selectman in 1647."

"In 1653, John¹ Tidd, together with twenty-eight other Woburn men, showed his mettle and courage by signing a petition to the General Court… That petition has ever since been called the 'Woburn Memorial for Christian Liberty,' and those who signed it are dubbed 'the bold petitioners.'"

The full flip-book of the chapter, with page images, is on the Archive.

Generation 1, in Grandpa Joy's genealogy

"1. John Tidd. Born: c. 1590–1600 in England. Died: April 24, 1656 in Woburn, Massachusetts. Married: Margaret [Greenleaf?], born in England, died 1651; Alice.

Children: Mary, christened May 23, 1622, Wheathampstead Parish, Hertford, England; Elizabeth, christened September 25, 1624; John, christened September 29, 1626; Samuel, christened August 24, 1628."

Reading the old records

Original proprietor of Woburn. In December 1640, thirty-two men signed the founding "Town Orders" of what became Woburn. John Tidd was one of them, an owner and founder of the town from its first day.

Tailor by trade. He earned his living making clothes. He was not a full-time soldier; the militia rank below was a civic duty layered on top of ordinary town life.

The training band. Every able-bodied man in a Puritan town was required to muster for militia training. The "training band" was that militia company, and its sergeant ran the unit's day-to-day drill and discipline under the higher officers (lieutenant, captain).

"The first man named by military title." Literally that: John Tidd was the first person in Woburn's records to be listed by a military rank instead of a plain name. Once he became sergeant of the training band in 1646, the town records call him "Sergeant John Tidd." In a Puritan town, military rank was one of the few formal titles a common settler could earn, and it marked him as a leader in the town's defense.

The Tidd lot. There was a lot near the common in Woburn known as the Tidd lot, named for him. The First Congregational Church now stands on it.

He died April 24, 1656.

John² Tidd, in the town genealogy

"JOHN² TIDD (John¹) was born in England, died 13 Apr. 1703, g.s., son of John and Margaret… He moved to Cambridge Farms 1686. He became one of the proprietors of Cambridge… the homestead was bought of David Fiske, conveyed by deed dated 1 June 1686. On the subscription list for building the meeting-house is the name of John Teed, and his sons Samuel and Joseph… In 1693 he was chosen one of the assessors and one of a committee to purchase a tract of land for the support of the ministry."

"He married 14 Apr. 1650 REBECCA WOOD of Woburn, died 10 June 1717, aged 92, g.s." Eight children, the first six born at Woburn: Hannah, John, Mary, Samuel, Joseph (died an infant), Joseph, Rebecca, and Daniel.

An older family typescript says a nineteen-year-old "John Teed" sailed as a servant in 1637; his christening in 1626 and his stone's "aged 78" say he crossed as a boy of about eleven. The registers, not the legend, carry the day.

Joseph³ Tidd, in the town genealogy

"JOSEPH³ TIDD (John,² John¹), born at Woburn 20 Jan. 1661-62, died 26 Dec. 1730, g.s. He was constable in 1699 and selectman in 1714. His son Joseph administered his estate."

"He married first MARY, died 23 Jan. 1694, aged 23, g.s.; secondly MARY, died 9 Jan. 1716-17, aged 32, g.s.; thirdly MARY, died 5 Jan. 1730, aged 60, g.s." Among his children: Joseph, born 15 May 1707, the next rung of the line.

Three wives, all named Mary, all resting in the same ground. The 1729 way record and his stones are on the Archive.

The laying out of a town way

The bounds are walked from tree to tree: "…to a white oak stump with three branches growing upon it… then across said path to a black oak with a bunch on it near the ground… to a white oak stump where said way meets with the way leading from Concord to Woburn, which way we have stated four rod all along on the northerly side."

Signed by the selectmen: Amos Marret, William Russell, Francis Bowman.

Joseph⁴ Tidd, in the town genealogy

"JOSEPH⁴ TIDD (Joseph,³ John,² John¹), born 15 May 1707, died 18 Sept. 1773. He owned lands at New Braintree, Woburn, Templeton, and Phillipston, besides Lexington. He was selectman in 1761, '66, and '67. His will dated 4 Oct. 1770 was proved 15 Dec. 1772."

"He married at Woburn DOROTHY STICKNEY, born 18 Mar. 1711-12, died 23 Oct. 1790, g.s., daughter of Samuel and Mary (Haseltine)." Six children, all born at Lexington, ending with John, born 26 Oct. 1749: the minuteman.

A family of minutemen

Joseph's sons stood together at the Revolution's first fight. Besides John (Generation V, below), his son Benjamin⁵ "was on the Common 19 April 1775, marched to Cambridge 17 June 1775 and served at Dorchester the following year. He was one of the Committee of Correspondence in 1780."

Cousins too: Lieut. William Tidd and Samuel Tidd of the same Lexington family also mustered under Captain Parker that morning.

The TIDD monument

The four faces of the die, above the base carved simply TIDD:

JOHN TIDD · 1779 – 1842
ESTHER H. TIDD · 1775 – 1852
ELIZABETH ELLIOT · 1802 – 1835
ELIZABETH ELLIOT · died May 3, 1835

John⁶ and his wife Esther (Haywood), with their daughter Elizabeth, who married George P. Elliot. Found in 2026 in the family's own 2010 photographs, in a folder that had never been fully searched, this is the first direct-line gravestone on the site later than 1730.

"My Grandfather Tidd of Lexington"

"Now comes the Boston School Medal of the year 1828. My Grandfather Tidd of Lexington had a brother Jacob who became a merchant in Boston. He had one child, a son, Jacob Henry Tidd; this boy, my Father's cousin, is the one who received the Medal."

Hudson confirms it exactly: John⁶'s brother "Jacob, b. 14 Mar. 1785… Settled at Boston." The full letter is on the Archive.

John⁶ Tidd, in the town genealogy

"JOHN⁶ TIDD (John,⁵ Joseph,⁴ Joseph,³ John,² John¹), born 2 Mar. 1779, died 9 Jan. 1842, g.s. He married ESTHER HAYWOOD, born 28 Apr. 1781, died 23 Apr. 1852, g.s. They were admitted to the church 6 May 1810."

Children, all born at Lexington: Elizabeth (died an infant), Elizabeth, Charles, born 6 Jan. 1807, and Mary H., who married David T. Watson of Franklin, N.H., on 19 Nov. 1840: the very wedding the family's 1840 letter announces, seventeen days later.

Charles Lowell⁸ Tidd, in the town genealogy

"CHARLES LOWELL, b. 12 Feb. 1838; m. 28 Mar. 1866 HELEN A. GOOKIN of Portsmouth, N.H.; d. at Palmer, Neb., 13 Dec. 1899. He enlisted 16 Sept. 1862 in Co. A, 48th Mass. Inf'y, discharged 3 Sept. 1863 by reason of expiration of service."

His son's 1935 obituary remembers him as "one of the early settlers in this community [who] established one of the first stores in Palmer."

Generation 8, in Grandpa Joy's genealogy

"8. Charles Lowell Tidd. Born: February 12, 1838. Died: c. 1899 in Palmer, NE. Married: Elizabeth ___; Frances ___. Children: Charles Graham, born July 15, 1868 in Lexington."

The family record remembers wives named Elizabeth and Frances where Hudson records Helen A. Gookin; a small crack, logged on the Sources page.

Genealogy of the Charles William Tidd Family

"9. Charles Graham Tidd. Born: July 15, 1868 [in Lexington]. Died: September 9, 1930 in Palmer, NE.

Married: Ella C. Lucas, born 1872. Died March 25, 1926 in Palmer, NE. Nell D. Cook, married in Long Beach, CA.

Children: Charles William, born March 12, 1892 in Palmer, NE; Helen, born in Palmer, NE; Raymond, born in Palmer, NE."

Grandpa Joy's 1990s research, the same work that led the family to Lexington in 2010, held the answer all along.

The Palmer estate

"Ever since grandfather Tidd had died, I think that was 1930, Helen [dad's sister] had haggled over the estate. Dad gave her the house in Long Beach, and Old Nell [grandfather Tidd's second wife] had come in for a third of the estate, and got the beautiful home in Palmer. Grandpa had married her the year before. All that was left was the wheat ranch at Grainton. I think it was about 1,000 acres… But it was the depression. Dad wanted to weather the storm. He felt after the depression it would be worth something again. Was he right!!"

"We always knew Mr. Tidd would take care of us"

"Then came the depression years, and in 1932 the banks closed… Dad did all he could to help people, much of it privately, which we learned of only after his death.… I remember food coming in by train, and he would see it was distributed to the needy. Do you remember those little Kitchen kids and the Leaches? He dressed those kids in winter clothes and had coal delivered to their homes, sometimes doing it himself, so they would be warm. Remember Mrs. Decker…? She said, 'We always knew Mr. Tidd would take care of us. He wouldn't let us go hungry.' He was a good, kind, generous man."

"In 1928 or 1929 he was in Who's Who in Nebraska. He sold the most rubber boots ever sold in one year. All those beet fields… He was instrumental in getting a golf course built… When the theatre closed, he and Bud Young bought it so the town would still have a movie theater. He did everything in his power to make Lyman a pleasant place to live."

A father's last letter, and a son's reckoning

From the letter he left for Stella: "…This is going to be a sad shock to you I know and I ask you and our dear children to forgive me and think as kindly of me as you can. You have been a wonderful wife. I love you dearly… I am going to pass out of the picture while there is at least enough left to assure you and the children of a competence."

And Joy, having reread it while writing his own letter: "I want to retract what I said earlier, among other things calling his act of suicide cowardice. His love and concern are made quite apparent in a reading of the letters. He was obviously acutely aware of the pain he was going to cause the family and that, coupled with the love he expressed, had to make his decision one of horrific torment… Because I am trying to be honest, I will let it stand."

The tent behind the store

"To regress, I was born in Ceres in 1922 and arrived in Huntley at the age of two. The store building was built but that first year we spent some time living in a tent behind the store. It was sort of rough, there was no water, gas, or electricity… We had a model T Ford pick-up that cousin Delores would drive down to the community well to pick up water… We would rumble down to the well with kids hanging from every corner."

His sister Dorothy's version differs on who ran which store; Joy kept both letters side by side, brackets and all, because "perceptions are so dependent upon vantage point."

Charles William Tidd, 1892–1935

"A formerly prominent resident of Palmer… born at Palmer and grew to manhood there. His grandfather was one of the early settlers in this community and established one of the first stores in Palmer… After graduating from Palmer high school, Charles attended the University of Nebraska, and later was employed in the Loup Valley State Bank." He was found near Lyman in September 1935.

The memorial at Find a Grave ↗

The airbag, and a call from Nixon's man

"Airbag technology was developed in the 1960's… When the Nixon administration came in, the idea was pursued by John Volpe and a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking was prepared. At the time, I was the Acting General Counsel of the Department of Transportation so was quite familiar with the issue."

"About 11 o'clock on the night before the NPRM was to be issued I received a call from John Erhlichman, President Nixon's chief adviser on domestic policy. Erhlichman came right to the point: the President did not want the NPRM issued. I told him that while it was still possible to withdraw the NPRM it would be a major political mistake to do so… I told him that the wiser course would be to let the NPRM issue… He thanked me for my views and hung up. The next morning, I told Volpe of the call. His anger rose to about 8 on a scale of 10… The upshot was that the NPRM was issued as planned; but, as you might surmise, a final rule was not issued during the Nixon administration."

The airbag mandate finally arrived some twenty years later. Grandpa Joy also helped steer the fight over the American supersonic transport, the U.S. answer to the Concorde, before it was cancelled by Congress.

From the letter's opening pages

"The author of this book is a retired lawyer lacking any training in higher mathematics or physics… While lacking formal training in the sciences, I have been intrigued with the questions of existence since my teenage years… Most of my avocational reading over the last forty years has been in neither law nor fiction but of books written for laymen in the fields of religion, philosophy, and the physical and natural sciences."

"I do not believe anyone can seriously contemplate the cosmos without contemplating religious beliefs… My own interest in religion and the cosmos arises from an inner quest for answers to the 'what' and 'why' of human existence."

The universe as a single year

"On that time scale, the 'Big Bang'… occurred at midnight, January 1. Our sun was not formed until about the 9th of September… It was not until 10:30 p.m. on New Year's Eve that the first humans appeared… Jesus was born just 4 seconds ago, and it was only one second before Guy Lombardo first played Auld Lang Syne that Columbus set sail for America. (I leave as a trivia assignment to those readers under forty the identification of Guy Lombardo.) As you can see, on the cosmic time scale, we have yet to turn the first page of the book of recorded history."

The same deep-time instinct that shapes this site's 100,000-year story: he got there first.

The abolitionists' great-great-grandson

"Often, when I see a little 3 or 4 year old black child in a shopping center holding on to his mother's hand, I ask myself 'How would I feel were I his father or grandfather knowing what he has to face growing up in our society?' The answer is, 'I would be consumed with rage at the injustice of it.' It doesn't matter how smart he is, how hard he works, or how noble his character…"

Written a century and a half after his great-great-grandmother mailed letters under the emblem "Am I Not a Man and a Brother?" The conviction descended with the name.

Digging out

"Snowbound brings back the memories of family ties and Nebraska blizzards and, more recently, of a Virginia storm of some 20 years ago in which your dad and one of his friends had to dig our house out of a three-foot-deep snowdrift. Facing down the rigor of Nature's winter, albeit from the comfort of the hearth fire, also fuels our egos… After surviving a blizzard, they really did have something to feel good about!"

"Your dad" is John Thomas Tidd, Generation XII, in his father's letter to John's sons.