Tyler Colony descendants celebrate
By Carolyn McCall

Officers and Committee Chairmen of Tyler Colony Society of Mayflower Descendants are: Teresa Phillips, Pansy Conner, Kevin McCall, Madeline Alworth, Robert Brown, Judge Roby Hadden, guest speaker, Carolyn McCall, Betty Corcoran and Pam Lister.

On Nov. 18, the Tyler Colony of Mayflower Descendants celebrated its first Compact Day Luncheon.

The covered dish luncheon was held at the Hamilton West Condominium Activities Center, 1521 Rice Road, Tyler.

The Colony was chartered last April 1, 2006 at the state conference held in Amarillo.

The Colony is comprised of descendants of the passengers who braved a two-month trip aboard the ship, Mayflower, in the late fall of 1620.

They arrived in the Cape Cod, Massachusetts area and signed the Mayflower Compact on Nov. 21, 1620.

This was an agreement among the passengers to abide by a set of rules drawn up by the leadership and was a document that established a form of government in the new world.

The first winter in the new world was harsh and half of the passengers died.

With the help of the local Indians or feathered ones as the Pilgrims called them, the reminder of the passengers survived and established the colony at Plymouth, Mass. which was called Plymouth Colony.

Plymouth Colony is open to the public and living history programs which show how the Pilgrims lived in those early days are presented to visitors.

The 102 passengers came to the new world in search of religious freedom.

These people had reached a point where they did not want to continue to follow the teachings of the Church of England.

They fled England and dwelled in Holland for a period of time and then sold all of their possessions to buy passage on the cargo ship, Mayflower.

These people were not poor people who had been placed in prison and faced the gallows.

Rather, they were middle class people who had trades by which they earned their living.

Following a sumptuous meal, Judge Roby Hadden, presented the program on the "Significance of the Mayflower Compact."

There were 32 in attendance for this excellent program.

Anyone wishing to trace their lineage back to the Mayflower and join this distinctive organization should contact

Betty Corcoran, Governor of the Tyler Colony at 903-534-0742.