Goody Wing, an American Foremother

Our Colonial grandmothers were much brighter and cheerier than the myth of dour, stiff, black-and-white women who have been so eternalized by Pilgrim-era paintings. Certainly do not "color" Deborah Bachiler Wing as wan and morose. Like most foremothers, Deborah was resolved and resolute, determined to create a home out of a cabin in the midst of a primeval forest. Deborah braved crossing the Atlantic as a widow with four young sons and her father, the Reverend Stephen Bachiler, an irascible fellow who attracted misfortune as though he were a magnet. While their crusade to find religious freedom was thwarted in New England as it had been in England, their experiences helped form the persevering character of America.