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A 1939 Postcard with a 1¢ Forever Stamp


The latest addition to the Westcott Society Collection is a 1939 postcard promoting the second volume of Roscoe Whitman’s History and Genealogy of the Ancestors and Some Descendants of Stukely Westcott. Discovery of the card this year led to welcomed additions to 2024 Reunion, as new member Craig Crosswhite tells the story in his application to join the society:

Craig and Elizabeth Crosswhite at the 2024 Westcott Society Reunion in Charlotte

Enclosed is the form with my information, my wife’s and my ancestral chart back to Stukely Westcott, as well as my check for $15.00. Also included is a scanned copy of a postcard, front and back, that was mailed to my great aunt, Ruth Harriet Spooner Stone, from Joseph R. Westcott, President of the Society of Stukely Westcott Descendants in January, 1939. I was looking through some papers I had saved from her house when she died in 1978 when I came across this postcard. I was amazed when my wife looked up the Society on the Internet and found that you were still existing and planning one of your biennial reunions this summer in Charlotte, N.C. It happens that I am a member, through my father’s side, of the Shoun Family Association that traces our ancestors back to a couple who lived in Mountain City, Tennessee starting in 1792. This year, our reunion is being held in Wytheville, VA the weekend before your reunion in Charlotte. I have relatives in Raleigh, and am hopeful that I will be approved to join your Society and attend the reunion in Charlotte.

Welcome Craig and Elizabeth, and thank you Ruth Harriet Spooner Stone! 

Westcott Society Collection

This page contains links to stories and images that were posted on the first version of SSWDA.org, and additional items from the society archive maintained by the SSWDA Historian and the collection at the Warwick Historical Society in the Arnold House in Warwick, Rhode Island.

  • Judge Bullock’s Essay on Stukeley Westcote
    Judge J. Russell Bullock, “Some Incidents in the Life and Times of Stukeley Westcote, a Paper Read Before R. I. Veteran Citizens’ Historical Association at Providence, April 5, 1886,” which comprises the first half of Bullock’s Stukeley Westcote and Some of His Descendants; a note on copies of the book in the Westcott Society Collection
  • Roscoe Whitman
    Betty Acker’s biographical sketch of SSWDA founder Roscoe Leighton Whitman, a selection from Whitman’s “My Boyhood Home” and notes on his books and research in the Westcott Society Collection
  • Fame and Sadness in One Westcott Line
    Dr. Amos Westcott, “The Country’s First Dentist,” and his sons Edward Noyes Westcott, Author of David Harum, and Frank Nash Westcott, priest and author. The tragic tale of Amos and his sons was the topic of Roscoe Whitman’s talk at a Westcott descendants dinner in 1945.
  • General Benedict Arnold (1740/41-1801), A Tragic Life
    Roscoe Whitman’s essay on General Benedict Arnold, two-times-great-grandson of Damaris Westcott Arnold in the History and Genealogy of the Ancestors and Some Descendants of Stukely Westcott, Volume I (1932), and photos of a Westcott cousins visit to Arnold’s tomb in London.
  • General Thomas Westcott
    This article about Thomas Westcott, who began his military career defending Warwick, R.I. during the Revolutionary War and was promoted to Brigade Commander in 1807, includes scans of original promotion certificates in the Westcott Collection at the Warwick Historical Society.
  • Three Samplers from Westcott, Rhode Island
    In the first decades of the 19th Century, three talented young ladies in Westcott, Rhode Island demonstrated their literacy, dexterity and faith by cross-stitching three remarkable samplers. While the males in the village of Westcott along the Pawtuxet River achieved fame as generals, entrepreneurs and politicians, the quiet work of cousins Sarah Cook and Sarah Rice and their niece Martha Westcott endures with these embroideries in the Westcott collection at the Warwick (Rhode Island) Historical Society.
  • Westcotts in History
    Roscoe Whitman’s profiles of five cousins “who achieved a place in the history of our country” in Volume I of his Westcott genealogy: Edward Noyes Westcott, the author of David Harum; journalist John Kimberly Mumford; railroad owner Robert Estling Westcott; statesman and Lincoln rival Stephen Douglas; and wayward cousin General Benedict Arnold
  • Frank Rush Wescott, Wescott & Winks
    Frank Wescott, co-founder of Wescott & Winks, was a produce dealer and a leading citizen of Sumner, Iowa at the beginning of the twentieth century.

  • Gardiner Westcott Takes the Family to Westcott Beach
    Read about the Westcott farmers and mariners that settled on the eastern shore of Lake Ontario and hosted reunions for North Country kin at Westcott Beach.
  • The Westcott Wrench
    In 1907 Keystone Manufacturing Company trademarked its adjustable wrench with the knuckle-saving S-shaped handle  WESTCOTT. Who was the Westcott for whom the wrench was named?
  • The Westcott Motor Car Company
    Betty Acker’s 62-page book about the company that manufactured over 3,000 Westcott cars and the story behind the making of the book.
  • John McMahon Westcott
    John M. Westcott was able to identify market needs and inspired others with his drive, as he created companies such as the Westcott Carriage Company, which his son Burton transformed into the Westcott Motor Car Company and energized others, including Hoosier Drill, which became a cornerstone of International Harvester.

  • Westcott Cars at the Brickyard
    The Westcott racer makes its debut at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1910 and a video from the crash at the first Indy 500 in 1911.
  • Christopher Westcott Heads for Ohio
    In 1816, Christopher and Mary Westcott packed their worldly goods and three children into a wagon (a covered wagon, we presume) and headed west from Rhode Island to a new life in Ohio. Read Christopher’s version of the story and page through his “Siphering Book.”
  • Hall of Fame Musician Keith Knudsen
    Keith Knudsen (1948-2005) was a longtime drummer with the Doobie Brothers.
  • On the Way to the Met, A Special Calling: Sister Mary Elise Sisson (1898-1982)
    Sister Mary Elise Sisson brought opera to Xavier University, integrated audiences in New Orleans, and taught acclaimed Black opera stars and musicians such as Annabelle Bernard and Debria Brown.
  • Actress Templeton Fox (1913-1993)
    She starred in radio dramas in the 30s, appeared in films and television series in the 60s and 70s.
  • Thayer Soule, Photographer and Travel Writer (1917-2004)
    Thayer Soule kicked off a 60-year career of photography and producing travelogues at the age of 17 by taking a banana boat to Haiti. At the age of 23 he was a combat photographer documenting the battle of Guadalcanal.
  • Marshall Robertson, Engineer with Command in High Places
    Westcott descendant Lawrence Marshall Robertson (January 20, 1900 to July 23, 1988) was an internationally recognized electric utilities engineer, known for his cutting edge research into transmission line performance at high altitude.
  • The Double Life of Martin Pattison
    Two lives, three wives, two states, three mayoral terms, one state park – Westcott Descendant Martin Pattison did it all.
  • George Wescott’s Business Ventures
    Sales literature and a postcard in the Westcott Society Collection show some of the business ventures of distant cousin Geo. F. Wescott (1854-1913) ranging from elevators to cookware.
  • Texas Oil, Florida Cypress and a Town Called Wescott
    Two letters  in the Wescott Society Collection introduce us to distant cousin Walter Scott Wescott, his son John James Wescott and a settlement in Custer County, Nebraska.

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