AMES, SIMEON L.

Simeon L. Ames was on the seas from the time he was 10 years old. He spent three years prior to this apprenticed to a deacon, but for twenty four years of his life, his teachers were sailors; his home was the ocean. He was a cook at 10, a boat steerer on a whaler (the William Penn) at 18, and commanded his own ship, the Osprey, by the age of 30.

In this year of 1852 he was sent by authorities in Boston to rescue the passengers of the steamer Philadelphia, which had run into trouble in Newfoundland. Before he was to arrive there, another steamer also ran into trouble. The second steamer, the Arctic, did not have as many survivors as did the Philadelphia, but between the two ships, Simeon Ames was able to rescue over 700 people. Since the ships were steamers, I would imagine they were full of immigrants to the new world. Who knows how many future generations of Americans and Canadians he saved on that trip?

After his success as a sea captain, Simeon Ames retired in California for a while, where he ran a store. Soon he was back on Cape Cod, however, in his home town of Cotuit, where he became the proprietor of a cranberry farm.

Simeon Ames was born 6 December 1822.

Ancestors of Simeon Ames:

Thomas Ames m. Mehitable Fuller 30 December 1746
Enos Ames (b. 1759) m. Unknown
Isaac Ames m. Beulah Coleman
Simeon Ames m. Lucy Fessenden Crocker 3 December 1846 (b. 1 June 1823, Cotuit, MA)

Children of Simeon Ames and Lucy Crocker:

Hattie S. (b. 1 October 1849, d. at the age of 11, in California)
Carrie Crocker Ames (b. 30 November 1847) m. Emerson O. Stratton (m. 15 December 1870, AZ)
Children:
- Mabel Stratton
- Edith O. Stratton
- John S. Stratton
- Elmer W. Stratton
Lucy S. Ames (b. 14 October 1859, in California) m. Elmer W. Lapham (m. 17 January 1883)

Sources:

Deyo, Simeon L. History of Barnstable County Massachusetts 1620-1890. New York: H. W. Blake & Co., 1890. Pgs. 418-420 More Information