2013-11-01 Pilgrim Fathers

ACH Study Groups

Ben & Fran Gilmore – Cofounders

7659 Gingerblossom Drive

Citrus Heights, CA 95621

916-722-2501 histbuff@garlic.com

www.ACHStudyGroups.com

November 1, 2013

This is a letter to our friends –

For your Thanksgiving tradition

It has become something of a family tradition, as the Gilmore clan gathers for our Thanksgiving dinner – Someone reads the following lyrics, written by our good Friend Larry Wagner.

We need to use every opportunity to restore and enhance the true history of America.

Pilgrim Fathers

By Larry Wagner November 1984

The second harvest gathered since they crossed Atlantic waters,

A feast of thankfulness was set by grateful Pilgrim Fathers:

So great the providence of God, so blest with fruit their labors,

So sweet the bond among their band, such peace with Indian neighbors.

But most among the feasting crowd could count harsh years of toil.

Of wandering for their faith in God, of want on alien soil,

Of flagging hopes and faith, bad health, of chills that hell could send.

Of half their number that had died before first winter’s end.

Of hunger pangs that second year in their New Plymouth home,

Of weeks when all they ate a day was five small grains of corn.

A few remembered treasures lost, titles cast aside,

But all could measure conscience cost in tears and trampled pride.

Oh, at this feast could they foresee their blessed future years?

That nevermore would they now want, nor run from any fears!

Then after prayers of gratitude, before the feast was set,

Each plate was served five grains of corn, lest anyone forget!

A noble band in hardship born, rejected by their own,

A rock flung o’re the ocean, they were laid a corner stone.

By them God stamped His pattern for a nation on the land,

And seeds for freedom under God were planted by their hand.

Oh, pray their heirs would ever know how dear was freedom’s cost,

And know to hold their faith and freedom dear, or see them lost,

And praise the Providence that brought those Pilgrims to this shore,

And eat the grains of memory, or pay the price once more.

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Ben Gilmore 1929-2023

On March 30, 2023 Ben Gilmore, the co-founder of ACHStudyGroups (co-founded with his wife Fran), went to be with the Lord in Glory.

A Memorial: https://www.mykeeper.com/profile/BenGilmore/