{"id":103295,"date":"2025-07-02T10:11:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T14:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=103295"},"modified":"2025-10-06T10:43:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T14:43:10","slug":"mayflower-descendants-the-mashpee-wampanoag-tribe-part-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/mayflower-descendants-the-mashpee-wampanoag-tribe-part-8.html","title":{"rendered":"Mayflower Descendants & the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (part 8)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction:<\/em><\/strong> In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry continues her series on the genealogy of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, focusing on the Amos, Pells and Bearse family lines. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com<\/a>, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Today I continue my \u201cMayflower Descendants & the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe\u201d series, featuring Mayflower<\/em> descendants who married into Mashpee Wampanoag families.<\/p>\n

To recap: My series on the Mayflower<\/em> lines of Katie Crocker<\/a> of Barnstable, Massachusetts, has featured a rare account book connected to the business of Zenas Crocker<\/a> (1761-1807) and his descendants.<\/p>\n

The Crocker account book<\/a> includes residents of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, and the Cahoon Museum<\/a> in Cotuit, Massachusetts, granted me permission to share the account book\u2019s pages and do further research. (For previous stories see the links listed at the end of this article.)<\/p>\n

In part 7<\/a> I covered two Pilgrim scions, Charles Churchill Bearse and his wife Penelope Percival Crocker.<\/p>\n

Nathaniel D. S. Bearse<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today my subject is a cousin, Civil War soldier Nathaniel D. S. Bearse<\/a> (1842-1928), who married Olive Gould Pells (1844-1910), a member of the Wampanoag people.<\/p>\n

This is a photo of Nathaniel, a direct descendant of Mayflower<\/em> passengers Stephen Hopkins, Thomas Rogers, John Howland, and Elizabeth Tilley. He was a town selectman in Mashpee, Massachusetts, and deacon to the Mahpee Indian Church for 50 years.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:
Photo: Nathaniel D. S. Bearse. Credit: Mashpee Archives and Historic Commission.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nathaniel and his wife are identified in this lineage chart compiled by Christopher C. Child, author and genealogist for the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) from his post, \u201cCivil War Soldiers of Mashpee<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Photo:
Photo: lineage chart. Credit: Christopher C. Childs; New England Historic Genealogical Society.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Military Record<\/strong><\/p>\n

I found some newspaper clips listing Nathaniel for military service. He is recorded on the roster of soldiers provided to the press by Lieutenant Charles H. Tobey in 1864.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Daily Evening Standard (New Bedford, Massachusetts), 3 March 1864, page 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1865 he is listed in the same regiment in Company E.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Daily Evening Standard (New Bedford, Massachusetts), 18 July 1865, page 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Read more on Nathaniel\u2019s military history at \u201cThe Magnifying Glass: Bearing His Country\u2019s Cause<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wampanoag Connection<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nathaniel married Olive Gould Pells<\/a> in Mashpee on 29 October 1863. She is the daughter of Jacob Asher and Mary Rose (DeGrasse) Pells.<\/p>\n

Below is a photo of their four married daughters including Christine, who is listed on the above lineage chart compiled by Christopher C. Child. In this photo we see (seated left to right): Christine (Bearse) Oakley, Flora (Bearse) Amos, Mary (Bearse) Cowett; (standing left to right): unidentified family friend, Lois (Bearse) Newcomb.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:
Photo: Bearse sisters and friend. Credit: Collection of Earl Mills; Sr. Mashpee Archives.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Below is an obituary for Christine\u2019s husband Irving Westley Coombs Oakley, son of George Thomas and Betsy Jones (Attaquin) Oakley. He died on 14 November 1934.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Boston Herald (Boston, Massachusetts), 15 November 1934, page 27<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This article reads:<\/p>\n

MASHPEE, Nov. 14 \u2013 Funeral services for Irving C. Oakley, 65, a guide for President Grover Cleveland and Gov. William E. Russell on many hunting and fishing trips in Cape woods, will be held tomorrow at 2 P. M. at his home here. Burial will be in the Old Indian cemetery.<\/p>\n

Mr. Oakley died of a heart attack Monday night at his home. A descendant of the Wampanoag Indians, he followed the sea as a young man and later entered the cranberry business building several large cranberry bogs in Carver. For three terms he was an assessor of Mashpee and during the past decade operated Mashpee\u2019s only store.<\/p>\n

He leaves his widow, Mrs. Christine Bearse Oakley; four sons, Allen of Boston, Ellsworth of Onset, and George and Irving Jr. of Mashpee; and two daughters, Mrs. Emma O. Mills and Mrs. Minnie DeGreasse of Bournedale. He leaves two great grandchildren.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Below is a photo of Christine and Irving\u2019s son Ellsworth Raymond Oakley (1904-1976), aka Chief \u201cDrifting Goose.\u201d He married Edella \u201cDella\u201d Azevedo and left descendants.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:
Photo: Ellsworth Raymond Oakley. Credit: Rosemary H. Burns.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I found an obituary for Nathaniel and Catherine\u2019s daughter Flora E. (Bearse) Amos, who died 4 January 1946.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Boston Herald (Boston, Massachusetts), 6 January 1946, page 40<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This article reads:<\/p>\n

Mashpee Town Clerk, Mrs. Flora Amos, Dead<\/p>\n

MASHPEE, Jan. 5 \u2013 Mrs. Flora E. Amos, 82, Mashpee town clerk for the past 15 years and assistant postmaster 55 years, died here at her home late last night.<\/p>\n

A native of Mashpee, she served in the local post office under her husband, the late Lysander B. Amos, and later under her son Edmund. As town clerk she was first in the state to report returns in several national and state elections. She was for 65 years a member of the Old Indian Church of which she was long a trustee.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Stay tuned for more on this family line!<\/p>\n

Explore over 330 years of newspapers and historical records in GenealogyBank. Discover your family story! Start a 7-Day Free Trial<\/a><\/p>\n

Note on the header image:<\/em><\/strong> Ousamequin, or \u201cMassasoit\u201d (Wampanoag term for \u201cGreat Sachem\u201d) and Governor John Carver smoking a ceremonial pipe at Plymouth Colony in 1621. Credit: Sutro Library; Wikimedia Commons.<\/p>\n

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