Dorcas Armstrong

We found this charming photo taken in 1927 of Dorcas Armstrong in our archives. Turns out Dorcas was named after her grandmother Dorcas Hoxie, who married Robert Armstrong while both lived with her parents at Meadow Spring Farm in the late 1800s. Robert Armstrong was born in Scotland in 1838 and arrived in this country in 1853. His widowed mother “dropped him off” at Meadow Spring Farm, as the family story goes, presumably to work there as a laborer. According to a 2020 newsletter from the Sandwich Conservation Trust, he lived with Quakers Solomon and Charity Hoxie, and eventually married their daughter Dorcas. Their son David took over running the farm, and David and Alice had 4 children, Robert, Alice, Dorcas, and Irene.

Shown is Dorcas Armstrong sitting in a doorway in 1927 with two cats at her feet and a dog in her arms. It is the gift of Junardi Armstrong (accession no. 2014.9.21.31).