THE AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE

    The salient features of the American character, and of the American experience, are clearly evident in the history of the families which constitute the focus of the present study:  the Babcocks, the Burdicks, the Thayers, and the Masons.  Their  Christian ideals, their political acumen, their sense of community, their belief in justice, their propensity for hard work, and their  never ending quest for a better life are American in  the strictest sense of the word.  All four families were among the first inhabitants of New England, during colonial days; and the intimate details of their lives promise a more accurate and understandable account of the birth and development of the nation than is supplied by undocumented books on the social and political history of the country.  It is not presumptuous to say that these people, together with their compatriots, were among the designers of the American way of life.

From:  SATURDAY'S CHILDREN, A History of the Babcock Family in America and its Affiliations with The Burdicks, The Thayers, The Masons And Other Allied Families by C. Merton Babcock, Copyright 1974. (Revised)