Land, Stories, and Kin: Learning From the Past to Create a Better Future

Chief Two Running Elk's family's roots in what is now known as Westport, Massachusetts, go back thousands of years. His family's story weaves together the historical accounts of the Royal family of the Pocasset-Pokanoket Wampanoag, the Mayflower settlers, Cape Cod's whaling industry, the abolitionist movements, and the history of African American wealth, farming, homesteading and wealth accumulation in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries

A Brief Biography of Michael Wainer, alias Micah Quebin

David C. Cole and Betty F. Slade

Michael Wainer was a very important person in the history of Dartmouth and Westport, and in the lives of Paul Cuffe and his family. But unfortunately, there are very few written records that can be used to trace his activities and accomplishments. The main sources are official documents such as property deeds, marriage records and birth and death records. Michael was apparently not literate, as his deeds are signed with an “X” and there is no correspondence from him. Even the time and place of his birth are uncertain. What follows is based on the best available sources plus our best guesses.

Michael Wainer was born probably around 1748 in the Wampanoag Community of Martha’s Vineyard. His mother was Margaret Quebbin, a full-blooded Indian, who later lived in Dartmouth. His father was also a full-blooded Indian of the same community. It is believed that, in his youth, he became a seaman sailing on whaling and other ships out of Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard or the Bedford port of Dartmouth.

His first marriage was to Deborah Pequit in 1769 but, apparently, she died soon after. His second marriage was to Mary Slocum – daughter of Cuff and Ruth Slocum – in Dartmouth on 11 October 1772. This was three months after the death of Mary’s father, Cuff Slocum. Mary Slocum Wainer’s two older brothers, David and Jonathan, also married about the same time. David Slocum married Hope Page, an Indian woman from the Wattuppa Reservation in Freetown, 19 October 1771; and Jonathan Slocum married Hespiah Occouch Auskoush, also an Indian woman from Gay Head, 6 December 1772.

It is noteworthy that all three of these Slocum siblings married full-bloodied Indians, as their Father had, and within the year of their Father’s death. The time convergence and ethnic parallels have led us to speculate that David and Jonathan moved in with their wives’ families at Watuppa and Gay Head, respectively, and that, with this exodus from the Cuff Slocum Farm, Michael may have moved in with his new wife’s family to help manage the 120-acre family farm on Old County Road adjacent to the north end of Fisher Road. His services in this role were even more important when Cuff and Ruth Slocum’s youngest son, Paul Cuffe (born in 1759), chose a life at sea rather than on the farm and, probably with Michael’s help, was able to join the crews on whaling voyages in 1773 and 1775, probably out of New Bedford or Nantucket.

In 1776, as the Revolutionary War was becoming more aggressive and coastal shipping more hazardous due to the British Navy, Colonial Privateers and pirates, Michael and Mary Wainer purchased a small property at the head of the Slocums River in the Russells Mills section of Dartmouth and established a new land-based business of leather tanning. Where or when Michael had learned this trade, we do not know, but he was able to hire and train apprentices, so he probably had some sort of formal training or skill recognition from a cordwainer craft society.

Michael and Mary Wainer resided and operated their tanning business at Russells Mills from 1776 until 1792. During that period, they probably assisted her brother and his brother-in-law, Paul Cuffe, launch his Nantucket supply run during the war years, perhaps travelled frequently up Fisher Road to the family farm on Old County Road being operated by John Slocum and his mother, and also travelled to the larger ports in New Bedford or Fall River for supplies.

Michael and Mary Wainer had their first two children, Thomas (1773) and Gardner (1774), possibly at the Slocum Farm. Then came Paul (1776), Jeremiah (1778), David (1780), John (1782), Mary (1789), all of whom were probably born at Russells Mills, then Michael, Jr. (1793) was born somewhere in Westport.

After the war ended, Paul Cuffe married Alice Abel Pequit, a widow and 4 years older than him. They moved into an Indian-style house, probably a Wetu, a short distance up Fisher Road from the Wainer home and near Destruction Brook, in 1785. Michael and Paul probably collaborated on building their first sizeable sailing vessel – Sunfish- on the Slocums River near Russells Mills in 1787. Two years later, in 1789, Paul Cuffe purchased a very small waterfront property on the East Branch of the Westport River where he set up a shipyard and dock, built a sizeable home, and soon moved to that area with his growing family.

Michael and Mary Wainer sold their home and business property at Russells Mills in 1792 to William Howland and over the next few years, purchased seven farm properties between Fisher Road and Horseneck Road and south of Hix Bridge Road in parts of Dartmouth and Westport, They probably lived on one or more of these farm properties over those years, but the record is not clear. The only indication is that in the earlier deeds they are identified as being of Dartmouth and in the later deeds as of Westport. How they managed these farm properties is also not clear. The fact that none of them abutted a stream or river suggests that Michael had given up the tanning business.In February 1799 life changed for Michael and Mary Wainer and their family. Ebenezer Eddy was offering two properties for sale that he and his siblings had inherited from their father, Ichabod Eddy. One property was the family homestead on both sides of the Drift Way along the West Bank of the East Branch of the Westport River. This was a large – 100-acre – farm with a large house, fronting on the water and less than a mile south of Paul Cuffe’s boatyard and new home. Michael and Mary, having recently purchased several other farm properties, apparently did not have the cash available to purchase this new property that was priced at $2,500. Brother Paul Cuffe, recognizing what a good location this was for his sister and brother-in-law/business partner, and parents of the young Wainer seamen who were sailing their newly built ships, stepped up to buy the Eddy Homestead for his close relatives who then repaid him one year later.

The Wainer family moved into the former Eddy home in 1799. At that time the family probably consisted of the parents and the two younger children, Mary (10) and Michael, Jr (6). The older sons were probably already seamen and may have spent time in the new home between voyages. Gardner, who was oriented more towards farming than seafaring, may have been helping on the family farm. Michael took on a new cordwainer apprentice while residing at the new homestead, so he may have been operating a tanning business using the water in the brook that passed through the property.

Mary Slocum Wainer died at home in 1804, and son Jeremiah was lost at sea aboard Ranger in 1805.

Michael married his third wife, Mary Amos White, widow of Joseph White, in 1806 and they had one son, Rodney, born about 1809.

Michael’s sons, Thomas, John and Michael Jr. sailed with their Uncle Paul on his first trip to Sierra Leone and England in 1807-08 on the Cuffe ship, Traveller.

Michael died in 1815 and the executors of his will, probated that same year, were his brother-in-law, Paul Cuffe, his son, Thomas Wainer, and his neighbor, Tillinghast Tripp. His homestead property was divided among his daughter and all but one of his sons while his widow was given the continuing use of the house and land. Son Gardner was willed $20 instead of a part of the homestead perhaps because he had already purchased a sizeable farm property from his father back in 1800.

The old Eddy house remained standing until 1974 when it was torn down by a descendant, John Edwin Roberts. 1/10/25

For more on Paul Cuffe go to paulcuffe.org