User:Stevebarbin

Stephen E. Barbin

Commissioner, Methuen Historical Commission

Historical & Genealogical Research since 1976 Methuen, Massachusetts 01844

- A biographical sketch -

Steve graduated from Methuen High School in 1979; Northern Essex Community College in 1982 with an AS in Business and again in 1995 with an AS in Accounting; Salem State University in 1984 with BA in General Studies with concentrations in business, education and music. He had returned to Salem State in 2006 to work towards a Masters degree in History, but had to withdraw due to family problems.

Through his biological mother, Steve is descended from the Sagamores, Sachems, Chief Sachems and Great Chief Sachems of the Massachusett, Mohegan, Narragansett, Nauset and Wampanoag Confederations and affiliated tribes of southern New England, as well as the Mi’kmaq Tribes of northern Maine and Nova Scotia. His mother was also descended from Joseph of Arimathea, Constantine “The Great”, Charlemagne and William “The Conqueror” through some of her twelve Mayflower ancestors. Notable Mayflower ancestors include Governor William Bradford, Elder William Brewster, and Richard Warren; as well as Stephen Hopkins, who had also been in Jamestown, VA in 1609-14. Also from Roger Conant who founded Naumkeag (Salem, MA.) in 1626 and Thomas Gardner, who were technically the first two Governors of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Also from Robert Clements, Christopher Bartlett Sr. & Jr. and John Stevens Sr., all of whose names appear on the two “Indian Deeds” for the land that is now Methuen (formerly a part of Haverhill,MA.)

Through his biological mother, Steve is also descended from Mary (Perkins) and Capt. Thomas Bradbury, first settlers of Salisbury and Amesbury, MA. Mary Bradbury was tried and convicted of witchcraft (but not executed) in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Her husband, Capt. Thomas Bradbury, the grandnephew and agent of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, was one of the most prominent men of “Old Norfolk” and Essex Counties. Many of the early county records were recorded by him, including the two aforementioned “Indian Deeds” for Methuen/Haverhill. Noteworthy famous distant cousins include John Greenleaf Whittier, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Presidents Adams, Lincoln and Bush.

Through his biological father, Steve is descended from the Comanche peoples of the southern plains of Texas and the Choctaw and Eastern Cherokee peoples of Georgia. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 forced his Choctaw and Cherokee ancestors to travel the “Trail of Tears” after the white man discovered gold on their lands in 1829. As they had been great allies and helped the General win his battles in Florida and New Orleans, these great “civilized tribes” were betrayed by Andrew Jackson – even more so after the Supreme Court sided with the “Indians”, who were, none the less, forced by Jackson to relocate west of the Mississippi River.

A person of many diverse interests and abilities, Steve has worked for the IRS in Andover & Methuen; Arlington Trust Co., Shawmut Bank, and Offices Unlimited Inc (OUI) in Lawrence; Casey Paper in Haverhill; as well as other local companies. He also owned and operated a landscaping business (SEBCO Landscape Sub-contracting) and a used car dealership (Royal Auto Sales) for a brief period of time until caring for his adopted mother became a full-time job. He also served as a live-in caregiver to Methuen Historian Ernest G. Mack from 2008 to 2012.

From the age of 13, Steve had been a substitute and interim organist for several churches throughout the Greater Lawrence area. Having developed Tendonitis and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in both hands as a result of being hit by a taxi in 1989, as well as diabetic neuropathy in his hands and feet, he last played at South Congregational Church in South Lawrence, MA on Easter Sunday 2001.

From 1976 to 1986 Steve researched the life and times of Methuen multi-millionaire Edward F. Searles (1841-1920) which resulted in a 478-page manuscript entitled, A Yankee-Doodle Boy & The American Dream: The Life of Edward F. Searles in 1986. He served on the book committee and co-authored Arcadia Publishing’s “Images of America” series entitled, Methuen. He was a member of the Methuen Historical Commission from 1983 to 1999, and 2007 to 2017. He gives lectures and presentations on local history and genealogy throughout the Merrimack Valley and Southern NH area. He has been a guest on WCCM radio in Lawrence and community cable television in Lawrence and Methuen, MA and Windham, NH. In addition to numerous articles in several newspapers and magazines, he is listed in the acknowledgements of at least 7 books.

Steve served on the advisory board of the Searles Castle in Windham, NH and as a consultant for the New Hampshire Department of Transportation for an historical impact study for the reconstruction of the Interstate-93, Exit 3 and Route 111 by-pass in Windham. He has also worked with the owners of various other properties either built or owned by Searles. He frequently receives letters of inquiry from throughout the US and Canada, and occasionally from over seas, especially with regard to Searles’ Methuen Organ Company and United States Tubular Bell Company, both of which had been located next to the Serlo Organ Hall (Methuen Memorial Music Hall) on Broadway in Methuen.

In 2003 Steve helped to expose Michael Roger LaFosse, the self-styled “HRH Prince Michael, 7th Count of Albany” (an alleged descendant of “Bonnie Prince Charlie”) as a fraud. As a result, the British Government rescinded LaFosse’s citizenship in 2004 due to his having submitted a falsified birth certificate. LaFosse had written the book, "The Forgotten Monarchy of Scotland", and resides in Belgium.

Steve is a former member and Past Master of John Hancock Lodge, AF&AM of Methuen, and had been a member of the Scottish Rite Bodies of Lawrence, Lowell and Boston, as well as the Shriners of Aleppo Temple, AAONMS in Wilmington. He is a former member of Grace Episcopal Church in Lawrence and attended Trinity Church in Boston from 1999 to 2006. However, after scrutinizing his ancestral history and Judeo-Christian beliefs, he traveled to Israel and made atonement for the over-zealous and misguided actions of his white ancestors, especially those who had fought in the Crusades, and those who had become Crusader Kings of Antioch, Cypress and Jerusalem. He then abandoned “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” and turned to Native American and Buddhist philosophies, as well as the study of the religions of Sumer and Mesopotamia.

Steve has two sons, Stephen Daniel Barbin and Justin Tillson Barbin.