USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > Yarmouth > Early days of Yarmouth in Plymouth colony; written specially for the Yarmouth tercentenary > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Go 974.402 Y21br 1778963
M. G.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01105 4498
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019
https://archive.org/details/earlydaysofyarmo00bray
Early Days of Yarmouth
ın Plymouth Colony
Written Specially for
THE YARMOUTH TERCENTENARY
by ELLA W. BRAY
ESTO PERPETUA
THE WAYSIDE STUDIO SOUTH YARMOUTH CAPE COD
1778963
F Bray, Ella W.
844997 Early days of Yarmouth in Plymouth colony: written spe- cially for the Yarmouth torcentenary, by Elle W. Brev. South Yarmouth. Cape Cod, The Wayside studio (1); Hp. 20".
1. Yarmouth, Mass. . Hist. 1. Title. Library of Congress
30 19039
L 936
Copy 2. Copyright A BOGAT
cages
L 936
Early Days of Yarmouth in
Plymouth Colony
HIS summer in the year of our Lord 1939 we, who are celebrating the Tercentenary of the ancient Town of Yarmouth lying midway of the Peninsula, misnamed Cape Cod, on the Massachu- setts shore, probably fancy as we wander about the North side, where the first comers settled, that we are seeing their village - grown and changed -- yet still theirs.
Theirs, indeed, it still is in a spiritual sense - not in a material one! Could these men and women look down upon us today, they would see nothing familiar save the bay - the bay with the Manomet Bluffs rising blue and shadowy to the left and the State's "bared and bended arm," extending to the right, its clenched fist still encircling Provincetown Harbor, immortal for the Pilgrim Compact.
Even the shore, then well wooded except for Indian plantings, to the water's edge, would be unrecognizable : and it was at the water's edge that the infant settlement began.
It could not possibly begin elsewhere. But for Indian trails, there were no highways. The settlers
[3]
of pure English origin, mostly from Plymouth, Boston and towns to the north of Boston, as Charles- town, Lynn and Salem, were citizens of two distinct colonies - Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay - and therefore of two religious types. Separatists and Puritan. They sailed across the Bay to the more fertile Cape lands. Sailing was the only mode of travel to a distant point in those days - Every man was perforce a sailor.
The land must be cleared for farming and the settlers lived in the meantime on the bounty of the sea. Years later, even when the town had expanded to the south shore of the Cape, the inhabitants nearly all engaged in occupations dependent on the ocean. They fished, they cut salt hay for their cattle, they caught the incoming tide in vats and made it yield them salt, they built and launched ships and sailed them on the seven seas.
So it is not surprising to know that the irregular road, along which these early homes lay, started at the Mill Pond, then called Stony Cove, continued along the marshes easterly, about where the Thacher shore road now runs, then on by the Howland Farm, across Church Street and down to the Ancient Cemetery, a little beyond which it turned south, crossing White's Brook, where Main Street now does - thence by the head of Bass River to Nob- seusset, now Dennis, till 1793 a part of Yarmouth.
Not a building of those early days survives! Gone are the first rude houses and barns, the square grist
[ 4 ]
----
-----
-----
mills, the rough log structure, with a roof of thatch, unplastered and unglazed, serving both as a meeting house and fort. The graves of the builders, scattered and unmarked, are also obliterated.
All church records were burned in 1674 and many Town records in the court-house fire of 1827. Yet from old letters, diaries, business papers we do know the main facts about the history of Yarmouth.
But first, why the name Yarmouth ? That ques- tion has never been answered.
That the founders came from Yarmouth in Eng- land is the natural explanation, only it is not true - they came from many parts of England and Wales. It had also been suggested that the Pilgrims em- barked at Yarmouth for Leyden, as that was a popular route to Holland, and so had pleasant associations with the name. One guess is as good as another. Mine is that, as they seined for herring in Falland's (now Follen's) Pond, they were reminded of the English herring - the famous Yarmouth- Bloaters. Thus "the tie that binds" was a common industry.
That is not a romantic explanation. But then nobody has ever accused our new England forebears of coming in search of romance. They probably never even read one.
The original Township was an eight mile square from shore to shore. The shape is still the same but the size has been reduced by the loss of Dennis.
The Indian settlements on the north shore, within
[ 5]
the limits of old Yarmouth, west to east, were Matta- cheeset, (Planting Lands by the Water) Hockonom and Nobscusset. The first three groups of English settlers corresponded roughly to them.
The first began around the Mill Pond stretching westward along the marshes as far as the road in East Barnstable called Indian Trail and eastward to the vicinity of the Ancient Cemetery - the second or central one included this area and all the land on through Hockonom - and the third was in Nob- scusset, now Dennis.
The central one was called "The Town", because there was the meeting house. Towns then existed to protect the church. No settlement was permitted by the Colony Courts unless the settlers guaranteed to found a church, wherever they located.
The first house built by an Englishman, the site of which can be pointed out with certainty, was put up by Stephen Hopkins, a Mayflower Pilgrim and a resident of Plymouth in 1638, as a temporary shelter, hardly more than a camp, where he could stay while cutting salt hay.
The house stood in the field, fronting on the Main Street to the south west of the residence of Mr. Charles Bassett - It was soon sold to Andrew Hallet, the last name being spelt Hellot on the old records.
About this time several others drifting in to settle, the Court of Plymouth Colony appointed Anthony Thacher, Thomas Howes and John Crow
[ 6]
--. .
.
-----
:
i
1
(now written Crowell) Grantees in 1639. The land was apportioned and occupied. The Town had begun.
The boundaries of these furloughs, marked by lines of stones covered with turf, so that the cattle might wander without harm, are still to be seen on Green Hill Farm belonging to Hon. Thomas C. Thacher.
The land at the extreme west of the town be- longed to John Gorham - that around the Mill Pond, then much smaller than now, to Andrew Hallet and his family - the fields near the old wharf to Nicholas Simpkins - while the farm of Anthony Thacher was situated at the foot of Church Street. On it he was buried. A boulder, placed there by one of his direct descendants, Louis B. Thacher, marks the spot.
The Meeting House stood on a low sandy hill, just to the south of the Ancient Cemetery. It was called Fort Hill because a lookout for Indians was kept there - but it has literally "gone with the wind."
Rev. Marmaduke Matthews, Yarmouth's first minister, held lands to the east of the Meeting House. Thomas Falland or Follen early settled by the pond named for him, where James Matthews and others also made their homes. The two other grantees lived in Nobscusset - Thomas Howes in New Boston, where stands a granite monument to his memory and John Crow an eighth of a mile north of the present church. Richard Sears, styled the Pilgrim,
[ 7 ]
---
and married to Dorothy Thacher, the sister of An- thony Thacher, settled in Sesuit or East Dennis. As Yarmouth grew it was divided into two precincts or parishes, East and West, each with its own church. When the East Precinct became a separate town, it was named for Rev. Josiah Dennis a former and much beloved minister of that precinct.
The life of these pioneers was simple. There were no professional men among them, except ministers - no doctors, lawyers or teachers. The ministers, graduates of Oxford and Cambridge, England, and of Harvard often treated the sick -the Town officers drew up legal papers and the children were taught at home.
The temper and rule of those in authority was mild and just. This is shown by the refusal of the Cape Indians to join in King Phillip's War, and by the holding of Quaker Meetings on the South Side.
As more land was cleared and the population increased, the street, as we know it, began to take shape. Communication with other towns by land be- came possible, when horses were first imported from England, and the first bridge builder, Shubael Gorham, appeared in the closing years of the Seven- teenth Century to span the numerous inlets from the sea.
The houses were of the story and a half kind, single and double, or the salt box model. The sea captains, of whom there were, at one time, 50 living along the main street, either dwelt in these ancestral
[ 8 ]
homes or built more pretentious ones. Of all the types it is the first, which now has the rather dubious honor of being pictured and copied as the "Cape Cod Cottage."
The houses were built quite close together for protection and near the street for convenience. The mail for example, first brought infrequently on horse-back and later by stage-coach, was tossed directly into the front yards - the carrier keeping on the move without slacking.
Few of these houses had any historic interest except a local one. It is worth while to look for the highlights of the picture, however, as we stroll along the elm shaded main street from Barnstable line to White's Brook. But we must remember that this street was not the beautiful one of today -- There were no shade trees on it - in fact few in the front yards -the trees being mostly fruit trees in or- chards at the rear of the dwellings. There were fences everywhere -rail fences or stone walls - since domestic animals were allowed to roam wher- ever they chose. The grass, nobody having any time to mow or water lawns, was long and brownish yellow for the most part. Many a beauty-spot, as the Yar- mouthport Common, was then a swamp or clay pit.
The Lovell house, opposite the lane leading to the Yarmouth station, is the second oldest house in town. It was built by Timothy Hallet, a descendant of Andrew Hallet, the first permanent settler, in 1696. Nearby are the other Hallet houses -- the one,
[ 9]
for example, on the east corner of Main Street and this lane and the large double house at the foot of Mill Lane. Indeed so numerous was the family in this locality that the upper end of the Yarmouth street has always been called Hallet Street.
The only house, which was linked with Colonial history, has unfortunately been torn down. That house was also a Hallet house till 1772.
The house stood on the west corner of Hallet Street and Wharf Lane. It was of the double Salt Box variety and has been pronounced by authorities as having an unusually fine slope of roof. It was probably built by Jonathan, son of Andrew, and was the home of his son, Thomas, styled "Gentleman" who, having no children of his own, left it to his step-son, Joshua Gray.
Joshua Gray was an officer of the Revolution. As Captain of the Yarmouth Militia, he marched with his men to help Washington defend Dorchester Heights. The night before, the women of the town worked till sunrise moulding bullets for the soldiers in the upper right hand chamber -- This is no myth. Captain Gray was my Great Great Grandfather, so I went through the house while it was being de- molished and I found several stray bullets under the bricks of the hearth-stone in this very room.
The house nearly opposite this site, now the sum- mer home of Dr. De Wayne Hallet, was the home of Lieut. Gov. Reed in the middle of the last century
[ 10 ]
-
4
1
and is said to be the first house in town designed by an architect.
The house of Mr. Charles Otis, a little further east on the north side of the street, was the home of the most famous of all the Yarmouth ship-masters - Captain Asa Eldridge. Captain Eldridge was the Commander of the Red Jacket and he made an all time record for Clipper Ships, thirteen days, one hour, from New York to Liverpool, dock to dock.
The Yarmouth Tavern, marked with the date 1696, was formerly a Sears house, one half its present size and stood further south than it now does. The west half was added later and it has been run as a public house till five or six years ago.
The Main Street then swerved more to the south for a short distance, the land directly to the west of Summer Street belonging to the Hawes family - Summer Street being then Hawes Lane.
Near the eastern end of Dennis Pond stood the first school house. That neighborhood was then quite thickly settled.
On the east corner of Thacher and Main Street stands the Col. John Thacher house, commonly re- ferred to as the 1680 House. Col. John Thacher was a son of Anthony and this house was built on a part of his father's farm and moved to its present site and doubled in size, yet retaining the old features.
The last of the district school houses stood within my remembrance in the field, where is now the flower garden and tennis court of Hon. T. C. Thacher.
[ 11 ]
The site of the Yarmouth Fire Engine house has always up to the removal of the schools to the south side of the town been connected with education. The first school master of Yarmouth had a dwelling on this spot, going a part of the time to one end of the settlement and then to the other -so that the school term was short for the pupils, though the Master drew a year's salary; and the Academy, a private school, beloved by many three generations ago, stood there till removed to make room for the Consolidated Public School Building.
To the east of the present Congregational Church were two old wind mills.
The house now owned by Mr. George Clements, was the old Squire Doane Tavern. It was built by Rev. Thomas Smith, the minister of the Congrega- tional Church, about 1721, and occupied as a home at one time by Elisha Doane, who was a famous Cape Whaling Captain. When this house was opened as a Tavern in 1800, it was named for Captain Doane.
On what is now the playground, just east of Mr. Clements' home, stood the second and third meeting houses - one begun about 1716 and finished in 1751 and the other in 1830.
In 1722 the Church of the East Precinct (now Dennis) was built and in 1840 a Congregational Church was established at the South Side to ac- commodate the members of the original Church, who found it inconvenient to cross the Cape every Sunday
[ 12 ]
1
1
-
-
--
and felt strong enough to maintain a separate place of worship. That church still exists as the West Yarmouth Congregational Church.
The house nearly opposite Mr. Clements' - the home of Mrs. Charles Howes - was the Parsonage -- at the time, of which I have just spoken, and till the fifties. In earlier years it appears to have been the custom to give the parson some good farming land and let him shift for himself as to a dwelling. Land was more plentiful than houses.
Near White's Brook was the forge of the first blacksmith in town and it was for him that the brook was named.
. In the Period to which I have mostly confined myself, the south side was not fully developed. It was generally referred to as "The South Sea" and only two of the forty nine original settlers took up land there - Yelverton Crow and Richard Berry - Crow being nearer the present Lewis Bay - Berry at the mouth of Bass River.
Yelverton Crow is not considered to be related to John Crow-Grantee. The present Crowell family of West Yarmouth are direct descendants of Yel- verton Crow and the Dennis families of John. A public road was not laid out on the south side till 1751.
The Indians of Yarmouth, retreating before the white men took their last stand on the shores of Long Pond in South Yarmouth. There a cairn. placed by Azariah Eldridge, bears this inscription -
[ 13 ]
-
-
"On this slope lie buried The last Native Indians
of Yarmouth"
As one enters the village of South Yarmouth at its eastern end, is a little cluster of houses, known as Friends' Village - and beyond on the Main Street are the Friends Meeting House and Burial Place, where lie the members, each buried not in family lots, but side by side, as they happened to die, with low white markers exactly alike - Friends, one to the other - all equal before God.
A few steps further west is the present bridge over Bass River - a cityfied structure, bearing no resemblance to the frail wooden one erected about 1815.
The two Aiken houses -the Peleg K. Aiken house - a fine old mansion with a Captain's walk near the river; and the former home of Miss Kate Aiken - the well known Founder of the Aiken School for Girls in Stamford, Connecticut, at the corner of Bridge and Main Street-are still standing.
The latter house sheltered the famous Clemen- ceau - "The Tiger of France" - then a Teacher of French in Miss Aiken's School.
Along the shores of Bass River, now a summer colony, stretched for a long distance, the famous Yarmouth Salt Works in the middle years of the Town. The windmills and vats must have been a picturesque sight. They furnished livelihood to many.
[ 14 ]
1778963
My great grandfather Matthews used to walk from the north to the south side, tend his vats with the help of his sons, and then walk home -quite a . strenuous day's work !
Now walking to work is the exception - riding in automobiles is the rule.
The oldest house in West Yarmouth is that of Rev. Enoch Chase, built in 1750. It is about opposite the Cape Cod Laundry.
The two Crowell Homesteads, where nine gen- erations of the family have lived on the same land - a part of the Yelverton Crow grant comprising all of West Yarmouth and Great Island - still stand on a wood road leading to the shore.
At the entrance to Hyannis is an interesting land-mark in a good state of preservation - the old Baxter Mill built in 1789, the year in which George Washington was inaugurated the first President of these United States.
Now after all our wanderings let us come back to the neighborhood of the first Meeting House - to "the Town" - for there lies the ancient Burying Ground - evidently laid out around the Meeting House like the churchyards of England around the village churches.
We cannot say with Gray -
"Each in his narrow cell forever laid,
The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep." for the men and women, here laid to rest, were not rough and uncultivated for the most part. They
[ 15 ]
--------
1
were the fearless earnest men and women, who founded and moulded the Town of Yarmouth, a venture in what was practically a wilderness.
The first records were burnt. The oldest grave, of which there is a record, bears the date 1698 and the name Margaret Miller, and is near the center of the cemetery.
A few scattered field-stones nearby are thought to be old grave-stones, the markings of which have disappeared.
Here shut in by sheltering pines, within sound but not sight of the sea, sleep many, whose names are household words - Colonel John Thacher, David Thacher, sons of Richard Sears, a grandson of Pere- grin White, Timothy Alden - Joshua Gray.
It was for years a wild and lonely place - for, as Whittier says in his poem: "The Old Burying Ground"
"The dreariest spot in all the land To Death they set apart; With scanty grace from Nature's hand and none from that of art."
But descendants of Anthony Thacher have re- stored the decaying stones and cleared away the brambles and now it is a pleasant place, in which to linger and repeat with Whittier -
"Secure on God's all-tender heart
Alike rest great and small;
Why fear to lose our little part,
When He is pledged for all ?"
[ 16 ]
-------------
-
F844997.1
6145 1
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.