USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Beverly > Historic Beverly; being an account of the growth of the city of Beverly from the earliest times to the present, with short sketches of the men and women who contributed so much to the upbuilding of the community in the early days > Part 1
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Gc 974.402 B467bev 1775981
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01095 4060
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019
https://archive.org/details/historicbeverlyb00unse
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HISTORIC . BEVERLY® O
BEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE GROWTH OF THE CITY OF BEVERLY FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE PRESENT, WITH SHORT SKETCHES OF THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO CONTRIBUTED SO MUCH TO THE UPBUILDING OF THE COMMUNITY IN THE EARLY DAYS.
Text contributed by BEVERLY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Illustrations by ALICE BOLAM PRESTON
Copyright by BEVERLY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE MCMXXXVII
HISTORIC BEVERLY
FOUNDED 1626
1. 75981
PRESTON
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Beverly, Mass. Chamber of commerce.
Historic Beverly ; being an account of the growth of the city of Beverly from the earliest times to the present, with short sketches of the men and women who contributed so much to the upbuilding of the community in the early days; text con- tributed by Beverly historical society; illustrations by Alice Bolam Preston. (Beverly, Mass.] Beverly chamber of com- merce, 1937.
38 p. illus. (incl. ports., mnap, facsims. ) 27jem.
Text prepared by Katharine P. Loring and Alice G. Lapham. cf. p. 38. "First edition." 1. Beverly, Mass .- Hist. I. Beverly historical society, Beverly, Mass. if. Loring, Katharine Peabody, 1849- III. Lapham, Alice Gertrude. IV. Title.
37-19333
4 Library of Congress Copy 2.
F74.B35B5
J 488
The
SHIP,
June 1216
ARBELLA 1630
LANDED . AT . PLUM.COVE 'gathered . a . store . of . fine . strawberries " · LORING · · JACKSON . · BEACH.
The officers and members of the Beverly Chamber of Commerce respectfully and affectionately dedicate this booklet to
Miss Katharine Peabody Loring
Her genuine interest in Beverly's history, her warm support of its civic enterprise, her energy and resourcefulness are a constant inspiration to the entire community. When there has been work to do for the public good, she has done it with skill and despatch. We humbly acknowledge our great debt to Miss Loring.
1937 NORTH SHORE PRINTING CO. BEVERLY, MASSACHUSETTS
FIRST EDITION
J988
FOREWORD
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T HE purpose of this booklet is to focus public attention on the importance of the remarkable historic heritage of Beverly, Massachusetts, located on the famous North Shore. Her sons have taken a prominent part in the making of history from the very earliest times to the present.
It hardly seems possible that the order of Washington that resulted in the sailing of the "Hannah" from Beverly, on September 5, 1775, could constitute the official beginning of the American Navy, but such is the fact. Beverly is proud of her right- ful title "The Birthplace of the Navy." The first Secretary of the Navy was George Cabot of Beverly, appointed by President Adams, May 3, 1798.
The first cotton mill in America was located here; the first brittania ware was manufactured here; the first Sunday School in New England was founded in Beverly; one of the first steamboats in America was operated here; one of the first to die for the « .cause of Liberty on April 19, 1775 was from Beverly; the oldest house in New England, of which there is a written record, is located here; the oldest drug store is here. Beverly is rich in its antiquity. Many beautiful old houses may be seen, all splendid examples of early colonial architecture.
We wish to express our most grateful appreciation for the fine co-operation and charming work of our artist, Alice Bolam Preston, for the loan of photographs and portraits by many Beverly people and the State Street Trust Company of Boston and to all who have co-operated in the preparation of this booklet.
We trust that visitors to our City will enjoy their stay and when they leave feel refreshed from their contact and association with this old community which took such an important part in the making of history.
BEVERLY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE HISTORIC BOOKLET COMMITTEE
JOHN S. CROWLEY THOMAS F. DELANEY MISS ALICE G. LAPHAM MISS KATHARINE P. LORING EDWARD S. WEBBER NEILAND J. DOUGLAS, Secretary THOMAS H. BOTT, JR., Chairman
"Three hundred years have passed away Since upon the Devon bay Rowed the English emigrant From whose loins my line I vaunt. Centuries three their leaves have shed Since on the rock he made his bed, And helped to build with axe and book The land to which all nations look. Generations nine have wrought
To save and better what he brought; Each, in turn, on land and sea,
Toiling for the next to be. Lo, the forest fell like wheat; Cities blossom round their feet; Came war, came peace, came war again;
And now 'twas muscle, now 'twas brain; And now 'twas gold, and now 'twas blood; All things tried them-firm they stood; And the land from sea to sea Spread, and was filled with liberty; And serving mankind more and more, The race found sweetness at the core, A hand of welcome for all men, And free to all the book, the pen".
GEORGE EDWARD WOODBERRY.
GEORGE EDWARD WOODBERRY, 1855-1930 A scholarly critic, essayist and poet Born in Beverly
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ALICE . BPRESTON .
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BEVERLY
Colonial Period
HE BEVERLY of today was included in the territory called Naumkeag, which was settled by Roger Conant and his followers in 1626 by authority of the Dorchester Company. The first houses were built near the mouth of North River, at the foot of the present March Street in Salem; but the deposition of Humphrey Woodbery in 1680 states: " The same yeare or the next after wee came to Salem wee cutt hay for the cattell wee brought over on that side of the ferry now caled Beverly; & have Kept our possession there ever since by cutting hay or thatch or timber & boards & by laying out lotts for tillage . . . '
Although according to tradition the first house built in Beverly was erected in 1630 by William Woodbery (near the foot of the present Prince Street), the first recorded grant of land was made in 1635, when five Old Planters, Roger Conant, John Balch, John Woodbery, Peter Palfrey, and Captain William Trask, received a tract of one thousand acres near the head of Bass River. Peter
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Palfrey transferred his holdings to "Farmer" William Dodge, and Captain Trask's land came into the possession of John Rayment, whose descendants- the name now Raymond-still live upon a part of his estate. The other Old Planters had their "improved lots" and dwellings near Bass River. One house remains, erected by John Balch before 1638. This is the oldest house in New England of which there is a written record. From Balch Street runs the Planters' Path to the first landing place on Bass River.
Other colonists joined the Old Planters, most of whom came from shires in southern England. Before the end of the century Huguenot refugees settled in the town, the ancestors of Ober, Larcom, Lefavour, Cody, and Groves Families (names originally spelled Aubert or Auber, La Combe, Lefevre, La Code, and La Groves). The settlers formed little communities at Beverly Farms, Cape- Ann-Side or Mackerell Cove (now Beverly Cove), Bass-River-Side, and Ryall- " Side. The section last named, a part of Salem until 1753, was early called Royall's Side, because William Royall received a grant there in 1629. He was a cooper and "cleaver of timber" on Salem's common land. One of his descen- dants built the mansion known as the "Royall House" in Medford.
Not far from Royall's grant in Salem was the tract on which John Winthrop, Jr. was "given liberty to set up a salt house" in 1638. The brick vats which were filled with brine at high tide have long since been covered by shifting sand, but the little projection at the mouth of Bass River is still called Salters' Point.
WILLIAM ENDICOTT, 1799-1899 Descendant of Governor Endicott First President of the Beverly Savings Bank
Between the farmers and fishermen who came to Naumkeag in 1626 and the colonists who accompanied John Endecott in 1628 a dissension arose, caused by the supplanting of Roger Conant by Endecott as agent or "Governor" of "Lon- don's Plantation in Massachusetts Bay". The settlement of the matter through the "prudent moderation of Mr. Conant" is said to have led to the change of name from Naumkeag to Salem (meaning peace).
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Still there persisted be- tween the two groups of planters a division of feeling that was perhaps occasioned by religious differences, since many, like Conant, were avowed Puritans, not Separ- atists, as were the followers of Endecott. Steadily the breach between them widened: in 1647 the Gen- eral Court released the "in- HALE . FARM - 1694. habitants of Mackerell Cove from watch duty in Salem except in seasons of danger"; in 1650 the "brethren on Bass-River-Side" received permission to "procure the services of an approved teacher of the Scriptures"; in 1656 these brethren erected the first meeting house in Beverly; in 1667 they organized the "Church of Christ at Bass River in Salem"; and in 1668 they separated from Salem completely and secured the incorporation of Beverly as a township.
Tradition has it that the suggestion to name the new town after the famous minster town of Beverley, Yorkshire, England, was made by Major General Robert Sedgwick, the commander of the expedition against Canada in 1654. Why his suggestion found acceptance is not clear, since few settlers came from Yorkshire. Among these was Captain Thomas 'Lothrop, who served under Major General Sedgwick in the attacks upon St. Johns and Port Royal. He was BEVE in 1675 the leader of the "Flower of Essex", a company almost annihilated at "Bloody Brook", South Deerfield, UBLICO L M by King Philip and his braves. Beverly men under Cap- WN ASS. AETAMUR tain William Rayment took part in the attack upon the ONON Indian stronghold at Narragansett in December of the *** same year, and in the Canadian expedition in 1690.
The soldiers returned to find eastern Massachusetts
1668.
OLD TOWN SEAL
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20% ALICE & PRESTEN +1
"At a meeting of the Selectmen February ye2 170} Reconed with Jonathon Payment for Timber for a pare of Stoks & for halling fo timber to our meeting houte" -. Vol ii. page 124. B.T.R.
"Ordered that Collector Robert Morgan pay unto Peter Greves thirteen Shillings & Sixpence out of the Towns Money in his hands it being for Making & Setting up a Whipping Port ..
"YE OLD MEETING HOUSE, 1682.
Robert Hate. Town Clerk. Vol.iii p.333. BTR.
"Meeting of the felectmen 170} -Paid To Nothoniell Hayward for a. Whele for our bel and other work done to meeting houte 1.00.00 .- Paid to Peter Wooding for puting up ye vane of ye meeting houfe 0.10.00"-Vol.ii p. -
distracted by witchcraft trials. Only four victims of the delusion were con- demned in Beverly. When a charge was brought, in October, 1692, against Mrs. Hale, the wife of Beverly's first minister, the whole community declared belief in her innocence, for her beauty of character had inspired in the hearts of the people a confidence that superstition could not shake. The conviction that witnesses against her, and perhaps other persons accused, had been guilty of perjury brought "Salem Witchcraft" to an end.
The eighteenth century found the inhabitants of Beverly well established on farms, which were tended by the women and younger children while the fathers and older sons were away fishing. Salt fish was an important article of food and also a medium of trade. The settlers kept the "middling" grade of codfish for themselves. The lowest grade they sent to the southern colonies, largely for the slaves' consumption, and to the West Indies, trade with which developed after 1717. The best quality of cod found a ready market in Europe, and stout little
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Beverly 1692
from Map of Salem Village W. P. Upham 1866.
Town
The Old Planters
Road
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Rody
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vessels were soon carrying the catch across the Atlantic, returning with car- goes of "Cadiz salt, Madeira and Canary wine, Bilbao iron and pieces of eight, Malaga grapes and Valencia oranges". Masts, spars, and other forms of manufac- tured lumber were exports from Massa- chusetts. Imports from the South included flour from Virginia and Maryland, and rice from Carolina.
Increased commerce and fishing neces- R.S. BE sitated rope making, sail making, and probably some shipbuilding here. There was excellent timber in abundance- of Salem. oaks for the hulls of vessels and tall The Town straight spruce for masts. Some of the best trees were marked by the "Keeper of the King's Woods" to be reserved for the royal navy.
The French and English Wars in the eighteenth century called many Beverly men to the defense of the colony. In 1745 fifty soldiers enlisted in the expedition against Louisburg, under the command of Colonel Robert Hale, the grandson of John Hale, the first minister. At least fifty others served in companies which attacked Forts Crown Point, Edward, and William Henry. A Woodberry. of Beverly is said to have stood by the side of General Wolfe as he fell in battle upon the Plains of Abraham, near Quebec. The sword which the Beverly soldier carried is an heirloom still cherished by his descendants.
For their military service the province of Massachusetts often made grants of land to the soldiers. Several Beverly families afterwards moved to their new estates, and helped
to found a number of towns in Maine and
New Hampshire. .
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BEVERLY
Revolutionary Period
Now fitting for a The people of Beverly gave hearty support to colonial Privateer, In the Harbour of BEVERLY, acts of resistance to British tyranny. Laws passed by The BRIGANTINE Wafhington, A Brong, good veif Ifo. that purpet and a prince filer. Parliament bore heavily upon the town, the commerce of which had increased its wealth until it was surpassed Any Scarenor Landinen that have an inclinatino to Make their Fortunes in a few Months, May hars en Opportunity, by applying to. JOHN DYSON. in Essex County by Salem and Newburyport only. In population it stood fifth, exceeded by Ipswich, Marble- Barry, September 8963, 1776 am head, Salem, and Newburyport. The Cabots moved to Beverly in 1771 and soon became leading citizens. During the Revolutionary War many of their ships engaged in privateering, which was Beverly's greatest contribution to the patriot cause. From this port sailed, September 5, 1775, the "Hannah", a schooner owned by Colonel (later General) John Glover. This was the first ship commissioned as a naval vessel by author- " ity of the Continental Congress. This act created the American Navy.
The following is an excerpt from "A History of the United States Navy" by Dudley W. Knox, Captain, U.S.N., in charge of the archives of the Navy Department :---
"When Washington took command of the Continental Army before Boston in July 1775, the extreme shortage of ammunition prevented even 'making a suit- able return'. In this acute dilemma he arranged to send a vessel of the Rhode Island Navy to Bermuda for powder and also himself began the fitting out of small 'armed vessels with the design to pick up some of their (British) store- ships and transports' near our coast. This so- called "Washington's Fleet" was the beginning of the Continental Navy. The first vessel commissioned was the schooner "Hannah", Captain Nicholson Broughton, which sailed from Beverly on Septem- - ber 5th and brought in a prize two days later".
HUGH HILL 1740-1829 Famous privateer captain a cousin of Andrew Jackson
Captain Hugh Hill, who had lately come from Carrickfergus, Ireland, Elias Smith, John Tittle,
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. Schooner . Hannah. 3. Sailing from Glover's Wharf. Beverly; 2 . September. 5, 1775 .
Eleazer Giles, Herbert Woodberry, Benjamin Lovett, Benjamin Ellingwood, Samuel Foster, Benjamin Ives, Richard Ober, Jacob Oliver, Andrew and Israel Thorndike were daring privateersmen. They interrupted Great Britain's com- munications with her colonies in America, and went in search of her supply vessels even into the harbors of the Irish and English coasts. So many prizes were brought back to Beverly as to tax the accommodations of our harbor-sixty vessels at one time-and it was necessary to con- struct new docks up the river. . The value of the cargoes brought into port by privateers has been conservatively estimated at five million pounds. They furnished the Continental forces, at the enemy's expense, with sorely-needed clothing and military stores and sometimes gold, which had been destined for use in paying King George's soldiers! Beverly became the principal port from which supplies could be taken to the Continental Army encamped at Cambridge and Somerville.
To guard the prize vessels and to defend the
Honorable GEORGE CABOT, 1751-1823 First U. S. Senator elected from Beverly First Secretary of the Navy, appointed by President Adams May 3, 1798 Adviser to Alexander Hamilton
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1. You doing appointed a capturas in the tommy The United Polonais of North America , and Besty donde to la how the formanand of the detachment of a. Com. If hovered on Brand the Man chones Han follo out quipped with itin, Ar at the Continental Referen. au lo process ao formanden of " Jehronas immediately on a Girique against such Vigilia may to found on the High das or crashes found.
of the ministerial domy home of to take frage - all such lifede Laden, with Folders, Moms, Amancan n inverno for s. Army of which you should have good Reason Is suspect aus in such Some in 00 3. If you should to sueapfel ao to take any fi gg. . was all comedeately to send them to the minedet 1 Kemfert word to this forps under these a couply Vier allasta directing him to notify me by fokus immediately of week (after with all wartentan JA to wait any further de chine
If The an to be very hathandas & deligint in your bil bauch after all deter on the workers tenting to do
FROM THE ORIGINAL DRAFT COPY OF GENERAL GEORGE WASHINGTON'S INSTRUCTIONS TO CAPTAIN NICHOLSON BROUGHTON UNDER DATE OF SEPTEMBER 2, 1775, ON FILE IN THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, WASHINGTON, D. C.
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beverly; Massachusetts . Privateer.
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town against attack by men-of-war like the "Nautilus", which bombarded it in 1775, Colonel John Glover's Regiment, the Fourteenth, was ordered to Beverly and went into camp on what is now Independence Park, January 14, 1776. Here the troops remained until July 19, when they marched to join the main army in New York. "Beverly was the only town outside of Boston and its environs in the province of Massachusetts Bay, where General Washington established an army post during the Revolu- tionary War." William Bartlett was the first Naval Agent of the United Colonies.
Many Beverly men served in the Continental Army. They responded to the alarm of April 19, 1775, under Captains Larkin Thorndike, Caleb Dodge, and Israel Hutchinson. Reuben Kennison was fatally wounded at Menotomy, now Arlington, as the patriots intercepted the British on the return march from Concord. Other townsmen enlisted in the army stationed near Boston. A company under Captain Moses
MOSES BROWN, 1748-1820 (Portrait by Gilbert Stuart) Revolutionary Captain and leading merchant
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Brown joined Colonel Glover's "Amphibious Regiment", a uni composed mainly of sailors, equally at home on land and sea On the night of August 30, 1776, they ferried Washington' army of nine thousand men, in rain and fog, from Brooklyn t New York, and thus enabled them to escape from the British after Putnam's defeat on Long Island. Two weeks later th regiment moved five hundred invalids from New York to im provised hospitals in New Jersey. On December 25, 1776 Glover's Regiment rowed the eight thousand troops unde General Washington across the Delaware River through blinding sleet and floating ice. Under the heroic Colonel Ebeneze KENNISON SEAL Francis, Beverly soldiers fought in the Saratoga campaign, and others served in Rhode Island, Valley Forge, and Yorktown. A "Seacoas" Company" under Captain Joseph Rea went into camp after the departure o Glover's Regiment, and later men under Lieutenant Joseph Wood replacer them. Their duty was to guard Beverly's coast of more than six miles.
Despite the dangers encountered in the merchant service our vessels continue( to trade during the early years of the war with Nova Scotia, Bilbao, and the West Indies. Some of their commanders were in the secret service, and were able to furnish the Continental Congress with valuable information as to the position and strength of the British fleet. In the later years of the conflict, however Great Britain tightened the blockade, and either captured a large part of the fleet or drove the vessels into the harbor.
A.B.P.
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Washington's Visit to.
. The First . Cotton - Mill .
October.30.1789.
- ALICE . BOLUM. PRESTON.
Growth of Industry
After the Revolution industry was at a standstill. The leading men set them- selves to restore prosperity by encouraging home industry, developing foreign trade, and establishing the first cotton factory in America (1788). In these movements the leaders were the Cabot Brothers, Doctor Joshua Fisher, Moses Brown, Joseph Lee, and Israel Thorndike. Nathan Dane was a prominent law- yer, and as a member of the Continental Congress, was the author of the Ordi- nance of 1787 which forever abolished slavery in the Northwest Territory. He was the founder of the Dane Law School of Harvard University. Interested in the use of steam for the pro- pulsion of boats, he accompanied Governor Hancock, Doctor Prince, and Doctor Holyoke in the trial trip of a steamboat from, Essex Bridge to Danvers. This boat was invented by the Honorable Nathan H. Read of Salem in 1784, twenty-three years before Robert Fulton launched the "Clermont" on the Hudson River.
In 1789 George Washington made a tour through New England. He spent the night of October twenty-
GEORGE WASHINGTON, 1732-1799 Visited Beverly in 1789
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ninth in Salem, and the next morning set out on horseback for Beverly. He stopped to examine the new Essex Bridge, completed in September, 1788. and one of the longest spans then in America. After breakfast at the house of George Cabot, Washington rode to North Beverly and inspected the cotton mill. Of this factory he wrote in his diary: ". . . the whole seemed perfect, and the Cotton Stuffs which they turn out, excellent of their kind". The Cabot Brothers had promoted the experiment in manufacturing by machinery while they were building up their overseas trade. As profits through trade rose to several hundred per cent on each voyage, the Cabots lost interest in the North Beverly enterprise. The factory continued to operate until 1815.
The Cabot Family claimed descent from John Cabot who discovered the continent of North America in 1497, in an expedition sent out from Bristol, England. He was a native of Venice, where the family name is still preserved " to designate certain classes of seamen's licenses. The Petit Cabotage permits navigation on the Adriatic Sea; the Grand Cabotage extends the limit to the borders of the Mediterranean.
George Cabot was a member of the state convention called in 1788 to ratify the Federal Constitution, and later he was elected to the United States Senate. With him as a delegate to the Constitutional convention of 1788 was Joseph Wood, the town clerk of Beverly for thirty-eight years.
JOSHUA FISHER, 1749-1833 Doctor and Philanthropist-Privateer Surgeon
From 1789 to 1807 foreign trade increased enormously, in large measure because of ship subsidies which Essex County merchants induced the Congress to grant. The Embargo Act of 1807 put a stop to practically all industry in seaboard towns like Beverly. Even the fishing fleet was tied up, since there was no access to foreign markets. Among the families of the common seamen and ship mechanics there was dire want, with recourse only to clam-banks, fruits and herbs, and even soup-kitchens. Most of the foreigners belonging to the crews interned
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in Beverly lived in the vicinity of Pleasant View, and their children, running wild around the docks, were so lawless as to threaten the peace of the neighborhood. In an endeavor to teach them the prin- ciples of right living, two young women, Hannah Hill and Joanna Batchelder Prince, gathered about thirty youngsters every Sunday in the home of Josiah Batchelder, Jr. . THE OL.D.MILL. . AUCE. A. PRESTON. (ship-owner and Inspector of the Port). Thus was founded, in 1810, the first Sunday School in New England.
WHICH . STOOD.ON . ELLOTT. STREET. . OPPOSITE . MCKAY. STREET. . BEVERLY'
The Non-Intercourse Act permitted trade with South America, Russia, and the Far East, but all merchant vessels were in constant danger of attack by both the French and the English. The War of 1812 again closed Beverly harbor except for armed schooners that slipped out to sea, and even these were obliged to remain in port after 1813, when Great Britain dispatched to American waters bigger war-ships in larger numbers.
The impossibility of importing needed articles from 1807 to 1815 compelled New Englanders to develop manufacturing. The idle fishermen turned to shoe- making, a home industry which continued until shoe shops were established. Textile mills were started in Lowell, in which the daughters of the best families of the town and its en- virons found work. Among them was Lucy Larcom, born in Beverly. She became the editor of the "Lowell Offering", a paper produced by the girls who worked in the mill. She also wrote stories and several volumes of verse. Her best-known poem is "Hannah Binding Shoes".
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