USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Haverhill > Official pictorial magazine of the Haverhill tercentenary celebration 1640-1940 > 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.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8
Gc 974.402 H29hae 1771810
M. D.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
Go
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01115 2557
840
77 7
7777
r
İTU
7
0
Official Pictorial Magazine
of the
HAVERHILL
mario.
Tercentenary
Celebration
PRICE 840
16.40
Se
1940
ATHERT
Haverhill National Bank
1.71810
F
HAVERHILL, Mass. Tercentenary committee.
. 42
84435 Official pictorial magazine of the Haverhill tercentenary celebration. [Haverhill, Record press, 1940 ]
80p. 302cm.
Title from cover.
L 1729
ICN 41-687
Haverhill National Bank
Original Charter 1836 191 Merrimack Street
'REGULAR CHECKING, for individuals, firms and corporations. SPECIAL CHECKING, no minimum balance required.
REGISTER CHECKS, for those who need to draw only an oc- casional check.
SAVINGS DEPARTMENT, offering a safe depository for savings of individuals.
BUSINESS LOANS, to individuals, firms and corporations.
COLLATERAL LOANS, secured by stocks, bonds, cash surrender value of life insurance policies, or other satisfactory collateral.
TIME PLAN LOANS for purchase of automobiles and appliances, F.H.A. repair and renovation loans, and other loans where payment is ordinarily made in weekly or monthly installments.
SAFE DEPOSIT BOXES of all sizes.
IN SHORT, IT IS OUR AIM TO GIVE COMPLETE BANK- ING SERVICE.
Capital, Surplus and Undivided Profits Over $1,200,000
Presidents
THOMAS WEST 1836-1844
HAZEN 'MORSE
1844-1852
JOHN A. APPLETON
1852-1882
JAMES E. ' GALE 1882-1888
A. WASHINGTON CHASE
1888-1892
JOHN E. GALE
1892-1916
HENRY H. GILMAN
1916-1929
HERMAN E. LEWIS
1929-
Cashiers
JAMES GALE 1836-1852
JAMES E. GALE
1852-1882
CHARLES T. PAUL
1882-1889
BENJAMIN I. PAGE
1889-1924
Member
FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM
FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION
Officers 1940
HERMAN E. LEWIS - President NICHOLAS C. JOHNSON Vice-President OTIS E. LITTLE - Cashier WILLIAM D. STEARNS Asst: Cashier CLARENCE A. RATHBONE Asst. Cashier
Directors 1940
HERMAN E. LEWIS
NICHOLAS C. JOHNSON
CHARLES L. STEVENS
DENNIS T. KENNEDY
G. KIMBALL CLEMENT
J. LESTER ADAMS AARON HOYT
WILLIAM L. KNIPE
CHARLES S. MARSTON, JR.
OTIS E. LITTLE
1924-
ERRY
A
W
E
N
2
LY . CHICAG
THE
O
JOHN J. RYAN, JR.
ALBERT D. MARBLE
-
L
Ansel IoonileVI MirhavsH
7
A CITY CELEBRATES
T HIREE HUNDRED YEARS OF PROGRESS have passed and now we are commem- orating the Tercentenary of the first settlement of Haverhill, Massachusetts, named after old Haverhill in England. Where twelve hardy pioneers first built their cabins out of hewed logs, now stands the QUEEN SHOE CITY OF THE WORLD. By the banks of the winding Merrimack, between the lofty hills which border its banks, tower monuments to the industry of those who have made Haverhill - who have made this occasion one of commemoration.
To the builders of today, to those who will carry on the task of continuing that which is so far advanced, we dedicate this celebration - THE TERCENTENARY OF THE CITY OF HAVERHILL.
For twelve months the committee, under the leadership of Henry G. Wells, has worked industriously preparing the many details for the program of the week. Six months after the Tercentenary's conception, the Tercentenary program was ap- proved by Mayor Albert W. Glynn and the board of Aldermen. Local co-opera- tion was ready - seven hundred willing citizens gave generously of their time in this great undertaking.
The experiences of other celebrations, large and small, were carefully consid- ered: the time of year, weather conditions, community interest and types of con- tracts. The decision was reached, by the unanimous approval of the executive com- mittee, to place the responsibility for the success of the celebration in the hands of a single person, whose participation in this field of activity was based upon a com- plete operating plan for the celebration. This type of contract provided the com- mittee with an association of specialists for all divisions of the celebration, and also gave them the advantage of immediate connection with material and manufacturing sources.
Having adopted this procedure, the committee was able to budget the cost of the celebration within three percent, six months ago. The plan also made provision for direct operating management to co-operate with the entire program.
The wheels turn, the flags wave and Haverhill is celebrating its 300th anniver- sary. We greet you, friends, former residents and guests. It is our sincere wish that your presence at our Tercentenary will be a pleasant experience which you will always remember.
JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER
HAVERHILL'S QUAKER POET, to whose memory this Tercentenary Program is affectionately dedicated.
[2]
MITCHELL COMPANY
JOHN WARD-1640
When they at length turned poles across the tide
And drove their raft against the untrodden sand, He, consecrated shepherd of that band, By whose inspiring ardour they defied The harm of wolves, the threat from forests wide In loneliness, stepped foremost on the strand, Knelt to his God, then with uplifted hand Warned them to silence, and thus prophesied: "This living brook may fail, these pines bow down, This river sicken from its burdening;
But on its shores set we a deathless town
(This hope be now our ample guerdoning).
Grow, city yet unhoused, for every race A shelter, through new centuries of grace!"
WILLARD G. COGSWELL
4.
[3]
MAW PILIOL
Noles on Gr MITCHELL &COMPANY INC.
More Than Half a Century of Honest Merchandising
FOUNDED 1872
INCORPORATED
1905
Officers
FRANK J. MITCHELL President
NICHOLAS C. JOHNSON Treasurer
19 40 Officers
CHARLTON F. JOHNSON President
ROBERT S. JOHNSON Vice-President
NICHOLAS C. JOHNSON Treasurer
BERENICE I. HARRIS Assistant Treasurer
KENNETH R. JOHNSON Secretary HAROLD J. GRAY Superintendent
HELEN .A. KIMBALL Merchandise Manager
M ITCHELL & COMPANY was founded in 1872 by Frank J. Mitchell and his brother Seth K. Mitchell at its present location, in a store 25 x 50 feet. Five years later Mr. George W. Thayer joined the organization. This partnership continued until 1902 when it was dissolved and Mr. Nicholas C. Johnson became associated with Mr. Mitchell.
The firm was incorporated in 1905 with Frank J. Mitchell president, and Nicholas C. Johnson, treas- urer. Upon the death of Mr. Mitchell in 1921, Mr. Johnson became president and treasurer, with Tom W. Mitchell vice-president.
In 1926 Mr. Nicholas C. Johnson and his three sons acquired the Mitchell interest and since that time the business has been operated by the present officers. Thus this department store, owned locally for more than half a century, continues to serve the public of Haverhill and Vicinity.
Member of
· NATIONAL RETAIL DRY GOODS ASSOCIATION
· NEW ENGLAND COUNCIL
· HAVERHILL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
[4]
WILCHETT CONILVAA
Notes on the Growth of Haverhill BEGINNINGS
By WILLARD G. COGSWELL
The little company of pioneers as they landed on the north bank of the Merrimack River three hundred years ago little knew how great an insti- tution they were founding. John Ward himself, wisest among the early settlers, might foresee a self-governing community, destined perhaps to grow to the size of his own birthplace, Haverhill in England, through the quiet wealth of its lands and its river, and free to become a haven of peace for oppressed emigrants from the Old World. But he could not have expected a wide-spread industrial city be- coming larger than any town of his period in Eng- land except Lon- don. No gener- ation can appraise the value of its own efforts, and the settlers of 1640 were as ig- - norant of their part in the whole scheme of things as are their suc- cessors here in the year 1940. But when three centuries of a town's life are spread out before us in an historical perspective, we can recognize its long pulsating development: the periodic surges ahead, and the intermittent pauses, during which the community rests and gathers vigour and concentration for new thrusts. All growth is so mysterious and astonishing that properly viewed it is the essence of drama; and the slow unfolding of human societies through their cycles is actually more stirring when thus comprehended than the occasional episodes of heroism, of tragedy or of victory which now and then occur in its course.
The start of Haverhill was slender enough. The little vanguard of inexperienced and ill- equipped men who pushed with reckless confi- dence into unknown territory found themselves on the edge of an illimitable tract of deep and tall forests whose trees, mostly pine and hemlock, were greater than any to be seen in New England today and formed a dark menace, because of what
they might hide, and in their hugeness a burden to those who needed cleared lands at once for their very existence. The forest was broken only where Indians had burned it away to make clear- ings or where streams, perhaps dammed by beav- ers, had overflowed their banks and caused lush meadows. These fertile meadow-lands were highly prized by the new-comers. The largest was in the western part of Pentucket, and the names "West Meadow Hill" and "West Meadow Brook" persist from the earliest times. Little River was a tidal stream and its banks were cov- ered daily by salt water. But the little outlet of Plug Pond must have flowed down to the river through meadow- grass and conse- quently drew the first men to build their hamlet of log huts beside its mouth.
THE JOHN WARD HOUSE, first frame house built in Haverhill, erected before 1645. Located on its original site, at the Buttonccoods, Water Street.
What they saw as they approach- ed along the river was a narrow shelf of flat land not high above the water-level and soon confined by a range of steep hills, cov- ered with hanging woods and extending from Powder House Hill, over the heights of Belvi- dere, along the plateau north of Water Street and Merrimack Street down to the tidal marsh at Little River. This long ridge, as it turned out, was then easily passable only over two gentler slopes, where Mill Street and Winter Street now run. These contours pinched in the town and set a pattern of snugness so long that when a hundred years ago streets and houses began to grow along the up- lands it was too late to prevent the congestion along the river's border which is characteristic of most old littoral cities. Mill Street, Water Street, Main Street up to Summer Street, and Winter Street (called the Spicket Path) were the earliest and for some time the only highways in and about the village. The meagre settlement thought that there was no need of laying out steep roads; and
[5]
() storied vale of Merrimack Rejoice through all thy shade and shine. -John Greenleaf Whittier
On the Banks of the Merrimack
How proud we are of our location, so rich in the history of Haverhill . a few steps from where the first settlers landed . . where huge schooners once unloaded their cargoes . and now the heart of Haverhill's shopping center. A firm foun- dation, upon which we are building for the future!
THE part a department store plays in the life of a city is an important one. Here are assembled nearly all the needs of the populace for clothing and for furnishing their homes. From the country's greatest markets are gathered styles and art treasures to be enjoyed by this generation, and passed on as heirlooms to the next. We appreciate the trust you have placed in us. We promise that it shall remain unbroken.
The Sceva Speare Company "Haverhill's Largest Department Store" 28-40 Merrimack Street
[6]
The milside between Water Street and Summer Street remained farming land until well into the Nineteenth Century.
On the other hand good land when cleared and arable was the principal asset which these poor settlers had; and therefore more and more fami- lies were forced through the restricted situation of the village to clear fields and pastures out in the country on the higher lands. For a while the farmers lived in town and journeyed to their farms, often several miles away. Gradually they came to build their homesteads at their fields. When the troubles with the Indians began a good many isolated homesteads had sprung up in the outlying territory. In some instances subsidies were granted to those who would move out into the country. Thus in 1656 Michael Emerson was voted a tract of land if he would "go back into the woods." He accepted and settled on Winter Street near Primrose Street. A few farmhouses built in the Seventeenth Century still remain. The Whittier Birthplace is an example. The so- called garrison houses, two or three of which are now inhabited, were dwellings comparatively easy to defend, to which the scattered families on the farms should run when warned of attacks by the Indians.
The first comers brought with them iron tools, small stores of flax and wool, grain for seed, and little else of consequence. None of our forefathers had any great amount of money, nor could money have been of much immediate use to them. For many years barter was the prevailing method of acquiring and disposing of the staples of life. We today can scarcely comprehend the simplicity of these beginnings; and yet the real wonder is that, in spite of their restricted means, their inexperi- ence and all the handicaps of the resisting wilderness, evidences of modest accumulations appear quite early in the town's records. After the first seasons Haverhill seems not to have been a poor parish. If the inhabitants had few shillings to waste, they did not lack means for carrying out the proper functions of the community.
In 1643 certain lands were divided amongst the townsmen in such proportion that each freeman received an acre for every ten pounds of his worth. Apparently the richest of them had not over two hundreds pounds "in property." And yet Nathaniel Saltonstall, having married John Ward's daughter and having settled in 1663 at what is now the Buttonwoods, found Haverhill no uncongenial place to live in despite his inde- pendent means and his influence through the Province of Massachusetts Bay. His importance was certainly not impaired by his residence in this hardy growing community. And in truth Ha- verhill increased remarkably in population during its first decades. Only twelve men made the first landing. In 1650 there were forty-three free-
men nere, and m 1664 sixty-four, besides of course their families and servants.
Now by what devices did this little frontier set- tlement contrive to prosper, what things could it create and sell or exchange outside at a profit, so that its folk grew in comfort and independence and attracted other settlers to join them? Very likely their first exports were fish: for Haverhill, lying at the head of tidal flowage and just below the first rapids in a river full of fish, continued for generations to be a fishing-post of importance. The portion of the shore where the County Bridge now enters was called Fishing Sands; and as late at 1853 Thoreau notes in his Journal the com- plaints of the fishermen there to him because, as they said, the railroad bridge hurt their business by stopping the ice and by wearing away and deep- ening the channel near the shore where they drew their seines. These seines, he observed, were thirty rods long, half the width of the river. Sturgeons were the most profitable catch, and quantities of these huge creatures were smoked and carried to the larger centres. Salmon, shad, and alewive were plentiful beyond the point of satiety; and fishes of all kinds were freely used as fertil- izer for the corn-fields. The settlers turned at
SPECTED BY
TO MARK THE SITE OF THE LANDING-PLAGE
OF THE FIRST SETTLERS
OF HAVERHILE
MONUMEN'r marking the site of the landing-place of the first settlers, on Water Street opposite Pentucket Cemetery.
[7]
When the Haverhill Gazette Was Established 'Way Back in 1798
-nearly one and a half centuries ago- newspa- pers were vastly different from the daily newspapers left on your doorstep each afternoon. Usually two or four pages in size, they were laboriously produced by hand. Type was set by hand, one letter at a time; pages were slowly printed one at an impression, on the cumbersome hand-powered "Washington" press, each page being inked with a "brayer" by hand. The two and four-page weeklies of those days were a far cry from the modern newspapers in every way. Rare- ly illustrated, an occasional hand-cut wood engrav- ing made its appearance. The pages carried a mod- est amount of "business cards," some larger display advertisements (frequently running without change for months) with stilted announcements of the arri- val of casks of rum from Jamaica, silks from China, teas from Ceylon, fabrics from England and Scotland,
tobacco from Havana. News content of newspapers of yesterday were more of the magazine-article type. Editorials were often violently partisan and personal. "Dispatches," frequently weeks old, were received by mail, pony express, or stagecoach. Clippings of a literary or semi-news character, with moral-pointing short stories, poems of a serious nature, religious ar- ticles, and some local news matter, filled the news columns. Sermons were featured at intervals. Yet, crude as were the oldtime weekly newspapers, judged from our modern point of view, they were eagerly and regularly welcomed and read-passed from hand to hand-frequently preserved for future reference. Despite their shortcomings, the old weekly newspa- pers, from which present-day daily newspapers sprung, were a very real, vital influence on the peo- ples and customs of yesteryear.
The Daily Newspapers of 1940-Like the
EVENING .
HAVERHILL
GAZETTE
-that your newsboy delivers to you each afternoon - containing from 12 to 48 pages is everything the
the world, collected and distributed by the great As- sociated Press (world's largest news gathering or- ganization) by telephone, telegraph, cable, radio- received in The Gazette office within a few minutes after events happen, through the efficient Teletype. Gazette readers see actual news pictures from abroad, all parts of the United States, through the wonders of newspicture transmission by wire. Gazette read- ers, today, can leisurely scan its news columns and learn what's happening in the foreign war zones, see pictures thereof-authentic, complete-illustrated through the far-flung resources of the AP and NEA newsgathering services. Fiction, local news, edito- rial features, cartoons, crowd every issue. And, where
"business cards" constituted most of the advertising in the old weekly newspapers, today's modern news- paper& carry real news of importance to everybody que news that has much to do with the conduct of the daily lives of our people. Advertising that tells the housewives of the latest things to eat, to wear, to save labor in the home; the business man of the newest equipment for use in office or factory; of me- chanical contrivances that make for easier living, more pleasure, economy. The Gazette has been- is now-a very vital factor in the development of the City of Haverhill, now celebrating the 300th anniver- sary of its founding. It has ever, and will continue to work unceasingly for the advancement and best interests of the City of Haverhill. The Gazette, a youngster of 142 years, congratulates the city of its birth on its 300th birthday, and those who reside therein on being "citizens of no mean country.
EDITION
TERCENTENARY The Haverhill Evening Gazette will issue a large Tercentenary Edition, on Satur- day, June 22nd, 1940, containing hundreds of columns of articles touching every phase of the social and industrial life of the City of Haverhill from its founding down to 1940. Articles will be illustrated with fine engravings (many from rare old pic- tures of local people and scenes now gone.) Approximately 25,000 copies of the Gazette Tercentenary Edition will be printed, and it might be wise to place orders for extra copies at once with our Circulation Department.
[8]
EDW adIseDO Ildisvoli sdt gerW
STTONAD
HVЛЕБНЫЕ
NOIR!O
once to the raising of cattle and sheep, and nides became an important article of their commerce. A tannery was the first manufacture to be started in the town. Fish, tanned skins, timber for ship- building and for other purposes, perhaps the sur- plus production of the women's spinning-wheels, all these were sold in Portsmouth and Salem and Boston, or exchanged there for articles of need or of comfort which the back-woods people lacked. In great measure our forefathers increased their prosperity through their personal labours, un- checked by softening indulgence. They went on doggedly, clearing more lands, planting more corn, tanning more hides, shipping more stur- geon; and if a bad year came and crops failed or the animals sickened, they never thought of turn- ing back but grimly held on for the fortunes of a new season.
PRASLEE GARRISON HOUSE on East Broadway, erected prior to 1675. Notice port-holes in brick end of house.
Their government was a pure democracy the members of which showed a passion for imposing severe restrictions on themselves. If they stayed away from church; if they neglected to restrain their dogs or their swine; if being women they indulged in "intolerable excess and bravery of dress"; if being bachelors they selfishly refrained from marrying; if they failed to attend on town- meeting days: they punished themselves for being so guilty. On the whole they were good souls, God-fearing, honest, industrious. Their derelic- tions set forth in the old records were neither very numerous nor very flagrant. Some drunken- ness, a little cursing, occasional wife-beating, were about the worst. Their life centred round their church and the minister was head-man. At first they worshipped in the open or repaired in inclem- ent weather to some dwelling-house, but soon they built themselves a little church near the foot of Mill Street. In 1697 they erected a larger meet- ing-house in what is now City Hall Park.
The town of Bradford, at first called Merri- mack, was settled in 1649 on the south side of the Merrimack River and continued a separate polity
for nearly two centuries and a half before it be- came legally a part of Haverhill. The contours of the land on this side of the river were gentler than those of the north bank; the town was set well back from the stream and consequently lacked the huddled appearance of early Haverhill. Brad- ford has been at all periods a singularly beautiful village; and there are few streets in New Eng- land more individual and pleasant than South Main Street from the business centre to the "Joel's Road." Until modern times it contained few in- dustries; and even to this day it retains something of the serenity which is a characteristic of purely residential towns.
The fact is, that both parts of Haverhill, di- vided by its magnificent river, are singularly beautiful by nature. As the generations pass and the growth of the community tends to become less instinctive, more deliberately planned, it will doubtless become more and more the ideal of its inhabitants to make their works grow in harmony with its natural beauty. At the end of the Revo- lutionary War a French officer, the Marquis De Chastellux, who toured the colonies in a rather modern spirit, wrote of Haverhill that it was "pretty considerable, and tolerably well built; and its situation in the form of an amphitheatre on the left shore of the Merrimack, gives it many con- siderable aspects." And Leverett Saltonstall, ancestor of the present Governor of the Common- wealth, wrote in a sketch of Haverhill published in 1816: "Haverhill is not so handsome a town as its local situation deserves. . . The river or water street is too narrow and too near the bank. . . A road parallel to the river might be laid out on the brow of the hill, which would open a range of beautiful house lots, overlooking the street below, and commanding a most exten- sive prospect. This has long been wanted, for building lots are now very scarce." Careful at- tention to the appearance of a community assur- edly pays extraordinary dividends.
Except for those in search of ancestors the names of the first generation of the town's fathers are not significant, nor are their deeds particularly noteworthy, nor even often amusing as recorded. They had to live bleak lives for a while, they had no time for the living of piquant stories. "Abra- ham Tylor shall blow his horn in the most con- venient place every lord's day about half an hour before the meeting begins, and also on lecture days; for which he is to have one peck of corn of every family for the year ensuing." "If any man in this town should kill a wolf, or wolves, he shall be paid, by the town, forty shillings." Village- Hampdens and mute inglorious Miltons may very well be assumed to have dwelt amongst these stern, hard pressed people; but their words and acts remain forever unsung.
[9]
300years OF PROGRESS 1 IN Haverhill
Three centuries of municipal development finds Haverhill -- conscious of past achievements-trustful of her future mis- sion-striding confidently along the path of civic destiny to a greater, more glorious goal. Your electric service company is proud of the privilege of accompanying her.
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.