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SOME ANNALS of NAHANT FRED A. WILSON
Gc 974.402 N14W 1128687
M. L.
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
C
(Essex Co.)
6.00
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01104 4101
492,600
Old Corner Book Store Boston Mass 1828-1928
100ª Anniversary
--.
Elm-shaded Main Road Westerly across Winter Street
Some ANNALS of NAHANT
MASSACHUSETTS
By FRED A. WILSON Trustee of Nahant Public Library
BOSTON OLD CORNER BOOK STORE 1928
Copyright, 1928 By Fred A. Wilson
WRIGHT & POTTER PRINTING COMPANY BOSTON
1128687
TO MY WIFE WITHOUT WHOSE ASSISTANCE THIS BOOK
OR AUGHT ELSE BY ME COULD NOT BE AND TO
THOMAS ROLAND WITHOUT WHOSE INSISTENCE THIS BOOK WOULD NOT BE
PREFACE
As I think over what I have done, or perpetrated, I am dis- turbed. I could do it better if I had more time, but I realize that one must stop somewhere, if results are to be useful. Even with the background of a generation of interest and familiarity with the matters considered, two years is a short time for such an undertaking, executed in the detail which I have attempted to give, and done in spare time taken from a. busy life. Musing on all this, in front of an open fire one. evening, watching expensive coal go to blazes, My Far Better Half offers comfort in this wise: "But surely so much work must have been productive and will prove a pleasure." To which I reply that "I have not even succeeded in pleasing myself."
Much ashes of past fires have been raked over. People will wonder why I mention one thing and not another, or why I thought "that" worth mentioning at all. I could be full of apologies, but. they may be all summed up in the reminder .: that the sifting out process would never yield the same results at the hands of different operators. Very definite reasons for some of the material used or omitted are obvious. Where detailed record exists, with promise of permanency, brief reference is sometimes sufficient. Explanation of a trouble- some period in the town records is given in one instance, where the bare official record does not tell the story. But above all, remember that time is the scarcest thing on earth, although the most wasted withal.
For the improvement of Nahant's historical record, I am anxious that people should write to me, correcting errors and offering additional material. This will be deposited in the Public Library, so that any future seeker may benefit by it. The moral obliquity, sometimes called by a ruder term, of the inanimate will, by itself, cause some blunders .. Doubtless.
vi
PREFACE
My many thanks are due to so many people who have as- sisted me, and have been interested and helpful, that it would be too long a list to name them all. The "Old Nahanters," to whom I naturally turned most frequently, were eager to help and have been uniformly kind. Very many have loaned pic- tures, but the extra line to each, to credit the courtesy, would take from the size of the illustration, and so is not given. Pictures of town officers are of those in office for eighteen or twenty years or more. There is also a long list of people who, by their financial assistance, made this publication possible. This was also a manifestation of a desire to see for Nahant a much-needed account of things historical and interesting. And so in one way or another very many folks have had a share in making this book a reality. The author may therefore only claim to be the correlator, the focal point, the slaving dis- sector and analyzer.
And then M. F. B. H. says: "To be wholly satisfied would end progress. If every one were suited with things as they are, nothing further would be done." This sounds specious, but may be partly true. The closing lines of a great novel, "Trilby," say we may as well leave off hankering after the moon. The final couplets are illuminating and soothing:
A little work, a little play, To keep us going - and so, good day!
A little warmth, a little light, Of love's bestowing - and so, good night!
I am now, like Lady Godiva, drawing near my close, and will only add further that these "Annals" are not called history, biography, memoirs, genealogy, or any such thing. They might be called a sort of travelogue, - a record of my impressions as I have travelled along for twenty-five or thirty years on either side of one of the century marks shown on things called calendars, with verifications and reminders numerously given by others, as said earlier.
FRED A. WILSON.
NAHANT, MASSACHUSETTS, March 1, 1928.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I. THE EXODUS ·
PAGE
3 Early visits and explorers; the Plymouth Colony; the Puritans; the Salem settlement.
CHAPTER II. THE INDIANS . 11
The Indians around Boston and Lynn; Sagamore Hill; the name "Nahant; " old legend.
CHAPTER III. THE FIRST OF LYNN 20 Early settlers; William Wood; first settlers on Nahant; naming of Lynn; common land; planting lots on Nahant; division in 1706; ranges and old roads; Calf Spring; Lewis and Hammond map.
CHAPTER IV. EARLY NAHANT · ·
35 Nahant titles; Hugh Alley; James Mills; the Breeds; Whitney's Hotel; the Hoods; the Johnsons.
CHAPTER V. EARLY EIGHTEEN HUNDREDS 50 "Old Castle;" the Johnsons; Thomas H. Perkins; Dr. E. H. Robbins; William Wood; Cornelius Coolidge; Frederic Tudor.
CHAPTER VI. HOTELS . 72 Growth of town as a resort; various hotels; the great Nahant Hotel; Professor Agassiz's lecture; geological account.
CHAPTER VII. PROCESSION OF EVENTS 92
Comparisons with happenings elsewhere; the Revolution; smallpox; old customs; religion; "Shannon" and "Chesapeake;" horse racing; the boom of the 30's; the Johnsons; forty-niners; Civil War; Home Guards; veterans.
CHAPTER VIII. SUMMER RESIDENTS AND BOATING 106 Summer residents; the beginning of yachting around: Boston; the first regatta around Boston; B. C. Clark; the "Alice" and her Atlantic crossing; small boat sailing and racing.
CHAPTER IX. INDUSTRIES 123
Present industries; list of houses with dates of construction; old village store; post office; postmasters; new Town Hall; fishing; winter lob- stering; Johnson's "History of Nahant;" shoemaking; the residential town.
viii
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER X. MOSTLY NAUTICAL · 140
Wrecks; storms; Long Beach and its road; steamboat service; early article on steam transportation.
CHAPTER XI. THE SEA SERPENT 160 Early mention; reports and letters; excitement in Boston. .
CHAPTER XII. PUBLIC LIBRARY . 168 .
Early public libraries; free public library; trustees; library rooms and buildings; Nahantiana.
CHAPTER XIII. THE MAOLIS GARDENS 180
An early amusement park; North Spring; Maolis Spring; the Witch House.
CHAPTER XIV. NATURE AND MAN 189 .
Description of beaches and general contour of Nahant; ownership of beaches; wharves.
CHAPTER XV. CHURCHES 213
Early ministers; the Nahant Church; the Independent Methodist Society; the St. Thomas Roman Catholic Church; the Irish; the Italians; the cemetery. '
CHAPTER XVI. TRANSPORTATION 226
Early ways; barges; railroads, steam, horse and electric; the electric road; Johnson's Express.
CHAPTER XVII. SCHOOLS 240
The old schools; story of new buildings; list of teachers; exhibitions; lec- ture courses; expenditures; medals and prizes.
CHAPTER XVIII. THE NEW TOWN . ·
254
Charter; first town meetings; first town officers; inhabitants in' 1847; early expenses.
CHAPTER XIX. NAHANT OF THE FIFTIES 270
Description of conditions; summer residents; famous residents; Miss Cary's letter.
CHAPTER XX. TOWN DEPARTMENTS 292
Fire department; police department; local court; street lamps; electric lights and gas; highway department; forester's department; account of a fire.
CHAPTER XXI. THE SEVENTIES AND EIGHTIES 306
Municipal methods and faults; the Wilsons; sundry items; streets and names in 1886; typhoid epidemic; sewer and water systems; the Cadets' encampment; first lawn tennis in America.
ix
CONTENTS
FAGE
CHAPTER XXII. BASS POINT · 325
Early days; hotels; amusement district; the fire of 1925; government property; the trend of the town.
CHAPTER XXIII. THE NINETIES AND LATER . . 337 Changing political conditions; municipal changes; fiftieth anniversary celebration.
CHAPTER XXIV. ORGANIZATIONS .
350 Brief account of clubs and other organizations on Nabant; first sir-plane landing on Nahant.
CHAPTER XXV. LATER YEARS . 365
President Roosevelt's visit; sundry happenings; the Spanish American War; the World War.
CHAPTER XXVI. TAXATION, VALUATION AND EXPENDITURES S80 Valuations; appraisals; problems of assessors; expenditures; comparisons with other towns; efficiency.
LIST OF TOWN OFFICERS
395
INDEX .
405
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Title Page Vignette by Lucy H. Doane
Elm-shaded Main Road .
Frontispiece
FACING PAGE
Poquanum selling Nahant
8
The Steamboat "Eagle" .
8
Old Johnson Homestead
16
Joseph Johnson House
16
The "Nahant Hotel"
24
The "Nahant Hotel"
24
Ruins of "Nahant Hotel"
32
Farthest East
32
William Wood
40
Frederic Tudor
40
Alfred D. Johnson
. 40
Washington H. Johnson
40
Home of Frederic Tudor
48
The "Old Castle "
48
The " Witch House "
56
The "Maolis House" and "Witch House"
56
Bass Beach and the Mifflin House .
64
The Mifflin House
64
The Steamer "Ulysses"
72
Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge
80
Joseph T. Wilson
80
Edmund B. Johnson
80
Walter Johnson .
80
The Longfellow House
88
The Fremont Cottage
88
Tudor Peach Orchard
96
The Half Way Tree .
96
Nahant Road from Summer Street
104
Nahant Road from Ocean Street
104
Old Stone Schoolhouse
112
Grammar Schoolhouse
112
.
The "Log Cabin "
72
xii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE
Caleb Johnson
120
Joseph Johnson .
120
Luther S. Johnson
120
C. Hervey Johnson
120
Old Village Store
128
Pleasant Street Schoolhouse
128
Old Railroad Station at Lynn
136
Ellingwood Chapel
136
Spouting Horn Cottage
144
Willow Road
144
Joseph's Beach
152
Nahant Road
159
Professor Louis Agassiz
160
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
160
William Hickling Prescott
160
John Lothrop Motley
160
Entrance to Maolis Gardens
168
Barge at Lynn Station
168
Latest Type of Barge
176
Winter Barge
176
Nahant Road toward Whitney's
184
The Old North Spring
184
The Sea Serpent
192
The Old Wharf .
192
John Q. Hammond
200
Welcome W. Johnson
200
William F. Waters
200
Fred A. Wilson .
200
Tudor's "Ice King"
208
The "Nellie Baker"
208
The "Alice" in mid-ocean
216
Tudor's "Stone Barn" and "Brick House"
216
Lynn in 1838: Map .
224
Nahant in 1855: Map
224
The Stone Lion .
232
Tudor's High Orchard Fence
232 240
Thomas Handasyd Perkins
Amos A. Lawrence
240
James H. Beal
· 240
Frank Merriam .
· 240
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
xiii
Amusement Park on Long Beach
248 .
Eastern Part of Nahant, 1856: Map
248
Joseph T. Wilson and Senator Lodge
. 256
George Abbot James and Joseph T. Wilson 256 .
The "Relay House" 264 ·
The "Trimountain House"
264
Cartoon from "The Boston Post"
272
Dorothy's Cove .
· 272
Hon. Curtis Guild
280
J. Colby Wilson
280
Albert G. Wilson
280
Charles W. Stacy
280
The Fire Engine "Eagle"
288
The Fire Engine "Dexter No. 1"
288 296 .
Ellerton James and Senator Lodge
. 296
Home of Senator Lodge
304
Town Meeting Cartoon, 1917 .
304
B. Frank Taylor and Captain William H. Kemp
312
President Roosevelt . 312
Harry C. Wilson
320
Thomas Roland .
320
Charles Cabot Johnson
. 320
Otis A. Johnson 320
Town Meeting in the Old Town Hall
328
The Town Hall
336
The Public Library Building
336
The Nahant Church .
344
The Village Church and the Catholic Church
344
·
Family of Caleb Johnson: Chart
352
Family of Joseph Johnson: Chart
360
Edward J. Johnson
368
Albert Whitney .
368
A Piper Drawing of Trees
368
Town Expenditures: Chart
384
.
The Old Town Hall 328
Site of Valley Road Schoolhouse
FACING PAGE
Some ANNALS of NAHANT
TRANSLATION
By GEORGE CABOT LODGE
Sirmio, gem of Isles and of rock-bound peninsulas Which on the clear lagoons or the infinite seas are Borne up by Neptune -O with what longing and gladness I, seeming scarce from the Thynian and the Bithynian Meadows departed, stand here once more and behold thee! Yea; when the mind from burdens reposes and, when the Labors of travel ended, we come to our hearthstone And on our bed so longed for we sink into slumber. Here is the goal and gain for the labors accomplished! Hai! to thee, fruitful Sirmio, mayst thou rejoice, and Also ye waves of the Libyan lake, be ye joyful;
Laugh, laugh loud, with whatever the house holds of laughter!
SOME ANNALS OF NAHANT
CHAPTER I
THE EXODUS
CENTURIES of history may be searched in tracing the be- ginnings of a place, the trend of events which culminated around it, and the political, social, industrial or religious movements which may have played a part in its establish- ment. John Fiske, in his "Beginnings of New England," tells in some detail, and delightfully, as always, of the early settle- ments and the motives behind them. Other sources of similar information are easily available, but the beginnings around Boston are too interesting to be passed with only references to other books or people, and they may well have a little space in any account of Nahant.
Soon after 1600 the colonization of the North American coast had become part of the avowed policy of the British Government. In 1606 a great joint stock company was formed, with two branches, for the establishment of two colonies in America. The branch which was to set up a southern colony had its headquarters in London, and that intrusted to place a colony farther north had headquarters at Plymouth. The two branches were thus naturally commonly known as the London and Plymouth Companies. The London Company had jurisdiction from 34 to 37 north latitude, and the Plym- outh Company from 41 to 45 north latitude. The inter- mediate space, from 38 to 41, was, in effect, held up as a prize, to go to the company first planting a self-supporting colony. This area comprises about what is now from Washington up to New York. As a result of this organized effort came the settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607.
4
SOME ANNALS OF NAHANT
Before this time vessels had sailed our coasts, coming for fish, and probably hoping to discover other things of value to England's markets. In 1602 Bartholomew Gosnold landed on Cape Cod and named it for the abundance of fish there- abouts. This was the first English name given to any spot in this part of America. This expedition also named Marthas Vineyard and some other places, and built huts at Cuttyhunk, intending to stay awhile, but gave up and went back to Eng- land. Gosnold's story interested others, and in 1605 came George Weymouth, who found Cape Cod, and coasted as far north as the Kennebec River. He kidnapped five Indians and carried them back to England, and his stories probably had some influence in the formation of the great colonizing company, with its two branches, in the following year.
The leading spirit of the Plymouth Company was Sir John Popham, chief justice of England, and he made haste that the London Company should not get a colony established first. Within three months after the settlement at Jamestown, a party of one hundred and twenty, led by the judge's kins- man, George Popham, landed at the mouth of the Kennebec and built a village of fifty cabins, with storehouse, chapel and blockhouse. This was soon abandoned, and the failure spread the opinion that what we know as New England was unin- habitable because of the cold. No further attempts were made upon the coast until in 1614 it was visited by Captain John Smith, on an exploring voyage from the Virginia Colony at Jamestown. Of the region around Boston he told enthusi- astically, calling it "the Paradise of all these parts, for here are many isles all planted with corn, groves, mulberries, salvage gardens, and good harbors." The Indians, who lived on all the most desirable spots, he calls a "goodly, strong and well pro- portioned people." He says they are kind but valiant. Smith explored the coast minutely from Cape Cod to the Penobscot River, and renamed it New England. He made a map, and introduced more English names; and Cape Ann, Cape Eliza- beth, Charles River and Plymouth remain as Smith named them. In 1615 he came again, intending to set a colony for
5.
THE EXODUS.
the Plymouth Company, but was captured by a French fleet and carried about on a long cruise. Although under forty, he voyaged little, if any, after this experience. He remained in England, stimulating interest in the New World; but as for the Plymouth Company, he had concluded that no other motive than riches would "ever erect there a commonwealth or draw a company from their ease and humours at home, to stay in New England."
Captain Smith was mistaken in this opinion. Of all migra- tions and settlements that in New England is pre-eminently the one in which the almighty dollar played the smallest part. By 1617 the Pilgrim Society at Leyden had decided to send vigorous members to found a Puritan state in America. The site was much discussed, and from Guiana north was considered. A tropical climate was finally discarded, partly because too near the Spaniards and Buccaneers around the Caribbean Sea. About half a century earlier a band of Huguenots were massacred in Florida. New England was considered too cold. In 1618 one Blackstone, a church elder at Amsterdam, ar- ranged with the London Company to send a group to Virginia. About one hundred and eighty set sail, and the return of the vessel in 1619 reported the arrival of only fifty in Chesapeake Bay. Nothing daunted, these Puritans bargained with the London Company, and the King made no objection to these people going farther off than Leyden, for how could a handful of Puritans in America, so far away, pester him? Perhaps the farther they went the better he was suited.
Late in July, 1620, the "Speedwell" left Delft Haven and joined the "Mayflower" at Southampton. Soon the "Speed- well" proved unseaworthy, and the two vessels returned. A few voyagers were left behind, and the rest, about one hundred in number, crowded into the "Mayflower" which started out on September 6 to cross the Atlantic alone. Bad weather prevented any accurate sea bearings, and when land was sighted on November 9 it was Cape Cod of the Plymouth Com- pany, and not any part of the London Company's domains. Without authority to settle there, they turned south, but were
6
SOME ANNALS OF NAHANT
obliged to seek shelter in Cape Cod Bay. On November 11 they decided to find a place of abode in the vicinity, antici- pating no trouble in getting a grant from the Plymouth Com- pany, which was still anxious to obtain settlers. Probably it was only a coincidence that the place they chose had already been named Plymouth by Captain John Smith. When their first long winter ended, fifty-one had died, forty-nine were surviving. Thanksgiving Day was appointed, town meetings were held, and a few laws were passed. New England had begun.
After a year another ship arrived, the "Fortune," bringing fifty more settlers, but without much food, the burden of another winter was not lifted by her coming. She returned laden with beaver skins and choice wood, but was overhauled by a French cruiser and despoiled of everything worth taking. In 1621 this colony at Plymouth received its charter or grant from the Plymouth Company in England, and by 1624 its successful establishment seems to have become assured. In 1627 the settlers bought up all the stock and arranged to pay what they owed to the Plymouth Company, and by 1633 all debts were settled and they were undisputed owners of land they had occupied in the new country.
It is interesting to note that the hardships of the first few years compelled the colony to adopt autocratic methods of government, to which most people in all ages have reverted in time of stress however far from it they may have progressed under more ordinary conditions of living. The great struggles of our own country, which is a typical example of rule in ordi- nary times by more or less orderly democratic methods, have all seen one man, or a very small group, rise to almost auto- cratic powers. A singleness of purpose, needed in emergencies, is thereby achieved, which it would be difficult to get in other ways.
Another interesting factor of life is shown in these first years of the Plymouth Settlement. Undesirable citizens were sent back whence they came, and these undesirables may well have been very worthy people under other conditions. But with
7
THE EXODUS
food scarce, such a person, even, as a botanist, an artist, or an astronomer was not wanted and was entirely out of place. This illustrates the fact that the fine arts, so important to any people, can only be cultivated after the useful arts have been carried to such an extent that there is a surplus which per- mits indulgence in those other things which are not primal needs of existence. Today what are called needs are an in- creasing list, and the surplus allowing a cultivation of the fine arts is more difficult to accumulate. Civilization in the light of modern tendencies has been called nothing but a means for increasing needs. The full dinner pail was a political issue thirty years ago; now it is the brimming gas tank. However involved are the economic and political processes of today, an instructive light may be cast upon them from the two features cited from these experiences of the settlement at Plymouth in the 1620's.
In 1605, when Captain Weymouth sailed into Plymouth Harbor, in England, with five kidnapped Indians and glowing stories, Sir Ferdinando Gorges was commander of this fortified seaport. His interest was excited, and he was energetic in the affairs of the Plymouth Company which was established a year later. It was he who took the leading part in outfitting the two ships of Captain John Smith's unsuccessful expedition in 1615. In following years he continued to send out vessels, chiefly for fishing, and in 1620 obtained new charters for the Plymouth Company, which made it wholly independent of its old rival the London Company. Forty men sat in council as directors, and they were known as the Council for New England. They had a monopoly of trade, could exercise martial law, and could expel intruders. With too little capital they sought to increase it by selling parts of the lands they controlled, and this land extended from about the latitude of Philadelphia to that of Quebec. Thus were the "Mayflower" Pilgrims able to buy their lands outright, and for fifteen years all settlers based claims to the land upon rights granted by the Plymouth Company.
Other settlers now began to come. In 1622 Thomas Weston
8
SOME ANNALS OF NAHANT
sent out a colony to Wessagussett, twenty-five miles north of Plymouth. They had troubles, partly with the Indians, and also because they were mostly rabble, and they were glad to return to England in a year. Then in 1622 came Thomas Morton, agent of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, with thirty followers, to Merrymount, where their methods of life did not please the Plymouth settlers, and Captain Myles Standish stopped them in 1628. In 1625 came Captain Wollaston to the site of what is now Quincy. Soon he carried his group off to Virginia, and Morton took possession of the place in his stead.
By 1628 other settlements were dotted here and there. A few were at Nantasket and more around the Piscataqua River, in what is now York County, Maine, and Portsmouth, or near by, in New Hampshire. Samuel Maverick was living on Noddle's Island, now East Boston, and William Blackstone was on the Shawmut Peninsula, now called Boston.
In 1622 Sir Ferdinando Gorges and John Mason obtained a royal grant to all land between the Kennebec and Merrimac Rivers. Colonizing also followed this. The Dorchester Ad- venturers, a company of merchants in the shire town of Dor- set, had sent vessels after fish for some years prior to 1623, at which time they set up a village as a fishing station on Cape Ann. A squabble soon arose with the Plymouth settlers, who claimed jurisdiction that far north. Roger Conant adjusted the dispute, and was soon chosen manager of the Cape Ann Settlement. Soon the Dorchester Adventurers abandoned their enterprise and left the little colony to shift for itself. Conant found them a better location at Naumkeag, now Salem. Then followed the building up of this colony under John Endicott, while a royal grant gave it all the land from three miles north of the Merrimac to three miles south of the Charles, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This latter ocean was then assumed to be a little way beyond Hendrick Hudson's great river. This grant lapped over the Gorges-Mason grant, and there were other complications, so that Endicott was sent over promptly, superseding Conant. After some dispute
Poquanum selling Nahant to Thomas Dexter From an old lithograph
EAGLE, BOSTON.
The "Eagle" ran from Boston to Nahant First, in 1818
9
THE EXODUS
as to authority all was amicable and the place was named Salem, the Hebrew word for peace.
Then came the greatest movement of all, under the corpora- tion bearing the title of the Governor and Company of Massa- chusetts Bay, which brought John Winthrop to the foremost place among the founders of New England. Before Christmas of 1630 seventeen ships had brought over more than a thou- sand people. Disputes over grants and authority continued. Endicott attempted to settle Charlestown from Salem, and the Gorges claimed Maverick and Blackstone and others were their tenants because of a special grant to Gorges' son. Perhaps the Gorges interests were too unscrupulous in some of their actions. The actual wave of immigration overwhelmed all these claims, however, as it poured over Charlestown, Boston, Roxbury, Dorchester, Watertown and Cambridge. The Puritans occupied the country. By 1634 over four thou- sand English had come over, and a score of villages were founded around Massachusetts Bay. Houses, roads, fences and bridges were building and farming was begun. Thousands of cattle grazed in the pastures and swine were plenty. In one year, soon after this, three thousand immigrants came to these villages, which soon pushed out in every direction, form- ing many new settlements. This Puritan exodus to New England ended about 1640. It was wholly English, the excep- tions being too few to affect the general statement. There- after, for a century and a half, or until after the Revolutionary War, a population in New England of about twenty-six thou- sand multiplied and developed in notable seclusion. The settlers were homogeneous in social condition and in blood. They were thrifty and prosperous, industrious and of good behavior. The needy and shiftless, who usually make trouble in new communities, were barred out as far as possible, and were comparatively few. From these twenty-six thousand have come, says Fiske, one-fourth the population of the United States.
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