The history of Nantucket County, island, and town : including genealogies of first settlers, Part 1

Author: Starbuck, Alexander, 1841-1925
Publication date: 1924
Publisher: Boston [Mass.] : C.E. Goodspeed & Co.
Number of Pages: 900

USA > Massachusetts > Nantucket County > The history of Nantucket County, island, and town : including genealogies of first settlers > Part 1

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M. I.

GENEALOGY COLLECTION

Itm. S. Soll. chovistown Pa

august My- 1925.

GEN

ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01103 9044

Gc 974.401 N15s Starbuck, Alexander History of Nantucket

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THIS I BOOK O BELONGS TO Mm. f. Solly Avvistoun Pa

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THE TOWN OF SHERBURNE ON THE ISLAND OF NANTUCKET Reproduced From the "Portfolio," Jan. 1811

Sketched by Joseph Sansom 1810

Engraved by B. Tanner

The Town as viewed from "The Creeks." At the right of the mills, is the bell tower of the Congregational Vestry, the present church building not being built then. The next tower to the right represents the Unitarian meeting-house.

THE HISTORY OF NANTUCKET

COUNTY, ISLAND AND TOWN

INCLUDING GENEALOGIES OF FIRST SETTLERS BY ALEXANDER STARBUCK

Author of the History of the American Whale Fishery, etc.

BOSTON: C. E. GOODSPEED & CO. 1924

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

To attempt to acknowledge my indebtedness for information and courtesies in the compiling and writing of this volume to each who has so kindly assisted me would be as desirable as it is deserving, but my friends have been so many and so kind, that, for fear I may omit some one of them, quite as deserving as the others, I must make my acknowledgments general and say to them all I thank you most sincerely.

ALEXANDER STARBUCK.

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History of Nantucket

1128763

CHAPTER I

GEOLOGY-THE NORTHMEN-FIRST SETTLERS

The Island of Nantucket lies southward from Cape Cod about 30 miles. Geographically it is in latitude 41°, 15", 22', north; longitude 70°, 7", 56' west. It contains nearly 30,000 acres of land. Its principal harbor, indeed its only land-locked harbor, is at the head of a comparatively large bay formed by Brant and Coatue points. Great Point on the north and Smith's Point on the west extend their protecting arms as additional shelter to the inner harbor. Nearly two miles from the inner harbor is a sand bar ex- tending from a small island (Muskeget) to about half way between Coatue and Great Points, which for many years was not passable, even at high tide, for vessels drawing over nine feet of water.

There are many and dangerous shoals surrounding the Island and constituting a very serious menace to an unskilled navigator, and many a mariner has been entangled in their intricacies and lost his vessel on the shores of Nantucket .* The Sound, between the Island and Cape Cod, is safe for vessels drawing not over 16 feet of water.

North of Smith's Point, and protected by it from the sea, is the small island of Tuckanuck containing about 1,000 acres and sparse- ly inhabited. "This island," says Macy, ; "was once covered with wood, but is now bare, except about 100 acres, from which sheep and cattle have, for a few years been excluded, and which are now occupied by thriving forest trees. There are two other islands a little to the north and west of Tuckanuck, one called Muskeget, the other Gravelly Island; both are small and sandy, and without in- habitants."#

Prof. Nathaniel S. Shaler, under the direction of the United States Geological Survey, made a geological study of the Island in 1888, which was the subject of an interesting bulletin published by the Department of the Interior as Bulletin No. 53. In it he says **

"The Island of Nantucket occupies a position which makes its structure of great interest to the geologist. It lies near the ex- treme southeastern point of a great salient of lands and shoals form- ing the southern front of New England. This district, unlike the

* Arthur H. Gardner, Esq. has published a pamphlet giving a list of all the wrecks that have occurred on or about the Island from the earl- iest of which we have any account, a French ship, of which only a tra- dition survives.

+History of Nantucket, page 9, Ed. of 1835.

#Gunners have established shooting stations there. ** Page 600.

HISTORY OF NANTUCKET

main-land of New England, exposes none of the older rocks; it is composed of sands, gravels, and clays which were brought into their present position during or immediately before the last Glacial Period. It should be noted that the Island of Nantucket is but a small fragment of a vast sheet of this glacially transported matter. The greater part of Plymouth County, Mass., the whole of Cape Cod, the larger portion of Martha's Vineyard, and the whole of Long Island, with all the many islands and islets at its eastern extremity, are the dissevered remains of a great shelf formed of the debris brought to the present position by the glacial ice and by the streams of water which flowed beneath it.

"Owing to its extreme southeastern position the Island of Nan- tucket affords evidence concerning the history of the ice sheet which cannot be obtained at any other point on the coast; it has, therefore, seemed worthy of the detailed studies which will be presented in this report."

"As will be seen from the map * the form of the Island of Nantucket is rudely crescentic; its shape may be compared to that of the implement known as a bill-hook. Its extreme length in an east and west line is about eleven miles. The westernmost mile of this length is formed by a sandspit which is constantly varying in its extension. At present this sandspit has only about one-third of the length indicated on the map, so that the permanent part of the Island may be estimated at ten miles in length. The north and south width of the Island does not at any point exceed seven miles, but the northern, three miles of this width included in the spit of Great Head* are made up of blown sands and detritus carried to its position by the currents of the sea; so that the part of the area which was formed during the glacial period does not exceed four miles in width. This measurement is also variable, for Great Head has lost 1,400 feet in length since 1784."

"The surface of the Island, though varied, has a narrow range of height, the loftiest point being about 90 feet above the level of the sea. Through its central part there extends a series of low but extremely numerous and irregularly shaped hills of glacial drift. On the western part of the Island this hill belt comes to the shore which forms a boundary of the Island; on the eastern part the hills are cut transversely by the coast, forming the bluffs which face the sea from Siasconset to Squam Head. On the southern half of the

*Great Point. There can be little or no doubt about the Indian origin of the name Nantucket. There is, however, a marked difference of opinion as to its significance, and that difference is not any more reconcilable be- cause of the varied spelling of the name. According to Mr. Worth (Land and Land Owners p 45) the name first appeared in its present form in 1641 in the deed front Forrett to Mayhew. On the De Laet map of 1630 it is spelled "Natocks." On a French map of 1650 it is printed "Isle de Nantockyte." Janssen's map (Amsterdam 1644) follows the spelling of De Laet. Lamb Fengr (1665) gives it "Nantock." Maps of 1689 give it "Neutocket" Violante ou Natocke et Nantiket or Neutocket-Violante ou Natocke. In the New York State documents (1660 to 1700) it is var- iously spelled Nantuckett, Mantukes, Mantuckett, Nantukes, Nantucquet, Nantuckett. Mr. Worth translates Nantucket to mean "The far away land" or "the land far away at sea." The United States Geological Sur- vey in its "Origin of Certain Place Names," says "This name appeared upon the maps in 1630 as Natocko, and some authorities state that it is derived from an Indian word meaning "far away"; others say that its present form is a direct derivation of the Indian Nantuck, which means that the sandy, sterile soil tempted no one." Prof. J. Hammond Trum- bull who was one of America's best Indian scholar said of it that he had no opportunity to give it especial attention but so far as he had considered it he thought it synonymous with Natick and meaning "the place of the hills." Prof. Trumbull's version seems the most plausible. The Island has a most wonderful variety of wild owers, Mrs. Maria L. Owen cataloguing some 247. The Nantucket Marie Mitchell Asso- ciation has published a book of over 400 pages, by Miss Albertson, de- voted exclusively to this subject.

HISTORY OF NANTUCKET

Island this line of low drift hills declines into a plain of sand, which extends with a gentle slope from the base of the hills to the sea, terminating in a series of low bluffs rarely exceeding twenty feet in height."

"The coast line of the Island is cast in a set of very gentle curves united by lines of straight shore. On the southern and eastern faces the shores are either straight or very gently convex; on the northern coast the sea line exhibits no convex curves. This conforms to the general rule that long gravelly shores which face the open sea have, prevailingly, a straight or slightly convex form."

"The details of the shore line of this Island present many in- teresting features, most of which can be noted in connection with the geological structure of the Island, but some of them may best be considered in this general sketch of its topography. The most remarkable of these topographic peculiarities is that which is com- monly known as Coatue, including the harbor and the beach of that name, and the promontory of Great Head."

"This remarkable district exhibits a number of very singular features. The most notable of these are Coatue Bay and the sand beach which separates it from the sound on the north. Coatue Bay has the most puzzling configuration of bottom and of shores of any inlet on the North American coast. The bottom is divided into two great basins and a third one of lesser extent. In these basins the sea floor slopes gently from the shores to considerable depths, the two greater easternmost basins having about twenty feet of water at low tide, while the barrier between them has only about three feet of water upon it."

"The configuration of the shores is even more peculiar than that of the bottom. On the south the boundary of the bay is quite irregular, being decidedly more indented than the general face of the Island, for the evident reason that it has been protected by Coatue Beach from the action of strong waves. On the north shore of Coatue Bay the low dune-covered Coatue peninsular has six small crescent-shaped bays, of which five are very distinct in their out- lines and of about the same size. Three bays are each a little less than a mile wide, and the base of their curves is about two hundred yards from the line which connects their promontories. From each promontory there extends for a distance of two hundred yards or more out into the bay a sandspit which is not delineated on the general map, but which, if presented, would add much to the peculiarity of their aspect. * * * The cause of these peculiar pro- jections is not plain. They are possibly due in some way to the action of the tidal currents, which sweep up the bay with much speed and move the finely grained sand with considerable ease. From a superficial inspection it appears that the tidal waters are thrown into a series of whirlpools, which excavate the shore be- tween these salients and accumulate the sand on the spits."

"It is evident on inspection that the process which brought about the construction of these bays is still in operation .* On each of the headlands separating the basins there are traces of very recent, if not still active, building out of the point toward deeper water. On three of the points there are small salt-water ponds.

*In 1896 a break occurred during an unusually severe storm at the "Haulover" near Wauwinet and fishing craft went in and out to and from the sea through the opening. The opening closed gradually and in 1908 was closed completely. The U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in December 1923 stated "We have no survey of the harbor, except of very small portions, subsequent to the opening, so no statement can be ven- tured as to the effect, if any, the opening had on the harbor." A horse and carriage was driven to Town from Coskata station November 10, 1908, for the first time in 12 years. Prof. Shaler's maps are not repro- duced as the general map of the Island sufficiently shows the condi- tions alluded to.

HISTORY OF NANTUCKET

These pools are inclosed behind a low beach wall, formed during some great storm by the waves of the bay in which they lie. The lagoons are not clearly traceable on the other points, but they all have the general form and structure shown * * *

"Coatue Beach, on the southern boundary of which lie the above described bays, is in itself a remarkable bit of shore topog- raphy; it clearly belongs to the class of barrier beaches such as are originated along coasts by the breaking of the waves in shallow water. It is evident that this has grown slowly and by successive and variable accretions; even in its narrow width we can trace a number of low walls which mark the line of the sea at various stages in the progress of its growth. The whole of these sands have been thrown up from the bottom of Nantucket Bay. When we come to consider the successive changes of level of this Island we shall find that this beach affords us evidence of some value as to the nature of these movements."

"The long sand strip known as Great Head is the third element in this peculiar topography. This promontory is essentially like many others on the sandy shores of our coast. It will be observed that while the elevated and older portion of this spit trends in a northwest and southeast direction, the submerged and more recently formed portion, which is covered even at low water, has an axis nearly at right angles to this trend, and also that this under-sea part is much more irregular that the emerged portion. This sud- den change in the direction of the spit may very properly lead us to the conclusion that there has been considerable change in the course of the currents which have swept these shores in recent times, a change dependent on the alteration in the shape of the lands, which has in turn affected the action of the sea. * * * "

"In connection with the shore line of Nantucket, we should notice the fresh-water system of the Island. This is extremely peculiar. There is not a single well-defined stream on Nantucket. The only approach to brooks are a few obscure channels between ponds where the water has, except in times of flood, a feeble cur- rent. This absence of streams is due to the great porosity of the sand and gravel deposits. The fresh and brackish water ponds are quite numerous. They are divisible into two tolerably distinct classes, viz., the subcircular ponds, which are scattered irregularly through the sand hills, and which range in size from a few score feet to a half a mile in diameter, and the elongate ponds, which lie in long shallow troughs leading from the south slope of the range of sandhills down to the Atlantic shore. With the single exception of Croskaty Pond, which lies on the northern part of the Island, these elongated ponds are limited to the southern shore. With trifling exceptions, these elongated ponds have axes which trend in the direction of about N. 30° E. They are larger in the western than in the eastern half of the Island. These singularities of position depend upon their relation to the remarkable shallow

valleys in which they lie. * * Their peculiar form and arrange- ment have been given them by the conditions of the Glacial Period." "* * * While the northern shore of Nantucket extending west from the harbor of that name to Matacut* Harbor, presents a re- markbly straight and unbroken face to the sea, the southern bor- der of Coatue Bay or Sound is very deeply indented. The straight shore is the normal form of the coast line, where the materials exposed to erosion are of a very uniform nature, which is assaulted by waves of considerable power, such as break upon this coast in times of storm. The indented shore has the form which a coast composed of such materials assumes when it is not exposed to the action of strong current and powerful waves, as the inner shore of Coatue Bay must have been exposed before the present beach was · constructed."

*Maddeket

HISTORY OF NANTUCKET

Prof. Shaler in describing the general geological structure of the Island says that "the lowest deposit exposed on the Island con- sists of a bed of clay, generally blue and compact, scantily inter- mingled with pebbles and sand, the whole forming a deposit which is probably to be classed as till of bowlder clay."* Usually this is below the sea level. The highest point at which it appears is in a clay pit in the western section of the Town. Here it is about 30 feet above sea level. The surface of this clay deposit seems to be cast into at least three very broad and low arch-like elevations with les- ser hummocks upon them. Next above this undulating surface of the lower clay is a mass of stratified sand. . Boulders were at one time much more numerous than now for lack of structural stone or good brick clay has made it necessary to use them in foundation or retaining work.

Prof. Shaler describes quite at length the characteristics of the hills and valleys and the formation of lagoons and ponds. Referring to split pebbles quite frequently found, he says:

"At first sight a large number of these faceted pebbles look like imperfect stone implements; to my eye they closely resemble the interesting implement-like stones from the gravels near Trenton, N. J. It is often, indeed, difficult to resist the conviction that some selected specimens are the result of human labor. A careful in- quiry, however, has led me to the conviction that they are all natural products. * ** * Specimens weighing 20 or 30 pounds were not infrequently observed; these were evidently too large to have been used as implements; others were found not exceeding an inch in Ingth, which were clearly too small specimens, on the average not over one or two were chipped in a way which it would be reasonable to suppose a savage would have chosen to adopt in order to bring the stones into a shape suitable for any of his limited needs."

He also describes quite minutely the fossiliferous deposits which "are confined to two small groups of strata; one of these con- sists of fresh water peats, the other of areas of stratified sands con -. taining a variety of marine species." The fresh water peats lie be- low the level of low tide and show in sections front Tom Never's Head to Squam Head and also near Capaum Pond. The fossilifer- ous beds of Sankaty Head are seen in the cliff and are described minutely. t

Prof. Shaler states as his opinion that the clay deposit underlying the Island and occasionally showing above the sea level, came first in the Glacial Period. Following this the ice sheet retreated from the district and marine life returned to the shore. After the fos- siliferous beds were formed at Sankaty Head, the level of the shore of which must have been at least fifty feet below the present high water mark, the ice again advanced. "During this readvance, or perhaps, in several successive readvances, were accumulated the ex- isting heaps of stratified and amorphous sand, gravel, and bowlders,

¿See also "The Pleistocene Deposits of Sankoty Head," Cushman Published by Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association.

* Page 613-16.

HISTORY OF NANTUCKET

as well as the southern sand plains which constitute the principal feature of the Island."*

Since the last retreat of the ice it would appear that there was an uplift of the territory of not less than 300 feet and possibly much more, followed by a slight downward movement, the latter carry- ing the fresh water peat beds below the sea level.

Referring to recent changes, Prof. Shaler says that "while the larger part of the coast of Martha's Vineyard is now (1889) wear- ing away with considerable speed, rather more than half of the per- iphery of Nantucket is at present not only exempt from wear, but exhibits a gradual accretion." This is most conspicuous in the section of shore between Tom Never's Head and Siasconset and a portion of Great Point. Some portions, however, are still wearing.

It is also possible, says the Professor, that when the Island was first settled a considerable portion of it may have been covered by a forest growth.#

It seems clear that the Professor lacks faith in the tradition in its entirety, and the numerous votes passed by the Town in its . earliest days to conserve the trees, naturally raise a suspicion that, while heavy growths may have existed in some sections, the Island, as a whole, was not extensively wooded, within the knowledge of whites.

Rev. Dr. Ferdinand C. Ewer, who made a prolonged and care- ful survey of the Island, the result of which appears in his map, in a communication to the Nantucket Inquirer & Mirror of December 24, 1881, took the position that the time was, during the Glacial Period, when Nantucket was not an ilsand, and Saul's and Trott's Hills were some 700 feet in height, and the breakers rolled on a beach fully sixty or seventy miles to the south. The whole region of Southern New England, he theorizes, was elevated at least six hundred feet above its present height, and Nantucket was one of a series of hills, rather than an island, surrounded by the lower lands of what are now the bottoms of the sounds at the north and St. Georges Banks at the east and south. Subsequently the conti- nent sank and the sea gradually advanced, until it beat upon the beaches of Surfside and 'Sconset, poured around over the lower lands forming the sounds, leaving Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, Block, Long and Staten Islands in their insular state. .

During the Glacial Period the ice was enormously thick and its tendency was to move south. In its movement rocks were torn away from hills and mountains, and moved miles, away from their orig- inal locations. The lower rim of the enormous ice cap lay along where Nantucket, Martha's Vinyard and Long Island now stand,

*Page 641.

tPage 647. It is within the memory of many when the beach at Siasconset was not over half its present width.

ĮPage 650.

HISTORY OF NANTUCKET

and as the ice melted the material carried by the ice was deposited, and the islands were formed.

In Nantucket's early life, he says, Great, Brant and Smith's Points did not exist and there stood above the level of the sea three, if not four, islands-Coskata, the body of Nantucket, Tuck- ernuck, and possibly Gravel Island. Dr. Ewer thinks the South east quarter, South Pasture, Smooth Hummocks, the Plains and Great Neck were the natural product of the melting of the ice and the washing down of its burden of "till," and that Altar Rock, Ta- ble Rock, Split Rock and the rock north of the 'Sconset road were left unmoved. The melting was copious and as the somewhat par- ellel streams coursed to the South they formed the valleys and the basins for the ponds, the outlets to the ponds being eventually closed as the bars of beach sand formed. Subsequently the Island sank and the sea surrounded it and the battering of the waves tore away portions of the shores and formed the points.

THE DISCOVERY BY THE NORTHMEN

There can be little doubt but that the Norsemen of the tenth century in their researches along the eastern coast of North Amer- ica, on more than one occasion sighted the Island of Nantucket. Indeed evidence is said to exist that they landed upon its shores, and there found upon the moistened grass, a dew of, to them, an unusually sweet taste .* After sketching the course of the settlement of Iceland, and, from thence, that of Greenland, by Biarni,t (whose father, during the son's absence from Iceland was among those who sailed to Greenland,) in quest of his relatives, the Icelandie narra- tive describes the voyage of Leif in quest of this terra incognita, upon the shores of which Biarni had been driven, and, after narrat- ing his arrival at what is now Nova Scotia, proceeds. "They came · again in sight of land" (two days from Nova Scotia) "approaching which, they landed upon an island lying opposite to the northeast- erly part of the main land. Here they landed, and found the air re- markably pleasant. They observed the grass covered with much dew. When they touched this accidentally, and raised the hand to the mouth, they perceived a sweetness which they had not before no-

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The history of Nantucket County, island, and town : including genealogies of first settlers, Part 1

Author: Starbuck, Alexander, 1841-1925 Publication date: 1924 Publisher: Boston [Mass.] : C.E. Goodspeed & Co. Number of Pages: 900

Author: Starbuck, Alexander, 1841-1925
Publication date: 1924
Publisher: Boston [Mass.] : C.E. Goodspeed & Co.
Number of Pages: 900