USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Pembroke > Ancient landmarks of Pembroke > Part 4
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The homestead of Isaac Little-which he divided between his sons Isaac and Lemuel-was, by Lemuel's deed of 1784, reunited in the elder branch of the family: the house had, I think, been Isaac's from the first. He is styled, in early legal documents, a gentleman; and the fact that among the worthies of Mattakeesett I find no further notice of him- except that inscribed in his own elegant handwriting upon
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ANCIENT LANDMARKS OF PEMBROKE
our parish records -- may not be altogether owing to his early death in 1774, since the inventory of his estate shows him to have been insolvent. His wife was Lydia, daughter of Deacon Isaac Hatch of Pembroke: of their children, only Isaac, Charles, and Abigail, wife of Bailey Hall, left descen- dants here.
Their son Isaac, born 22 June 1761, seems to have restored the fallen fortunes of his grandfather. Legal documents style him "Housewright;" and to him in this capacity-and to his bride, Wealthy or Welthea Winsor of Duxbury-we owe the present house. It was built on the site of the former dwelling-destroyed by fire-soon after their marriage in 1788, under direction of Mrs. Little; who thus, as her husband was afterward pleased to remark, wilfully deprived herself of a housewife's chief solace in domestic cares-un- stinted liberty to find fault with her field of operation. Its peculiar style of roof was doubtless her choice: this has, of late years, won for the house -- according to Mr. Baker-the distinction of being one of the eight gambrel-roofed houses now standing in Plymouth County.
An interesting suggestion of the fate which befell Esquire Little's holdings at the Eastward, is given us by his grandson in a note appended to his copy of the Will : "Boston: June 5th 1810. Called on Joseph Pierce, who showed me a map of the land given to Governor Winslow's wife, and says it comes under the Brown's grant from the Indians. He says Brown's title is disputed, and a Capt. Noble is now at Wiscassett trying sd title in the Supreme court : there is an immense number of squatters on sd land, and Flagg of Worcester, who went there for land belonging to the Drown family, was set on an island and refused to be taken off. William Maclintock of Bristol knows about the thing; if he would disclose what he knows. Advises me to converse with Noble of Charlestown. To converse further with Pierce and view the map." Mr. Little lived to the good old age of eighty-five, dying in 1846; but so far as I know, his acquaintance with the lost baronies of York, Gorges,
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THE LITTLE ESTATE
Round Pond, Broad Cove, and Hobbomock Point, never pro- gressed further than the pretensions of Captain Noble, and Joseph Pierce's map.
Of his sons, Capt. Otis-born 31 May 1809-succeeded to the homestead. The Captain won his title through a command in the Washington Rangers, a stout old ante bellum military organization; in which he and my grandfather Whitman remained the good comrades they had already become on their early forays against the Brookwatcher: his three commissions are still treasured by his descendants. Like many another son of the Old Colony, he was employed, during most of his life, in the navy yard at Charlestown. Shipbuilding-once a flourishing industry along North River and the shores of Duxbury Bay-met its death-blow in the tremendous gales or hurricanes of 9 October 1804 and 23 September 1815; which, by destroying its material, literally withered the business to the root, and compelled its craftsmen either to abandon their old calling or, failing that, to emi- grate. Scores-nay, hundreds of skilled workmen, and of young fellows born with an aptitude for naval mechanics, were thus lost to the town.
The wife of Capt. Little was Betsey, daughter of Isaac Haskins of South Scituate. 'Their daughter, Anna, married Dr. Stephen Cushing, and resides in Dorchester : to their son, Samuel, upon the Captain's death in 1895, the homestead descended. Before the house, on the brow of the hill, still stands the ancient apple orchard : and if you will visit it, as I have done, some mellow afternoon in late October, when leaves are carpeting the grassy Avenue, and the first flocks of wampatukh fly southward overhead, it will call up for you -as it did for me -- the dead ghosts of the Squire and Aesop, of the Captain and Madam Little, and many another, and the old plantation days of long ago; and will make you forget that the traditional beverage of those days may henceforth be had only by license, and that a Merry Go Round now flourishes in Pembroke during the day on which Puritan prejudice prevented Judge Sewall from even paying a visit
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to its site. That the trees of the orchard are those planted by William Tubbs, I do not warrant; certainly the place is the same: thus from the soil-if not from the boughs-which yielded fruit to Joshua Cushing, apples are still gathered by his descendants in the sixth and seventh generations.
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The Judge Whitman House
V. The Judge Whitman House,
Jura dabat legesque viris.
One of the very oldest houses in town stands on Centre Street, not far from the Barker place-a large two-story mansion, with long windows and winding staircase. Near by, several ancient buttonwood or sycamore trees rear their broken tops high in air, and a halo of old glory seems to hang about the place. Well may this be so. Tradition tells us that the house itself -- originally a "half house"-was built two hundred years ago and more; and that the later addi- tions, bringing the main structure to its present form, were made soon after 1790. Certainly the site dates from the seventeenth century.
A settler in this region who followed close on the trace of the Barkers, was Abraham Pearce. To him was early granted an estate bordering on the brook of "Namatuckeset" a short distance above the Barker site. He cleared a farm, and chose for his homestead a plot of rising ground, halfway between the Garrison and the hill where Pembroke church was one day to stand. The family prospered ; more land was granted them; and by 1712, their holdings included a large part of what is now Pembroke Centre. Abraham, the father, seems to have died before this date: his property was divided among his sons; of whom Abraham held the land on Highgary, and John-the youngster who had his ten shillings "for sweeping ye Meeting House" --- became owner of the homestead. In 1714-or, as the deed has it, "in ye thirteenth year of our Sovereign Lady queen Ann"-John Peirce sold his father's farm of twenty acres for £155 to Nehemiah Cushing of Pembroke, insuring his mother, Hannah, a right of domici- lium in the house.
ANCIENT LANDMARKS OF PEMBROKE
Capt. Nehemiah Cushing was a descendant of the distinguished Cushing family of Hingham. He was born there in 1689, eldest son of Theophilus Cushing; and married Sarah, daughter of Nathaniel Nichols. In 1714 Nathaniel -with his nephew, Ephraim Nichols-removed to Pembroke, and bought the Samuel Barker estate, now owned by Mr. Edwin P. Litchfield; Nehemiah was persuaded to follow. His fortunes prospered there. He built and operated a tan- ncry near the brook, dealt largely in real estate, and served his adopted town in many public offices. He was representative, 1720 and 1721; treasurer, 1719-1738; selectman, 1734-1738; and moderator at nineteen March meetings, 1734-1755. For many years he was in command of Pembroke's military company, and thence had the title by which he was familiarly known. His children were: Sarah, 1711; Elijah, 1712; Rachel, 1714; Mary, 1717; Theophilus, 1719; Nehemiah, 1721; and Deborah, 1724. His wife, Sarah, died in 1749; and he married Hannah, widow of Joseph Thomas of Plympton, mother of Josiah and Joseph Thomas.
Nehemiah Cushing, Jr., married Sarah Humphrey, and had Rachel, born 1742, who died unmarried; Anna; Nabby; William; William second; Nathaniel; and Thomas Humphrey, born 1757. Of these, William -- styled "Gentle- man"-dwelt in the ancient house which still stands on Washington Street in North Pembroke, at the turning off of the Marshfield road; and which is still known as his homestead, although it passed long since from the Cushing family. Nehemiah Junior died "in His Majesty's service, at Crown Point," 12 January 1762, leaving his wife and his young children to their grandfather's care. She it is, accord- ing to legend, who later went forth a bride to meet her second husband, clad in her under garment; and thus evaded operation of the old law whereby the second husband assumes the former's debts, unless the bride goes to meet him elad only in a petticoat. This piece of apparel was put on-jealously observes the family historian-over her bridal dress.
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The William Cushing House
THE JUDGE WHITMAN HOUSE
Rachel Cushing, daughter of the first Nehemiah, married Capt. Edward Thomas, son of Lieut. Isaac of the West Parish, and was ancestress of the Cushing and Thomas families of northern Hanson. Their daughter Rachel, born 1736, married Josiah Thomas : who in 1768, for £133, bought the Cushing homestead from his stepfather and grandfather- in-law, "old Nehemiah Cushing of all," still living in Pembroke at a green old age of eighty years. Josiah Thomas continued the work of the ancient tannery : the depression in the earth where stood his lime-kiln, is still to be seen. The old captain and his widow passed away, and the younger members of the family were scattered. Josiah, it is said, grew discontented with the quiet, uneventful life led by Pembroke folk after the stir of the Revolution was over; sold his place in 1790; and did as many of his townsmen were soon to do, removing with all his household to people the wild lands of Mainc. The tanyard was sold to his neighbor, Deacon Gideon Thomas White.
The next owner of the dwelling was Rev. Kilborn Whitman; who came to Pembroke in 1787 as assistant to Thomas Smith, then over eighty years old. Mr. Smith died next year, and Mr. Whitman continued as pastor until 1796; he then began the study of law with his brother, Benjamin. Meanwhile, in 1792, he had sold to his brother for £18 the homestead of one acre; a year later, he bought it back for £129. As Benjamin Whitman once resided and practised law in this town, an account of his life will not be out of place among its annals.
Hon. Benjamin Whitman, born in 1768 at Bridgewater, prepared for Brown University almost unaided by his parents, and graduated in 1788: after studying law, he settled first in Pembroke, and removed in 1793 to Hanover; where he built the house near the Bridge known as the Bigelow place. He was prominent in town affairs ; his office became a favorite with students, of whom Hon. Ezekiel Whitman was one; he was long postmaster, and first captain of the Hanover Artillery Company. The uniform prescribed
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for members of the company was: "a coat of blue cloth, faced with red; brass buttons; buff pants and vest; white leather belt; brass breastplate; old-fashioned cocked hats of fur, sur- mounted by a black plume tipped with red." In the autumn of 1803, "driven by the bitterness of democracy," he removed to Boston; was long a representative of that city in General Court, and president of its board of health; and was twelve years presiding justice of the Boston Police Court. He died in 1840, having for years been recognized as one of the ablest members of the Massachusetts bar. His brief tenure honors the Cushing property; which in 1793 became the homestead of his elder brother, Kilborn.
Kilborn Whitman, son of Zecheriah and Abigail Kilborn of Bridgewater, graduated from Harvard College in 1785, and was fitted for the ministry by Rev. William Shaw at Marshfield; there he became acquainted with Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Isaac Winslow. In December of 1787, he settled at Pembroke; and the next year, married Miss Wins- low. She was a descendant from Gov. Edward Winslow, the Pilgrim, through Gov. Josiah, Hon. Isaac, Gen. John, and Dr. Isaac; and from Capt. Thomas Barker, an early owner of the Collamore estate. In 1796 Mr. Whitman retired from the ministry, and took up the law, studying with his brother at Hanover. He was admitted to the bar in 1798, and attended all the courts of southeastern Massachusetts: he retained his farm and office in Pembroke, and acted as rep- resentative fourteen years; selectman twenty years, 1799- 1829; and moderator at twenty-seven March meetings, 1799- 1830. He was associate judge of the Court of Common Pleas, when Hon. Nahum Mitchell was its Chief Justice; was many years attorney for Plymouth County, and overseer of the Marshpee and Herring Pond Indians.
Judge Whitman had many students at his office, some of whom became leaders at the bar. He was often called upon to give public addresses, and respond to toasts at dinners ; it is told that at a banquet in Hanover, he once gave this toast : "The Hanover Artillery Company-may their pieces be
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THE JUDGE WHITMAN HOUSE
loaded with true New England principles, wadded with Jacobinism, and aimed point-blank against every aspiring demagogue !" On many another occasion, the Judge proved himself a good exponent of rich old-fashioned oratory.
"Mr. Whitman"-says his biographer-"was at first Congregational, but later became Unitarian, in his belief. As a preacher, he had fine presence, was forcible, elegant, and popular ; as a judge, he was upright, dignified, able, and urbane; as an advocate, he was ready, witty, elegant, and courteous, popular with the court, and successful with the jury : his marked characteristics were fine presence, a good conversation, happy wit, and generous hospitality. Among his frequent guests were Hon. Daniel Webster, Judge Strong, and many members of bench and bar; and his house was the centre of a large circle of friends, who always found cordial welcome there. Many anecdotes of his bright sayings and ready wit, were repeated by his acquaintance."
There were born to the Judge six sons and five daughters. The eldest daughter, Elizabeth Winslow, married Samuel King Williams, Esquire, of Boston ; and was mother of Rev. Pelham-who made his summer home on the Stockbridge estate in Greenbush-and Maj. Samuel K. Sarah Ann married Hon. Benjamin Randall, and lived at Bath: her descendants are in Boston. Caroline died single, at Pem- broke, 9 March 1891. Maria Winslow was an eager student of history, and genealogist of the family; she married Frederick Bryant of New Bedford, and has posterity there. Isaac Winslow Whitman, Esquire, the eldest child, graduated at Harvard in 1808, and practised law in Nantucket: his brother Charles Kilborn shared his office. The first James Hawley died in infancy. William Henry, Esquire, studied law with Thomas Prince Beal of Kingston, and held for many years the office of Clerk of the Courts at Plymouth; where his descendants are.
John Winslow, Esquire, perhaps the most gifted of Judge Whitman's children, followed the family profession, and practised law in Boston. "He was very brilliant," said Mrs.
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ANCIENT LANDMARKS OF PEMBROKE
Hersey; "but he was very bad." He added not a little to the glory of letters which invests the old mansion now before us, by his marriage with Sarah Helen, daughter of Nicholas Power of Providence-a girl as gifted as he; beautiful, accomplished in many literatures, and herself a poet never of light esteem. Of him and his family she wrote thus to the historian of the Winslows in 1872: "My husband had two brothers older than himself, Isaac and Charles; and two younger than himself, James Hawley Whitman and William Henry Whitman. The two former are dead, the two latter are still living: James, as a lawyer, living at the old home- stead in Pembroke; William Henry is, I think, now practising law in Hingham, Mass. Either of these gentlemen could give you better and more reliable information about the Whitmans than I could do. My husband, John Winslow Whitman, graduated at Brown University in 1818. He practised law in Barnstable and afterwards in Boston. In 1828 we were married. In 1833 he died, at the age of 34, in the house of his father at Pembroke. We had no children. I believe he was the favorite grandchild of Dr. Isaac Wins- low, and passed many of his early years in the old homestead of the Winslows at Marshfield. I visited the house with him just before the old place was sold and passed from the family into other hands. Some of the antique furniture still remained in the lovely old house-heavy oaken chairs and tables too ponderous to go wandering about the world in search of new homes. 'The old family pictures, some of which are now in possession as you know of the Historical Society in Boston, were still hanging on the wainscoted walls of the great West parlor; and beneath was an old spinet played on a hundred years before, by one of the stately ladies who still stood there in stiff brocade-and smiled down on me, somewhat austerely from the dusky walls."
In the death of her husband, Mrs. Whitman gave herself more unreservedly than before to literature. She had already published several poems, and won recognition among Ameri- can authors, when in 1848 she met Edgar Allan Poe. Their
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Frances Gay Whitman Mrs. Hersey 1813-1899
From a Miniature painted by Mrs. Hersey
THE JUDGE WHITMAN HOUSE
acquaintance soon resulted in an engagement of marriage. Poe loved with all the impassioned tenderness of his nature: Mrs. Whitman's regard for him, if calmer, was not less sincere. Their engagement was broken, in a bitter and pain- ful interview, by her family; as Poe sings, in the free, haunting allegory which-Mrs. Whitman herself affirms- was written in memory of their separation :
"So that her high-born kinsmen came And took her away from me."
Poe died the same year ; cherishing to the end his desperate love for her whom pride of race, and a distrust-possibly exaggerated-of his own moral character, combined to part from him. Mrs. Whitman survived her brother poet and lover almost thirty years, and died beautiful in 1878, at seventy-five. Her poems, which appeared piecemeal during her lifetime, were published collectively in 1879. They have established surely her rank among the second order of Amer- ican poets; and one of them, at least, must always find an honored place in our anthologies. I have open before me Whittier's Songs of Three Centuries, at the lines beginning :
"I love to wander through the woodlands hoary In the soft light of an autumnal day."
As their slow melody unfolds, I seem to glimpse-through the mists of many autumns-the gentle widow wandering in quiet reverie by the brook and meadow and lonely hillside of her paradise. I like to believe that its "woodlands hoary" are those of Mattakeesett; that its "loved, familiar paths" thread the neighborhood of the grand old house where, in the hot stillness of a July noon, Winslow Whitman died among his kindred, and where long years ago Captain Cushing's buttonwoods guarded the sleep of Annabel Lee.
Judge Whitman died in 1835; and his widow, in 1854. The house became the home of their son James Hawley Whitman, Esquire, better known as "Jim Holly."
After his death, it was occupied solely by his sister Frances Gay, widow of Capt. Jacob Hersey of Han- over ; who lived there for many years. She was
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a woman of great talents-a teacher of drawing and mathematics in New Bedford, and later of drawing in Pembroke. She won fame by her illustrations of subjects from Egyptian history and theology, in which abstruse topics she was much interested; these miniatures were bequeathed to the library of Harvard College. Astronomy and ancient history also, she found prime attractions : and there reposed on her table a wonderful set of Japanese chessmen, which she handled with daring and considerable skill. Her mind was a treasure house of tradition and Indian legend; and for many of the stories now current in the name of history, she is responsible. On the wide tops of her high, square gateposts, she used to feed whole flocks of hungry winter birds; and a host of squirrels, kittens, and other helpless little creatures, were among her pensioners. When over eighty, she was still frequently seen at church or a social gathering, and remained an active member of the village to the last. Her death oc- curred during the great storm of February in 1899, and her funeral procession passed through snow waist-deep.
He who writes of Mrs. Hersey, will not readily win forgiveness if, having means, he fails to present in her own language proof of her rare gift for story-telling. Let us introduce ourselves to the ancient lady toward nightfall on some misty November afternoon : and sitting by the many- paned west casement, hear -- as the light fades across her meadows, and the hill-pines opposite melt into clouds of evening-the curious tradition which she tells concerning the last of the Mattakeesetts, and naively entitles :
A LEGEND OF THE HOBOMOC
"Most of my readers will recollect, lying in the highlands of Pembroke, a quiet little pond, embosomed among its hills like a pearl amid emeralds, by the name of 'Hobomoc'. On the south, a grove of native oak stretches far down the vale, vocal with nature's minstrelsy-the home of the hare and merry squirrel, where the cottage maiden gathered her earliest tribute of Mayflowers and Wood Anemone; a place
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THE JUDGE WHITMAN HOUSE
beautiful in its stillness and seclusion, and hallowed by the memory of the noble race that once peopled its leafy palaces. "Peace to the manes of the Mattakeesetts ! The echo of their footsteps has long since died away before the steady march of civilization; leaving no trace but the half buried tomahawk and the broken mounds of their dead, or some wild legend handed down from generation to generation, now fast fading from the mind of their paleface successor. With the Inighty oaks that shelter their deserted graves, the last monu- ments of the departed will pass away.
"In the centre of this pond, once dwelt-according to Indian tradition-a huge stump, which rose about three feet above the surface of the water. The pond, having no outlet, and being fed by secret springs, is subject to considerable rise and fall, as summer heat or rain prevails. But whatever was the height of the water, in the same proportion rose the mysterious stump; or however low the ebb, still sank the obstinate thing: until the Indians -- those acute observers of nature-could endure its self-willed conduct no longer. Resolving to be satisfied, they called a council; and after performing with due solemnity their war-dance and other rites, concluded that their Chief, with twelve of his braves, should forthwith proceed to interrogate the object of their curiosity on its strange proceeding.
"Accordingly, the whole tribe having assembled on the surrounding hills, these deputies embarked in four canoes, and cautiously drew near the white belt encircling the stump; which proved to be of thickly clustered lilies. The Chief first approached ; and giving the stump a hearty salu- tation with his war-club, demanded to know the cause of its mysterious conduct. The stump nodded, but gave no answer. The second crew approached : this time a still harder blow was given; but still no answer came.
"The fourth canoe now approached; in the prow stood a *
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tall, athletic warrior, armed with a massive war-club, from which he delivered a tremendous stroke. The stump returned a hollow groan; and nodded so violently that the whole pond trembled with agitation, and the lilies danced, shouted, and threw up the spray in their glee. The terror-struck Indians fled, concluding that the pretended stump was in reality Hobomoc, their evil spirit, and the lilies, his paleface chil- dren, whom he brought in the big canoe over the great water, and-knowing they would find no companion among red men-kept confined around him, that he might have them under his more immediate tuition and control; concluding also, with prophetic foresight, that should he release them, their own ruin would be inevitable.
"They never ventured on the pond again: but regularly offered up sacrifice to Hobomoc in the grove, to induce him to keep his emissaries strictly guarded ; and threw a portion of corn, venison, and tomahawks into the water, that they might not be tempted on shore, in quest of food, and make war-but might 'scalp each other', if they felt disposed to, 'and not red man.'
"The Indians, for many a long year, lived in peace and quietness, offering their annual tribute to Hobomoc, and des- troying, or shunning with superstitious dread, every paleface that came across their path. At length, a paleface came who won their confidence, and 'was kind to Indian, wanted to buy land and live with Indian, and give him gun and blanket and kenikinit (tobacco). Indian like gun, like blanket, and kenikinit; but no like to sell land, no like paleface live with Indian. So paleface give Indian gun and blanket, and go back to his own wigwam, by side of the great-voiced waters. Soon great sickness come, and most all Indian die.' This plague was the dreaded small-pox ; which, conveyed-perhaps unintentionally --- by the blankets or clothes given to the In- dians, destroyed two thirds of their tribe.
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