USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > Cape Cod, the right arm of Massachusetts : an historical narrative > Part 16
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The part taken by Cape Cod in this great struggle for freedom, both in respect to leadership and the co-operation of the people, will be seen to have been of the most important character. The exertions of the latter in the field, as sketched in the preceding pages, were only limited by their capacity and power of endurance. They contri- buted to the common cause not only almost the last dollar and the last man, but the political wisdom and nndeviating constancy of the elder Otis, and the matchless and inspiring eloquence of the younger of the name; the tireless energy and activity of Dr. Nathaniel Freeman ; the military skill, enterprise and daring of Gens. Braddock Dimmick and Joseph Otis, men whose fame was not confined by local bounds. Nor should we forget to render again a just tribute to the services of one of Cape Cod blood and origin, whose field of operations was in the city of New York, that matchless agitator and untiring patriot, Capt. Isaac Sears.
The bitter and ghastly realities of the war have with sufficient minuteness and detail been enlarged upon in the foregoing relation, but there was mingled with these hard experiences enough of daring and adventure to impart some- what of the glow of romance to the narrative of the times. The men of the Cape, not a few of them, were brought in contact with some of the best remembered and most talked of events of that eight years of agony and exertion.
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THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
Ebenezer Sears, a soldier of Yarmouth, stood guard over Major Andre the night before his execution, and, like all who came in contact with that gallant and accomplished officer, was deeply touched by his noble bearing and his unhappy fate.
Benjamin Collins, of Truro, belonged to the crew of the barge that rowed Benedict Arnold on board the Vulture. He was drugged and kept on board the frigate until he learned Arnold had joined the enemy, when, fearing that he also would be regarded as a traitor, he ran away to Canada, and did not return home for forty-eight years, when he spent a year in Truro and returned finally to his Canadian home. *
During the year 1775, David Snow and son, aged 15 years, were fishing back of Cape Cod, when they were taken by a privateer, and carried to Halifax. They were thence transferred to the Old Mill prison in England. They soon gained the confidence of the officers, who granted them many privileges. One day the young man found a file, and this led to a scheme for recovering their liberty. They arranged for a great party and frolic among the prisoners ; thirty-six of them were enlisted in a scheme for escape. With the fiddling, began the double-shuffle of prison brogans, which drowned the noise of the file upon the prison bars. The festivities were kept up until the bar was severed, leaving room for exit, when the thirty-six emerged, undetected, from the prison yard. Knocking down the sentinels, they were soon outside the walls, and directed their steps to Plymouth harbor, fifteen miles distant. Before daylight they had reached the harbor, and embarked on a large scow, and were afloat on the English Channel. With almost superhuman strength they boarded a small vessel,
*Rich's Truro.
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captured it and set sail for the coast of France. Upon their arrival they sold their prize, Mr. Snow and son retaining $40 as their share of the proceeds. They gave themselves up to the French government, were placed on board a cartel, sent to America, and landed in Carolina. The war was still raging, the coast was guarded, and their only hope of getting home was by land, which they accomplished after weeks of wearisome travel. Peace had in the meantime been declared. From Boston they took passage in a vessel for Provincetown. They continued on a boat their home- ward journey. Mr. Snow ascertained where his wife, who had for seven years mourned him as dead, was to be found, and presented himself without ceremony. She fell in a swoon, apparently dead, but recovering, walked home with her husband. The boy, David, had now become a stalwart man, but he, instead of going directly home, went first to a neighbor's, without giving his name. The quick observation of one of the bright-eyed girls of the family penetrated the secret, and she said to her sister, "If that isn't David Snow, it is his ghost !" David got home before his parents, and met them on the road, where neighbors and friends joyfully welcomed them .*
Many Cape men found their way on board the privateers, which were so numerous and serviceable to the American cause, both in furnishing supplies and ammunition, and in weakening the commerce of Great Britain. In the two years, from 1776 to 1778, nearly eight hundred prizes were captured, which, with their cargoes, were worth not less than twenty millions of dollars. It is stated on authority that during the war quite two hundred thousand of tons of British shipping were captured by our privateers, principally manned by fishermen. These crafts did not always escape
*Rich's Truro.
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with impunity, and when taken, their crews were consigned to a punishment only a little worse than death-imprison- ment on board the "Jersey" or in the "Old Mill." On board the brig Resolution, a privateer taken by an English vessel in 1780, were 13 men from Truro and Wellfleet, who were sent to the Old Mill Prison .* Obadiah Rich, then or recently of Truro, was commander of the privateer brig Intrepid, of four guns.
The records of the towns, during the period of the Revolution, ever and anon contain words like these, after the names of citizens : "Died on board Jersey Prison Ship." To those who have read the history of that
"fatal, that perfidious bark, Built in the eclipse and rigged with curses dark,"
no further description is required. It was an old sixty- four gun-ship, which through age had become unfit for actual service. It was stripped of spar and rigging and every trace of ornament, and nothing remained but an old, unsightly, rotten hulk. Its dark and filthy appearance perfectly corresponded with the death and despair that reigned aboard. It was moved about three-quarters of a mile to the eastward of Brooklyn ferry, near a tide mill on the Long Island shore. It is computed that not less than eleven thousand American seamen perished in it. Here were promiscuously huddled the well and the sick, twelve hundred together at times. Fever, small-pox, and all sorts of infectious diseases prevailed. Insufficiently nourished with the poorest of food, without medical aid to the sick, what wonder that the pestilent hulk became a charnel-house, a commitment to which was like a sentence of death. It is
*Their names were, Thomas Cobb, Isaac Snow, Joseph Crowell, Elias Gage, Stephen Young, Jeremiah Newcomb, Aquilla Rich, Sam'i Curtis, Nathan Atwood, Eleazer Higgins, Elisha Jones, Joseph Pierce, and Ezekiel Rich.
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not known how many of our men perished here, as no report of names was ever made; enough is ascertained to leave a record which can never be effaced .*
The advent of peace brought to an end, except in memory, the privations, sufferings and horrors of the last seven years. When the rejoicings of grateful hearts were over, the people addressed themselves earnestly to the work of repairing the wastes of war, reviving long suspended industries, and pursuing, with all their accustomed ardor, the arts and avocations of peace.
With the closing year of the War of Independence came the close of mortal life of one who had infused into the hearts of his countrymen those principles of resistance to arbitrary power, of which independence was born. James Otis, Jr., standing in his doorway in Andover, was struck by a flash of lightning and died from its effects May 23, 1783. He was born in West Barnstable, 1725, graduated at Harvard College in 1743, practised law in Barnstable and Plymonth, and removed thence to Boston. He was appointed advocate-general at the Court of Admiralty, which position he resigned rather than sustain the application for the Writs of Assistance, which he opposed. His plea on this occasion has already been adverted to as a masterpiece of eloquence and conclusive reasoning. Hutchinson endeavors to account for his disaffection towards the government, by the fact that his father was not appointed chief justice of the Supreme court, to which he aspired ; but the disinterestedness and patriotism of Otis need no defence from such charges or insinuations. President John Adams said, "I have been young and now am old, and I solemnly say, I have never known a man whose love of country was more ardent or sincere, never one who suffered
*Sketch of Jersey Prison Ship by Rev. Thos, Andros.
JAMES OTIS.
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so much, never one whose services for any ten years of his life were so important and essential to the cause of his country as those of Mr. Otis from 1760 to 1770." He was elected a representative from Boston in 1761, opposed the stamp act in 1765, for which next year the government negatived his election as speaker, to which he had. been chosen. His pamphlet entitled, "Rights of the Colonies Vindicated," was considered in England a masterpiece of good writing and conclusive reasoning. He was threatened with arrest by the government and for his severe strictures upon the conduct of the commissioner of customs and of the ministerial party, he was assailed in 1769 by the commissioners and other ruffians, in a public room, and was left covered with blood. The wound was not mortal, but it was seen that his intellect had been shattered. At times flashes of his old genius and eloquence would electrify his companions, to be succeeded by incongruous utterances,
" Like sweet bells jangled, Harsh and out of tune."
In this manner he lived on until the elements of nature set free a gigantic intellect, clouded and shattered in its mortal frame, on the year in which the liberties of his country had been acknowledged by the British nation.
CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS, 1776-1783.
1776. Feb., Transport ship Friendship, Capt. James Holmes, was cast ashore back of Cape Cod .- A sloop loaded with English goods, household furniture, etc., sailed from Boston to Halifax "with sundry Tories" and a large number of women and children, some of whom were sick of small-pox, was cast ashore at Provincetown, the last of March. A committee was sent to prevent the escape of the passengers and crew and secure the cargo. The men were ordered to Boston for trial .-
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April 5, the committee of Falmouth petitioned for a guard of soldiers to be placed "on the Neck," of that town .- The courts of the county were, by special act, postponed from May to October, on account of the prevalence of small-pox .- The continental congress having recommended the encouragement of the manufacture of salt, the general court also recommended to the inhabitants of the seaport towns to use their utmost endeavors to attain this end .- May 1, the council voted: "Whereas, it is represented to this court that a navigable canal may, without much difficulty, be cut through the isthmus which separates Buzzard's Bay and Barnstable Bay, whereby the hazardous navigation around Cape Cod, both hy reason of the enemy and the shoals, may be prevented, and a safe communication between this colony and the Southern colonies be so far secured: Therefore, be it resolved, that James Bowdoin and Wm. Seaver, Esquires, with such as the House shall join, or a major part of them, be a committee to repair to the town of Sandwich and view the premises, and determine whether the cutting of the aforesaid be practicable; and they are hereby authorized to employ any necessary assistance of surveyors and engineers for the purpose " Col. Freeman, Brig. Godfrey and Mr. Cushing were joined on the part of the House.
1777. This year the brig Wilkes was cast away on the back side of the Cape, in Eastham, and was pillaged by some parties on shore. The town held a meeting and appointed a committee to endeavor to bring the offenders to justice. - Aug. 17, the board of war was requested to furnish field pieces and ammunition for the defence of Truro, and it was ordered that a company be raised in Truro and adjoining towns to he constantly in practice, aud be ready at all times to prevent all intercourse with the British men-of-war in Cape Cod harbor or elsewhere, as well as for protection.
1778. Mar. 23, regular session of the Courts suspended, so many officers, justices, etc., being engaged in military and other operations for the public defence .- Small-pox raged this year in Sandwich, and also carried off large numbers of the native Indians of Yarmouth .- Barnstable was agitated hy the action of the provincial assembly, which put on record aspersions upou the patriotism of the town's representative, Edward Bacon, Esq. This quarrel had much to do with the unfortunate record of the town on the Declaration of Independence. Mr. Bacon was viudicated by his townsmen, and subsequently restored most fully to the public confidence.
1779. Committees were chosen by the towns to regulate the prices of necessaries of life and prevent extortion .- Ship America, with Capt. Wm. Doane and twenty-two others of Wellfleet, was lost at sea.
1780. By a special act of the legislature, Joseph Otis and David Thacher, Esquires, were authorized to license Otis Loring of Barnsta- ble to keep an inn; the reason assigned for this unusual proceeding being "for the better accommodation for the courts of justice."-
- 776
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CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS.
May 19, occurred the "dark day," an event which caused much speculation among the learned, as well as the unlettered and supersti- tious.
1781. An act passed to prevent damage to Nobscusset meadows in Yarmouth .- All the towns were engaged in ineffectual efforts to procure their quota of beef for the army .- The militia was this year reorganized, consequent upon the adoption of the Constitution, and the personnel was as follows: Brig .- Gen., Nathaniel Freeman of Sandwich, who held office for twelve years succeeding. Brigade Major and Inspector, Nathaniel Freeman, Jr., who held office for sixteen years. First Regiment-Col. Enoch Hallet, Yarmouth, resigned 1790. Lt .- Col. Joseph Dimmick, Falmouth, promoted Major in 1790, Brig .- Gen., 1794. Major, Micah Chapman, Yarmouth, succeeded 1790. Adju- tant, Thomas Thacher, Yarmouth, succeeded 1790. Second Regiment -Col. Benj. Godfrey, Chatham, resigned 1790. Lt .- Col. Job Crocker, Chatham, succeeded 1790. Major, Wm. Gage, Harwich, Adjutant, Joseph Paine, Chatham, succeeded 1790.
1783. Rev. Mr. Hilliard dismissed from East church, Barnstable, and Rev. John Miller appointed his successor .- Rev. Thomas Roby called to pastorate of church in Chatham.
CHAPTER XIII.
FROM THE PEACE OF 1783 TO THE WAR OF 1812-15.
Ratification of Constitution of the United States-First Representa- tive in Congress from the Cape-Incorporation of Dennis, Orleans and Brewster-Rise and growth of Methodism on the Cape- Manufacture of Salt-Wreck of Salem Ships on Peaked Hill Bars -Canal across the Cape-Sandwich Academy incorporated-Dr. Samnel West - Maritime Achievements of Cape Captains, Ebenezer Sears, John Kenrick, Elijah Cobb-Robespierre-Barbary Pirates -Commercial Restrictions, Embargo acts, etc.
T cannot be deemed strange that such a severe struggle as that of the Revolutionary War should have been succeeded by a season of comparative exhaustion. But in a little c time the old energy and resolution of the people returned, and they commenced anew upon a career of activity and development. But the want of uniform commercial regulations, and a safe and conven- ient currency, and the heavy debt impending over them, were the sources of embarrassments and hindrances to growth and the prosperity of trade. The public mind was soon brought to see the need of a new bond of union between the different states.
In 1787, the constitution of the United States having been adopted by the general convention, the several states held conventions to ratify or reject the same. The convention for Massachusetts was an able body, and the debates were animated and of marked ability. The vote on the ratification was quite close, but the preponderance of sentiment in this
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FROM THE PEACE OF 1783 TO THE WAR OF 1812-15.
county was strongly in favor of the adoption of the con- stitution, as will be seen by the record of the vote of the members, as follows: Yeas, Shearjashub Bourne, of Barnstable ; David Thacher and Jonathan Howes, of Yarmouth ; Solomon Freeman and Kimbal Clark of Harwich ; Levi Whitman of Wellfleet; Joseph Palmer, of Falmouth. Nays, Thomas Smith and Thomas Nye, of Sandwich. Shearjashub Bourne was chosen representative to the second congress from the district which comprised the county of Barnstable, having received the unanimous vote of this county for that office, which he faithfully filled for two successive terms.
From this time, for a number of years, there were no questions before the people demanding their absorbing attention, apart from the concerns of the general public. In 1794, by a division of Yarmouth, DENNIS was incor- porated as a separate township. The separation of Dennis from the mother town was effected without controversy and with the cordial assent of both sections. It was done with the design of subserving the convenience of the citizens in the transaction of their local business. As a matter of fact, they had for many years preceding acted as separate communities. In the Revolutionary War, the East and West parishes not only levied their ministerial taxes, but voted money and made regulations for raising troops and carrying on the campaign, distinct from and with the assent of the town, and the system worked so well that they were led to continue it in relation to all municipal affairs. The final action of the town on this matter was substantially unanimous, and from that time to the present, the relations of the two towns have been harmonious and fraternal. The name given to the new town was that of a former beloved pastor of the West parish, Rev. Josiah Dennis.
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Three years later, the town of ORLEANS was incorporated, being set off from Eastham, of which it had heretofore formed the South precinct. This separation was also effected without serious controversy, or opposition from the remainder of the town. The seceding portion did not take the name, though it embraced the larger portion of the population, of the mother town, and it retained the original records. None of the contemporary documents throw light upon the reason for assuming the name by which it has since been known.
The separation of the North parish of Harwich from that town, in 1803, and its incorporation by the name of BREWSTER, was not effected without bitter controversy, the results of which continued for many years thereafter. The distance between the villages on the north and south sides of the Cape would naturally suggest the ultimate division of the township; but it is probable that matters of political expediency hastened the movement, and led to opposition in the new township, which under other circumstances it would not have encountered. There was a strong remonstrance against the division, signed by a considerable number of citizens of the North parish, as well as those from the South parish, and their representations led to the insertion of the incongruous provision into the act of incorporation, permit- ting such of them as were living in the North parish, "together with such widows as live therein, and shall request it, have liberty to remain, with their families and estates to the town of Harwich, by leaving their names in the office of the secretary of this commonwealth at any time within two years from the act of incorporation, certifying that such is their intention." A paper, containing the names of 65 citizens, two of them widows, was filed with the town clerk of Harwich and in the office of the secretary of the
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FROM THE PEACE OF 1783 TO THE WAR OF 1812-15.
commonwealth, the subsequent year, in which they express their intention of availing themselves of the provisions of this section of the act of incorporation. It can readily be seen that such an anomalous provision as this was liable to lead to great confusion of authority and endless difficulties and complications while it remained in existence, and kept up the antagonism growing out of the division long after the period, which, under ordinary circumstances, would have subsided. In the division, the old name of the township was conceded to the younger portion in point of time of settlement, and the new town was given the name of the old Pilgrim pastor, who was a near and dear friend of those who first occupied this region.
The changing phases of the religious sentiments of a people are always interesting and instructive subjects of inquiry and speculation. The "Great Awakening" of 1725- 45, with the Whitefield episode, was a breaking away from the formalism of the churches, which had themselves originated in a protest against the ceremonious forms and ritualism of the Established church of England. In the latter part of the century the Methodists began to attract the more earnest and demonstrative portion of the people, by their fervid and impassioned preaching. These sectaries did not meet the approval of the learned and refined, but possessed great fascination for men of ardent natures and warm susceptibilities. Their meetings were held in dwellings and out-houses, the ordinary places of assembling being denied to them. Men and women came from great distances and tarried long, to listen to the earnest words of the uncultured preachers, who, disdaining the rules of rhetoric or the conventionalities of the church organizations, went right home to the subject, esteeming the soul of the rude fisherman or common sailor of as much account as the most
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important man in the parish. It was what Southey styled "Religion in earnest." Such was the preaching of the first Methodists-a sect which, from humble beginnings, has since become great, powerful and influential, with endowed seminaries, gifted preachers, and professors learned in all the lore of the schools. Jesse Lee commenced his preaching in Boston, where he formed a society in 1792, and another society was gathered in Lynn about the same time. From Boston, small numbers of these people found their way to the Cape. Capt. Wm. Humbert, a local preacher, while lying windbound in Provincetown harbor, preached in that place some time in the year 1793. Rev. Joseph Snelling and Rev. Hawkins also soon after preached in that town and in Truro and Wellfleet. Mr. Snelling was really the pioneer of Methodism in the county, where he was stationed for abont twenty years. The first Methodist meeting-house on the Cape and the second one in the country, was built in Truro, in 1794. It was at first intended to build in Provincetown, but the persecution there was so intense that the project was postponed. The next year the plan of building in Provincetown was revived and the meeting- house was erected. The society purchased a frame and landed it on shore to be raised the next day; but during the night it was carried off and cut up, so that nothing remained but chips. The minister, Rev. Geo. Cannon, was tarred and feathered in effigy, and the mob threatened to subject his person to the same treatment. Nothing dannted nor discouraged, these earnest men procured another frame, and sneceeded in accomplishing their object. Subsequently, Rev. Mr. Lee came down from Boston, and the offenders were exposed to a withering excoriation at his hands. In 1796, there were but two preachers of the denomination stationed on the Cape-Mr. Snelling, who officiated in
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FROM THE PEACE OF 1783 TO THE WAR OF 1812-15.
Provincetown, Truro and Wellfleet; and Rev. Joshna Hall, in Sandwich. Methodism was introduced into Barnstable in 1808, where the first preacher was threatened by the mob. Dr. Francis Weeks, one of the first of the men of social influence in the county to embrace its tenets, incul- cated the doctrine at Falmouth, the same year. From that time onward the spread of the denomination has been steady, until it now embraces by far the largest number of worship- pers of any Christian denomination in the country .*
It required nearly a half century to extinguish the prejudice and bitterness with which this sect was regarded, by a portion of the community, who adhered to the old order of things. The Baptists were first gathered in this county in a church organization, at Harwich in 1756. Rev. Elisha Paine was their pastor, and he was succeeded by Rev. Richard Chase. They cannot be considered as seceders from the existing churches, in any regard, except in their views of immersion as a requisite in the baptismal rite. In fact, they were, if anything, more congregational than the Congrega- tionalists themselves. With these few exceptions, if such they may be regarded, and those of the Quaker societies of the county, the Methodist movement was the first great schism from the "standing order" since the settlement of the county ; and this circumstance accounts, in some degree, for the bitterness and distrust with which the new movement was viewed by the generation which first came in contact with the disciples of this faith.
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