USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > Cape Cod, the right arm of Massachusetts : an historical narrative > Part 17
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The granting of letters patent in 1799, to Mr. John Sears, for the manufacture of salt by solar evaporation, after years of effort and experiment, renders this a convenient and suitable occasion to review the history of this once important industry. During the Revolutionary war, and afterwards,
*Rich's Truro. Life of Rev. Joseph Snelling.
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this prime necessary of life was scarce and high, and many attempts were made to manufacture it from sea water. But the salt obtained was impure, and but little progress was made in the business. Mr. Sears was the first person who was completely successful in procuring pure marine salt by the rays of the sun alone, without the aid of artificial heat. The Rev. Dr. James Freeman, in 1802, wrote a quite full account of Mr. Sears's experiments, derived partly from data furnished by the latter. It appears that as early as 1776, "this ingenious seaman constructed a vat a hundred feet long and ten feet wide. Rafters were fixed over it, and shutters were contrived to move up and down, that the vat
Old
SALE
Works
Dennis.
might be covered when it rained and exposed to the heat of the sun in fair weather. By this simple invention the rain was excluded, the water in the vat was gradually exhaled, and at length, to his inexpressible joy, Capt. Sears perceived the salt beginning to crystallize. His works, however, were leaky, and he had such bad success in his operations the first year that he was unable to obtain more than eight bushels of salt. He was exposed besides to the ridicule of his neigh- bors, who scoffed at his invention, styling it 'Sears's Folly.'
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FROM THE PEACE OF 1783 TO THE WAR OF 1812-15.
"Capt. Sears persevered. The second year the works were made tight; and thirty bushels of salt were obtained. In this and the third year the salt water was poured into the vat from buckets ; a tedious and painful operation.
"In the fourth year a pump was introduced; it was worked by hand, which was still great labor. This method of conveying salt water into the vat continued to be practised till the year 1785, when at the suggestion of Major Nathaniel Freeman of Harwich, who had seen at a distance a similar construction, Capt. Sears contrived a pump to be worked by the wind. By this lucky invention the labor was greatly abridged."
Covers to move on shives, that is, rollers or small wheels, such as are contained in the blocks of ships, were invented by Mr. Reuben Sears, a carpenter of Harwich, in 1793. These covers are shaped like the roof of a barn, or what is commonly styled a gable roof. The shive, which is placed under the cover, rolls over a narrow piece of plank fixed across the vat, and the motion is farther facilitated by shives moving on each side of the same slip of plank horizontally, the first mentioned shive moving perpendicularly. When the cover is drawn off, which can be done without a great exertion of strength, it rests on a frame placed by the side of the vat.
In 1798, Mr. Hattil Kelley of Dennis contrived another mode of constructing the vats and moving the covers. "By Mr. Sears they are placed in a string, or direct line ; but by Mr. Kelley they are placed like the squares of a chess- board. Two black squares will represent the first and second vats. At the point where their angles touch is fixed a crane, consisting of a perpendicular beam, supporting a horizontal beam. From each half of the last beam is suspended a cover shaped like a hipped roof ; that is, a roof
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composed of four triangles, rising from each of the four sides, and meeting in a point at the top. The third vat will be represented by the white square, the angle of which touches it. At this point is fixed a second crane; and so the vats and cranes are continued to any extent the proprietor chooses. By these cranes the covers are moved with great ease. It is a subject of dispute which is the best invention, Sears's or Kelley's ; experience only can decide that point."
Capt. Sears was greatly assisted in the invention and improvement of the works by Capt. William Crowell, Capt. Christopher Crowell and Capt. Edward Sears of Dennis. These persons resigning to him their right and title to the invention, he applied to the national government for a patent, which he obtained in 1799.
"Such is the account which Capt. Sears himself gives. It is alleged by several persons, that he has not made a new discovery and consequently has no right to a patent. But whatever may be thought of Capt. Sears's merit as an inventor, there can be no dispute that he is entitled to applause for first introducing an important manufacture, by which he has contributed greatly to the prosperity of the village in which he resides, and to that of the country at large."
Incidental to this industry the manufacture of the Glauber-salts, once greatly esteemed in medical practice, sprang up and became quite an important adjunct of this business. This product was effected by boiling, and was considered of an excellent quality.
The value and extent of the salt business was for many years of great importance, to the county of Barnstable particularly. In 1801 there were 121,313 feet of works in the county, of which 50,430 were in Dennis and Yarmouth ; these works being calculated to manufacture about 44,000
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FROM THE PEACE OF 1783 TO THE WAR OF 1812-15.
bushels of salt. The capital invested in the business, in the year 1808, was nearly half a million of dollars. In 1830, about 600,000 bushels were manufactured by this process in Massachusetts alone, and a still larger quantity in Maine. In 1832, the county of Barnstable had 1,425,500 feet of vats, producing 358,250 bushels, but in 1834, the business was checked in consequence of the reduction of the duty. The policy of the general government was not wholly consistent or friendly in its aspect towards this industry ; sometimes encouraging it by placing a high duty on imported salt, and at other times reducing the impost to a low figure. The bounty offered by the state in the infancy of the business was afterwards withdrawn, the profits being found to be larger than that of other loeal industries. The development of the salt springs in New York and other places also tended to make the business less important and profitable, and for the last twenty-five years no new works have been erected, those still existing at that time being kept up by repairs, and operated with moderate success ; but at the time of writing this narrative (1884) hardly any works are standing as monuments of a onee flourishing industry .*
One by one, as the century closed, the leading actors of the Revolutionary period began to fall by the wayside. In 1799, Daniel Davis departed this life, at the age of 85 years, 6 months. He was an ardent and uncompromising Whig, and was elosely identified with the espousers of the patriot cause in the province. He was later in life chief justice of the court of Common Pleas, judge of Probate, and held other prominent positions.
In 1800, Aug. 22, the county sustained a severe loss in the death of Hon. Nathaniel Freeman, Jr., representative in
*Old Yarmouth.
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Congress from this district, at the early age of 34 years. He was a classmate at Harvard of John Quincy Adams, and divided the honors of the class with Mr. Adams in the graduation exercises. He embraced the profession of the law, as his pursuit in life. At the age of 30 years, upon the retirement of Hon. Shearsjashub Bourne, he was chosen that gentleman's successor in Congress, having previously filled with honor for several years the position of brigade- major on the staff of his father.
In 1801, David Thacher of Yarmouth departed this life. He was 27 years in the house of representatives, and one year in the senate from Barnstable county, and judge of the court of Common Pleas, and a member of the convention to form a state constitution, and of that to ratify the federal constitution. He was a leading character of the town during the Revolutionary War, his judgment being sound, and his sympathies on the side of his oppressed countrymen, though far from being an extremist in his political opinions ; his cautious temperament causing him at times to excite the distrust of the more ardent and impetuous patriots.
A memorable shipwreck occurred near Peaked Hill bars, off Provincetown, in 1802. Three Salem ships, the Ulysses, Brutus and Volutia, sailed together from Salem on a beautiful day in February, with valuable cargoes on board, one of them bound for Leghorn, the other two for Bordeaux. They encountered a sudden snow storm before reaching the Cape, and the three were wrecked near oue another on those treacherous bars, then as now the terror of sailors. The Brutus lost all but five of its crew, some twenty men ; the other two crews escaped with their lives. As an illustration of the facilities for the spread of intelligence in those days, it is stated that the account of those wrecks, which occurred February 22, did not reach Salem until
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FROM THE PEACE OF 1783 TO THE WAR OF 1812-15.
March 4, following, and it was not until the 8th of March that full intelligence was received there.
In 1804, a canal from Town Cove to Boat Meadow River, nearly on the boundary line between Orleans and Eastham, was dug by a company deriving its powers from the two towns, but the project did not prove a success. The legislature was petitioned for anthority to create a lottery in aid of the project, but no action was taken in that direction. The route chosen was over the region through which Capt. Southack sailed in 1718, when going to the scene of pirate Bellamy's shipwreck.
By the incorporation of Sandwich Academy, in 1804, was established an institution of learning in which the entire county was interested, both in its patronage and direction. A grant of one half-township of six miles square, of unappropriated land in the district of Maine, was made by the legislature for the use of such academy in some town of the county, on condition that $3000 be actually raised and secured from other sources for the endowment of the same. There was great rivalry among the towns and villages of the Cape to secure the location of the institution within their limits, but the citizens of Sandwich offered the most substantial inducements,-the chief of them being the pre-eminent qualifications of the proposed principal, Rev. Jonathan Burr-and the academy was located there. The trustees named in the act of incorporation were eighteen in number, eight from Sandwich and ten from other towns, viz : Rev. Jonathan Burr, Hon. Nathaniel Freeman, Dr. Jonathan Leonard, Wendall Davis, Esq., James Freeman, Esq., Mr. Wm. Fessenden, Mr. Stephen Bassett, Mr. Wm. Bodfish, Sandwich; Rev. Henry Lincoln, Thomas Jones, Esq., Falmouth ; Thomas Thacher, Esq., Yarmouth ; Rev. Levi Whitman, Wellfleet ; Rev. Oakes Shaw, David Scudder,
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Esq., Barnstable; Rev. John Simpkins, Brewster; Richard Sears, Esq., Chatham; Rev. Nathan Stone, Dennis ; Rev. Jude Damon. Truro. Hon. Nathaniel Freeman was president, and Mr. Win. Fessenden, treasurer, of the corporation for many years. For some time this academy was a most prosperous and useful educational instrumentality. But seetarian differences among the managers at last operated to undermine the usefulness of the institution, so that finally its management fell into control wholly local and sectarian. The building and lot which it occupied have recently been sold, and a new location sought, to which whatever remains of the academy interest has been trans- > ferred in connection with the Sandwich High school ._
Sept. 24, 1807, died in Dartmouth, Mass., Rev. Samuel West, D. D. He was born in Yarmouth, March 3, 1730, in the southeasterly part of the town, near Swan Pond. His father was Sackfield West, a man of humble fortunes, but of strong mind, who often used to exhort the Indians in their meeting-house near by. Samuel was early employed in the pursuit of husbandry, but discerning men discovering his abilities, the means of education were procured for him, and he graduated from Harvard College in 1754. "He became noted for his metaphysical and controversial talents, and was a thorough critic in Greek and Hebrew." He was a zealous Whig during the Revolution, and wrote much of a political character, and deciphered the letter of Dr. Church, to the British ministry, which disclosed that noted person's treason and duplicity. He was a member of the convention which formed the constitution of Massachusetts, and also of that which ratified the constitution of the United States. He was an honorary member of the Academy of Sciences at Philadelphia and at Boston. "He was," says Dr. Alden, "as remarkable for his mental powers as Dr.
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FROM THE PEACE OF 1783 TO THE WAR OF 1812-15.
Samuel Johnson, the great biographer and moralist. He was supposed to have much resembled him in personal appearance, and with the same literary advantages would, unquestionably, have equalled him for reputation in the learned world." His manners were very uncouth, and many anecdotes are told of his conduct while engrossed in thought or study, rendering him unconscious of the lapse of time and oblivious of everything around him. On one occasion he harnessed his horse to go to church, and, falling into a reverie, took the steed by the bridle and led it all the way there. He preached with great vigor and power, and without the aid of notes. The origin of the family is unknown. Dr. West had a brother, who was undis- tinguished .*
The commercial and maritime interests of the country, in which the people of the Cape had borne so prominent a part, were greatly imperilled by European complications. Soon after the Revolutionary War the commerce of the United States entered upon a career of rapid expansion and prosperity, which continued for nearly twenty years. Maintaining a strict neutrality with the belligerents of Europe, our people were enabled to enjoy the rich harvest derived from the carrying trade of the nations engaged in war. The people of the Cape were large sharers in this prosperity, and many ample fortunes were made by our enterprising shipmasters, who kept up the old-time reputation of their class for energy and perseverance. It was claimed, and the claim has not to the knowledge of the writer been disputed, that the sloop "Stork," of Boston, Capt. Ebenezer Sears, of Yarmouth, was the first craft that carried the American flag east of the Cape of Good Hope. The sloop of those days was not necessarily the small craft *Old Yarmouth.
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CAPE COD.
which passes under that classification at the present day, but was sometimes square-rigged, with standing royal yard, and capable of spreading large quantity of canvas. It was frequently of two or three hundred tons capacity, which in those days was regarded as a large vessel. There were a number of these crafts sailing from Boston at the beginning of the century, some of which were commanded by Barnstable county men.
In the opposite direction, during the year 1792, Capt. John Kenrick, in the private armed vessel, Columbia Redivivia, having for a tender the sloop Lady Washington, was the first American commander who circumnavigated the globe. It was claimed for him that "he discovered the Columbia River, and named it for his ship; sailed into Nootka Sound, rigged his tender into a brig, gave the ship in charge of his first lieutenant, Robert Gray, ordered him to enter the Columbia, and himself, in his little brig, returned via the East Indies and the Cape of Good Hope." Capt. Gray has been awarded the credit of the discovery of the Columbia River, * but it is indisputable that it was Capt. Kenrick's vessel, by his orders, which first entered the river, while the captain took his adventurous course towards home.
Not long after this time, while Capt. Kenrick was exploring seas unknown to his countrymen, another Cape shipmaster, Capt. Elijah Cobb, of Brewster, was invoking justice of the revolutionary government of France. His vessel had been seized and its cargo appropriated by the French authorities, at Brest, and, after a struggle, he had extracted from the French officials a promise of reparation, but no progress had been made in securing its performance. It was represented to him that the papers in the case had been sent to Paris ; and, after securing certified copies thereof, to
*Am. Cyclopædia, vol. V.
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FROM THE PEACE OF 1783 TO THE WAR OF 1812-15.
Paris he went to further prosecute his suit for redress. He arrived in that city in the midst of the bloodiest period of that fearful drama, the recital of which, even now, sends a thrill of horror through the civilized world. He was an eye-witness to the execution of hundreds of persons by the guillotine, of men, women, priests, civilians, of all ages and conditions of life. These scenes did not deter him from his purpose. He found the French officials to be tricky and evasive, and finally they pretended to have lost his papers and could not proceed. In this emergency he had bethought him of appealing to Robespierre himself, who, though hard-hearted and cruel, was not destitute of a sense of justice and public honor. In response to an appeal by letter from Capt. Cobb, representing himself as an American citizen, who had been captured by a French frigate on the high seas, and who desired an interview on business, he received reply, of which the following is a translation :
"I will grant Citizen Cobb an interview tomorrow at ten ROBESPIERRE."
a. m.
Capt. Cobb called at the appointed time. Robespierre's demeanor on this occasion was a model of courtesy and decorum, and he little resembled the monster he is generally pictured in contemporary history. Like Byron's pirate,
" He was the mildest mannered man,
That ever scuttled ship or cut a throat."
He heard Capt. Cobb to the end, then conversed with him in very good English, and at the close told him to call at the office in Rue St. Honorie, tell them who sent him there, and direct them, at the risk of his displeasure, to adjust the business upon which he called. Capt. Cobb did so, and at once had his claim allowed by the obsequious official. Before Capt. Cobb left Paris he witnessed the execution on
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CAPE COD.
the guillotine of Robespierre himself .* Capt. Cobb was destined to experience other adventures of a thrilling nature before returning home. He was some time a resident at Hamburg, and during the succeeding war was captured and imprisoned by a British frigate. The shipmaster in those days, beside being a thorough navigator, was required, before the advent of magnetic telegraphs, telephones and fast mails, to exercise the functions of supercargo and merchant, being so remote from his owners and employers that it was necessary to rely upon his own judgment and discretion. These exigencies developed first-class ability in many instances, and it was during this period that the business reputation and sagacity of Cape shipmasters was at the highest point.
Among the disadvantages attending the prosecution of foreign commerce by Americans, was the inadequacy of our naval forces in distant waters. The United States was for many years unable to claim respect for the flag or exact protection for those sailing under it. Even in the Barbary States, a tribute was required and enforced, and was submitted to for many years, as the price of exemption from capture. It seems strange at this day to record the fact, that in some of the churches of the Cape, in the early part of this century, it was not an unusual occurrence to take up a contribution of ransom money for captured American sailors, or for tribute for those who were voyaging to the Mediterranean and were liable to be overhauled by Algerine cruisers. It was not until the war of 1812-15 had demon- strated our naval strength, that the United States government was enabled to send Commodore Decatur to Algiers, who effectually chastised these piratical collectors of tribute and put an end to their extortions.
*Capt. Cobb's Autobiography, in Yarmouth Register, May, 1878.
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FROM THE PEACE OF 1783 TO THE WAR OF 1812-15.
In the complications which arose in Europe in the early part of the nineteenth century, it was difficult for the United States to avoid misunderstandings with two jealous and unreasonable rivals like England and France. Against England, especially, complaints were made of spoliations and insults. The British Orders in Council, on one hand, and the French Berlin and Milan decrees on the other, came near extinguishing our commerce. Then, after other ineffectual measures, came the Embargo act in 1807, prohibiting intercourse with all foreign countries, thus crushing out the remaining foreign trade which had escaped annihilation at the hands of the two great European contest- ants. It excited the fiercest political discussion between the Federalists and Republicans (or Democrats, as they were derisively called by their opponents, and began to call themselves. ) The measure brought ruin to many with but little good, however well meant. It was believed in the New England states to be aimed directly at their prosperity. They were certainly the greatest sufferers. Their fishing vessels were given up, and abandoned crafts of all kinds lay unused at the wharves. Their crews, out of employment and without the means of livelihood, swelled the volume of public discontent. Petitions from all parts of the county were sent to the President, to Congress and to the state legislature, deprecating the embargo, setting forth its disastrous effects and praying for relief. The restiveness of the people was not restrained within the strict limits of their legal rights. A vessel belonging to Brewster, which had been fitted ont to run the embargo, was captured off the Cape, by a sloop-of-war, and sent to Provincetown harbor. The captain communicated with the owners, a packet was manned and the prize was boarded, retaken, and sailed for Surinam. The U. S. marshal tried to investigate the affair,
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CAPE COD.
but was received in an unfriendly manner, and his efforts proved ineffectual.
All these clamors and indications of popular disapproba- tion with the results of the embargo were unavailing. Mr. Jefferson continued to justify the measure. He had the power, in certain contingencies, to suspend the act, but refused to exercise it. The discontent increased. John Quincy Adams, who, as a senator from Massachusetts, had sustained the president in this measure, and who, in consequence, was compelled to resign his position, his course being disapproved by the legislature, at length informed the president that this policy could be endured no longer, and just before Mr. Jefferson retired from office, the Embargo gave way to the Non-intercourse act, by which trade and commerce with England and France was interdicted. But little amelioration of the condition of affairs resulted from this measure. Other causes of irritation were constantly arising. The detention and search of American vessels and the impressment of American seamen on board of British men-of-war were of frequent occurrence, and the British government studiously refused reparation or assurances of discontinuance of the injurious practice. It was soon apparent that the alternative was either submission or war. The prospect, in any view, was most deplorable.
CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS, 1784-1812.
1784. Aug. 8, Rev. Abram Williams of Sandwich died .- Mr. Cornelius Crocker of Barnstable, tavern keeper, died, aged 80.
1765. Rev. Levi Whitman settled over the Wellfleet society .- An act passed the legislature to protect Pocha beach, in Eastham.
1786. An act passed the legislature for the protection of Province-
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CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS.
town harbor .- Rev. Caleb Upham of Truro died, and was succeeded by Rev. Jude Damon.
1787. Rev. Jonathan Burr succeeded Mr. Williams in Sandwich .- Mr. Elisha Tupper, missionary to the Indians, died in Pocasset, aged 80 .- Dr. Abner Hersey died in Barnstable.
1788. Col. Enoch Hallet of Yarmouth, sheriff of the county, died .- -Hon. Nymphas Marston of Barnstable died .- Rev. Enoch Eldredge ordained pastor of First Baptist church in Barnstable (Hyannis).
1789. Rev. Josiah Mann of Falmouth died, and Rev. Henry Lincoln succeeded him .- Barnstable offered a reward of $50 to any one who would kill the wolf that infested the vicinity, if killed in town; if elsewhere, $25.
1790. Sandwich offered a reward of $30 to any one who would kill the wolf, catamount or tiger that infested this and the neighboring towns; aud it was ordered, that if, in the opinion of the committee, a general muster of the inhabitants be necessary, every able-bodied mau be called upon to hunt him.
1791. Capt. Joshua Gray, of Revolutionary fame, died in Yarmouth. -Rev. Isaiah Dunster, pastor of North precinct of Harwich, died, and was succeeded by Rev. John Simpkins.
1792. The wolf continuing its ravages, a general muster of the inhabitants of Sandwich was ordered for its destruction .- Rev. Nathan Underwood was settled over the Second precinet of Harwich.
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