USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > Cape Cod, the right arm of Massachusetts : an historical narrative > Part 21
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During the year 1863, the realities of the war were brought home to the doors of our people by the incursion of the rebel privateer Tacony, which, coming upon our coast, captured, plundered and burned nineteen vessels, including five ships, the remainder being mostly fishing schooners. After cruising several days in this portion of the Atlantic, finding a U. S. vessel in pursuit, the Tacony was abandoned and destroyed The crew proceeded to Portland harbor, took possession of the revenue cutter Cushing, lying at anchor
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with a few men on board, and, upon being pursued, abandoned and destroyed it, and were afterwards captured and made prisoners.
In the operations around Richmond, in the spring of 1864, numerous casualties occurred to soldiers from Barnstable county, especially to Co. A, 58th Regiment, and Cos. E and I, 4th Regiment.
In 1862, January 1, Mason and Slidell, the two emissaries of the so-called Southern Confederacy, who had been captured by Capt. Wilkes and confined at Fort Warren, in Boston harbor, were brought to Provincetown harbor and delivered to the commander of British steamer Rinaldo, and proceeded to their destination.
The capture of Charleston and Richmond occasioned great rejoicing and patriotic demonstrations everywhere throughout the county, which were followed by less enthusiastic, but no less sincere, expressions of gratitude and relief.
The number of men furnished by the county for the army and navy, according to the selectmen's returns, was 2,305. But this refers probably to the inhabitants of the towns only, who enlisted under the several calls, for about 3,400 were requisite to fill the various quotas, and each of the towns not only did this, but had in the aggregate a surplus of 309 men above every demand, giving evidence that 3,600 or 3,700 men were furnished by the towns of the Cape. The total expense of the towns of the county on account of the war was $308,985.08. This is exclusive of $90,934.84, which was raised and paid in state aid to soldiers' families during the four years of the war, and which was reimbursed by the state. The total was $399,919.92 .* The loss of life of brave and devoted men, and the broken health of many of those who lived to return,
*Schouler's History of the Rebellion.
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were results which this community shared with others all over this broad land.
Although furnishing but few conspicuous examples of brilliant military achievements, such as were exhibited by her sons in the French wars and in the Revolution, the steadfastness and courage of the rank and file of the Cape contingent were equal to every emergency. A few of her native officers rose to distinction, and others fell a sacrifice to the duties of their positions.
Lieut .- Col. Charles Chipman, a native of Sandwich, of the 29th Massachusetts regiment, who was killed at Petersburg, Va., August 8th, 1864, was an officer of considerable merit, great gallantry and ardent patriotism. Brevet Major-General Josephi E. Hamblin, a native of Yarmouth, survived the war, but his death, which occurred in 1870, was directly traceable to hardships and rigors in the field. He entered the service as adjutant of the 5th New York regiment, and was promoted, by successive steps, for gallantry and meritorious service. He participated in sixteen important engagements, and was twice wounded at the battle of Cedar Creek, for which he was promoted to the rank of brigadier- general, by the recommendation of Gen. Sheridan. Capt. Chas. M. Upham of Chatham, of 58th Massachusetts regiment, was killed near Cold Harbor, Va., June 3, 1864. In the naval branch of the service this county furnished many excellent sailors, as well as a number of valuable officers for the volunteer force, and several skilful pilots of the highest value in the operations on the Southern coasts and harbors of the Confederacy.
The part taken by the people of the county in the arduous war, which followed the firing upon the flag, illustrated their patriotic impulses and their devotion to the Federal Union. Notwithstanding the ruin of their business, such as occurred
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to no other portion of the state, they put forth their whole efforts to suppress the Rebellion and subdue the enemies of the Union, as the official records and the foregoing brief recital illustrate. By the census of 1860, the county was found to contain a population of 36,011. The business pursuits of her people had prospered and the growth of her population had been gradually, though steadily, on the increase. Thousands of her citizens, who followed the seas for a livelihood, made their homes and established their families here. This was the climax of their prosperity and growth. The Slaveholders' Rebellion, which decimated the commerce of the nation, was nowhere more disastrous in its results than in the county of Barnstable. Unlike other communities, the people of this county had no other great industries to fall back upon when maritime business was abandoned. They were essentially a commercial people, and nothing else. When this pursuit failed they were obliged to seek new fields of enterprise, and in order to do so were compelled to remove to communities where suitable industries were already established.
For a better comprehension of the position of the people of this county as related to the war, the foregoing narrative has been given, without recording the events which would tend to interrupt the continuity of the relation. Returning to the year 1861, we have to record the departure from this life of citizens of eminence and ability in their various walks of life.
March 30, 1861, Chief Justice Lemnel Shaw suddenly expired at his home in Boston. He was born in West Barnstable, January 9, 1781, his father being Rev. Oakes Shaw, pastor of the church in that place. He graduated at Harvard college, and educated to the law, commencing his professional career in Boston. He was
..
LEMUEL SHAW.
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elected by that town, in 1816, a member of the legislature, serving seven years in the house of representatives and four in the senate. He was also a member of the constitutional convention of 1820. In 1830, he was appointed by Gov. Lincoln to the office of chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of the state, and retained the position for thirty years, voluntarily retiring in 1860. His reported decisions are characterized by great ability, a mastery of legal principles, and are quoted as authority in every state of the union as well as in the courts of Great Britain, stamping him as one of the greatest jurists of the age.
In 1863, January 11, occurred one of the very few deliberate murders which have stained the annals of the county. Isaiah T. Wright of East Sandwich, while passing in the night time through his field from one house to another, was shot and almost instantly killed. No reliable clue to the murder was ever obtained, and the transaction remains one of those mysterious affairs, which refute the oft-quoted maxim, "Murder will out."
During the year 1863, a camp-meeting association was formed of Cape and Boston Methodists, with societies from some other localities, and the first camp-meeting was held in a grove at Yarmouth, on the line of the Hyannis Branch railroad, commencing August 11, 1863, and continuing a week. The camp-meetings, which for about a quarter of a century had been held in Eastham, and were famous resorts for the primitive Methodists, were found to be inaccessible, and had been for a year or two abandoned, when Yarmouth was selected as a more desirable locality.
Hon. William Sturgis died in Boston, Oct. 21, 1863, aged 81 years. Mr. Sturgis was born in Barnstable, and at the early age of 19 years was in command of a ship. His voyages to the northwest coast, to China and the East
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Indies, were attended with adventures and perils of an almost romantic character. He quitted the sea with a large fortune and established himself in mercantile pursuits in Boston. He was several years a member of the legislature. He was a keen and witty debater and a valuable legislator. He wrote much for the public journals, being an independent thinker and possessed of an engaging style of composition. As a public lecturer he was greatly esteemed in departments covered by his own experience and observation. He at one time contributed over $1,000 to the Barnstable Agricultural Society, to relieve it from debt, and his heirs have since his death carried out the intention formed in his life-time, to found and endow a public library for his native town, Barnstable.
In 1864, May 2, ex-Judge Nymphas Marston died at his residence in Marston's Mills. He was born in that town in February, 1788. He graduated at Harvard college in 1807, was educated for the legal profession, and was a very successful and popular practitioner. He was county attorney from 1816 to 1829. He was a member of the constitutional convention of 1820, served a year in the house of representatives, and was in the senate in the years 1826-7-8. In the latter year he was appointed judge of Probate for Barnstable county, and continued in office until his resignation, in 1854.
December 30, Hon. Zenas D. Basset died in Hyannis, aged 78 years. He was in early life engaged in commerce, as master and owner of shipping, and kept up his latter relation for many years thereafter. He was elected to the state senate, serving in the years 1851-2, and was six years on the board of county commissioners. He was also for about twenty years president of the Barnstable Connty Mutual Fire Insurance Company.
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In 1865, Nov. 20, died in Truro, Hon. Solomon Davis, aged 65 years. Mr. Davis was a native and constant resident of that town. He had held, besides a number of town offices, the positions of representative and senator in the legislature, and was a member of the executive council for two years, under the administration of Gov. Briggs.
CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS, 1861-1865.
1861. October, Frederic Hallet, councillor-at-law, Yarmouth, died, aged 25 years.
1862. March, Jonathan Nickerson, Esq., of Dennis, died, aged 88. He was 19 years a selectman, and several years special county com- missioner.
1864. Jan. 2, Capt. Isaiah Crowell died in South Yarmouth. He had been a successful shipmaster, was later representative to the legis- lature, and president of the Barnstable Bank of Yarmouth,-Jan. 22, Benjamin Burgess, Esq., West Sandwich, died, aged 86 .- Nov. 21, the "First National Bank of Yarmouth," successor to the Barnstable Bank, chartered under the state laws, went into operation.
1865. Jan. 12, Job Chase, Esq., West Harwich, died .- April 8, two men killed and one wounded in Harwich, while firing a salute over Union victories .- Dec. 6, Cape Cod Central railroad, running from Yarmonth to Orleans, a distance of 18 miles, opened to public travel.
CHAPTER XVII.
FROM WAR OF THE REBELLION TO OUR OWN TIMES.
Maritime Business depressed at close of the War-Cranberry Culture as a Business-Packets and Stage Coaches vs. Steam Roads-Cape Cod Railroad projects- Mails, Express Lines, Magnetic Telegraphs - Diking Provincetown Harbor-Bass River Bridges-Storm on Buzzard's Bay - Mashpee a Town-Death of Gen. Joseph E. Ham- blin- Yarmouth Library Building-Wreck of Ship Peruvian- Life Saving service-Hon. Seth Crowell -Railroad to Province- town-Nathan Freeman's donation to Provincetown-Cape Cod Canal projects-Hon. George Marston-Bourne incorporated - President Grant visited the Cape-Death of Amos Otis-Falmouth Second Centennial Celebration-Death of IIon. Nath'l E. Atwood, Hon. Joseph K. Baker, and Hon. John B. D. Cogswell-Quarter Millennial Celebrations in Sandwich and Yarmouth-Wreck of Ship Jason-Death of Capt. Thomas P. Howes-Memorial Tablet at Provincetown- Barnstable County Normal School in Hyannis.
HE war ended and the supremacy of the government assured, the army was dis- banded and the union volunteers who had acted so great a part, like Cromwell's soldiery, once more became private citizens, ready to resume their old places in the ranks of peaceful industry. But to the soldiers and sailors of Cape Cod, those places no longer remained open. A great change, apparent even before the dawn of the rebellion, but accelerated by its occurrence, was evident in maritime business, in the modes of marine construction and the methods of the transportation of merchandise. Iron steamships and the remarkable develop-
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ment of railroad service all over the country are responsible for this change. The vessels destroyed by confederate cruisers, or allowed to decay in port, were not replaced by new ones, and those already in service became unremunera- tive to a great extent. A large proportion of the men of Cape Cod, who had grown prosperous upon the sea and had established comfortable homes here, were obliged to seek new forms of industry and many of them removed to other and distant fields of labor. The population of the county, which, according to the U. S. census in 1860, had reached its highest point, 36,011, declined to 32,774 in 1870, to 31,945 in 1880, and to 29,172 in 1890. Whether this downward course has at length been stayed, is what all are asking, but which none can with confidence answer.
But for the development of the cranberry culture there is every reason to believe that the decreasing tendency of the numbers of onr population would have been much greater than it really proved. This pungent little berry has been for years known to and esteemed by epicures, though until recent years it has not been an article of popular consumption. As long ago as 1677, the authorities of Massachusetts colony tried to appease the wrath of King Charles II., who was angry with them for coining "pine tree " shillings, by sending him a present of those three choice products of the colony, ten barrels of cranberries, two hogsheads of samp and three thousand codfish. The berry is indigenous to our soil and is better developed here than in any other locality in the country. About seventy years ago the experiment was tried of cultivating this fruit. The first successful cultivator seems to have been Mr. Henry Hall of Dennis, who commenced the business in 1816; and Messrs. Zebina H. Small, Cyrus Cahoon, Alvan Cahoon and Nathaniel Robbins of Harwich were early and successfully engaged
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in the business, on an extensive scale. Shortly before the war there was a considerable development in this direction, and remarkable prices and great profits were recorded. The unemployed men who had returned from the war, and those who had lost their employment on shipboard, in many cases found a business at their hand, and thousands of acres of heretofore useless swamp land were reclaimed and cultivated with success. When the supply of land became short on Cape Cod, Cape men, who had acquired skill and experience in this business, transferred their field of operations to the adjoining towns of Plymouth county, which now has a larger area of cranberry land under cultivation than the Cape, though Cape skill and Cape capital are largely in the ascendant there. No strictly accurate figures of the business for several years have been compiled, but probably 150,000 barrels, worth $1,000,000, would not much vary in amount and value from the product of the Old Colony in 1895, the most pros- perous year of the business. The preparation of the grounds, the extermination of the noxious weeds, plants and insects, the manufacture of packages for transportation, and more especially the gathering of the fruit in the fall, give employment to hundreds of persons of both sexes and all ages, generally of the younger generations. Many novel inventions for greater facility in harvesting the crops have of late years been perfected, which aid in saving from the destruction of the dread frosts a great portion of the product, which would otherwise be ruined. There is about 3500 acres of cranberry land in Barnstable county, accord- ing to the assessors' returns, and the average cost, at $400 per acre, would make the total investment $1,400,000.
In other ways than in their business pursuits the social condition and usages of the people of Barnstable county have greatly changed within the last third of a century.
FROM WAR OF THE REBELLION TO OUR OWN TIMES. 285
[ Fifty Wyears ago, almost the entire intercourse with Boston and the outside world was carried on by means of sailing packet lines. From every village of the inside shore of the Cape one or more of these lines was maintained, and passengers and merchandise were conveyed by them to and from Boston. 7 These lines were also maintained between that city and Chatham, on the southeastern extreme of the Cape, but the usual custom was to notify the south shore dwellers of the time of departure and arrival of these vessels, by signals hoisted on some eminence discernible to the citizens of these villages. Speed and comfortable accommodations were prime factors in these crafts, and a good deal of rivalry existed among the owners, sailors and agents of the vessels. [The stage coaches ran daily for the exclusive transportation of the mails, except in the instance of what may be styled "emergency passengers." Persons, who had to reach their destination at a fixed time and dared not trust to the uncertainties of the wind and water, were given the facilities of these lines. One by one, as railroad communication was established, these packets were with- drawn, but not until they had encountered opposition from steamboats from Barnstable, about 1842-3, and several sepa- rate periods thereafter./ Provincetown, alone, is the only - port in the county where daily steamboat communication with Boston is attempted to be kept up nearly all the year 'round. The Cape Cod Branch Railroad, as heretofore stated, was opened to Sandwich in 1848, and extended to Hyannis in 1854, and the Cape Cod Central was opened from Yarmouth to Orleans in 1865, extended to Wellfleet in 1870, and to Provincetown in 1873. In 1872 the railroad was extended from Buzzard's Bay to Wood's Hole, at about which time the steamboat line, which had been maintained for several years between Hyannis and Nantucket, was
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withdrawn. A branch railroad line from Harwich to Chatham, opened in 1887, completed the service to this county, leaving but one town-Mashpee - without a railroad line within its limits.
The rapid intercourse with the outside world, which this new facility for travel established, did not change the habits of the people of this county so greatly as it would have done a more rural community, as in every village were scores of those who, some of them with their families, had visited all portions of the habitable globe, and were well acquainted with the ways of the world. But, nevertheless, the steam cars brought many changes, such as rapid transit of travellers, twice-daily mails, and express companies for the quick despatch of merchandise.
The evolution of the mail service within the limits of the county had progressed slowly, in consequence of our being remote from any line of travel between the great cities, and the isolated situation of the towns. A post route between Cambridge and Falmouth, via Plymouth and Sandwich, was established in 1775, Joseph Nye being named as the postmaster of the latter town, and Moses Swift of Falmouth. Thursday, 8 o'clock, a. m., was the date of arrival at Falmouth, and Thursday noon the date of departure for Cambridge. This was doubtless a temporary arrangement, called out by the exigencies of the war. The U. S. mail to Sandwich and Falmouth was established about a century ago. The first U. S. mail between Boston and Barnstable was established in 1792, when the Postmaster-General contracted with John Thaeher, of the latter town, to perform the service for $1.00 per day, against the protests of the party of economy, which existed then as now. It took two days to go and two to return, and the service was performed on horseback, the mail being carried on one side of a
FROM WAR OF THE REBELLION TO OUR OWN TIMES. 287
saddlebag and the other side reserved for packages. A post-office was established in Barnstable probably the same year, in Yarmouth in 1795, and in Harwich in 1798. The latter year, Provincetown in town meeting voted "to petition to have a post come down to the Cape," and in 1801 the post-office was established and a postmaster appointed. During the war of 1812-15, the mails were brought to Barnstable and Yarmouth twice each week, about 1820 three times each week, and in 1837 daily. Below Yarmouth the service remained for many years at once per week. When peace with Great Britain was declared, in 1815, as we learn from a letter written by Josiah Whitman, postmaster at Wellfleet, "by the uncommon severity of the weather, the then mail carrier, Mr. Davis, did not go through the route for three weeks. On the week after the news of peace reached Boston, Mr. Thacher came down with the mail, and at that time there was an almost impossibility of travelling, on account of the snow being drifted, but he, knowing the route so well and every by-path, did accomplish it. The next week we had no mail arrived." In 1820, a petition was circulated in the lower towns to have a mail twice a week, which was established soon after. In the winter, the mail carrier used to take with him a saw and axe to clear obstructions when a snow storm compelled him to cross the fields, the towns not being accustomed to clear the highways from snow. About 1830, the service was extended to Provincetown three times a week, and daily, about 1846. From this to a double service daily upon the advent of the steam cars was a notable change, which effected many innovations in the social and business customs of the people.
The railway postal service which followed was initiated in 1855, when one man started from Boston in the morning in
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charge of the mails, with authority to take and despatch letters along the route to Hyannis, returning in the afternoon to Boston. One pouch was sufficient for the letters and a few sacks for the newspaper mail, where now from 150 to 200 pouches per day are required. The present force comprises six clerks, running through the entire route.
An express line, known as the Cape Cod Express Co., was established in 1848, and ran from Boston, following the extension of the railroad service. In 1877, the New York and Boston Despatch Express Company commenced covering the same territory, and after two and a half years of competition, the two companies were united under the name of the latter.
Communication by magnetic telegraph was established between Boston and the Cape, in 1855. Two lines, in fact, were projected and put in operation about the same time, one known as the Boston & Cape Cod Marine Telegraph Company, the other as the Cape Cod Telegraph Company. The two lines, after a lively competition of two or three years, were "consolidated," and were then "absorbed" by the Western Union Telegraph Company. A telegraphic cable, in 1856, was extended from Nobsque Point to Gay Head, a distance of 3} miles. The same year a cable 14 miles long was laid from Monomoy to Great Point in Nantucket. Communication was for two days transmitted through it, but the force of the current or some other cause broke the cable and the enterprise was abandoned. In 1858, a cable was laid across Muskeget channel, and estab- lished telegraphie communication between Edgartown and Nantucket. There were frequent obstructions and the cable was abandoned in 1861. Other lines between the main land and the islands were attempted, and after a while abandoned. In 1887, Congress having made an appropriation to maintain
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a cable from Wood's Hole to Nantucket, via the Vineyard, as an auxiliary to the life saving service, also permitting the transmission of news and commercial messages, communi- cation, with occasional interruptions, has since been main- tained. This method of transmitting intelligence was supplemented, in 1882, by telephone service by the New Bedford system, with offices in West Barnstable, Osterville, Hyannis, Cotuit and Marston's Mills, and the following year the service was extended to the remaining towns below Barnstable. Thus the marvels of half a century ago became the every-day incidents and instrumentalities of our own times.
Having recounted the chief agencies which have trans- formed the Cape Cod of the fathers to the Cape Cod as this generation knows it, the following pages will record only the more striking and prominent events in the memory of the generation now on the stage of action.
The dangers which threatened Provincetown harbor by the rapid wearing away by the action of the tides and currents of the outer beach which protected East Harbor, became so imminent, that, in the failure of the general government to take remedial measures, the legislature of Massachusetts passed a resolve which was approved May 9, 1867, appropriating $100,000 for constructing a sea wall or other solid and permanent structure across the opening of East Harbor. The commissioners appointed to superin- tend the work were James B. Francis of Lowell, Richard A. Pierce of New Bedford and James Gifford of Provincetown. Mr. Francis, who was a skillful civil engineer, originated and planned the work, which was accepted by the authorities, and Mr. Paul of Lowell had charge of the construction and superstructure. After a
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