USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Duxbury > Historic Duxbury in Plymouth county, Massachusetts, 3rd ed. > Part 3
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From the summit of this hill a fine view is given of the bay, islands and' various places of historic interest in the vicinity, which are particularly described in this chapter, as we follow around by the points of the compass until we have completed the circle, noting the objects in view and the location of others not so plainly seen; beginning at the Duxbury Light, that lies below us in a southeasterly direction at the mouth of Duxbury and Plymouth bays, and marks the end of a shoal
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that leads out from the points of land to the northward. This lighthouse was not built till 1871, but there is a stone pier side of it that was built in 1813. The light is of the fifth class, and thirty-five feet above high water. This side of the light is a deep area and good anchorage ground called the Cow Yard, which was much used in stress of weather in former times, and will again be used more than ever, should the Cape Cod Canal ever be made. Turning now to the east- ward, and bearing a little south of east, these highlands lie in a bunch,- Saquish Point, Clark's Island and Gurnet Head. The nearest, Clark's Island, was named for the mate of the "Mayflower," who was said to be the first to place foot upon it, on Saturday, Dec. 19, 1620, two days before the landing at Plymouth. This was an exploring party from the "Mayflower," then lying in Cape Cod Harbor. The next day being Sunday, they passed the day in resting, so the history says. Near the central part of the island there is a high boulder, upon which some years ago the Massachusetts Historical Society had cut the words from Mourt's Relation :
ON THE SABBOTH DAY WEE RESTED).
The island contains eighty-four acres of good soil, and is much used for pasturage; it has been held by one family since 1690, and was till a few years since owned by one member of that family. In range with Clark's Island, and about two miles distant is the Gurnet, a widening out of the beach, and much higher in elevation, something like fifty feet above tide water, which has a good soil, and in early times was wooded,
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CAPTAIN'S HILL.
a fact spoken of in the chapter on Maps. It is somewhat strange that these peninsulas jutting into the bay should have a better soil than the land further back in the interior. The name Gurnet first appears in Winslow's Relation, printed in 1622, but where it gets its derivation is not known. The point was early called "the Gurnet's Nose." It has about twenty-seven acres, now considerably built upon by summer sojourners. At the Gurnet's Nose there are two lights called the Gurnet Lights, which are much used by vessels coming into Massachusetts Bay, to get their position. The present lights are one hundred and two feet above high water, thirty- one feet apart, and in a course northwest and southeast, of the fourth class, and show at twelve and one-half miles. The first lighthouses were built here by the Province in 1768; these being burned in 1801, others were built in 1803, and the present structures were built in 1842.
This has always been a favorite place for a fort. There was one in 1776, having six guns from six to twelve pounds calibre. In 1812-15 the fort was mounted with some forty- two pounders, and during that time was the quarters of a large garrison. In the Civil War a new fort was constructed mounting more efficient and heavier guns, and styled Fort Andrews. Many believe that the " Norseman" visited this head- land, as it is told that in 1003 Thorwald wintered in about the latitude of forty-one to forty-two, which is thought to have been in Narragansett or Buzzard's bays. The next spring he cruised along an extended promontory, the description of which answers well to that of Cape Cod; within this penin-
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sula he found a great bay, and upon the western side of the bay came to a fine headland. Later on he was mortally wounded by the natives, and requested that he be buried on the headland, which is thought by the afore mentioned to be Gurnet Head.
The southern end of this group as it appears from our point of view is Saquish, and the outermost, Saquish Head ; this promontory was in early times an island, as is mentioned in the chapter on Maps. It contains about fourteen acres of land, and is also used for pasturage, it being well situated for the purpose, and the soil being good.
The name Saquish is of Indian origin, and means a sort of clam, or perhaps is a corruption of an original word. In early times the clam was very plentiful on the shores of this peninsula. In the Civil War there was a small fort built here by the Government, and named Fort Standish.
Continuing our view from the northern end of Clark's Island in range almost due east, is the beginning of Duxbury beach proper, connecting with the Gurnet peninsula. This stretch of beach extends in a northwesterly direction about five miles, where it joins the higher lands of Green Harbor. In early times it was called Salt-house beach, but the former name is now almost universally used. This beach is a long extension of sand dunes bare of vegetation, except beach grass, and has had the same appearance from the earliest times, except a small knoll called High Pines, about one-third the way from the end of Clark's Island towards the new bridge in visual sight. This knoll has now a small growth of stunted trees,
DUXBURY BEACH.
-
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CAPTAIN'S HILL.
but formerly had a large growth of pitch pine, which gave it its name, as early, it is said, as 1637. About a mile out to sea from this knoll is High Pines Ledge, where many ves- sels were lost in past times, more than now, as the greater draft of modern vessels makes them keep away from our shores. The illustration shows Duxbury beach in its sunnier aspect; those who have lived by it for many years cannot be oblivious to its harsher outlook, when in former times after the storms the waves brought in the bodies from the wrecks; many of these were foreigners, who very likely were along our shores for the first time; some were sailors and some were passengers, but whatever their different circumstances and wherever they may have come from, they were all quietly buried together in the cemetery, at the town's expense, un- named and unknown.
" Life giving, death giving, which shall it be, O breath of the merciful, merciless sea ?"
The beach does not form an effectual barrier against the ravages of the ocean in a high storm, as at various times the sea has broken through at places. In the time of Daniel Webster, and through his exertions, the openings between the sand dunes were closed by structures built to catch the sand and form a bank or dam to prevent the sea breaking through, and was paid for by an appropriation of Congress. At this time an appropriation was made by the town, and the beach purchased. It remained in possession of the town till a por- tion of it was sold to the French Cable Company in 1869, and the remainder sold to private persons in 1871.
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The barriers not being kept up and repaired, the openings have continually widened by the violent storms that periodi- cally occur, but it was left for the unprecedented storm of Nov. 27, 1898, to do the greatest damage, when the waves burst through in many places, leaving gaps over half a mile in width, taking the sand dunes down level with an ordinary high water. This is the greatest storm ever known, both in its violence and the height to which the waves rose, its nearest predecessor being the storm of April, 1851, which carried away the Minot's Ledge Lighthouse on the Cohasset rocks.
A little north of the range from the northern end of Clark's Island, over the beach, at a distance of twenty-three miles, on the end of Cape Cod is the town of Provincetown, the town-house of which can be seen on a clear day, and the shores of the Cape reaching southerly. Cape Cod was named by an early navigator, Bartholomew Gosnold, in 1602, because of the quantities of that fish which he saw in the vicinity.
In a direction about northeast from our point of view is the bridge that leads from Powder Point to the beach. This is half a mile in length, with a draw at the channel to allow passage to the bay above, and was built by the town and private parties in 1892. A little farther towards the north is Rouses' Hummock, quite a high, wooded knoll that was named for one of the first settlers in early times. This knoll is the property of the French Cable Company, and is where the cable lands. They have a small building there for some of their testing apparatus, but their main building, where their
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CAPTAIN'S HILL.
messages are received, is on Washington Street in the town, just north of Bluefish River. In range with Rouses' Hum- mock is Powder Point, an early settlement of the town, else- where mentioned in the chapter on Shipping and Roads,
*
STANDISH MONUMENT FROM POWDER POINT.
where the Ezra Westons carried on their large businesses. The wharf is still there, and some of the buildings, now the property of Mr. F. B. Knapp, who has here a large private school for boys.
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In the same range is the mouth of Bluefish River, named early in the settlement. It is a tidal river heading in the marshes back of the village, but also fed by brooks coming from the interior of the town. . Shipyards were along the lower part of this river, and it was here above the bridge on Washington Street that the shipping was hauled up the river in the 1812 War, to get it out of the way of an attack by boats from English frigates that were cruising outside the Gurnet. To guard the shipping a water battery was built at the mouth of the river on a small peninsula, now the land of Capt. James Killian, mounting two twelve-pounders, and a few hundred feet above, near Fort Street, back of the present post-office, was a small fort mounting three six-pounders ; guns were also placed at other points along the shore, all manned by Duxbury men; and besides this force there was a garrison of State troops at the Gurnet. There were also alarm boats called the " row guard " that plied between the Gurnet and Plymouth beach, which were to give the alarm on the approach of an expedition from the frigates, which was to be answered by the batteries in the villages and a bon- fire on this hill. This was to be taken up by signal stations in Plymouth and Kingston, to summon the minute men from the surrounding country. Along this shore from Bluefish River to the peninsula of this hill is now the main settlement of the town, and which is alluded to particularly in the chapter on Shipbuilding, as the place where many vessels were built, and in the chapter on the Town. Nearer to us on this village street, about a mile distant, is the chateau-like
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residence of the late Fanny Davenport, called Melbourne Hall. Continuing around in a northerly direction we pass over the long reach of marshes that lie between the towns of Duxbury and Marshfield, and almost due north four and three-quarters miles distant is the home of Daniel Webster, where he lived and died; and in the neighborhood of his home and burial place are the historical places of Marshfield in other chapters described.
Continuing around to west of north is the spire of the fourth building of the original Church that was gathered in 1632. This is also the site of the third building, that was built in 1787. Almost in direct range is the old cemetery, or burial place, near where stood the first and second buildings of the same Church, built respectively in about 1635 and 1706, and where the grave of Myles Standish is, the fort-like monument now built over it being shown in illustration at the end of the chapter on Old Burial Places. Reaching up towards this burial ground, bearing more to the northwest from us, is Morton's Bay or Hole. Winsor says, in his history, that the name comes from a hole in the flats that can be seen near the mouth of the bay, on a chart, westerly from this hill. Quite as likely the word "hole" applies to the bay, a common definition in early times along the coast for what would now be called a bay. This bay and the shore adjacent was very much used by the first settlers as their landing place, in their communication with Plymouth.
To the southwest lies the coast used in early times for ship- building, and salt-making by pumping up sea-water into tanks
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by windmills; and it is a curious fact in this connection that the old windmill passed on with the spinning-wheel; but the former has had a resurrection in our day, with a more enlarged application, which will never again come to the latter, except by romantic young women afflicted with the old-time mania. Although Mr. Winsor in his history says the first wharf was built in the village about 1785, a wharf is shown on this stretch of shore-line on the map made in 1768, referred to in the chapter on Maps.
A quarter of a mile off this shore on the flats, and a mile from our point of view, are the Cripple Rocks. They are particularly noteworthy, as rocks are scarce on the coast here between Manomet Bluffs and Cohasset. These are shown on the map made in the middle of the eighteenth century, and we are sure they are the same often noted by the first settlers ; and are something we can feel certain appear the same as when first discovered.
Retracing back to observe objects more distant, one can see in a northwesterly direction a high hill, probably one of the Blue Hills; and about in the same range the first church in Pembroke and the Whitman water-tower. The town of Pem- broke was taken from Duxbury in 1711. Some little further over to the west can be seen the water-tower of Brockton, and bearing about west the water-tower of Bridgewater on Sprague's Hill.
A little further south, about southwest, lies the mouth of Jones River, named for the captain of the " Mayflower." At the head of the estuary part of the river lies the attractive
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town of Kingston, reaching out of which can be discerned the spire of the first church, one that would be considered old in any other part of the country, although it was not gathered till 1720, and the town not incorporated till 1726. Further on to the south is the Plymouth village of Seaside, where is located the largest rope walk or manufactory in the country ; so here is something modern mixed in with the old landmarks. Further on and almost due south is the Pilgrim Monument, that was longer in building than our monument here. It was begun forty or more years ago, and dedicated only a few years since. Further, a little southeasterly, lies the village of Plymouth, with all the interesting objects connected with that ancient town.
Plymouth Rock, on the shore in front of the town, is thus spoken of by Alexis de Tocqueville, the most gifted foreign author that ever wrote on this country :
This rock is become an object of veneration in the United States. I have seen bits of it carefully preserved in several towns of the Union. Does not this sufficiently show that all human power and greatness is in the soul of man ? Here is a stone which the feet of a few outcasts pressed for an instant, and this stone becomes famous; it is treasured by a great nation, its very dust is shared as a relic, and what is become of the gate- ways of a thousand palaces ?
Further on southeasterly lies Plymouth Beach, or Long Beach. This long neck of land suffered very much in the great storm of Nov. 27, 1898, when houses and hillocks were carried away by the rough breakers. About southeast in visual sight between the end of Long Beach and Saquish Head, and on the ocean side of them, lies Brown's Bank, or
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Shoal, particularly alluded to in the chapter on Maps; and in the same range over six miles distant is Rocky Point and the hills of Manomet, which answer the description of the coast given by Mrs. Hemans :
" The breaking waves dashed high On a stern and rock-bound coast."
These highlands were known and commented on by the early navigators before Plymouth existed. In this same range, between the heads of Plymouth Beach and Saquish, is Dux- bury Light; that was our starting-point in the visual pilgrimage we have made around the circle. We have still a few places to note at our feet, in the foreground on Captain's Hill peninsula. In range with the northern end of Clark's Island is the Myles Standish House, a large summer hotel with cottages around it. In front of the hotel on the shore is a copious spring of water, which the proprietors have named the Myles Standish Spring, that is said to be especially pure in its quality. This water is sent to the cities, where it is sold in, large quantities. This tract was without doubt the ancient farm of Elder Brewster, and the site of his house is about a quarter of a mile from the hotel, southerly. Looking around more to the south, about in range with Duxbury Light, is a bluff by the shore covered with bushes. This is the site of Myles Standish's house, particularly described in the chapter on Old Houses. A quarter of a mile nearer to us is the house of Alexander Standish, son of the Captain, said to have been built in 1666, which is also described in the same chapter.
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OLD BURIAL PLACES.
VII.
OLD BURIAL PLACES.
" WHERE heaves the turf on many a mouldering heap, Each in his narrow cell forever laid
The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep."
T HE first public burial place of the town is now proved to be the one on Chestnut Street between Bailey's and Hall's Corners. How early the first interment was made it is now impossible to say, but without doubt very soon after the settle- ment. As it was customary in those times for the church building, or meeting-house, as it was then called, to follow the burial place, or the burial place to follow the church, and as we know the church was here soon after the settlement, we can conclude that the burial place must have been established soon after.
The oldest stone is marked 1697, a particular description and illustration of which is given further on. This stone is slate, and of a kind that was imported from England. That there were no stones of earlier date does not prove that the burial ground is not old, as there are very few gravestones to be found anywhere in the Old Colony bearing date before 1700, which fact is commented on at length further on in this chap- ter. Mr. Huiginn, one of our antiquaries, spoke of a grave that he found inside this yard carefully stoned, near the southeast corner ; and this is likely, as he conjectures, that of one of the
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early leaders, Elder Brewster, or one of the first ministers of the church. Mr. Huiginn also locates the first church building in the extreme southeast corner of the yard, because of find- ing there the marks of a foundation. Up to 1886 nothing was done to the enclosure except to keep it surrounded by an ordinary post-and-rail fence. In that year the Rural Society, a local organization for setting out trees and in other ways improving the public places of the town, put up a rustic fence on the street side, cleaned up the yard and set out shrubs. This yard contains one and one-quarter acres, and is bounded by Chestnut Street in front, while rough roads encircle it on the other sides, one of them continuing north to Depot Street. This road the writer thinks is very old, probably among the very first in the town. To the east of the enclosure is a vacant place belonging to the town, where stood the second church building.
All the burial stones previous to 1700 in this part of the country, and nearly all for a hundred years later, were small, thin slabs of slate, a foot or so above the ground and half as much beneath the surface. Those set previous to 1700 were mostly brought from abroad, and were generally Welsh slate, which must have made them very expensive, and out of reach of the general run of people.
As the grave of Myles Standish is supposed to be within this enclosure, and as the writer had considerable to do with investigating the subject, he will here state what came under his observation : Previous to 1889 some of the members of the Duxbury Rural Society had heard that there was a tradi-
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tion,- that between two three-cornered shaped stones in the old burial ground had been buried Myles Standish, and it was proposed that some of them should investigate the matter. This came to a head in April of the above year by the follow- ing persons opening the grave: F. B. Knapp, the writer, Prof. A. B. Hart of Harvard College, and member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, with the assistance of some boys attending Mr. Knapp's school; and I copy from my diary these notes made at the time :
" Monday, April 15, 1889. Opened what purported to be Myles Standish's grave at old burial ground, Duxbury, marked by two triangular shaped stones. The skeleton found there was ascertained to be that of a woman. A trench was dug five feet to the south of the skeleton, but no grave found, but one was found four feet to the north, the skeleton of which measured as follows: In length, from top of skull to end of tibia, 5 feet 52 inches; for foot (estimated), 2 inches; total length of skeleton, 5 feet 73 inches; length of femur, I foot 74 inches; smallest circumference, 33 inches; length around the skull, I foot 9 inches; length of tibia, I foot 3g inches ; length of humerus, I foot Ig inches; length of ulna, 10} inches. These measurements were made under the supervision of a physician."
These are all the notes taken. Anyone wishing to follow the subject further will find articles by the Rev. Mr. Huiginn in the Boston Herald of April 27, 1891; in the Boston Tran- script of May 26 and June 27, 1891; also in a pamphlet published by Mr. Huiginn in 1892, entitled "The Graves of
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Myles Standish and Other Pilgrims." Mr. Knapp, who was present at another exhumation in company with Mr. Huiginn, tells the writer that he was struck with the resemblance in the shape of the skulls, shown by the skeleton of the man found, as related above, and that of the young woman, marked by the triangular shaped stones, and these with the head of an old lady present, Miss Caroline B. Hall, who was a descendant of Myles Standish.
The writer in August, 1895, replaced in this old burial ground the stone to the memory of Jonathan Alden, dated 1697, an account of which was published at the time in the Old Colony Memorial, a weekly paper of Plymouth, and which is here reproduced :
THE OLDEST BURIAL STONE IN DUXBURY.
Mr. Laurence Bradford has lately replaced in the old burial ground in South Duxbury a stone to Jonathan Alden, a son of the Pilgrim John Alden, and thus relates the history of how this stone came to be lost and how he found and has had it reset.
Mr. Ezra Weston, who formerly lived in and owned the house and place now in possession of Mr. Frederick B. Knapp, was a person of leisure, and much interested in preserving the antiquities of the town. He took great interest in preserving all memorials relating to the early settlers, and consequently took much interest in the old burial ground near South Duxbury, where many of his ancestors were buried. He had no desire to change its ancient look, but wanted it to appear just as it was - the oldest burial place of the town, and the site of the Pilgrim Church ; but he had the old stones cleaned and many of them reset and recut. If he had ever heard that there was a likelihood of Myles Standish being buried there he would have enjoyed investigating the evidences and preserving the tradi- tion. Mr. Weston found a part of a stone to the memory of Jonathan Alden, son of the Pilgrim, as above stated, and not knowing where to place it, took it home, where it remained for more than thirty years. Mr. Weston
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died in 1852, when the Powder Point house went into possession of his brother, Alden Weston. The latter died in 1880, and when his estate was settled the heirs found this stone, and thinking the person most interested in it would be Miss Lucia A. Bradford, gave it to her. Miss Bradford always wanted it replaced in the old burial ground, but did not think the place could be found where it would mark the resting-place of Jonathan Alden, to whose memory it had been originally placed, so she thought of placing it in Pilgrim Hall; thus years went by. She often spoke to her nephew, Mr. Laurence Bradford, about it, and how she wished that strength would permit her to search the old graveyard for evidences of the grave of Jonathan Alden. When Mr. Bradford came in
HERE LYES Y BODY OF JONATHAN ALDEN
DIED FEBRUARY 9 14 1697 IN Ý C5 YEAR OF HIS AGE
possession of his aunt's house he found this stone in the corner of the parlor, and determined to see if he could find where it belonged in the old burial ground. So one day he strolled over the old place until he found the graves of the Alden family, which he thought were nearly con- temporaneous with Jonathan Alden, and finally found a stone inscribed to the memory of his wife. Then he probed the ground in the neighborhood and dug up every stone that his bar struck, till at last he found a flat one that seemed to be the part of an old gravestone, which in comparing with the inscribed Jonathan Alden stone was found to fit on its broken edge. So there was no longer any doubt as to where the stone belonged. Mr. Bradford has had a marble pedestal made for the lettered part, and it can
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