USA > Massachusetts > Historical collections, being a general collection of interesting facts, traditions, biographical sketches, anecdotes, &c., relating to the history and antiquities of every town in Massachusetts, with geographical descriptions > Part 28
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" For a time, Salem increased so slowly that Ipswich and Lynn were before it in importance; but in 14 or 15 years after the arri- val of Mr. Endicott, the fisheries had been commenced with suc- cess, and all other towns had been left behind in commercial enter- prise. The township in 1637 comprehended, together with its
STOVES
Drawn by J. W. Barber-Engraved by J. Downes, Worcester. SOUTHERN VIEW IN THE CENTRAL PART OF SALEM.
The above is a view of part of Washington and Court streets. The Court-House is seen in the distance, fronting the south, in the central part of the engraving. The City Hall is the building seen on the eastern side of Court street, with pilasters in front.
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present limits, Beverly, Danvers, Manchester, Marblehead, Middle- ton, a part of Lynn, Topsfield, and Wenham." The following description of Salem in 1639 is from Wood's New England Prospect.
" Salem stands on the middle of a necke of land very pleasantly, having a South river on the one side and a North river on the other side. Upon this necke where most of the houses stand, is very bad and sandie ground, yet for seaven years together it hath brought forth exceeding good corne, by being fished, but every third year. In some places is very good ground and good timber, and divers springs hard by the sea side. There likewise is store of fish, as Basses, Eels, Lobsters, Clammes, &c. Although their land be none of the best, yet beyond these rivers is a very good soyle, where they have taken farms, and get their hay, and plant their corne; there they crosse these rivers with small Cannowes, which were made of whole pine trees, being about two foote and a halfe over, and twenty foote long. In these likewise they goe a fowl- ing, sometimes two leagues at sea. There be more cannowes in this towne, than in all the whole Patent, every household having a water horse or two. This Town wants an Alewife river, which is a great inconvenience. It hath two good harbours, the one being called Winter and the other Summer harbours, which lieth within Derbins Fort, which place, if it were well fortified, might keepe shippes from landing forces in any of those two places."
During the spring and summer of 1692 occurred one of the most surprising and afflicting scenes ever witnessed in New England, from the supposed prevalence of witchcraft. This excitement commenced in Salem village, now Danvers, in the family of the Rev. Mr. Parris, the minister of that place. The town suffered greatly by the excitement; a fourth part of the inhabitants left the place. Twenty persons were executed for witchcraft; one of them, Giles Cory, refusing to put himself on trial, was pressed to death. About one hundred were accused, about fifty confessed themselves guilty, and about this number of other persons were afflicted. Those who confessed themselves guilty of this crime appear to have done it in order to save their lives, as they afterwards declared themselves innocent. Most of those who were executed exhibited a forcible example of the strength of moral principle; rather than con- fess what they knew to be untrue, they nobly suffered death. Those who suffered were executed on a hill in the westerly part of the town, ever since known as Gallows Hill. The house in which some of them were examined is the mansion standing in Essex street, upon the west corner of North street. Dr. Cotton Mather was a firm believer in the existence of witchcraft, and in his Mag- nalià gives quite a number of examples, which he says are well attested. The following, giving a general account of these occur- rences, is taken from that work, in his own words
It is to be confessed and bewailed, that many inhabitants of New England, and young people especially, had been led away with little Sorceries, wherein they did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God : they would often cure hurts with spells and practice detestable conjurations with Sieves, and Keys, and Peas, and Nails, and Horse Shoes, to learn the things for which they had a for- bidden and impious curiosity. Wretched books had stolen into the land, wherein fools were instructed how to become able fortune tellers ..
Although these diabolical divinations are more ordinarily committed perhaps all over the world, than they are in the country of New England, yet that being a coun- try devoted unto the worship and service of the Lord Jesus Christ above the rest of the world, he signalizcd his vengeance against these wickednesses with such extraordinary dispensations as have not often seen in other places.
The Devils which had been so played withall, and it may be by some few criminals
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more explicitly engaged and employed, now broke in upon the country after as aston- ishing a manner as was ever heard of. Some scores of people, first about Salem, the centre and first born of all the towns in the Colony, and afterwards in other places, were arrested with many preternatural vexations upon their bodies, and a variety of cruel torments which were evidently from the Demons of the invisible world. The people that were infected and infested with such demons, in a few days time arrived unto such a refining alteration upon their Eyes that they could see their tormentors ; they saw a Devil.of a little stature, and of a tawny colour, attended still with spectres that appeared in more human circumstances.
The tormentors tendered unto the afflicted a book requiring them to sign it, or to touch it at least, in token of their consenting to be listed in the service of the Devil ; which they refusing to do, the Spectres under the command of that black man, as they called him, would apply themselves to torture them with prodigious molestations.
The afflicted wretches were horribly distorted and convulsed; they were pinched black and blue ; pins would be run every where in their flesh ; they would be scalded until they had blisters raised on them ; and a thousand other things, before hundreds of witnesses, were done unto them, evidently preternatural ; for if it were perternatu- ral to keep a rigid fast for nine, yea, for fifteen days together; or if it were preternat- ural to have ones hands tied close together with a Rope to be plainly seen, and then by unseen hands presently pulled up a great way from the earth, before a crowd of people ; such preternatural things were endured by them.
But of all the preternatural things which these people suffered, there were none more unaccountable than those wherein the prestigious Demons would ever now and then cover the most corporeal things in the world with a fascinating mist of invisibility. As now, a person was cruelly assaulted by a spectre, that she said came at her with a spindle, though nobody else in the room could see either the spectre or the spindle ; at last, in her agonies, giving a snatch at the spectre, she pulled the spindle away ; and it was no sooner got into her hand, but the other folks then present beheld that it was indeed a real, proper, Iron spindle; which when they locked up very safe, it was, nevertheless, by the demons taken away to do farther mischief.
Again, a person was haunted by a most abusive spectre, which came to her, she said, with a sheet about her, though seen to none but herself. After she had under- gone a deal of teaze from the annoyance of the spectre, she gave a violent snatch at the sheet that was upon it; wherefrom she tore a corner, which in her hand imme- diately was beheld by all that were present, a palpable corner of a sheet : and her Father, which was of her, catched, that he might see what his Daughter had so strangely seized ; but the spectre had like to have wrung his hand off, by endeavour- ing to wrest it from him; however he still held it; and several times this od accident was renewed in the family. There wanted not the oaths of good credible people to these particulars.
Also it is known, that these wicked spectres did proceed so far as to steal several quantities of money from divers people, part of which individual money dropt some- times out of the air, before sufficient spectators, into the hands of the afflicted, while the spectres were urging them to subscribe their covenant with death. Moreover, poisons to the standersby wholly invisibly, were sometimes forced upon the afflicted ; which, when they have with much reluctancy swallowed, they have swoln presently, so that the common medicines for poisons have been found necessary to relieve them ; yea, sometimes the spectres in the struggles have so dropt the poisons, that the stand- ersby have smelt them and viewed them, and beheld the pillows of the miserable stained with them. Yet more, the miserable have complained bitterly of burning rags run into their forcibly distended mouths; and though nobody could see any such cloths, or indeed any fires in the chambers, yet presently the scalds were seen plainly by every body on the mouths of the complainers, and not only the smell, but the smoke of the burning sensibly filled the chambers
Once more the miserable exclaimed extremely of Branding Irons, heating at the fire on the hearth to mark them ; now the standersby could see no Irons, yet they could see distinctly the print of them in the ashes, and smell them too, as they were carried by the not-seen furies unto the poor creatures for whom they were intended ; and those poor creatures were thereupon so stigmatized with them, that they will bear the marks of them to their dying day. Nor are these the tenth part of the prodigies that fell out among the inhabitants of New England.
Flashy people may burlesque these things, but when hundreds of the most sober people, in a country where they have as much mother wit certainly as the rest of man- kind, know them to be true, nothing but the absurd and froward spirit of saducism can question them. I have not yet mentioned one thing that will be justified, if it be
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required, by the oaths of more considerate persons than can ridicule these od phe- nomena.
But the worst part of this astonishing tragedy is yet behind ; wherein Sir William Phips, at last being dropt as it were from the machine of Heaven, was an instrument of easing the distresses of the land, now so darkened by the Lord of Hosts. There were very worthy men upon the spot where the assault from hel was first made, who apprehended themselves called from the God of Heaven, to sift the business unto the bottom of it ; and indeed, the continual impressions which the outcries and the havocks of the afflicted people that lived nigh unto them caused on their minds, gave no little edge to this apprehension.
They did, in the first place, take it for granted, that there are witches, or wicked children of men, who upon covenanting with and commissioning of evil spirits, are attended by their ministry to accomplish the things desired of them : they had not only the assersions of the holy scriptures ; assersions which the witch advocates cannot evade without shifts too foolish for the prudent, or too profane for any honest man to use ; and they had not only well attested relations of the gravest authors, from Bodin to Bovet, and from Binsfield to Brombal and Baxter ; to deny all which, would be as reasonable as to turn the chronicles of all nations into romances of Don Quixot and the Seven Champions ; but they had also an occular demonstration in one, who a little before had been executed for witchcraft, when Joseph Dudley, Esqr. was the Chief Judge. There was one whose magical images were found, and who confessing her deeds, (when a Jury of Doctors returned her compos mentis,) actually showed the whole court by what ceremonies used unto them, she directed her familiar spirits how and where to cruciate the objects of her malice; and the experiment being made over and over again before the whole court, the effect followed exactly in the hurts done to the people at a distance from her. The existence of such witches was now taken for granted by the good men, wherein so far the generality of reasonable men have thought they ran well ; and they soon received the, confessions of some accused persons to confirm them in it; but then they took one thing more for granted, wherein it is now as generally thought they went out of the way. The afflicted people vehemently accused several persons, in several places, that the spectres which afflicted them did exactly resemble them ; until the importunity of the accusations did provoke the Ma- gistrates to examine them. When many of the accused came upon their examination, it was found that the demons, then a thousand ways abusing of the poor afflicted peo- ple, had with a marvelous exactness represented them; yea, it was found that many of the accused, but casting their Eye on the afflicted, thougli their faces were never so much another way, would fall down and lie in a sort of a swoon, wherein they would continue, whatever hands were laid upon them, until the hands of the accused came to touch them, and then they would revive immediately ; and it was found that various kinds of natural actions, done by many of the accused in or to their own bodies, as leaning, bending, turning awry, or squeezing their hands, or the like, were presently attended with the like things preternaturally done upon the bodies of the afflicted, though they were so far assunder that the afflicted could not at all observe the accused.
It was also found that the flesh of the afflicted was often bitten at such a rate, that not only the print of the teeth would be left on their flesh, but the very slaver of spittle too, even such as might be clearly distinguished from other peoples. And usually the afflicted went through a terrible deal of seeming difficulties from the tormenting spec- tres, and must be long waited on, before they could get a breathing space from their torments to give in their testimonies.
Now many good men took up an opinion, that the providence of God would not per- mit an innocent person to come under such a spectral representation ; and that a con- currence of so many circumstances would prove an accused person to be in a confede- racy with the demons thus afflicting of the neighbors ; they judged, that except these things might amount unto a conviction, it would scarce be possible ever to convict a witch ; and they had some philosophical schemes of witchcraft, and of the method and manner wherein magical poisons operate, which further supported them in their opinion.
Sundry of the accused persons were brought unto their trial, while this opinion was yet prevailing in the minds of the Judges and Juries, and perhaps the most of the people in the country. then mostly suffering ; and though some of them that were tried there came in so much other evidence of their diabolical compacts, that some of the most Judicious, and yet vehement opposers of the notions then in vogue, publicly declared, had they themselves been on the bench, they could not have acquitted them ; nevertheless, divers were condemned, against whom the chief evidence was founded in the spectral exhibitions.
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And it happening, that some of the accused coming to confess themselves guilty, their shapes were no more seen by any of the afflicted, though the confession had been kept never so secret, but instead thereof the accused themselves became in all vexations just like the afflicted ; and this yet more confirmed many in the opinion that had been taken up
And another thing that quickened them, yet more to act upon it, was, that the afflicted were frequently entertained with apparitions of Ghosts, at the same time that the spectres of the supposed witches troubled them : which Ghosts always cast the beholders into a far more consternation than any of the spectres; and when they exhibited themselves, they cried out of being murdered by the witchcrafts, or other violences of the persons represented in the spectres-once or twice the apparitions were seen by others at the very same time that they showed themselves to the afflicted; and seldom were they seen at all, but when something unusual and suspicious had attended the death of the party thus appearing.
The Dutch and French Ministers in the province of New York, having likewise about this time their Judgment asked by the Chief Judge of that province, who was then a gentleman of New England, they gave it under their hands that if we believe no Venefick Witchcraft, we must renounce the Scripture of God, and the consent of almost all the world ; but that yet the apparition of a person afflicting another, is a very insufficient proof of a witch ; nor is it inconsistent with the holy and righteous government of God over men, to permit the affliction of the neighbors, by devils in the shape of good men ; and that a good name, obtained by a good life, should not be lost by mere spectral accusations.
Now upon a deliberate review of these things, his Excellency first reprieved, and then pardoned many of them that had been condemned ; and there fell out several strange things that caused the spirit of the country to run as vehemently upon the acquitting of all the accused, as it by mistake ran at first upon the condemning of them.
In fine, the last Courts that sate upon this thorny business, finding that it was impos- sible to penetrate into the whole meaning of the things that had happened, and that so many unsearchable cheats were interwoven into the conclusion of a mysterious business, which perhaps had not crept thereinto at the beginning of it, they cleared the accused as fast as they tried them ; and within a little while the afflicted were most of them delivered out of their troubles also ; and the land had peace restored unto it, by the God of peace, treading Satan under foot.
Salem is situated in latitude 42°35' north, and in longitude 70° 47' west. It is the chief and a shire town in Essex county, and from the early period of its history has been a place of importance. Its enterprising merchants were the first, in this country, to engage in the East India trade, which they have prosecuted with great energy and success. They have also taken an active part in the com- merce with the West Indies, South America, and Europe.' Perhaps the greatest degree of the commercial prosperity of Salem was pre- vious to the war with Great Britain in 1812. Salem is built on a pe- ninsula formed by two inlets of the sea, called North and South rivers. The lower or eastern part of the peninsula is called the Neck, and has now but few houses upon it. The compact part of the town is about a mile and a half in length, and half a mile in breadth. The land on which it is built lies low and is nearly level, scarcely any place being more than 20 or 24 feet above the surface of the water at high tide. The soil is generally light, dry, and sandy, and free from standing water. There are many islands in the harbor, most of them small and rocky. Winter Island lies on the north side of the entrance to the harbor, and contains 38 acres. Fort Pickering is located on its eastern point. The light- houses are on Baker's Island, which contains 55 acres.
The streets of the town run somewhat irregularly. Essex street,
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the most noted, runs directly through the whole extent of the place, nearly east and west. The numerous streets are filled with well- built houses, many of which are elegant, particularly some of those in the vicinity of the Common; a view of which, taken
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Western view of Washington Square, Salem.
near the western entrance, is here given. This common is a beau- tiful plot of eight and a half acres, almost perfectly level, enclosed by a neat railing, bordered by a large number of elms, and tra- versed by gravel walks. The " East India Marine Society" was incorporated in 1801. It has a spacious hall, in which is collected a great variety of natural and artificial curiosities, collected from almost every part of the world. There are in Salem 16 churches : 8 Congregational, 4 of which are Unitarian, 2 Baptist, 1 Episcopal, 1 Friends, 1 Christian, 1 Universalist, 1 Catholic, 1 Methodist ; besides these there is a Seamen's Bethel. There are eight banks, whose united capitals amount to $1,850,000. There are six insur- ance companies, the capital of which is nearly a million of dollars. Six newspapers are published, 3 weekly and 3 twice a week. The Salem Laboratory was incorporated in 1819, and has a capi- tal of $150,000. At this establishment are manufactured great quantities of aquafortis, muriatic acid or spirits of salt, oil of vitriol, and alum. Of this last from 800,000 to one million pounds are made annually. About 300,000 pounds of saltpetre are also refined annually. There are two white lead manufacturing establishments in South Salem, at which much business is done. To one of them is attached an India rubber factory. The tonnage of the district of Salem, which includes Beverly, is 34,906 tons. There are 30 ships, 12 barks, 70 brigs, 124 schooners, and 14 sloops. The popu- lation of Salem in 1800 was 9,457; in 1810, 12,613; in 1820, 12,731 ; in 1830, 13,886; in 1837, 14,9S5.
The first Congregational churcli in Salem was organized Aug. 6, 1629, O. S., and is stated to be the first Protestant church formed in
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the new world .* The brethren at Plymouth belonged to a church which remained at Leyden, and are supposed not to have estab- lished themselves as a distinct church until after the formation of this at Salem. The following is a list of the pastors of this church, and year in which they were settled.
Francis Higginson, 1629.
John Higginson, 1660.
Thomas Barnard, 1755.
Samuel Skelton, 1629.
Nicholas Noyes,
1683.
Asa Dunbar, 1772.
Roger Williams,
1631.
George Curwen,
1714.
John Prince, 1779.
Hugh Peters,
1636.
Samuel Fiske,
1718.
Charles W. Upham, 1824.
Edward Norris, 1640.
John Sparhawk,
1736.
Roger Williams and Hugh Peters, whose names are in the above list, were both dis- tinguished men. Mr. Williams was banished from the settlements on account of cer- tain opinions which were deemed heretical. He retired into the wilderness, among savages, to a place which he named Providence, and became the founder of Rhode Island. Peters was a man of strong powers of mind. He did not confine his atten- tion to the ministry, but entered with zeal into the political affairs of the nation. He went to England about the period of the civil wars, and supported the cause of the parliament by his preaching. After the restoration of monarchy in England, he was executed as a regicide, in 1660, aged sixty-one years.
Hon. Nathaniel Bowditch, LL. D., F. R. S., one of the most celebrated mathematicians of the age, was a native of this town. He was born March 26th, 1773. His ancestors for three genera- tions had been ship-masters, and his father on retiring from that business "carried on the trade of a cooper, by which he gained a scanty and precarious subsistence for a family of seven children."
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The early residence of Dr. Bowditch.
The above is a representation of the house, in Danvers, in which Dr. Bowditch lived with his mother when a child, when his father was far off upon the sea. She used to sit at the chamber window and " show him the new moon." The advantages of a school he was obliged to forego at the early age of ten years, that he might go into his father's shop and help support the family. He was soon, however, apprenticed to a ship-chandler, in whose shop he conti- nued until he went to sea, first as a clerk, then as supercargo, and finally as master and supercargo jointly. Whilst he was in the ship- chandler's shop, he manifested that genius for mathematical pur- suits, for which he afterwards became so distinguished. In 1823 he removed to Boston, where he continued to reside till his death,
Newhall's Essex Memorial, 1836.
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on the 16th of March, 1838. The following resolves on the occa- sion of his death, will serve to show the estimation in which Dr. Bowditch was held.
At a special meeting of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, held March 20th, 1838, the following resolves were presented by his excellency Edward Everett, and adopted unanimously by the Fellows of the Academy :---
Resolved, That the Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences entertain the liveliest sense of the exalted talents and extraordinary attainments of their late presi- dent, who stood pre-eminent among the men of science in the United States, and who, by universal consent, has long been regarded as one of the most distinguished mathe- maticians and astronomers of the age; that we consider his reputation as one of the most precious treasures of our common country .; that we deeply deplore his loss in the fullness of his intellectual power; and that we esteem it our sacred duty to cherish his memory.
Resolved, That in addition to the loss which they have sustained, as members of this scientific body, in being deprived of their distinguished associate and head, whose name has for many years conferred honor on their institution, and whose communica- tions are among the most valuable contents of the volumes of the Academy's Memoirs, the Fellows of the Academy, as members of the community, lament the loss of a friend and fellow-citizen, whose services were of the highest value in the active walks of life ;- whose entire influence was given to the cause of good principles ;- whose life was a uniform exhibition of the loftiest virtues ;- and who, with a firmness and energy which nothing could shake or subdue, devoted himself to the most arduous and important duties, and made the profoundest researches of science subservient to the practical business of life.
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