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 7
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PROVINCETOWN.
"CAPE COD, now Provincetown, was originally a part of Truro. In 1714 it was made a district or precinct, and put under the con- stablerick of that town." It was incorporated into a township, by the name of Provincetown, in 1727, and invested with peculiar privileges-the inhabitants being exempted from taxation. At that time, and for 10 or 12 years after, it was a flourishing place, con- taining a number of dwelling-houses and stores. Not long after this period the inhabitants began to forsake the town ; and before the year 1748 it was reduced to two or three families. In 1755 it contained about ten dwelling-houses. In 1776 there were in it 36 families, 205 souls, and about 20 dwelling-houses. It remain- ed in a state of depression during the revolutionary war, but after 7
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PROVINCETOWN.
its close it gradually rose to a state of prosperity. Mr. Spear was the first minister at Provincetown, but he was compelled to follow the removal of his congregation. In 1774, Rev. Samuel Parker. was ordained here, and for twelve years received annually forty- five pounds from the government. After that period the pastor has been supported entirely by the inhabitants.
Provincetown is situated on the end of the peninsula of Cape Cod, and lies in the form of a hook. It averages about three miles and a half in length and two and a half in breadth. The town- ship consists of beaches and hills of sand, eight shallow ponds, and a great number of swamps. Cape Harbor, in Cape Cod Bay, is formed by the bending of the land nearly round every point of the compass, and is completely landlocked and safe. It is of suf- ficient depth for ships of any size, and it will contain more than three thousand vessels at once, and is a place of great importance to navigation in this quarter. This was the first harbor the Mayflower touched at on her passage to Plymouth in 1620. This place has about 6000 tons of fishing and 400 tons of coasting vessels. The fares of fish in 1834 amounted to about 45,000 quintals of cod, and 17,000 barrels of mackerel. This place gives employment to about one thousand men and boys. There are three houses of worship: 1 Methodist, 1 Universalist, and 1 Congregationalist. Population 2,049. In 1837 there were 78 establishments for making salt, 48,960 bushels manufactured; 98 vessels were employed in the cod and mackerel fishery; 51,400 quintals of cod-fish and 18,000 bar- rels of mackerel were taken, and one thousand one hundred and thirteen hands were employed in the fisheries. Thirty-five of this number went out in the two whale ships sent from this place.
Provincetown stands on the north-western side of the harbor, on the margin of a beach of loose sand. The houses are mostly situated on a single street, about two miles in length, passing round near the water's edge. A chain of sand hills rise immediately back from the houses. These hills are in some places partially covered with tufts of grass or shrubs, which appear to hold their existence by a frail tenure on these masses of loose sand, the light color of which strongly contrasts with few spots of deep verdure upon them. These hills, with the numerous wind or salt mills, by which the salt water is raised for evaporation, thickly studding the shore through- out the whole extent of the village, gives this place a most singular and novel appearance.
The following cut is from a sketch taken in the village street, and shows its characteristic appearance. The houses are mostly one story in height, and, with their out-buildings, stand along on the street, apparently without much of an effort at order or regularity. Interspersed among the houses and by the side of the street are seen the numerous flakes or frames on which the cod-fish are dried. These frames are about two or three feet in breadth, and stand up from the ground about two feet, having sticks or slats laid across them, on which the fish are laid. The street is narrow, irregular,
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SANDWICH.
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Vien in the Village of Provincetown.
and has scarcely the appearance of being a carriage road .* Upon stepping from the houses the foot sinks in the sand, which is so light that it drifts about the houses, fences, &c., very similar to snow in a driving storm. Although near the ocean on every side, the inha- bitants obtain good water by digging a moderate depth a few feet from the shore. Provincetown is 10 leagues or 30 miles N. E. of Barnstable, about 9 leagues or 27 miles across to Plymouth, and about 116 miles by land and 50 by water to Boston.
[From the Boston Post Boy, Feb. 19, 1739.]
We have advice from Province-Town on Cape Cod, that the whaling season is now over with them, in which there has been taken in that Harbor six small whales, and one of a larger size about six foot bone : beside which 'tis said two small whales have been killed at Sandwich, which is all that has been done in that business in the whole Bay. 'Tis added, that seven or eight families in Province-Town, among whom are the principal inhabitants, design to remove from that place to Casco-Bay in the spring of the year.
[Boston Post Boy, July 27, 1741.]
" Province-Town, July 14 .- On the 4th of this month one of the town disco- vered a considerable quantity of Ice on the north side of a Swamp, in this place, who broke off a Piece, and carried it several miles undissolved to the Tavern keeper, who for his pains treated him with a bowl of punch for his pains."
The following inscription is copied from a monument standing in a deep depression among the sand hills in the village grave-yard. It is probably the oldest in the place, and stands in one of the few verdant spots in the vicinity :-
Here lies interred the remains of Capt. John Tallcott of Glausenbury in Connecticut, son to Deacon Benjamin Tallcott who died here in his return after the victory obtained at Cape Breton, A. D. 1745, in the 41st year of his age.
SANDWICH.
THE settlement of this town was commenced by quite a number of families, from Saugus or Lynn, in 1637. The original grant of
* So rarely are wheel carriages seen in the place that they are a matter of some curiosity to the younger part of the community. A lad, who understood navigating the ocean much better than land carriage, on seeing a man driving a wagon in the place, expressed his surprise at his being able to drive so straight without the assistance of a rudder.
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SANDWICH.
the township was from the Old Colony of Plymouth the same year.
" It is ordered" [say the Plymouth Records] " that these ten men of Saugus, namely, Edmund Freeman, Henry Feake, Thomas Dexter, Edward Dillingham, William Wood, John Carman, Richard Chadwell, William Almy, Thomas Tupper, and George Knott, shall have liberty to view a place to sit down on, and have sufficient land for three score families, upon the conditions pro- pounded to them by the governor and Mr. Winslow. The other proprietors were, George Allen, Thomas Armitage, Anthony Besse, Mr. Blackmore, George Bliss, Thomas Boardman, Robert Boote- fish, William Braybrook, John Briggs, Thomas Burge, Richard Burne, George Burt, Thomas Butler, Thomas Chillingworth, Edmund Clarke, George Cole, John Dingley, Henry Ewer, John Friend, John Fish, Nathaniel Fish, Jonathan Fish, Peter Gaunt, Andrew Hallet, William Harlow, William Hedge, Joseph Holway, William Hurst, John Joyce, Richard Kirby, Thomas Lander, John Miller, William Newland, Benjamin Noye, Mr. Potter, James Skippe, George Slawson, Michael Turner, John Vincent, Peter Wright, Nicholas Wright, Richard Wade, John King, John Win- sor, Mr. Wollaston, and Thomas Willis. Their minister was the Rev. William Leveridge. Mr. Dexter and Mr. Willis did not re- move at this time."
The records of the first Congregational church in this town pre- vious to the ordination of Rev. Roland Cotton, in 1694, are lost. Mr. Cotton was succeeded by Rev. Benjamin Fessenden, who was ordained in 1722, and died in 1746. Rev. Abraham Williams, the next minister, was ordained in 1749; he was succeeded by Rev. Jonathan Burr, who was ordained in 1787. According to tradition there were among the first settlers of Sandwich two persons some- what distinguished for their religious turn of mind, Mr. Richard Bourne and Mr. Thomas Tupper. These men took the lead in the religious exercises, and officiated publicly on the Lord's day, each of them having his party ; but, as they were in all a small com- pany, they did not separate, but agreed that the officer who had the most adherents at meeting for the time being, should be the minister for the day. In process of time the congregation settled Mr. Smith, a minister who for a time had officiated at Barnstable. Religious matters being settled at Sandwich, Mr. Bourne and Mr. Tupper directed their attention towards christianizing the Indians in the vicinity. Mr. Tupper founded a church near Herring river, which was supplied with a succession of ministers of his name till the decease of his great-grandson, Rev. Elisha Tupper, who died at Pokessett, in 1787. Mr. Bourne turned his attention towards the Marshpee Indians to the south and east.
Sandwich is the most agricultural town in the county ; the lands however in the extreme part of the township are light and un- productive. There are numerous ponds, some of which are very large, which afford fine fishing and fowling : deer are also found in this vicinity. There are in the town 1 cotton mill, 1 woollen
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SANDWICH.
factory, a furnace, a nail factory, a number of carding-machines, &c., with an extensive manufactory of glass. There are 15 or 20 sail of coasting or fishing vessels belonging here, and a considera- ble quantity of salt manufactured. Population 3,579.
Western view of Sandwich, (central part).
Sandwich village, containing about 100 houses, is situated on ris - ing ground in the northern section of the town, near the waters of Cape Cod Bay, 12 miles north-westerly of Barnstable, 30 east of New Bedford, and 53 miles south-east of Boston. The engraving shows the two Congregational churches, town-house, and in the dis- tance some of the buildings connected with the glass works. It contains 4 churches : 1 Orthodox, 1 Unitarian, 1 Methodist, and 1 Roman Catholic. There are in other parts of the town 6 churches more : 4 Methodist, 1 for Friends or Quakers, and 1 Congregational. It has been in contemplation for a long period to unite Cape Cod and Buzzard's Bay by a ship canal across this town. The distance is five miles, and the land level. The following is from the statistics published by the state in 1837. " Nail factory, 1 ; nails manufactur- ed, 500 tons; value of the same, $57,500; hands employed, 20; capital invested, $13,500; glass manufactory, 1; value of glass manufactured, $300,000; hands employed, 250; capital invested, $250,000.
Dr. John Osborn, who was a physician in Middletown, in Con- necticut, was born in this town, in 1713. His father, an educated Scotchman, was then a schoolmaster, but afterwards settled in the ministry at Eastham. At the age of nineteen, young Osborn entered Harvard College, where he was noticed as a lively and eccentric genius. The following whaling song of his has obtained some celebrity :-
A WHALING SONG.
When spring returns with western gales, And gentle breezes sweep
The ruffling seas, we spread our sails To plough the wat'ry deep.
For killing northern whales prepared, Our nimble boats on board, With craft and rum, (our chief regard,) And good provisions stored.
n
e
Le
e
In es er
er e, e- rd h. in t.
en as n. gp ve
1
54
TRURO.
We view the monsters of the deep, Great whales in numerous swarms ; And creatures there, that play and leap Of strange, unusual forms.
Cape Cod, our dearest, native land, We leave astern, and lose Its sinking cliffs and lessening sands, While Zephyr gently blows.
Bold, hardy men, with blooming age, Our sandy shores produce ; With monstrous fish they dare engage, And dangerous callings choose.
Now towards the early dawning east We speed our course away, With eager minds, and joyful hearts, To meet the rising day.
Then as we turn our wondering eyes, We view one constant show ; Above, around, the circling skies, The rolling seas below.
When eastward, clear of Newfoundland, We stem the frozen pole, We see the icy islands stand, The northern billows roll.
As to the north we make our way, Surprising scenes we find ; We lengthen out the tedious day, And leave the night behind.
Now see the northern regions, where Eternal winter reigns ; One day and night fills up the year, And endless cold maintains.
When in our station we are placed, And whales around us play, We launch our boats into the main And swiftly chase our prey.
In haste we ply our nimble oars, For an assault design'd ; The sea beneath us foams and roars, And leaves a wake behind.
A mighty whale we rush upon, And in our irons throw : She sinks her monstrous body down Among the waves below.
And when she rises out again, We soon renew the fight; Thrust our sharp lances in amain, And all her rage excite.
Enraged she makes a mighty bound ; Thick foams the whitened sea ; The waves in circles rise around, And widening roll away.
She thrashes with her tail around, And blows her redd'ning breath ; She breaks the air, a deaf'ning sound, While ocean groans beneath.
From numerous wounds, with crimson flood She stains the frothy seas, -
And gasps, and blows her latest blood, While quivering life decays.
With joyful hearts we see her die, And on the surface lay ; While all with eager haste apply, To save our deathful prey.
TRURO.
THE settlement of Truro commenced about 1700. Its Indian name was Pamet, and appears to have been purchased in 1697. In 1705, it was erected into a town to be called Dangerfield; in 1709 it was incorporated by the name of Truro. The first minister, Rev. John Avery, was ordained in 1711. He was a physician as well as pastor, and was greatly beloved by his people. He died in 1754, and was succeeded by Rev. Caleb Upham, who died in 1786. Mr. Upham was succeeded by Rev. Jude Damon, who was ordain- ed in 1786.
Truro is situated on the northern extremity of the peninsula of Cape Cod. The length of the township is about 14 miles, and the breadth in the widest part three. Excepting the salt marshes, the soil is light, sandy, and free from stone. Hardly any part of it produces English grass fit for mowing ; and it can scarcely be said to be clad with verdure at any season of the year. The face of the township is composed of sand hills and narrow valleys between them, running principally at right angles with the shore. The top of some of the hills spread into a plain : from some of these in the northern part of the town but few objects can be discerned but the ocean and one wide waste of sand. A traveller from the in- . terior part of the country, where the soil is fertile, upon observing the barrenness of the northern part of Truro, would at the first
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TRURO.
thought wonder what could induce any person to remain in the place ; he will, however, upon reflection and observation, find that the inhabitants here, who derive their principal subsistence from the sea, are as " well off" as any people in the commonwealth.
There are four houses of worship, all in the south part of the town : 3 Congregational, one of which is Unitarian, and 1 Methodist. Population 1,806. In 1837 there were 39 esta- blishments for making salt, of which 17,490 bushels were manufactured; 63 vessels were employed in the cod and mack- erel fishery ; 16,950 quintals of cod-fish and 15,750 barrels of mackerel were taken, and 512 hands employed.
Eastern view of Pond Village, Truro.
The above is a representation of part of what is called the Pond village, and is a characteristic specimen of the scenery of this part of the Cape. The hills, which rise in regular and graceful swells, are of a light gravelly loam and covered with short grass; they are des- titute of trees and shrubbery, and are peculiar in their aspect. Not- withstanding the general appearance of the barrenness of the land in Truro, it is believed that all the inhabitants of the town might be sustained from the produce of its soil, were proper attention paid to its cultivation. The fisheries however at this time bring surer and better returns than the cultivation of the earth, throughout most parts of the Cape.
The following engraving is a view of the ancient church now standing in the central part of Truro, about 8 miles from Province- town, 42 from Barnstable, and by land 109 from Boston. The " Clay Pounds," a great body of clay, forming the high banks by the light-house, near the residence of James Small, Esq., are about a mile northward. This church is on one of the highest elevations in the town, a short distance southerly from the Pond village, and is seen at a great distance from almost every direction. Provincetown with its hills of sand is seen to the north-west ; and the waters of the wide Atlantic on every side. This building shows that-
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WELLFLEET.
Ancient Church in Truro, (south-eastern view).
" The dark brown years " have passed over it. It stands alone, and on the hill of storms ! It is seen afar by the mariner as he passes by on the dark rolling wave!
The following inscription is copied from a monument standing by the ancient church on the elevation near the Pond village :-
Here lie the Remains of ye Revd. Mr. John Avery who departed this life ye 23d of April 1754 in the 69th year of his age and 44th of his ministry the first pastor ordained in this place.
In this dark cavern, or this lonesome grave Here lays the honest, pious, virtuous Friend Him, kind Heaven to us as Priest & Doctor gave As such he lived, as such we mourn his end.
WELLFLEET.
THIS town was incorporated in 1763. Before this, it was called the North Precinct in Eastham, and was originally included in the Indian Skeekeet and Pamet. The first inhabitants of the place attended public worship at Eastham. When their numbers and property were sufficient, they built a small meeting-house, in which the Rev. Josiah Oaks preached a number of years. The Rev. Isaiah Lewis succeeded Mr. Oaks, and was ordained in 1730; the next minister, Rev. Levi Whitman, was ordained in 1785.
The town of Wellfleet is situated on the northern section of the peninsula of Cape Cod, and is bounded on the east and west by the ocean. The soil is a sandy barren. From the table lands in Eastham, to Race Point, is a large range of high hills, all of them sandy, except one large hill or mountain, which is of solid clay, in Truro, called the Clay Pounds, because vessels have had the misfortune to be pounded to pieces against it, in gales of wind. Within these hills in Wellfleet is a range of fresh ponds, where sea-fowl obtain fresh water: such as have outlets, receive ale- wives, which go up in the month of May. From the harbor there are many salt creeks, which are surrounded with salt marsh.
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WELLFLEET.
The harbor, called the Deep Hole, is good for small vessels, and is about thirty miles north-easterly from Barnstable.
Northern vien of Wellfleet Harbor.
The above shows the appearance of Wellfleet Harbor, as it is seen from the north. It is surrounded by sand hills of different sizes, but mostly forming obtuse cones, smooth, regular, des- titute of verdure, and quite novel in their general appearance.
The village of Wellfleet contains two Congregational churches, and is stated to be one hundred and five miles from Boston by land, and by water twenty leagues, and from the Plymouth light eight leagues. Population of the town, 2,303. Most of the inha- bitants follow the seafaring business. In 1837, there were thirty- nine establishments for manufacturing salt, and 10,000 bushels were made; sixty-two vessels were employed in the cod and mackerel fishery ; 3,100 quintals, and 17,500 barrels of mackerel, were taken ; and in this business 496 hands were employed.
" No shipwreck is more remarkable than that of the noted pirate Bellamy, men- tioned by Governor Hutchinson, in his history. In the year 1717, his ship, with his whole fleet, were cast on the shore of what is now Wellfleet, being led near the shore by the captain of a snow, which was made a prize the day before, who had the pro- mise of the snow as a present, if he would pilot the fleet in Cape Cod harbor; the captain suspecting the pirate would not keep his promise, and that, instead of clearing his ship, as was his pretence, his intention might be to plunder the inhabitants of Provincetown. The night being dark, a lantern was hung in the shrouds of the snow, the captain of which, instead of piloting where he was ordered, approached so near the land, that the pirates' large ship, which followed him, struck on the outer bar : the snow, being less, struck much nearer the shore. The fleet was put in confu- sion ; a violent storm arose : and the whole fleet was shipwrecked on the shore. It is said that all in the large ship perished in the waters except two. Many of the smaller vessels got safe on shore. Those that were executed, were the pirates put on board a prize schooner before the storm, as it is said. After the storm, more than an hundred dead bodies lay along the shore. At times, to this day, there are king William and queen Mary's coppers picked up, and pieces of silver, called cob-money. The violence of the seas moves the sands upon the outer bar ; so that at times the iron caboose of the ship, at low ebbs, has been seen." -- 3d vol. Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., p. 120.
" For many years after this shipwreck, a man, of a very singular and frightful aspect, used, every spring and autumn, to be seen travelling on the Cape, who was 8
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YARMOUTH.
supposed to have been one of Bellamy's crew. The presumption is that he went to some place where money had been secreted by the pirates to get such a supply as his exigences required. When he died, many pieces of gold were found in a girdle, which he constantly wore. Aged people relate that this man frequently spent the night in private houses, and that, whenever the Bible or any religious book was read, or any family devotions performed, he invariably left the room. This is not impro- bable. It is also stated that, during the night, it would seem as if he had in his cham- ber a legion from the lower world ; for much conversation was often overheard which was boisterous, profane, blasphemous, and quarrelsome in the extreme. This is the representation. The probability is, that his sleep was disturbed by a recollection of the murderous scenes in which he had been engaged, and that he, involuntarily, vented such exclamations as, with the aid of an imagination awake to wonders from the invisible regions, gave rise, in those days, to the current opinion that his bed- chamber was the resort of infernals."-Alden's Coll. Epitaphs, vol. iv.
YARMOUTH.
THE peninsula of Cape Cod may be well represented by a man's arm bent into a certain position. Yarmouth is situated about mid- way from the shoulder to the elbow of the Cape. It was incorpo- rated in 1639. The early records of this town have been lost. In Mather's Magnalia, it is stated John Millar was a minister of Yarmouth. It is probable he was the first, and a Mr. Mathews (of whom some traditions remain) was the second. Mr. Millar is represented in the Magnalia as one of the seventy-seven ministers who had been in the ministry previous to their embarkation to America, and who are represented as some of the first ministers in New England. If the above is correct, the Rev. Thomas Thorn- ton, from England, was the third minister of Yarmouth ; his name being found in the town records, which are preserved as far back as 1677. He continued in the ministry till about the year 1692, and was succeeded by Rev. John Cotton in 1693. Mr. Cotton died in 1705, and was succeeded by Rev. David Greenleaf in 1708. The following ministers here were ordained as follows: Rev. Thomas Smith, in 1729; Rev. Grindall Rawson, in 1755; Rev. . Joseph Green, in 1762; the Rev. Timothy Alden, the ninth minis- ter, was ordained in 1769.
This township extends across the Cape, and has a harbor both on the north and south shore, and its soil is similar to the other towns in this part of the Cape, mostly light, sandy, and barren. There are 5 houses of worship : 2 Congregational, 1 Methodist, 1 Baptist, and 1 for Friends or Quakers. Population 2,454. Dis- tance, 3 miles east of Barnstable, and 72 S. E. of Boston.
The cut shows the appearance of the eastern termination of Yarmouth village. From the church which is seen in the engrav- ing, to Barnstable court-house, which is upwards of four miles dis- tant, the road is lined with houses on both sides. From this spot the peculiar scenery of Cape Cod may be said to commence. As you proceed eastward, much of the land is unenclosed, often pre- senting to the view, a dreary and wide waste of sand. There are
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YARMOUTH.
two churches in the village, a Congregational and Methodist, one newspaper establishment, and the "Barnstable Bank," with a capital of $150,000. South Yarmouth is situated about four miles south of the north village. In this place the salt-works are very extensive, and cover a tract of ground about a mile in length and one fourth in width. In 1837, there were in the town 52 esta- blishments for making salt, and 365,200 bushels were manufac- tured ; 13 vessels were employed in the cod and mackerel fishery ; 4,300 quintals of cod-fish, and 2,287 barrels of mackerel taken.
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