USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890 > Part 14
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The East Dennis packet trade was in early times kept up by tran- sient vessels. It is stated that Mr. Edmund Sears, early in the cen- tury, ran a Boston packet called the Betsey for a number of years. Later, his two sons-Judah and Jacob-ran a packet schooner called the Sally and Betsey, named for their two wives. Judah was nominally the captain. This was previous to 1828. About that time Captain Dean Sears ran a Boston packet schooner called the Elisa and Betsey, and at the same time Captain Joseph H. Sears was running a sloop called the Combine. In 1833 two new schooners. the David Porter and the Combine, were put on this line -- the latter seeming to be a popular name in this locality. The old vessels were withdrawn, and Captain Dean Sears commanded the David Porter, and Captain Joseph H. Sears the Combine. The former continued to run as a packet after all the others had given up the business, and was not withdrawn until about 1874. She had. however, several masters. Captain Dean Sears left packeting to command ships. Captains Constant Sears, Enos Sears, Stillman Kelley (from 1840 to 1849) and Sears had charge of her at various times. The Combine had a much shorter career as a packet. Captain Joseph H. Sears also left her to take charge of ships in the foreign trade, and to own in and manage them. It can be truthfully said of the packet masters who for half a century or more plied between the north side of the town and Boston, that they were men of great activity, extraordinary skill in handling their vessels, seldom meeting with accidents, and of undisputed integrity of char- acter.
CHATHAM .- Communication between Chatham and Boston by sail- ing packets was for many years transacted via Brewster and Orleans, especially the former. In the earlier times the freighting to and from the city was in the fishing vessels after and before their summer voy- ages were made. the trades-people being generally owners in these craft. But more frequent and direct communication being needed, the packets on the bay side were resorted to. There were two pack- ets-the Chatham and the Sarah-sailing from Brewster for several years after 1830, which divided the patronage of the Chatham public. They established a system of telegraphy, by means of flags and balls hoisted on high points of land from one town to another, which indi- cated the time of departure and arrival of these vessels. Conveyance across the Cape was generally in open wagons, with baggage lashed on behind. The farmers would leave the plough or scythe almost any day to go to Brewster for passengers.
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The first regular packet between Boston and Chatham was the Canton, built about the year 1830, and run by Barzillai Harding. Sev- eral Chatham people owned an interest in her, and while she did a good freighting business the bulk of the travel continued to go by the Brewster route. Other packets came on later-the John J. Eaton, Captain Smith, Eunice Johnson, C. Taylor, 3d, P. M. Bonney, and others. Two good vessels were usually running at the same time, and did a profitable business carrying freight, until the railroad came down to the Cape, when the business gradually declined. A vessel, about the time of the Canton, ran between this place and Nantucket. The women used to go over to the island every year with produce for barter. From ten to fifteen small vessels for many years ran between Chat- ham, New Bedford and New York and the intervening ports, carrying fish, and returning with produce, flour, grain and the like. For sev- eral years prior to the opening of railroad communication, a regular packet ran between Chatham and New Bedford.
BREWSTER .- The earliest packet between this place and Boston of which there is any record, was the schooner Republic, commanded by James Crosby about the years 1818-20. She used to land her freight at a place on the shore called Point Rocks. Captain Crosby afterward com- manded the sloop Polly, in the same business. Captain Solomon Fos- ter for several years ran a packet sloop called the Fame; Captain Nathan Foster also commanded her. The breakwater and boat wharf were built by the owners of the packets about the year 1830. Captain John Myrick commanded the schooner Chatham for many years, and afterward the sloop Rough and Ready, up to the time of the advent of the rail cars. The schooner Sarah was a contemporary of the Chatham during most of the time she was on the route, and was commanded most of the time by Captain Freeman H. Bangs. Both these vessels were finely fitted for the accommodation of passengers, and they ab- sorbed a large portion of the travel from Chatham and Harwich as well as from Brewster and vicinity. Captain Nathaniel Chase also commanded a small schooner called Elisa Kelley, some time before and shortly after the railroad opened. There has been no packet on the route for several years.
ORLEANS .- The earliest Boston packet from this place, of which there is any information, was a sloop of fifteen or twenty tons, Captain Edward Jarvis, which was running in 1808, and had then been some little time on the route. She had poor accommodations for passengers, and seldom carried any except those who were in no hurry. Captain Jarvis gave up his business in 1812, and was succeeded by a sloop commanded by Captain Asa Higgins. He was succeeded by Captains Abiel Crosby, Jonathan Rogers, Jonathan Crosby, Obed Crosby, Seth Sparrow and others, but the names of their vessels are not now avail-
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able. About 1820, the sloop De Wolfe, commanded by Captain Simeon Higgins, who afterward became so famous as a hotel keeper and stage coach contractor, ran on this line for a number of years.
Not far from 1825, the need of better facilities for transporting their salt to Boston induced the manufacturers to encourage the con- struction of two schooners, and the President Washington, Captain War- ren A. Kenrick, and Lafayette, Captain Jesse Snow, were built to ac- commodate the salt makers as well as the general travelling public. After a few years in command Captain Kenrick died and was suc- ceeded by Captain Lot Higgins, and he, after a while by Captain Joseph Gould and others. The decline of the salt business led to the disposal of the two vessels and the substitution of smaller craft. The sloop Elisabeth, Captain Absalom Linnell, ran on this line several years. Her successors were the sloop Taglioni, Captain Benjamin Gould, and the Harriet Maria, Captain Samuel N. Smith. The Harriet Maria met with a serious accident on one of her trips in 1857. October Sth, in Boston harbor she was run down and sunk by the British steamer Niagara. One of the crew, being entangled in the rigging, was carried down and drowned before rescue was possible. The ves- sel was afterward raised and repaired. She was the last of the Boston packets, and continued on the route about two years after the cars ran to the town.
EASTHAM .-- Captain David C. Atwood may be regarded as the pioneer of the packeting business between Eastham and Boston. In 1821 he procured a sloop of forty tons burthen called the Clipper, and commenced the business. Before this time passengers were brought by lumber vessels, which stopped at Boston both going and coming from the eastward; also by fishing vessels, which usually made a trip to Boston before and after the season's trip to their fishing grounds. Captain Atwood was on this route several years. After him came the New York, Captain Samuel Snow, which ran from Nauset harbor in the summer, and Bay side in the spring and fall. At this time East- ham manufactured about 30,000 bushels of salt. This rendered packet vessels in good demand. A few years later the schooner Young Tell was placed on the route by Captain Scotter Cobb, who was in the business for many years. This was the first two-masted packet Eastham had. Afterward Captain Cobb bought the Brewster packet, Patriot. He was succeeded by his son, H. K. Cobb, who ran the A. C. Totten for several years, and then built the Bay Queen, the largest and best of all the Eastham packets, and also the last of them.
After the Young Tell was given up Eastham parties bought the Yarmouth sloop Flight, the fastest sailer in the Bay. Not unfrequently thesc packets took from thirty to fifty passengers. No life was lost nor any serious accident occurred in all this time, which is ample tes-
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timony to the skill and judgment of the commanders of these vessels. The fare for passages was usually seventy five cents each way, and the time occupied for a run was from six hours to two days, according to the wind and weather. Besides the passenger packets other ves- sels, more especially designed for freighting, were for years on the route. In 1824 Captain Jesse Collins purchased the sloop Algerine, the first center-board vessel ever in these waters and a great marvel to all, and placed her on the route from Nauset harbor most of the time, and from the Bay the remainder, freighting salt to Boston at six cents per bushel from the first landing and five cents from the latter. In 1836 parties in the south part of the town bought the schooner Combine, of Dennis, for the same business, but she proved an unfortunate invest- ment. The same fate befell the business here as elsewhere, upon the advent of the railroad, although it held out with a little more tenacity here than in the upper towns of the county. Some dozen years ago there was also a packet running from Eastham to Provincetown.
WELLFLEET .- It is not known that any regular packet ran between this port and Boston previous to 1812-15. At the close of the war a regular line was established, consisting of three sloops of from thirty to forty tons burthen, viz .: Hannah, Benjamin Freeman, master; Nete Packet, Joseph Higgins, master, and Mary, Joseph Harding, master. In 1819 the New Packet, on her trip to Boston, struck on Minot's Ledge in a thick fog and immediately sunk, the captain and two of his crew being saved. Two Methodist clergymen who were passengers were lost. In 1820 Captain Higgins had the sloop Pacific built to take the place of the New Packet. In 1826 the first schooner was built for this route-the Swiftsure, commanded by Thomas Newcomb. She created quite a sensation, and for a while took nearly all the passengers. In 1830 the schooner Herald, commanded by Henry Baker, was put on the route. In 1835 was built the schooner Fremont, commanded by Captain Thomas Newcomb, formerly of the Swiftsurc. In 1836 was built the schooner Merchant, Henry Baker, master. The Herald, pre- viously commanded by Captain Baker, was in charge this year of Captain Robert T. Paine, and had her berth at Blackfish Creek.
In 1847 were built the schooner Sophia Wiley, James Wiley, master, and the Golden Age, commanded by Captain Robert T. Paine, lately of the Herald. In 1853 and 1856 respectively, two larger schooners were built-the Lilla Rich and Neily Baker, commanded by Captains Richard R. Freeman and Jeremiah B. Harding. These two packets, with the Sophia Wiley and Golden Age running part of the time, constituted the packet line of this place for about twenty-five years, when the failure of the oyster planting business and the advent of the railroad rendered it impossible to run them with profit. The schooner Freddie A. Hig- gins, Noah S. Higgins, master, was built in 1882, and with the small
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schooner J. H. Tripp, J. A. Rich master, brought there the same year, constitute the present packet line between Wellfleet and Boston.
TRURO .- It cannot be ascertained that there was any vessel en- gaged in the packet business in this town prior to 1812, yet there can be no reasonable doubt that there was some periodical connection be- tween this place and Boston many years before. The first regularly established packet of which there is authentic information was the pink, Comct, Captain Zoheth Rich. About 1830 the friends of Cap- tain Rich built for him the schooner Postboy, " the finest specimen of naval architecture and of passenger accommodation in the bay waters." Her cabin and furniture were finished in solid mahogony and birdseye. and silk draperies. She was the favorite of the travel- ing public and was thronged with passengers. Captain Richard Stev- ens some years later ran successively the Young Tell, Mail and the fine schooner Modena. With the deterioration of the town harbors, the decline of the fishing business and the general suspension of the regular industries of the town, the packeting business also fell into decay before the day of steam cars.
PROVINCETOWN .- Though the leading commercial town on the Cape, Provincetown did not become prominent as a community, nor as a place of residence until some time after the war of 1812-15. During that period, as in the war of the revolution, its harbor was a rendez- vous of British men-of-war, and its local shipping was, of course, annihilated. Probably about the year 1820, the sloop Truth-the first Provincetown packet of which any knowledge exists-commenced running between this port and Boston. She was owned by John Nick- erson, who with his brother, ran her for several years. The sloops Catherine and Packet followed after the Truth commenced, and were for several years her contemporaries. The Catherine was commanded by Joseph Sawtle, and was subsequently wrecked on the "back side." Daniel Cook and afterward Jonathan Hill were the commanders of the Packet. In 1827 Jonathan Cook bought, at Saybrook, Conn., the sloop Louisa. She was regarded as a very fine craft and continued on the route under the command of Captain Cook, and of his son, Charles A. Cook, until about the year 1847. The latter afterward procured the sloop Osceola and engaged with her in the business.
Not far from this time the schooner yacht Northern Light was bought, and commanded by Captain Whitman W. Freeman, who ran her to and from Boston, from March to December, three times each week-something never before nor since accomplished by any craft. In 1848 the Northern Light was sold to go to California, and was wrecked and totally lost in the Straits of Magellan, on her voyage out. Another vessel was bought for Captain Freeman-the schooner yacht Oleata, a fast and trim craft; but she was soon sold to New Orleans
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parties for a pilot boat. Afterward the sloop Sarah, and the Powhat- tan, Captain Jonathan Hill, were some time on the route. About 1835 the schooner Long Wharf was placed on the route, commanded by Captain William Cook, and later, the schooner Melrose. She went on a fishing cruise some years later and was wrecked in Bay Chaleur. The schooner Waldron Holmes was for some time a contemporary packet with the Melrose. Following these, came the schooner Golden Age from Wellfleet, which was commanded by Captain Nehemiah Nickerson. She was wrecked off Wood End in 1866. In 1867 the schooner Nellie D. Vaughan was procured for Captain Nickerson, and she, too, was lost near Watch Hill, in 1888, during the latter part of her career being in charge of Captain Joseph C. Smith.
The sailing craft have by no means had this business to themselves, the steamers coming upon the route at different times and taking the most lucrative portion of the traffic, and finally supplanting the pio- neer class of vessels. About the year 1847 the steamer Vaushon was placed on the route, running not only to Provincetown, but touching other ports in the bay between here and Boston. She ran two seasons and received a fair patronage. N. P. Willis, who was a passenger from Provincetown on one occasion, wrote a very graphic and entertaining account of the trip. The Naushon was followed by the steamer Acorn, whose history has been already sketched. She was sold, in 1861, for a blockade runner, and was run down by one of the national war ves- sels, and was planted where she never came up. on the sands upon the coast of North Carolina. In 1863, the commodious steamer, George Shattuck, Captain Gamaliel B. Smith, commenced running, and contin- ued on the route until 1874, when she was sold to run in a packet line between St. John, N. F., and Quebec. In 1885, the steamer Longfellowe, Captain John Smith, commenced her trips between Provincetown and Boston. She is a craft of about 500 tons burthen, shapely, convenient and well built, and serves the traveling public to the general satis- faction, and has no competition in the business.
THE STAGE COACHES .- The transmission both of intelligence and of individuals from one locality to another are so intimately connected and so interwoven that we are constrained to consider the two together. The earliest couriers known to the Cape were the swift- footed Indians, who in 1627, when the Sparrow Hawk was wrecked at Nauset harbor, carried the intelligence to Plymouth several days be- fore the messengers sent by the captain of the shipwrecked vessel to apprize the settlers of their distressing situation arrived there with their message. The first express or mail of record on the Cape was in 1654, when the governor of Plymouth colony paid John Smith for carrying letters from Plymouth to Nauset. For nearly 150 years, the dependence of private citizens for the transmission of letters was upon
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such casual travelers as chance happened to throw in the way. But the exigencies of the times required some system of more speedy com- munication between different communities, and in 1775 the following mail route was established from Cambridge, through Plymouth and Sandwich, to Falmouth, once a week:
"Plan of riding from Cambridge to Falmouth: To set off from C. every Monday noon and leave letters with William Watson Esq., post- master at Plymouth, on Wed. 9 o'clock A. M .: then to. Sandwich and leave letters with Mr. Joseph Nye 3d, Wed. at 2 o'clock P. M .; to set off from S. at 4 o'clock and leave letters with Mr. Moses Swift, at Fal- mouth, Thurs, at 8 o'clock A. M. To set off on his return Thurs. noon, and reach Sandwich at 5 o'clock, and set off from thence at 6 o'clock Friday morning and reach Plymouth by noon; to set off from Ply- mouth Fri. at 4 P. M., and leave his letters with Mr. James Winthrop, postmaster in Cambridge on Saturday evening."
The first United States mail between Barnstable and Boston com- menced running in 1792, when John Thacher, of Barnstabe, contracted with the government to perform the service, and made the first trip October 1st of that year. Timothy Pickering was postmaster general, and Jonathan Hastings postmaster of Boston. The post rider used to start on horseback from Barnstable Tuesday morning, and arriving at Plymouth in the evening, stopped in that town over night. The next night he arrived in Boston at the sign of the Lion, on Washington street, and delivered his mail to the postmaster. Starting from Boston Thursday morning, he arrived in Barnstable on Friday night. The mail was easily carried in one side of a pair of saddle-bags, and the other side was devoted to packages and an occasional newspaper. For his service in carrying the mail the sum of one dollar per day while in actual service was paid. Small as this amount is, there was a great outcry at the extravagance of the government in this respect.
In 1797 a weekly mail route was established from Yarmouth to Truro, the latter being regarded as an important town; but it was not considered of consequence enough to continue the service to Province- town. Offices were established all along the route between Yarmouth and Truro. The next step in the progress of mail facilities was the establishment in 1812-15 of a postal line twice each week, as far as Yarmouth. Ebenezer Hallet was the post-rider, and the stirring news from the seat of war was the moving cause of this enlargement of mail facilities. In 1820 the mail was brought to Barnstable and Yarmouth three times a week, through the influence of the large number of ship owners and ship captains residing there. This arrangement continued until June, 1837, when a daily mail was established to come as far as Yarmouth. In the fall of 1854, soon after the establishment of rail- road facilities, the mails were brought to Sandwich, Barnstable and
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Yarmouth twice each day, and following the progress of the railroad to other towns in the county came the same postal facilities to the towns which the railroad line reached. A daily mail from Yarmouth to Orleans was established in October, 1847.
Postal communications with Provincetown are supposed to have been opened soon after the commencement of the century. The first postmaster is said to have been Orsimus Thomas, but the precise date of his appointment is not known. The Massachusetts Register for 1808 gives the name of the postmaster at Provincetown as D. Pease. When the mail, which was conveyed on horseback once each week, was about to start from town, a man was sent around with a tin horn to give notice of the fact. Samuel Thacher of Barnstable was the first contractor so far as is now known. Mr. Thacher's mail was car- ried in saddle bags holding about a peck. It was considered a dis- tinction to have a letter in the mail. About 1820 a petition was in circulation in the lower towns to have a mail twice a week, but many refused to sign it, on the ground of expense, and because once a week was often enough. In the winter the mail carrier used to carry on one side of his horse a saw, and on the other a small axe, to clear away obstructions after the snow storms, when it was found necessary to cross the fields.
Mr. Thacher was succeeded by Joseph Mayo of Orleans. Mr. Mayo used to take his mail to the Pamet river, Truro, on horseback. Crossing the foot-bridge, he took another horse on the opposite side and proceeded to Provincetown, returning by the same route. By this plan he saved three miles each way through a sandy road. A daily mail was established prior to 1847. Mr. Mayo was the first to place a covered carriage on the route as far as Wellfleet, in 1838. Succeeding Mr. Mayo, Myrick C. Horton was carrier and contractor, and after him Simeon Higgins.
A stage-coach line, to transport passengers as well as the mails, was first run near the close of the last century-according to the best evi- dence obtainable, about the year 1790. This line ran at first from Plymouth to Sandwich, and was by gradual steps extended toward the extremity of the Cape. It had been established many years be- fore William E. Boyden became the proprietor of the line, in 1820. He commenced by starting from Sandwich early each morning, and making a round trip between Falmouth and Plymouth. After a trial of three months he was obliged to desist, and then made the trip from Sandwich to Plymouth, and another carriage from Falmouth took the mail at Sandwich for the former town.
In a few years a line was put on the route between Sandwich and Falmouth. For many years these stages were run by mail contractors Charles Sears and Enoch Crocker, the terminus of the route being at
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the famous tavern, afterwards dignified by the appellation of hotel. kept by the former person.
The stage ride from the Cape to Boston was a two days' affair until the opening of the railroad line to Plymouth, and was not resorted to except in cases of extreme urgency, and at times when the state of the weather rendered communication by the packets impracticable. Many persons who had lived to a good old age and had been all over the world had never been to Boston by land. But among those who had traveled this route existed many interesting, and in some respects pleasurable, recollections of the trip. Starting from the Cape at early dawn, the parties made up of men of all stations and degrees in the social scale, the stage-coach was an equalizing and democratic institu- tion. The numerous stopping-places along the route gave ample op- portunity for the exchange of news and opinions and to partake of the good cheer of the various taverns -- for they had no hotels nor saloons in those days. Cornish's, at South Plymouth, Swift's, at West Sandwich, Fessenden's, at Sandwich, Howland's, at West Barnstable, Crocker's, at Barnstable, and Sear's, at Yarmouth, are pleasantly re- membered by the old people of the present generation. A good meal and a hot toddy, in the days before the temperance movement had been inaugurated, left pleasant recollections of the place left behind, and excited agreeable anticipations of the next one to come.
On the south side of the Cape, below Yarmouth, a postal route was established to Harwich in the spring of 1804, Ebenezer Broadbrooks being the first postmaster; and a few years later it was extended to Chatham, and offices opened in South Yarmouth and South Dennis. Samuel D. Clifford of Chatham carried the mails in 1826 and for some time thereafter, on horseback. One route was from Yarmouth, to South Dennis, West Harwich, Harwich, Chatham, and Orleans; the other was from Yarmouth to South Yarmouth, Hyannis, Osterville, Cotuit, South Sandwich, and Sandwich. Barnabas B. Bangs was the con- tractor for carrying the mails to Provincetown, sub-letting from Orleans to that place. The mail stages which were run on the south side of the Cape from Yarmouth were driven by Jacob Smith, who was also a contractor, and Calvin B. Brooks, who was a somewhat notorious trader in horses, well remembered for his sharp remarks and his rather sharp practices, making, nevertheless, few real enemies among his victims. For the years before the advent of the cars, the contract- or on the Chatham and Yarmouth line was Rufus Smith; from Yar- mouth to Orleans, Simeon Higgins; and from that town to Province- town, James Chandler, and afterward Samuel Knowles.
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