History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890, Part 18

Author: Deyo, Simeon L., ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: New York : Blake
Number of Pages: 1292

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The salubrity of the climate, the remarkably even temperature, and the opportunities for pleasure bring hundreds of strangers to the Cape each season. Here are all the conditions to be looked or hoped for at any seaside resort, and then here is that other element- the hospitable good cheer of the New England home. The hotelsare good, but a large class of summer comers are those who choose the farm house or the village home, where a view of the Cape life, as it is, and the broad hospitality of the people are a stimulus to the moral fibre of a man-not less to be desired, perhaps, than the brac- ing, appetizing breezes which come to him from the ocean.

The visitors who choose hotel life find less accommodations than the Cape should be able to furnish, and along this line the greatest de- velopment in the immediate future is to be looked for and expected. The tourist who hurriedly visits the Cape by rail gets the worst pos- sible impression of it, for the railway was located to best accommo- date the villages on either side, passing through the most barren and uninviting lands between them. The traveler of the old stage-coach days understood the country better. One can hardly find elsewhere in the state so beautiful a drive as the south side coaches covered in theit trips from Sandwich through the pretty villages of Cotuit, Oster- ville, Centerville, Hyannis, West and South Yarmouth, and over the

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

Bass river lower bridge on through West Dennis, Dennis Port, West Harwich, Harwich Port, South Harwich, West and South Chatham to the flourishing village of Chatham.

Liberal sums are annually expended by the several towns to im- prove the roads, and almost in proportion as the roads have been made better has the summer business been increased. Falmouth has thus far taken the lead in this respect, but each of the towns, especially in the central and upper portions of the Cape, have charming drives, where the impression is as though one were riding through some well- kept park.

A Cape Cod man, now president of the largest bank in America, is interested in a new hotel being erected on an elegant plan in Chat- ham. At Monument Beach, on the site of the old Stearns House, a new five-story hotel is nearly completed, and entirely around the point on which it stands has been built a sea wall, having a circular sweep, which bounds and protects the north and west sides of the grounds. The house is of wood, with brown stone for veranda column founda- tions, chimney caps and fireplaces. It contains eighty-nine guest chambers, besides parlors, dining-rooms, kitchens. store-rooms, bath- rooms, etc.

The Santuit House, at Cotuit, was built in 1860 by Braddock Cole- man and run by him and his son James H. After being leased, the Barnstable Savings bank sold it on a mortgage to Samuel Nickerson, whose son-in-law, Charles N. Scudder, managed it two years, when it passed in 1880 to its present owner, Abbie A. Webb. Mr. Webb re- modeled it, bought the old Captain Alpheus Adams house, with other adjoining property, and remodeled the whole, furnishing accommoda- tions for one hundred guests. The Monument Club, at head of the bay, has suitable buildings for comfort and recreation.

The Bay View House, the Redbrook House, and the Jachin are beautifully located at Cataumet, on Buzzards bay. The locality has many advantages as a healthful resort, and is easily accessible by the Woods Holl branch of the railroad. Still further southward on the bay, is Quisset harbor, a romantic spot in the southwest portion of Falmouth. Ample accommodations are provided for guests. The house is pleasantly situated on the high bank that encloses the har- bor, which affords safe sailing and successful fishing. George W. Fish has been the popular proprietor for several years. On the sound, at Falmouth Heights, Tower's Hotel was erected in 1871, and was en- larged in 1875. Here also is the Goodwin House, a well-patronized house, by Mrs. C. H. Goodwin. Menauhant, easterly of the Heights, is also on the sound shore of Falmouth. This house is near the water, is well protected on the land side by forests, and is a well-chosen lo- cality. It was built in 1874 by Gideon Horton and Benjamin Angell

THE NOBSCUSSETT HOUSE, DENNIS, MASS.

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who organized the Menauhant land company and built also some cottages. In May, 1888, Floyd Travis, of Taunton, bought the hotel property on which he has made many internal improvements. A highway was laid out in 1889 connecting by the shore route with East Falmouth,-reducing the distance from the railway station to 61 miles. 1

The Hotel Falmouth, of Falmouth village, and the Dexter House, at Woods Holl, are open during the entire year, but have a large summer patronage. The Hotel Attaquin, of Mashpee, and the Iya- nough House, of Hyannis, also make a specialty of entertaining summer boarders.

The Cotocheset House, at Wianno Beach, near Osterville, was built by Harvey Scudder prior to 1869, and was owned by J. C. Stevens from 1877 until its destruction by fire in 1887. The real estate at this beach was largely owned by the Osterville Land Company. After the fire the Cotocheset Company, a stock company, erected the present fine hotel-still known as the Cotocheset House-which was leased by the popular hostess, Mrs. Ames, who had managed the former hotel eight years with remarkable success.

The Sea-View is beautifully located at Harwich Port, accommodat- ing many summer boarders; and at Chatham the Travelers' Home has been fitted up, giving a commanding view of the ocean and sound. The hotels of the towns down the Cape are more or less patronized by pleasure seekers, and to be added to these is the Gifford House of Provincetown, open only during the summer. This house is pleasantly situated on an eminence overlooking the harbor.

Prominent on the north or bay side of the Cape stands the Nobs- cnssett House, at Dennis. Situated on a bluff sixty feet above the sea, the eye, from its cupola, sweeps a marine half circle of a twenty mile radius, and a stretch almost as distant of picturesque landscape, with meadow, hill, forest and crystal ponds. From every direction it catches the ocean breeze, bringing with it " the breath of a new life- the healing of the seas." There is, perhaps, no place on the Atlantic coast that offers so many advantages for a suminer's rest by the sea as this spot. The hotel grounds cover one hundred and twenty-five acres, with nearly three-quarters of a mile of sea front, furnishing ex- cellent facilities for bathing, boating, fishing, and ample room for rambling, croquet, lawn tennis and swings. Forty acres of these grounds were set apart for whaling purposes in the early history of the town, and for more than two hundred years the old " Whale House " occupied the site on which the pavilion now stands.

An attractive feature is the pier extending into the sea eight hundred feet, with a pavilion at the end, where it widens to fifty feet, in a depth of twenty feet of water at high tide. With clams, lobsters,

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

fish in great variety, fresh from the sea, and all the vegetables of the season; with rich cream and milk furnished daily from the adjacent Tobey farm, the appetite, whetted by the sea air, is readily appeased.

The house is supplied with pure water from a never-failing spring, while the drainage and sanitary arrangements are the best that mod- ern science can suggest.

In 1885, the late Charles Tobey of Chicago, a native of Dennis, purchased this property and greatly enlarged and beautified its ap- pearance by adding to the hotel a front of four and a half stories, building two cottages with twelve rooms each, a billiard room and bowling alley with hall above, a pavilion, ice house and stable. The grounds were improved by walks, driveways and flower beds. Re- cently the present owner, Frank B. Tobey, of Chicago, also a native of Dennis, has made extensive additions to the hotel, so that it now fur- nishes accommodation for two hundred guests. Luther Hall, of Den- nis, has charge of this property, assisted in the management of the hotel by F. H. Pratt.

Generally, the several hotels mentioned in the histories of the vil- lages through the county make special preparations to entertain the summer people.

Not the least of the attractions of the Cape are the excellent facil- ities for yachting. The retired shipmasters, as well as the pleasure- seekers, own handsome yachts and engage in the sport. Regattas are sailed each season at various points around the shore, under the aus- pices of the Cape Cod Yacht Club, in which nearly every town is repre- sented. The past summer has been marked by the several yacht races at Buzzards Bay, Nobscussett, and along the sound, many of the visit- ors having large and beautiful yachts for their private use.

CHAPTER X.

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

BY JOHN H. DILLINGHAM. [Copyright, 1890.]

General View of the Rise and Course of their Principles in Barnstable County .- The Society inSandwich .- Newell Hoxie .- The Society in Yarmouth .- David K. Akin. -The Society in Falmouth .- The Dillingham Family.

M INISTERS of the Society of Friends first made their appearance in this county in the year 1657, ten years after the rise of the society in England, chiefly under the ministry of George Fox. These were Christopher Holder and John Copeland, who, having landed at Rhode Island, proceeded soon to Martha's Vineyard. Their religious offerings being unacceptable to the governor of the island and to Mayhew, the priest, an Indian was ordered to convey them across the sound. They stepped upon the (now called) Falmouth shore on the 20th of Sixth* month, 1657, and proceeded to the town of Sandwich. There they found a number unsettled in their church re- lations, doubtful of the propriety of stated preaching, and believing in the duty of Christians without human ordination to exercise their own gifts in the ministry. Thus the seed of what was nicknamed Quaker- ism found a soil to some extent prepared. The spiritual doctrines preached by Christopher Holder and John Copeland were hailed with feelings of satisfaction by those who had found little food in stated preaching or in forms of worship. Not less than eighteen families in Sandwich were on record the next year as professing with Friends.+

This was not the first arrival of Copeland and Holder on New England shores, but they were of the first cargo of Friends who suc- ceeded in getting a foothold on New England soil, to propagate their views of gospel truth. They had first arrived from London in Boston

* Now Eighth month, called August.

t " They have many meetings and many adherents; almost the whole town of Sandwich is adhering towards them. . . The Sandwich men may not go to the Bay [Boston colony], lest they be taken up for Quakers."-Letter of James Cudworth, a Puri- tan, in 1658.

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bay one year before, together with six fellow laborers in the same cause. These arrived only two days after the sailing away of Mary Fisher and Anne Austin, who had been the first of that society to come to New England; and who, after five weeks imprisonment, had been sent to Barbadoes on the vessel in which they came. Now, these eight other Friends appearing in place of the two just banished, brought no small consternation to the minds of the authorities, who had them imprisoned for eleven weeks, and subjected to many hardships in jail, before they were shipped back to London.

The aged Nicholas Upshal, who had been touched by the suffer- ings of Mary Fisher and Anne Austin as prisoners, and had given them provisions, now raised his voice in protest against the treatment of Quakers and the laws enacted against them. Banished from his home in consequence, he proceeded southward in hope of finding shelter at Sandwich. But the governor of Plymouth had issued a war- rant forbidding any of the people of Sandwich to entertain him The inhabitants of Sandwich, which even then began to appear as the cradle of religious liberty for Massachusetts. were mercifully disposed to ignore the governor's order summoning him to Plymouth. But such was the pressure brought to bear on them by the governor, that when spring-time came. they advised Nicholas Upshal to seek refuge in Rhode Island. Succeeding in reaching the free soil of Newport, doubtless there as during his sojourn in Sand- wich, he served to prepare many minds for the reception of the doctrines which he had learned in Boston through the per- secuted Friends. The story of the old man's wrongs being a theme of general conversation at Newport, an Indian chief was heard to ex- claim, " What a God have the English, who deal so with one another about their God !"

It was while this topic was fresh that Robert Fowler's vessel, the Woodhouse, arrived at Newport, landing six of the eleven Friends whom he had brought from England .- the other five of his passengers having disembarked at New Amsterdam (New York). Of the six who pro- ceeded to Newport, Christopher Holder and John Copeland remained there nearly a fortnight. No doubt the exiled Nicholas Upshal, who had passed the preceding winter in Sandwich, had much conference in Newport with these welcome brethren; and much that he could say to them about the fields being ready for a harvest in Sandwich, may have been instrumental in turning the course of Copeland and Holder toward the Cape, by way of the Vineyard. But Copeland, in a letter to his parents, names only the next station immediately in view: "Now I and Christopher Holder are going to Martha's Vineyard in obedi- ence to the will of our God, whose will is our joy."

It is requisite here that we should take a glance at the more dis-

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tinguishing doctrines inculcated by the Friends," in order to under- stand a little of their public, though invisible influence on the life of the western half of the county, especially in Sandwich, Falmouth and Yarmouth, where societies of them were early gathered and still re- main. This influence has been due, not to their numbers, but to their character. And their character, so far as it is the outcome of their doctrines, is traceable to so much of the Spirit of Christ, not as they have professed as a foundation doctrine, but as they have admitted into their hearts to live by and obey.

As the immediate beginning of modern Protestantism sprang up in the revelation livingly opened to Luther while performing a Rom- ish penance, that "The just shall live by faith," so a similar be- ginning of that more distinct testimony for the spiritual nature of the Christian dispensation, as the second wave of the reformation, by some

* The first written declaration of faith, representing some of the leading doctrines of Friends, is believed to be the following, issued by Christopher Holder, John Cope- land and Richard Doudney, soon after the first visit of the two former in Sandwich. It is dated: "From the House of Correction, the 1st of the Eighth month, 1657, in Boston."

" We do believe in the only true and living God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all things in them con- tained, and doth uphold all things that he hath created by the word of his power. Who at sundry times and in divers manners, spake in time past to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days hath spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath made heir of all things, by whom he made the world. The which Son is that Jesus Christ that was born of the Virgin; who suffered for our offences, and is risen again for our justification, and is ascended into the highest heavens, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father. Even in him do we believe; who is the only begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. And in him do we trust alone for salvation; by whose blood we are washed from sin; through whom we have access to the Father with bold- ness, being justified by faith in believing in his name. Who hath sent forth the Holy Ghost, to wit, the Spirit of Truth, that proceedeth from the Father and the Son, by which we are sealed and adopted sons and heirs of the kingdom of heaven. From the which Spirit the Scriptures of truth were given forth, as, saith the Apostle Peter, ' Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.' The which were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the world are come; and are profitable for the man of God, to reprove, and to exhort, and to admonish, as the Spirit of God hringeth them unto him, and openeth them in him, and giveth him the understanding of them.

"So that before all men we do declare that we do believe in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; according as they are declared of in the Scriptures; and the Scriptures we own to be a true declaration of the Father, Son and Spirit; in which is declared what was in the beginning, what was present, and was to

come. * * * [The only doctrinal matter which follows is contained in an exhortation to turn to the Spirit] that showeth you the secret of your hearts, and the deeds that are not good. Therefore while you have light, believe in the light, that you may be the children of the light; for, as you love it and obey it, it will lead you to repentance, bring you to know Him in whom is remission of sins, in whom God is well pleased; who will give you an entrance into the kingdom of God, an inheritance amongst them that are sanctified."

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denominated as Quakerism," dates from the moment that George Fox. after sore struggles and wanderings in search for the living truth, heard the words as by a declaration from heaven, " There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition."

From that time, Jesus Christ, not only as " once offered to bear the sins of many," but as the inspeaking Word of God and Mediator be- tween man and the Father; the " true Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world "; the Leader, by the witness of his Spirt, into all the Truth; and the practical "head over all things to his church," even head over every individual exercise of true public and private worship,-has been the foundation of the system of doctrines and testimony, which seemed to the early Friends clearly to proceed from Christ by the witness of his spirit to their hearts.

They reverently owned the Holy Scriptures to be written words of God, but were careful to observe them just as reverently in their own confinement of the title " Word of God " to Christ himself. Sat- isfied that the Scriptures were written by inspiration of God, they dared to open or interpret their spiritual meaning under no other qualification than a measure of that in which they were written. Knowing that a prophecy of Scripture is of no private interpretation; but, as it came not by will of man, no more can it be so interpreted; and "as holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit," so in the light of the same Spirit must the sayings, as all the other "things of the Spirit of God," be spiritually discerned; and, when rightly called for, so declared to others.

Now, since "a measure and manifestation of the Spirit of God is given to every man to profit withal," and "the grace of God which bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men, teaching them," if they will heed it, the essentials of life and salvation, God hath neither left himself without a witness for Truth to every man's heart, nor man anywhere with availing excuse. Since "sin is the transgression of the law," and " all have sinned," all must have had the law, or evi- dence of the divine will,-some in the Scriptures, and all mankind by the Spirit, witnessing in their hearts against sin. "For where no law is, there is no transgression." But by the inward witness of the Holy Spirit, sin is disclosed to each man as sin; whereby Christ fulfills his promise, if he should go away, to come again and " convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment." And if under this con- viction for sin there is a faithful repentance toward God, a saving faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ is imparted by the same Spirit (even to such sincere penitents as may not have been informed of his outward

*A nickname, as in most cases happens, more persistent than the adopted name, and started by George Fox's bidding a magistrate to " Tremble at the word of the Lord."

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 161

history, yet they experience the spiritual mystery) to give us to feel our transgriesson forgiven and iniquity pardoned, not for works of righteousness that we may have done, but according to the Father's mercy in Christ Jesus, who laid down his life, " the just for the un- just," a " Propitiation for the sins of the whole world," that we " be- ing reconciled by his death," may be " saved by his life."

Consistently with this adherence to Christ as the Word of God " speaking to our condition," as we reverently wait on Him to know his voice, no ministration but that of his spirit is needed, whether vo- cally through the minister or " in the silence of all flesh," for the per- formance of worship acceptable to God,-a worship which stands not in words, or forms or emblems, but must be " in spirit and in truth." Here no words of man are a part of worship, except under a fresh re- quirement of the " Head over all things to his church "; whose charge through the apostle Paul was, " If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister let him do it as of the ability which God giveth." Ministry, whether it be exhortation, teaching, praise or prayer, under such immediate putting forth of Christ's Spirit, requires no previous intellectual study or preparation; but may be exercised according to the anointing and gift whether by learned or unlearned, male or female. For " There is neither male or female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." And the dispensation has been introduced when the Spirit was to be " poured out on all flesh," and " your sons and your daughters .- servants and handmaids-shall prophesy." (Acts ii: 17, 18). And Paul who forbade women to speak or teach in the church, in the human sense of the word, was careful to tell how women should appear when they should speak in the divine sense,-when they should publicly pray or prophesy.

The Friends took note of the command of Christ: " Freely ye have received. freely give," in its application to the ministry of the gospel. Especially as, during the seasons of public worship, ministers in com- mon with the flock were to " wait for a fresh anointing for every fresh service," no sermons had to be prepared outside of the meetings in any such way as to prevent ministers earning their own living, after the example of the apostle Paul. Pastoral care, the watching over one another for good, was the common duty of all the brethren. So, con- scientiously unable to " preach for hire, or divine for money," and concerned to avoid even the appearance of doing so, they brought down upon themselves, chiefly by this one testimony against a " hire- ling ministry," the most alarmed vituperation of the salaried clergy; at whose instance the bulk of their persecutions thus most naturally came.

Regarding the ceremonials of the Old Testament law as types, fig- ures and object lessons of the spiritual life of the religion of Christ

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who was to come; and that he, when he said on the cross, " It is fin- ished," became " the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth "; and that every outward ordinance of the former dis- pensation was obsolete because fulfilled in Christ himself, the living Substance, to whom all types and shadows that went before pointed ; -they believed it to be his will that the spirit and not the forms of those ceremonials,-the heavenly things themselves and not the im- ages of those things,-should be maintained and cherished by living experience. The Jewish rite of water baptism and the passover sup- per, as outward observances, ended like all the others, with the Old Dispensation,-the baptism of John as a prophet under that dispensa- tion belonging there, while he with his master distinctly declared that Christ's own baptism, under the incoming dispensation of " One Lord, one faith, one baptism," should be the baptism of the " Holy Spirit and of fire." Also that no obligation for the continuance of the last pass- over supper, as an outward form, is found in any more definite com- mand than this,-in the fuller sentence as quoted by Paul :- "This do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me " ;- a condescension to a formed habit, with the command resting on the spiritual side,- the remembrance of him. The Friends taught, that inward submis- sion to Christ's spirit as the bread of life and the wine to be drank "anew with his disciples in his kingdom," is the table of communion at which he would " sup with us and we with Him."

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History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890, Part 18

Author: Deyo, Simeon L., ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: New York : Blake Number of Pages: 1292

Author: Deyo, Simeon L., ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: New York : Blake
Number of Pages: 1292