History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890, Part 30

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

USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890 > Part 30

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The Cape Cod Item was started July 11, 1878, at Yarmouth Port, by George Otis. It was gradually enlarged, and is now an 8-page jour- nal, issuing a single or double supplement a portion of the year. It was at first devoted to local and general news, and has a large circu- lation and advertising patronage. In 1889, William P. Reynolds, Esq., was associated with Mr. Otis in the editorship, and the paper now espouses the republican cause.

The Mayflower was a miscellaneous and story journal, published by George Otis of the Item, from 1881 to 1889. It had a large circulation, but the price-50 cents per year-was inadequate to the cost of pro- duction, and its list was merged in the Yankee Blade, of Boston, in June, 1887. The Ocean Wave, an eight-page weekly, was issued by George Otis from October, 18SS, to May, 1889.

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LITERATURE AND LITERARY PEOPLE.

The Sandwich Observer (the second publication by that name) was issued in 1884, being printed at the Patriot office, and edited by Am- brose E. Pratt of Sandwich. Mr. Pratt was succeeded about 1887, by Frank O. Ellis, who still has charge of the publication. It is more es- pecially devoted to the interests of the towns of Sandwich and Bourne, and is republican in politics.

The Falmouth Local was established by Lewis F. Clarke, who issued the first number, March 11, 1886. It was a three-column folio, printed one page at a time on a job press in the building now the Continental shoe store. At the close of 1887 it had been enlarged, located in a new office, and was being run as a seven-column folio, from a steam- power cylinder press. Since December 8, 1887. Ambrose E. Pratt of Sandwich, has been the editor. George S. Hudson was the printer in charge from September 1, 1886, until July, 1888, when Thomas Brady, a practical printer and pressman, became manager of the press and composing department. It is issued at Falmouth as an eight-column folio, devoted to the local news interests of the several towns of the upper Cape in which it has a fair patronage.

The Barnstable County Journal was issued for four years from January, 1886, by James B. Cook. It was a 32-column folio, published at $1.50 a year. In politics it was democratic-the only newspaper of that faith in the county of Barnstable.

February 17, 1887, William R. Farris, George R. Phillips and Charles H. Crowell issued the first number of the Cape Cod News, at South Yar- mouth. It was a small twenty-column paper, devoted to local intelli- gence. In July, 1SSS, the list was sold to George Otis and absorbed by the Item.

Two later candidates for the favor of newspaper readers-the Wellfleet News and the Sandwich Review were issued November 12, 1889, by the proprietor of the Item. They are eight-page papers, de- voted to miscellany and the local news of the respective towns. The News is written up by Mrs. A. H. Rogers and the Review by N. E. Linekin.

Besides the news journals, several monthly publications have been issued by the pupils of the public schools. The Academy Breeses was for two or three years issued by the scholars of the Sandwich High school. For about six years, the pupils of the Harwich High school have published a little sheet called the Pine Grove Echoes. The pupils of the Bourne High school, since April, 1888, have issued monthly, the High School Graphic, a sheet containing many creditable articles. These publications have developed a considerable degree of writing ability, and are doing a good work in their special fields.

CHAPTER XIV.

TOWN OF SANDWICH.

Location and Description .- Settlement and Early Growth .- Domestic Affairs -- Acces- sion of Settlers .- List of Inhabitants in 1730 .- Continued Advancement .- Firing the Woods .- The Town's Poor .- The Revolutionary Period .- The Present Century .- Villages .- Civil History .- Churches .- Schools .- Societies .- Cemeteries .- Biograph- ical Sketches.

T HE history of Sandwich as a white man's settlement now covers a period of 253 years embracing 48 years preceding the forma-

tion of Barnstable county. Prior to 1654 the records of the proprietors are meagre and nearly illegible, but the events recorded are those common to the early history of the plantations of Plymouth colony, and are fraught with the domestic incidents and names so rev- erently preserved by the present generation. Notwithstanding the records prior to 1884 embrace also the history of Bourne, the compil- ation of the history of the settlement and growth of Sandwich will be confined to the territory now encompassed within its bounds, so far as a careful research into the musty pages of the past may render the facts separable.

Sandwich is the second town on the north side of the Cape from the main land, fronting for several miles on Cape Cod bay, which forms its northern boundary. The peculiar rhomboidal shape of the town from the line of the bay renders its boundary compli- cated. Barnstable forms the eastern boundary, extending from near Scorton harbor southwesterly to the northeast corner of Mashpee ; the towns forming the southern boundary are Falmouth and Mash- pee, the latter also being the eastern boundary for the southwestern portion of Sandwich; and Bourne forms the western according to the division line of 1884 described in the chapter on that town. The area of Sandwich within the perimeter given is 20,955 acres, the surface of which, excepting the salt marshes along the bay, presents a beautiful diversity of undulations in which hills and downs blend in pleasing variety. The valleys contain ponds and rivulets. The central and southern portions of the town are still covered with large tracts of woods affording game of the smaller

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sort. The soil is a sandy loam on the elevations, and a fertile allu- vium around the ponds and in the valleys.

The ponds are numerous, the larger ones being Peter's, containing 176 acres; Spectacle, of 151 acres; Triangle, 84; Snake, 76; and Law- rence, 70. The smaller ponds worthy of mention are Ellis, of 25 acres; Mill, southwest of Sandwich village, 47; Weeks, 12; and two at East Sandwich, of 12 acres each. Of these ponds only one has a vis- ible outlet; the one southwest of the village supplies Mill river with power for mills. Wakeby pond, connected with the Mashpee, is par- tially surrounded by the territory of Sandwich.

The inhabitants have always paid much attention to agricultural and mechanical pursuits, and less than do those of the neighboring towns to maritime employments. Besides the culture of the usual crops large quantities of cranberries are successfully raised in every part. Orchards of all kinds are a source of profit. Fishing is one of the occupations of the residents, but not a large amount of shipping is owned and that small, only sufficient for home pursuits. The har- bors, too small for important commerce and large shipping, are ade- quate for the wants of the town, and this fact has assisted in deter- mining the prevailing occupations of its people.

The territory of Sandwhich, prior to 1637, was embraced in the unsettled portions of the vast tract granted to William Bradford and his associates then called the council of Plymouth, and to this coun- cil the people of the town were subject, especially in the affairs of the church. No person was permitted " to live or inhabit within the Government of New Plymouth withont the leave and liking of the Governor and his assistants." No laws had been made touching political and civil rights until November 15, 1636. A civil power- not church government-was then needed to prevent and correct a conflict of interests in the growing colony. Then it was enacted that annually an election should be held, " but confined to such as shall be admitted as freemen," to whom a stringent oath was pre- scribed; and none were to be admitted but such as were "orthodox in the fundamentals of religion, and possessed of a ratable estate of twenty pounds." The idea was inculcated that colonies could be es- tablished with the right of representation, which was an incentive to the enterprising to seek other lands. Historians assert, that religious considerations also led the ten Saugus (Lynn) pioneers to seek this first plantation of the Cape. Whatever their motives, after delibera- tion they concluded that the Plymouth colony could be no more stringent than the Massachusetts, nor present more obstacles to their aspirations; so they sought and obtained permission from the colony of Plymouth to locate a plantation at Shaume, now Sandwich. The record says: "April 3, 1637, it is also agreed by the Court that these

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

ten men of Saugus, viz., 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, and have sufficient lands for three-score families, upon the conditions propounded to them by the governor and Mr. Winslow."

That year these men except Thomas Dexter, who came subsequent- ly, settled with their families in and near that part of the town now occupied by the village of Sandwich. Within four years fifty others from Lynn, Duxbury and Plymouth came, many bringing their fam- ilies, and the " three-score," as permitted, appear on the proprietors' records in 1641. The fifty later comers were: George Allen, Thomas Armitage, Anthony Besse, Mr. Blakemore, George Bliss, Thomas Boardman, Robert Bodfish, Richard Bourne, William Braybrook, John Briggs, Richard Kerby, John King, Thomas Landers, Mr. Leverich, John Miller, William Newland, Benjamin Nye, George Buitt, Thomas Burge, Thomas Butler, Tho. Chillingsworth, Edmund Clarke, George Cole, John Dingley, Henry Ewer, John Fish, Jonathan Fish, Mr. Pot- ter, James Skiffe, George Slawson, Michael Turner, John Vincent, Richard Wade, Thomas Willis, Nathaniel Fish, John Friend, Peter Gaunt, Andrew Hallett, Thomas Hampton, William Harlow, William Hedge, Joseph Holway, William Hurst, John Joyce, John Wing, Mr. Winsor, Mr. Wollaston, Anthony Wright, Nicholas Wright, and Peter Wright. Changes occurred early in the population-some returning, others seeking lands eastward on the Cape, and others arriving -- but of these 60 families under 56 different names, after 250 years the tax roll of the town contains 16.

The colonial powers made stringent laws for these early settlers who soon learned that laws were not placed upon the statute books for ornament; for the court record of 1638 says "Richard Bourne fined for not ringing 3 pigs; John Carman, 1 sow and 11 pigs; Thos. Tupper, 5 swine; Thos. Armitage, 2 swine "; and at another court the same year " John Burge, Peter Gaunt. Richard Chadwell, Edward Freeman, Richard Kerby, Robert Bodfish and John Dingley were fined " for the similar neglect. It would seem incredible that pigs could have then done damage; but the law required the pigs of the remotest plantations of the colony to wear rings in the nose, and the owner, for this direliction, must needs go to Plymouth to answer in court. During the same year Henry Ewer and his wife were ordered to depart from Sandwich for some violation of law, and " Mr. Skeffe is required to send them back because he encouraged their coming."

How this sentence terminated does not appear ; but many of his descendants succeeded him and the name still exists in all respecta- bility. The same court deemed it necessary that the land in Sand-

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wich should be defined and allotted with all convenient speed, and for this purpose directed Mr. Alden and Miles Standish to proceed at once to that plantation. This was done in 1638 and afterward recorded in the proprietors' records; but from these records no intelligible de- scription of these allotments can be made ; and if descibed as the records read, the lapse of time has so nearly effaced the landmarks named by the old surveyors-the marked trees, the stakes and stones, even the rocks themselves-that with the record alone not a single property could now be correctly bounded; but there are several estates both here and in Bourne now owned by the descendants of the pioneers, and thus a few of the original tracts can be approximately located.

The rigid surveillance of the court over the disposal of lands to. persons considered unfit, was continued for some years, and in a meas- ure perhaps retarded the growth of the settlement; but in 1643, four years after Sandwich had been clothed with the dignity of a town, the following, between the ages of 16 and 60, were enrolled as liable to bear arms: Francis Allen, George Allen jr., Matthew Allen, Ralph Allen, Samuel Allen, John Bell, Edmund Berry, Anthony Bessy, Miles Black, John Blakemore, Thomas Boardman, Robert Bodfish, Richard Bourne, George Buitt, Richard Burgess, Thomas Burgess sr., Thomas Burgess jr., Thomas Butler, Richard Chadwell, Edmund Clark, Henry Cole, Edward Dillingham, Henry Dillingham, John Dingley, John Ellis, Henry Feake, John Fish, Jonathan Fish, Nathaniel Fish, Ed- mund Freeman sr., Edmund Freeman jr., John Freeman, Peter Gaunt, Thomas Gibbs, John Green, Thomas Greenfield, Joseph Holway, Peter Hanbury, John Johnson, Thomas Johnson, John Joyce, Richard Kerby, George Knott, Thomas Landers, Mr. William Leverich, John Newland, William Newland, Thomas Nichols, Benjamin Nye, John Presbury, Henry Sanderson, Henry Stephen, Thos. Shillingsworth, James Skiff, William Swift, Thomas Tupper, Michael Turner, John Vincent, Na- thaniel Willis, Lawrence Willis, Joseph Winsor, Daniel Wing John Wing, Stephen Wing, William Wood, Anthony Wright, Nicholas Wright, Peter Wright.

The towns of the colony were required in 1654 to procure books for recording divisions and purchases of land, after which the records. of Sandwich were more properly kept. The reader has been given the names of the heads of the original three-score families and the military roll which included the young men; now after the lapse of a few years, when the records, bounding each freeman's land have been arranged, we find the following named persons had land in ad- dition to those alluded to: Jedediah Allen, William Allen, William Bassett, Nehemiah Bessie, Job Bourne, Michael Blackwell, John Bod- fish, Samuel Briggs, Jacob Burge, Joseph Burge, Ambrose Fish, John

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

Gibbs, William Gifford, Robert Harper, Edward Hoxie, Lodo. Hoxie, John Jenkins, James Skiff jr., Isaac Turner, and Thomas Tobey sr.

These, with those previously named, comprised the settlers of Sandwich as found by the records during the first twenty years. Some had sought other homes on the Cape, during the time, but where, no mention is given. The population of Sandwich in the year 1764 was 1,449; in 1776 it was 1,912; in 1790, 1,991; 1800, 2,024; 1810, 2,382 ; 1820, 2,884; 1830, 3,367; 1840, 3,719; 1850, 4,181; 1860, 4,479; 1870, 3,694: 1875, 3,417; 1880, 3,543; and in 1885, after the incorpora- tion of Bourne, the population was 2,124, of whom 556 were voters.

The Sandwich settlement was not beyond the social reach of the Plymouth people, for it is recorded that William Paddy, a mer- chant of Plymouth, on the 28th of November, 1639, took in wedlock one of its fair daughters. No doubt this marriage was legally con- tracted and completed ; for the court yet had stringent laws regard- ing the intercourse between young people, and as late as 1648 a citi- zen of Sandwich was fordidden to show attention to a certain female "until the court can better discern the truth of his pretensions."

A deed of the plantation was executed in 1651 confirming the former grant, the conditions of which had been fulfilled by the pro- prietors. These held lands in common, to be used jointly and to con- vey to New-Comers who might be qualified to become freemen. A man could become a freeman, entitled to hold land and vote, but his orthodoxy constituted his fitness; and even the proprietors must have permission from the court for certain desired privileges, as we find in 1644 that George Allen was " licensed to cut hay at the ponds be- yond Sandwich plains." These restrictions were removed a few years later.

The proprietor's records, year after year, show increase in the cares of a growing town. The town neck-that portion east of the harbor -- had been used in common as pasturage, but in 1652 it was thought best, to use its luxuriant grass for young cattle, and March 12, it was "agreed that the Town Neck still be used for pasturage, from 1 May to Oct. 4, but that no cattle except calves shall be put in without the consent of the town." The town neck is still held in shares by the descendants of the proprietors or by purchasers, being 60 shares of two acres each.

Whaling was quite actively engaged in by the people of the colo- nies, and the wounded whales, often escaping and dying, would float to the north shore of the town. Grampus and other large fish would also be stranded on the flats by the receding tides, and as early as 1652 it was "ordered that Edmund Freeman, Edward Perry, George Allen, Daniel Wing, John Ellis, and Thomas Tobey, these six men, shall take care of all the fish that Indians shall cut up within the limits

TOWN OF SANDWICH. 269

of the town so as to provide safety for it, and shall dispose of the fish for the town's use; also that if any man that is an inhabitant shall find a whale and report to any of these six men, he shall have a double share ; and that these six men shall take care to provide laborers and whatever is needful, so that whatever whales either white men or In- dians gives notice of, they may dispose of the proceeds to the town's use to be divided equally to every inhabitant." This was found to be a source of considerable income to the town, and soon after the court at Plymouth enacted that one barrel of oil from every whale be given to them, which was acceded to; but this whaling on land gradually declined as the whalers at sea became more proficient.

Among other duties of the year 1652 the town appointed "Anthony Thacher, Win. Bassett, Jonathan Hatch, John Finny, James Skeff, Henry Dillingham, John Ellis, John Wing, Jos. Rogers, Edw. Bangs, WVm. Hedge, Thomas Hinckley, and Thomas Dexter," as a committee to attend to the laying out of a road from Sandwich to Plymouth, which is now a portion of the county road. The road had not been completed two years later, for in 1654 both " Plymouth and Sandwich were presented for not having the country highway between these places cleared so as to be passable by man and horse." The difficul- ties of the passage and the distance to Plymouth to have the town's grain ground induced Thomas Dexter to negotiate with the proprie- tors to build a mill in 1654, and " the town gave full power to Edward Dillingham and Richard Bourne to agree with sd Dexter to go on and build the mill." But this project failed, and " John Ellis, Win. Swift, Wm. Allen, and James Skeff were engaged to build a mill, the town paying £20." This sum was subscribed by 22 of the freemen and the mill was completed early in 1655; the records say for May 18, " The town hath agreed with Matthew Allen to grind and have the toll for his pains."

Dexter's determination to build a grist mill led him to again agree to erect one, if the town " would allow him 5 pts. per bush. toll ; he to build and maintain the mill and dam and all other things thereto be- longing ; and to provide a miller at his own cost." This agreement was entered into 1655, but the mill was not completed until later, and Dexter's toll dish continued to grow in dimensions until its unlawful size caused the appointment by the selectmen of Goodman Chadwell, Edmund Freeman and Thomas Tobey, "to agree with Thos. Dexter, jr., for the grinding of the town's corn ; and if they fail to agree then 12 acres of the land at the river that comes out of the pond at the head of Benj. Nye's marsh, shall be granted to any other of the towns- men that will set up a mill." Dexter's toll dish not shrinking in size, the land promised by the town was laid off at Little pond furnishing a mill, and a toll dish under the town's control. This last mill was

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

doubtless at Spring hill, and was erected in 1669. The obligations of Mr. Dexter to the town, or how far he could control his toll is not ex- plained in the records only as heretofore mentioned. Nor was the future of the old mill a subject of action for the selectmen for many years.

A copy of a deed under date of 1668, transcribed from records at Plymouth is now in possession of the Nye Brothers, who occupy the Thomas Dexter property. James Skeff, jr., that year sold it to Thomas Dexter, sr., for £15, part to be paid in money, the remainder in cattle and corn. Messrs. Holway, Burgess, Sears, the Sandwich Savings Bank, and later B. F. Brackett (now deceased) were in- terested in the title down to 1879, when William L. Nye and Levi S. Nye became the occupants as Mr. Brackett's tenants. The old mill did more or less service until 1881, when from its antiquity it was excused from grinding the little corn that occasionally came. The rude hop- per and gearings, now dismantled, are a faithful memento of the sim- plicity of the fathers of the present generations. The old undershot water wheel on the side was long ago replaced by a turbine; and early in the present century a woolen factory was erected on the east of the grist mill. This was used for carding and cloth-dressing until 1830, when it was taken down. Upon this site later, the present building was erected for a marble works, sawing the blocks of marble below and finishing the slabs in the rooms above, which work was in turn .discontinued about 1859 or '60. After two or three years L. B. Nye leased this building, where he carried on wheelwrighting and pound- ing clay for the Cape Cod Glass Works until 1871; Levi S. Nye manu- factured jewelers' boxes here until 1876; and in 1879 the present ac- tive business of making and printing tags was inaugurated by the Nye Brothers, furnishing employment for several persons in the fac- tory and a much larger number outside.

The fact, that the love of money is the root of much evil, is older than the old mill; and that some in the generation of which we write should be tempted beyond their powers of resistance, was as natural as the turning of the mill-wheel under a head of water. But the re- cords of that time contain other than mill-toll temptations, and the charitable manner in which the fathers recorded them indicates that they were only ripples on the smooth sea of justice. In 1667 Joseph Burge was fined £1, " for disorderly helping away horses out of the ·colony "; and later, in 1669, a shirt having been stolen was found in the possession of a person who claimed to have purchased it of an In- dian; this person was required " to look up the Indian," and to give him ample time to do so, he was bound over for a term. It is just to ·say that irregularities of this kind were rare and records of no others are to be found on the town's books of those days.

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TOWN OF SANDWICH.

The maturing crops of wheat and corn dotted the knolls of the northern portion of Sandwich at the time of which we write, and to the inhabitants these were of great value. The sheep husbandry had also become important in the wants of the town; but both industries had their enemies. The blackbirds from the inarshes and the wolves from the woods south and west of the settlement gave occasion for the order in 1672 "that all masters of families and all young men that are at their own disposing, shall kill or cause to be killed one dozen of black-birds." The amount paid for wolves' scalps was from õs. to £1 each according to size. These exactions and bounties were continued for many years until the necessity was removed. The sheep husbandry attained its greatest importance in the early part of the eighteenth century, the town erecting yards in various parts, over which shepherds were placed. After about 1730 it declined as rapidly as it had advanced. The activity and policy of the town exterminated the wolves before 1800, for they were reduced to one several years previous. The records of January 19, 1790, say that the town " offered a bounty of £25 to any one who shall kill the wolf, catamount or tiger infesting this and the neighboring towns and destroying sheep." This bounty was increased in March of the same year to £30, and at the same time it was ordered, that if the committee to whom this matter was referred, thought it expedient to have a general muster of the in- habitants to secure the depredator, then every able-bodied man should be called to engage in the duty.

These were not the only clouds to shadow the people of Sandwich; for in 1676 Ralph Allen and Stephen Skiff were appointed "to carry the town's mind to Barnstable, that the towns may know each others minds in reference to the bringing of some of the people of the out- towns, among us." This action of the town indicated the solicitude occasioned by the war of King Philip for those dwelling in more un- protected .towns. The doors of the houses were opened for those in danger, and watch was kept by the town lest the Indians of the Cape should be induced to commit depredations as they were urged to do. Sandwich by money and men responded to every call of the colonial government in this war, which has been mentioned in chapter VI.

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History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890, Part 30

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