History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890, Part 52

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 52

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461

TOWN OF YARMOUTH.

increasing, Captain Standish alone was appointed in 1648, by the court, to " have a hearing and put an end to all differences " on this subject. The fiery captain showed the same pluck and decision in this matter that he exhibited in warlike exploits, and adopted decidedly heroic remedies. Many parties were ejected from lands claimed and occu- pied by them. Most of the former grants were abrogated and the lands reverted to the possession of the town. They were then re- assigned agreeably to the views of the commissioner. There was no appeal, and smothering their resentment as best they might, the townsmen submitted from compulsion. Thus was ended one of the potent causes of internal discontent in the community.

The causes for public concern was sufficent to keep the people fully employed. The ministerial wrangles, thejtaxation to support Eel River bridge, and the threatening conduct of the Dutch at New Northlands were sources of continual controversy. In 1663 Sergeant Ryder and . John Gorham were sent by the town to attend a council of war, and of the sixty men which the colony voted to raise, six were assigned as the quota to Yarmouth. The next year the number was four, and there was another call for a like number.

The action of the court in relation to this town about this period throws some side lights upon the occupations, resources and public interests and concerns of the people. In 1661 the colonial authorities . and the towns came to an agreement, by which two barrels of oil from every whale secured in town should be delivered to the treasurer of the colony. Richard Child was warned to desist from building a cot- tage in town. This matter of "warning out of town" undesirable settlers may seem harsh, in a new country with plenty of land; but it was in accordance with sound public policy at that time. If Child had been permitted to build without protest, he would have acquired a personal right in the common lands, a tenement right and a claim for public relief for himself and family if unfortunate in his business.

In November, 1667, in relation to attendance upon town meetings, it was voted, " that if any townsman doth not make his appearance upon the second call to answer to his name, he shall be fined 6d, unless the townsmen accept his excuse." The former regulations relating to ordinaries and ordinary keepers were reaffirmed and more accurately defined, and John Howes and Anthony Fray were appointed for this town to enforce the laws on this subject. Edward Sturgis, a leading citizen, gave dissatisfaction by his indiscriminate sale of spirituous liquors, and his license to keep an ordinany was revoked. It was also voted that "every ratable person in town shall kill, or cause to be . killed, six black birds or crows, by the last of July next, or else pay 2s., 6d. for his neglect." The town, in 1679, also appointed a committee : to collect the minister's salary, " so that he may not remain unpaid of

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

his due, to the blemish of the town." In 1680 the townspeople agreed with certain parties "to look out for and secure the town all such whales as by God's providence shall be cast up in their several bounds," for the sum of four pounds a whale, to be paid in blubber or oil. An invoice of liquors brought into the town in 1662, shows that six differ- ent persons imported one hundred and twelve gallons. In 1663 ten persons brought here ninety-seven gallons, nine cases and a quarter cask. As a result, at the next term of the court, notice was taken of " much abuse of liquors in the town of Yarmouth," and the next year two prominent citizens were fined for bringing in liquors without sea- sonably notifying the inspectors.

All the citizens of the town do not appear to have been saints, and frequently some of them were disciplined by the court. In 1663 Jonas Hallet, Thomas Starr and two others, of Yarmouth, went to the house of John Doane, jr., of Eastham, and finding no one at home, ransacked the house for liquors, which they drank, and then wrote "a libellous and scandalous paper of verses," which they left there. They were fined fifty shillings each, and their two associates thirty shillings each. Nicholas Nickerson, for making opprobrious speeches against Rev. Thomas Thornton, saying of a certain sermon, that "half of it was lies," was obliged to retract and express regret, though it is doubtful if he felt it. In 1669 sundry persons were fined five shil- lings each, "for smoking tobacco at the end of Yarmouth meeting house, during the Lord's day, in the time of exercise." In 1671 three persons of Yarmouth were fined thirty shillings each, "for sailing from Yarmouth to Boston on the Lord's day," and three others were summoned to appear to answer a like accusation. One person was fined for "swearing."

The following is a list of the freemen in 1670: Mr. John Crow, Thomas Falland, Emanuel White, James Matthews, Mr. Edmund Hawes, Mr. John Vincent, Jeremiah Howes, John Miller, Edward Sturgis, sr., Richard Sears, Yelverton Crow, Joseph Howes, John Thacher, Henry Vincent, Samuel Sturgis, Judah Thacher, Thomas Howes, John Hawes, Keneline Winslow. In 1674 the house of Ed- ward Hawes, the town clerk, was destroyed by fire, and with it the entire town records. No attempt was ever made to repair this loss, and much valuable information is thereby lost to the descendants of that and previous generations. The new book of records opens with a list of the soldiers of Yarmouth who were pressed into the service in Philip's war, together with their wages. The quotas of men re- quired were promptly filled. Fifteen men from this town were in the Narragansett swamp fight, but none were killed. Five men from this town were killed at Rehoboth, in the fight in which Captain Pierce's company was annihilated. The pecuniary burden on the

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TOWN OF YARMOUTH.

town was great. During the years 1675-'76 war taxes were assessed as follows: 474. 15s .. 6d .; 614: 6266, 1s .; £297.

Philip's war did not, by any means, finish the troubles connected with the Indian question. The seat of hostilities was transferred to Maine and New Hampshire, and in 1689 Yarmouth was obliged to pay forty-one pounds as her proportion of the war against the East- ern Indians. In 1690 she furnished at one time four, and at another ten men, and paid $104, 2s., 9d., of the debt of what was styled Wil- liam and Mary's War. Yarmouth in 1690 was regarded by the asses- sors-or "rate-makers," as they were styled in those days-as the fourth town of the twenty in the colony in point of valuation, those ranking higher being Plymouth, Scituate and Barnstable only. As an important town in the colony, she had her share of anxieties and tribulations in connection with the complications in the other colon- ies and in the mother country.

In 1694, Captain John Thacher, Lieutenant Silas Sears, John Miller, and Sergeant Joseph Ryder were appointed to "seat the men and women and others in the meeting house." The seating of a con- gregation was an important and a delicate matter. Seats were as- signed according to rank, social position, wealth and other public considerations, and it was not, at all times, an easy task to satisfy the expectations of a society in this respect. In 1695 John Taylor was appointed to take care of the meeting house, for one year, for which service he was to receive one pound. It was also agreed that " each townsman shall give and haul to the minister one load of wood." John Thacher. Thomas Sturgis, and William Hedge were granted leave to set up a wind mill on the commons, to use one acre of land, for the site, the mill not to be rated. The Quakers' scruples were respected, when it was ordered that they " be rated for the support of the ministry, but that the tax be made so much larger, that Mr. Cotton may have his full salary." Major Thacher and Zachariah Paddock were appointed to join the selectmen. to run a line between the town and " the purchasers " of the town of Harwich. John Clark was engaged in 1700 for school master, to have besides his salary pro- vision for keeping his horse, his circuit being so extended as to re- quire that facility. In 1701 John Miller was chosen representative, to have 3s., 6d., per day, and to be allowed two extra days for travel, " in consideration of his age and the greatness of the journey."

The division of the common lands of the town was initiated in 1710. After the division made by Captain Standish in 164S, there appears to have been substantially no change in the system of allot- ing the common property of the townsmen until 1672, when grants were authorized by the court, and the book containing these awards contains this inscription: " John Thacher was appointed to keep this

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

book and enter records therein." The committee were: Edmund Hawes, Thomas Boardman, Thomas Howes. Andrew Hallet, and John Thacher. Afterward the court added Jeremiah Howes and John Miller in place of Captain Howes and Andrew Hallet. These persons granted pieces of marsh and upland to a limited extent, but the original estates had been subdivided. the people had increased, and were getting cramped for land.

In February, 1710, the town chose as a committee to consider and report upon some plan of division, Colonel Thacher. John Hallet, Samuel Sturgis, Joseph Hall, and Zachariah Paddock, jr. In April the committee's report was accepted by the town. They recom- mended that the division be made on the following plan. viz .: "1st. That one-third of the commons shall be apportioned to tenements, the owners to be inhabitants of the town. or the children or successors of those now inhabitants who have tenement rights, or of those who were freeholders in 1661. and had borne charge in settling the town. and that no person should have to exceed two tenement rights. 2d. One-third to all persons 21 years of age and over, born in town and now inhabitants, or those not born here who have been inhabitants 21 years, and have possessed a tenement 21 years. 3d. One-third, according to real estate, as each person was rated in 1709." A committee was then chosen to report a list of persons in town entitled to a portion of the public lands and the number of shares to which each was entitled. The committee's report of May 23d was confirmed, and in February, 1711. the proprie- tors met, and agreed that two-thirds of the undivided lands be laid out to the individual proprietors. The committee were also author- ized to lay out such highways and private ways in those undivided lots as they deemed proper. The whole number of shares was 3,135 (afterward altered to 3,118). The proprietors clerk was directed to make out a list of proprietors from the town book and record them. By a general average, nine shares were assigned to each tenement right, and 7} to each personal right. No person was to have more than two of the former, and there were only four persons in town found to be entitled to more than one. All the residue over the tene- ment and personal rights was on account of proportionate ownership in the taxable real estate in town. The division was made by lot, and the drawings were completed during the summer of 1712. A large portion of these lots have remained in the families of the first owners down to the present time.

Before making the third and final division it was voted at a pro- prietors' meeting held July 1, 1713, "that a piece of land and beach lying near Coy's pond, about two acres, shall lie undivided for the benefit of the whalemen of the town of Yarmouth forever." It was also voted that "the committee chosen to lay out the third of the.

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TOWN OF YARMOUTH.

undivided lands shall have power to lay out a certain tract, as much as they shall see fit and convenient for the native Indians of the town to live upon, they agreeing with the Indians where to lay out such land, which land is to lie for their use forever, to live upon and for planting and firewood. And the Indians shall not have any power to sell or dispose of said lands or timber, wood or fencing stuff that grows thereon, or receive any other town's Indians or any other per- sons whatsoever, either English or Indians." The division made by lot July 14, 1715, absorbed the great bulk of the common lands ex- cept the few spots reserved, as already indicated. The locality re- served for the use and occupation of the Indians is particularly de- scribed in the proprietors' records, and is substantially the present village of South Yarmouth, contiguous to the streams and shell fish- eries, which the Indian prized so highly.

About 1726 commenced a movement from the Cape to seek new homes-this time toward the province of Maine. The division of the common lands had not satisfied the desires of the landless classes, and the legislature of 1727 having granted the heirs of each of the 120 soldiers in the Narragansett expedition during Philip's war, a town- ship in Maine, about forty heirs and their families in 1736 settled the town of Gorham, Me.

No sooner was the last of the French wars ended than the diffi- culties of the colonies with the mother country began to thicken, and the people of this town not only shared in the general discontent, but made their dissatisfaction known by their acts. There was a patiotic body, here as elsewhere, called the Sons of Liberty, who met usually in the night time and made the few loyalists and those sus- pected of being such. very unhappy. Two "liberty poles" were erected in the West parish bounds, one on the hill in the rear of the present residence of David G. Eldridge, then called Liberty hill, and another in front of the meeting house, now occupied by the post office. Any one found guilty of drinking taxed tea, or of mak- ing impudent remarks, was required to dance around these liberty poles and make solemn recantation of their errors and promises of amendment. In 1774 the West parish contributed £5, 6s., &d., to the Boston sufferers by the port bill, and a large committee was chosen "on observation and prevention," of which Captain Elisha Basset, Stephen Hallet, Joseph Griffeth and Joseph Crowell were members. Enoch Hallet, Joseph Griffeth and Isaac Matthews, jr., were chosen delegates to the county congress, to meet at Barnstable. Barnabas Eldridge, Reuben Taylor, Abner Crowell, Isaac Hallet, Edmund Bray and Samuel Eldridge were appointed a committee "to see that no tea is consumed in Yarmouth." Enoch Hallet and Daniel Taylor were chosen members of the "standing committee." When the

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

alarm of the country was sounded by the demonstration upon Lex- ington and Concord, the town's militia started out for the scene of operations, the western company under Captain Jonathan Crowell mustering sixty officers and men. They had not proceeded far be- fore intelligence of the rout and retreat of the British troops reached them and they returned home. A "committee of safety " was ap- pointed in 1775 and was "indefinitely continued."

General Washington, having early in 1776 determined upon the expulsion of the British from Boston, wrote to the council of Massa- chusetts Bay, submitting to their wisdom " whether it may not be best to direct the militia of certain towns, contiguous to Dorchester and Roxbury to repair to the line at those places with arms, ammu- nition and accoutrements, instantly, upon a given signal," and the sug- gestion was favorably received. Yarmouth was one of the towns called upon. Captain Joshua Gray, who commanded the militia, at once set forth, accompanied by a drummer, to call for volunteers. Every one was ready and willing to go. The night was spent in prepa- ration. In the chamber of the ancient house now standing at the corner of Hallet and Wharf streets, the mothers and daughters spent the night in moulding bullets and making cartridges, and at early dawn eighty-one men, under the command of Captain Gray, were on the march for Dorchester.

A meeting was held June 20, 1776, in which it was unanimously "Voted, that the inhabitants of Yarmouth do declare a state of independ- ance of the king of Great Britain, agreeably to a late resolve of the General Court, if in case the wisdom of Congress should see proper to do it." This resolve they did their part to carry out, so far as laid in their power. Their men nearly all joined the patriot army. Their commerce and fisheries were destroyed, and they suffered untold hard- ships and privations for seven long years.

About this time that portion of South Yarmouth now most thickly settled, which had heretofore been known as "Indian Town," was placed in the market and soon developed by an enterprising and in- telligent population.

April 10, 1783, a new schooner, called the Perseverance, was launched in town, and a party of young persons went out in her on an excur- sion. Being without ballast, when in the channel off Beach Point, she capsized, and Miss Anna Hawes, a young lady of seventeen, sister of the late Dea. Joseph Hawes, was drowned. In 1789 occurred a dis- astrous shipwreck, involving the loss of the lives of seven people belonging to this town. A new fishing schooner, mostly owned by a Mr. Evans, of Providence, R. I., was lost in a gale, on Nantucket shoals, with all on board. Their names were: Howes Hallet, master, Josiah

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TOWN OF YARMOUTH.

Hallet, Daniel Hallet, Levi Hallet, Joseph Hallet, Josiah Miller and Moody Sears, all of Yarmouth.

One of the peculiarities of the civil economy of Old Yarmouth may appropriately be noted in connection with the events preceding the division of the town. During the war it was customary to transact the public business by parishes. The people became so used to transact- ing public business in this way, that it was thought best to make two townships of Old Yarmouth, and by a vote of eighty six to four, they decided to devide the town. The act of separation passed June 19, 1793, and took effect in February following.

The year of the final separation, the "South Sea" or West Var- mouth parish was also set off, as will be seen by reference to the church history. Party spirit raged at the time as it had never before done. Yarmouth was an intensely Federal town, and the adherents of Mr. Jefferson were regarded as Jacobins and infidels. It was for- tnnate for the peace of the town that there was so few of them here. In 1797, and for several years afterward, small-pox again raged in town, and a hospital for inoculation was established at Great island, now known as Point Gammon. In 1808 permission was granted to David Kelley and others to build a draw bridge over Bass river. be- tween Yarmouth and Dennis.

These were the most important acts and votes of purely domestic concern. The relations of the town to the attitude of the general gov- ernment were of an important character. The position of the admin- istration on the subject of our commercial policy was very obnoxious to our people, who felt that it was destroying their shipping interests and sapping the foundations of their prosperity. The embargo, the non-intercourse act, and all the measures adopted by the government, under the pretext of vindicating our rights as a commercial commun- ity, seemed to them to have an exactly opposite influence and tenden- cy. The ships were rotting at their docks, and the men out of em- ployment. Individuals, and the town as a corporate body, protested against the policy adopted. A town meeting, held August 29, 1808, petitioned congress to suspend the embargo; and the town repeated the action in February, 1809. July 8, 1812, twenty days after the de- claration of war, the town put on record a protest against the act. The vote of the town for governor in April, 1813, was 265 for Caleb Strong, the anti-war, federal candidate, and twenty-three for Joseph B. Varnum, the war, administration candidate. Brewster, which town had been served with a demand by the British naval commander for $4,000, sent a committee to Yarmouth to solicit aid. The town was called together on Sunday, and appointed a committee to inquire into any similar errand or demand, if made npon this town, but nothing further transpired in relation thereto.

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

In 1814, Great Britain, being freed from her continental embar- rassments, sent a large fleet to the New England coast, which kept our coasting and fishing vessels within their harbors, and nearly de- stroyed the remaining industries of the town.

Alarms were frequent, and the militia were constantly liable to be called out. On one occasion the Yarmouth company was a day and night in Barnstable, which was supposed to be threatened with an at- tack, and bivouacked in the court house. It was once or twice, under the same circumstances, marched to the south side, which was threat- ened by a visit from the invaders. Party spirit ran high, and the people of the town refused to take any other part in the hostilities than to repel invasion. Many of those who had fought and suffered in the revolutionary war, utterly refused to engage in the struggle then going on. The opposition to the war was at no time abated in this town, and the treaty of peace was a welcome relief to the people.

The year 1817 witnessed a great temperance reform in the town. The evils of the intemperate and excessive use of spirituous liquors had become very great, and the drinking habits of the people were entailing much misery upon the community. Seventeen retailers were required to supply the demand on the north side of the town, to say nothing of the other portions. The formation of the Boston So- ciety for the Prevention of Intemperance, was followed by the organi- zation of a similar one here-said to be the second of the kind estab- lished in this country. Several persons who had been dealers in spirituous liquors joined the organization. The conditions of mem- bership would not be considered very exacting in these days: " No member of the society, except in case of sickness, shall drink any dis- tilled spirit or wine, in any house in town, except his own, or the one in which he resides." " No member shall offer or furnish, except in case of sickness, to any inhabitant of the town, any distilled spirit or wine, whether they be visitors or laborers, but shall use his influence to discourage the ruinous practice." The first officers of the society were: President, Elisha Doane: first vice-president, Seth Kelley; second vice-president, Joseph Hawes; secretary, Calvin Tilden; treas- urer, Prince Matthews; committee, Freeman Baker, Howes Taylor, Anthony Chase, Henry Thacher, Edmund Eldridge, Ebenezer Mat- thews, jr., John Eldridge. This society existed many years, and was instrumental, in a very marked degree, in checking the evil aimed at. In 1826 the town voted to petition the legislature that salt works, which had heretofore been exempt, should no longer be free from taxation.

The town, in 1820, raised a committee to inquire into the subject of an alms house. Another committee was appointed in 1830, and in March, 1831, it was voted to build, and the following building com-

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TOWN OF YARMOUTH.

mittee was chosen: Nathan Hallet, Simeon Lewis, Eben Bray, James, Matthews, and Ezekiel Matthews, jr. The town, in March, 1835, voted to build a new town house, near the geographical center of the town, and appointed as building committee: Matthew C. Hallet, Alex- ander Baxter, Isaiah Crowell, Isaiah Bray, and James Matthews. Four hundred dollars was appropriated for the purpose. The town, in 1837, voted to receive its proportion of the surplus revenue dis- tributed by the United States government, and placed it in the hands of John B. Doane, as its agent. Mr. Doane dying the same year, Isaiah Crowell was chosen the ensuing year, the selectmen having in the meantime managed the matter. In 1838 a portion of the money was used to pay the current town expenses, and to purchase two hearses; and the next year the balance was absorbed by painting the town buildings and for schools. In 1839 five hundred dollars was appropriated, and a committee was chosen to take effectual measures to check the increase of the sandy wastes east of White's brook, and to restore the region to fertility. The committee consisted of : Peter Thacher, Alexander Baxter, Isaiah Crowell, William Hall. and Mat- thews C. Hallet. The committee placed over the shifting sand a thick covering of brush, and the waste was in a few years reclaimed, and the most of it is now covered with growing pines.

The gale of October 3 and 4, 1841, was unprecedented in its de- struction of life and property of the citizens of this county, especially of those employed in the fisheries. Yarmouth sustained a loss of ten lives, rendering four wives widows, and sixteen children fatherless. The schooner Primrose, Captain Eben Bray, jr., was on George's bank, and was never after heard from; she was supposed to have foundered at sea. The schooner Leo, Captain Freeman Taylor, went ashore, high and dry, on Scorton beach, and was got off without injury. The names of the lost from Yarmouth were: Eben Bray, jr., Peter Bray, John Bray, Ebenezer Matthews, jr., Isaac Matthews, son of Reuben Matthews, David Hall, David H. Hall, Benjamin Whelden, and An- drew Whelden.

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History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890, Part 52

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