History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890, Part 57

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

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For nearly three-score years he and his good wife, although no children bless their home, have journeyed pleasantly together through the morning, the noon, and into the evening of life. His civil and business career is recorded in the books of the town and in the mem- ories of his neighbors and townsmen.

William White' was born in 1811. His ancestors are as follows: Peregrine®, Deacon Joseph, Joseph'. Jonathan3, Peregrine? (born in Provincetown harbor, on board the Mayflower), and William White'. Mr. White's mother was Betsey, daughter of Atkins Matthews. Mr. White was a master mariner until forty years of age. From 1851 to 1883 he kept a lumber yard at South Yarmouth. He was married in 1833 to Olive, daughter of Ebenezer Hallett. Of their nine children only five are living: Helen, Cyrus W., Osborn, Almena, and Edwin M. Mr. White has a cane that is said to have belonged to Peregrine White2.

Stephen Wing, born in 1828, is the eldest son of Daniel, grandson of Stephen and Dorothy (Allen) Wing. and great-grandson of John and Lydia (Allen) Wing. Mr. Wing is a coach maker by trade. He was eight years in California, after which he was for about twenty-five years in the grocery business at South Yarmouth, with his brother Daniel. He has been selectman four years in Yarmouth. He is a member of the South Yarmouth Society of Friends. He was mar- ried in 1866 to Minerva, daughter of Orlando and Harriet (Crowell) Baker.

Orlando F. Wood, born in 1825, is a son of Zenas and Mercy (Howes) Wood, and grandson of Zenas and Lydia (Kelley) Wood. Mr. Wood is a tailor by trade. He worked in Boston and New Bedford for twenty-five years, and has lived at South Yarmouth since 1879. He has been local correspondent for the Yarmouth Register for several years.

Elisha Taylor

ـــت

CHAPTER XVIII.

TOWN OF DENNIS.

Natural Features .- First Settlers of Nobscusset .- Incorporation .- Development .- In- dustries .- Churches .- Cemeteries .- Schools .- Civil History .- The Villages, their Industries and Institutions .- Biographical Sketches.

T HE town received its name in memory of Rev. Josiah Dennis who previously had been the faithful pastor of its principal church for thirty-seven consecutive years. The town extends across the Cape, having Cape Cod bay for its northern boundary and the Yineyard sound for its southern. Harwich and Brewster consti- tute its eastern boundary, and Yarmouth its western. Like the towns on the Cape west, it would seem to have two parts-north and south- separated by a large tract of oak and pine woods, through which the old road runs near the head of Follen's pond. At the north is the range of hills that extends through Yarmouth, Barnstable and Sand- wich. In Dennis the hills are only about a mile from the bay and their summits command fine views of it. The surface of the town north of the hills is very uneven, and at the south is a vast undulating plain sloping toward the sound. The town has five divisions or com- munities, the most of which are considerable villages of the New England type, and are noticed under their respective names. The first settlement of the town was in the northern part, but the southern now exceeds in population. Bass river is a considerable stream, ex- tending along the boundary between Dennis and Yarmouth-the line being the center-flowing from Follen's pond southerly into the sound, affording harbor for small craft. It is the largest stretch of inland water in the county. Chase Garden river forms part of the western boundary, emptying into the bay at the north, where many fishing schooners formerly found safe refuge for the winter months. The largest marsh of the town is at the mouth of this river. This marsh is really a continuation of the great marshes around Barnsta- ble bay.

The most valuable lands are on the north side, especially about Sesuet and Quivet. The soil is light and sandy on the undulations, but fertile in the valleys and around the ponds. It is estimated that

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

the ponds of Dennis cover an area of over 450 acres. The Grand cove, near South Dennis, is salt, and is closely connected with Bass river. Others worthy of mention are: Swan pond, of 179 acres, south of the railroad, with an outlet to the sound; Scargo lake, with the Sesuet river as an outlet to the bay, has an area of 60 acres; Flax pond, no outlet, 20 acres; Run pond, 20 acres; Simons ponds, 22 and 11; Grassy, 22; one on Harwich line, 23; one southwest of this of 20 acres; one of 10 acres northwest of Swan pond; Cedar, 29; one near West Dennis of 25 acres; and Baker's pond of 30 acres, east of Grassy.

Agriculture has received much attention, but the avocations and adventures upon the sea have received more. The town was and is preeminent in the latter pursuit, and has furnished, and now has, as retired men, some of the best on the Cape. The gradual development of the north part of the town was accomplished prior to that of the sonth. In the north part, as will be seen by the church history, was the first meeting house in the East precinct of Yarmouth, and in 1686 from Satucket the first road was laid out, forty feet wide, westward across Dennis to the county road at Barnstable. This old road, from West Barnstable to Barnstable, was called the Satucket road-through the woods south of the hill range of Dennis and through Yarmouth.

FIRST SETTLERS OF NOBSCUSSET .*- The first comers to the Indian village of Nobscusset, in 1639, were John Crow, Thomas Howes and William Lumpkin. There was then no settlement of white men be- low them on Cape Cod. William Eldred came a year or two later and took his farm adjoining Thomas Howes, by the brook which has ever since been called Eldred's brook. The name of Lumpkin has long since died out in Dennis. The Eldridge name has only become ex- tinct in the present generation. They were never numerous in North Dennis, and during the movement to Ashfield and other towns in Franklin county three of the Eldridge men-Eli, Levi and Samuel- packed up their household goods and joined the caravan of emi- grants. For several years this emigration continued from Dennis. It peopled the new town of Ashfield with Cape stock-Howes, Halls, Vincents, Eldridges, Taylors, Sears and Bassetts. One street was named Cape street, in honor of Cape Cod. But though so many left, a remnant remained to keep alive the old names, some of them at least.

The Crowell family in North Dennis is descended from John Crow, who came, it is said, from Wales in 1635, to Charlestown, where he and his wife, Elishua, joined the church. It is probable that they so- journed there until 1639, when Mr. Crow came with Anthony Thach- er and Thomas Howes to Yarmouth, with a grant from the court, having previously taken the oath of allegiance. All the first settlers

*By Capt. Thomas Prince Howes.

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selected spots for their homes adjacent to good springs of water. The brook that flows through the village of North Dennis had numerous fine flowing springs to supply the need of the first comers. John Crow built his home north of the center of the present village, near the spot where the late Philip Vincent lived. His land, much of which is still owned by his descendants, was east of Indian Fields, and extended from the shore to the top of the hills back of the settle- ment. John Crow was a man of character and influence in the infant town of Yarmouth, filling many important offices. He died in 1673. His sons were: John, Samuel and Thomas. John married Mehitable, daughter of Rev. John Miller of Yarmouth. A grandson of John Crow, sr., whose name was John, was the first person buried in the North Dennis cemetery. He died in 1727. The name about that time had developed into Crowell. The offspring of John Crow are now to be found in all parts of the country, occupying important pos- itions, with honor and credit to the name. Those who have remained upon the hereditary acres have produced in every generation men of ability and distinction. The late Hon. Seth Crowell and his cousin, Capt. Prince S. Crowell, and Mr. William Crowell. the well-known cranberry grower and seller, are illustrations of the character of the Crowells in the seventh generation. The family has never been large in North Dennis. Two pews in the old church sufficed to accommo- date their needs for sitting room. Many of the family, before the old meeting house was torn down in 1838, had become desciples of John Wesley and left the church of their fathers.

Mr. Jeremiah Crowell, a descendant in the fourth generation from the grantee, John Crow, was for two generations a village celebrity. He lived in what was called " Crow Town," just outside the western limits of Indian Field. The public highway went no farther east than his house in his day. The county road went through the woods south of Scargo hill. Mr. Crowell constructed a globe with the four quarters of the earth marked upon it. This was received by the Nob- scusset children with open-eyed wonder. It was to be seen only, however, upon payment of one cent per head. He had besides a mammoth kite with a string a mile long, with a tail of wondrous length. He kept a daily journal of passing events, such as the cap- ture of a whale, the arrival home of the Cod fishermen, the state of the weather, and the direction of the wind. But his great effort was the building of a pair of wings and attempting to fly. This was an achievement beyond his power to accomplish. The flying he re- garded as practical and easy, but the alighting was difficult. He died at an advanced age, about the close of the last century.

The Howes family trace their descent from Thomas Howes, the associate and friend of Anthony Thacher and John Crow. He came:

....

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

from England, and doubtless from Great Yarmouth, or some part of Norfolk county, to Salem, in 1635. In 1639 he was in Yarmouth, and in that part then called Nobscusset he took up his abode. He built his house beside New Boston brook, in the field now the property of Mr. Harvey Howes, his lineal descendant in the seventh generation. Thomas Howes and his wife, whose name was Mary, had three sons: Joseph, Thomas and Jeremiah. The last named was born in 1637, and consequently was an American. Thomas Howes, senior, died in 1665, after twenty-six years residence in his new home. He had good reason to be satisfied with his change from Old England to the New. He left his sons with large farms and holding positions of honor and trust in the infant colony, and his children's children growing up around him. He was buried on his farm, and three hundred or more of his posterity lie sleeping around him.

From the sons of Thomas Howes have sprung a strong and num- erous race, whose representatives may be found in nearly every state, from Maine to California. It has always been prominent in the affairs of the towns of Yarmouth and Dennis. It required eight pews in the old East Precinct meeting house to seat those of the name who went to meeting. It was noticed that in the great gale of October, 1841, when four North Dennis fishing vessels were lost and twenty men belonging to the neighborhood perished, twelve of them bore the name of Howes. The name is a very familiar one in the town of Ashfield and in Putnam and Columbia counties, New York; and, in fact, common in many towns in this Commonwealth. Those of the name coming from Chatham are descended from Thomas, the young- est son of Joseph. This branch is numerous, comprising many enter- prising seafaring men and merchants. Among the descendants of Jeremiah are those of Moody Howes, who left Nobscusset in 1750. Some of his grandsons have made successful business ventures. Seth B. Howes, the well-known retired showman, is a grandson of Moody Howes, who removed to Putnam county, New York.

John Hall, the founder of the Hall family of Yarmouth, was among the early settlers. The exact date of his arrival is not known .. He was for a time in Barnstable. Probably he came about 1657. It is claimed that he came from Coventry, England. He was twice mar- ried; his first wife being Bethia, and his second Elizabeth. His family consisted of twelve children, nine of them sons, namely: Samuel, John, Joseph, William, Benjamin, Elisha, Nathaniel, Gershom and one other. With this patriarchal family, Mr. Hall cast in his lot with the builders of Yarmouth. He took his farm in the central part of the village of Nobscusset, at the head of the stream which runs wes- terly and southerly through North Dennis. He was a worthy citizen and a valuable addition to the growing town. He was buried at a

TOBEY HOMESTEAD,

Dennis, Mass.

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TOWN OF DENNIS.

good old age, on his own land, in 1696. His gravestone is the oldest in North Dennis. His sons rendered much service to the town: some going on military expeditions against the Indians and others filling important civic stations.

From the Hall family have gone out numerous emigrants to people distant towns. Some went to Oblong, now a part of Putnam county, New York, others to Ashfield, and various places. Rev. David B. Hall, of Duanesburg, has published a genealogical and biographical history of the Halls of New England. The Halls, who are all de- scended from John, of Yarmouth, number 235 families. Moral and intellectual traits are hereditary and become characteristics of certain families. The Halls have been inuch swayed by religious emotions, and interested in things of the mind ; hence the number of ministers, deacons and teachers among them. In Yarmouth, including North Dennis, we find the following persons filling the deacon's seat: John, Joseph, Joseph, Daniel, Nathan and Barnabas Hall. The family re- quired eight pews in the East Precinct meeting house to accommo- date its worshippers. The descendants of the Yarmouth Halls are well represented in the teachers' vocation in this generation. Stan- ley Hall, now president of a University; Joseph Hall, principal of the Hartford high school, both Ashfield men; Isaac F. Hall, super- intendent of Leominster schools, and Luther Hall, superintendent of schools in Dennis, illustrate this hereditary tendency in the descend- ants of the pious John Hall.

About the time that the last mentioned person left Barnstable to settle in Yarmouth, John Vincent removed to Yarmouth from Sand- wich, where he had lived a few years. The exact locality of his house is not known, but it was somewhere south of the stream on which all the first settlers made their homes. The Vincents for several gener- ations owned land on both sides of the brook adjoining the Hall farm. John Vincent had one son, Henry, whose name occurs frequently in the records. From him sprang a sturdy race, mostly farmers, some of whom served as soldiers in the revolutionary war. At the close of that struggle, the Vincents, most of them, removed to Ashfield, leav- ing only one family behind in Dennis, and that has since died out. Those of the name in Ashfield and Hawley are good specimens of the Cape stock-honest, hardy, independent farmers.

The Tobey family, of Dennis, is descended from Thomas Tobey, of Sandwich, one of the early settlers of that town. His grandson, whose name was Thomas, removed from Sandwich to Yarmouth early in the eighteenth century. The mother of this Thomas is said to have been Mehitable, a daughter of John Crowell. He settled in the south part of the present village of North Dennis. His home farm consisted of a tract of land on both sides of the highway, stretching far back into

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

the woods on one side and running into the meadows, down to the main creek on the other. A large piece of pasture land and swamp, containing fifty acres or more, was a part of his estate. The swamps are now productive cranberry grounds, and the black birds that once made their nests and reared their young ones within the leafy coverts have been compelled to seek other homes. Mr. Thomas Tobey was three years precinct treasurer, and ten years town treasurer. He died in 1757, leaving two sons: Thomas and Seth. Thomas was the father of Stephen and Knowles, neither of whom have any living de- scendants.

Seth Tobey, born in 1716, married Zipporah Young Hall, widow of Edmund Hall, whose house was the one now the residence of Mrs. Hope Howes. That ancient dwelling deserves mention from having been the birthplace of Hon. Nathaniel Freeman, a revolutionary patriot, and father of Rev. Frederick Freeman, the learned historian of Cape Cod. Seth Tobey, who was frequently in public service, was one of the committee of 1774, chosen to look after the movements of the tories, in conjunction with similar committees in other towns. He was town treasurer three years and selectman ten. He died in 1801, leaving one son, Seth, who inherited his estate and who married Ruth, daughter of Captain Jonathan Howes, a descendant of the sec- ond Thomas Howes. He built, in 1802. the present Tobey house, which is shown in the accompanying illustration. Mr. Tobey was a worthy citizen, attending mainly to his own private affairs. He was inclined to favor the doctrines of the then unpopular Universalists. His house was open to the preachers of that denomination -- at that period almost everywhere spoken against. He died in January, 1829 at the age of fifty-eight, leaving one son, Jonathan Howes Tobey, who married Rachel, daughter of Samuel Bassett of Barnstable.

Jonathan inherited, like his father, the family estate, and like him followed the occupation of his ancestors-the cultivation of the soil. He was of a social, kindly disposition, and his house the seat of a modest, genial hospitality. Although much interested in town and school affairs, he was not a seeker of office. and was contented with a private station. He died in 1872, leaving three sons: Seth, born 1824; Charles, born 1831; and Francis Bassett, born 1833. Of these, Seth studied law with Hon. Robert Rantoul, was admitted to the bar, and was for a number of years clerk of the municipal court of Boston. He died in Dennis, at the old family homestead, in 1883. Charles, the founder of the Tobey Furniture Company in Chicago, now one of the largest establishments of its kind in the country. was, at his death in 1SSS, the owner of the Nobscussett House and the Tobey farm. He was a man of great energy and business aptitude.

F. B. Tobey, the sole survivor of the family name in Dennis, car --

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TOWN OF DENNIS.

ries on the business of the Furniture Company in Chicago, and is the present owner of the Tobey property in North Dennis, including the Nobscussett House, shown in the illustration at page 155. The Tobey family has always occupied a high social position and an honorable station among the foremost citizens of Barnstable county.

Among those who came early in the last century from Sandwich to settle in Yarmouth was Elisha Bassett. His wife was Ruhamah Jennings, daughter of Samuel Jennings of Sandwich, long the school- master and town clerk of that town. The Bassetts trace their pedi- gree to William Bassett, who came to Plymouth in the Fortune, in 1621. Elisha Bassett lived at Nobscusset, in a house that stood on the spot where Charles Hall now resides. He held a commission as captain under the provincial government. This, however, did not hinder him from being an ardent patriot when the struggle commenced be- tween the colonies and the crown. He was three times sent to repre- sent the town in the congress at Cambridge, and served four years as town treasurer. He was a man of great moral worth and superior intelligence. He died in 1794, leaving four sons-Elisha, Samuel, William and Lot-and three daughters-Lydia, Abigail and Deborah. Two of his sons, Elisha and Lot, removed to Ashfield about the close of the revolutionary war. Samuel removed to Barnstable and Wil- liam died in Dennis, leaving one son, Francis, who graduated from Harvard College, studied law, and was for many years clerk of the United States circuit and district courts. He returned to Dennis in after life and built a house on the spot where his grandfather had lived. The posterity of Elisha and Lot are principally in the towns of Franklin county, where they live appreciating the blessings of its rural life and the pleasures of intellectual enjoyment. Elisha Bassett, for over fifty years a clerk in the district court at Boston, is a grand- son of Lot, who removed from Dennis. A fine, intelligent, clear- headed, right-minded race of men are descended from Elisha Bassett of Sandwich.

INCORPORATION AND DEVELOPMENT .- What Captain Howes has said above of the original families at North Dennis is more than now can be learned concerning the settlers of the other sections of the town. The records of the old town of Yarmouth were burned in 1677, and this fact assures a meagre account, not only of Yarmouth, but of Dennis, for the first forty years-years of the most importance in their early history. That its settlement was contemporaneous with that of Sandwich and Barnstable there is no doubt. The old town was in part that Mattacheese to which the Puritans came in 1638-9; and only a few years elapsed before the entire territory-part of which is now included in Dennis-was settled, although perhaps but sparsely. Like Sandwich the division commenced in the church-by establishing an-

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

other parish. In 1721, as will be seen by the church history, the East parish of Yarmouth was organized, and this was the initiative to the organization of the new town of Dennis on the 19th of June, 1793, be- ing the eleventh town in the country, in date. The act of incorpor- ation authorized Atherton Hall, Esq., to issue his warrant and call a town meeting, which he did in January of that year, and the meeting was held March 3d, at 1 o'clock, P.M. Lieutenant Jeremiah Howes was chosen moderator, and officers for the government of the town were elected. On the 11th of March Captain Isaiah Hall and Elisha Bassett were appointed to settle all details with the mother town.

On the 11th of May, Thomas Thacher, Isaac Matthews, Edmund Bray and Joseph Howes, on the part of Yarmouth, and Jeremiah Howes, Jonathan Bangs and Joseph Sears, on the part of Dennis, met and settled the boundary between the towns to be that marvelously crooked line which was already the precinct boundary, which re- mains substantially the same. The language of that day for the divis- ion line was: "Beginning at the south of the county road leading from Yarmouth to Dennis, at three white-oak trees marked and stand- ing at the S. W. corner of Edward Howes' upper field, between Loth- rop Taylor's and David Hall's; sets thence S. 53' E. 248 rods as trees are marked, till it comes to a stake and stone standing on the S. side of the county road to the falling away of a hill to the westward of Jolin Whelden's, late of Dennis, deceased: then by the county and Bass River road southeasterly 146 rods to a stake and stone standing at the N. E. corner of Capt. Samuel Gray's land and N. W. corner of Wid. Abigail Whelden's land; sets thence S. 40° W., 44 rods into Fol- len's pond, thence Southeasterly through the middle of said pond and southerly through the main channel of Bass river into the South Sea. Then beginning at the first mentioned three white-oak trees, and sets thence northeasterly by the county road that leads from Yarmouth to Dennis 68 rods to a stake and stone at the S. W. corner of Edward Howe's field and S. E. corner of David Hall's field and on the north- westerly side of the way; and thence north westerly 42 rods in Edward Howe's and David Hall's range to a brook in said range, and as said brook runs into the main creek, and as said creek and as Bass Hole runs into the North Sea." It was further agreed that the privilege of fishing, together with the Indian land at Bass river, and the whaling land at Black Earth, should remain for the benefit of both towns.

June 16th, the selectmen of Dennis and Harwich renewed and settled the bounds between their respective towns, which also remains the same. Beginning at a rock thirty-seven feet to the south of Bound brook bridge and fourteen feet east of said brook, thence across the Setucket road, and the Chatham road in a straight line about 5° east of south, to the sea.

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TOWN OF DENNIS.

The growth of the town was rapid. In 1802 there were one hun- dred dwellings south of the county road, and so new and hastily con- structed were they, that ninety-eight of them were only one story high. They were along Bass river and formed the nucleus of the present pretty villages of that part of the town. Quivet neck had thirty-six dwellings at this time, and the old settlement along the county road had been considerably increased. Among the families, and those most prominent, who had settled mostly in the north part of the town prior to the division, were those of Hall, Ryder, Burge, Howes, Paddock, Nickerson, Lumpkin, Crosby, Hallett, Crow, or Crowell, Worden, Eldridge, Tobey, Baker, Whelden, Chapman, Fal- land or Follen, Bassett, Bangs, Kelley. Newcomb and Seabury. Rich- ard Sears settled between the Sesuet and Quivet creeks.

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History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890, Part 57

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