History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890, Part 92

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 92

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John, residing at Wellfleet, married Clarissa A., daughter of Simeon and Rachael Baker, and the surviving children are: Lucy M., John A., Charles W., Jerry P., Clara E. and Alice P. Mr. Swett has long been identified with the religious, civil and business interests of the town, and is one of its old and respected citizens. He followed the sea from 1829 until 1859, twenty years of the time as master of vessels. From 1859 until 1884 he was a merchant at Wellfleet.

Noah, the youngest son of this group of children, is a resident of Watertown, Mass., and the cashier of the Union Market National Bank there. He had been prominently connected with the business interests of Wellfleet prior to his removal to his present place of resi- dence. He married Louisana A., daughter of Isaac Rich, and their surviving children are Melville and Clara, both of whom are married.

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TOWN OF WELLFLEET.

Betsey H., the youngest, married Jesse S. Newcomb and died leav- ing twodaughters-Ida and Mary-surviving her. Ida has since . died.

James Swett was born November 13, 1816, near the Wellfleet line, in Truro, and at the early age of seven went to sea. The loss of his father when he was ten years old taught him that he must sustain life's battles without a father's assistance, and this tended to give him the self-reliant characteristics which made him so successful in after life. At nineteen he was master of a vessel, which position he filled over a quarter of a century with marked success, retiring with a com- petency in the year 1861. He continued to deal in mackerel and ship- ping for years, and his firm, keen judgment rendered his ventures in business very remunerative-much to the envy of his contempora- ries. His word was equal to a bond in all transactions. He was a director in the Provincetown Bank several years; also is now one of the directors of the Wellfleet Savings Bank. On the 17th of January, 1849, he was made a life member of the Boston Seaman's Friend So- ciety, by the Congregational church of Wellfleet. He is also a life member of the Wellfleet Seamen's Benevolent Society. In 1864 he was the prime mover in the organization of the Wellfleet Marine In- surance Company, of which he was president over twenty years, with the most eminent success. The history of this society is given in that of the village of Wellfleet.

He married Sarah D., daughter of Dr. William Stone and sister of the late Thomas N. Stone, M. D. She died October 6, 1880, much la- mented by the church in which she had been a shining light for thirty- seven years, and mourned by a large circle of friends. By this mar- riage eight children were born: Nancie D., born May 3, 1842, died at the age of thirteen; Eleanor W., born August 8, 1844, who died at twenty; Sarah D., born April 11, 1847, married Edwin Collins and has two children-Charles A. and Nellie; James A .; Anna E., born July 27, 1854, married Captain Anthony Freeman; Willie S., born July 31, 1856, who died at the age of nine; Frank H., born September 31, 1859, now in business at Chicago; and Nancie D., born August 21, 1861, who married L. W. Hathaway and died at the age of twenty-eight. Mr. Swett married for his second wife Susan F. Small, daughter of L. B. Crockett of Deer Island, Me., on the 17th of July, 1883. He has always taken a deep interest in the affairs of the body politic; but pre- ferred his social and business relations to those of official trusts. He has been foremost in the enterprises of his town, and a liberal donor in the cause of religion. To worthy suffering humanity he has ever been a charitable friend, not allowing one hand to know the gifts of the other. He is cautious and conservative in the formation of friend- ships as well as business plans; but when once established he is firm

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and reliant to the end. He and his wife reside in their pleasant home on the Truro road, in the outskirts of Wellfleet village, and in the evening of his days he enjoys the confidence of all who know him.

His son, James A., born February 28, 1849, has been station agent at Wellfleet since 1872 and express agent since 1873. He married Mary L., daughter of S. L. Lyman of Chatham. They have one son, George R.

Freeman A. Wiley, born in 1820, was a son of Nathaniel P. and Matilda P. (Mayo) Wiley. Mr. Wiley kept a paint store at Wellfleet from 1854 until his death in 18SS, under the firm name of F. A. Wiley & Co. He was married to Mary C. Harding. Their children are: Isaiah H., Daniel F. and Edith G. (Mrs. James M. Atwood). Daniel F. became a member of the firm of F. A. Wiley & Co. in 1885, and since the death of his father continues the business at the same place. He married Hattie P., daughter of Solomon A. Rich.

Barnabas S. Young, son of Noah and Betsey A. (Freeman) Young, grandson of Noah and great-grandson of Stephen Young, was born in 1840. He followed the sea from 1849 until 1883 in fishing and oyster business, having been master of vessels six years. He mar- ried Nancy W., daughter of Josiah S. and Nancy (Holbrook) Snow. Their children are: Wilmot O., Florence A. and George A.

Isaiah C. Young, born in 1846, is the only child of Barnabas S. and Hannah (Cole) Young, grandson of Noah and great-grandson of Stephen Young. Mr. Young followed the sea for fifteen years prior to 1872, in the fishing and oyster business. Since that time he has been engaged in the same business on shore. He was agent for the Commercial Wharf Company from 1879 until 1889. He was repre- sentative two terms-1886 and 1887-and is now county commis- sioner. He has been several years a member of the school commit- tee. He married Emma G., daughter of Warren and Nancy (Dyer) Newcomb. Their two daughters are Ada F. and May E.

Noah Young, son of Noah and Betsey A. (Freeman) Young and grandson of Noah Young, who married Sarah Paine, was born in 1845. He followed the sea for thirty years, fishing and coasting. He is now a farmer, owning and occupying the homestead of his father and grandfather. He married Emma M., daughter of Isaac Paine. Their children are: Sarah P., Austin C., Emma M., Nora F., Isaiah C. and Helen Francis Young.

CHAPTER XXV. TOWN OF HARWICH.

BY JOSIAH PAINE, ESQ.

Incorporation .- Description .- Natural Features,-Division of the Land .- The Settlers .- The Fisheries .- The Salt Industry .- Cranberry Culture .- Religious Societies .- Of- ficial History .- Schools .- The Villages and their Various Institutions .- Biographi- cal Sketches.

H TARWICH was incorporated September 14, 1694. It then ex- tended across the Cape from shore to shore, joining on the west old Yarmouth, on the east old Eastham and the territory of Monomoyick, now Chatham, and comprising what is now Brewster and a considerable part of the present Orleans. In 1772 the part known as Potanumaquut, but now South Orleans, was set off to East- ham-Harwich assenting-by the general court; and in 1803 the north part, then known as the North parish, after a long and somewhat bitter contest, was set off into a township, and, in deference to the memory of Elder William Brewster of the Mayflower band of Pilgrims, whose descendants were numerous in the place, as well as in other of the lower Cape towns, was called Brewster. Thus shorn of more than half of its original territory, Harwich is yet a good sized town- ship, having an area of more than twenty square miles and contain- ing, according to last census, 2,783 inhabitants. The town derived its name from Harwich, an old maritime town in Essex county, England, lying about sixty miles northeast of London. Who suggested the name has been, and is yet a matter of inquiry.

Harwich, as it is now constituted, and to which the following pages of history relate, is bounded on the east by Chatham and Pleasant bay, on the south by the ocean, on the west by Dennis and on the north by Brewster. The surface of the town, though somewhat un- even, is more level than that of some of the other towns in the county. The greater portion of it yet remains in an uncultivated state, covered with a small growth of oak and pine. The soil is mostly light and sandy, but quite productive when fertilizing sub- stance is freely used, and the season favorable. It is free from rocks or bowlders of any considerable size, and consequently is easy to cultivate.

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

The ponds in the town are somewhat numerous, several of which are large and their waters clear and pure. Seymour's or Bang's pond, Long pond, Bush Beach pond and Grass pond are a chain of ponds that liel between the town and Brewster- the dividing line passing through the center of each. Long pond, or the "Great Long pond," as called by the early settlers, is the largest, and is about six miles in circumference. Two small streams have their rise in it. One runs in a southwesterly course and empties into Hinckley's pond, while the other in a westerly course empties into Seymour's or Bang's pond. Alewives pass up the former stream into Long pond to spawn. In former times there was a small stream that flowed out of the pond across the road into Seymour's or Bang's pond, a short distance south- westerly of the house of Cyrus Cahoon.

Seymour's or Bang's pond is a large and clear sheet of water a very short distance westerly of Long pond. Near it on the hill, many years since, lived an Englishman by the name of John Seymour, who was by occupation a tanner, and from whom the pond received its name. After his death John D. Bangs occupied the place; since his occupancy it has sometimes been called Bangs' pond. Not far from the pond in a southwesterly direction near the foot of a high hill is the site of the last meeting house of the Sauquatucket Indians.

Not far south of Seymour's pond is Herring or Hinckley's pond, the source of Herring river. This is the largest pond that lies wholly within the limits of the town. On the north side of this pond was the farm of John Sequattom, the Christian Indian, and on the east the farm of Thomas Hinckley. Prior to Hinckley's settlement here, the pond was known as Herring pond, since then Hinckley's pond. It is now sometimes called Pleasant lake.

Briggs' pond, situated in the Paine neighborhood, is a large, clear sheet of water. In the records of land bearing date 1713, it is denem- inated " the pond southward of Benjamin Philips." Not far north of its shore stood Benjamin Philip's house, and afterward the house of his son, Oaker, a soldier in the French and Indian wars. The sites of the houses are yet marked by the house of James T. Smalley. Some six rods in a northwesterly direction from the pond, on the south side of the Queen's road, is pointed out the site of the house which was burned on the afternoon of May 24, 1757, and in which Mrs. Dolly Eldridge perished attempting, in a distracted state, to save her bed.

Next in size is Mill pond, situated a short distance to the eastward. It has a white sandy bottom, and the water is clear and pure. Its shore, for the most part, is covered with pebbles or small bowlders .. On the high ground, on the north side of the pond formerly stood Walker's wind mill, which was unroofed in the great gale of 1816, and some years afterward removed to the eastward of the Saltwater

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TOWN OF HARWICH.

pond and put up. Lieutenant Zachariah Smalley, an early settler, lived a short distance from the northeast part of the pond, and owned a large tract of tillage land adjoining.

Among the ponds of smaller size are Walker's pond, Wolfhill pond, Bassett's pond and Clark's pond in the northerly part of the town; Berry's or Sand pond and Flax pond in the westerly part of the town, and Grass pond, Saltwater pond and Skinnequit pond in the southerly part. Grass pond is the source of Cold brook, which empties into Andrew's river. It was called by the settlers Crooked pond, and by the Indians Woonkepit. It is very shallow with a muddy bottom. The greater part of it has within a few years been converted into cranberry land. Saltwater pond-a good harbor for boats-lies a short distance from the seashore westward of Andrew's river and has an outlet to the sea. It is twenty feet deep and about 180 rods in cir- cumference. It was called by the early settlers Oyster pond. Skin- nequit pond is the source of a small stream of the same name whichi empties into Red river. It is situated in South Harwich. It is visited by the alewives in the spawning season. John Skinnequit, an Indian, owned land on the east side of the pond and river, and had his cabin near by, before 1692, at which date he sold most of his territory to Jeremiah Howes of Yarmouth.

The most important of the few rivers in town-are Herring river, Andrew's river, Red river and 'Coys brook. Herring river is the largest. It flows out of Herring or Hinckley's pond in a southwest- erly direction through the village of North Harwich, and through West Harwich into the Vineyard sound. On each side of the river, for a long distance from its mouth, is a tract of meadow from which have been yearly taken large quantities of salt and fresh hay. The general name of the tract is Herring River meadow. In former years portions of the tract bore the names of "Boreman's Meadow," "Berry's Meadow," "Gage's Meadow," "Hall's Meadow," "Pog's Meadow," " Paine's Meadow," and " Boggy Meadow." Some years since an attempt was made to improve the meadow, and a tide gate . was erected at considerable expense to keep out the tide water, but it proved unsuccessful. Alewives visit this river, but not in so large a number as formerly. The taking of alewives in the river is regulated by special laws. The town obtained control of the alewive fishery here in 1787. The last vessel built in town was built on this river at West Harwich.

Andrew's river is a small stream that rises in the swamps at the place called by the Indians Poonpit. The course of the river is south- erly to the sea. For some distance from its mouth northward extends a large body of marsh, from which is taken yearly salt and fresh grass in large quantities for provender for cattle. In the middle of the

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

marsh, after various windings, Cold brook, the stream that rises in Grass pond and is fed by the many swamps on its borders, unites. On both branches of these streams in former days were grist mills-sites of which are yet pointed out. The swamps through which these streams run have been converted into valuable cranberry lands. The river took its name from Andrew Clarke, an early resident, who owned large tracts on both sides, and lived near by. Cold brook, the tribu- tary to Andrew's, is valuable to cranberry growers in flowing and draining adjacent swamps.

Red river is a small muddy stream in the southeastern part of the town, issuing from the swamps just above the marsh to the north- ward and flowing southwardly into the sea. It forms a boundary be- tween this town and Chatham in that vicinity. The Indians called the stream Maspatucket. Skinnequit's farm adjoined it on the west. It runs through a large tract of marsh from which is taken yearly many tons of good salt and fresh hay. The Skinnequits river is tributary to it. The Harwich and Chatham factory was erected on the stream in 1824, but was soon removed to North Harwich in conse- quence of the small supply of water.

Coys brook is a tributary to the Herring river, and rises in what was known some years since as Bridge swamp, north of R. M. Moody's house. It is a narrow stream with a muddy bottom, and flows into the Herring river near Bell's neck. In its course to unite with the waters of the Herring river, it passes through extensive tracts of cranberry land, which a few years since were valueless swamps. The brook took its name, undoubtedly, from John Mecoy, who had land granted him, "both upland and meadow," in 1667, within some dis- tance of the river, in what has been denominated the Hall neighbor- hood. An island in the meadows north of Boardman's or Boreman's island, was before 1680 called " John 'Coy's island." This island was probably the one now known as Hall's. Mention of Coy's brooks in deeds appears as early as 1695. Water of several small ponds, besides Beriah's and Walker's ponds, now unite with the stream-an opening having been made to the chain of ponds for draining purposes in the cultivation of cranberries. On the west side of the river, near where the " great western " road crosses, is the site of the grist mill once owned by Benjamin Nickerson. Some distance west passed the line of the Wings, Dillingham, Winslow and others, separating their land from that belonging to the "Purchasers or Old Comers," their heirs or assigns. This boundary was known to the early residents as " Wing's line."

The town has about 4} miles of sea coast stretching from Dennis to Chatham and about 1} miles of bay shore at East Harwich, stretch- ing from Orleans to Chatham, but no good harbor. The few inlets

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TOWN OF HARWICH.

are small in size, the most important-aside from Saltwater pond, which has already been noticed-being Allen's harbor, Muddy cove and Short or Round cove.

Allen's harbor, so called, situated about four hundred rods east- ward of the mouth of the Herring river, was formerly known as Gray's pond and harbor. It is a shallow, muddy bottom pond, with a narrow outlet to the sea. Into it flows a narrow stream that rises in the lowland eastward of the house of Abiathar Doane. Around the harbor is a tract of marsh which yields yearly tons of salt hay. On the west side of the outlet is " Nohauts" or " Nohorns " neck, where, at the early settlement of the town, Indians resided. Large numbers of arrow heads have been found here from time to time, as well as other stone implements used by the aborigines in their time of quiet- ness, when no white man had visited these parts. On the east side of the pond or harbor was the old worn-out planting land of the Indians, which, as early as 1692, was denominated as the " Mattacheeset field." In this field, not far distant from the outlet, terminated the "antient line " from Bound brook, between the town of Yarmouth and the land of the "Purchasers or Old Comers," agreed upon in 1641, and which remained the line of Yarmouth until 1681, when the line from Bound brook on the north side was changed to the west side of Herring river, and which is now the line between Harwich and Dennis. In 1692 old trees were standing that bore marks of the line of 1641 in this vicinity. The old Indian fields extended easterly from this place on the banks of the sea shore to the Oyster pond, or as now called Saltwater pond.

Muddy cove, or Long cove as it is sometimes called, lies partly in this town. The center of it from the place called the " Eel Weir " to. its mouth at Pleasant bay, is the boundary between Harwich and Chatham. In length it is more than a mile. In many places it is narrow and shallow. Some marsh borders the cove on both sides, which is covered at very high tides. Across the mouth of the inlet is the Wading Place bridge, which connects the two towns. In former times, when the Indians were numerous, they forded the river here, in their passage from one town to the other. Near the boundary stone where the tide gate has been put in, is the site of an eel weir of the Indians. At this point the river hugs the upland closely. On the west side of the cove, near the house of Hiram Nickerson, is the site of the house of captain Joseph Nickerson, the first white settler, so far as is known, in this part of the town, and near by, to the north- ward, the site of the house of William Long, the ancestor of the Long family of Harwich. Joshua Jethro, a Christian Indian, lived for many years, after the beginning of the eighteenth century, a short distance northwesterly from the mouth, upon the farm purchased

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

of the Quasons, and after him Micah Ralph, the last Indian of pure blood in Harwich.

Round cove, or Short cove, as it is called in old records, lies north- ward of Muddy cove, on the west side of Pleasant bay. It is now a haven for boats. On the west bank was the boundary between the Quasons and Sipsons, and the site of the cabin of Isaac James, an In- dian of note. Many springs of water are found around the cove. The Indians called the locality north of it Wequaset. The first white settler near the cove was Thomas Freeman. The house of the late WV. S. Eldridge marks the site. The last salt works in the town stood on the banks of the cove. About one-third of a mile in a westerly direction, on high ground covered with a growth of young oaks, is the burying ground of the Indians who resided in the vacinity. A few years since the writer was shown several places where tradition says Indians were buried. Isaac James and most of his family found rest- ing places here, it is reported. Some of the graves were marked with small bowlders, well sunk into the earth. Mr. James was a good citizen, and was much respected by all who knew him. He had several children, but he survived them all.

The territory which constitutes the township, with the exception of a large tract in the southwestern part of the town, bordering on each side of the Herring river, yielded by Yarmouth upon establish- ing a new line in 1681, is the south part of the tract selected for a plantation by the " Purchasers or Old Comers" and granted to them upon the surrender of the patent March 2, 1640-41. The whole territory extended from " sea to sea " across the Cape, or the "neck of land " as the record has it, "from the bounds of Yarmouth three miles to the eastward of Namskaket." The first line established between the reservation and Yarmouth was in June, 1641, by a com- mittee appointed by the colonial court, viz .: Captain Miles Standish, Edward Winslow. John Brown and Edmund Freeman. It commenced at Bound brook, called by the Indians Shuckquam, where the Brewster and Dennis line now commences, and extended a southeasterly course, eastward of Hall's meadows, terminating at a point in "Matta- cheeset field," on the east side of Allens harbor, near the bank by the sea shore.

The change of the line, which was effected through the efforts of John Wing, sr., John Dillingham, Kenelm Winslow and associates, the proprietors of land at Sauquatuckett, now West Brewster, and also of land west of the old line in North Harwich, and west side of the Herring river at West Harwich, gave to the territory now Har- wich a tract of several thousand of acres, embracing meadow, cedar swamps and timber land, which at the time had not all been purchased of the Indians. By the settlement, these proprietors were allowed to

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TOWN OF HARWICH.

secure the extinguishment of the Indian titles to land unsold, and they very soon applied themselves to the work. Sachemas, the sachem of Sauquatuckett laying claim to a tract between the old line and Herring river, which parted his land from Napaitan's heirs now in possession of Wings and associates, February 18, 1689-90, quitted all claim to unsold land within the following boundaries: "Beginning upon the middle of Satuckett mill dam and from thence ranging upon a straight line due south till it comes to the south sea; and from thence ranging along the sea side westerly to the middle of the Her- ring River mouth, which is the bounds between Sachemas and Na- paoitan, and from thence ranging northerly along the middle of the River, as the river runneth, to a marked tree which stands by said river side near to John Bell's house, which is the bounds between sd. Sachemas and said Nappaitan; and from thence ranging northerly to a marked tree which stands at the head of the uppermost great ford which is the bounds between sd. Sachemas and said Napaoitan; and from thence ranging northeasterly through the middle of the sd. Satuckett pond to sd. Satuckett mill dam which is the first bound first mentioned."

The purchased lands within the limits of the territory above de- scribed was the tract he had conveyed to Edward Sturgis and his two sons, lying on the west side of the old line, and embracing nearly all the land to the Herring river: the tract which " Gershom Hall settled upon;" the tract sold to Thomas Boardman, and the tract held by Cap- tain Daniel, the Indian warrior at Sauquatuckett. The first three of these tracts lie in Harwich. The tract " Gershom Hall settled upon " extended northerly from the meadows up to the Queen Anne's road, and embraced a large tract. Much of it is yet in the hands of his de- scendants. The tract of Thomas Boardman, or " Boreman," as he was sometimes called by the settlers, was on the north side of the Herring river, in what is now North Harwich. It adjoined a river on the north- east and the Queen's road on the southwest. It was laid out to Board- man in 1696, but there appears no evidence that he attempted a set- tlement upon it. The old line of the purchasers passed not far east- ward of the tract.

Besides Napaitan's heirs, and Sachemas, the Indian sachem of Sau- quatuckett, the Quasons and Sipsons, Indians, were large land hold- ers in the town. The Quasons, sons and daughters of John Quason, and grandchildren of Mattaquason, the sachem of Monomoyick, held rights to the greatest portion of the place. Their land embraced the tract between Long pond and the sea shore from the old line of the purchasers eastward to Sipson's line, which line extended from a point at Short cove, near a place by them called Wequassett, northwesterly to Bush beach, near the boundary stone between Har-

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History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890, Part 92

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