History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 104

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1538

USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 104

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On their promise to remove, the prisoners were readily released. They did remove some eighty miles eastward and commenced the permanent settlement of Southampton, which name was given in commem- oration of the port in England from which some of them originally came.

Southampton, thus begun, still numbers among her people many who descended from that good old Lynn stock. In this colonization quite a number of the

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

leading residents of Lynn were concerned, though some whose names were on the roll did not emigrate. The colony grew apace, and from time to time sent ofl' other colonies that made lodgments in various parts of the island, so that the Long Island of this day owes much to the Lynn of that day.

These colonists evidently carried with them the ideas of freedom and equality under which they had prospered here, and in their new home continued to be governed in a thoroughly democratic way, though at one time, 1644, they placed themselves professedly under the Hartford jurisdiction. "The government of the town," says an intelligent native writer, "was vested in the people. They assembled at their town- meetings, had all power and all anthority. They elected town officers, constituted courts, allotted lands, made laws, tried difficult and important cases, and from their decision there was no appeal. The Town- Meeting, or General Court, as it was sometimes called, met once a month. Every freeholder was required to be present at its meetings and take a part in the bur- dens of government. All delinquents were fined for non-attendance at each meeting."

The Long Island enterprise thus inaugurated by the people of Lynn was really of a good deal of im- portance. It was with James Forrett, as agent of Lord Sterling, that the negotiations for the right to occupy the land were made. Winthrop says, " Divers of the inhabitants of Linne, finding themselves straitened, looked out for a new plantation, and going to Long Island, they agreed with the Lord Ster- ling's agent there, one Mr. Forrett, for a parcel of the isle near the west end, and agreed with the Indians for their right." The emigrants, however, to begin with, had a difficulty with Agent Forrett, the cause of which does not exactly appear, and he entered a strong protest against them at Bostou as "intruders." Then the troubles with the Dutch came, but by per- sistence and fair dealing the settlers soon obtained favor and a permanent foothold.

It is not necessary to occupy space in speaking fur- ther of the colonies that early went out from Lynn. What has been said of the Long Island enterprise in a great degree characterized the others, their spirit and purposes being much the same.

SLAVERY AND ITS ABOLITION .- The beginning of slavery in Massachusetts was in 1638, when some of the captive Pequot Indians were sent to the West Indies and sold for return cargoes of cotton, tobacco and negroes, but in 1641 the court, in a loose and un- certain way, set its face against such servitude, enact- ing that "There shall never be any bond slaverie, villianage or captivitie amongst us, unless it be law- full captives taken in just warres, and such strangers as willingly selle themselves or are sold to us. This exempts none from servitude who shall be judged thereto by authoritie." What is there in this to pre- vent negro or Indian slavery ? Under the clause "such strangers as willingly sell themselves or are

sold to us," a door seems to be widely opened. Thomas Keyser, an early settler of Lynn, was a mar- iner, and appears unscrupulously to have engaged in the Guinea slave trade, conjointly with James Smith, of Boston, a church member. Slaves were most nu- merous in the province in 1745. In 1754 there were four hundred and thirty-nine slaves in Essex County, and in all Massachusetts forty-four hundred and eighty-nine. In 1774 the General Court passed a bill prohibiting the importation of slaves, but Governor Gage refused his assent.

At the commencement of the Revolution there were twenty-six slaves in Lynn, among them one be- longing to Thomas Mansfield, named Pompey, a na- tive prince born on the Gambia, and who continued to be duly honored by all the negroes hereabout, holding a holiday court once a year in a fragrant glade, surrounded by his gayly-clad subjects, who had been allowed their freedom for the day.

The State Constitution was established in 1780. The first article of the Declaration of Rights asserts that all men are born free and equal, and this was generally supposed to have reference to slavery, but it was a point on which there was by no means una- nimity of opinion. In 1781, however, at a court in Worcester, an indictment was found against a white man for assaulting, beating and imprisoning a black. The case finally, in 1783, went to the Supreme Court, and there the defense was that the black was a slave, and the beating the necessary and lawful correction by the master; but the defense was declared invalid, and this decision was the death-blow to slavery in Massachusetts.

As to the later movements touching the abolition of slavery iu the United States, it may be remarked that Lynn raised a strong and by no means uncertain voice in behalf of the slaves,-a cause so much de- rided and opposed in its incipient stages, but so much applauded when it had become popular.

The "Lynn Colored People's Friend Society " was formed in 1832, but it is thought that the members really did more for the cause by individual than com- bined action. Nevertheless, the organization was useful in arousing and centralizing attention. Speak- ers from abroad were occasionally here. The accom- plished and piquant Grimkie ladies from the South gave one or two stirring addresses. In the early part of the summer of 1835 George Thompson, the promi- nent English abolitionist, visited Lynn, and lectured in several of the meeting-honses to large audiences. In the latter part of the summer he again came to Lynn to attend a meeting of the Essex County Anti- Slavery Society, held in the First Methodist meeting- house. Some hostility was now manifested by the opponents of the movement. In the evening, while Mr. Thompson was lecturing, a great crowd collected about the house, and a stone was thrown through one of the windows, causing great disturbance within. A large number pressed into the entry and attempted

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to burst in the inner doors, which had been closed. During the tumult Mr. Thompson ended his dis- course, and passed out, unobserved by the crowd. He was presently surrounded by a guard of ladies, and conducted to a neighboring house, whence he departed privately to his temporary residence at Swampscott. Mr. Thompson was here again in 1850, and then met with a cordial welcome. He had a public reception by his Lynn friends at Lyceum Hall, which stood on Market Street, at the corner of Summer. Though the weather was stormy, the hall was well filled, and Mr. Thompson delivered a felici- tous address.

It was in 1850 that Congress passed the famous, or as many regarded it, the infamous "Fugitive Slave Law." The law intended to facilitate the rendition of slaves escaping into the free States. Much hostil- ity to the act was manifested in Lynn, and several largely-attended meetings were held, at which it was denounced in strong terms. On Saturday evening, October 5th, a full and enthusiastic meeting took place in Lyceum Hall, at which Mayor Hood presid- ed, and at which resolutions were adopted reaching to the very verge of loyalty. Aud, though one or two of them savor strongly of the nullification doc- trine, they may well be introduced here as indicative of the aroused spirit of our people :

" RESOLVED, That the Fugititive Slave Bill, recently enacted hy Con- gress, violates the plain intent and the strict letter of the United States Constitution, which secures to every citizen, except in cases of martial law, the right of trial by jury on all important questions ; further, said bill outrages justice, since it does not secure to the fugitive, or to the free man mistaken for a fugitive, due notice beforehand of the charge made against him, and opportunity for cross-examining the wit- nesses against him on their oath, gives him no time to get counsel or gather testimony in his owo behalf-rights which our fathers secured by the struggle of two hundred years, and which are too dear to be sac- rificed to the convenience of slave-hunters, afraid or ashamed to linger amid a community whose institutions and moral sense they are ont- raging.

"Again, said bill tramples on the most sacred principles of the common law, and even if men could be property, no property, however sacred, can claim the right to be protected in such a way as endangers the rights and safety of free meu; therefore-

" RESOLVED, That we protest against it as grossly unconstitutional, as fraught with danger to the safety of a large portion of our fellow-citi- zens, and capable of being easily perverted to the ruin of any one, white or black ; we denounce it as infamons, and we proclaim our determina- tion that it shall not be executed.

"RESOLVED, That we rejoice to believe that there are not prisons enough at the North to hold the men and women who stand ready to succor and protect the panting fugitive slave, and baffle aud resist the slave-hnoter who shall dare to pollute our soil.

"RESOLVED, That every man who voted for this atrocious bill, every one who avows his readiness to execute it, and every one who justifies it on any ground, is a traitor to the rights of the free States, and a crimi- nal of the deepest die, at the head of whom stands Millard Fillmore, who from party or even baser motives, has set his name to a law, the pro- visions of which, so far from being fitted for a Christian republic, re- mind one only of the court of Jeffries or the camp of Haynau.

" RESOLVED, That Samnel A. Eliot, of Boston, in giving his vote for this blood-bound bill, dishonored and betrayed Massachusetts; and low as is often the moral sense of a great city, cankered by wealth, we rejoice

, to know that he misrepresented his immediate constituents; and we de- mand of them, io the name of onr old commonwealth, to save ns from the infamy nf his presence in another Congress.

" RESOLVED, That since God has commanded ns to 'bewray not him that wandereth,' and since, our fathers being witnesses, every man's

right to liberty is self-evident, we see no way of avoiding the conclusion of Senator Seward, that 'it is a violation of the divine law to surrender the fugitive slave who takes refuge at our firesides from his relentless pursners ;' and in view of this, as well as of the notorious fact that the slave power has constantly trampled under foot the Constitution of the United States to secure its own extension or safety, and especially of the open, undisguised and acknowledged contempt of that instrument with which the slave States kidnap our colored citizens traveling South, and imprison our colored seamen, we, in obedience to God's law, and in self- defense, declare that, constitution or no constitution, law or no law, with jury trial or without, the slave who has once breathed the air and touched the soil of Massachusetts, shall never be dragged back to bond- age.

" RESOLVED, That Lewis Cass and Daniel Webster, Senator Foote aod Senator Clay, and each and every oue of the 'compromise committee of thirteen,' who reported and urged the passage of this bill, as well as every one who voted for its passage, are unworthy the votes of a free people for any office for which they may be hereafter named."

The execution of John Brown, at Charlestown, Va., adjudged guilty of treason for attempting by armed force to free slaves, was signalized by the tolling of church bells in Lynn at sunrise, noon and sunset on Friday, December 2, 1859, the day of execution.

It would he pleasing to give the names of those who long and valiantly fought in the abolition ranks, those who, under reproach and sometimes personal danger, never flinched in their loyalty to the great principles of human liberty. But the list would be too long, and it might appear invidious to select a few. James N. Buffum, however, should not be for- gotten; nor Frederic Douglass, who was for some time a resident here, after his successful flight from the South. Some of the more zealous of the early ones lost much of their influence by denouncing the church organizations for the alleged reason that their position was not sufficiently aggressive on that and some other reformatory questions. They were called Come- outers, and in many instances their turbulent course tended to retard rather than advance the cause they really had at heart.

To one who knew the prominent actors in the re- formatory movements of this community, say forty- five years ago, particularly the movements touching slavery and intemperance, it is interesting, if not won- derful, to observe the change of public opinion regard- ing them. No better examples can be had of the zeal and perseverance necessary to be exercised, of the coutumely and misconception to be endured, in such a warfare.

But the end of slavery came in a manner not antici- pated in those earlier days, and many of the pioneers in the great cause lived to rejoice over the removal of the national disgrace. Little could that great apos- tle of freedom, William Lloyd Garrison, have dreamed of the career that awaited him, and of the lasting honors that would surround his name so long as American principles should endure, when, in his youthful days, he quietly pursued his humble labors upon the shoemaker's bench, in the little seven by nine shop on Market Street.

HISTORY OF FREE MASONRY IN LYNN .- A brief history of the ancient institution of Free Masonry cannot be inappropriate in this sketch. It dates back

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

to the commencement of the present century. Tra- dition informs us that a number of Masonic brethren frequently met for consultation, and concluded, in the early summer of 1805, to form a lodge. These breth- ren resided in the western part of the town and lo- cated the lodge in the upper room of a small wooden building on Boston Street, near the corner of North Federal. The founders of the lodge were among the foremost citizens, men of character and influence, whose names to this day are revered hy the fraternity. The original records show that Amariah Childs, Ezra Collins, Thomas C. Thatcher, William Frothingham, Frederick Breed, William Ballard, Francis Moore, Jr., Aaron Breed, Aaron Learned, Samnel Brimblecom, Thomas Witt, Joseph Johnson, Jonas W. Gleason, Joshua Blanchard, David Crane and Richard John- son, being all master masons, assembled some time about the 1st of June, 1805, and agreed to form them- selves into a brotherhood by the name of Mount Car- mel Lodge ; and after choosing Amariah Childs, Master ; William Ballard, Senior Warden ; and Fran- cis Moore, Jr., Junior Warden, they signed a petition to the Grand Lodge fora charter, which was granted at the quarterly communication in June of the same year.

The hall of Lynn Academy, then recently erected, on South Common Street, was obtained, fitted up, all necessary regalia procured and regular meetings com- menced. The first candidate proposed for initiation was Ezra Mudge, father of Ezra Warren Mudge, the sixth mayor of Lynn. The first code of by-laws was adopted November 13th, and the membership limited to fifty. The lodge so prospered that in 1807 an in- vitation was extended to the Grand Lodge to publicly install the officers. The use of the old parish meeting- house was procured for the purpose, and there the ceremonies took place, the Rev. Asa Eaton, D.D., rector of Christ Church, Boston, delivering the sermon. The membership was, in ISIS, limited to seventy-five, by the new code of by-laws then adopted.

In 1821 the lodge erected for its use the two-story frame building which long stood in Market Square, at the corner of Elm Street, and was known as Masonic Hall. The cost was $1.325.98. The corner-stone was laid June 25th, with Masonic ceremonies, Rev. Chee- ver Felch delivering the address, and the hall was dedicated November 12th.

The lodge attended, by invitation, the laying of the corner-stone of Bunker Hill Monument, June 17, 1825. On St. John's day, June 24, 1826, Brother Caleb Cushing, of Newburyport, delivered a learned and eloquent address before the fraternity, in the First Methodist meeting-house.

The last meeting of record, previous to surrender- ing the charter of Mount Carmel Lodge, appears to have been on the 16th of December, 1834. And from that time until June 11, 1845, there is no record to show that the lodge was called together.

During the decade from 1835 to 1845 there is an

unwritten history of meetings on Long Beach and High Rock held by faithful members during the stormy and troublous anti-Masonic period.

The charter of the lodge was restored on the 11th of June, 1845. A meeting was called July 19th, and officers elected, who were installed July 23d, and from that date commenced a season of prosperity which has continued withont interruption to the present time. The first person to receive the degrees after the revival of the charter was Bradford Williams, the ceremony taking place September 15, 1845.

On the 17th of February, 1851, a fire destroyed much of the property of the lodge, which was at Lib- erty Hall, at the corner of Essex and Market Streets, where the meetings were held. After this the regular meetings of the fraternity were held at the house of their Worthy Master, W. M. Phillips, until Dec. 16th, when they met in a hall in which one or two other or- ganizations occasionally assembled. In the winter of 1854 the hall in the Sagamore Building was fitted up and used for the regular convocations of the lodge, and if those old walls could speak, a recital of the history of the meetings of Mount Carmel Lodge would greatly interest the present members of the fraternity in our city.

On the 29th of December, 1855, the first book of records was formally closed, having served the lodge for half a century. And on September 7, 1857, a new code of by-laws was adopted, to which is appended the names of sixty-one members.

On the 8th of September, 1863, Sutton Chapter of Royal Arch Masons was organized.

On the 14th of October, 1864, upon invitation of the Grand Body, Mount Carmel Lodge assisted in laying the corner-stone of the new Masonic Temple, corner of Boylston and Tremont Streets, Boston.

On February 21, 1865, Golden Fleece Lodge was duly organized, and had for its first three officers Timothy G. Senter, W. M .; Alonzo C. Blethen, S. W .; John G. Dudley, J. W.

April 10, 1865, the ladies of Lynn presented a beautiful banner to Mount Carmel Lodge.

July 4, 1865, the Masonic fraternity joined in the celebration of the day.

November 13, 1865, an invitation was received from Mayor Peter M. Neal to take part in the ceremonies of laying the corner-stone of the City Hall; but on December 11th a communication was received from the R. W. Grand Master refusing to grant a dispensa- tion for the lodges to appear in public to take part in the ceremonies.

October 8, 1866 .- A petition was received and con - sent given for the formation of a lodge at Saugus.

June 24, 1867 .- The Masonic fraternity of Lynn participated in the dedicatory services of the new Masonic Temple in Boston.

June 28, 1872 .- Died, in Lynn, Jonathan Richard- son, a native of the town, aged cighty-seven years. Hle was one of the early members of Mount Carmel

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Lodge, and tiler for more than forty years. He re- mained a faithful adherent to the institution when so many of the brethren withdrew, in the troublous times of anti-Masonry. His burial took place from the First Methodist meeting-house, and was attended by a large number of the fraternity.

February, 1873 .- Olivet Commandery of Knights Templars was organized. October 22d there was a grand parade, attracting much attention.

September 8, 1873 .- Invitation received from the city government of Lynn to take part in the dedica- tion of the Soldiers' Monument. As an organization, however, the fraternity did not join in the ceremo- nies.

May 12, 1879 .- Invitation received from Mayor George P. Sanderson to participate in the celebration of the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the settlement of Lynn. But the invitation was not ac- cepted.

December S, 1880 .- A board of trustees elected to take charge of the hall and of the property belonging to the Masonic fraternity.

May 9, 1881 .- By-laws adopted granting life mem- bership in Mount Carmel Lodge.

October 8, 1881 .- Grand Master S. E. Lawrence present for the purpose of addressing the lodges on the commntation of the Grand Lodge capitation tax.

February 22, 1882 .- Members from lodges in the Fifth District liold a meeting at Masonic Hall in Lynn, for exemplification of work and the lectures connected therewith. Charles M. Avery, Grand Lec- turer, present as instructor.

Monnt Carmel Lodge, soon after the renewal of its charter, in 1845, began steadily to increase in num- bers and strength, and, from time to time, found it necessary to seek more capacious accommodations. Some years ago the hall in Tolman's Building, Mar- ket Street, corner of Liberty, was leased and fitted up in becoming style, the dedicatory ceremonies taking place in July, 1872. Bnt now, for a number of years, the several Masonic organizations have occupied the eligible quarters in the building of the Young Men's Christian Association, on Market Street.

For fifty-eight years Mount Carmel was the only lodge in Lynn. But there are now, 1887, the follow- ing Masonic bodies :

Organization.

Membership, 1886.

Mount Carmel Lodge .

1805

193

Sutton Royal Arch Chapter

. 1863

139

Golden Fleece Lodge .

. 1865

178

Olivet Commandery Knights Templar . . 1873

117

The trustees of the Masonic fraternity in Lynn, at the present time, are : William D. Pool, president ; George H. Allen, treasurer ; William B. Phillips, sec- · retary ; Charles E. Parsons, Charles C. Fry.

DRINKING CUSTOMS AND TEMPERANCE MOVE- MENTS .- Whether onr predecessors, as occupants of this soil, the Indians, were ever excessive drinkers is

not positively known. They did not have distilled liquors, but may possibly have had some sort of herba- ceous concoction that operated as a more or less ine- briating stimulant. But they had nothing that in its effects would compare with the " fire water " brought by their pale-faced supplanters. Their boisterous or- gies, which led our fathers to call them " devil wor- shippers," were of a character very different from " drunken sprees." But when they got a taste of the white man's fire water, having no restraining moral sentiment, their lust for it was unquenchable. The deplorable result need not be recounted. It has been said that the first instance of Indian intoxication in this part of North America took place in September, 1609, when the ship of the celebrated navigator, Henry Hudson, was cruising about the river that still bears his name. For the curious purpose of ascer- taining the natural disposition of the natives whom they encountered, it is said the navigators resolved to make some of the principal ones intoxicated. To that end, ardent spirits, "as much as they would," were administered. Only one, however, became really drunk, though all reached the merry stage. The pranks of the drunken one greatly astonished and alarmed the others, who imagined that an evil spirit had entered into him. The next day, however, everything having calmed down, some became clam- orous for a renewal of the experiment. This, as re- marked, is claimed to have been the first instance of intoxication ever known among the Indians. Unhap- pily, it was by no means the last. Many a tract of valuable land has been bought of an Indian for a quart of rum, notwithstanding the efforts of the colo- nial authorities to prevent such nefarious traffic. During the colonial days there was much legislation in regard to strong liquors, both on the score of their proper nse by individuals and their relation to the public by way of revenue. But we must treat of our own neighborhood.

It cannot be said that Lynn in her earlier days was remarkable for abstinence from the use of intoxicat- ing liquors. There were canses for the prevalence of the evil habit here that in some places did not exist. It was the custom of the times for all classes to use intoxicants in season aud ont of season. Excepting in rare instances, the ministers indulged; and the doctors. The physical injury attending the use was not so well understood; nor the moral effect. At ordinations, at weddings, at funerals, drink freely flowed ; and at trainings and huskings ; indeed, at all quasi social and public gatherings ; to say nothing of sly indulgence at home. An illustrative anecdote is told of the eccentric Lois Hart, who lived on the north side of Boston Street, near Federal. During her last sickness the good Doctor Gardner one day remarked to her that, being so aged, she could not ex- pect to long survive, and, in view of her approaching end, asked if he should not invite the minister to call. "Well, yes," she replied, in her rude way, “ I

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 104

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1 Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1538

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1538