History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 125

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 125

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The last ten years or more of his life were full of pain and suffering. He was afflicted with chronic rheumatism, which never loosed its grip upon him ; his limbs became swollen, his joints distorted and dislocated. When walking was difficult, he rode ; then was wheeled about in his invalid chair; then was confined to his house, then to his room, then to his bed for two years, until his naturally iron consti- tution gave way. During all these years he was busy reading and writing, and his fortitude and cheerful-

ness never failed him. He died October 13, 1863, aged sixty-one years.

His widow survived him twenty-three years, dying October 7, 1886. They had seven children, two of whom died in infancy; Benjamin, their eldest, a graduate of Harvard and a lawyer, died in Milwaukee, Wis., at the aged of twenty-nine years; two sons and two daughters still survive, and are residents of East Saugus.

The following verses were written by him just before his death, September 17, 1863 :

For many years my prayer hath been, That I might end this mortal race Without severe and torturing pain, And, calm and easy, die in peace.

And now the Lord hath heard my prayer, Assuaged my pains, so oft severe,

And given my frail body rest The little time that I am here.

I'll give Him praise while life and strength Shall let me speak my gratitude,

And with my last expiring breath I'll calmly breathe, The Lord is good.

CHAPTER XXXII.

DANVERS.

BY ALDEN P. WHITE.

OLD SETTLERS OF SALEM VILLAGE-INCORPORA- TION OF DANVERS.

IN that part of the town which, a few years ago, be- longed to Beverly, the most conspicuous feature of the landscape is a long, high hill, known as Folly Hill. On its summit once stood the lordly mansion of a colonial grandee. The cellar is still distinctly marked, and portions of the building are still in use as residences a mile or two removed from the original exalted situation. This building experiment, never since repeated, was known as "Browne's Folly ;" hence the name of the hill. From its top the view includes very much of the original limits of Old Salem. Far beyond the islands of the harbor the ocean fills a wide space of the eastern horizon, while close in the western foreground lie the farms and villages of Danvers,

Many years ago three boys were together on Folly Hill. One of them is living still ; his name must be often mentioned in any history of his native town, and his portrait is presented by the engraver at the close of this sketch. The second was one who reached such an eminence in the science of botany that his name will be found conspicuous in that chapter of this book which treats of the natural his- tory of the county. The third, not a Danvers but a Salem boy, became known wherever English is read,

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for he wrote the "Scarlet Letter ;" he it was, indeed, who, writing of this hill long after, described its out- line as a whale's back rising from the calm sea, and in one of those stories into which his wonderful pen wove much of the history of our Puritan forefathers, he told how John Endicott cut out the red cross from the baner of England.

Not long afterwards there was a military muster at Salem. Every able-bodied man in the town and neighborhood was there. All were well armed with steel caps upon their heads, plates of iron upon their breasts and at their backs, and gorgets of steel around their necks.

Endicott was the captain of the company. While the soldiers were expecting his orders to begin their exercise, they saw him take the banner in one hand, holding his drawn sword in the other.

" And now, fellow sokliers, you see this old banner of England. Some of you, I doubt not, may think it treason for a man to lay violent hands upon it. But whether or no it be treason to man, I have good assur- ance in my conscience, that it is no treason to God. Wherefore, I have resolved that we will rather he God's soldiers than soldiers of the Pope of Rome, and in that mind I now cut the Papal cross out of this banner."

And so he did. And thus in a province belonging to the crown of England, a captain was found bold enough to deface the king's banner with his sword.

Governor John Endicott was the pioneer of Dan- vers. As he sailed from Cape Ann by the rocky hills of the north shore and brought the " Abigail" to an- chor off the few cabins of the " old planters," near Collin's Cove, doubtless his eyes followed the course of the river far inland, where, in the midst of the prime- val forest, he was in a few years to hew out a home aud found a town.

Endicott landed at Salem in September, 1628. Nearly four years later the company, who by their charter, claimed absolute disposal of all lands therein conveyed, made him a grant in these words :

"1632, July 3. There is a necke of land lyeing aboute 3 myles from Salem, cont. about 300 ac. of land graunted to Capt. Jo: Endicott to enioy to him and his heires forever called in the Indean tonge Wah quamesehcok, in English Birch wood, bounded on the south side with a ryvere call in the Indean tonge Soewampenessett, comonly called the Cowe howse ryver, bounded on the North side with a ryver called in the Indean tonge Conamabsquooncant, comonly called the Ducke ryver, bounded on the East with a ryver leadeing opp to the 2 former ryvers, which is called in the Indean tonge Orkhussunt, otherwise knowen by the name of Wooleston ryver, hounded on the West with the maine land.""

Very soon the Governor entered with characteristic energy upon the work of clearing his grant. He came up in his shallop bringing men well equipped with tools, of which the ax was all important. Within a year seven thousand palisades were cut, and ground was broken for Indian corn. Very early the grant took the name of the " Orchard Farm," and the ex- tent to which the Governor carried the raising of fruit trees may be judged from the fact that some fif- teen years after he began his attack on the wilderness he gave five hundred of them to Captain Trask for two hundred and fifty acres of land. For some years the only neighbors were wolves and Indians, and until his men opened roads there was no thoroughfare to town except by water. Just where the Governor is supposed to have made his original landing a high railroad bridge spans the river, and on the slope be-

tween the river and the site of the homestead there may be seen from the car windows the famous Endi- cott pear tree. Just exactly how it came there, whether from the seed or by transplanting, is not known, but tradition clings with the firmest grip to the asser- tion that the Governor's own hands in some way had to do with this very living tree, which now for two hundred and fifty years has each spring put on the verdure of fresh youth. The Orchard Farm was a sort of training school to which, presently the sons of well to do settlers were glad to come to learn the Governor's methods of agriculture which they later applied to their own farms. The little army of de- fence within the " palisadoes " received a supply of equipments on the 27th of the fourth month, 1636.

"This day was hronght into town and carried up to Mr. Endicott's these corslets following, viz. : eighteen back peices, eighteen belly peices, eighteen peices of tassys, eighteen head peices of three sorts and hut seventeen Gorgets. Itim sixteen Pikes & nineteen swords."

On the 27th of the eleventh month, 1636, John Woodbury, Captain Trask and John Balch were di- rected to "lay ont 200 acres for Mr. Endicott next adjoining the land which was formerly granted him." This was a town grant-the simple but all importaut act of March 3, 1635, giving jurisdiction to towns over their own lands having then been passed-and was called "The Governor's Plain." It is that which lies at the foot of Hog Hill,-its more deserving and euphonious name, Mount Pleasant,-and includes Felton's Corner, the Collins House property and the adjacent lands.

The river which makes up from the ocean to Dan- versport there divides into three branches, much as one may spread the first three fingers of the hand. These rivers, beginning with the lowest, are known as Water's, Crane and Porter's. The Orchard Farm comprised the peninsula or neck between Water'sand Crane ; that between Crane and Porter's, upon which the principal village of Danversport is, was granted contemporaneously with the Orchard Farm, to the Rev. Samuel Skelton, a minister of Salem, in these words :

"There is another necke of land lyeing ahont 3 myles from Salem cont. aboute 200 ac. graunted to Mr. Sam" Skelton to enioy to him and his heires for ever, called hy the Indeans Wahquack, bounded on the South opon a little ryver, called hy the Indeans Conamahsquooncant, opon the North abutting on another ryver called by the Indeans Povo- mennenhcant, and on the East on the same ryver."

For a long time the land included in this grant was known as Skelton's Neck, but it will be seen that un- til the middle of the last century it remained utterly unsettled.

The land next adjoining the Orchard Farm and northerly of the Governor's Plain, was thus disposed of on the 11th of the eleventh month, 1635.

"Granted by the freemen of Salem the day and year above written unto Mr. Townsend Byshop of the same his heirs and assigns forever one farm conteyning three hundred acres butting upon Mr. Endicott's Farme on the East and four hundred poles in length and six score poles in breadth, that is to say six score and four at the west end and one hundred and sixteen at the East end, bounded by the water between tho

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

farmo of the Executora of Mr. Skelton, an (?) him at the North east corner of his farme, and hath there allowed from Mr. Endicott's Farmo Eight acres for an highway, is bounded again at the southwest corner by the Brook, provided always that in enso of sale, the Town of Salem to have the first proffer of it before any other.

John Endicott.

Thomas Gardiner.

Roger Conant. Jeffrey Massey. Edm. Butter."

This was the grant in the midst of which was the famous Rebecca Nourse house, which is still standing. The house was Bishop's mansion, built when he first occupied the land. He was one of the judges of the local court and was otherwise honored, but he fell from grace on the question of infant baptism, and after a few years he concluded to sell out, perhaps to seek a place where he could think as he pleased. He sold to Henry Chickering, who held it from 1641 to 1648, and then sold it to Governor Endicott who, with this purchase, owned about a thousand acres, running from the iron foundry to beyond the Collins Street station. The price was one hundred and sixty pounds. The Governor settled the Bishop farm upon his oldest son, John, when he was married, 1653 and gave him the deed in 1662. After the death of the Governor, in 1665, there was a controversy over the settlement of his estate regarding this property, but the deed held, and instead of passing to Zerub- babel, the surviving brother, when John died without issue in 1668, it was adjudged to have been John's in fee, and he, by will, left it to his widow. She mourned from February to August, then married a Boston minister, Rev. James Allen, and died in five years, leaving the farm to him. Five years later Mr. Allen sold out to Francis Nourse for four hundred pounds. This was April 29, 1678 ; the real estate had more than doubled since the Governor bought it. Very likely the price was governed somewhat by the terms of the sale, which gave the grantee twenty-one years in which to pay the whole purchase money. During this time a series of long and bitter disputes and law-suits arose as to the boundaries of the farm which, though resulting favorably to the Nourses and adversely to the owner of the Orchard Farm, doubt- less had its influence in the disaster which befel the family when the aged mother was taken away to die on the gallows, a condemned witch. In a little grove just west of the historic honse, where are other family graves, a substantial monument marks her resting- place. It was erected a few years ago as the result of a movement began in 1875, hy which her descen- dants organized the "Nourse Monument Association." The inscription contains these lines written by Whit- tier:

" O Christian Martyr, Who for Truth could die, When all about thee Owned the hideous lio ! The world redeemed From Superstition's sway Is breathing freer For thy sake to-day."

Just outside the north western corner of the Bishop-

Nourse farm, near the angle of Prince Street, at "Muddy Boo," were to be seen, until quite recently, certain depressions which were the remains of ancient wolf-pits.

Having mentioned the two sons of Governor Endi- cott, let here a word be said of his descendants. John Jeft no children. Zerubbabel, who lived on the orch- ard farm, was a physician. His second wife was a daughter of Governor Winthrop, and he had five sons, of whom John went to England and there followed his father's profession ; Zeruhbabel and Benjamin lived in Topsfield; Joseph went to New Jersey, and Samuel remained at home and married Hannah, a daughter of Nathaniel Felton, of Felton's Hill. The widow, Hannah Endicott, married Thorndike Proctor, who in 1764 bought the little old building which was the first meeting-house of Salem, moved it to his land near Boston Street, where it was used first as a tavern and later as part of a tannery until 1865, when it was restored and moved to the rear of Plummer Hall by the Essex Institute, and has since been visited by thousands. Samuel Endicott had four children, but he died when thirty-five years old, leaving his only son, Samuel, a boy of seven, the only representative of the name in the vicinity of the home of his fathers. But this boy lived to re-establish the family, and died an old man and " captain " in 1766, and was buried in that Endicott family burying-ground, which is plainly in sight across the river from the Danversport rail- road station. One of his sisters married Benjamin Porter, the other Martin Herrick. Captain Samuel had a dozen children ; of his sons John, the oldest, kept the orchard farm ; and of his wife, Elizabeth Jacobs, it is related that she was at the South Meet- ing-house when Colonel Timothy Pickering halted his men on the way to Bunker Hill, and cried out in patriotic zeal: "Why on earth don't you march ; don't you hear the guns at Charlestown ?" The farm passed next to another John, oldest son of John and Elizabeth, one of whose brothers, Robert, married a daughter of Minister Holt, of South Parish, and es- tablished an Endicott family in Beverly. The oldest son of this last John was Samuel, who married Eliza- beth, daughter of William Putnam, of Sterling, Mass., in 1794, and was the father of the wives of Francis and George Peabody, of Salem, and of William Put- nam Endicott, who was born in 1803, graduated at Harvard in 1822, and is still living in Salem, and the father of William C. Endicott, Secretary of War. The orchard farm is retained in this branch of the family, its present owner being William Endicott, of London, England, and is this summer (1887) undergoing ex- tensive improvements at his hands.

Elias Endicott, son of Captain Samuel, was chris- tened in 1729; married Eunice Andrews ; died in 1779, was buried in the Plains burying-ground, and left six children : Anna, married Israel Putnam, and became the mother .of Hon. Elias Putnam; Elias Endicott, Jr., who was one of the early shoe manufac-

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turers, and lived where his grandson, Elias Endicott Porter now lives; Israel, who was a mason, lived in the brick house at the Port, which descended to his son, William ; Mary was the wife of Zerubbabel Por- ter, whose son Alfred was the father of Elias Endi- cott Porter ; and Margaret (" Aunt Peggy ") died un- married.

The first and most distinguished name in our early annals has become, in the male line, ntterly extinct. In the Danvers directory the name of Endicott ap- pears but once,-" Lydia W., widow of William." The late William Endicott was one of the early anti- slavery men, was one of the last of the Danvers- port sea-captains, often served as moderator of town- meetings, and was otherwise prominent in local af- fairs; his daughter, Mrs. H. G. Hyde, resides in Danvers, and two sons in Haverhill.

Ante-dating the Bishops' grant by a month was one of three hundred acres to Robert Cole. This covers the region back of Hog Hill, including Proctor's cor- ner and extending a mile or more towards West Pea- body. After a short time Cole sold to Emanuel Downing, a brother-in-law of Governor Winthrop, a lawyer, a man of such high repute and so desirable an acquisition to the colonists that before he arrived a grant of five hundred acres was given him by the town. This he sold to John Porter; it included the Bradstreet farm near the Topsfield line.

Downing's son George, who was one of the first graduates of Harvard, became Sir George Downing, a prominent figure in the history of the Old Country in Cromwell's time. The old Ipswich road, the first highway connecting Lynn and Boston with the north- ern settlements, was laid out through this land, and in 1648 one of his tenants was allowed to keep an "ordinary " to accommodate travelers. For a time the Downings let the farm, and in 1666 it was occupied by John Proctor, who subsequently bought a part of it. Proctor, who came from Ipswich, was a strong man in every sense, and he was one of the conspicu- ous victims of the witchcraft delusion. Many of his descendants have been prominent citizens of South Danvers, where the family is still well represented.

The land next east of Downing's, in the midst of which is the beautiful Rogers estate, was granted, three hundred acres, to Thomas Read, who, with others, went back to England to bear a hand in the coming revolution. In 1701 it was sold to Daniel Epps, the famous school-master, concerning whom it was in 167I "Voated that the selectmen shall take care to provide a house for Mr. Epps to keep skoole in." The honor of his name was preserved through several generations by men distinguished in our local annals.

The long, high hill south of the Governor's plain was from the first the home of the Feltons. The old homestead at the end of the road which runs from the Ipswich road along the top of the hill was built more than two hundred years ago, and the Na-

thaniel Felton who now owns and occupies it comes near to being the seventh Nathaniel in direct line. A Jonathan in the third generation is the only break. Besides the inclosed burying-ground, where the Ips- wich road makes its steep climb, in which old stones and new contain the names of Proctor and Felton, there are here and there on the hillside traces of more ancient and unmarked graves.

The tract adjoining the Bishop-Nourse farm on the north, covering the village of Tapleyville and ex- tending from Ash Street to a little beyond the meet- ing-house, at the Centre, was granted to Elias Stile- man. The latter sold in 1648 to Richard Hutchinson, who came over in 1634, with his infant son, Joseph. Hutchinson was also one of the grantees of the large tract which included Whipple's Hill, named for the husband of his granddaughter, and in 1637 he was granted twenty acres on the meadow back of the meeting-house, on condition that he should "set up plowing." He died in 1681 at the full age of four score, " a vigorous and intelligent agriculturist and a man of character." It will be seen presently how the lower portion of his estate descended through his son-in-law in an unbroken line of Putnams-the Judge Putnam farm. The upper portion fell to Jo- seph Hutchinson, who was, like his father, a prominent and influential man, of sound sense and plain words. He it was who ont of his homestead lands gave one acre for the first meeting-house and later contributed several more towards a home for the first preacher. The family name is still well represented in the neighborhood. The most distinguished name in the family history is that of Colonel Israel Hutchinson, of Revolutionary fame, of whom a notice appears elsewhere. He was the son of Elisha, who died be- fore 1730. Elisha was the son of Joseph, who out- lived the son some twenty years; Joseph was the son of that Joseph who was brought over from England in his infancy. A brother to Colonel Israel's father was Ebenezer ; Ebenezer's son was Jeremy, who mar- ried a daughter of Asa Putnam, and lived from 1738 to 1805; one of Jeremy's sons was Joseph, who was born in 1770, married Phebe Upton, of North Read- ing, and died in 1832, leaving two sons to become heads of families-Deacon Elijah Hutchinson and Benjamin Hutchinson, both now deceased. The home of Deacon Elijah was the house just west of Nathaniel Ingersoll's training-field, formerly "the home of the widow Eunice Upton, inholder." Three fine residences just beyond are those of Deacon Elijah's sons, Warren, Alfred and Edward.

Next west of the Stileman-Hutchinson land was the grant of Francis Weston, which covered the land extending westerly from the church towards the turnpike. Weston was such a man as to be chosen one of the three Representatives of Salem in the first House of Deputies, but like Bishop he was too toler- ant for the age, and was invited to leave, in 1638, and his wife was treated to an experience in the stocks.

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS

Six years later it was sold by one John Pease to Richard Ingersoll and his son-in-law, Wm. Haynes. Ingersoll had come over in 1629, and was granted eighty acres at Rial Side. January 12, 1636-37, "Richard Inkersoll is to have ld. for every person he may carry over the North Ferry, during the town's pleasure." He was for a time lessee of the Bishop- Nourse farm, and shortly after this purchase of the Weston grant he died. He was another of the right sort of men, and his son, Nathaniel, was one of the brightest characters of our early history.

Nathaniel was but eleven years old when his father died. His mother married again, and soon the lad found a home with Governor Endicott, not that he was driven to this step, but probably only as other boys and young men were glad to be educated in the practical agricultural college at the Orchard Farm. "I went to live with Governor Endicott as his servant four years." He was nineteen when he went back to the land which his father had left him, and near by the present parsonage of the First Church, he built a house of more generous proportions. than were com- mon. Here, to the end of his three-score and ten, he was mine host of an open house, the resting-place of weary travelers, the meeting-place on all sorts of oc- casions of the villagers. Its ample public-room was at once town-house, church and military headquarters, and the whole-souled landlord was looked upon as the natural arbiter of neighborhood quarrels. He was a just man, whose guide of life was the golden rule, and the love and respect universally accorded him were but the natural tribute to his worth. There is nothing out of harmony with such a character in the following permit granted in 1673, though at present men of his stamp are not found keeping bar: "Na- thaniel Ingersoll is allowed to sell bear and syder by the quart for the tyme whyle the farmers are a build- ing of their meeting-house and on Lord's days after- wards." When his only child, a little girl, died, he and his wife took and brought up Benjamin, one of the sons of his neighbor Joseph Hutchinson, who was "an obedient son until he came of one and twenty years of age." Ingersoll was not rich, but he gave the young man a liberal marriage gift out of his comparatively small farm. This was but one of a series of gifts of land. When the church was organ- ized, as will hereafter appear, Nathaniel Ingersoll and Edward Putnam were colleagues as first deacons. It will be seen that Deacon Putnam's farm was on the Middleton line two or three miles from the church, and in 1714 he had reached a time when a man sees old age approaching. Ingersoll desired his dear friend to pass his declining years in the com- fortable proximity to the church which he had him- self ever enjoyed. Therefore, "for the good affec- tion " which he bore to him, he freely gave Deacon Putnam "a piece of land bonnded northerly upon the land of Joseph Green (the minister) next to his orchard gate, westerly on the highway, and southerly

and easterly on my land," and thither, it is thought, Deacon Putnam came to dwell. When pipes were laid for the water-works, an old well was dug into, thought to have been his. Long before this he had given four acres and a half to Rev. Samuel Parris. By his will he gave the church fifty shillings " for the more adorning the Lord's Table, to be laid out in some silver cup." He gave a life estate in the lands of which he died possessed to his wife, with remainder to his adopted son, except one piece, "a small parcel of land of about two acres, that lyeth between Mrs. Walcots and George Wyotts by the highway, which I give to the inhabitants of Salem Village, for a train- ing place forever." Forever ! What better monu- ment can a man leave to his memory than a reserva- tion of land for the use of the public, forever. The pleasant common at Danvers Centre, bounded on one side by a street which bears the giver's name, is the old training-field of Nathaniel Ingersoll. These words are Mr. Upham's : "Within its enclosure the elements of the military art have been imparted to a greater number of persons distinguished in their day, and who have left an imperishable glory behind them as the defenders of their country, a brave yeo- manry in arms, than on any other spot. From the slaughter of Bloody Brook, the storming of the Nar- ragansett Fort and all the early Indian wars; from the Heights of Abraham, Lake George, Lexington, Bunker Hill, Brandywine, Pea Ridge, and a hundred other battle-fields, a lustre is reflected back upon this village parade-ground. It is associated with all the military traditions of the country, down to the late Rebellion."

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 125

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