History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 142

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 142

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About the time the carpet business was started Periey Tapley began moving buildings from far and

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DANVERS.

near, and converting them into dwellings. Many of these remain, the original settlers of the village, which, thus created, very properly took the name of Tapleyville. A humorous squib which appeared in the Danvers Eagle October 30, 1844, was concocted on one of those trips which leading South Parish men used to make to hear Dr. Braman preach Fast- day and Thanksgiving sermons. It was headed "Tapleyville in 1844." "There is one peculiarity," it says, "which we believe is not common to any other place. By the city regulations it is provided that no house or other building shall be erected within the territory, and the city is entirely composed of buildings which have been moved into it, and by this means it is constantly increasing. Nothing is more common than to see houses of all sizes and shapes and of every quaint style of architecture trav- eling into the place and seating themselves down in some comfortable situation to rest just so long as the mayor will allow them to remain. We had the curiosity to look into the City Hall when the Council was not in session, and found it ornamented with various agricultural implements. Like the rest of the city, it looked like a traveling concern, and was built of rough slabs. We understand it once took a tour of observation through the streets of Sa- lem, and afterwards returned to its native place." The " mayor" was, of course, Perley Tapley. The building last alluded to was a log cabin, which had been conspicuous in the Harrison campaign process- ions. It was the great feature of a great procession at Salem, when people gazed in admiration at Perley Tapley's skill in managing the forty or fifty yoke of oxen attached to the cabin, especially in turning cor- ners. A glee club sang from the balcony, and a halt was made on Salem Common; where there was a great dinner, and an able and eloquent speech by Daniel Webster.

Mr. Tapley is said to have been the first to move a brick building. Having a church-steeple on his hands at one time, he cut it up sectionally into shoe- makers' shops; one is to be seen near the Tapleyville Station. He was moving a building on floats from Boston to East Boston once, and being somewhat out of his element on any other than a solid foundation, was in danger of being blown out to sea ; in the crisis he is said to have called vehemently to the pilot to " gee." Wishing a new school-house for his village, he did what he could to make the old Number 6 building " too small" by loading every child of school age in his neighborhood into his ox-cart and filling the room to overflowing. Many characteristic stories of his energetic way of doing things might be col- lected. He was not forty-eight years old when he died. He leaves no sons, but two daughters in town. In addition to the single family mentioned as the representatives of old Gilbord's son Amos, there are now in town but five other adult male Tapleys,- George and his two sons, of the line of Daniel, son

of Asa, and Gilbert Augustus and his only son, of the line of Gilbert, son of Asa.

Tapleyville is supplied with a post-office and a rail- road station. As a school district it ranks among the three largest ; as a business and manufacturing centre it is one of the busiest in town. Within a few years la large tract of land bounded by Holten, Pine and Hobart Streets has been opened and is well taken up by new dwellings. The new streets are named for the pastors of the First Church,-Clarke, Wadsworth, Braman, &c. Within the present year, 1887, a fine three-story building has been erected by the Agawam Tribe of Red Men for society and business purposes.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

DANVERS -(Continued).

MISCELLANEOUS.

TEMPERANCE .- It is a fact too well known for com- Iment that a typical New Englander of a century ago loved rum. It was potent at "raisings," it added to hospitality, it lent wisdom to council, eloquence to speech, strength to effort. It was as necessary to set- tle a minister as to swap a horse. It was the article most often charged on the grocer's day-book; it was absolutely common. And it made men drunk. After the revolution home production greatly increased, and during the first part of this century intemperance be- came a crying evil.

In the year 1812 a temperance society was formed. It was the first in this State, perhaps the first in the world,-The Massachusetts Society for the Suppres- sion of Intemperance. Three Danvers men were of its members,-Hon. Samuel Holten, Rev. Dr. Wads- worth and Joseph Torrey, at least two of them lead- ers anywhere. And this accounts for the fact that so early, two years after the parent society, a temper. ance society was started here. It was called the Dan- vers Moral Society, and had for its officers a fine set of men who neither shrank from the work nor feared the opprobrium of an unpopular reform,-Dr. Holten, president; Rev. Messrs. Wadsworth and Walker, vice-presidents ; Drs. Torrey and Nichols, secretaries ; Fitch Pool, treasurer; Eleazer Putnam, Samnel Page, John Endicott, Sylvester Osborne, James Osborne, James Brown, William Sutton and Nathan Felton, counsellors. Deacon Samuel Preston gave in his old age some reminiscences of his early connection with the society, himself one of the early secretaries. The board of managers, he said, met once a month. "As cases one after another came up, to particular mem- bers of the board was assigned the duty of visiting and trying to persuade the fallen one to break off his habits and to lead a sober and useful life. This was followed until reform was effected or the case became hopeles», when his or her name was added to a list of

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

names which were to be handed to the selectmen of the town to be ' posted' as common drunkards, and the dealers in intoxicating drinks were forbidden to sell or give toany person whose name wasso ' posted.' Several lists of some eight or ten names were so made out and posted in public places. The process created so much bitter feeling that it was abandoned after some years of trial. The binding principle of the societies was not, in the beginning, total abstinence; other methods had to be tried before." The Moral Society at first went no farther than to declare against the daily use of ardent spirits. It took nineteen years of progress to strike out, in 1833, the word " daily."

The first indication of the new reform upon the records of the town is a vote passed at the annual meeting of 1818, thanking the selectmen (Nathan Felton. Jonathan Walcot, Sylvester Proctor, Daniel Putnam, Nathaniel Putnam), for the measures by them adopted "to prevent those given to intemper- ance in drinking, from wasting their health, time, and estates by the excessive use of ardent spirits; and that the present board be instructed to pursue the system commenced by their predecessors."

Nine years later, May 27, 1827, Caleb Oakes carried a motion for a committee of nine to enforce the laws and " to give notice to the selectmen of every licensed person known to violate the laws that their approba- tion of such person may hereafter be refused." This committee consisted of Caleb Oakes, Fitch Pool, Samuel Fowler, John Peabody, Samuel Preston, John W. Proctor, Elijah Upton, Nathan Poor and Samuel Taylor. It was in this year, 1827, that the first pub- lic address advocating total abstinence was delivered in Danvers. The speaker was a young physician, Ebenezer Hunt, who thus early took the advanced stand upon this question, which throughout the course of his well-rounded life he fearlessly took on other great questions which later agitated the country.

In 1830 the town were asked to take certain meas- ures "agreeable to a request of the Danvers Moral Society." The next year the overseers of the poor were instructed not to furnish liquors at the almshouse, except as recommended by the attending physician.

Two years later, and at a meeting held at the Brick Meeting-House in the north parish March 4, 1833, public sentiment had been so far affected that the first no-license vote was passed. John W. Proctor, a lineal descendant of the original settlers of that name, a young lawyer whose name must appear often and honorably in any chronicles of his native town, then wrote in lead-pencil certain resolutions which were offered to the meeting by a young man whose birth was contemporaneous with that of the century, and who to-day is still with us, despite his advanced age main- taining the active superintendence of the one of the most important departments of town affairs, of whom more may be learned in the biographical sketch which follows, Samuel P. Fowler. The resolutions were these :

" Voted that the following order be adopted :

" Whereas in consequence of the Change that has taken place in pub- lic Opinion in regard to the use of Spirituons liquors, it is very generally believed that the l'nldic convenience does not require licenses to be granted for the vending of Ardent Spirits.

"And whereas it is desirable to discountenance the use of Ardent Spirits in all reasonable and practicable ways, Therefore voted as the sense of the town that it is not expedient to license the Sale of Ardent Spirits within the town, and that the Selectmen be hereby instructed and requested to withhold their Approbation of such licenses."

Col. Jesse Putnam headed a petition for no-license next year, and Daniel P. King, Alfred Putnam, Ab- ner Sanger, Robert S. Daniels and Joshua H. Ward were appointed to correspond with other towns on the question. Women were in no ways backward in the temperance movement. At the annual town-meeting of 1836, this petition signed by about eight hundred of them was presented :

" To the Citizens of Danvers in Town Meeting assembled :-

" We, the undersigned, your Mothers, wives, sisters and daughters, ask your attention for one moment to the temperance cause, as it now exists in this community. We are aware that you are not unmindful of this cause, and that you have heretofore done much in support of it, and the present year have instructed your Selectmen not to approbate the sale of Ardent Spirits within the town. We are also aware that you were among the first publicly in town meeting to denounce the traffic in ardent Spirits and to proclaim its evils. All this is well, but still much remains to be done. Notwithstanding all your efforts, there are many still intemperate, and the means of gratifying their insatiable appetites are still at hand.

"Yes, and they who furnish these means go unpunished and disre- garded. Of what are laws or resolutions in word only ? Better by far to have no laws, than permit them to be violated with impunity. Have you not again and again resolved that the sale and the use of ardent spirits are destructive of the Peace and well-being of Society? Du you not all feel and see that this is true ? Then why permit it? We be- secchi you delay no longer. Banish the evil from among you. Beseech those who transgress, in kindness to desist. But if they will not, in kindness, compel them to do it. Never hesitate or falter in doing that you know to be right. We your friends, your own consciences, und the God of heaven, will sustain you in the path of duty. As you love us, as yon regard your own welfare, both here and hereafter, suffer not the evil of drunkenness to be any longer within your borders; and unite with us in prayer that our neighboring Citizens may share the same blessing."

At a special meeting held April 3, 1837, a commit- tee, in the nature of a temperance vigilance commit- tee, and the first of the sort, was appointed; it con- sisted of John Peabody, Rufus Wyman, Jesse Put- nam, John B. Peirce and Samuel P. Fowler. At this meeting a resolve was passed which reveals a state of things unremedied to this day and which might with greater pertinence than ethicacy be at any time re- enacted :

"WHEREAS, this town for several years past, while endeavoring to prevent the sale and use of intoxicating liquors within it, has found its efforts thwarted, and its citizens allured and enticed uway to their in- jury, by the Licensed shops and houses on its borders in the City of Salem. Therefore

" Resolred, That the Selectmen in behalf of the town be requested respectfully to beseech the Authorities of the City (if such dram shops shall still be thought necessary in the City) not to locate them imme- diately npon our Borders ; but to remove them as far off as possible."

There followed a period of inactivity for some seven years. Then, in 1844, more resolutions were passed, and another vigilance committee was appointed, on which with others previously mentioned were Joseph Osgood, Elias Putnam, William and Joseph S. Black,

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Samuel Tucker and Samuel Preston. Four years later and another committee, another in 1849, several in the fifties, and one, the last, as late as 1871, upon the earlier of which appear as leading temperance men of the day these additional names : Allen Knight, Israel Adams, Deacon Frederick Howe, William Walcott, Gilbert Tapley, Nathan Tapley, Wm. J. C. Kenney, Eben Putnam, Israel W. Andrews, Edward T. Wald- ron and Moses Black, Jr. In 1849 these rather unique votes were passed :

" That each minister, each Lawyor and cach Doctor he requested to deliver to the citizens of the Town, one Lecture at least, each, during the year, on the subject of Temperance and Gambling

" That the Town Clerk send a certified copy of the above vote to each of the gentlemen referred to and to publish it in the Denvers Courier.

"That the Gentlemen referred to have the liberty to make use of such ' language as they please on the evils of using tobacco."

About 1849, too, the subject of lotteries received the attention of condemnation, and committees were especially instructed to prosecute violations of the law.

Agreeable to the law of 1855, the selectmen ap- pointed as the first liquor agent of the town, Needham C. Millett. He was required to keep pure and un- adulterated liquors, for medicinal, chemical and me- chanical purposes only, at his place of business on Maple Street ; to sell for cash only at twenty-five per cent. net profit ; to make quarterly returns to the town treasurer ; and his compensation was one hundred dollars. His successors as liquor agents were : 1856- 57, Olive Emery, High Street; 1858-61, Hiram Pres- ton, Maple Street ; 1862-65, Levi Merrill, Maple Street ; 1866, Daniel Richards, corner High and Elm Streets ; 1867, A. Sumner Howard, Cherry Street ; 1869-72, Abram Patch, Jr., Maple Street.

From the stand taken so early, when the resolutions of 1833 were adopted, neither the old nor the present town of Danvers has ever receded. Once only, in 1883, the vote went in favor of license, four hundred and twenty-one to two hundred and eighty-three; but by a singular coincidence, the proceedings of this meeting were technically illegal, through the omission to use check lists in balloting for moderator, and on a subsequent trial the result was reversed by a close vote, four hundred in favor of license, four hundred and thirty-eight against. The first vote under the local option law of 1868 was a negative answer, one hun- dred and forty-nine to five, to the question "Shall li- censes be granted for the sale, to be drunk on the premises, of either distilled or fermented liquors ?" Late votes on the license question have been : 1884, 476 no, 275 yes; 1885, 391 no, 233 yes ; 1886, 384 no, 183 yes.

Not always, however, has the real state of the tem- perance question been in harmony with this showing. A dozen years ago the saloon element, for a time, suc- cessfully defied the law, and endeavored, by terroriz- ing prosecutors, to avoid prosecution. At least one extensive fire has been traced to such a source. But the people at length aroused to. meet the emergency,

and, under a police who deserve great credit for so well performing their duty, have brought back the town to a place essentially of law and order, where liquor-selling timidly skulks and drunkenness is not common.

Within recent years a number of temperance so- cieties have been organized. Apparently the oldest is the Catholic Total Abstinence Society, whose good work cannot easily be over-estimated. It was organ- ized November 19, 1871, and bought and fitted up its present building some four years later. Its hall was dedicated February 17, 1879. The Danvers Reform Club was organized, January 21, 1876 ; the Woman's® Christian Temperance Union of Danversport, January 17, 1876 ; a similar Union at the Plains, February 6, 1876.

FIRE DEPARTMENT. - The first action of the town regarding fire-engines was in the first year of this century. On the 25th of August, 1800, Robert Shilla- ber, Israel Putnam and Edward Southwick were chosen "to purchase two fire engines for the use of the town, whenever a sum of money shall be raised by subscription equal to one-half the cost of said en- gines, and deposited in the hands of the committee aforesaid for that purpose."

" Voted : Said engines sball be kept in repair at the expense of the town and one of them shall be placed near the bouse formerly called the Bell Tavern and the other on the neck of land near the new mills so called provided the inhabitants wbo may be likely to receive the most benefit therefrom will at their own expense erect suitable buildings to. receive them."

By a law of the Commonwealth, the selectmen of towns owning fire-engines were empowered to nomi- nate " engine-men." At the beginning of 1801, the' selectmen made these appointments:

" FOR ENGINE NO. 1.

" FOR ENGINE NO. 2.

Edward South wick.

Thomas Pntnanı.

NathI. Storrs.

Caleb Oakes.

Henry Cook.

Benj. Kent.

Joseph Buxton, Jr.

James Carr, Jr.

Danl. Reed, Jr.

Joseph Kent.

Isaac Frye.

Willebe Wells.

Caleb Osborn.

Nathl. Putnam.

Jona. Osborn.

Wm. Trask.

John Osborn.

James Gray.

Amos Osborn.

Currier True.

George Stone.

Saml. Pinder.

John Pierce.

Wm. Pinder.

Wm. Woods.

Saml. McIntire.

Wm. Reed.

Saml. Fairfiold.

David Osborn.

Joshua Goodale.

Samnl. Osborn, Jr."

James Carr."

The names of Edward Southwick, William and Daniel Reed, Jr., Caleb Osborne, George Stone, John Pierce and Samuel McIntire were subsequently, for some reason, erased.

Officers known as "fire-wards" were first chosen' at the annual meeting of 1801. The persons then chosen were Ebenezer Sprague, Samuel Page, Edward Southwick, Ebenezer Shillaber, Simon Pindar and Israel Hutchinson, Jr. Ten years later Page and : Southwick were both on the board, and with them

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Samuel Fowler, Jr., Gideon Foster, Joseph and Syl- vester Osborne and Benj. Crowninshield.

Some records of the meetings of No. 2, about this time, have been preserved. At Nathaniel Putnam's store certain preparations were made one day in Feb- ruary, 1808, which show that charity went hand in hand with festivity.

Voted, That the company have a supper to-morrow oight, as per vote the last meeting.

Voted, The committee be anthorized to invite the minister and school- master to sup with us in free cost, and that they invite the fire ward in said district to sup with us in club.

Voted, That the remaining part of the fines that may be had after paying for said supper, &c., be given to the most needy persous iu said district.

Voted, That there be a committee to distribute the same and inform them what fund it came froul.

Voted, That this committee cousist of Mr. Caleb Oakes, Mr. Israel Eu- dicott aud Mr. Wm. Trask.

Voted, That the clerk pay over to the committee last choseu tbe hal- ance that may be in his hands after settling for the snpper.

Voted, That the connuittee make a return of their deings at the ad- journment.

At the adjournment the report was accepted and the committee duly thanked. They received from the clerk thirty dollars for distribution, and fourteen per- sons received from one to four dollars each.

In 1810 the " Columbian Fire Club " is first men- tioned in the town records. The club petitioned for an additional number of buckets to be placed under it s care. Three good men and true considered the subject,-Jona. Ingersoll, Jas. Foster and Samuel Page; but whether the club secured the buckets or not is a question of distressing uncertainty. A sur- vivor of this club relates that each member was re- quired to keep a fire-bucket, a bed-key and a canvas bag, hanging ready for use in the front entry.

In 1815 there were ten fire-wards,-Sylvester Os- borne, Benj. Crowninshield, Caleb Oakes, Thomas Putnam, Joseph G. Sprague, James Brown, Moses Black, John Upton, Jr., Samuel Fowler and Ward Pool. In that year the New Mills engine was thus manned :

Thomas Cheever.

Jacob Jones.

Wm. Francis.

Samuel Pindar.

Ebeazr. Jacobs.

Daniel Brady.

Alleu Gonld.

Benj. Cbaplin.

John W. Osgood. Saml. W. Treaky. Andrew Gould.

Thes. Symonds.

Nathaniel Putoam.

Joua. Mclatire.

Appropriations, by direct vote, for the fire depart- ment were few and far between in the early years of its existence. In 1837 the selectmen were authorized " to furnish the new mill engine company with fire Buckets, as they think proper, provided they do not find those they lost at the late fire" and the only other recorded appropriation for the first twenty years was on a vote in 1819, authorizing the repair of the hook-and-ladders belonging to the town, and the purchase of as many new hooks, ladders, pikes, not to exceed fifteen, as the fire-wards should think proper.

In 1821 Oliver Saunders and others petitioned for

a new engine. The first thing was to inquire into the status and condition of the old engines. It was evidently an important matter. Notice the number and character of the committee of inspection : Eben- ezer Shillaber, Andrew Nichols, Nathl. Putnam, John Upton, Jr., John Page, Sylvester Osborne, Caleb Oakes, John W. Proctor, Danl Putnam, Warren Porter and Samuel Fowler. But the committee was considered still lacking somewhat in weight and five more were added,-Briggs R. Reed, Oliver Saunders, Eben Putnam, Jr., Joseph Spaulding and Allen Gould. All these were appointed by the moderator, yet " the inhabitants " were not quite satisfied. They voted " to add two more to the above Committee, the Town to have the liberty of nominating them, and Edward Southwick and Nathaniel Watson were added." Verily, if the old engines were not thor- oughly overhauled, it was not the fault of the town- meeting. Subsequently it was voted to procure two new engines and repair the old ones, provided half the cost of the new ones be raised by subscription. Squires Shove, Caleb Oakes, Nathaniel Putnam, Ebenezer Shillaber and Wm. Sutton, were delegated to pass around the hat.

In 1826 two sets of sail cloths were provided at an expense of one hundred and fifty dollars, one set to be located near the south meeting-house, the other at New Mills. The men who ran with the machine this latter year at New Mills were

Joha Ross.

James Smith.

Josiah Gray.

Jobo Bates.

James Smith. John Kent.

John Burus. Andrew Porter.

Hiram Perley.

Moses Wood.

Frederick A. Tufts.

Daniel Woodman.

John T. May. Frankliu Batchelder.

James Haynes,

Daniel Caldwell.

Richard Elliot, Jr.

David S. Barnard.

James Perry.

Jesse P. Harriman.

John Herrick.

Daniel Hartwell.

Benjamin Kent, Jr.

In 1830 another engine was purchased for the south parish ; the same year an act of the Legislature was passed "to establish a Fire Department in Danvers." The act provided for the choice of twelve fire-wards ; changed the power of appointment of engine-men from the selectmen to the fire-wards; limited the number of engine-men to forty "for each hydrau- lion or suction-engine, twenty-five to each common engine, four to each hose-carriage, twenty to each sail-carriage and twenty for a hook-and-ladder com- pany ;" authorized the engine-men to organize them- selves into distinct companies under the direction of the fire-wards ; and made the fire-wards custodians of all fire-apparatus. The first board chosen under this act consisted of R. H. French, Lewis Allen, Ca- leb Low, Richard Osborne, S. P. Fowler, Moses Black, Caleb L. Frost, Benjamin Wheeler, Henry Cook, Edward Upton, Enoch Poor and Jacob F. Perry.

In 1835 the New Mills people petitioned for a new

Hercules H. Joselyn (gone to eea).

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DANVERS.

engine-house, and secured it. The same year " John- ny " Perley, the storekeeper at the little village which was springing up at Porter's Plains, petitioned for a fire-engine, to be located near Berry's tavern, and the next year Philip Osborn and others wanted a new engine-house at the "Pine Tree Corner " (Wilson's Corner), and secured an appropriation of three hun- dred dollars for that purpose.

Mr. Perley's petition not having met with success, another store-keeper, Daniel Richards, headed a peti- tion in April, 1836, " for a good and sufficient fire- engine to be located at the Plains, and to provide a convenient building for the same." The fire-wards at this meeting presented a report which, doubtless, influenced favorable action,-" The engine Niagara, No. 1, is not suitable or fit to work with the Salem engines, they being suction . ; the Forrest, No. 3, is in good order and well manned ; the Erie, No. 2, is in a bad condition and not man'd, wants repairing and altering ; the , No. 4, a good, new engine, is wanted at the Plains, with hose and a house for the same." A vote was passed to raise two thousand three hundred dollars for the purpose of purchasing two new engines, one to replace the old "Niagara," the other for the Plains, and for hose, etc., and the repairing of the "Erie." Richard Hood's bill "for finishing the engine-house at the neck " in 1836 was $102.85.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 142

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