History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 144

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 144

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1. Hymn, written for the occasion by Andrew Nichols, M.D. II. Introductory Prayer by Rev. S C. Bulkley. III. Hymn, written for the occasion by Rev. James Flint, D.D. IV. Address by Rev. John Brazer, D.D. V. Hymn, written for the occasion hy G. Forrester Bar- stow, M.D. VI. Concluding Prayer by Rev. J. W. Eaton. VII. Part- ing Hymn. VIII. Benediction by Rev. T. F. Field.

The services were held in the grove, and were at- tended by not less than two thousand persons. . The address of Dr. Frazer was said to have been a very appropriate and beautiful discourse, and that it made a deep impression on the many hearers. It remained unpublished for nearly forty years, when, through the efforts of Dr. A. P. Putnam, the original manu- script was traced to the possession of Mrs. Annie W. Ellis, of Dorchester, who kindly furnished him a copy, which was published in full in the Danvers Mirror, December 31, 1881.

April 13, 1885, the corporation was empowered by the Legislature to hold property in trust for the im- provement of lots, etc.

Up to quite recent times the town so far cared for the burial of its deceased citizens as to own and pro- vide hearses. They are first mentioned in 1818, when this action was taken :

" Voted : to choose a committee of five persons to consider on the clause respecting procuring herses to make an estimate of the cost of one or more and to make report at the adjournment.

" Voted : that Sylvester Osborne, Doctor George Osgood, Jesse Putnam, Caleb Oakes and Sylvester Proctor be of said committee.

" Voted: that there be two herses and two honses for the same pro- vided within in this Town."

In 1842 Moses Black and thirty-five others peti- tioned "for a Hearse and Hearse-house near the Burying Ground on the Plains, near the house of Joseph Danforth." The petition was referred to the selectmen, with instructions to cause the things prayed for "to be placed in such a location as will best ac- commodate those who have occasion to use them."

In 1854 similar accommodations were asked for, to be located near Mr. Braman's church. A house was there erected, and remained until 1871, when the selectmen were instructed to sell it. In the appraisal, at the division of the town, these items were charged to North Danvers : house at cemetery, 10 by 15, $45 ; house at Braman's 12 by 18, $120; two hearses, new, $440; one old, $20.

THE ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT .- A few slaves were owned in Danvers before slavery was abolished in the State. At the time of separation from Salem there were twenty-five such chattels, sixteen of whom were women. A number of documents such as the following have been preserved :

" DANVERS, April 19th, 1766.

" Rec'd of Mr. Jeremiah Page Fifty Eight pound thirteen shillings and four pence lawful money and a negro woman called Dinah which is in full for a Negro girl called Combo and a Negro girl called Cate and a Negro child called Deliverance or Dill which I now Sell and Deliver to ye sald Jeremiah Page.

" Witness. JONA, BANCROFT. " JOHN TAPLEY.

EZEK MARSH."

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

A story has been told that Cudjo, owned by a neigh- bor of General Israel Putnam, was of fierce and re- vengeful temper, and having suffered some real or fancied injury at the hands of his mistress, threatened her life. To get rid of him his master sent him on a play-day trip to deliver a load of potatoes on some vessel at Salem. He took his fiddle and played to the sailors, went below to "rosin his bow," and when he reached deck again was far out at sea, consigned to the same southern market as his potatoes.

During the struggle on the admission of Missouri, Danvers addressed to Nathaniel Sillsbee, representa- tive of the district in Congress, a very forcible letter on the subject of slavery, signed by Edward South- wick, William Sutton, Thomas Putnam, Andrew Nichols and John W. Proctor, committee.

The history of Abolitionism is, to a great extent, the biography of William Lloyd Garrison, a native of this county of Essex. For some ten years after the conflict over the admission of Missouri, a sort of lethargy prevailed over the country in regard to slav- ery. On the 4th of July, 1829, Garrison, then not quite twenty-five, delivered an address which excited much attention from its bold and vigorous assault on the peculiar institution of the South. That fall, as joint editor of the Genius of Universal Emancipation with Quaker Benjamin Lundy, of Baltimore, he is- sued over his initials his distinct avowal of the doc- trine of immediate emancipation. He at the same time attacked the colonization societies, and was soon thrown into jail, convicted of libel for charac- terizing as " domestic piracy " the transportation of a cargo of slaves from Baltimore to Louisiana in a ship owned in Newburyport. Coming North, he lectured in the principal cities, finding all halls in Boston closed against him save that offered by a society of infidels. But to his mind Boston was the best centre from which to arouse the public sentiment of the North to a revolution in favor of emancipation. He issued the first number of the Liberator on the first day of the year 1831. "I am in earnest ; I will not equivocate; I will not excuse; I will not retreat a single inch, and. I will be heard." He was heard. In December the Georgia Legislature offered five thousand dollars for his arrest and conviction under the laws of that State. January 1, 1832, he and eleven others organized the New England (afterward Massachusetts) Anti-Slavery Society, the first based on the principle of immediate emancipation. He continued to be heard to such effect that in October, 1835, to save his life from a mob who were dragging him through the streets of Boston, the mayor jailed him as a disturber of the peace. On the other hand, his burning words kindled here and there sympa- thetic hearts, and probably there were few earlier and certainly no more ardent and enthusiastic sup- porters of Garrison and his doctrines than a number of young men of Danvers, chiefly residents of New Mills, and the leading spirits of these young men-

James D. Black, Joseph Merrill, Jesse P. Harriman, William Endicott, Richard Hood, John Hood and Jolın Cutler-came to be called " the Seven Stars."

Of these, Black and Harriman are the only sur- vivors at the time of this writing. Mr. Black, now of Harvard, Mass., was a member of that family of Moses Black, already spoken of as having filled prom- inent and honorable parts in our town life. When not more than twenty years old he took an advanced position in favor of immediate and unconditional emancipation as the only adequate remedy for the evil of slavery. The occasion was at a meeting of a Lyceum, the first established at New Mills, in 1833, and he made such an impression that he was invited to deliver a fuller address on the same subject on the 4th of July of that year, in the Baptist Church. With the exception of a lecture by the distinguished Oliver Johnson in Mr. Braman's church some time in 1832, the words of this young man, uttered in the face of such circumstances as only the courage of strong convictions would have led him to oppose, seem to have been the first public utterance of such radical and unpopular views in Danvers. To the position thus early taken he remained constant, fore- most with his tongue and pen in the hot times which were to follow. Others, who were quick to ally them- selves with the Abolitionists, were Hathorne Porter, Alfred R. Porter, William Francis, Dr. Eben Hunt, Rev. S. Brimblecom, Job Tyler, Hercules Jocelyn and a number of ladies. The cause grew by continual agitation. Local societies were formed, the Liberator and Herald of Freedom went into the shops and the homes. Eloquent and dauntless speakers spoke wher- ever they could get a hcaring, and the seed thoughts grew by earnest talks over the anvil and cobble-stone or by the formal debate of the Lyceum. Among the earlier orators at New Mills was the Rev. C. P. Gros- venor of Salem, in whose parlor was organized the Essex County Anti-Slavery Society. George Thomp- son, of England, spoke in the Baptist Church in 1835, after a fruitless attempt had been made to procure a church or hall in Salem. The earliest organized so- ciety in Danvers was among the women, chiefly of the South Parish, in 1837. Very soon the men at the North Parish, chiefly of New Mills, formed the Dan- vers Anti-Slavery Society, and this society celebrated the 4th of July, 1838. Alfred Porter wrote a hymn for the occasion ; Rev. S. Brimblecom was the ora- tor. A "Young Men's" Society was organized in August following, at the Universalist Church. Jo- seph Merrill, Thomas Bowen and John R. Langley drafted the constitution. Rev. Samuel Brimblecom was the first president.

The meetings were commonly held in the brick school-house, or in the engine-house at New Mills. Dr. Putnam, who has devoted much attention to ' gathering up the details of this chapter of local his- . tory, has well said, of the records of these early meet- ' ings, that they " all attest how these younger citizens

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of the town were in the habit of debating and form- ing opinions in relation to matters of great public interest. Their organization opened to them a school of no little importance, where they learned many valuable lessons, and became fully imbued with the sentiments and principles of Liberty. So it was that the New Mills became in due time a well-known cen- tre of Abolitionism. Thence the influence spread through the town and beyond its limits." Early in 1839 a change was made in the name: " This society shall be called the North Danvers Anti-Slavery So- ciety and shall be auxilliary to the Massachusetts State Society." These are the names of the members at this time : William Endicott, Thomas Bowen, Jo- seph Merrill, William Alley, J. R. Langley, Samuel Brimblecom, Jonathan Richardson, J. F. McIntire, M. Black, Jr., Elias Savage, J. D. Andrews, J. M. Usher, C. P. Page, Herenles Jocelyn, J. D. Black, John Hines, Hawthorne Porter, Richard Hood, Jesse P. Harriman, Wm. Francis, Oliver O. Waitt, James Kelley, Archibald P. Black, John Hood, John Cut- ler, Winthrop Andrews, George Kate, Eben Hunt, Joseph W. Legro, Benjamin Potter, I. K. McIntire, Job Tyler, Daniel Woodbury, Henry A. Potter, Jo- siah Ross, A. R. Porter (withdrew), Edward Stimp- son, Jonathan Eveleth, Charles Benjamin, S. P. Fow- ler, O. O. Brown, A. A. Leavitt, William Needham, E. G. Little, J. R. Patten, Ira H. Clough, Abner Mead and Joseph Porter.

Of these men and others, if any, like them, N. P. Rogers at a later time wrote in his Herald of Freedom, "The people of New Mills are mostly working peo- ple, and therefore favorable material for the abolition movement. They embrace it readily and it has done everything for them in the way of mental improve- ment and moral strength. Young men bred to labor and unbred to learning have risen up by intimacy with the Anti-Slavery enterprise to an astonishing degree of mental power and eloquence." From time to time delegates were sent to the State Society, often traveling in the only way they could afford, on foot. On Thanksgiving Day, 1839, the name was again changed to the Danvers New Mills Society. It was the custom of the members to express their feelings in resolutions, a long series of which, more or less spirited, have been preserved. A sample, selected for its brevity, is this :

" Resolved, that it is inconsistent and unbecoming in us as Abolition- ists to celebrate the Fourth of July as the Birthday of a free country while nearly three millions of our countrymen are held in most abject slavery.11

In a hasty review it is necessary to take long strides. It was not for some ten years after Garrison began his crusade that the excitement of the times reached its extreme in Danvers, in the collision with the churches. In the meantime, the young men here more than kept pace with the forward movement of the Abolitionists. They talked, wrote, agitated. The files of abolition papers abound in letters from Endicott, J. D. Black, 32₺

the two Hoods, Harriman and others, sharp and caus- tic, abounding in flings at the churches, enlivened now and then by a controversy with some minister. Gar- rison himself came, February 16, 1841. Of the meet- ing he wrote in the Liberator :

" It was our privilege to lecture in Danvers, New Mills, on Sabbath evening last, to a densely crowded audience in the Universalist Meeting House-a honee to the praise of its proprietors be it told-that hae never heeu shut against the advocacy of the anti-slavery cause, not even in the troublous times of mobocracy in the Commonwealth."

Other speakers, especially Foster and Pillsbury, showed no such courtesy to the churches, and, indeed, about this time the trouble, which had long been brewing, culminated. The old First Church, Dr. Braman's, did not escape condemnation, but was ont- side the storm-line. On the Universalist and Baptist churches the storm broke. At first both of these churches opened their houses freely to the anti-slavery meetings, but the speakers so often immediately turned to the open and violent denunciation of the churches themselves, that considerations of self-res- pect and self protection forced themselves upon the churches. After sundry experiences of this kind the committee having charge of the Universalist Church called a meeting of the Society for instructions, and a committee was appointed to consider and report upon whether the further use of the church should be al- lowed. Through the chairman, Elias Putnam, this committee reviewed the state of things and concluded : " We think this Society should pursue a liberal policy in granting the use of their house for moral and reli- gious purposes, but to say that we should give up the house to every one who would please to occupy it, would be in effect to surrender our claim to the house and would leave the Society without the use of the honse for any specific purpose," and a resolve was re- commended and adopted, allowing the use of the church "on all suitable occasions for the promotion of religion and morality, and that the committee should refuse the house when they have reason to be- lieve that it will not be used for the promotion of these objects." This majority report was accepted, and in a few instances the standing committee refused appli- cations for the church. The sentiments of the more radical reformers were expressed in a minority report by Dr. Hunt. Upon premises of the great liberality of Universalism, and the doctrine it has always taught that truth has nothing to fear in conflict with error, he said that "any action of the Society in closing their meeting-house against the discussion of any question deemed by any one of sufficient importance to gain the attention of the public, and not incom- patible with sound morality, would be a gross depart- ure from those principles by which we as a denomi- nation professed to be governed, anti-Republican and anti-Christian."

About the middle of June, 1841, the anti-slavery society passed a resolve "that it is the duty of the Baptist and Universalist Societies to open their meet-

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

ing-houses for the sacred purpose of pleading the cause of our brethren and sisters in bonds on all proper occasions free of expense to the Anti-Slavery Society as such," and talk began to be common about the duty of anti-slavery Christians to withdraw from or come out of the churches to which they belonged. Richard Hood had asked for and received letters of dismissal and recommendation from the Baptist Church to a church of the same denomination in Wenham, but a private letter prevented his admission to the Wenham Church. Mr. Hood turned upon the home church in vigorous rebuke for its unfaithfulness to the slave, and quoting the text, " Come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you," asked that his name be erased from the church record. Mr. Hood was only one of many who, by similar ac- tion, received and were donbtless proud of the name of "Come-outers." At a special meeting of the Anti-Slavery Society August 19, 1841, it was “Re- solved that nothing should be allowed to hinder the progress of Abolitionists in their work of deliver- ance to the slave. If they find themselves attached to a pro-slavery political party or a pro-slavery relig- ious church they should come out from them imme- diately or we cannot consider them in any other light than loving party and sect more than they love the slave." A week later, Parker Pillsbury in the chair, the church was characterized as "the stronghold of slavery." No wonder that feeling between man and man at New Mills was wrought to a very high pitch. No wonder that conservatives retaliated by calling the disturbers fanatics, "Gab-olitionists," "Long- heels," "the school-honse gang" and other epithets even less expressive of endearment. So matters went through the following winter and spring, and if in- terest had iu any respect flagged, a two days' conven- tion of the Essex County Anti-Slavery Society, held at New Mills in the latter part of June, 1842, rekin- dled the fires to fiercer flames. Wendell Phillips was there, and Rogers, Foster, Pillsbury, Thomas P. Beach and others from abroad. There was no lack of material for rousing meetings. The third Sunday after the convention Rev. Mr. Mansfield, a Baptist " supply," had closed the long prayer, and was pro- ceeding with the service when a man, who was recog- nized as Beach, one of the convention speakers, rose from his place in the congregation and began an an- ti-slavery appeal. He was temporarily choked off by a hymn, but when the music ceased he was at it again. Major Black and Captain Caldwell with righteous indignation descended upon the intruder and dragged him out of the house. Beach was ac- customed to this sort of thing, was non-resistant, limp as a wet rag, and while the guardians of the churches were struggling to carry his dead weight, he quoted to them texts, "Love your enemies," "If a man smite thee, etc." Worship was broken off. The congregation, or most of them, were thoroughly mad.

The minister called for a sheriff, and certain ones jumped out of a window to run to the Universalist Church for an officer. Something was said about ducking Beach in the horse-trough near by, but the plug was pulled out and no such attempt was made. Service was resumed, but in came Beach at a side door and again interrupted : "Come down from the pulpit, and not stand there like a whited sepnlchre." In his own subsequent account, "the committee-man took a vote of the meeting and they decided I should not stay in the house. Whereupon they rushed upon me like tigers and landed me in the street." After church an officer went to arrest Beach at the house of Jesse P. Harrimau. Beach assumed his putty state. The officer was nnable to handle his weight alone, and commanded his host to keep him. Harri- man, an ardent come-onter, refused in the name of God. Dr. Hunt was commanded to assist, and in terse English gruffly declined to obey. Somehow, with the help of prominent Universalists, Beach was put into Salem jail, but back he was at a meeting in the Universalist Church at five o'clock, speaking to a large audience, at which, he wrote, " the Spirit of God was present, and several were convinced of the truth and openly confessed Christ by identifying themselves with the despised and hated Abolitionists.". Dr. Hunt was fined a hundred dollars for refusing to assist the officer, and Harriman went to jail for the same offence. Later William Black renewed the complaint, which had been withdrawn, against Beach and nnited with the Quakers of Lynn in keeping him for some time iu the jail at Newburyport, to the freely expressed indignation of his friends.

In September, 1842, Richard Hood was another guest from Danvers in Salem jail. His offence was attempting to speak on anti-slavery at a Friday even- ing prayer-meeting in Ameshury, against the orders of the minister to desist.

It was through such times as these that the people finally emerged to a calmer consideration of the great principles which soon organized the advocates of universal freedom into a great political party. The New Mills Society disbanded about 1844. Much bit- terness and personal feeling could not fail of being engendered by the events of which only the merest outline has been given, but these men were but the skirmishers preceding the awful, inevitable conflict, in which differences were merged in loyalty, and Liberty, nnthroned, was re-crowned with the blood of heroes.

Out of this agitation came the beginnings of a great political party, the principle of which was opposition to slavery. These beginnings were very small and the men who first stepped out of the old parties braved not a little unpopularity and opprobrium. The names of some forty Danvers men who voted with the "Liberty Party " in 1840, the first year of its ex- istence, have been recalled. They are Frederick Howe, Jesse Putnam, J. A. Learoyd, Jonathan Perry,

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Peter Cross, Elias Savage, Peter Wait, Samuel Wait, Samuel Harris, Jr., Warren Sheldon, Elijah Hutch- inson, Otis Mudge, Kimball Hutchinson, Nathan Tap- ley, Allen Knight, Henry Dwinell, Joseph Danforth, Eben Hunt, Winthrop Andrews, Joseph Verry, Jr., Benjamin Hutchinson, Charles Page, Samuel Brown, Edward Waldron, Amos Brown, Abel Nichols. Of these, Dr. Hunt was perhaps the most active. From interesting reminiscences furnished the writer by James D. Black these extracts are made: "The Free Soil party was not organized until some years subse- quent to the earlier struggles of the Abolitionists. We used to vote at the State elections scattering votes

for Garrison for Governor, &c. At that time a ma- jority of votes were required to elect, and our scatter- ing votes counted against the regular tickets and made politicians mad, and many times as I approached the ballot-box the epithet, " Long heel " would be hurled at me. After the Free-Soil party got a foot- hold the dominant party, the Whigs, were put to their wits ends to retain control of elections."

It was the campaign of 1848, which consolidated the anti-slavery elements. Throughout the summer and fall of that year politics waxed hot. On the 4th of July a social gathering of the Friends of Liberty in Essex County was held in a beautiful grove in the northern part of the town. The convention was at- tended by from fifteen to twenty thousand persons during the day. Addresses were made by Rev. W. B. Dodge, of Illinois, by clergymen from Salem, Lynn and Boston, Dr. Hunt and Dr. Nichols repre- senting home talent. The Kimball family, of Wo- burn, sang a number of liberty songs, and a glee club and choir of singers from North Danvers, "by their sweet music added greatly to the enjoyment of the people." Letters were read from Hon. S. C. Phillips and the Hon. D. P. King, breathing the spirit of lib- erty, and Dr. Nichols' muse was inspired by the occa- sion.

The voters in District No. 13 who were dissatisfied with the nominations of both the Whig and the Dem- ocratic Parties, and were in sympathy with the Con- vention of Freemen held at Buffalo in August, 1848, at which the Free-Soil Party had its birth, immedi- ately held weekly meetings for free and candid dis- cussion of the candidates and principles of that con- vention. Early in September they formed a Free- Soil Club, and upwards of eighty out of the hundred and fifty voters of the district signed a

CONSTITUTION OF THE NORTH DANVERS FREE-SOIL CLUB,

with this Preamble : ' We, the undersigned, bebelding with feelings of deep regret, the disposition of the slave power of this Union, to sub- vert the spirit of our Government by extending American Slavery over territory now free, and the determination to control the policy and interests of our country, and seeing, as we have seen, that spirit of truckling to the slave power, on the part of the two great parties of our country-the Whigs and the Democratic-as shown by their past acts, but more recently and more clearly in their chosen leaders, we feel called upon as Patriots, as lovers of Freedom, if we would be tree to our own interests and the interest of our Dation to renounce both these parties ; and

" WHEREAS, We beheld in the Buffalo Platform, principles to which every friend of free institutions should subscribe, and candidates wer- thy our support, we de therefore endorse these principles, and that we may act with greater efficiency in the election of the candidates do forin ourselves into an organization to be called the Free-Soil Club, and to be governed by the following constitution."

Under the articles which follow, these officers of the club were choseu : President, Elias Putnam ; Vice-Presidents, Nathan Tapley, John Hood, Augus- tus Mudge, I. W. Andrews; Corresponding Secretary, Daniel Foster ; Recording Secretary, Jeremiah Chap- man ; Executive Committee, William Dodge, Jolin R. Langley, Allen Knight, Otis Mudge and William J. C. Kenney.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 144

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