History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 15

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 15

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

At the middle of the last century a New York mer- chant, supercargo on board the ship "Tartar Galley," from New York for London, was disabled when a few days out, and put in to Boston for repairs. While detained there he seems to have moved among what he terms the "best Fashion in Boston." I make room for a passage from his Journal.

" October 19th, 1750. While at breakfast Mr. Nathaniel Cunningham waited on me at Capt. Wendell's, agreeable to promise & furnished me with a horse to go to Salem, being very desirous to see the country. Sett out about 10 o'clock. * * * Cross'd Charles Towne Ferry. * * * About 2 miles from thence we crosst Penny Ferry which is better than 1/2 mile over. Being the neighest way to Salem. From this to Mr. Ward's is abont 8 miles, and is about a mile this side of Lyn which is a small Country Towne of ab't 200 Houses very pleasantly sit- uated, & affords a Beantifull Rural Prospect ; we came to Mr. Ward's about one o'clock and dynd on fryd Codd. From this place is about 7 miles to Salem. After dioner having refreshed ourselves with a glass of wine sett out on our journey through a barren rocky country which af- forded ns not the least prospect of anything but a desart country, abound. ing with Loffty Ragged Rocks a fine Pastering Ground only for their Sheep, the Rhoads are exceeding stony and the country but thinly peopled.

"October 19th. Arrived at Salem ab't 3 a Clock put up our Horses at the Wid'o Prats from whence went to See Coll. William Browne where drank Tea with his Spouse, after which Mr. Browne was so Good as to Accomodate us with a Walk round the Towne, Showing us the wharfs warehouses &c. ; went up in the Steeple of the Church, from whence hud a Fine View of the Town, Harbour, &c., which is Beautifully Sit- unted From which have a View of Mr. Brownes Country Seat which is Situated on a Heigh Ifill ab't 6 Miles Eastward of Salem. Spent the Evening nt his House where Joynd in Company by Parson Appleton, Miss Hetty his daughter from Cambridge, they Being Acquaiatence of Mr. and Mrs. Browne, we Supd togeather and after that where Very merry, at Whist, &c.

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" Oct. 20th. Lodg'd nt Mr. Brownes; after Breakfast Saunterd rouod the Towne mayking Our Observations on the Build's &c. Dynd at his House, after Dinner had n Good Deal Conversation with him upon Vari- ous Subjects, he being a Gent'n of Excellent Parts well Adversed in Leaturate a Good Scholar a Great Vertuosa und Lover of the Liberal Arts nod Sciences haveing an Extraordinary Library of Books of the Best Ancient and Modern Autbors. about 3 a Clock we Sett out in his Coach for his Country Seat rideing trough a Pleasant Country and fine Rhonds. we nrived there at 4 a Clock the Situation is very Airy Being upon a Heigh Hill which Over Looks the Country all Round and affords a Pleasant Rural Prospect of a Fine Country with fine woods and Lawns with Brooks water running trough them, you have also a prospect of the Sea on one Part au On another A Mountain 80 Miles distant The House is Built in the Form of a Long Square, with Wings nt Each End and is about 80 Foot Long, in the middle is n Grand Hall Surrounded ahove hy a Fine Gallery with Neat turned Bannester and the Cealing of the Hall Representing a Large doom Designed for an Assembly or Ball Room, the Gallery for the Musitians &c. the Building has Four Doors Fronting the N. E. S. & W. Standing in the middle the Great Hall you have a Full View of the Country from the Four Dores, at the Ends of the Buildings is 2 upper and 2 Lower Rooms with neat Stair Cases Leading to them, in One the Lower Rooms is his Library and Studdy well Stockd with a Noble Colectiou of Books, the others are all unfurnish'd as yet Nor is the Building yet Compleat, wants a Considerable workman Ship to Com- pleat it, so as the Design is. But Since the Loss of his first wife who was Governour Burnetts Danghter of New Yerk by whome he has yet 2 Little Daughters Liveiog, the Loss of her he took much to heart as he was doateingly fond of her Being a Charming Ladie when married, But he is now determiad to Compleat it. we drank a Glass wine haveiog Feasted our Eyes with the Prospect of the Country, Returned to his House where Snp'd and Past the Evening Vastly Agreeable being a Very merry Facitious Gentlemen, went to hed Intend'g to Proceed to Marble head Next Morning.

" Oct. 21st. Haveing Got our Horses ready, after Breakfast took our Leave's of Mr. Browne and Spouse. Before proceed shall Give a Small Discription of Salem. Its a Small Sea Port Towne. Consists of ab't 450 Honses, Several of which are neat Buildings, but all of wood, and Covers a Great Deal of Ground, being at a Conveniant Distance from Each Other, with fine Gardens back their Houses, the Town is Situated oo a Neck of Land Navagable on either Side, is &b't 212 Miles in Lenght Including the build'gs Back the Towne, has a main Street runs directly trough, One Curch, 3 Presbiterian and one Quakers Meeting, the Situation is Very Pretty, &c. The Trade Cousists Chiefly in the Cod Fishery, they have ab't 60 or 70 Sail Schooners Employd in that Branch. Saw ab't 40 Sail in the Harb'r hav'g then ah't 40 at Sea. They Cure all their Own Cod for Markett ; Saw there a Vast Number Flakes Cureing ; in the Harbour Lay also two Topsail Vessells and three Sloops. on Ex- am'g into the Fishery find it a very adventag's Branch."

The travellers then ride to Marblehead "trough a pleasant country and good Roades"-spend an hour there at breakfast with Mr. Read-see the town, of which they formed no very flattering impression, and push on to their friend Mr. Ward's, at Lynn. " Dyned upon a fine mongrel goose"-proceeded on their journey "through Mystic, and came to Mr. Wendell's in Boston, ab't 8 o'clock."

I find passages illustrative of the times in the diary of John Adams, written when the author was "riding the circuit" in the practice of the law, at the age of thirty, and residing in Braintree.

" 1766, Nor. 3d, Monday. Sett off with my wife for Salem, Stopped half an hour at Boston. Crossed the Ferry ; at three o'clock arrived at Hill's, the tavern in Malden, the sign of the Rising Eagle * * * where we dined. Here we fell in company with Kent and Sewall. We all oated at Martin's where we found the new Sheriff of Essex, Colonel Sal- tonstall. We all rode into town together. Arrived at my dear brother Cranch's, ahont eight, and drauk tea and are all very happy. Sat and beard the ladies talk abont ribbon, catgut, and Paris net, riding-hoods, cloth, silk, and lace. Brother Crauch came home and a very happy evening we had. Craoch is now in a good situation for business, near the Court House and Mr. Barnard's meeting-house and on the road to

Marblehead : his house frontiog the wharves, the harbor and shipping, has n fine prospect before it.

"4. Tuesday. A fine morning : attended court all day. * Prayer by Mr. Barnard, Deacon Pickering was foreman of one of the juries * * his appearance is perfectly plain, like a farmier. * * *

"5. Wednesday. Attended Court ; heard the trial of an action of tres- pass, brought by a mulatto woman for damages for restraining her of her liberty. * * * Spent the evening at Mr. Pynchon's with Farnham, Sewall, Sargent, Colonel Saltonstall, etc., very agreably. Puuch, wine, bread and cheese, apples, pipes and tobacco. Popes and bonfires this evening at Salem, and a swarm-of tumultuous people attending them.

"6. Thursday. A fine morning. Oated at Martin's, where we saw five boxes of dollars, containing, as we were told, about eighteen thousand of them, going in a horse-cart from Salem Custom House to Boston, in order to be shipped for England. A guard of armed men, with swords, hangers, pistols and muskets, attended it. We dined at Dr. Tuft's in Medford. * * * Draok tea at Mrs. Kueeland's,-got home before eight o'clock."

On a previous visit to his brother Cranch in August, he rode after tea to Neck Gate, then back through the common, down to Beverly Ferry and about town. "Scarce an eminence," he says, "can be found any- where to take a view. The streets are broad and straight and pretty clean. The houses are the most elegant and grand that I have seen in any of the maritime towns."

On Friday, June 29th, 1770, he set out on another "journey to Falmouth in Casco Bay." Dined at Goodhue's in Salem. Fell in with a London merchant, a stranger, who "made a genteel appearance,"-was in a chair, himself with a negro servant; talked of American affairs; thought the colonists "could not conqner their luxury," and this would make them de- pendent on Great Britain. "Oated my horse and drank balm tea at Treadwell's in Ipswich." Tread- well's was a favorite resort with him. On a visit there ten days before, he says, -- " Rambled with Kent round Landlord Treadwell's pastures to see how our horses fared. We found them in the grass up to their eyes ; excellent pastures. This hill, on which stand the Meeting-house and Court House, is a fine elevation, and we have here a fine air and the pleasant prospect of the winding river at the foot of the hill."

On another visit he writes :

"Landlord and landlady are some of the grandest people alive : land- lady is the great grand-daughter of Governor Endicott. * * As to Landlord he is as happy and proud as any nobleman in England."

And again-

" The old lady has got a new copy of her great grandfather's, Governor Endicott's picture hung up in the house."

That picture is now among the collections of the Essex Institute.

Next morning, Saturday, June 30th, he " arose not very early, drank a pint of new milk and set off; oated my horse at Newbury, rode to Clarke's at Greenland meeting-house, where I gave him hay and oats and then set off for Newington." Dined there with his uncle Joseph, minister of that town, then in his eighty-second year, and set off for York over Bloody Point Ferry * " a very unsentimental * journey excepting this day at dinner ; have been un- fortunate enough to ride alone all the way and have met with very few characters or adventures. I forgot

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

yesterday to mention that I stopped and inquired the name of a pond in Wenham, which I found, was Wenham Pond, and also the name of a remarkable little hill at the mouth of the pond, which resembles a high loaf of our country brown bread, and found that it is called Peters' Hill to this day from the famous Hugh l'eters."

"July 1. Sunday. Arose enrly. I took a walk to the posture, to see how my horse fared. * * * My little mare had provided for herself, by leaping out of u bare pasture into a lot of mowing ground, and had filled herself with gruss and water. * * * *

"2. Monday morning. In my sulky heforo five o'clock, Mr. Winthrop, Faruham and D. Sowall with me on horseback : rode through the woods, the tide being too high to go over the beach and to cross Cape Neddick River : came to Littlefield's in Wells, a quarter before eight : stopped there and breakfasted. * * * Rode to Putten's of Arundel. Mr. Winthrop and I turned our horses into a little close to roll and cool themselves and feed upon white honey-suckle. P. M. Got into my chair: rode with Elder Bradbury through Sir William Pepperell's woods : stopped and oated at Milliken's and rode into Falmouth."

Compare this picture of Mr. Adams riding into Falmouth, in his désobligeant, as he calls his narrow- seated chair or sulky, with an incident in the career of two statesmen of our time. During the negotia- tion of the British-American treaty which detained Mr. Webster in the cabinet of John Tyler, after his colleagues had deserted all the departments but that of State, it was proposed to convey him, in company with Lord Ashburton, with the utmost speed, from Boston to Portland. Alexander Brown, a genial, trnsty, energetic man, was chosen from among the drivers on the route to arrange the conveyance by stage from the railroad terminus, and the most thorough preparations were made. Relays of picked horses, frequent and fresh, awaited him at every stage- house, a groom to each horse, ambitious, both man and beast, to act well their parts in the struggle against time. Three minutes were allowed for each change of horses. Mr. Brown, afterwards depot- master at the railroad station in Boston, recalled the achievement of that day with pride until his death, and used to tell how the British Ambassador got out at a stopping-place and, watch in hand, observed the process of "unhitching and putting to," remarking that it was done as quickly, within a few seconds, as in England. This was high commendation from an Englishman. And it certainly was a notable thing, to have driven for eight hours over American roads, well enough to keep an English peer in good humor, and to have brought him into Portland, which was the old time Falmouth, in company with the man described by Carlyle as a " Parliamentary Hercules," " a magnificent specimen," whom " that tanned com- plexion, amorphous, crag-like face and those dnll, black eyes under their precipice of brows, and that mastiff mouth, lead one to back against all the extant world," and of whom Emerson wrote " He is a natu- ral emperor of men," and Sidney Smith is reported to have said that he must be a humbug, " for no man could be a tenth part as great as he looked."

Once more, Monday, June 17, 1771, Mr. Adams set out upon the Eastern Circuit.

"I mounted my horse and rodo to Boston in a cloth cont and waist- coat, but was much pinched with n raw, cold, harsh, northeast wind. At Boston I put on a thick flannel shirt, and that made me comforta- ble and no more ; so cold am I, or so cold is the weather, June 17th * * Came over Charlestown ferry and Penny ferry and dined at Kettel's in Malden. * * * Overtook Judge Cushing in his old curricle with two lean horses, and Dick, his negro, at his right hand, driving the corricle. This is the way of travelling in 1771, -a judge of the circuits, a judge of the superior court, a judge of the king's bench, common pleas and exchequer for the Province, travels with a pair of wretched old jades of horses in a wretched old curricle, and a negro oo the same seat with him driving. * * * Stopped at Martin's ia Lynn with Judge Cushing ; oated and drank & glass of wine. * * * Rode with King, a deputy sheriff, who came out to meet the judges, foto Salem : put up at Goodhue's. The negro that took my horse soon began to open his heart. He did oot like the people of Salem ; wanted to be sold to Capt. John Dean of Boston. His mistress said he did not earn salt to his porridge and would not find him clothes."

Arrived at Falmouth, July 2d, he writes :

"This has been the most flat, insipid, spiritless, tasteless journey I ever took, especially from Ipswich."

And this we can understand better when we read of his riding alone through Saco woods after night-fall.

" Many sharp, steep hills, many rocks, many deep ruts, and not a foot- step of man except in the road ; it was vastly disagreeable."

Before great advances could be made towards speed, comfort, safety and cheapness in travel, fords and stepping-stones must give way to ferries,-ferry-ways most yield to bridges, and turnpikes must supersede county roads on the great thoroughfares. Road- making was no new art. It had been carried to a high point by the ancients, but the costliness of their works made the lesson of little value to the new countries of the modern world. The Romans, for in- stance, had magnificent roads leading out into the provinces,-as many of them as the hills upon which the eternal city sat. These roads were crowned with a surface of polished stone, over which wagons, on wooden wheels, were drawn by unshod beasts with ease and speed. But it was only at the beginning of this century that McAdam showed ns how to bridge over a quagmire with a crust of concrete so firm as to bear loads that make the marshy substratum on which it rests quake like a jelly.

From 1636 a ferry had been supported between North Point or Salem Neck, so-called, and Cape Ann or Bass River side, now Beverly. From time to time it was leased for the benefit of the grammar school- masters of Salem. At first it provided only for the crossing of persons. But, in 1639, these were the regulations : " Lessee to keep an horse-boate-to have for strangers' passadge 2d. apeice,-for towne dwellers 1d. apeice,-for mares, horses and other great beasts 6d. apeice, and for goats, calves and swyne 2d. apiece." For more than a century, an inn known as the "Old Ferry Tavern," stood hard by on the Salem side. The ferry touched at Salem side near the present bridge, but a little to the east.

In 1787, Beverly, somewhat aggrieved at the manage-

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OLD MODES OF TRAVEL.

ment of the ferry in the interest of Salem, moved for a bridge. A charter, now on deposit with the Essex In- stitute, was granted to the Cahots, and Israel Thorn- dike of Beverly, and to John Fiske and Joseph White of Salem, and the old ferry-way was laid out as a highway by the Court of Sessions. December 13th, the proprietors of the bridge organized at the Sun Tavern. Nathan Dane was moderator, and William Prescott, clerk. The bridge was opened for use September 24, 1788. It was one of the modern won- ders. Gen. Washington, on his northern tour the next year, dismounted to examine it and observe the working of the draw. And a Russian engineer was specially commissioned to acquaint himself with its structure. But this beneficent work was not carried through without violent opposition, of which Spite Bridge was one of the fruits. Salem voted to oppose the petitioners and invited other towns to do so. .Competition was threatened from a parallel bridge. The navigation of North River, it was urged, would be annihilated, and forty vessels of various tonnage, then employed there, would be driven from the river. Orne's Point was insisted on as the proper terminus in Salem. "Prejudices, strong party feeling and much excitement" are spoken of by Felt, and he adds that one Blythe, a wit of the time, was prompted to observe that there never was a bridge built with- out railings on both sides. This timely successor of the old ferry-way, after compensating its projectors for their risk and outlay, reverted, at the expiration of its seventy years' charter, to the State. I may be pardoned a personal reminiscence in this connection. My grandfather walked over the bridge on the day it was opened for travel, being then a Salem school-boy ten years old, and again in his eightieth year on the day of the expiration of its charter in 1858, having been president of the corporation in the interval.

In 1868 the bridge was surrendered by the State to the towns and thrown open to the public, in accord- ance with that enlightened social economy which teaches that all needless restraint upon the inter- course of neighbors is barbarism.

Another monument of Essex County enterprise is the turnpike connecting us with Boston, now also, in the same liberal spirit, dedicated to free travel. March 6, 1802, Edward Augustus Holyoke, Wil- liam Gray, Nathan Dane, Jacob Ashton and Israel Thorndike, with their associates, were incorporated to build a turnpike from Buffum's corner, through Great Pastures, over Breed's Island in Lynn Marshes, across Mystic River, and from a point near the Navy-yard to Charles River Bridge. The Statnte Books are full of similar acts at this period. The Essex Turnpike from Andover, intended to bring the travel of Ver- mont and New Hampshire through Salem to Boston, was chartered the next spring, as was also another from State street, Newburyport "by as nearly a straight line as practicable " to Malden Bridge.

Here again we were not behind the times. Telford

and McAdam had not completed their grand experi- ments nor demonstrated their rival systems for some years later. But the turnpike corporators used the best science of the day and a wonderful road they made. In the famous records kept at Benjamin Blanchard's Barber Shop, in which his distinguished patrons noted current events, while waiting for an empty chair, it appears that work began near "Pick- ering's Pen " June 7, 1802. Of course there was vigorous opposition and wild disparagement on one side,-great enthusiasm on the other. Dr. Stearns, one of its most ardent promoters, is said to have de- clared that, when the turnpike was done, a man might stand on Buffum's corner and look straight in- to Charlestown Square. The extent of the work of building may be judged of by the fact that a village of huts covered the high ground now occupied by Erastus Ware, which soon became a resort for toddy and tenpins, and that the material and tools em- ployed, sold on the completion of the work, brought at auction, October 27, 1803, thirty-two hundred dollars. Captain Richard Wheatland paid the first toll, July 12, 1803, on his way to Boston to take command of his ship for Calcutta. How much the new route, only twelve miles and a fraction long, did to bring us and the metropolis together, will be re- called with pleasure by some yet living who enjoy ed for the first time, in the early years of the century, an evening ride to Boston with a ball, a concert, or a play in prospect to give zest to the excursion.

The largest sum, taken in a year at " Toll-Gate No 1," near our great pastures, was $5300, in 1805 ;- the day of the greatest travel was June 1, 1813. On that summer afternoon the smoke of conflict between the " Chesapeake" and "Shannon " was rolling over the bay. One hundred and twenty stages, crowded to repletion, passed up that day. Thousands of spec- tators prayerfully watched the fight from every hill- top and gloomily retired when the issue was but too plainly seen.

On the morning of November 6, 1869, the old gate-keeper at "No. 1," gets orders to take no more tolls. Gravely he sets open, for the last time, the last toll-gate in Essex County and breaks out in rhyme :

"The last toll is taken, -I've swung wide the gate,

The word has been spoken,-We yield to our fate ! "

The distinctive character of the turnpike among roads is departed. It is as wholly a thing of the past as that negro village which once clustered abont the entrance at Buffum's corner, with its fortune-telling and cake-baking and fiddling and dancing. But the great road will stand. Years will not destroy its traces of heavy blasting and grading,-its viaducts of splendid masonry across deep, picturesque ravines, their granite sides and terraced buttresses backed up with sturdy trunks and roots of ancient elm and wil- low, fit types of the blended beauty and utility which mark its course. No son of Salem returning from

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

his wanderings, however great a truant, but will pause delighted on that hill top, where bursts upon the eye the eldest born of New England cities, whether the morning sun is touching with an early glory the score of spires and towers, clustered ahont that thing of beauty, the South Church Steeple, or whether at night-fall, broadsides of factory windows are blazing with their perpetual illumination in hon- or of the triumphs of industry. While lovers ram- ble and young limbs are strong,-while Bitter-sweet Rocks live in song, and Great Pastures find a place in story,-so long shall there be brisk walking among its rugged scenes in Spring and Autumn, and willing steeds shall be urged to speed over No-bottom Pond Bridge on the moonlight gallop, so long as water płashes up like molten silver through the chinks in the planking, -- until, indeed, the poet sings to deaf ears,

" 'Tis life to guide the fiery Barb Across the moonlit plain !"

The first public conveyance noticed by Felt was a " large stage chair," or two-horse curricle which ran from Portsmouth to Boston and back each week, in 1761. " An epidemical distemper " among horses interfered with the business in 1768, but, two years after, Benjamin Coats, who was then landlord at the Ship Tavern in School (now Washington) Street, gave notice that he had bought a " new Stage chaise" which would run between Salem and Boston "so that he will then, with the one now improved in that bus- iness, be able to carry and bring passengers, bundles and the like every day except Sunday." He has also five fall-back chaises, one fall-back curricle, six stand- ing top chairs and three sulkies to let. In December, 1771, Benjamin Hart advertises that "he has left riding the single horse post between Boston and Portsmouth and now drives the post stage lately im- proved by John Noble. He sets ont from Boston every Friday morning and from Portsmouth on Tues- day morning following. The above conveyance has been found very useful and now more so, as there is another curricle improved by J. S. Hart, who sets off from Portsmouth the same day this does from Boston, by which opportunity offers twice a week, for travel- lers to either place."

Systematic staging probably began here about 1796, and in this business Benjamin Hale, of Newburyport, seems to have been the pioneer on the route between Boston and Portsmouth, as was Seth Paine, of Port- land, on the lines further east. Mr. Hale was a reso- lute, persevering man, and there was nothing worth knowing about staging which he did not know. Many improvements in stage springs are accredited to him, as well as the introduction of the trunk-rack, by which means the passenger's luggage was employed to ballast the coach, whereas formerly it had rested, a dead weight, on the axles, jolting and tossing as though springs were yet to be invented. He had made his way up from small beginnings against dis-

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 15

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